#than to draw yourself dressed as your human version of your favorite character

[anartistinahat]

GUESS WHO'S BDAY IS IT TODAY?? >:D

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Sonic the Hedgehog Movie 2: POTENTIAL TEST SCREENING

 A couple weeks ago, a Reddit User under the name “Madethis4Sonicmovie2” created a post discussing their test screening experiences on the second Sonic the Hedgehog film. Throughout the discussion post, the Reddit user explains that they are not a Sonic fan. Most of what the user writes was how they’ve interpreted the scene and their understanding of the lore through some games that they’ve played. That, and they also try to compare some of the scenes to DBZ, a franchise that they’re much more familiar with. The user also make it a point to state that they view themselves as a “harsh critic,” though do apologize for it. They’re also not used to critiquing children’s media, which they also state a few times in their post. If they’re not clear on what they saw in their test screening, they ask for the reference meaning to the Sonic Community. The Reddit user also says that they did see the first film and greatly enjoyed the second one better.

Even though they believed for the film to be a generic kid’s film, they believe that this film will appeal to fans and non-fans more than the first one did. 

There wasn’t much of a summary to go other than reading about the emotions and some of the trivia that they’ve seen. Most of the film was still in its post-production stage. Some scenes were not complete while others needed tweaking on lighting and shading on the CGI characters. The overall impression that they’ve received from the film was that it was very enjoyable with much more world building. Because it’s done a good job with explaining certain scenarios to the audience, the Reddit user believes that it wouldn’t be hard for outsiders of the fandom to understand. The only thing that some audience members would struggle with in the film were the inside jokes that long-term fans would understand.

With this in mind, this is what the Reddit post detailed. Keep in mind that these are spoilers.

Key Notes:

The moral of the movie is “if you believe in yourself, then anything is possible!” On a side note, the Reddit user believes that this theme applied more to Tails rather than Sonic, stating that Tails has a moment where he gains enough courage to help Sonic fight.

Though the Reddit user does debate that Sonic has more confidence in himself than he did in the first film. He’s still the “Sonic” seen in the first film, him being a kid, but he’s learning to understand the role of being a superhero.

There is placeholder music and licensed music in the film as well. No mention so far of Crush 40 appearing in the film.

The Reddit user explains that Jim Carrey nailed the role! They also explain that Dr. Robotnik is a complete maniac.

(This is an open definition to viewers. It could range from comical to something darker).

Dr. Robotnik invents a teleportation device.

Dr. Robotnik also dresses in black clothing like he did in the first film.

The Reddit user supports this remark by detailing a scene where Dr. Robotnik loses his cool a bit when returning to Earth and complains about how he was outsmarted by a “rejected Dr. Seuss character.”

Dr. Robotnik does create Badniks and references them as “Badniks.”

The Reddit user gave the example of the motorbug looking like a motorcycle with a ladybug exterior. Buzzbombers look more like wasps.

There is a “robot version of Eggman.” 

Metal Sonic does not make an appearance. The Reddit user does believe that G.U.N. may have hinted that they’re building Metal Sonic.

It’s also important to note that there were no mentions of Silver and AmyRose in their screening.

There are heavy nods to Sonic Lore, specifically with the echidna tribes. Most of the lore is explained in either flashbacks and/or with echidna lore.

Most of the time is spent on Earth, but we do see other planets. Sonic and Tails do travel all around the world.

The Reddit user also says that we see more of Sonic’s world when Dr. Robotnik tries to teleport back to Earth.

There are heavy nods to both inside and outside references of the Sonic Franchise. Due to their experiences with the franchise, they inform other Reddit users that they couldn’t share and explains all of the references.

However, they were very happy with Sonic fans when hearing their feedback and learning what some references are.

At this time, the voice actor/actress for Tails is still undetermined. The Reddit user said “it was like Tom Holland, but with a higher-pitched voice.”

Sonic makes a remark saying, “You’re too slow!”

Sonic makes a remark saying, “I’m not a rat! I’m a hedgehog!”

Knuckles makes a remark saying, “Knock, knock scrambled egg.”

(The Reddit user explains that this scene in the movie was also very enjoyable).

Sonic and Tails bond over how they know Longclaw in the film. The Reddit user explains that this is their favorite scene in the movie.

Knuckles has an American-like accent, not a British one.

Sonic encounters Tails on a run, but “freaks out” when he sees another alien creature like him. Sonic also freaks out when he sees that Tails can almost match his speed while running.

There is a funny scene of Sonic enjoying his alone time at home, even showing a montage of all the things that he shouldn’t do when Tom and Maddie are at home.

(Think of the montage scene from Home Alone (1990′s).

The Reddit user explains that Knuckles was exiled from the clan for freeing Longclaw as a prank with friends.

There is an artist in the movie that tries to draw Sonic. To Sonic’s discovery, he sees that the artist drew his 2019 design and plays “Gangster’s Paradise” on the radio.

The Reddit user states that they believe that this is the crew’s nod to the original design.

The Reddit user says that there were scenes in the movie that they felt like were more of a placeholder in the film. The reference to Gremlin Sonic being one of these scenes.

Tom and Maddie do go to Rachel and Randall’s wedding.

There are several action scenes, but the Reddit user explains that the most enjoyable ones are when Sonic and Tails fight Knuckles a couple of times.

And with the action scenes, there are many Quicksilver references that Sonic does as well.

On top of that, the Reddit user explains that each character has their own unique abilities. (For example, Sonic is associated with having powers cater to the element of lightning).

Longclaw is alive in the film, but she’s aged and weak.

Longclaw sends Tails to Earth to retrieve Sonic due to her wanting him to safe.

Sonic stays at home on planet Earth, but is supplied with many rings to travel back and forth to visit Knuckles Tails, and Longclaw.

Sonic being a living chaos emerald could be true, but the Reddit user explains that an emerald was sealed inside of Sonic after being born.

Chaos emeralds are not referenced as “Chaos Emeralds” in the film, they were referenced as just “emeralds.”

However, the Reddit user does recap that there might be a name and they didn’t catch it.

Super Sonic is not referenced as “Super Sonic” in the film, but as something else.

Super Sonic can fly in the film and doesn’t need all seven Chaos Emeralds to go “super.”

Sonic references Tails as “Miles” a few times that they meet, but later gives him the nickname “Tails.”

There is a post-credit scene. The Reddit user believes that it’s a heavy nod to Shadow the Hedgehog due to the there being multiple clones modeled like Sonic that G.U.N. has made.

Due to this post-credit scene, the Reddit user holds hopes that there will be a third movie soon.

As of now, the Reddit post is still available for you to read. The Reddit user is mindful of the NDA and purposely phrased some of their spoilers to be vague, but knows that their thread may be removed soon. I know that these may sound fake, however, there have been individuals in the past who have viewed the first film and proved to be right. Like many of you, I hope that this is a real but I will remain cautious. If these facts resurface as being false, let’s not attack the individual. The only that should matter is that we’re excited for the second film. Be mindful that they’re a human being as well. Treat others the way that you would like to be treated.

What are all of your thoughts so far of the film? Share your thoughts and opinions! And if you’ve spotted something that I’ve missed, please share with me! I’m very excited to know!

((SOURCE)).

[phoenotopia]

The Last Phoenotopia Blog Update

(Date 2021 MAR 01)

I debated how to open this blog post, but perhaps the main crux of this blog post is the best place to start. The blog is being retired.

The purpose of this blog was to be a "development" blog for Phoenotopia, and well, Phoenotopia's development is done. I'll still be doing bug fixes and maintenance on the PC and Switch versions, and playstation and xbox ports are underway (by a publisher). But I'm not going to be making any more major changes to the game. At some point, you put the paintbrush down and say it's done. Blemishes and all.

Recent Events

The game launched on Steam last month, and like any launch, it was hectic. Bugs Galore. This is our first commercial PC launch, so it was a real baptism by fire. Unlike Switch's one configuration, the PC has multiple configurations and factors to account for. The game needed to be able to handle multiple control schemes, screen resolutions, refresh rates, and more! I had a 60Hz monitor going into launch and didn't know anything about Hz (I do now). There was a troublesome stutter that some players were sensitive to that my whole team didn't notice since our eyes compensated it away. There were a few times where in fixing something at one party's behest, it introduced problems for another party. A few times, due to disorganization, I unwittingly rolled back a fix that was meant to be applied. For some, the game couldn't play at all (really glad Steam allows refunds).

It was messy. It was tiring. I.AM.BEAT.

I think the worst of it is over... I'll still be around to do the last updates and bug fixes, but I'm ultimately ready for what's next.

SO what is next?

What isn't next... is Phoenotopia 2. As you may have heard down the grapevine, the game couldn't be what you call successful. No one's earned even minimum wage on it.

Maybe there's hope in the game's long tail. A year or two down the line... maybe. I won't hold my breath though. At some point in the past few months, I finished processing (or grieving) and it's time to move on.

The game has at least earned enough for us to continue our modest operations. As long as we don't expand the team, and we don't take another monster six-year dev cycle like what Phoenotopia took, we can continue. We'll have to be smarter and faster. Perhaps the most valuable thing we gained from all this is experience.

The Experience

It is a dev blog. Here are some of the lessons I've accumulated from this game's development.

- Have a good menu design. Menus aren't just that in-between fluff before you get to the good stuff. Menus are KEY. Your menus need to be robust, expandable, and *understandable* (to you, the developer). Because once the game's out, you will invariably be asked to add more options. And if your menu design is bad, every time you have to add a new menu option, it becomes a whole new pain all over again. Support mouse from the get-go, etc.

- Focus on features that people will actually care about. For instance, I've never seen anyone praise the camera's zoom feature. In practice, people try that feature a few times and then never use it again. But that feature was a constant consideration factor for every level. Run through it multiple times to make sure the level didn't break, think about which zoom levels made sense, resize rooms because they worked at one zoom level but not the other, and so on.

- Don't do boxes that you can move around. Other 2D platformers avoid movable boxes because they're a huge headache to program and they really complicate the game space. Enemies need to respond to boxes you throw in their path and either navigate around or attack it. When you're moving the box, you have to worry about constantly changing your collision size and reconciling when the box gets snagged on the environment. The boxes were also a constant source of bugs because people can manipulate them to soft-lock themselves and more.

- More focused script. Phoenotopia's 100,000+ word script was panned more for being bloated than it was praised for being lengthy. Long scripts take a long time to write and make the game more unwieldy, increasing the costs of translation and upkeep. Every update we're addressing some textual error or mistranslation. There are some highly renowned games (e.g. Hyper Light Drifter) that do without a script at all!

- Be flashy! A bat and a lightsaber take the same amount of work to program, but the lightsaber will draw a lot more attention and interest.

- Slopes, surprisingly! Six years ago when I started, Unity was ill-equipped for 2D games. If you used the physics that Unity provided you'd have a really floaty character that wouldn't adhere to the slope when going downhill. There were a hundred different tutorials saying different things (use forces, use move position, use translation, etc). You can get rectangular collisions done in a day, but to do slopes took weeks. Meanwhile, games can actually get by fine without slopes. Most people won't even notice. Did you know the Phoenotopia flash game didn't have slopes? Neither does Hollow Knight or Rogue Legacy. You can save yourself a lot of work by avoiding slopes.

(big entities look weird on slopes. Bad slope!)

I could write enough little knowledge nuggets like this to fill a book! But I'd rather just make the next game. 

So… what IS next?

As mentioned previously, it's not Phoenotopia 2. Pirate and I are mostly just tossing some ideas back and forth right now. We'll go silent for a year (or two). Our next game's scope will be more modest in some ways, more ambitious in others. It will definitely be more smartly designed. (There will be a map!)

We'll announce it when it's ready for the public. It might be necessary for us to do a kickstarter. I've tried to avoid kickstarters having been burnt on quite a few myself and also because I worry that mismanaging a kickstarter would earn the ire of backers.

But I did keep this blog regularly updated for six years. So I've gained some confidence in my abilities to at least manage a kickstarter well.

Is it really the last Phoenotopia Blog update though?

Okay, not really. There is some news that I'll need to announce, and this blog is one of the game's main outreach channels. Here are the events that will cause me to update the blog:

Announcing the launch of the xbox/playstation ports when they're ready

If a physical edition of the game happens

If a new language is getting introduced into the game (Korean is a high possibility)

When we're ready to talk about our next game

If (BIG IF) we begin development on a Phoenotopia sequel. I do want to do a sequel one day if we have the means and the demand is there. 

Those updates will be more on a "when they happen" basis, rather than me reporting in every couple months.

Fan Art

As always, I'm very happy to see fanart of Phoenotopia. Major thanks again to Pimez for collecting all the artwork from the corners of the internet! Since this is the "last" blogpost, Sir Pimez can finally take a rest from collecting the fanart :P

ÆV made a series of pictures that tell a story. A Pooki is humanely sheared of its wool to create a hat. The Pooki is unharmed. Nice! Gotta love Gail’s expressions.

Amagoo Mazeru makes a stunning landscape shot of a full moon and shooting stars. It’s a sharp and clear vector art. I like the faint glow of the moon and the fire and the subtle gradient in the night sky. Very skillfully done!

Hah hah. I got a chuckle out of this one. I imagine this is how Gail's enemies see her by the end of the game. CaESar made this image based on TerminalMontage's famous youtube videos. Nailed it!

CrownStar drew two pictures of Gail. I'm a big player of JRPGs, so the first shot instantly reminded me of Persona 4's art style. (Hmmm... Phoeonotopia as a JRPG... there’s potential there...) Next, Birdy is shown carried off after her defeat. I really like Birdy's expression here - she just seems mildly uncomfortable.

There's a bit of a story behind the first image. As Firanka shares it, she wasn't able to defeat the Big Eye monster at the end of the flash game, so she believed a tall tale that what awaited after was a 6 armed Kobold boss. Hilarious! The second is a rendition of the lonely Anuri elder. A rare subject. The loneliness is portrayed well here. I feel lonely just looking at it!

Koo_chop draws the clash between Gail and Katash at the top of the towers. I really like this interpretation of the game's art style. It’s faithful to the in-game graphics. And the lighting, from the glow of Gail's bat, to Katash's sword, and the lightning in the background... Amazing!

Lime Hazard shows Gail with a salute pose. Very appropriate for this occasion. I also like how there's a slight tilt in the angle that Gail is portrayed. Those dynamic angles are always hard to get right, and Lime Hazard pulled it off very skillfully. See you next mission!

Lyoung0J with a digital painting of Gail posed sitting on a rock. I like how it almost seems like she was caught in a candid moment - she’s smiling, but also feeling self-conscious. Cute! The art style really pops, and I like how Gail is sporting what I call the old anime style nose. 

MyUesrNameIsSh*t with a sketch of Gail performing a skillful slingshot. I like how Gail is depicted with her tongue out in a mischievous manner, the way all mischievous people with slingshots do.

Niitsu Kentaro returns with a 2021 Happy New Year picture. That happened didn't it? A New Year... Gail's pose gave me a chuckle with how she seems to be waving the bat around as casually as one would wave hello. And "Phoenotopiyear"... Well said! One day we'll have our Phoenotopiyear...

Ochan Nu breaks all records with a stunning NINE pictures in one session :O

There's so many goodies here. My favorite would be the one with Gail staring intently at the screen - it's like she's looking directly at you. You almost feel uncomfortable.

Next, there's an Animal Crossing villager dressed as Gail and sporting her pink hair. It even looks like a house Gail would live in. Gail is a connoisseur of the arts and likes Mona Lisa. Yes :)

There are various comics of Gail pointing out Gail's weird food habits. A picture of Fran looking really cool, and even Gail rocking a bathing suit. (bathing suit image linked here in case NSFW). Wow!

Pimez didn't just collect the arts, he creates them as well! This one, which he aptly named 'The Year 175' is a depiction of when the dragons invaded the towers as told by an elderly Daean woman. Great pixeling skills! I got a good chuckle from the ice dragon leaving with its stuff slung over its shoulder.

Quo made a stunning picture of Gail playing the flute surrounded by the 5 musical notes and the Phoenix logo behind her. The theme seems to be "fire" and it works really well. Gail herself looks awesome depicted in her red suit - it's like she's leading a marching band!

Rai Asuha depicts Gail in the late game with her red suit, and night star bat, and holding a lamp. She looks ready for adventure! I really like the white outline here and Gail's poofy shoulders here - the art style feels reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Seri also draws Gail bearing her late game equipment. Unique to Seri's drawing is how all of Gail's equipment is accessible from a pocket on her shirt. I also like how Gail is depicted with her lucky earrings - that accessory is often forgotten.

Treedude depicts Gail with a bat and wearing a funny smirk. She looks like she's ready to hurt someone!

Warotar returns with everyone's favorite Great Drake, Bubbles! It seems so happy to be featured!

I'm really grateful for all the fanart this game has received. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Closing Notes

Pirate drew a picture to mark the occasion. It shows Gail enjoying a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a pumpkin muffin. A rest well-earned...

Goodbye! Until next time!

[thatsthat24]

New Inktober for 2019!

Once again, I was asked to create a new list of art prompts for October this year! These creations from you guys are ALWAYS so amazing, so I’m excited to bring you a new list! I got so many suggestions from my friends! You can use #TSinktober if you’d like to share your creations!

Remember: Even if we’re on Day 31, and you wanna post art based off the Day 1 prompt, you DEFINITELY can! There is no lateness for posting art, because it’s all entirely for fun! Hope you enjoy!!

Day 1: In a twist from the past years’ Day 1 prompts, I want to see you take a traditional Halloween monster or character, and draw what they look like Sep. 30th, and then their traditional look when it’s October 1st!  Maybe they don’t get spoopy until October 1st haha.

Day 2: Turn fall weather into a character! Could be the human embodiment of Fall, or the spirit responsible for Fall occurring, or something else!

Day 3: Turn a famous painting into a spoopy Halloween version!

Day 4: Draw a classic still life of items belonging to your favorite character. Let us guess who the items belong to!

Day 5: Draw your best friend or yourself (or both) GOIN GHOST. Ya know, that good ole Danny Phantom transformation!

Day 6: A Pokémon hanging out with (or running from) the zombified version of itself

Day 7: Choose two months, personify them, then draw what their first date would look like

Day 8: Sanders Sides characters on their dream vacations!

Day 9: A business that a Halloween monster or character would thrive on if they ran it!

Day 10: Take any popular author, imagine if they were a superhero, and draw what their comic book cover would look like!

Day 11: Portray any Disney princess as the “monster/scary thing” from a horror movie such as The Conjuring, The Nun, etc., either depicting them in a scene from the movie or the poster for the movie!

Day 12: Take any two coffee flavors, like Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint, and draw a battle between them, Mortal Kombat style (brew-tality lol)

Day 13: Take any Avenger from the MCU, and reimagine them as a Pokemon Gym Master! What would their Pokemon team look like?

Day 14: Reimagine a Sanders Sides, Cartoon Therapy, or other original character from our content as a kind of humanoid piece of candy or sweet treat!

Day 15: I really enjoyed this prompt from last year, so this year, take any Disney Villain, and use them as the inspiration for a Met Gala outfit! NO DALMATIAN PUPPY FUR ALLOWED, ALL OF YOU CRUELLA FANS.

Day 16: Take any traditional Halloween monster/character or any horror movie villain and make… them… CUTE. Now whether that’s adorably cuddly cute or va-va-voom cute is completely up to you! - Erin

Day 17: Take your fave character or OC and reimagine Steampunk versions of them!

Day 18: Take your fave food and create a cartoon character based off of it! It can have its own style, be stylized after an existing cartoon, whatever you wish!

Day 19: Take a quote from a book, song, or movie that particularly inspired you, and make it the main centerpiece of this day’s piece of art! Wherever you’d want to take the art from there is up to you!

Day 20: Here’s a cool challenge for ya! You can draw any Halloween-themed picture you want, BUT It’s all in ONE pen stroke. You can’t take your drawing utensil off the paper!

Day 21: What if anyone else from Halloweentown, other than Jack Skellington, had discovered and fell in love with Christmastown? Would anyone else have tried to dress up as Santa? Would they hatch another plan entirely??

Day 22: Back due to demand, take your fave character(s) from two different animated tv shows/anime/movie and depict them in each other’s animation style! An animation swap, if you will!

Day 23: Ever watch a movie or show and wish it had ended a different way? This is your chance to correct the plots to conclude the way YOU wanted it concluded! Oh boy, this may end up getting controversial lol

Day 24: We all know traditional Halloween monsters... but create what you think the Halloween monsters of today or the FUTURE would be!!

Day 25: This one is purely selfish because I’m still so in love with the past creations. Take ANY character of your choice from ANY piece of media and draw them in the style of a Tim Burton illustration!

Day 26: Speaking of classics, gotta include this one cause it’s tradition! Draw your OTP in Halloween costumes that are designed to go together!!

Day 27: Take any dramatic scene from any scary or Halloween-y movie... and meme it.

Day 28: How to Train Your [Insert Monster/Demon/Halloween-y creature here]

Day 29: This one is SUPER open-ended, but I’m into that. Take any book, turn to the 13th page (so the book has to be at least 13 pages lol) and go to the 13th word on that page (if it’s an article like “a” or “the”, just go to the next adjacent noun/verb/adjective/adverb) and use it as the inspiration for a one-worded scary movie/book. Draw that poster or book cover!

Day 30: Slightly inspired by the eerie vibe one can sometimes get from Spinel (SU), Betty Boop cartoons, etc. take any character, Halloween-y creature or otherwise from any of your fave piece of media, and depict them in the classic rubberhose/ Max Fleischer-inspired art style!!

Day 31: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Do you remember a specific Halloween that was especially memorable for you?? It might have been because of the friends you spent it with, or a memorable moment that happened, or because of a costume you were particularly fond of. Or maybe there were a series of Halloweens that were dear to you because of a tradition you did with your family (and maybe still do!). Depict that moment along with an explanation! If you just wanna write about it, that’s fine too!

As always, you guys have been absolutely blowing me away with your incredible creations!! I love this time of year and seeing what your talents produce!! Thank you for all the amazing works and have a WONDERFUL October!!!

Thank you to all my friends whose suggestions helped to make this list!

Dahlia, AJ, Tammy, Ellen, Adri, Fariha, Brei, Rafaela, Jack, Esteban

[carewyncromwell]

*sings* Cinderella...you’re as lovely as your name, Cinderella~...

Okay, some quick notes before we start. Despite the beauty of their work, painters’ palettes were actually rather limited on pigments during the Renaissance, only having three pigments more than artists did during the Middle Ages. The Moly is a magical plant that appears in Homer’s The Odyssey. Hermes gives it to Odysseus as a charm to protect him from Circe’s spells. It’s been most commonly compared to the snowdrop flower by scholars. It also is referenced in the canon Potterverse as a powerful herb that can counter enchantments.

The Willow Song appears as a motif at the end of William Shakespeare’s Othello, though it was written at least thirty years earlier. In Othello, Desdemona sings a few stanzas of it in response to her husband’s growing distance and madness -- to the audience watching the play in Shakespeare’s day, which would already know the song, its inclusion foreshadows Othello and Desdemona’s tragic ending. “No One is Alone” is from Stephen Sondheim’s well-regarded musical Into the Woods, which features Cinderella as a semi-major character -- the song is actually even partially sung by Cinderella in the show!

I edited the art for this section, as you can tell. Badeea’s painting is a modified photograph of the Chateau de Chambord in France, overlaid on top of my own drawing. (Thanks, Lunapic!) This is also my very first time drawing Badeea!! GOD, is she pretty!! I think her eyes are my favorite of all the HPHM cast.

Previous part is here -- whole tag is here -- Katriona “KC” Cassiopeia belongs to @kc-needs-coffee -- and I hope you enjoy!

x~x~x~x

When Carewyn followed up with Andre the next morning, he was quite disappointed when he saw Carewyn wasn’t wearing the new shoes he’d made for her with her uniform. He honestly hadn’t even considered that they wouldn’t be comfortable for walking in -- and honestly, Carewyn could sort of understand why. Andre had never been able to leave the palace grounds, so there no doubt were a lot of practical things he’d just never considered...such as how very flashy royal fashion was, compared to that of the common man. He was pleased with the feedback Carewyn “passed along from her cousins” for him, though -- completely unaware of the fact that all three comments were really opinions that Carewyn herself had had about the dress.

“Hmm...that is a good point,” said Andre, his hand resting on his chin. “Red is a beautiful color...but a deep blue would not only bring out your eyes, but it would also perfectly contrast your ginger hair, since blue and orange are on opposite sides of the color wheel...”

His face burst into a bright white smile. “Your cousin Iris really has an eye for colors.”

Carewyn successfully fought back a groan, even as her eyes drifted up off toward the top corner of the room.

“...Well, she has taken up embroidery as a hobby. I suppose when one spends a lot of time doing samplers, one could develop an eye for colors.”

And also create a lot of initialed handkerchiefs to conveniently drop in front of noblemen so they pick it up and return it to you.

Andre, however, reacted with some interest. “Is that so? Hmm...well, maybe when I’m working on your new pair of shoes, I could invite her over for tea so she can give me her second opinion before I give them to you.”

Carewyn had never disliked a thought more in her life that Iris having a say in what she wore -- but knowing that she shouldn’t be the one to sabotage Iris, especially when her cousin would no doubt be able to do it well enough on her own, she put on her best smile.

“...I’m sure Iris would enjoy that very much.”

Sure enough, within a week, Iris had been invited to the palace for tea with the Prince. Carewyn could only imagine how thrilled Iris, her aunt Claire, and Charles were. As for Carewyn herself, she knew it was now time to do as Charles said and stay out of Iris’s way...and so when Iris arrived, she made sure to clean the rooms in her wing of the palace in a different order and not sing so that Andre wouldn’t be able to “check in” on her with Iris in tow. She didn’t think she could stand it if Iris got to look down at her polishing the palace floors.

Her lack of singing, however, did catch Badeea’s attention. When Carewyn collided with the court painter in the hallway, she expressed some concern.

“I missed your accompaniment, while I was painting,” she said. “Is everything all right?”

Carewyn felt guilty as she leaned her broom against the wall for a moment. “Oh...yes, Badeea, I’m fine. I merely...well, my cousin Iris is spending time with the Prince today, so I thought to...well, not draw focus.”

Badeea nodded in understanding. “Mm, yes...some things are meant to be background details, while others are meant to catch the eye straight away.”

Carewyn and Badeea caught the sound of Iris’s twittering, bird-like laughter echoing down the hall toward them. Not wanting to be seen when or if Iris and Andre came out into the hall themselves, Carewyn quickly picked up her broom and went around the corner -- Badeea adjusted her easel under her arm and followed.

“Say, Carewyn,” said the court painter thoughtfully, “why don’t you dress up in that nice yellow and green dress you have and come to the market with me?”

Carewyn blinked.

“I need to pick up some more carbon black and indigo for this painting I’m working on for Andre, but the man who sells those paints loves to price gauge. If you were dressed up all fancy and you slid in a reference to your family, though, he might be less likely to try to rip you off,” Badeea added with a tiny, coy smile.

Carewyn frowned, feeling a bit unsure. “I don’t know, Badeea -- I still have a lot of work to do...”

“You have the whole rest of the day to finish,” Badeea reminded her. “It would only take maybe an hour or two. And it would get you out of the palace while your cousin’s here.”

Carewyn considered the matter. Truthfully she’d been hoping to finish her work quickly so she could stow away back to the library and scan more troop deployment records...but she really did hate the thought of bumping into Andre and Iris, not just because of how much Iris would hate Carewyn getting any attention and therefore delight in tormenting her in front of the Prince in order to puff herself up, but because she didn’t want to provoke Charles’s ire unnecessarily.

“All right,” she said. “I’ll go change.”

Not long later, Carewyn had put on her mother’s old dress, pinned her hair up, and joined Badeea by the front gates, and the two headed into town on foot. The sky was still rather gray -- it had been raining and thundering for the last couple of days, and there was still a lot of mud in places. Carewyn was glad she was wearing her worn brown shoes under her gown rather than the pretty heels Andre had made for her -- particularly since nobody would likely be looking at her feet.

The shopkeeper in question was indeed a bit intimidated when Carewyn offhandedly referred to “her grandfather, Charles Cromwell” -- and soon enough, Badeea had been able to skip most of the haggling she would’ve normally had to make just to get her paints at a decent price. They left the shopkeeper’s stall, several jars of paint in hand.

As fate would have it, as they walked at the market, someone else was also shopping, and at the sight of the familiar dress and mane of ginger hair, he ran up to meet them.

“Carewyn!”

Carewyn and Badeea both looked up, to see Orion striding up to them. He once again wore his slightly-too-clean, but modest white shirt, olive breeches, and boots, and he was carried a basket full of henbane.

Carewyn’s red lips spread into a smile. “Orion...hello.”

Orion brought a hand up to his chest and offered her a short bow.

“It seems the stars favor us after all, my lady,” he said, the corners of his own lips kissed with traces of a wry smile.

Carewyn shot a quick glance at his basket and quirked an eyebrow.

“Purchasing some more incense?” she asked pointedly.

Orion’s black eyes sparkled. “I’m afraid we’ve already used up what I bought previously. Fortunately the gentleman from last time remembered my face and didn’t give me too much grief.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Carewyn glanced at Badeea to Orion and back.

“Orion, this is Badeea Ali -- she’s the Crown’s court painter. Badeea...this is Orion Freeman. He helped me retrieve my horse the other day.”

Badeea’s dark brown eyes were very bright. “Ah, yes -- KC had said that you were thrown off your horse. Thank you for helping Carewyn, sir,” she added to Orion.

“It was my pleasure,” said Orion. “What’s the subject of your next piece, if I may ask?”

“A foreboding sky and a distorted reflection,” Badeea replied.

Orion looked intrigued. “That would explain such dark shades. Who commissioned the piece?”

“The Prince,” said Badeea. “But his request was just of a view of the entire palace, from a distance -- I was simply inspired by the rainstorm that passed through a few days ago, and how the turrets of the palace looked reflected in the castle moat.” 

“I wonder how the castle of Royaume would see itself, if it had eyes,” said Orion levelly. “Would it see its beauty, or would it be the type to be critical of its flaws?”

“Hm...or would it see the beauty of its flaws?” asked Badeea.

“True,” granted Orion. “Flaws make us more human -- would that make something more beautiful, by serving as contrast to our strengths?”

“Flaws aren’t something you should simply have to accept,” said Carewyn demurely, her arms crossed. “One should strive to be better than one already is. Even if one is only human, that doesn’t mean they can’t work to be something better.”

Orion turned to her, interested. “And what would be better than being oneself, my lady?”

“Being a better version of oneself, of course,” Carewyn said, sounding matter-of-fact. “One can always be kinder, braver, stronger...more cunning, more passionate. One can always learn more, and do more, and be more.”

“Yes...but it seems like those could be crippling expectations to hold over yourself, to never be enough,” said Orion, and although his expression was very inscrutable, his lips twitched with something of a frown.

“Perfectionism is a disease that affects every artist sooner or later,” said Badeea sympathetically.

Her dark eyes flitted from Orion to Carewyn thoughtfully.

“I must be getting back to work on my painting...would you like to join us at the opposite bank, Mr. Freeman? I would be happy for some feedback on my work, before I present it to his Highness.”

Orion glanced at Carewyn for her approval -- she offered a small smile, and his lips turned up in a full smile of his own.

“I would be honored.”

So the three set about finding a less muddy spot by the castle moat, across from the palace. They found one right by a beautiful willow tree, where Carewyn very carefully lowered herself onto the grass. Badeea fetched her easel and chair, setting it up so that she had a good view of the castle. Orion looked over her incomplete work appreciatively.

“It looks like it could breathe, were it a living thing.”

“Thank you,” said Badeea. “Now then, I’ll need to concentrate while mapping out the sky, so no initiating conversation, please. These paints stay on fabric just as well as my canvas, so they won’t easily wash out. I would appreciate some accompaniment, though, Carewyn.”

Orion glanced at Carewyn curiously. Carewyn avoided his eye.

“Badeea, I don’t think -- ”

“Ah, ah,” said Badeea, holding up a gloved finger quickly, “no conversation. Accompaniment or nothing, please.”

She then set about mixing certain shades and color spotting sections of canvas.

Carewyn frowned. It was one thing to be singing while she was working herself, to pass the time, but Orion’s focus was still largely on her, and it felt weird. Still, she thought to herself, it wasn’t like she was bashful about singing in front of others, exactly -- she knew her voice was more than serviceable. There was really no harm in it. So, glancing up at the willow tree above her head, Carewyn rested her hands in the grass, leaned back, and sang.

“The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree --

Sing willow, willow, willow...willow...

Her hand in her bosom, her head on her knee --

Oh willow, willow, willow...willow...

She sighed in her singing and made a great moan --

Sing willow, willow, willow...willow...

‘I’m dead to all pleasure -- my true love is gone --

Oh willow, willow, willow...shall be my garland...’”

Carewyn felt Orion’s dark eyes on her at the start. Before long, though, his eyes had fluttered closed, and he sat in perfect silence. As he listened, his shoulders loosened and his expression seemed to clear of all tension or pretense, like a child peacefully falling off to sleep. Badeea painted and shaded to the sound of Carewyn’s low, melancholy singing, adding white highlights to the dark gray and black shadows to create a cloudy sky with sunlight poking through.

When Carewyn was finished with the song, Orion slowly opened his eyes, meeting her gaze again at last. His eyes were oddly hesitant, almost shy.

“Y -- ”

He hesitated. Then, his black eyes softening handsomely, he closed his mouth, and it slowly spread into a smile gentler and warmer than Carewyn had ever seen before. He clearly approved.

Carewyn smiled in return and inclined her head in a silent “thank you.”

Carewyn sang some more songs until Badeea had finally finished and Orion and the two women had to part ways so that Badeea and Carewyn could pack up the easel and finished painting and bring them inside.

The following morning, Carewyn was surprised by KC pulling her aside to hand her a packet of what looked like handwritten sheet music.

“Your friend Orion stopped by a little while ago to give this to you,” she explained.

Carewyn was taken aback.

“I reckon he must’ve hopped over the wall,” said KC, unable to fight back a laugh. “I caught him strolling through the southwest gardens. I told him I’d bring it up to you, so that he wouldn’t get himself in trouble.”

Stunned, Carewyn looked down at the sheet music, shifting the pages so she could scan each line. Her blue eyes softened, growing deeper and darker with emotion, as she read the words and notes.

“...This...this is beautiful,” she whispered. She looked up at KC, unable to fully keep the awe from her face. “...You don’t think he wrote this?”

KC shook her head. “No, he said it was a song he learned when he was young, and that he tracked down the sheet music for you since he didn’t think he’d be able to properly sing it for you. I’ve never heard it either, though.”

Carewyn spent her meal times and about an hour before bed that night perusing the sheet music so she could learn the song. The following day, she felt confident enough to sing some of it while she started about cleaning the Queen’s Chambers.

“Mother isn’t here now...who knows what she’d say?

Nothing’s quite so clear now...feel you’ve lost your way?

You decide alone...but no one is alone.

You move just a finger, say the slightest word --

Something’s bound to linger...be heard...

No one acts alone...careful -- no one is alone...

People make mistakes -- fathers, mothers --

People make mistakes,

Holding to their own...thinking they’re alone...

Honor the mistakes everybody makes, one another’s terrible mistakes...

They could still be right -- they could still be good.

You decide what’s right -- you decide what’s good.

Just remember...”

“Carewyn!”

Carewyn stopped sweeping and looked up, to see Andre striding through the opened door of the Queen’s Chambers toward her.

“An -- your Highness,” Carewyn corrected herself very quickly, after noting who’d accompanied Andre.

Just behind him in the door frame was her dark-haired cousin Iris, dressed in her best rose velvet and her own almond-shaped blue eyes narrowed with loathing at Carewyn over Andre’s shoulder.

Andre, perfectly oblivious to the silent tension between the two cousins, gave a laugh.

“Oh, Carewyn, we’re not back to that again, are we? It’s ‘Andre,’ ” he said with an indulgent smile. “I haven’t heard that song before -- did you learn it recently?”

“Ah...yes,” said Carewyn. She could feel Iris’s fierce glare burning a hole in her face over Andre’s shoulder even without looking at either of them.

“It’s really quite lovely,” said Andre. “Please, do sing the rest of it when you’re able.”

“Of course, Prince Henri.”

Carewyn was absolutely not going to call Andre by his nickname in front of Iris -- she knew how Iris would shriek her head off about it to Charles.

Andre sighed and shook his head in something like tired amusement.

“I was hoping we’d catch you on your rounds,” he said conversationally. “I’m just about finished with your new shoes! Iris said your favorite color was ash gray -- I’ve never really worked with that color before, so it’ll be a bit of a challenge -- but I’m sure I’ll find a shade that might suit you...”

Ash gray? Running with the ‘Cinderwyn’ nickname, then, are we, Iris?

Carewyn forced a smile. “...Thank you. That’s...very kind.”

Feeling more uncomfortable by the minute, she quickly rushed over to pick up her full dust pan with her other hand.

“Forgive me, I really should go and empty this -- ”

At that exact moment, Iris had strode forward, bumping Carewyn’s shoulder in just such a way that the pan was knocked backward onto Carewyn, covering her, her orange and tan dress, and the floor with all of the dust, dirt, and grime she’d swept up over the last hour.

“Oh!” said Iris in feigned surprise. “I’m so sorry.”

Her gaze, however, was just as hard and unapologetic as it had been when she’d ripped the sleeve off Carewyn’s dress at home.

“Carewyn!” said Andre, concerned. “Are you all right?”

Carewyn coughed.

“...Yes, of course,” she said, her voice very hard and stoic in the back of her throat. “It was merely an accident.”

She shot Iris a cold look as she looked over her now thoroughly ruined uniform and the dust and dirt all around her feet.

“Please, go on ahead with Iris, your Highness. I’ll clean up this mess.”

Once Iris had successfully steered the reluctant-looking Andre out of the room, Carewyn closed the door, took off her dress, and finished cleaning the room in her undergarments, so as not to spread the dust and ash around any further. Then, very carefully, she darted across the hall from the Queen’s Chambers to Andre’s, so that she could fetch the high-necked, gold-embroidered dress made out of white linen and light blue velvet he’d recently finished for her from his walk-in closet. After all, she told herself, she needed something to wear while she was getting her uniform cleaned -- and well, at least Iris would be less likely to ruin this dress, since Andre had stitched it himself.

Holding her dusty, ashen dress in a folded pile against her chest, Carewyn headed downstairs toward the laundry. On her way through the entrance hall, though, KC -- who’d just come out of the library -- ran up to walk alongside her down the hall.

“Seems your friend is back.”

Carewyn’s messy ponytail flapped over her shoulder when she looked at her in surprise. “Orion?”

KC nodded, her lips curled up in a wry smile. “I thought I saw someone hopping over the wall through the library window, just now. Shall we go investigate?”

Carewyn bit her lip, looking down at the ruined uniform in her arms.

“Let me drop this off at the laundry first,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”

Carewyn ran down the stairs and threw her uniform into one of the tubs to soak, before quickly doing her hair up in a simple, but slightly more presentable braided bun and hurrying back up to join KC. The two women then headed out to the gardens, only to hear something of a scuffle.

“A man with innocent intentions does not hop over castle walls,” said Bill’s voice, though it sounded much lower and harder than Carewyn was used to hearing.

“In this case, sir, I assure you, I do.”

“You will declare your true name and business at once, sir, or I shall see to it that you’re locked in irons and hauled before the King himself -- ”

“Bill!” cried Carewyn.

Bill looked up, startled. The ginger-haired castle guard had slammed Orion back-first against a tree, holding him up off the ground by his collar with one hand, but at the sight of Carewyn and KC running forward, the suspicion and righteous anger in his face dissipated instantly.

“It’s all right, Bill,” Carewyn reassured him. “He’s a friend.”

“Put him down,” said KC.

Bill looked from KC to Carewyn in confusion, before glancing at Orion warily, but he nonetheless did as they said. Once he’d lowered Orion to the ground and let go of his shirt, the dark-haired man calmly adjusted his collar and picked up a satchel that must’ve come off in the struggle off the ground.

“Thank you, Carewyn...Lady Katriona,” he said pleasantly, as if he had not just been in a loose choke hold.

KC grimaced. “Orion, I’ve saved your butt twice now -- we’ve more than gotten to the point of you calling me KC.”

Orion smiled wryly. “I’m glad of it.”

Carewyn, however, still looked a bit harried. “Orion, what were you thinking? Hopping the wall...it’s no wonder Bill thought you were up to no good!”

“Well, the gate was locked, and no one was there to greet me,” said Orion airily.

“Well, of course the palace of Royaume has very strong security,” Carewyn said exasperatedly, “the royal family lives here.”

“I must wonder how the royal family ever receives visitors, then.”

“They don’t,” said Bill rather coolly. “They invite them, and very rarely, at that. And they clearly didn’t invite you to trespass on the grounds.”

Orion was unfazed. “Well, fortunately, I wasn’t looking for such an invitation, to begin with. I merely wanted to give this to Carewyn, as a gift for Madam Ali.”

He reached into his satchel and pulled out a jar of unusually shiny silvery-white paint. Bill, KC and Carewyn’s eyes all were very wide as Orion handed the jar to Carewyn.

“I asked a few people where best to locate materials for paints,” he explained. “One man pointed me to a flower that grows at the border called the Moly. He made this paint himself. I don’t think any colors  like this are made and sold at the market, so I thought I would bring along one of his jars for Madam Ali, so she might use it for her next project.”

Carewyn’s light blue eyes were very bright and touched as she looked up at Orion.

“Orion...it’s wonderful,” she said, her soft voice incredibly warm. “Badeea will love it.”

“You said he used the Moly?” asked KC, as she took the jar from Carewyn and looked at it. “Maybe Badeea could mix up some more paint of her own, then.”

Bill glanced at Orion with a raised eyebrow. “Or the Crown could simply buy it from the vendor who sold you that paint.”

Carewyn noticed a strange, almost skittish glint flicker through Orion’s eye.

“...I’m afraid that jar was a favor, not a purchase,” he said softly.

“I think Badeea would be fine with making her own, Bill,” Carewyn said firmly. “The Crown wouldn’t want to set aside extra money for materials anyway. It’d be a lot cheaper to make a paint like that in house than to buy it from someone else.”

Despite his frown, Bill nonetheless sighed and nodded. “...True. Charlie’s needed a new set of scratch awls for ages.”

Orion looked pleased. “I’m glad I could be of assistance.”

“Perhaps the next time you want to see Carewyn, you might figure out a way to do it that doesn’t require you scaling walls like a prowler,” said KC amusedly.

Carewyn shot KC a slightly reproachful look. Orion’s muted smile rather resembled that of a satisfied house cat.

“I’d be happy to arrange more regular meetings outside the palace, if Lady Cromwell would be open to it,” he said, his black eyes sparkling as he glanced at Carewyn.

Carewyn raised her eyebrows coolly at him. “Once again, Mr. Freeman, you seem to have an unusual amount of freedom, if you’re able to consider allocating time just to meet me.”

Her lips then spread in a wry smile.

“Still...I can hardly sit by and let you get arrested for trespassing on my account. I have some time available late tomorrow morning, before noon. I could meet you by the gate then.”

Orion grinned. “I’ll look forward to it, my lady.”

[theredneckoccultist]

88 Important Truths I Have Learned About Life

Everyone gets drilled with certain lessons in life. Sometimes it takes repeated demonstrations of a given law of life to really get it into your skull, and other times one powerful experience drives the point home once forever. Here are 88 things I’ve discovered about life, the world, and its inhabitants by this point in my short time on earth.

1. You can’t change other people, and it’s rude to try.

2. It is a hundred times more difficult to burn calories than to refrain from consuming them in the first place.

3. If you’re talking to someone you don’t know well, you may be talking to someone who knows way more about whatever you’re talking about than you do.

4. The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.

5. Everyone likes somebody who gets to the point quickly.

6. Bad moods will come and go your whole life, and trying to force them away makes them run deeper and last longer.

7. Children are remarkably honest creatures until we teach them not to be.

8. If everyone in the TV show you’re watching is good-looking, it’s not worth watching.

9. Yelling always makes things worse.

10. Whenever you’re worried about what others will think of you, you’re really just worried about what you’ll think of you.

11. Every problem you have is your responsibility, regardless of who caused it.

12. You never have to deal with more than one moment at a time.

13. If you never doubt your beliefs, then you’re wrong a lot.

14. Managing one’s wants is the most powerful skill a person can learn.

15. Nobody has it all figured out.

16. Cynicism is far too easy to be useful.

17. Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours.

18. Whenever you hate something, it hates you back: people, situations and inanimate objects alike.

19. Ralph Waldo Emerson's works alone can teach you everything you need to know about living with grace and happiness.

20. People embellish everything, as a rule.

21. Anger reveals weakness of character, violence even moreso.

22. Humans cannot destroy the planet, but we can destroy its capacity to keep us alive. And we are.

23. When people are uncomfortable with the present moment, they fidget with their hands or their minds. Watch and see.

24. Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.

25. Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier.

26. Credit card debt devours souls.

27. Nobody knows more than a minuscule fraction of what's going on in the world. It’s just way too big for any one person to know it well.

28. Most of what we see is only what we think about what we see.

29. A person who is unafraid to present a candid version of herself to the world is as rare as diamonds.

30. The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort. It wrecks dreams and breaks people.

31. If what you’re doing feels perfectly safe, there is probably a better course of action.

32. The greatest innovation in the history of humankind is language.

33. Blame is the favorite pastime of those who dislike responsibility.

34. Everyone you meet is better than you at something.

35. Proof is nothing but a collection of opinions that match your own.

36. Knowledge is belief, nothing more.

37. Indulging your desires is not self-love.

38. What makes human beings different from animals is that animals can be themselves with ease.

39. Self-examination is the only path out of misery.

40. Whoever you are, you will die. To know and understand that means you are alive.

41. Revenge is for the petty and irresponsible.

42. Getting truly organized can vastly improve anyone’s life.

43. Almost every cliché contains a truth so profound that people have been compelled to repeat it until it makes you roll your eyes. But the wisdom is still in there.

44. People cause suffering when they are suffering themselves. Alleviating their suffering will help them not hurt others.

45. High quality is worth any quantity, in possessions, friends and experiences.

46. The world would be a better place if everyone read National Geographic.

47. If you aren’t happy single, you won’t be happy in a relationship.

48. Even if it costs no money, nothing is free if it takes time.

49. Emotions exist to make us strongly biased towards or against something. This hinders as often as it helps.

50. Addiction is a much greater problem in society than it’s made out to be. It’s present in every person in various forms, but usually we call it something else.

51. “Gut feeling” is not just a euphemism. Tension in the abdomen speaks volumes about how you truly feel about something, beyond all arguments and rationales.

52. Posture and dress change profoundly how you feel about yourself and how others feel about you, like it or not.

53. Everyone thinks they’re an above average driver.

54. The urge to punish others has much more to do with venting frustration than correcting behavior.

55. By default, people think far too much.

56. If anything is worth splurging on, it’s a high-quality mattress. You’ll spend a third of your life using it.

57. There is nothing worse than having no friends.

58. To write a person off as worthless is an act of great violence.

59. Try as we might to be otherwise, we are all hypocrites.

60. Justice is a human invention which is in reality rarely achievable, but many will not hesitate to destroy lives demanding it.

61. Kids will usually understand exactly what you mean if you keep it to one or two short sentences.

62. Stuff that’s on sale usually has an annoying downside.

63. Casual swearing makes people sound dumb.

64. Words are immensely powerful. One cruel remark can wound someone for life.

65. It’s easy to make someone’s day just by being uncommonly pleasant to them.

66. Most of what children learn from their parents isn't taught on purpose.

67. The secret ingredient is usually butter, in obscene amounts.

68. It is worth re-trying foods that you didn’t like at first.

69. Problems, when they arise, are rarely as painful as the experience of fearing them.

70. Nothing — ever — happens exactly like you pictured it.

71. North Americans are generally terrible at accepting compliments and offers of help.

72. There are not enough women in positions of power. The world has suffered from this deficit for a long time.

73. When you break promises to yourself, you feel terrible. When you make a habit of it, you begin to hate yourself.

74. A good nine out of ten bad things I’ve worried about never happened. A good nine out of ten bad things that did happen never occurred to me to worry about.

75. You can’t hide a bad mood from people who know you well, but you can always be polite.

76. Sometimes you have to remove certain people from your life, even if they’re family.

77. Anyone can be calmed in an instant by looking at the ocean or the stars.

78. There is no point finishing a book you aren’t enjoying. Life is too short for that. Swallow your pride and put it down for good, unfinished.

79. There is no correlation between the price of a brand of batteries and how long they last.

80. Breaking new ground only takes a small amount more effort than you’re used to giving.

81. Life is a solo trip, but you’ll have lots of visitors. Some of them are long-term, most aren’t.

82. One of the best things you can do for your kids is take them on road trips. I’m not a parent, but I was a kid once.

83. The fewer possessions you have, the more they do for you

84. Einstein was wiser than he was intelligent, and he was a genius.

85. When you’re sick of your own life, that’s a good time to pick up a book.

86. Wishing things were different is a great way to torture yourself.

87. The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.

88. Killing time is an atrocity. It’s priceless, and it never grows back.

[promisenolies]

A Writer Fed Up

I feel like this post/rant has been coming for a while. I realize that this might not be received well, but I guess that’s a risk I’m willing to take.  

I’ve been encountering some interesting takes and comments around my work as of late. And I feel like it needs to be addressed on a few different fronts. And yes, I could have continued with my life ignoring all these issues, as most people who do these behaviors are likely just doing it for attention. But...I feel that these things need to be said, if not only to give voice to many other writers/content creators who feel similarly.  

General points are as follows:  

The first and simplest point to make is this: the fanfiction writers in your fandom write these pieces – 1. for FREE  2. for THEMSELVES because they feel a call to create something. They/We do not do this for YOU. The sense of entitlement some readers have is uncalled for. Unless you’re paying us for our work, your opinion is not needed. At all.  

Comments and Kudos are the air we breathe as writers. We love when people appreciate our work, enjoy our work, and feel the need to let us know. HOWEVER, the comment section is not there for you to tell us how much you didn’t enjoy the piece. (see point 1)  

Everyone has personal tastes, yes? I have particular things I won’t read/write and I take no offense to others who feel differently. Again though, if you come across work that does not sit well with you or that you don’t enjoy – stop reading. That’s it. Don’t leave a comment, don’t bitch on timelines, don’t send passive aggressive curious cat messages. Just leave it alone. It’s that simple. I have particular tastes, I know that. But I don’t shit on writers who fall outside of what I enjoy. Because WHY!? They—again—are creating content for themselves and those who want to read it. And they’re doing so for free under no obligation to make anyone happy. Including—surprise—you and me! So again – if you don’t like ABO, don’t read it. If you don’t like MCD, don’t read it. If you don’t like BDSM, don’t read it. If you don’t like something specifically don’t. read. it.  I don’t know why this is so hard for readers to grasp.  

Specific points are as follows:  

I write vers/switch Jikook. That’s all I write. Yes, one-shots typically have only one role, but you’ll find a variety of who bottoms/tops in each of them. Claiming that I only wrote bottom Jimin fics after I was “called out” by some entitled person who didn’t care for my content is ridiculous. Especially considering the very first BTS piece I posted was Dressing Room Deviance which not only featured bottom Jimin – but it was also a VMinKook fic!  

On that note. I can’t believe I even have to say this, but what I write is FICTION. As in, despite them taking after the likeness of real Jimin and real Jungkook at the end of the day they are characters or interpretations of them (in my canon fics). And as characters, I write their sexual roles as I see fit. Sometimes I feel like they’d enjoy bottoming, sometimes I feel like they’d like to top. (See general points 1 and 3)  

But what really irritates me with this concerning fascination with sexual roles is that PEOPLE ARE MORE THAN SEX. Are you that incapable of understanding the complexities in human nature? Is it impossible for you to see them as multi-faceted and capable of multiple roles? Relationships are built on more than sex. I promise. And if you’re stuck in thinking otherwise, I greatly encourage you to speak with a professional about what healthy relationships are and what they look like. The sex is my work is ONE part of their relationship. There’s so much more going on behind it. Trust, humor, equality, love... If all you see in my work is the sex or if that’s all you can seem to bring yourself to comment on – quite honestly I don’t want you to read my stuff then. Because it’s CLEARLY over your head.  

Implying that I have no experience in sexual relationships is honestly the most ludacris and laughable thing I’ve encountered to date. One can only DREAM of the level of satisfaction I have in my sex like with my spouse. (Sorry to my little if they end up seeing this LOL) And that satisfaction and experience is in the very thing you seem to think I don’t understand the mechanics of.  

People’s inability to separate physical appearance, size, presentation, etc from their preconceived, heteronormative scripts/ideas is frustrating and sad. Again, people are complex and much more than their sexual roles. There is absolutely NO reason that the smaller partner can’t top. There’s absolutely NO reason that Jimin (let’s be specific here since these are my specific points) can’t be a top, can’t be assertive, can’t be portrayed outside your limited view of “babie Jimi”  Even in real life, yes he’s adorable – but he’s also legitimately scary as fuck and he could kick all our asses. And he’s not TINY. Let's be real. He’s 5’9”  - I can’t understand why so many people depict him as being like 5’3” or some shit. Trust me, that man can reach that top shelf to grab a bowl and doesn’t need Kook to do it for him. Stop making him a feminized, weak, damsel in distress. He’s a MAN and you’d do well to fucking realize that. Jungkook also deserves more than this general script of only topping, being stupid or aggressive, being incapable of feelings and intimacy, and always being some sort of protector. AKA – Jimin is not “the woman” and Jungkook is not “the man.” THEY ARE MEN. Your homophobic heteronormativity is showing and it’s disgusting.  

I do honestly enjoy writing bottom JK, mostly because it’s unconventional (for some gross heteronormative reason). So yeah, you might see a bit more of that in my one-shots. But honestly, maybe y’all need to expand your horizons. I enjoy breaking him out of the confining box so many of you put him in. Same with Jimin. Both he and Jimin deserve great sex, whatever form that happens to take in my work.  

Also, the fandom’s inability to separate sub/dom from bottom/top is also GREATLY CONCERNING. I have a lot of thoughts on this issue. Like A LOT. Mostly focused around the disgusting pornification of our youth and the sexualizing of violence. But at the end of the day my point will be short on this. (And keep in mind I will not debate this issue. This is one of my boundaries alright? - it’s HEALTHY to have boundaries) The main point of this is that sex doesn’t need to have power dynamics. It doesn’t. And I’ll concede on the point that some people specifically write BDSM and sub/dom work and that’s fine because again – points 1 and 3 in general points above. But what frustrates me is that even if there isn’t ANY power dynamics people will tag it that way. Why? Is it to get hits because people have been so culturally groomed to be aroused by that? It makes me sad that I miss out on likely some great pieces because it’s tagged wrong. Just because someone is assertive doesn’t mean they’re being a dom and just because someone let’s go and surrender’s to pleasure doesn’t mean they’re being a sub. Assertiveness is so important to have in sexual experiences because one needs to be able to voice what they like and what they don’t like. Assertiveness is not domming.  

Some people’s simple lack of understanding of intimacy truly saddens me. And I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about INTIMACY. About knowing your partner, being there for your partner, talking through things and managing conflict as a team.  

This next one is a very specific rant point. If you haven’t read the “There And Back Again” series this might give spoilers and/or you might be lost. As a counselor, I can ASSURE you that the dynamics with Jungkook and Jimin include CARE and COMFORT on both sides. The way people seem to think that Jungkook wasn’t a caretaker for Jimin simply because he didn’t coddle him BLOWS MY MIND. Again, is it just because we have so FEW depictions of true intimacy and care for our partners? People process trauma in so many ways. Some people need the image that apparently so many of you draw up in your mind; the hugs, the soothing words, etc. Some people don’t. Jimin specifically in this piece didn’t need that kind of care. If you paid attention AT ALL to his character you would know that. This version of Jimin needed to feel like he was still capable, that he didn’t lose his strength and who he was, he needed to know that he still had PURPOSE. Jimin didn’t need to be coddled the way you seem to think he did. The way Jungkook didn’t make a big deal of Jimin going to therapy – that's the reaction Jimin NEEDED. If you can’t see Jungkook’s apologies for his focus on Jimin’s injuries and how he couldn’t do certain things as care, if you can’t see Jungkook’s desire to learn grounding techniques to help Jimin through flashbacks and panic attacks as care, if you can’t see Jungkook’s support of not just therapy but going to school as care...then I guess I don’t know what to tell you. But let it be known and clear that Jungkook took care of Jimin in all the ways he needed, and I’m not sorry if you can’t see it. Because THOSE depictions of care and intimacy are NEEDED (clearly) and I won’t write cookie-cutter bullshit just so people like it.  

On that note – people's weird dislike of Jimin bottoming at the end of that series is so strange to me. Like, why? Does it revert back to people’s massive inability to accept him as a potential bottom? Is it the inability to reconcile his incredibly masculine portrayal with their perceived feminine role? People say they don’t think he’d healed enough... literally the last chapter is THREE YEARS later. You think he didn’t put in some work in that time? Jesus. As for saying it didn’t seem natural? ...honestly that final scene with them is one of my absolute favorites...I know a few who would agree with me.  

I want to throw in one other comment/disclosure before y’all run in here and call me a hypocrite. I did recently call something out that honestly just needed to be, in my opinion. I’m sure much of that situation was due to me being a sexual assault advocate and recognizing the situation for what it was, and for recognizing the impact that the mislabeling could have on others. It was an intense moment, and I’m thankful that the creator was open to hearing me out in my escalated state. We talked through it, heard each other’s points and have moved on. And I still fully support them in their work as they are an incredible writer.  

I think that’s all I have. For now.  

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.  

[thatmultifandomhoe]

The Extremely Large Tag Game

ATagged By: @dreamystuffers​ thank you sweet pea and HOLY SHIT THIS REALLY IS THE ULTIMATE TAG GAME BUT I AM READY.

SECTION ONE: First and last tag: post the first line of a wip as well as the last line you’ve written so far!

So I have several Wips at the moment and whelp, I’m gonna do them all lol.

The Size of a Heart: Wonho and Reader (Drabble)

First Line Written: The sky was burning as the sun set for the night, cloaking the city in its familiar darkness.

Last Line Written: “I tell myself that it’s better if it hurts, but I…I can’t anymore…I can’t.”

Tentatively Falling: Vampire Jongdae and Reader (Series)

First Line Written: Strobe lights flashed around the dark bar, drawing your attention every now and then when they went wild as the bass dropped.

Last Line Written: It was more than you ever thought, but it was exactly what you dreamt about hearing him say.

Heavenly Father: Boyfriend Yoongi, Priest Jimin, Alter boy Jungkook, and Reader (Smut Crack Drabble - Title May Change)

First Line Written: The stain glass windows in the Church were a sight to see during the day, the sunlight streaming through and bringing life to the images during the service, and brought a sense of comforting to those during times of trouble.

Last Line Written: Jimin groaned and your eyes watered when your nose was pressed against the base, his dick down your throat.

Knitting You a Home: Wolf Hybrid Namjoon and Reader (Series)

First Line Written: The wind howled while rain pelted your house as the storm refused to let up.

Last Line Written: For the moment, his thoughts were cleared, allowing him to fall asleep with you safely in his arms.

SECTION TWO. Enter 15 of your biases and put them in this order to discover the story of your life

Parent: Hongjoong

well I mean he is pretty daddy at times

Sibling: Jongdae

Grandparent: Sammy

Haunts you: Vernon

Significant other: Jooheon

HELL YEAH BITCHES

Ex: Yuta

damn that’s...that’s a change

Best friend: Chanyeol

Proposed to you: Yoongi

Was this before Jooheon or after Jooheon? Who’s my ass with?

Your boss: Taeyong

Random person you meet a the bar: Seonghwa

Rival: Bang Chan

BUT HE’S THE SWEETEST HUMAN BEING THO

First kiss: Namjoon

Drunk and singing karaoke with: Wonho

Played seven minutes in heaven with: Felix

Gave you your favorite dessert: Jackson

I...I can see this one. He’s sweet to do that

SECTION THREE. Describe your bias by their vibes as if they were someone in your life. (I’m doing my Ults, 1 from each group.)

Jongdae (EXO): The guy that everyone knows because he’s the one with that distinguishable laugh. The class clown that knows the limits and only crosses them on rare occasions. You think you know him but then he’ll say something that you never knew about him. Craves his independence but is the quiet one when in a large group, smiling as he watches the more energetic ones run about. An old soul trapped in a young body.

Yoongi (BTS): The one who devotes himself to his work and rarely sees the light of day. His room is littered with empty to go cups of coffee mixed with his own assortment of coffee mugs Coffee ring stains on furniture. You think he’s not listening or paying attention but when you least expect it, he’ll quietly do something or hand you a gift that he knows you treasure. He’ll never ask for cuddles, but he’ll always give them to you and refuse to let you go when you try to get up. Wise beyond his years because he’s suffered and doesn’t wish it on anyone else.

Yuta (NCT): The popular guy that at first everyone warns you about, but once you get to know him yourself, you don’t know why they warned you in the first place because he’s a total sweetheart. The guy who flirts with everyone and anyone, but remains loyal to his girl. He’s never without his iced coffee, and he’s dyeing his hair in the bathtub with a friend to help make sure it doesn’t go too wrong. Will entertain your drunk texts. He’s the one to text at 2 am when you’re feeling alone and down and he’ll do what he can to lift you back up with nothing but the truth.

Hongjoong (Ateez): He’s the guy who doesn’t give a shit about trends or styles, he creates his own. The guy who does the piercings at the local tattoo shop knows him by name because he’s gotten so many of his piercings done there. He is the Fashion DIY King. Will roast his friends the hardest  because he loves them the most and takes it when they dish it back. Somehow manages to rock hairstyles - long live the mullet - that no one thought should have ever existed. Don’t let him cook though. If he cooks you’ll end up with food poisoning. He’s the one who will let you try makeup tricks and new products on him. Secretly amazing at painting nails.

Wonho (Monsta X): He’s the guy friend that you never expected to be friends with. Him? You? Total opposites on a physical scale. On completely different levels. Once you get to know him, he’s a total teddy bear. Doesn’t question it when you suddenly appear and hug him without saying a word, he’ll simply hug you back while maintaining the conversation he had going. Or he’ll simply surprise you with a hug because he likes them.

Bang Chan (Stray Kids): He’s the one that always has his earbuds in even during class. Like he’s the guy that has the earbud going through the sleeve of his hoodie and is pressing his palm against his ear to listen to the music. Listens to everyone, even if he doesn’t know them that well and gives really good advice if they ask for it.

Jackson (Got7): The guy that you can hear a mile away. Hyper. Can’t sit still to save his life. He was the guy that you’d see doing laps in the hallway with his friends when he should have been in class, but he was the nice one. Passionate and when you ask him about what he’s working on, he’ll talk about it for hours. Will also apologize multiple times for going on but then continue to go on.

SECTION FOUR. Search your name + “core aesthetic” on Pinterest and make yourself a moodboard

SECTION FIVE. Make a normal and fantasy version of yourself using this !

SECTION SIX. Writing tag game!

What is your ideal setting for focusing on your writing?

A quiet office where I can play music softly in the background and be at a desk with a comfortable chair.

 What Genre do you prefer to write?

Slice of Life, Young Adult, College Age.

Do you prefer to write on paper or digitally?

Both.

It’s the middle of the night and you suddenly wake up with an idea. What do you do?

Make a note of it in either my notebook or in the notes section on my phone.

Who is your favorite person to write about?

Jimin and Hoseok

Do you like making your own characters, or do you usually write about real people?

I like to do both. Honestly, it’s kinda like a mix of both. With some of my fics, the only thing that makes them fanfics are that I’m using the real person’s name, and I’ll pin point on certain aspects of their physical features. In Brotið Hjarta, the only thing that connects to it being Namjoon is his name, and maybe his hair style/color and ear piercings, everything else was what I imagined it to be.

Have you ever written a book/story with more than 15 chapters (100K words)?

Yes. Strawberry Cream and BBQ

How often do you get ideas?

From everyday life, sometimes I’ll be daydreaming and it kinda morphs into a story or a fanfic and so I’ll make notes so that I don’t forget it.

Do you ever get an idea that you really like, but just can’t seem to finish?

Yessss, all the time.

What is your least favorite plot?

I don’t know about least favorite plots, but I do hate it when fics dive straight into a story without any background or anything. Wait, so maybe that’s pwp fics????? I don’t want to be a hypocrite, but even with my fics that primarily focus on smut, I still add in those background details and give them a teeny tiny plot.

SECTION SEVEN. Put your music on shuffle and reveal the first ten songs that come on.

The Kids Aren’t Alright - Fall out Boy

In the Dark - Bring Me the Horizon

Teeth - 5 Seconds of Summer

All In - Monsta X

To the Beat - Ateez

Shot - Lil’ Jon

Daechwita - Agust D

Treasure - Ateez

Adore You - Harry Styles

Guys My Age - Hey Violet

SECTION EIGHT. Questions tag:

Relationships: 2

Break-ups: 2

Kids: Right now? 0

Brothers and Sisters: 1 older brother.

Pets: 0

Surgeries: 0

Tattoos: 0

Countries you’ve been to: 0

Been in an airplane: yes

Been in an ambulance: yes

I sing karaoke: hell no.

Ice skating: I like it but I suck at it and have only been able to go during school events in the past.

Been on a cruise: hell no

Driven a motorcycle: nope

Ridden a horse: yes

Stayed in a hospital: nope

Favorite fruit or berry: Raspberries

Favorite color: Magenta

Last text: “Perfect! I’ll let you know when I am able to send yours out!” - I do pen palling and was letting someone know when I could send them a post card in exchange for the one I’m getting.

Cat or dog: Cat

Favorite pizza: White sauce pizza with chicken and feta cheese

Met a star: nope

Flown a helicopter: nada

Been on TV: nope

Broken my leg: nope

Seen a ghost: don’t believe in them.

Been sick in a taxi: nope

Seen someone die: no

SECTION NINE: Fifteen questions tag:

One ; it’s your birthday! what did you ask for?

Gift cards, um...(this is bad because my birthday is actually coming up) maybe some things from my Amazon list?

Two ; what was the last song / album you listened to?

WAP by Cardi B

Three ; what is your go to snack when you’re hungry?

Chocolate, cookies or cookies dipped in peanut butter

Four ; what is your morning routine?

Wake up, check messages on my phone while still in bed, get up, make coffee, maybe eat breakfast, drink coffee in bed, listen to music/watch videos or read on phone while drinking coffee, get dressed, brush teeth and skincare routine, make bed.

Five ; what mythical creature would you be?

An Elf? Or a Forest Witch. Something that has to do with the Earth and nature.

Six ; how do you interact with someone you don’t like?

I give short and straight to the point answers, if I’m working on something and they come up to me I’ll pointedly focus on that task instead of them.

Seven ; how do you define a toxic person?

Someone who lies, who makes you feel bad about the things that you do, that puts you done while lifting themselves, who is constantly bragging about their own things, who puts down others, who acts like they’re better, who acts like they’re way of life should be the only way of life.

Eight ; have you ever been to a concert or a fan-meet? if not, would you want to?

I have not, but I would like to one day because they seem fun and it would be nice to see a performance in person.

Nine ; do you believe in astrology? why or why not?

I do, mostly because it’s fun and interesting and I tend to find that I do a lot of the things and act like my zodiac sign without realizing it (aka I’m a Virgo).

Ten ; if you could have only one sense (hearing, touch, sight, etc.), which would you keep?

Hearing.

Eleven ; who is your favorite celebrity or idol?

At the moment, BM from Kard.

Twelve ; if you could talk to your favorite celebrity for a limited time, what would you tell them?

How do you keep going when it gets hard?

Thirteen ; I’m taking you out on a date. where are we going?

Maybe an art museum, or somewhere with flowers?

Fourteen ; do you prefer sweet or savory?

Sweet.

Fifteen ; do you have any Merch from any of your favorite artists?

I have several BTS albums and an EXO album.

I AM Tagging: @mygsii @myforeverforlife  @peonybane  @hobicomeholla29  @loser-dot-com @jeonsdear @namsjoon  @kpopcinnamonswirlroll @eashmo201 @1997jk @soulofatiny @cherryeoo​ @minniepetals​ @minniesmarshmallow​ @yoongi-sugaglider​  @crystaljins​ @taestfully​  @hyyunjins​ @i-am-delaney​ @worldwidebt7​ @flurrys-creativity​  @apurpledheart​ @holyfluffly​ @yunception​ @boymeetsweevil​ @chans-chair​ @brokecollegenerd​ @jinyoungsir​ @writersrealmbts​ @kpophoneybunny​ @actuallythatwaspromise​  @ladyartemesia​ @haylo4ever​ @ggukcangetit​ @kpopfanfictrash​ @wwilloww​ @jingabitch​ @kigurumu​ @jamaiskook​ @thatlongspringnight​ @ot7always-main​  @hauntedlilies​ @koophoriia​ @lorealchanelll​ @sweetheart--sannie​  @sweetae-tae​ @iniquitouspoppy​  

[innuendostudios]

We hit 200k subscribers! Holy heck! Here’s a small, celebratory video collecting my favorite bits and pieces that got cut from other videos.

If you like this, or the videos these bits were removed from, consider backing me on Patreon.

Transcript below the cut.

The Artist is Absent

If I tell you about what I did yesterday, you do what? You take a bunch of sights, sounds, tastes, smells from your experience and stick them together in your head into a complex picture of my experience? Well, that’s what I’m doing when I use my memory. I don’t have a prefab image of what’s happened to me in my life that I break down into pieces when I describe it to you; the act of remembering is building up from pieces, reconstructing reality from a mass of tiny sensations, and all a memory is is a set of instructions for which ones to assemble and how. This act is performed every time a thing is remembered. And the difference between my memory and your imagination is that, having lived it, I have way more sense memories than I could ever communicate, and the knowledge that mine actually happened to me. Those are really the only differences; you could characterize memory as “imagining things that actually happened,” or imagination as “remembering things that didn’t.”

The Artist is Absent 2

OK, quickie sidebar on what the meaning of “meaning” is in this context. I don’t want anyone to trip over this term and think I’m saying all art is part of some grand design, like I’m going to argue The Avengers is an allegory for the Bay of Pigs or something. I’m not using “meaning” in a lofty sense. If you wanna argue that the only substance to The Avengers is “it’s fun,” that’s cool. That’s still a meaning, but it’s perfectly valid if that’s all there is to it.

...I mean, that’s not all there is to it, it’s also about family, and about how being in a family with people who are different from you can make you a better person. It can teach you the value of selflessness, or the value of compassion over mercenary coldness, or the value of accepting yourself and your flaws, or help you fit your idealism into the modern world, or… deliver exposition, because Thor doesn’t have an arc in this movie.

But you see my point! All I mean by “meaning” is that there is an answer to the question, “Why does this exist?” If someone made it, they had to have a reason, anything from “I wanted to change the world” to “I wanted to make money” to “I was bored.” Those aren’t all great answers, but they’re answers.

Also, all creators exist within their culture, which means their works are products of that culture, and their contents will either reflect or differ from that culture’s values. Like, the fact that all the central characters in The Avengers save one are white, and all save one are men, means something. We can debate the whats and wherefores of that meaning and how much that meaning matters, but since things like race, gender, the military, and New York City, mean things to our society, they can’t not mean things in our movies.

And, let’s be honest: following The Avengers, Tony has PTSD from being a rescue worker during Something Very Bad that Happened in New York, and SHIELD dramatically expands the surveillance state and employs Cap in fighting terrorist threats, so, while not the Bay of Pigs, The Battle of New York is doing work as a 9/11 allegory. Both of these movies have been praised for exactly that.

But, let’s follow through: in our 9/11 allegory, the US government could not have possibly predicted nor prevented the bad Guys’ invasion, America is wholly innocent and has had no political or social impact on the Bad Guys, the Bad Guys are literally inhuman, and any amount of violence against them is justified, up to and including the Good Guys nuking them.

But whatever.

Bringing Back What’s Stolen

OK. A lot of psychoanalytic film writing comes from the 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s, including gender analysis of horror films, and it can read a little Freudian: gender essentialist, heteronormative, and obsessed with the D. “Does this empowered woman look feminine? Well, she’s holding a gun, and I’ve got news for you: guns are penises. She’s smoking a cigarette, and cigarettes are penises. She’s wearing high heels, and high heels are penises. That slit in her dress that shows off her long legs? [Long Legs Are Penises]”

It’s a bit Second Wave-y. And not completely off-base! Like, I get it, Laura, sometimes a knife is a dick. (Symbolically, I mean.) But sometimes a stiletto is just a stiletto.

Bringing Back What’s Stolen 2

I want to stress that a trope does not define a character, and does not, alone, make her or the movie around her bad. I love a number of the characters I’ve cited. But when a movie, even a great movie, tells me, “Don’t worry, this woman is violent, but we’re not saying women at large are as strong or violent as men,” I feel condescended to. The lengths some movies go to soothe my ego, like I’m a seven-year-old who’s going to throw his toys against the wall, strike me as a big waste of time that could be spent on the more interesting parts of the movie. I’ll take another shootout any day.

WSGT3

Imagine you’re called onstage to do a cold reading of a two-person scene from a play you’ve never read. You don’t know the story, the characters, or even the stage directions. And the director hands out only one script to the other actor. You will have to improvise all your lines. The other actor knows the premise, knows the story, but they still need you to make the scene work. The person who knows what happens is trying to signal everything you need to you without straying from the script, while you attempt to discover your role in the story and perform it at the same time. That is the attention that must be paid. And, together, you try to make a story.

This is an exercise my acting teacher used to do with us, to get us listening to the other actors in a scene instead of just waiting for our cues. And this is how an adventure game feels.

DOOM

It was 1993, and we all knew about DOOM. It had a reputation. Many of us learned it existed with the same breath that forbid from playing it, in the same way we were forbidden from watching Beavis & Butt-head or Terminator 2. We didn’t have those kinds of parents. But most of us knew someone who did.

We came to learn three things about DOOM: that was intended for grown-ups, that our access to it was scarce, and that having not played meant getting teased by those who had. Some of us never asked if playing it interested us, we simply knew playing it was important.

And when we played - and we did play, on whatever computer someone had secreted the shareware version onto - it was like nothing we’d ever seen before. Amazing and terrifying, in the way that a kid alone in the house watching their first skin flick finds it shocking, because half-naked women and simulated sex are so far outside their limited experience. We had never seen anything close to this, and it unsettled us at first. But we played.

The titillation of an art student drawing a nude model lasts for the few moments between the dropping of the robe and the touching of charcoal to paper. Then nakedness becomes just another series of lines to render. We acclimated. When we fired our shotguns into an enemy, soon enough all we saw was an obstacle neutralized. We saw a series of lines elegantly intersecting a series of boxes. That’s not what our parents saw. Our parents saw an imp howling in pain as its ribcage burst from its chest.

And so part of playing DOOM became learning how to defend it. “I play DOOM for the gameplay” became a generation’s “I read Playboy for the articles.” When we got caught, we tried to explain the the lines and the boxes: The bullet wounds were just there to let you know when you’d hit your target. The space marine’s bleeding face was just there to tell at a glance how your health was doing. The enemies were Satanic hellspawn just to make it perfectly clear their function was to be dispatched by your shotgun. What we wouldn’t say was that all these things could be accomplished through other means, without blood, but we didn’t want to play Chex Quest.

What we couldn’t put into words, most especially under threat of punishment, was that, while the blood and gore wasn’t why we wanted to keep playing, it was usually why we sat down in the first place. DOOM was good, but being good wasn’t what made it important; it was important because it was illicit. Yes, we were kids, and we probably would play a game that offered us nothing but brutal violence, but if the lines didn’t pleasingly intersect the boxes we would soon stop playing. DOOM is loved today because there was more to it than that. Blood was captivating, but it wasn’t enough - we sat down, but we did not stay, for blood alone. What our parents could rarely put into words was that us no longer seeing the blood was part of what worried them.

Indivisible Talk

These are some fundamentals I want you to keep in mind as we look at the Right.

Everybody’s people. When I talk about the difference between the Right and the Left, I’m not saying “the Right does this and the Left does that.” I’m talking about things all humans do, and the difference between the Right and the Left is a matter of scale and proportion. If I say “the Left values data over gut feelings” or “the Right values family over extended community,” obviously everyone values all of those things. It’s a question of how they’re prioritized. But small differences in our priorities can lead to dramatically different worldviews. So when I say “the Right does X,” don’t get too hung up on whether the Left also sometimes does X, but try think about how it manifests on the Right versus the Left and what those differences between them mean.

People vote their beliefs, not their self-interest. The Left tends to ask things like, “Why would working-class voters who depend on Obamacare vote for the party that wants to repeal Obamacare? They must have been lied to.” And I won’t deny that a lot of lies were involved, but it’s a mistake to think people only vote for what’s good for them. It seems like this should be obvious; I mean, why do I vote to have my taxes raised to pay for someone else’s education, someone else’s food stamps? We tend to answer that by arguing it is in my self-interest, that a well-fed and well-educated population leads to a stronger economy and a richer culture, and that this will trickle down to make my life better in the long run, and I could make that case, but, really, that’s not why I do it. I believe in education, I believe in fighting poverty, and if you proved to me that neither would ever benefit me personally, I would still fight for them, because it’s the right thing to do. So when someone across the political spectrum does something that confuses us, it may be true that they are misinformed, but we can’t assume that simply correcting them will change their minds. Right or wrong, they are acting in accordance with their beliefs, they trust misinformation because it aligns with those beliefs, and, if you don’t understand what those beliefs are, you’re going to misdiagnose the problem.

Tolerance and sectarianism. A tolerant view of society is the melting pot, the idea that Real America is the combination of many different walks of life, all of which are valid and deserving of the same rights. A sectarian view thinks of one walk of life (usually one’s own) as the Real America, and this walk of life is one society should trend towards: that America is a Christian nation, English should be the national language, or the ideal family as nuclear and heterosexual. I think it’s obvious which ways the Parties lean.

But, again, these are human traits. Everyone is balancing both these impulses every day. And I don’t want us to split these into “tolerant good, in-groups bad.” Democrats who over-commit to the melting pot run into the Karl Popper’s Paradox of Tolerance: that, if you treat every group as equally valid, including Nazis, fascists, and the Klan, you create a less tolerant society. And treating one group as a greater priority than others is logical when that group is persecuted; there is a degree to which all minority activism is defending one’s family. So it’s a matter of knowing when to be tolerant and when to be familial, and coalition-building is all about being both at the same time.

End

Um. So. I’m not sure how to end this. Uh. 200k subs! Wow! I find that number very humbling. Thank you all so much. And back me on Patreon, if you want to and if you haven’t already. There’ll be a proper video soon. Uh. What do people usually do in these things, they do Q&A’s, right? People ask you “what’s your favorite movie, book, game, comic, anime, musical, poem, album, joke”? I’ve been wondering what it says about me that all my answers would be things I experienced in my 20s, or earlier. Is it that I don’t love things the way I used to? Or is it just that, the more art you experience, the harder it is to be blown away? Like, something can be better than anything I’ve seen before, but it can’t shatter the record the way it could when I was younger. But I’m not making a video essay about that, so: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel R. Delany, LOOM, Sandman, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, A Woman is Talking to Death by Judy Grahn, a three-way tie between In The Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Lincoln by They Might Be Giants, and Onomatopoeia by Jonny 5, and the lemon cookie joke.

[writing-ro]

Fictober 19-8: “I can’t come back.”

@fictober-event // Set in a Multi-fandom Fantasy AU where most if not all kinds of fantasy creatures exist alongside humans, though the two cultures stay fairly separate, with many humans being afraid or prejudice against creatures.

Rating: T Fandom: Dragon Age, Characters: Analei Amell (OFC), Revka Amell, Orana (Dragon Age), Leliana (Dragon Age), Mikoto Hawke (OFC), Mother Dorathea | Divine Justinia V Ships: Analei Amell/Leliana  Additional Tags: Secret Wedding, Revka Amell is an Awesome Mom, Analei has the best siblings and maid, Happy Lesbian Day!, 

For two weeks, Analei was a ghost in her own home. Aside from meals and one trip to the library to collect books (where she was deliberately kept away from the magic tomes), she was locked in her room. She tried small rebellion, keeping her curtains closed for all the day and refusing baths when her maid (not Orana, her elven confidante sent by her Hawke cousins, she had been given to Adria) prepared to draw them. She read or embroidered by the light of one candle, only to stave off the madness of boredom, and took no care of cosmetics or hygiene except to brush her hair, purely because she herself could not stand snarls. As such, when she came for meals, she was sallow and greasy, and while she did nothing to exert herself, she naturally began to smell. She said not a word at meals, even with her dear mother Revka or beloved siblings, and only ate enough that she knew she would not faint. It worked for a week, then Aristide send Rickon and Rodrick with the maid and gave her the choice of either coming clean or being barred from meals entirely. So she bathed, but kept to the dark. 

She was allowed visitors, but for those two weeks, she only had two; Jakob and Lianne. The twins came together on the first day of her imprisonment and apologized profusely for their roles in Aristide finding out, and Analei forgave them immediately, for it was not either of their faults. Lianne brought back word that Aristide was speaking with the de Launcets to push Analei and Emile’s wedding to the end of the month, with the suggestion of a long honeymoon at one of their inland estates. Jakob admitted he had ridden to the clearing and gave Leliana a warning, so by the time Eddard and his hunters got there, Leliana was no where to be found, with her belongings missing. Analei worried Aristide would know of his ride, but he assured her no one was any the wiser of his leaving, for Mattias and Johann claimed he had been drinking with them in the cellar, and he used a horse of one of his other friends who owed him quite the debt. 

Analei held him close after that confession, and he passed on a handkerchief Leliana had entrusted to him. It was the first courting gift Analei had given her, embroidered with a nightingale holding a bunch of forget-me-nots. Analei managed to hold herself together long enough for her siblings to leave, then cried anew, and prayed to the Lady that Leliana would be protected. 

It was late evening on the fourteenth day of her imprisonment when there was a knocking on her door, a firm thud very different from the maid’s soft rap. She looked up from the book she’d been staring at for the past half-hour, and called out, “Come in.”

Revka Amell walked in, all grace and beauty even nearing fifty years of age, followed by Adria,  who was starting to grow into a similar bearing, and Orana, with her unobtrusive servant’s walk. With Amell blue eyes, black hair and a generous figure each, some would Revka’s traits had passed over her first daughter for her second, and be mostly right. But difference created the strongest bond between mother and eldest, and when together one could see they shared the same quirk of their brow, the same smile, and the same sparkle in their eye. A sparkle Analei was surprised to see now. 

“Good evening, Analei,” Revka said. 

“Good evening, Mother,” Analei said, closing her book and setting it on the table. “What brings you here?”

“A mother can’t visit her daughter?” Revka turned to the door, which was still partially open. “I’ll just close this now, I wish to discuss women’s things with my daughter. Her wedding is coming up, you know.” She closed it before the guard could respond, and nodded to Adria, who pulled a paper seal and charcoal from within her sleeves. She placed the seal on the door, right below the keyhole, and started sketching on it with charcoal. 

Revka turned to Analei and gave her a sad smile. “Oh my little bluebird.” She crossed the room and knelt by Analei’s chair a hand reaching out to cup her cheek. “I am so sorry to not have visited you in this time. There was just so much to prepare.”

“Prepare?” Analei took her mother’s hand in her own. “Prepare for what?”

“Your wedding, of course.” Revka waved with her other hand and Orana came over with a bundle in her arms, holding it as Revka started to unfold it. “We needed to make alterations to ensure a proper fit, after all. Luckily, Orana had your most recent measurements and she, Lianne and Adria together make for quick work.” 

Analei was about to ask again what her mother was talking about, when she saw the gown that had been wrapped up and gasped. It was Leandra’s wedding dress, or rather, the one she would have worn had her engagement gone through. But her sisters and maid had transformed it. The lace overdress had been dyed a soft blue, and the gold silk trim on the high collar, shoulders and hem was replaced with silver. The underdress remained snow white, but the cuffs and hem were embroidered with blue forget-me-nots, and on above them on the sleeves were purple and blue songbirds - bluebirds and nightingales. 

Analei hesitantly reached out, worried this was a dream, but she felt the fabric under her fingers, and it was just imperfect enough to make her realize it was real. “But-but how?” 

“Oh, Uncle is so distracted with the negotiations with the du Launcets he was all too eager to leave the women’s work to the women, and Aunt Bethann has been so poorly lately, it’s a relief for me to take it off her hands.” Revka smiled. “Now soon, Lianne will be by with one of her teas, and it’s Jameson on guard tonight - you know he has such a sweet spot for her. I’d almost allow him to make a courting request if I didn’t know that Uncle would never allow it. The tea will have siren’s tear lavender in it, so he’ll be drowsy and susceptible to suggestion. Lianne will tell him we all spoke for a while, then left when you prepared for bed. Coupled with the conversation seal Adria’s placed by the door, he’ll honestly believe I’m speaking to you about a woman’s duties to a husband.”

“And don’t you worry about where your bride will be,” Adria said, standing and dusting off her skirt. “Jakob told her of one of the old mine tunnels that goes from the coast right up near Hightown, and he hired some friends to escort her. When we went to services on Sunday, Mother Dorathea told us she had made it safely to the chantry. Both of them are waiting for us.”

Analei looked at her wrists and raised them up. “But, the cuffs. I can’t even leave my room without someone being alerted.”

Orana reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver key, passing it to Revka who pressed it to the cuffs, making the seam and lock reappear. “Lord Adam would make a killing as a pickpocket in Lowtown, should your marriage truly bring ruin to the family.”

Analei’s eyes welled with tears as the full implications of it all hit her. “If- if we do this, Leliana and I will have to leave Kirkwall. I- I can’t come back. Not until Aristide dies, and maybe even Grandfather.”

“We know,” Orana said, smiling even as her own tears started. “But we’d all rather you be happy far from here than waste away as a du Launcet.”

Revka reached out to cup Analei’s face again. “You know there is no love lost between your father and I, and I’m fairly certain my mother caught the cough just to leave your grandfather. Your aunt Leandra was the perfect Amell, and then she left with her heart in the talons of a Hawke. If I had to pick one of those fates for you, I would rather have you be Leandra than me.”

Analei choked on a sob and threw herself into her mother’s arms, tears streaming down her face. “Thank you. Thank you.”

Revka hugged her tight, then drew back. “Now, we best hurry and get you ready. We only have a small window to get out of here.”

With her mother, sister and maid helping, Analei was soon scrubbed clean, dressed in the beautiful gown, and had her hair pulled back into a fancier version of her usual bun. It was held in place with her favorite hairclip, which had an addition of two feathers attached to it, one blue and one brown with a lavender tip. Adria did her makeup, continuing the color theme, then Revka took off her necklace and hung it around Analei’s neck. Analei almost teared up again seeing it, staving them off when Adria told her to not ruin her hard work. She had crafted it for Revka when she was twelve, testing her transmutation spells. A pendant of an Amell blue sapphire with a center of the soft pale green of her own eyes, on a silver chain. She placed a hand on it, and Revka placed her hand over hers.

“A piece of your family, to remember where you came from,” Revka recited, and reached back to touch the brown feather. “A piece of your spouse, to remember who your life belongs to.” She touched the clip itself. “And a piece of yourself, to remember who you are.”

“But where’s the piece from my friends?” Analei asked. She truly did not have many, most of Kirkwall’s society did not find joy in spending hours studying a topic until exhaustion, and often a tangent she brought up at a party could bring conversation to a halt until someone changed the subject. 

Orana reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small box. “These were my parents’. My father managed to pass them to me before he was killed. I have no interest in marriage, and I have my locket to carry their memory. They’ll have a much better use with you.”

Analei took the box and opened it to show a simple pair of rings, silver with engravings of elven marriage blessings. “Orana…” Analei stood and wrapped the elf in a tight hug. “You’ve always been my closest friend.”

“And you mine.” Orana held the hug for a moment, then stepped back. “I’ll carry them for now, then give them back when it’s time.”

Analei nodded and looked in the mirror when Adria drew her over. Analei almost didn’t recognize herself. She never lacked confidence in her appearance, and was told she was pretty often enough. But looking in the mirror, for once she truly felt beautiful. 

Revka smiled over her shoulder, as if she was reading her thoughts. “It’s love; it makes even the plainest of us beautiful.” She pressed a kiss to Analei’s cheek, then took her traveling cloak from Orana and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Now we best hurry, before Uncle leaves his study for the evening.

They had Analei stand by the bed as they went to the door and called out good nights to each other as Adria pulled the seal from the door and opened it. Analei then rushed over on quiet feet, hood drawn over her head, and walked out between her mother and sister, who she only now realized wore gowns of the same navy as her cloak, and the bag they had packed clothes and some valuables into was dark as well. As promised, Jameson’s eyes were droopy and he paid near no mind to them as Revka told him Analei was preparing for bed and did not wish to be disturbed for any reason. They rushed silently down the hall to the servant’s stair, and out a side entrance to the gardens. A little used gate was in the back corner, near where the stables were. By this gate, Analei found her other siblings waiting.

“We can’t all go to the wedding,” Lianne said. “But we couldn’t let you leave without seeing you off.”

Analei smiled and gave her sister a hug. “Thank you, Lia. Keep making your teas. They’re already being incredibly useful.” She went to Adam and squeezed him tight, even as he initially stiffened before hugging her back. “Don’t drive Mother to drink now, and keep practicing your frost spells.”

“Too late for the former,” he teased, stepping back. “But just wait, I’ll be a master of them when you get back, you’ll see.”

Analei smiled and nodded, hoping she would see that. Then she turned to Jakob, who had his head bowed. “Hey, none of that now,” Analei said, tilting his chin up so he’d look her in the eye, a bit ridiculous since he was a good three inches taller than her. “I do not blame you for any part of this matter.”

“But I was the one to reveal it all to Uncle.” His eyes welled with tears and his lip trembled. 

“And it could just as easily been anyone. He was already getting suspicious, he would have sent Eddard after be one of these days, and we’d still be here.” Analei wiped away the first tear to fall. “You saved Leliana from the hunters, and gave us a chance of a life together. I can never thank you enough for that. So no more tears now, okay?”

Jakob smiled and wiped his eyes, then pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. “I won’t let Uncle keep you away long. I’ll make him let you back, by whatever means necessary.”

“I know you will,” Analei said. When he loosened his hold, she rose up on her toes to press a kiss to his forehead. “Take care of everyone, okay.”

He nodded. “I will.” 

He let her go and stepped back, and the wedding party slipped out through the gate, freshly oiled two days in a row to eliminate any squeaks on the hinges. 

It took a fifteen minute walk through the near deserted streets to reach the chantry, and when they entered it was nearly entirely dark, except for the torches by the doors and three lit candelabras around the alter. Mother Dorathea stood at the alter, speaking with about the last person Analei expected to see. 

“Mikoto?” It was barely more than a whisper, but it carried across the empty chapel and her cousin turned, her pink dress twirling around her ankles. 

“Surprised?” she asked with a smile, her brown Hawke eyes holding the Amell sparkle, and Analei hurried down the aisle to her.

“What are you doing here?” She now noticed the people sitting in the first pew, recognizing them as Mikoto’s elven lover Fenris, and her friends, the guardswoman Aveline and lover Donnic, and Varric Tethras, who was also the author of Analei’s favorite romance series. 

“We were having drinks at the Hanged Man when Jakob came looking for someone to play bodyguard. When he explained what - or rather who - it was for, we offered to do it for the small price of a silver each, and an invitation to the wedding. Jackson and Isabela are with your bride to be. They and I will be her bridal party, and Adria and Orana will be yours.” She smiled wider and picked a bouquet off the altar. “Fenris is musical accompaniment.”

“Under protest, I might add,” Fenris said, but his smile belayed his gruff tone. 

It took all her willpower to not tear up again. Analei had never felt so loved by her family in her life. 

“Since we are all here, shall we get started?” Dorathea asked. “I understand we are on a bit of a schedule tonight.”

Analei nodded, and accepted the bouquet of flowers Mikoto handed her, white roses with a single red one, surrounded by forget-me-nots and lavender. Her party gathered on the right side of the hall, and when Mikoto’s lute started plucking out a wedding march, they started walking out, first Orana, then Adria, and finally Analei on Revka’s arm. 

Analei had purposefully kept her eyes down during the bridesmaid marches, so when she looked up to see Leliana, she couldn’t help a gasp. Her love was wearing a gown of her native Orlais, with a wide collar and short off-the-shoulder sleeves of silver trimmed white silk that covered her busts. The trim continued down the bodice, with a large broach securing a belt of the same under the bust, and the bodice itself was a soft lavender that continued into an overskirt embroidered with bronze to look like feathers, to match the wings on her back, which were glossy and bright. The underskirt was plain white, except for a band on the hem of embroidered lavender and forget-me-nots. In her hand was a matching bouquet to Analei’s own.

When they met at the altar, Revka pressed a light kiss to Analei’s cheek before joining her and Leliana’s hands together. Analei squeezed it as she stared at Leliana for a moment. 

“You’re here.”

Leliana smiled and nodded. “And you’re here.” 

“And since you are both here, let us begin,” Dorathea said, and everyone laughed before she started the ceremony. “In the name of the Maker who brought us this world…”

Afterwards, Analei did not remember much of the ceremony itself. All her thoughts were on the feel of Leliana’s hand in her own, and the fact that they were there, in that moment. 

“May I have the rings?” Dorathea asked, and Orana stepped forward, passing over the rings and taking the bouquets. “Analei, take a ring and repeat after me. With this ring…”

Analei did so, holding it above Leliana’s hand. “With this ring…”

“I give you my heart…”

“I give you my heart…”

“From this day forward…”

“From this day forward…”

“You will never walk alone…”

“You will never walk alone…”

“My arms will be your home.”

“My arms will be your home.” Analei slide the ring on Leliana’s finger, and both gave a gasp as the engravings lit up with a small flash of light. 

“Now Leliana, take a ring and repeat after me. With this ring…”

Leliana repeated the vows, and the same light flashed as it set in place on Analei’s finger. As if on cue, the tears both had been holding back started to fall even as they grinned.

“By the power vested in me by the Maker, Our Lady, and the Chantry, I now pronounce you married. You may kiss the bride.”

Analei and Leliana needed to further encouragement, reaching for each other and meeting their lips in such a sweet kiss, Analei didn’t know how she didn’t die right in that moment. It went on for long enough they could hear a laugh from one of the bridal party. 

“Well now, do you think they’d notice if we just left? Or should we stay so they don’t defile the altar?”

They broke apart then, and Analei saw it was Isabela, for once wearing a skirt that that went past the tops of her boots and didn’t show her hips. “I like to believe I was raised a little better than that, Isabela.” 

The pirate captain just smiled. “You might, but I’d bet your siren wasn’t.” She jerked her thumb to the door. “Come on, your cousin hired a cart from a dwarf and his son to get us to the harbor, but it won’t be waiting forever.”

Analei nodded and turned to her mother, who’s own face was wet with tears. They wrapped each other in a hug, and when they parted, Revka pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Stay safe now, my little bluebird. I’ll be expecting letters.”

Analei nodded. “I will write every week, and send them when I can.” She hugged Adria and kissed her sister’s cheek. “I’m sorry I won’t be here for your wedding.”

Adria smiled and shook her head, her own tears finally falling. “Saemus won’t mind a long engagement. And who knows, maybe Uncle will have a stroke in a week and you’ll be able to come right back.”

Analei gave a small laugh. “One can dream.” She at last turned to Orana. They needed no words, having said all they needed to, and just hugged each other. “I’ll write you as well.”

“Don’t be getting a new best friend now,” Orana teased.

“But don’t you know?” Leliana asked, having finished wishing goodbye to Dorathea and wrapping her arm around Analei’s waist. “You’re supposed to marry your best friend.”

They all laughed, and Orana passed them back their boquets before the party headed to the doors. The cart was a simple goods cart, but the dwarves who owned it had added ribbon to the side in an attempt to cheer it up. “Your carriage awaits, m’ladies.” The father dwarf bowed from the driver’s seat. 

Those bound for the harbor climbed inside, while those who would stay waited on the steps. Analei and Leliana gave one last wave, then turned and tossed the bouquets behind them, not looking back to see Adria and Aveline had caught it. They were facing forward, to their new life together.

[nireleet]

Hi! I didn't get to see Thomas's inktober list 😢 would you happen to have it saved?

yup 

New Inktober for 2019! Once again, I was asked to create a new list of art prompts for October this year! These creations from you guys are ALWAYS so amazing, so I’m excited to bring you a new list! I got so many suggestions from my friends! You can use #TSinktober if you’d like to share your creations! Remember: Even if we’re on Day 31, and you wanna post art based off the Day 1 prompt, you DEFINITELY can! There is no lateness for posting art, because it’s all entirely for fun! Hope you enjoy!! (I’ll be adding the other days soon!) Day 1: In a twist from the past years’ Day 1 prompts, I want to see you take a traditional Halloween monster or character, and draw what they look like Sep. 30th, and then their traditional look when it’s October 1st!  Maybe they don’t get spoopy until October 1st haha. Day 2: Turn fall weather into a character! Could be the human embodiment of Fall, or the spirit responsible for Fall occurring, or something else! Day 3: Turn a famous painting into a spoopy Halloween version! Day 4: Draw a classic still life of items belonging to your favorite character. Let us guess who the items belong to! Day 5: Draw your best friend or yourself (or both) GOIN GHOST. Ya know, that good ole Danny Phantom transformation! Day 6: A Pokémon hanging out with (or running from) the zombified version of itself Day 7: Choose two months, personify them, then draw what their first date would look like Day 8: Sanders Sides characters on their dream vacations! Day 9: A business that a Halloween monster or character would thrive on if they ran it! Day 10: Take any popular author, imagine if they were a superhero, and draw what their comic book cover would look like! Day 11: Portray any Disney princess as the “monster/scary thing” from a horror movie such as The Conjuring, The Nun, etc., either depicting them in a scene from the movie or the poster for the movie! Day 12: Take any two coffee flavors, like Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint, and draw a battle between them, Mortal Kombat style (brew-tality lol) Day 13: Take any Avenger from the MCU, and reimagine them as a Pokemon Gym Master! What would their Pokemon team look like? Day 14: Reimagine a Sanders Sides, Cartoon Therapy, or other original character from our content as a kind of humanoid piece of candy or sweet treat! Day 15: I really enjoyed this prompt from last year, so this year, take any Disney Villain, and use them as the inspiration for a Met Gala outfit! NO DALMATIAN PUPPY FUR ALLOWED, ALL OF YOU CRUELLA FANS. Day 16: Take any traditional Halloween monster/character or any horror movie villain and make… them… CUTE. Now whether that’s adorably cuddly cute or va-va-voom cute is completely up to you! - Erin

Day 17: Take your fave character or OC and reimagine Steampunk versions of them!

Day 18: Take your fave food and create a cartoon character based off of it! It can have its own style, be stylized after an existing cartoon, whatever you wish!

Day 19: Take a quote from a book, song, or movie that particularly inspired you, and make it the main centerpiece of this day’s piece of art! Wherever you’d want to take the art from there is up to you!

Day 20: Here’s a cool challenge for ya! You can draw any Halloween-themed picture you want, BUT It’s all in ONE pen stroke. You can’t take your drawing utensil off the paper!

Day 21: What if anyone else from Halloweentown, other than Jack Skellington, had discovered and fell in love with Christmastown? Would anyone else have tried to dress up as Santa? Would they hatch another plan entirely??

That’s all he has so far

[fairyscribbles]

Pomegranates and Decay (Shh, I’m just braiding your hair, TAO) [Gods!AU]

This is something I’ve been working on since November, and I’ve finally finished it! I have no idea how it got so big tbh ^^’’ I just fell in love with the greek!gods and I will be writing more with them! I hope you enjoy Hades!Tao!

Warning: Multiple mentions of a brutal killing, major character death (you), use of knives (but not in self-harm). If topics like these don’t sit with you, DO NOT READ THIS, PLEASE.

-

You couldn’t have been more confused. A few moments ago, you were walking down the street, minding your business, and then, you felt the soft sway of a boat floating down a body of water.

It felt almost surreal, as if you didn’t have a body, but when you were able to command your eyes to open, you were surprised to find the ceiling starless and dark. It made a bit more sense when your eyes caught the soft echo of water dripping down the walls.

Were you in a cave?

“Where…am I?” you murmured to yourself. You knew something was wrong when you didn’t jump in surprise at the sudden voice, being the scaredy-cat you were.

“Have you heard of the river Styx?” you turned your head to the source of the voice, and found an unnaturally tall figure shrouded in black, steering the gondola.

Of course you had heard of the river Styx. But that would mean…

“So I’m dead?” you said almost jokingly, but when the figure didn’t reply, you took the silence as an affirmative.

There was no way you could’ve been dead, right?

But then, how did you get here? And how did you get into these clothes? Gone were your jeans and pink leather jacket. You were dressed in a pure white gown, pooling all the way down to your ankles. When you ran your hands over it, it felt as if you were touching virgin snow, cool to the touch, feeling as if the dress would crumble away if you grabbed it in a fist.

The torso of the dress however, was striking red. It dripped down from your neckline to your stomach, branching out in fluid patterns that seemed almost impossible to recreate a second time.

Your feet were bare, and your skin did have an unnaturally pale hue, as if someone was left outside in the cold for too long or…

“How did I die?” by now, you weren’t surprised when the ferryman lifted a hand to point at the ceiling, and instead of flesh, you saw the striking white of a bone: nevertheless, you followed where he was pointing to, and you were met with the dramatic scene of your death. Even though the scene was created from fumes that shaped into things oddly similar to human bodies, you could immediately realize that one of the was yourself, walking.

The other hovered behind your specter before it rushed out at you, grabbing you from behind. It took mere seconds to slit your throat with the knife concealed in his jacket sleeve and you were falling, hands uselessly trying to stop the blood flowing down your neck and somehow close up the gaping hole in your throat so you could take another breath.

You watched as you took your last breath on that dirty sidewalk, while the figure loomed above you, grabbed your purse, and ran into nothingness. You watched as the fog image of yourself tried to stop the blood flowing from your open throat, when you ran your hand over the skin of your neck. You could feel the slight lumps of scar tissue.

“I’m dead.” You told to no one, and yet the gondolier still hummed in acknowledgement.

The discovery was more anticlimactic than you thought. So the pattern on your dress…

“Everyone has a different one,” the man said, as if reading your thoughts. A bony finger pointed over to the further away shore, where another woman stood. She wore the same kind of gown you did, but instead of the vivid red all over her torso, she had four pools of the size of coffee saucers on her chest, and two in her legs.

“Shooting. Tried to protect her children.” The hallowed look in her eyes told you she maybe wasn’t successful in that. But then again, your own emotions were fuddled, and you thought there wouldn’t be a scenario that would bring a tear to your eyes.

“Your emotions will come back,” the voice behind you spoke up.

“It takes a while for them to return, as your soul has departed your body.”

“That makes sense,” you replied, staring back at the woman looking longingly at the lime green river. Only now you’ve realized that it’s filled with eyeless faces, mouths opened in what could be yells or begging.

“Her children survived the attack. If they hadn’t, she would be reunited with them. Lord would make it so.”

“And where am I going?”

“To meet the Lord. You died on the anniversary of his queen’s reincarnation, and thus you will take her place by his side.”

“He chose me to be his wife?”

“Tao saw your departure that ripped you from the living. You intrigued him.”

“And what if I don’t want to be his wife?” you asked and you looked onward once the woman disappeared from sight.

“That is up to him to decide. I am taking you to him right now.”

-

The undertaker’s servant took you into the gardens. The flowers were grotesque versions of their earthly selves, their stalks a horrible shade of bleak dark green and the petals an ashen black, blood red, or plum purple. Tao was in the midst of these, tall and stoic in the black robe covering his whole body. His arms were bare, covered only by a sheen, see-through fabric that revealed the black tattoos sliding up and down the firm muscle, accentuating the possible danger they posed.

He wasn’t looking your way, his gaze on the tree in the center of the garden, his feline eyes holding an unexplainable emotion.

“She is here, my Lord,” and with that, the two unreadable orbs turned their attention to you. If you had your feelings back at that moment, you would’ve gasped, because the Lord of the Underworld was one of the most handsome men, in this world or the living. Even through his sharp features, there was an aspect of softness to them, a slight vulnerability of the dark circles under his eyes.

You expected to find a cruel and heartless Lord, but were met with a soul filled with emotions.

He stepped out towards you, reaching an arm out in invitation. When you grabbed it and moved over to him, he offered a slightly wry smile.

“I am so sorry for your loss,” he voiced his condolences silently and you almost laughed. You knew you would’ve heard this phrase sometime in your life, but you never expected to hear it in regard to yourself.

Instead of answering, because you knew you would’ve said something dumb in reply, you shook your head. You will come to mourn your passing.

“I am sure Sooman had already told you…”

“That I am to be your bride, yes?” you supplied after a longer pause from your spouse. The smile Tao offered you almost seem to rival the beauty of the garden.

“If you will have me,” Tao added to your statement, finally drawing the hand he had behind his back into view, barely able to hold the ripe pomegranate fruit that was cut open. The red pieces glittered like gems, the skin straining over the undoubtedly sweet juices inside.

“If you eat this, you agree to become my queen,” Tao told you as you stared down at the fruit.

“And if I don’t?”

“Sooman will take you further into Elysium to live out eternity with the gods.”

That did sound tempting, live out eternity with Gods. You had heard about Elysium during your life as well – the place where pain is unknown and people feast and drink. It goes without question that if you rejected this man, you would move onto eternal happiness. Nobody told you what waited for you here.

And yet as you stared at the man before you, the decision wasn’t as clear as one would think. This man with feline dangerous eyes holding nothing but soft vulnerability, arms designed to kill but yearning to hold…made you change your decision.

And without breaking eye contact, you grabbed a handful of the fruit, and brought it to your lips.

And in that moment, you could feel again.

-

The emotions that returned hit you like a sudden wave. The information about your passing has now been affected by your emotions, and you spent the majority of your time crying in your chambers, attempting to muffle your wails into the pillows.

Your body also seemed to have suffered from your death, judging by the way you seem to react to certain actions.

For example, you can’t stand the realization of someone having a chance of sneaking up behind you. You preferred to find places where you could sit with your back to the wall, and if that wasn’t possible, you turned around more often than hunted prey, making sure nobody dangerous was behind you – it did seem a bit silly, taking into account that you were already dead. This fact still didn’t change anything, and you flinched away from any touch that came from behind and you weren’t aware of it, no matter who was the source.

Not even the emperor of the dead, Tao, had the luxury of you not being affected by his touches.

When your emotions returned and you thought back on your arrangement, fear seeped into every pore of your body, uncomfortably tensing your muscles and keeping you up at night, even though it seemed a bit pointless.

Tao has been nothing but considerate in regards of your trauma, making sure never to come up behind you unannounced or breathing down your neck. What he didn’t let you do, however, is wallow in your chambers for whole eternity. He made sure that you ate enough (pomegranates seemed to be your favorite, and he made sure he had at least a bow every few days ready for you, already cleaned and washed, looking more like rubies than fruit) and that you accompany him on his daily strolls through the garden.

The walks were usually silent, the only sound being the soft footsteps of the two of you, or the occasional soft wail in the distance. Those you tried to ignore.

This time, however, the Lord of Death broke the silence.

“My lady,” he called to catch your attention, hands grasped behind his back.

“Yes, my Lord?” you answered back, already familiar with the protocol Sooman introduced you to.

With being the bride of the King of Death came royal etiquette.

“There is something that has burdened my mind for a while now…” he started off, his body angling slightly towards yours.

“Yes?” you bid him to continue, watching his thoughtful face.

“You are my bride, and yet up until now… I have not learnt the reason of your passing.” If you had any more flowing blood in your veins, it would’ve frozen at that moment. And yet you hoped that he hadn’t noticed.

You kept staring right in front of you, and Tao seemed to be doing the same.

“Are you not capable to find out yourself, my Lord?”

You could already hear Sooman’s groan at your evident breach of etiquette, but you hoped he would be able to forgive your rudeness at the moment.

“I do, but I would like to hear it from you. I…” he paused temporarily, stopping his walk as well.

“If you wish not to tell me now, I respect your decision.” He clicked his tongue in annoyance, but you couldn’t help but be surprised when you realized his annoyance was aimed at himself.

“You have just had your emotions back, of course you don’t want to discuss this…” he turned away from you, evidently disgusted by himself. If you had not known it from his body language, the low but clear “stupid Zitao” was evidence enough.

“I…” your voice stopped him. Turning, the golden orbs bore into yours, almost hanging on your response.

“I was…I was killed.” He didn’t say anything, and you still had the need to correct yourself.

“I mean, of course I was killed, I’m dead, I just…” with a deep sigh, you tried to ward away the tears that were already building up. Licking your front teeth and stepping from one foot to the other, you continued.

“By…by my boyfriend.” You didn’t look at him, so you didn’t know if this piece of information somehow resonated with your husband. If you had expected a dramatic response, you would’ve been disappointed.

“Apparently…he was low on cash, and had debts.” The tears were now freely rolling down your cheeks, but your hands, balled at your sides, didn’t rise to wipe them away.

“And he knew that…t-that I just got a…paycheck.” Your reply was now more a sob than anything else, but you felt that if you told him this, it would help you too, in the end. It was too much of a burden to carry on the too slender shoulders you had.

“What he didn’t know was, that I sent it to my friend. We were to go on vacation together.” You barked out a wet laugh, looking at your hands.

“He killed me for 10$.”

Silence rang through the garden, not even the wind dared to move to disturb the deafening roar of stillness. After a moment, which felt like eternity, soft footsteps nearing you alerted you of the presence of your husband, yet you still dared not to lift your gaze up to meet him.

“It was wrong of me to ask so soon, my lady…” his voice was low, calming your distressed soul.

“…I apologize for prying, and causing you such hurt.”

“___.” For the first time, you looked up and into those deep eyes. Right now, you caused them to have surprise flicker over.

“I’m sorry?”

“When we’re alone like this…” brushing away the tears from your cheeks, you tried to smile at him.

“I’d prefer if you called me by my name, my Lord.” Tao smiled.

“Only if you do so as well, ___.” Your name was delicately pronounced, as if uttering it in the wrong way could cause a catastrophe. You returned the smile gently, rubbing at your tears before stepping away from Tao.

“If you’d excuse me…I’d like to freshen up before our dinner.” Your husband just outstretched his arm in the direction of your chambers, and you followed it with a slight bow.

Only when you were walking away did Tao frown.

“Sooman?” he asked to the darkness, and his servant appeared as if he sat by his feet the whole time.

“Yes, my Lord?”

“I want her killer found. Find him, mess with his head. And when he is at his lowest, let me know.”

“Of course, my Lord.” Sooman disappeared as stealthily as he came, leaving the Lord of the underworld staring broodily at the trees abundant with death fruit.  

-

“___?” hearing your name ripped you from your thoughts, and your head sprang up from where your gaze was focused on the food piling on your plate. Your husband was looking at you with a small smile.

“Is the food to your liking?” immediate guilt filled your entire body. Tao must have noticed that ever since you told him of your death, your well-being seemed to fall behind once more. It was harder to find you roaming your kingdom, as you thought it was better protection to just stay in bed as much as possible.

That has not been the best choice either, as your killer found his way into your dreams as well, tearing you from sleep with terrified screams just as the knife slid across your neck…

And here he is, the Lord of Undeath, trying his best to make you feel good once more, filling the entire dining room table with a vast amount of various meals, some familiar to you from your life before, others completely foreign. Exactly in front of you were various seafood dishes, and even though they looked very appetizing, you shied away from them.

“All of this…” you tried to look for words that could capture how much you appreciated your husband’s effort, but your mind went blank. Were there even words to express your gratitude?

You hoped to show him your thankfulness by eating all of the deliciousness that was in front of you, but your stomach betrayed you. You felt so stuffed after only a few bites, that you worried that eating more could make you feel sick. And so, in fear of ruining your dinner, you stuck to lighter foods and made sure to drink enough water to balance everything out.

“I can’t even start to describe how delicious everything looks, Tao.” You finally settled for an answer, one that seemed to please your husband by the look on his face.

“I am glad to hear that, ___.” He replied, taking another bite from his own meal.

“If I could recommend, the Sea Cucumber is a meal you should try.” You appreciated your husband’s recommendation, but even the name itself stopped you from eating it. You eyed the brown sea cucumber bouncing in sauce with what you hoped was very well masked distain.

“Ah, those…” you smiled, pushing the plate slightly away from you.

“I’m sorry, I…sea food doesn’t sit that well for me. It makes me a bit sick…”

“Oh! I’m…I’m sorry, I did not know of that! If I had known…”

“Oh no, Tao! It’s not that! You like it, so of course it should be here! I mean, I should even learn how to make it, so I can make it for you someday…” your voice trailed off at the sudden domestic offer you made. After thinking about it, it sounded silly. Tao had hordes of servants answering his every whim, of course he must have chefs that were specialized making all of his favorite dishes, and here you are, some nobody, offering to make his dinner.

“I’m…sorry…” you needed to say something into the silence that settled over the dining room.

“What are you apologizing for, ___?” Tao’s low voice was soothing your anxious nerves.

“It just seemed silly…me, cooking for you, the…the God of…”

“Death?” he supplied with a grim chuckle, and if your cheeks could’ve heated with a blush, they would have.

“Well, yes! I mean, I couldn’t even cook an omelet on bad days, and you must have one of the best chefs that walked the earth cooking for you! It’s just…silly, to think…that…ah, you’d want to eat something I prepared.” Tao watched your attempt to explain yourself with a smile.

“Would it be as silly as seeing the God of Death attempt to cook for his distressed bride?” he questioned you with a slight smile, popping a piece of the sea cucumber in his mouth. At his comment, your jaws slacked in awe. Eyes flickered from the food on the table to your husband and back.

“This…you…”

“Not all of it, of course. Only the seafood.” The seafood he so ardently recommended to you, you realized with a pang, and almost frantically, you reached over to put some on your plate. As if sensing you would do that, Tao chuckled, moving the dishes from your vicinity.

“You don’t have to force yourself to eat something you do not want, my queen,” he told you with a soft smile, and if there was any more blood left in your body, you were sure it would rush to your cheeks at this moment.

“Tao, all of this…”

“Is an attempt to apologize for halting your journey to well-being.” He offered to complete the sentence for you, and he covered your hand briefly with his. The touch was electric, and all the nerve endings on the skin of your hand seemed to come alive with his brush of his fingertips over your knuckles.

“This is all very new to you, and I might have asked questions that could’ve been saved for later. My impatience brought you pain, for which I apologize. This is my way of saying I was stupid, and I hope I will never put you in such distress again.”

An emotion you have thought you would never feel in the underworld burst in your chest. The onslaught of admiration and adoration bloomed, spreading warmth over you in lulling waves, waves that brought one of the most loving smiles on your face. A loving smile you presented to your husband.

Words were useless in a situation like this, and with a soft nod of your head, you returned to your dish, a completely new feeling overcoming you and making you enjoy your meal in a way you haven’t before.

-

“Can I ask you a question?” flew from your lips before you were able to stop it, crashing the silent stroll through the kingdom’s gardens. Your husband did not seem to mind your interruption in the slightest, turning to you with a soft smile adorning his features.

“Of course you may, ___. What’s on your mind?”

As you suspected, your following question made the gentle smile slide off his face almost instantly.

“Your servant told me I died on the anniversary of your first wife’s death…” where he would usually bid you to continue, now he stayed silent. You did not let that deter you from finding out more about Tao.

“Is that true?”

Tao looked away from you, staring right ahead. There was a small crease between his eyebrows, the frown only accentuating the handsome somberness of his face. You realized you have opened a can of worms with your question, but it has been burning you from the inside for quite some time now, and you felt it was only fair to know more about your husband as well.

“It is true, ___. You have arrived here on the anniversary of her departure from here…her departure from being by my side.”

His response was fertile ground for new questions to sprout deep within you. Who was she? How did she get to the underworld? And most importantly, why did she leave?

“You must know at least something about her, ___.” Tao’s voice cut through your thoughts. You frowned slightly as you looked at him with a tilted head, confusion blooming across your features.

“Her name was Persephone, and she was the daughter of the Goddess of Harvest.”

You have heard of that myth before. Of the Lord of the Undead stealing Spring’s daughter, causing Demeter so much sorrow, no crops grew while she was with her husband.

But as you’re looking at your husband right now, you cannot imagine him stealing away someone’s daughter, much less raping her and bounding her to his kingdom. Tao seemed to sense the inner turmoil within you, as the corner of his mouth lifted upwards in a smile.

“Humans seemed to have altered the story a bit more to their liking, judging by your look. I have not stolen my bride, nor have I forced myself upon her.” He paused at a sudden realization that came to him, laughing out loud. “Actually, she more or less forced herself on me.”

Raising your brows in question, Tao continued.

“We met at a gathering. As you can imagine, being the God of Death does not make me the most sought out party guest, and so most of the time I was left on my own. I did not mind it though,” he added with a small smile as he saw your deepening frown.

“I was about to leave anyways, when she came by, curiousness in her eyes and fearless step as she neared me. She was the first person that had shown interest in the underworld for a different reason than an extremely morbid one.” He looked over to the vastness of the orchards that spread before you.

"She asked me if there is sunlight in my domain. If I could make flowers grow. Questions that I myself at that time didn’t have an answer for. When I told her just that, she pursed her lips and bowed, turning on her heel and left. And I thought that it would be our last encounter." with another chuckle, Tao looked down at his shoes, shaking his head.

"How wrong I was. It couldn’t have even been a week when Sooman came after me and told me with the biggest confusion on his face that there was some deity there to meet me. Not just somebody, it was her.

She came with arms filled with different types of seeds and a smile that made the absence of the sun redundant in a place like this. Without the slightest fear, Persephone took it upon herself to change the underworld to be as it is now, not only for the sake of ones who come here after death, but also for my sake."

"Nobody cared about me like that before." his words had you gripping his hand tight, as you bid him with a nod of your head to continue.

"Her disappearance from Earth was not ignored. Demeter has scoured every inch of it before she came to realize she forgot to check one last place. But she had been too late. By the time she arrived, the garden was not the only thing that was in full bloom. Persephone and I had married before her mother could oppose, and even through the wrath of the entire Pantheon, we were happy."

"Is this how the seasons were created?" you gently asked when Tao stopped for a moment. He looked over at you, a small smile gracing his features. However, it could not overshadow the flicker of pain that appeared in his eyes.

 "How I wish that were the case, ___. The myth version states that Demeter had been so sad about the marriage that she wept every time Persephone was with me in the underworld, causing the plants to wither and the days to get colder. The moment she would return to the living world, things would go back to normal." Tao gripped your hand tighter, the bitter smile on his face straining.

"How I wish that were true. Persephone...she..." after he cut himself off again, a great sigh left his chest.

"The living, no matter if deity or not, do not belong in the underworld, ___." you returned his tight hold at the words, your breath stuck in your throat.

"Persephone wasn’t used to this world. Wasn’t used to not hearing the birds chirping, or watching the sun rise every morning. Unable to swim in the river and pet the deer. And even if we were able to bloom the orchards that you walk through daily, it was not enough."

"And just like the world withered when Persephone was away, she herself began to wilt while she was by my side. Her skin grew paler, eyes dimmed...strength was leaving her every moment she spent in my domain. And even if she would rejuvenate back when she was with her mother, her stay with me turned from happiness into suffering, not only for her, but for me as well."

You were sure that if they could, Tao’s eyes would weld up with tears at this moment. Your heart clenched by the obvious pain your husband was going through.

"I couldn’t watch her do that to herself anymore. Even though she was stubborn and told me she wouldn’t leave my side, I couldn’t let her do this to herself, and I..."

"I banished her. I forbade her from ever stepping foot into my domain again, and I saved her life."

Everything stilled. Never before had the absence of wind and life been so evident than now. You yourself couldn’t offer a single word, and you just stared at Tao as he very evidently twisted knife he plunged into his own heart millennia ago.

"As she recovered, Persephone tried to rekindle contact with me, but I wouldn’t let her. I knew the moment I would let her speak to me again, the whole resolve of saving her would crumble and that time, the stay in hell would kill her." His hard glare was sent towards the pomegranate trees.

"After a while, she gave up, for which I was glad. I almost got a taste of my own medicine, and my own powers almost took away the one I loved the most. And from that time on, I have decided not to let anyone get so close to me as the daughter of spring did." He glanced over at you, and you could see the gradual return of something warm in his eyes. You didn’t even realize when the two of you stopped walking, only noticing when he bid you to start again.

"Do you still love her?" you blurted out the only thing that you thought of at that moment, and Tao paused in thought.

"No," he decided after a moment. "It has been ages ago, and I have not seen her since. Thinking about it now, it has been better, for the both of us in the end." He looked up at the murky darkness hanging above the two of you, a smile gracing his face.

"The daughter of spring no longer has the heart of the King of Death. But I feel as if there is someone else who might."

-

It was a few days after that fateful dinner when the safety you’ve felt in your husband’s kingdom crashed down like a ceiling, suffocating you under the rubble. The day began normally, with you eating with your husband before parting ways, Tao resuming his duties as the Lord of the underworld, and you resuming your walks around his kingdom, making yourself acquainted with the area.

You never wandered too close to the river. It was something to be expected, as the poisonous hue of green revealed only thousands of tortured souls on their way to eternal torture for the sins they have committed in their past life. Tao revealed to you that only people who have done very bad things during their living days are condemned to take the journey in the river of agony before they are deposited to the only division in Tao’s army you would hope to never meet- the demons of agony. Under their reign, these damned souls are to forever repeat meaningless tasks of immense difficulty and pain, never to be relieved from their new duty.

Understandably, these souls knew their destination, and their faces were morphed into grotesque grimaces of eternal screams, mute pleadings and evident anger, anger directed to all their actions that have brought them to this exact place. This is why none of the souls are pleasing to look at, and the first time you have peered over the edge, you were haunted with bad dreams. Growing tired of all those negative emotions taking control of your body, you made it your task to peer into the river on a daily basis, to get used to the souls that are finally being judged justly for all their crimes.

What you would have never anticipated in a million years, however, was to one day peer over the edge and find your boyfriend’s face in the mass of sinners, wide, crazed eyes peering straight into yours.

And your breathing shallowed as you scrambled away from the edge, not caring about your white silken dress being dragged across the ashen black ground. You could feel your heart being squeezed in your chest by indescribable fear, all your muscles tightened in the flight or fight response that still has not kicked into gear.

The only thing that was set into motion was your stomach, and you barely had enough time to turn your head away and empty your stomach contents all over the dark floor. It almost immediately seeped into the ground, leaving no trace behind of your sickness, only deep inside you as you visibly started to shake.

After all you’ve been through, you thought you were rid of him. After all that pain, after all that recovering, you thought you wouldn’t need to see him ever again. You entertained the only single option of seeing him again after many years of living as the queen of undeath, and by that, you would rise to meet him fearlessly, giving him only slight taste of what he put you through all those years back.

But not now. Not so soon.

And as a sob ripped through your throat, you stood on shaky legs, running to the only place you deemed safe. As you ripped open the doors to your chambers, you saw your husband pacing the room nervously, waiting for your arrival. His presence stopped you in your escape to safety, and you faced him with tears streaming down your face, pinched eyebrows and immense pain and fear in your eyes.

The second Tao saw you, he understood completely.

“He’s here.” You sobbed out as you let go of the door, stepping closer to your husband.

“I know,” he replied, nearing you.

“How do you know?” grabbing onto the arms that were reaching out for you, you couldn’t help but to grasp his forearms in a tighter grip than you should have. Your husband didn’t seem to mind.

“I brought him here.” Came the silent confession from your husband, one that had another sob rip from your body.

“Why?” was your only response, closing your eyes, unable to look at the guilt and pain pooling in Tao’s expression.

“After what he did to you…___, I couldn’t…I couldn’t let him live.” Tao grit through his teeth, his palms turning upwards to grab at your elbows, anchoring you.

“I couldn’t let him do that. I had to…” he cut himself off for a second, looking off to the side with clenched jaws.

“I wiped him off the Earth’s surface myself. Made sure he suffered more than anyone else ever has, before I took him out like the trash he is.” Slowly, giving you every opportunity to move away, his hand reached up to gently cup your face in his palm. You couldn’t help but to nuzzle into the hand of the man who just confessed to killing someone. It was as if that information wasn’t even important to you.

Tao killed. Tao killed for you.

“How…how long will he be here?” you asked after a few moments of silent breathing, trying to get yourself under control.

“He is already with the overseers. He will stay in the pits until I step away from the throne, and he is condemned to forever try to stitch his ripped up throat. His thread will break every time, and he will be forced to start again. He is condemned to relive the pain he has inflicted until I see fit.” The eyes that you’ve known to hold only softness blazed with determination and anger.

And that’s when you for the first time saw the side to Tao that was known to everyone but you. Because at that moment, it wasn’t your husband that stood before you. It was the Undertaker, the Lord of Darkness, the Bringer of Death.

The person who had done all that to protect you.

-

Your recovery from meeting your killer was a slow, yet steady one. Knowing that his place was far away from you, locked in by endless torment, you had the courage to walk outside with your husband as company.

The two of you did not near the river, however. Tao did not ask you to do so, and you both knew why you didn't want to go there.

Tao made sure you are busy enough during the day- showing you the further reaches of his realm, giving you tours of the parts in the palace you have not seen before. He even showed you the Undertakers Library, a vast room filled with countless tomes.

"Where do you think books go after they are burned, ___?" Tao asked you with a risen eyebrow and your jaw slacked in astonishment. Are all the books that were ever burned in here, you thought to yourself as you looked away from your husband and to the vastness of hidden knowledge before you. Are the books from the Tower of Babylon here? The Alexandrian Library? Th-

Your thoughts were interrupted by a snort sounding from your side, and you turned just in time to witness your husband's facade crack as he resolved into giggles.

"Please tell me you didn't believe that, wife," he managed to stutter through his giggles. The only reply he got was a punch to his shoulder.

Your next days were spent either in the library, burrowing through countless books written in forgotten languages (Tao's first kiss he'd ever given you held the gift of knowledge, and as his lips pressed against your forehead you gained the ability to comprehend languages that were not even known to the brightest of scholars) or tending to your own little sapling of a pomegranate tree that you've decided to grow.

That did not prevent your killer from returning to your dreams. Before, you dreamt of him rarely - scarce nights spread over a too long period of time to be very concerned over it, honestly. But now, there were nights when he did not flow down the river into purgatory. There were nights when he stood from his lime green grave, covered with his own blood and lust for it in his eyes as he chased you through your home and killed you on your husband's throne, fury personified as he tore you limb from limb. Other nights, he would grab at your ankle as you were to turn away from him and pull you into the murky green waters of the river Styx, where he would hold you down until your dead lungs filled with the substance, eternally drowning you without giving you the sweet release of death.

Both of these dreams had you waking up with a scream on the tip of your tongue and your husband bursting through your door, eyes bewildered and body ready to protect you from whatever harm that threatened you. He would then gather you in his arms, holding you tight and whispering apologies into your hair until you blacked out from a mixture of exhaustion and fear.

Tao knew he couldn't leave it be like this.  

 -

After one of the more severe nightmares you’ve experienced, the morning was slow. It passed by like molasses, time stretching slowly as you woke your body up, reveling in the feeling of safety your bed finally offered. Was it because of Tao’s lingering scent and the shirt he slipped over your head when yours became too soaked with tears? Even you yourself didn’t know.

What you were sure of however, was that only you and your husband were allowed into your chambers.

And you were pretty sure your husband didn’t bark.

You frowned in confusion, eyes still unwilling to open. The bark sounded again, followed by your husband’s reprimanding shush. It seemed effective, because instead of another bark a whine sounded softly from the still unknown source.

"___?" Your husbands soft voice carried through the morning lull, and you turned your head towards him, eyes still stubbornly resting closed. Instead of replying with words like a human being, you settled for a softer hum. The end of your bed dipped with a weight placed on top of it. At first you thought it was Tao sitting down, but a huff and movement that could in no way come from your husband proved you wrong.

You opened your eyes just in time to be attacked by a flurry of midnight black and fire red, three small tongues and happy paws digging into your chest. Unexpectedly, you flinched away with a forced laugh out of your throat, trying to wake up, sit up and press away the too happy bundle of joy all at the same time.

"T-Tao-! What?" When your back was finally settled against the headboard and your eyes somewhat opened, you were met with a sight that would later on become the source of a smile on your face. Your husband, sitting on the edge of your bed, looking oh so tired but oh so smitten, watching the small puppy attempt to wiggle its way from your arms so it could attack you again with dog kisses.

And the puppy itself. When you read about the hell hound, you had envisioned something so scary, it could stop the hearts of people trying to break into hell. Something so dangerous, only one bite from one head would deem fatal, not even mentioning the other two sets of scary sharp teeth. But as you looked down at the bundle of warmth in your arms, you could not find anything of the sort. The puppy whined silently when you didn’t let him come close, but it was understandable, as you saw that the red stripes that mixed in with the black were made out of molten fire, the fur moving softly in an imitation of lava. Tao must have seen your apprehension because he smiled, scooting up closer to snatch the struggling puppy from your arms, making sure you saw that he grabbed onto the red part of its fur.

"It doesn’t hurt, ___," he reassured you with a smile, settling it down back on your legs.

"But...what is he...how did you get him?"

"I thought that if you had someone to guard you while I have to tend to duties would make you feel better, especially at night. Maybe having Coal with you will make you feel protected when I cannot."

Hearing your husband’s words, you almost teared up, arms limply stretched in front of you so your new puppy could excitedly lick up your forearms before nuzzling into your lap, making sure it was comfortable enough to make a home. You have told your husband of a puppy you owned while you were alive, a rottweiler who made you feel so safe even though you were sure if there was an intruder breaking into your house, they would be only attacked by tens of pounds of excited fluff hoping to meet a new person. You told him how dogs made you feel calm.

"I’m sorry I couldn’t bring him sooner, dear," Tao started to explain himself, deciding to look down at Coal.

"I didn’t want him to part from his mother sooner than he should - Sooman told me it would be better for both of them to stay in contact until the puppy is grown enough to start eating solid food and-" his speech was cut off by you sliding into his lap and engulfing him in an embrace, face hidden in the crook of your neck, his somewhat strained behavior soothed by fingers gliding through his hair. You felt his arms hover above your body for the slightest of moments, unsure, before they gripped at your sides and pulled you closer.

"Thank you," you whispered, able to ignore the hell hound pawing at your thigh with a soft whine. Tao’s muscles visibly relaxed, and the Lord of the Undead rested his head against your shoulder. The sigh that lifted tons off his chest was audible in the silence of your bed chambers.

You wished you could tell him more, but those two simple words carried all that you felt at that moment and more. Thinking back on it, there was anyone even during your living phase so doting and caring as this man you were currently embracing, a person who is depicted everywhere as the personification of evil itself, as someone sinister you needed to watch out for.

That was not your husband. That was not your Tao, able to cover up his emotions so well but still overflowing with them. The pride in his eyes when he looks over his garden, the satisfactory smirk when you compliment the sweetness of fruits he gifts you. The pain when he must receive a soul of a young child, ripped away from life by unspeakable aggression.

"I just want you to feel safe, ___..." he murmured into the crook of your neck, plush lips gently brushing against the part of your body you thought you would never let anyone else get close to.

And even though you didn’t reply by words, you knew he understood as you hugged him a bit closer. Pressed your lips up against the crown of his head in the wordless "I feel safe when I’m with you."

-

You wished you could feel better with Coal by your side, but it seemed that even the small cindered puppy bumbling around your ankles did not lift the uncomfortable feeling of being watched and judged by many eyes in the room.

Tonight was the first official dinner in the underworld with you as Tao's bride. The realm of the underworld was wider than you had thought, and many of the spirits of former nobles flocked to Tao's palace to see the first bride the Undertaker has taken in centuries. The high noses and pinched eyebrows shown that they had high expectations.

What they did not expect in the slightest was an anxious mess as yourself, feet wobbly in the high heels, hands nervously sliding over the soft fabric of your black dress, hair itching in the elaborate hairdo done by the very nice, albeit sorrowful banshee that came to help you prepare just before the event itself.

You wanted to make a good impression. You wanted to be someone your husband could be proud of, someone who he could show off comfortably, a person who could show that the ruler can still make good decisions and therefore rule in the same manner.

It was hard to hold it up when there were so many and so disfigured people in your vicinity. Undeath did not suit many of the nobles that were present, and there was only so much you could ignore. You were quite sure your nervous smile would not fool the old baron with the unhinged jawline that made his speech incomprehensible, if the empty eye sockets that were peering up at you were capable of seeing.

What did not help at all was the fact that you overheard the critique by the countess Bathory, a beautiful yet cruel woman that eyed you with a blood-red gaze.

"Our Lord could choose whichever beauty that has walked the earth, and yet he decided for her?" It was the first reminder for you to straighten your posture and try to appease the guests once more.

It failed once dinner began and food started to be served. You were looking forward to it, as you helped Tao with creating the menu for one of the most important nights in your life after dying. You were glad that the food was being called for and the guests were bid to sit- your feet began to hurt, as you weren't used to wearing them. Letting a deep breath out and leaning down to scratch over Coal one more time, you hoped it would be only smooth sailing since there.

What you completely forgot about was the fact that waiters are quite literally ghosts, and when you saw from your right periphery a pale hand reach over you, hand filled with a plate abundant with your favorite food, your whole body seized up in a panic.

 The yell you let out physically hurt your chest, and you curled into a small ball, knees knocking up against the table and knocking over the closest wine glasses, their red substance seeping into the white sheets. The arm was almost as shocked as you were, because the plate slipped from between the phantasmal fingers, dirtying the pristinely set table. Your hands circled around your neck, protecting it from every possible attack, your scar burning under your fingertips.

And yet the sudden panic left as quick as it came, and all it left behind was the deafening quiet. The numerous judging eyes and eye sockets looking at you.

Your husbands furrowed brows and tight lips. And you couldn't take it anymore.

Standing up, you ignored as you knocked into the table one more time, bowing towards it (Sooman didn't even mention bowing to you, was it a cultural thing in the underworld?) and you rushed from the large dining hall, the clicking of your heels and the pitter-patter of your puppy trailing behind you the only sound you heard up until you got to the door.

The single word heard from the Baroness made the tears of shame overflow.

"Pathetic."

-

Tao's anger vibrated, expanded out of his chest as he tried to calm himself down. He was on edge the whole night, could feel his wife's discomfort and wished he could end it all, but tradition was tradition, and the introduction of his new bride was not only a showcase for the others but also a warning not to mess with the new addition to the palace. If he would not introduce you formally as his consort, some nobles could have gotten it in their heads that you were only a mere concubine to warm his bed before you continued to your eternal destination.

He tried to make it as painless as possible, but the most important ones were the biggest pain in the ass, as always. Ever since he heard the Baroness talk to you with a scoff in her voice and a glance she would reserve only for the lowest of the low, he knew the best way to save you was to start dinner.

What he did not anticipate was your reaction to the food being served. Maybe it was just a buildup from all the stress that you had harbored the past days. Maybe it was the unexpected waiter that spooked you. But he would not expect your reaction in any scenario.

Tao's heart clenched when he saw the pain and embarrassment in your eyes once you realized what had happened. All he wanted to do was rush over and comfort you, but everything about your posture yelled about apprehension of being near people and he already anticipated your escape to your room.

What made him explode, however, was the sneer from the Baroness as she sipped on her wine some more.

"Pathetic." she said.

Pathetic, she called his consort.

Pathetic, she called the only source of happiness Tao had had in millennia.

And the King of the Underworld exploded, dark power radiating from his body and sweeping the table clean. The tattoos on his arms started moving like snakes, coiling around in preparation of attack.

 "Out." he growled, sure that all could hear him in the silence of the hall.

"OUT, I TELL YOU!" and with another swish, he sent a surge of his power over the noble guests, disintegrating them to dust. There would be a moment in the future he might regret his literal outburst, but the only thing he cared about at that moment was to get to you and learn what happened and how he can help to make it all better.

Tao had expected to hear sobs all the way down the hall, and he was left surprised when the hallway leading to your chambers was as dead as a grave. The only sound that he could hear over the thudding heartbeat in his ears were Coal’s soft whines as he tried to get into your chambers. It seemed that the tiny puppy wasn’t quick enough to make it into the room with you. It made his approach to the door that much cautious, as he had no idea what he would encounter behind it. You and the hell hound were most of the time closely together and knowing that you were so distressed that you left him behind was a bad omen.

Taking one more deep breath, he raised his hand, knocking on the wood what he hoped could be interpreted as softly.

There was no reply, and in a moment, he knocked once more.

"___? It's me...can I come in?" Tao spoke up gently. He sighed, stepping that much closer and resting his forehead against the door when he heard your reply.

"I deeply apologize, my Lord, for causing a scene. I...I understand if you wish to return to the guests." He hasn't heard your voice like that in a very long time. The last time you sounded so...small, was when you saw your dead boyfriend in the river.

To learn that all the progress you had gone through was gone with one word made Tao's soul fill with acidic anger.

"They are all gone, ___. I sent them home." it might have been his voice, gone all too hard at the thought of the sneering, decaying baroness, but the hitch in your throat was recognizable anywhere.

"Oh...Oh. I'm...I'm so sorry I ruined dinner, my Lord..."

"Please let me come in, ___." It wasn't usual for the Undertaker, but Tao was ready to beg his way into the room to face you and make sure you were alright.

"I just want to make sure you're okay, I promise. I'll leave once my soul is sated and you wish so, but please...let me make sure you are well."

The other side of the door was silent, contemplation thick in the air. With each passing second Tao's heart was clenched by something ice cold and iron hard, until you made it go away by opening the door.

Looking at you made Tao's heart ache. The smile he came to look forward to on a daily basis, all gone, the proud posture fit for a Queen of Death shriveled into hunched shoulders fitting for prey. And your eyes. Oh, your eyes which were always so honest and open with him, suddenly guarded, as if you were still not sure about letting him in.

Scared, as if you were not sure if he would lay his hand on you in a different way than in comfort.

 "___," passed his lips brokenly, and the hands that were resting against the door fell to his sides, not daring to put any energy into them in fear of his arms surging out and grabbing you in a safe embrace.

"It's okay." were the only words that could come to his mind.

"You did nothing wrong."

Silence.

Silence, before the mask you carefully hid your face behind cracked, and you threw yourself into his arms.

Tao's arms held you tight, grip so strong one might think that you were about to be whisked away from him at any moment. One of his palms trailed upward to cup the back of your head, fingers carding through the carefully prepared curls in comfort, as you wailed into your husband's shirt.

You kept blubbering out apologies, words mumbled and almost incoherent, and Tao kept hushing you, rubbing up and down your back every time the hitch in your throat made you cough. You stood there for what seemed like hours but could have easily been seconds. The adrenaline rush and fear, paired with the relief that your husband was not going to punish you for ruining such a special night left you drained, and it was clear in the way your grip on him loosened, your head lolling over onto his shoulder.

"Are you okay, my love?" Tao whispered quietly, the pet name rolling off his tongue so naturally one might think this was the millionth time he called you so. If there was any more running blood in your veins, you would have blushed as if it's your first time hearing it, rightfully so.

"I'm...I'm so t-tired..." you were barely able to mumble out, and without any hesitation, you husband scooped you up into his arms and brought you over to your bed, laying you gently on the soft surface.

"Should I leave?" he murmured into the sleepy air, and you shook your head with furrowed brows. Your hands had just enough strength to pull at his clothes and into the haven that was your bed. Tao went apprehensively, hoping he was not crossing any boundaries that might shoot up once the two of you wake up.

"Are you sure, ___? I don't want to force you...you need your rest." he cut himself off in the middle, not knowing how to deal with the situation.

"Please, just..." you sighed, burrowing into his chest once you got him where you wanted him.

"I don't sleep well alone. Please, just stay."

Tao relaxed into the bedsheets, kicking off the shoes that were biting into his feet at this point. Curling an arm under you, he scooped you much closer to him, making sure you melded into his side and were able to rest your head on his chest.

Just as you were straying away, Tao started moving again. Having closed your eyes already and being in no mood to open them again, you voiced your dislike in the movement by groaning gently. Your husband shushed you.

"I know, I know, let me just get this one up." and with one arm, he reached over the edge of the bed and returned with a handful of sizzling puppy, who licked at your face twice, just to make sure you were okay. After that, it headed to the end of the bed, twirled around a few times before deciding about the best sleeping place, and dozing off.

It was quiet in the Hold of the Underkeeper.

-

Days passed since the cursed dinner. Tao had forced the bloody baroness back into his hold with her proud head hung in shame, as the murderer of hundreds of young girls bowed and voiced her apology. You knew deep down that it was more of a survival move than her genuine feelings, as Tao would probably have her hung by the entrance to the Keep as warning to others who would insult his wife, but the fact that she did at least that was enough. You wanted to forget the night as quickly as possible.

You also finally opened up to your husband about your chronic fear of somebody standing behind you or appearing there suddenly, without your knowledge. It wasn't the waiter's fault that it did not know of your panic, and that was the reason he escaped punishment. Instead of revenge, you wanted to focus on healing, and you hoped your husband would think the same way.

Tao agreed with you wholeheartedly. He felt bad for all the times he thought his sneaking up upon you was just playful banter of two married people, when it was genuine terror that instilled in you instead of mirth. Holding your hands so gently, he asked if you had any ideas of how to work on your fear.

The only time your whole body wasn't seizing up in fear while someone was behind you was when Tao's arms were wrapped around your waist, brining your back to rest gently against his chest. Tao back hugging you was calming instead of anxiety-inducing.

Ever since then, Tao had made it his personal mission to envelop you in his arms every time he could. In the beginning he would announce his presence, asking you for consent as he uttered "can I hug you?" in the gentlest voice he possessed, gathering you into his embrace only after you allowed him so. The hugs would last anywhere from a minute to the whole night, as the two of you shared lights strokes of the fingertips and gentle nuzzles of the tips of your noses, talking about each other's day.

Gradually, Tao did not have to ask for approval anymore. It took a while, and there were hiccups along the way, but one day, he did not need to let himself be known to you before touching you, and the gentle touch of his fingertips on your sides did not make you jump. Servants and other guests in the Hold still made you queasy and you made sure to keep your eyes on them, but unsuspecting back hugs from your husband became more dear to you each day.

-

When you first woke up and looked out of the window, you thought your eyes were deceiving you. The usual darkness of the underworld was replaced by a whiteness you only remember from the time you were alive. Could it be...?

You gently slid from your husband's arms, grateful that Tao literally slept like the dead. Groaning, he rolled over into the heat you left behind on the bed, before stilling once more. The granite floor was cold under your bare feet, but you did not care in the slightest. You walked, enchanted, to the window and could not believe your eyes.

The underworld changed completely. The darkness and sky-less above were replaced by thick clouds, moving slowly in the breezeless air. From them heavy snowflakes fell, big, fluffy and beautiful in every way, gently landing on the blighted floor and turning it into a sheet of innocence. The air was crisp and there was no sound echoing through the underworld, which meant you could hear the fall of every snowflake.

Impossible. It couldn't have been. How would the clouds find their way into the underworld?

Fingers brushed your hair back gently, making you flinch at the sudden touch.

"Shhh..." Tao's voice was still rough from sleep, the rusty feeling to his voice very welcoming.

"I'm just braiding your hair."

"Tao, this..."

"Hmm..."

"Is this normal? It didn't happen last winter, nor when I came here."

"This is not normal." Tao concluded, gently entwining the strands of your hair with one another.

"Does it mean it's bad?" his chuckle had you calming down.

"No, it's good. It's a gift, of sorts."

"A gift?" Another hum sounded from behind you.

"From the gods." When you felt that he has finished with the braid, you hoped to turn and face him, but Tao had different plans, his arms winding around your waist and brining you flush against him, his chin hooking over your shoulder. The two of you gazed out your realm and you still struggled to understand what your husband was saying.

As you two silently stood in the window, you caught a glimpse of someone walking towards the snow. Uncertain, unstable steps of someone who had never seen snow before. The child approached apprehensively, but when it realized that the snow posed no danger, it ran back from where it came from, returning with two other children, copying his actions from before. When they saw their friend gathering handfuls of snow and throwing it in the air with an airy giggle, they did not hesitate to join him in the fun.

“A new era awaits the Underworld,” Tao has finally spoken with a soft sigh, as he gently turned you to gaze upon you. Your hands reached up to cradle his face almost naturally by now.

“It does?” you asked with a smile, and your husband nodded.

“It has been a while since the Undertaker had his heart stolen.” A chuckle bubbled from your throat and you shook your head at your husband’s teasing tone. Instead of replying, you had chosen to steal something else as well, your lips pressing against Tao’s plush ones in a soft, yet deep kiss.

If anyone had told you that your life would end prematurely, and you would become the Queen of Undeath, you would’ve run from the lunatic. But now, being held in the arms of your Love, all the pain and suffering you had gone through seemed worth it.

And for the first time in eons, twinkling laughter and the feeling of love spread through the Realm of Death.

[eorzeasntm]

ENTM Tumblr Cycle 11

Round Six: Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and Legends from Around the World

Whew, that title is a mouthful, but we wanted to ensure that everyone had a chance to pick a story that had meaning to them.  We had a tale from Japan, legends from England and Nicaragua, and a whole passel of Grimm’s tales to bring us full circle.    The judges and the community all agreed that this week’s best fairy tale cosplay was:

Ni’ko Shae for Puss in Boots

The decision to go with a vertical shot showed off those long kitty legs to perfection, and the choice of an action shot in a dungeon (since this round was free style) let the story fully come to life.  Congratulations!

Our guest judge this week was Momoko, the co-host of ENTM Instagram Cycle 2.  Thanks Momoko!  We did a full on judge swap so you can also check out my critiques for IG Cycle 2, Round Two on our Discord channel!

For the Tumblr models, your critiques for this week are below if you keep on reading.

Judge Momoko

Kota:  I love your glam for this!! It really feels like a Hollywood take on what Little Red Riding hood would wear. It’s also very very easy to tell which fairy tale you’re showcasing, so big props to you!! The apples in the opposite corner to you help to add a couple more pops of red to the overall pic and help balance it.

Yomu: I hadn’t heard of this legend before, so first off, I wanna say thank you for teaching me something!! I thought your use of the Nanamo minion was so incredibly cute and creative!! I think the lighting was just a hair harsh on her, though, and we sort of lost all of the cute pink colors on her, but I also thought how you framed the upper half of the pic with bamboo was both a clever way to stay true to the legend and keep it from having too much empty space!!(It might take me a bit to send them all out today, ‘cause I’m at work, but I promise they’ll be sent today

Haila:  This was such a fun entry!! I’d never heard of La Mocuana and had to read about it, but I loooooove monster girls and creepy folklore in general, so I’m so happy you went with it!! After reading about it, I think you fit the story to a T!! I love the expression and how it’s half-hidden, and the colors/filter really tell that you’re by yourself in a dark cave. I will say that your hair blended in a little too well with the background, but other than that, yours was so creative and fun!!

Peaceful:  How creative!! I never would of thought of doing King Arthur, but you really nailed it!! It’s extremely easy to tell which legend you’re replicating. Your picture’s colors are a little dull and faded, which halfway lends to it, but it also makes it a little muddy. However, I think you adding that soft back lighting over your shoulders easily draws the viewer’s attention back to you, which was really clever!!

Adam:  I think your choice in legend was really interesting!! There’s all sorts of aquatic-based stories, and I feel like Sinbad would be a little more difficult to convey, so props to you for choosing something challenging!! I wish I could’ve seen a more dynamic pose/more of the boat you’re standing on, but the soft muted colors in the background are such a nice combination with the yellow pop of your glam!!

Bria:  Beauty and the Beast is my favorite story!! I really liked your glams and how the colors complimented each other. However, it is a little difficult to tell exactly which fairy tale you’re emulating without the title, and it’s hard to see who the specific model in the picture is. But I also thought that your garden courtyard background was a cute way to imply that you’re at a fairy tale castle!!

Luma: Your choice for your story was way too cute!! I never would’ve thought of doing Jack and the Beanstalk, but I’m so glad that you did!! I think that your choice of environment was super cute, creative, and resourceful!! My biggest thing was that I couldn’t see your face, and your glam colors blended a little too well with your background, but I also liked how unbalanced your picture was; it really helped showcase how giant that beanstalk was!!

Ni’ko- Yours was my most favorite picture!! Your glam was so cute (going for that monotone look to match your hair and tail was a really clever way to make yourself look like a cute tabby), and the boots!! THE BOOTS!! The way that you zoomed out the camera to help elongate your legs was such a clever way to bring focus to the main part of your legend in an almost cartoony way, which I’m a big fan of. I think that your weapon choice and overall color palette is extremely well-done, too!!

Judge Ona

Haila: I learned about this folktale when I took Spanish in High School. Our teacher was pretty twisted, but that’s why everyone loved Senora. I was super excited when Kat told the judges that you did this tale, and genuinely LOVE how you captured it! She hides her face and wanders the forests driven mad by betrayal. If you aren’t the vision of mad, I don’t know what is!

I love the color palette here. Sticking with blues, and only a hint of pinks, you create an eerie vibe. With the filter appearing almost translucent over you, it creates an illusion that you are actually the translucent one.  The glamour choice is phenomenal. In the story it says she is dressed in silks, and this is extraordinarily flowy.

My only real critique is that I cannot see your entire body, and although the filter gives a spooky feel, I wish you could have found a cave entrance or a body of water or something to add to the background. Regardless of this, this shot totally encapsulates La Mocuana, and I am so glad you picked something from Nicaraguan culture.

Ni’ko: If you keep changing Ni’ko’s color I will never know who I am looking at.

However, Ni’ko, I love the choice here! I love how you did a non-human fairytale, where your race could be used to your advantage. I love how you are being showy with your pose, as Puss and Boots most definitely was. Sword up, foot pointed forward toward the front of the image and back hand outstretched as if you’re saying “is that all?”. I also LOVE that your glam looks like the humanoid version of the character we all know; it was an excellent choice to do a big jumpsuit instead of flashy armor.

The lighting is well placed, bringing the viewers eye to your face and the rapier, and the decision to battle such a big enemy was an excellent choice so as its size does not compete with you, because much of it lies just off screen from you.

My only real critique here, is that I wish you maybe had a smirk on your face instead of the blank expression here. A smirk would have conveyed that you are about to kick this monster’s behind, and you are a feline, not a knight. I still love this image and genuinely believe it is one of your strongest yet.

Peaceful: I love your choice of story. Sword in the stone, King Arthur before he was king! It’s a well-known tale, and it’s a strong story to try and cosplay. Unfortunately, you took a big chance and it didn’t quite pan out how maybe you envisioned. However, this image has many strong characteristics, and I would like to go over those for you.

First, your use of this emote or action, shows movement in your character. Bracing yourself to pull the impossible sword from solid stone. You have determination on your face and are focused on the sword. The choice of location lends to the story and is the perfect choice. I would try to avoid the large amount of deadspace in the upper right corner. I know you wanted to get Merlin in the shot, but I think you could have done without him, and closed further in on yourself.

Try next time to place a light on your face instead of the rock in the front, make sure to avoid dead space in the image, change the angle of the image so that its not an upskirt shot which often makes the physics of the clothes act funny, and be mindful of the background (that weird little purple light is very out of place. I think you have some very strong elements, and some weaker ones that you can work on for next week! Remember, you can ask Kat for advice and feedback before submitting.

Yomu: Yomu finds a tiny human in a tree and immediately believes that he may have had too much to drink.

The facial expression had me in tears. You are genuinely freaked out by what you have just found. Your emote here shows excellent action and I can feel the same startling feeling that this woodcutter is feeling! I am pretty sure anyone would feel immediate concern and confusion if they were in this situation.

I love the glamour here, as the story is Japanese in origin, the use of a Japanese style robe helps to place the story’s origin. I am a little concerned about the physics of the robe, however, as it falls slightly unnaturally. The spotlight on your minion is perfect, as the story talks of a shining girl 3 inches tall. Also, excellent choice of filter with particle. I do wish, however, there was a bit more blur to the minion, as this close of a shot lends to distortion and pixelization.

Overall this is a strong image and you do a wonderful job telling the story of the woodcutter. I would loved to have seen more of this story. Try to take into account depth of field, and physics next week. Thank you for also thinking outside of the box and giving us a story from Japan!

Judge Wulf

Bria, you and your costar’s outfits are very well color coordinated! Your location choice is also very appropriate, I feel, since that area of Idylshire gives off a very regal and proper feel. I am a bit concerned that you hair blocks your face! You’re the star of this photo, so make sure you’re the one we see the most of! Always remember: when working with a costar, make sure that they are there to support you and make you look good! That being said, I adore the chemistry between the two of you. Can’t wait to see next week’s shot!

Luma, I admire the lighting in this shot. I am a major fan of bright colors, and you’ve really made the greens, browns, and yellows all come together in this forest scene to make it look both awesome and welcoming all at once. Going with a vertical shot was also a very good choice, I believe, because it makes the “beanstalk” look much more large and imposing, and by contrast you come across much smaller! My main note is this: Since you’re kneeling down and facing away from the camera, you do kind of look a little cloaked in darkness upon first glance. This is a simple fix, though! Just make sure to light up your character a bit more! Once again, I’m really impressed by your concept this week!

Ni’ko, the story of Puss in Boots is one of those that I read over and over again as a kid, and I think you’ve captured a very nice look using the equipment and colors in game! The monster looming over you is also an amazing touch, as it makes you look small, and even more true to the tale! I’m very impressed with your shot this week, but if I had to nitpick, I’d say that it’s only a little off that you aren’t looking at the boss’s face, instead looking through them. Like I said, that’s only a small note though! Very good job this week!

 Peaceful, I instantly knew this was the story of King Arthur! Using iconic imagery to give out key details of what you’re cosplaying in a very important part of any cosplay picture, and I’m glad you’re doing that here! The picture is...very dark though. It may be just my computer monitor, but I find it pretty difficult to see your face or other details about the picture. Could this be an issue with the filter? I’ll tell you where all the darkness does work, though: in the forest behind you. The darkness gives the forest a very spooky vibe, and I’m honestly a little unnerved! For the next week, make sure your character is well lit and visible. Good luck! 

Judge Terrini

Adam: I feel underwhelmed by this shot. You're glamour does nicely call to an Arabic pirate, and there's the boat and water and distant shore but it doesn't really draw on the charm of the Legend of Sinbad. He was one of the early Swashbuckling archetypes and you seem very mellow in this pose. A more dynamic pose and angle would have been nice to see here, something swinging your sword or at least looking away from the camera would have been better to capture the sense of something more. This is a myth, a legend, so you want to capture people's imaginations like the story you're drawing from. Also watch your background composition when you go for something scenic like this. The weather condition colors everything to be rather samey and the sea and sky are both similarly rippled and plain so they come across as uninteresting to the eye. Play with angles and don't be afraid to drop things from your concept for the sake of better composition. Play with it.

Bria: This shot is very playful, and I do like the use of colors (love them blues and purples) as well as the fountain backdrop, but as a depiction of Beauty and the Beast it comes across as a reskin mashup of the Disney movie. It might have been nice if you had your guy wearing an ifrit mask or lion mask or something to up the beast factor, or perhaps went for a different scene from the story. When a competition is fierce, you've gotta push creativity to the limit and really be memorable. 

Haila: I'm not familiar with the fairy tale you're spinning here, but still, I'm entranced. The effects and colors you've chosen with this pose tug at my heart, like you're despairing inside a storm of magic, struggling and pushing onwards. This must certainly have been a moving fable, and your depiction here makes me want to know more. 

Kota: I love the colors captured in this shot, and your glamour is so cute! It's really spot on! Taking the picture by the Apple Trees in North Shroud was great to bring that touch of red into your background as well. The angle of the ground is a bit off-putting and it might be nice to have something more to the image on the ground to enhance the theme with more of a "path". There are some fences in that area too that you might have made use of to that effect. Overall, still a lovely shot.

Judge Nadede

Kota Tumet: This is a pretty good image from you this week. I knew right off the bat that you were Red Riding Hood without looking at the caption, so glamour and your setting did it’s job. I like the lighting that you have and very nice use of depth of field that you have going on there. Your composition I felt was nicely put together as well. I do find myself kinda wishing you were able to incorporate the wolf somewhere within your image as it seems like the only thing missing to make this feel truly complete. So far though, to me, this is your strongest image so far. Keep up the good work.

Yomu Kazul:  I have to admit, yours was one of two stories I actually had to look up and read. After reading “Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” I felt that you did a good job portraying the scene of the little girl popping out from the bamboo. The composition is nicely done and having the “little girl” looking at you helped at least guide my eye up to you and then back to her with you looking right at her. I thought it was a nice touch using Nanamo minion for the little girl instead of a lala as, if I remember reading right, the little girl was just a few inches or so tall when she pops out of the bamboo. So I applaud attention to detail there. My qualm however is when zooming out to get an overall view of the image, your foreground is a bit on the bright side and going back to where your face is in the image, it’s a bit on the dark side. I would suggest try to make the light to where it is a bit brighter towards you and not so bright closer to the audience. Overall, nice work.

Luma Lee:  Luma, while I like the composition of your shot this week, the bottom part where you are at was hard for me to make out. I wouldn’t have thought Jack and the Beanstalk at all just from looking at your image because it was a bit muddled. After reading the description that you had chosen “Jack and the Beanstalk,” it made a bit more sense as to why there is an emphasis on the tree. What I’m having a problem with is that your lighting could use work, especially around your character. With you in the shadows and your outfit is the same color as your background, you blend in a bit too much. I also think a different filter would have worked in your favor as well. So far this is your best shot compositionally for me, just work on the lighting a bit more. Good job.

Adam Evershot:   While this is a nice shot for you Adam, I felt like you could have done more with the story of Sinbad. I find myself wishing that perhaps you could’ve brought in extras to help you with a “crew” of some sort or brought some part of the story to life. I do find the atmospheric lighting of your image nice, I do wish that you could have done a bit more with the lighting on your character to bring you out just a bit more. Just remember when doing a cosplay type shot to find a way to bring out the story of that character more. Overall good work.

[thetygre]

30 Day Monster Challenge 2 - Day #23: Favorite Bad Movie Monster

Alright, so most of these movies aren’t really all that bad; they’re just kind of ‘meh’. But they would have been a lot worse without these cool and/or goofy monsters.

1.       Jabberwocky (Alice in Wonderland 2010)

I am prepared to disclose that Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was not horrible, but 60% of that opinion stems from the Jabberwocky. (The remaining 40%is 30% the other monster designs and 10% lesbian subtext.) The Jabberwocky has always been my favorite part of the Alice mythos (surprise surprise), and not to sound petty, but I have dropped Alice movies just for not including the brilling beast. Burton’s Jabberwocky might not be my favorite, but it has a lot going for it. The way they treat it is basically as Wonderland’s Tarrasque; a living WMD, a legendary kaiju, the ur-monster in a world teeming with dangerous and crazy creatures. The way it wakes up is even a direct nod to Chernabog from Fantasia; they are literally equating this thing to the Devil.

Second off; Christopher Lee.

Finally, when the Jabberwocky meets Alice to fight, he says this thing about meeting his ‘old foe’, ‘the vorpal one’, in battle again. It is made explicitly clear that he is talking about the vorpal blade, not Alice. And that just… I don’t want to say that that changes the entire movie, but yeah, it kind of does. The implications here are that the vorpal blade and the Jabberwocky have fought each other countless time before in the past. The history of Wonderland is just the history of a dragon and a magic sword fighting. Is the vorpal blade sentient? How many times have these two fought? This kind of transforms everything about the setting the movie has established for the last hour and a half. It’s just so filled with so much potential to me.

2.       Torgo (Manos: The Hands of Fate)

Y’know, when you’re in a dark place, you have to find your own light. A source of motivation, something you can cling to to pull you through to the other side. Maybe that’s a dream, a goal at the end of the tunnel, or maybe it’s a hero, someone you can look up to. I’m not saying that Torgo is a hero, but he inspires me. There are weeks at work where I just don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. I come home at night to an empty room and fall asleep alone. It gets hard, is what I’m saying. But you know who never stopped trying, even though he hated his job and was lonely too?

Torgo. That’s who.

Everyday Torgo gets up, throws on his blazer and hat, and he goes out there and busses a haunted motel for a boss he hates. But he does it, every day. And if Torgo can do it, you can too. So you’ve got to get out there and be the best damn lackey you can. You’ve got put in the work to make it to tomorrow. And when the good times roll in and come shining down on you, you take a minute to remember the man who helped you get here. Take a minute to remember Torgo, looking down on you from Cloud No. 9, shedding a tear.

3.       Radu (Seventh Son)

The Last Apprentice series is actually a pretty cool (and grim) series of dark fantasy/horror young adult novels, kind of like junior’s first Solomon Kane. The Seventh Son movie based on the series has piss-all to do with it, and its only redeeming features are some cool monster designs and Jeff Bridges. Of those cool monster designs, the stand-out for me is Radua aka Muslim Dragon Kratos. He’s one of our villain witches chief thugs, and is unnecessarily cool for a side-character. He’s got this whole Nosferatu Zodd code of honor thing, and wields these two chain blades and probably could have been the villain in his own movie.

Now that alone would have been a neat detail, but then he can turn into what I honestly consider one of the more interesting dragons in recent cinema. I talked before about how one archetype of dragons was of being these unholy, scavenger type wilderness monsters, and that’s kind of the vibe I get from Radu’s dragon form. It’s all lanky and feral looking. It has too many limbs, and it walks around like it doesn’t know how. It’s another unnecessarily cool design for such a generic movie, and it’s definitely worth checking out.

4.       Krakensaurus (Jack the Giant Slayer)

I don’t want to be mean and discount Jack the Giant Slayer as ‘discount Ray Harryhausen’, but thems is the breaks, as the saying goes. The movie is kind of charming in how earnestly it plays to being a 1960s fantasy movie, with princesses in pink dresses and warlocks with goatees and a rhyming leprechaun. The movies stop-motion monsters don’t really live up to industry standards, though. But I can’t sit here and lie and say that I don’t have a special fondness for the sea monster at the end. The movie’s penultimate scene sees our heroes trying to escape the warlock’s castle, so the villain summons a two-headed giant (or ettin, if you know your monsters) which looks suspiciously like one of Ray Harryhausen’s cyclopes. Trapped in a sea cave, the rhyming leprechaun trapped in a bottle (roll with it) summons a sea monster to deal with the problem.

Sometimes it’s the little things in life, like watching two weird looking monsters fight to the death. Our sea monster is a blue-green mixture of kraken and allosaurus, and I’m pretty sure its toy had more detailing than the actual moving model. When this guy showed up on the screen, six year old me was hype enough to punch through a wall. I spent the next week drawing pictures of him so I wouldn’t forget him. This movie has 100% more sea monsters and singing leprechauns than The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and that almost makes up for its deficit skeleton warriors.

5.       Queen of the Lair (She Creature 2001)

Stan Winston was on the helm for this little lady’s monster design, and it shows. A mermaid queen, it’s hard to tell if her monster form is her real shape or just something she can morph into. Even her basic mermaid form is pretty interesting; the split tails remind me of sirens or tritons. Her monster shape, though, is pure Stan Winston gold. There’s more than a little bit of the xenomorph queen in there, between the crest and the fangs. Someone threw it into a blender with a sea serpent and a viper fish and what comes out is the most badass mermaid to ever slink across cinema. She rips people’s heads off, her tail is covered with bone spikes, and she can sing a siren song to summon up her mermaid swarm. Oh, and psychic impregnation powers. That part’s kind of important.

6.       She Creature (She Creature 1956)

Aforementioned sea monster queen was part of a series of horror films based on old b-movies, so this is the original She Creature. Even today, this is one of my favorite designs from the 1950s. Paul Blaisdell might just be the king of B-movie monster suits, and belongs up there with Ray Harryhausen in the great monster hall of fame. The she creature looks like the sum product of an orc, a lobster, and a scorpionfish. It’s a shame you only see her in monochrome, because her color scheme is a startling mix of green and pink. What I find most fascinating is the concept that this is supposed to represent some parallel evolutionary stage of humanity. This is supposed to be a different version of Homo sapiens that never left the sea. Stan Winston’s mermaid queen is great, but I would still love to see an updated and more articulate version of this design.

7.       Vampire Spawn (Van Helsing)

This raises so many questions. So the crux of Van Helsing is that Dracula needs Frankenstein’s monster to power a force-field that will allow his swarms of vampire spawn to survive past infancy. I bet you thought vampires reproduced by biting people, right? Well, apparently they also have egg-sacs. Just, massive, Aliens style egg-sacs full of bat/human fetus monsters hungry for blood. It’s so stupid that I love it. These things are horrible and adorable; they remind me of chupacabras. I want one as a familiar, or at least statted up for a tabletop roleplaying game. Just really try to avoid thinking about the whole egg-sacs thing and all the implications that brings to vampire mythology.

8.       Emperor Tyrannus (Attack of the Super Monsters)

I don’t… I don’t think I have the strength to really get into Attack of the Super Monsters. When I watched it, liquor was involved. Describing it reads like a parody of Japanese media that involves anime, men in monster suits, and giant robots meant to sell collectible toys. But it’s real, and the realest shit ever is Emperor Tyrannus. Emperor Tyrannus is literally a giant tyrannosaurus rex who is the evil mastermind of an underground civilization of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs talk, because shut up, and Emperor Tyrannus in particular talks with a villain voice that I just can’t really convey through text. I think the closest I can get is saying that he sounds like someone doing an imitation of Brian Blessed while having a stroke. Emperor Tyrannus shoots laser beams from his eyes that mind control the other dinosaurs into being evil, and watches them fight a hermaphroditic cyborg superhero in a drill/airplane. Look, you need to see this for yourself. I’m not doing this justice. Get your friends, find the DVD, and strap in for a wild ride.

9.       Witch Tree (The Last Witch Hunter)

The Last Witch Hunter is another guilty pleasure move where Vin Diesel brings what I’m pretty sure is one of his D&D characters to a movie and somehow ropes Michael Cain and Elijah Wood into it with him. Our villains are, in a surprising twist, witches that cook up some fairly grotesque magic. One of the creatures meant to act as the witches’ guardians is a magical sentinel, and it just goes so hard and so dark for what amounts to a stick golem. It’s the fine details that make this construct stand out. The extra limbs let it move faster and have extra attacks, the jawbones around the front form a crude mouth, and the branch rib-cage makes it look like something that used to be alive instead of something that was just magically summoned. There’s so much work poured into this one monster, and it’s definitely a treat to see it at the end of the movie. Rethink your golems, kids; treat yourself better.

10.   Giant Leeches (Attack of the Giant Leeches)

I used to be pretty intensely leech-phobic when I was younger (and by younger, I mean a couple of years ago), but even then I knew the giant leeches were lame. Incredibly lame. Like, honestly kind of pathetic. I kind of like them out of a bizarre sense of pity. Giant leeches should scare me, but these guys are just goofy. A leech isn’t a hard design; it’s a tube with a sucker on each end. But I am almost convinced that the person who designed these monsters had never actually seen a leech, or possibly even a worm. But the movie still treats them with all the dignity and awe of the Creature of the Black Lagoon. There are prolonged sequences of these guys swimming underwater, floating around like hungry garbage bags. These things are not, nor were they ever, leeches; they are some kind of aquatic octopus or confused anemone. That’s why they need our love, our protection; because they’re too stupid to survive by themselves.

[tipsycad147]

The six best Tarot decks for beginners

by Michelle Gruben

Picking out a first Tarot deck shouldn’t be a monumental task. And yet, with so many different decks on the market today, lots of beginners are intimidated by the sheer number of options. It’s true that you can never have too many decks. But it’s also true that you have to start somewhere.

I’ve cut through the massive number of Tarot decks to recommend six classic versions that won’t lead you astray. Whether you’re choosing a first deck for yourself or as a gift, one of these decks is sure to be a good fit.

I used three criteria when choosing these top beginner’s decks: First and foremost, I looked for decks that are easy to use for newbies. Tarot is already esoteric—there’s no reason to make it even more cryptic when you’re first learning. Decks that meet this requirement are fully illustrated, with clearly titled cards and a traditional 78-card structure. (More often than not, they’re also based on Rider-Waite, the world’s most enduring deck.) Historic and experimental decks didn’t make the beginner’s list.

Secondly, I looked for decks that have a good range of energy and emotion. Tarot tackles human experiences from the highest highs to the lowest lows. There are fiery cards and watery cards and grand cards and petty cards. Beginners’ decks should reflect this diversity. I’ve avoided including those artistic decks that—while they may useful to more experienced readers—have a same-y quality to their artwork.

Finally, I only chose decks for this list that are currently in print and/or readily available. This is not just so I can sell you a Tarot deck. (Although I’d be happy to!) It’s because choosing a first deck is hard enough without trying to chase down rare or collectible editions.

So here they are—my six picks for a beginner’s Tarot deck. If you found me at my booth and asked me to help you pick a first Tarot deck, chances are you’d walk away with one of these:

The Rider-Waite Tarot

It may be a boring list-leader, but I always recommend the classic Rider-Waite Tarot to beginners. Why? Because over a century after its debut, it still gives readings that are precise, clear and deep. These stark line drawings have a psychic resonance that is simply unmatched by many newer decks.

Another plus? Rider-Waite has formed the basis for the vast majority of illustrated Tarot decks. If you learn Rider-Waite well, switching to another deck later will be a breeze.

My favorite is the Centennial Edition, which is a re-colored version of the classic 1910 deck. It has gentle colors and a fabulous vintage feel.

The Gilded Tarot

Ciro Marchetti’s Gilded Tarot has medieval-inspired characters rendered in a colorful digital style. The whole deck is luminous and lucid. I often recommend it to beginners who prefer a more modern-looking Tarot.

One useful innovation of the Gilded Tarot is its color-coded suit cards. (Blue for Water/Cups, red for Fire/Wands, and so on.) This is a great way for beginners to latch on to the elemental correspondences of the Minor Arcana. It’s also useful in readings, to see at a glance which suit(s) are dominant in a spread.

The Morgan-Greer Tarot

Created in the 1970s, the Morgan-Greer Tarot has colorful, almost cartoony illustrations. But don’t let them fool you—this is a serious deck that works well in the hands of beginners and experts alike. It follows Rider-Waite closely, with only a few departures in the symbolism of the cards.

The close-up, richly colored illustrations lend themselves well to an intuitive reading style. The artwork goes all the way to the edge. The borderless cards seem to interact when read together in a spread.

The absence of full nudity and disturbing imagery makes the Morgan-Greer a good second choice when a Rider-Waite deck may not be appropriate. For this reason, it’s popular with both beginners and professional readers.

The Golden Tarot

The Rider-Waite cast of characters dressed in cloth of gold. Kat’s Black’s Golden Tarot is a digital collage of medieval and Renaissance artwork, recreating all the classic scenes and poses of Tarot. The cards are populated by shining kings and queens, peasants and saints—all sumptuously painted and accented with golden foil. Its deviations are few and judicious. The disembodied hands in the Aces, for example, are replaced in each suit by angels holding the Ace.

The Golden Tarot so heart-meltingly beautiful that it will make beginners want to put in extra hours of practice. While its Christian imagery may be off-putting to some, it is a solid choice for most beginners.

The Sun and Moon Tarot

Both gentle and profound, the Sun and Moon Tarot recreates the cards with evocative pastel drawings. Keywords for the Minor Arcana help clue in beginners without being obtrusive. Astrological, elemental and Hebrew letter correspondences appear on the cards, should you wish to dig a little deeper.

The whole deck has a beachy, playful feel, decorated with rocky landscapes and serene ocean views. The vibe is loving and inclusive. This is a deck for the yoga crowd that doesn’t strip Tarot of its depth or gravity.

The Aquarian Tarot

The Aquarian Tarot is so stylish and timeless—medieval manuscripts and Art Deco and 1960s poster design all put in a blender and whirred into a delicious pulp. If that sounds yummy to you, then this may be your deck.

The Aquarian deck is not for everyone. Some find its watercolor palette too bland, its stylized, ethereal human figures too distant. Some find that it reminds them irredeemably of the patchouli stank of their 70's dorm room.

Still, the Aquarian’s loyal fans have kept it continuously in print for almost 50 years. Many people have told me that it was their first deck, and still their favorite. The Aquarian Tarot is an exceptional reading deck that is aligned with—but never dependent on—the Rider-Waite system of Tarot.

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/the-six-best-tarot-decks-for-beginners

[italicwatches]

Comic Girls - Episode 10

Oh my god I finally have all this healthcare bullshit sorted out and appointments re-made. I can fucking breathe. So what’s happening now? Well, anime, of course. It’s Comic Girls, episode 10! Here we GO!

-We begin with…Those aren’t lilies. Oh shit it’s winter. The Christmas season, even, and Ririka has gotten a Christmas tree for the dorm! And gotten out decorations! Oh my god I’d fight someone for winter chill right now. Meanwhile…Ruki is being sad in the snow, because she dramatically hates Christmas?! Oh no!

-Opening! There’s the lilies.

-So a tired Tsubasa comes padding down the stairs and finds a very well decorated Christmas tree. …What day is it today? The 22nd. Of December. Right, right, December…Haaave you two seen Ruki?

-She’s… been standing dramatically outside of the dorm all morning. And now she’s pacing. It’s kind of weird. So Tsubasa goes out to talk to her and I’m just saying, Ruki gets awfully blushy at Tsubasa calling out to her with “Hey pretty lady”. …Now get back to work. And Ruki has a freakout because yes, ultimately the reason she dislikes Christmas is because it’s a romantic day and she’s an erotic manga artist with no lover. Tsubasa even made a handy graph to show the way these romantic days fuck with Ruki’s motivation.

-See also when she completes a page of her manuscript to prove she’s not all screwed up inside, and yet she gets jealous of her own character.

-Is it weird that the most unbelievable part in all of this is Ruki insisting she wants a boyfriend? And not a small pink moeblob? So Koyume and Kaos try to perk her up and, Koyume’s attempt doesn’t work because you have a solid crush you spend all your time around! And Kaos reminds Ruki of her fan-letters, a perfect motivator to fill her with love! …Except they just remind her that she’s got nobody to be romantic with. Wow this is the worst Tsubasa has ever seen her.

-Okay, new plan! Why don’t they all help Tsubasa on the next chapter of The Dark Hero? Some battle manga will be a great change of pace! …But the chapter she’s working on has the eponymous hero being very cutely tsundere to the princess and Ruki breaks.

-The next day! Ruki has come to Suzu for desperate help, and Suzu is entirely happy to continue to let Ruki cling to her, as they talk about the unusual pressures of erotic and horror manga and the lonely lives they have to lead…Though Suzu is more…Shall we say…Motivated, than Ruki. And finally she leaves, trying to push herself to get back to work…

-When she finds the room empty? And dark? Completely—

-And the lights come on and poppers go off! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ruki! Congratulations on turning six…teen…Wait huddle. She’s only sixteen? She was only fifteen a minute ago? Tsu could have sworn she was around 24. (YOU WENT TO ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL WITH HER.) They even made her a cake with Ririka’s help! And, presents!

-A giant version of her favorite plush, and a massage pillow, and…And Kaos panics because she erred on her gift choice. Calm yourself, Kaos! So what is it? It’s a cosplay outfit of Kaos’s favorite idol who is also a tall, graceful, purple-haired onee-sama type. I suddenly realize this long string of nonsense words is what normal people hear when I talk about anime.

-Also it’s the special Christmas outfit and…Kaos. Kaos please dial it in. But Ruki also soaks up all the praise and attention like a sponge, which Kaos is more than willing to provide.

-Until, finally, it’s…Actually well past Christmas. It’s in fact the end of the year, and everyone’s going back home to celebrate New Years with their family(and give Ririka an actual few days off from the life of a landlady and dorm matron). The good news is that Ruki is pulling back from the depths, but also Kaos realizes she hasn’t told her mom she’s coming back. Oh dear, she should…

-The answering machine gets it and she’s on vacation in Hawaii with her beloved husband and stacks of manga. And looking at her mom, who basically looks like if you put real human legs on our little moeblob…A lot of pieces of how Kaos came to be the sort of person she is suddenly fell into place.

-Of course Kaos has a panic and is off in depression land. Though now everyone’s trying to figure out where they can put a Kaos. Koyume wants to take her home, but Koyume’s family is planning a trip. Ruki would do it, but her house lacks a guest room and her little sister is going through an angry, shouty puberty. …Tsubasa? Not happening. So Kaos decides to just find all of her humanity in her favorite bishoujo figurines. The gang’s all here dot gif

-Fine, FINE, you’re coming with Tsubasa. They get to the train station, and Tsubasa in her warmest cosplay cloak, steps into the bathroom…And out comes an entirely normal looking teenage girl?! TSUBASA IS THAT YOU?! …Speak nothing of what you’re going to see, Kaos. Tell no one anything of this week. That is the price you will pay for room and board.

-Hard cut to…Does Tsubasa live in a castle??? Is she a princess?!

-SHE”S A FUCKING PRINCESS

-ababababa

-With LOVING PARENTS?!!!

-AND EVEN THE STAFF LOVE HER?!

-HOW

-WHY

-WHEN

-WHAT

-WHERE

-WHO

-ABABABABABA

-Yeah Kaos I feel your broken brain. And it turns out that Tsubasa is also a…trained pianist…? Except she’s doing rough. …Tsubasa what’s going on here? And that’s when Ruki races in at FULL FORCE. She got here so intensely that she left tire streaks on the stone walkway from her bike.

-And she’s here to cover for Tsubasa. Which at least means this is Tsubasa’s actual family and she’s not pulling some identity theft. She’s just lying about where she’s going to school and what she’s doing there and she’s forced Ruki to help in the lie. Also Tsubasa has no good photos…But Ruki photoshopped some! YES!

-Oh god why did we let Ruki do the photoshopping

-Also it turns out that Tsubasa is operating under an agreement with her mother to keep her grades up to the tip top and if she was just drawing manga all the time, she’d get dragged back here into the abyss. …Oh. Oh dear. Tsubasa is panicking so bad she turns into a Konosuba character and screenshot found. Click. Her mother is like a great demon lord.

-So it all comes out in Tsubasa’s room, how Tsubasa owes her entire life so far to Ruki and her help was enough to smuggle Tsubasa out of this place and into the dorm but under tons of conditions…RUKI YOU SAVED HER and now she’s all clingy and Kaos please dial in the thirst this is serious.

-Episode 10: It’s Not Fair That Michiru Gets All The Love

-New Year’s day! Tsubasa is in full proper dress and behavior and Kaos doesn’t know what to do. All the proper behavior is coming back out and Kaos is very confused. It’s like the Tsubasa she knows is slipping away! (More that she’s carefully boxed that Tsubasa up and hidden it in the crawlspace.) And Kaos has to draw the true Tsubasa back out of the crawlspace! FOCUS, woman, the fans need their Dark Hero! Also if you don’t draw your manga she’s gonna send this picture of you sleeping cutely to Koyume. NEVERRRRR DELETE DELETE DELETE

-To the girls all getting together at a shrine, with Koyume wishing she could have seen the photo, and Tsubasa being able to loosen up a little here. She’s still all very proper because it’s a New Year’s shrine, but she is able to at least dress like a proper prince instead of a pretty little princess. So with prayers done, it’s time for fortunes…Where Kaos gets literally the worst luck possible. And then her whole day goes wrong at the shrine.

-By the time they’re wrapping up, she’s feeling dead inside, as they decide to fight all this with a good luck charm! Now breathe, breathe! Back to the dorm, where…Is that smoke? OH GOD IS THE DORM ON FIRE?!

-No, Ririka just set up a little campfire out back to do some traditionally roasted sweet potatoes. She does it every year. It’s also the time to do a big cleaning session and gather up all the sketches and storyboards that aren’t worth keeping. Tsubasa is very hesitant to ever give up her sketches to the flames. Ruki, to contrast, shreds her shit the instant her publisher has a copy tied only to her pen name. You never know what could happen. She could get hit by a bus tomorrow, and she needs to be damn sure nobody ever realizes she was drawing porn! Ruki that’s a bit much.

-But then Tsubasa points out that the records of her sending those manuscripts in are going to last forever and a day in corporate vaults. You will never be free!

-And Koyume is willing to burn it all in trade for the sweet potatoes. Also Suzu is here to be spooky. As per usual. And damn, there’s some heavy stuff in those rejects…When Kaos sees a page she can’t bear to burn! You all stay here and save your valuable prizes! She’s going to gather up all of her rejects.

-She…has a lot. And as she starts to pour things in, the girls are looking over what’s still to go in. Oh god this sucks. But they’re also seeing quite a lot of potential in a lot of these. There’s meat here worth coming back to.

-But finally, the sweet potatoes are done! And they’re delicious. And for just a moment, everyone can relax, and put the troubles of the past and future aside…

-Credits!

So that whole Tsubasa part was bananas.

And I did not get nearly as much Rukaos as I was expecting. This is unfortunate. Perhaps we’ll get some next time, in episode ELEVEN of Comic Girls! Wait for it!