#that he’s associated w/ like in general it’s his motif color

[bindeds]

hello pookie i heard you have lucifer head canons😏, can i plz see them 🥺

YES OF COURSE POOKIE!! <3<3<3 LMK IF YOU WANT ANY OTHER CHARACTERS’ HEADCANONS! tryna expand my fandoms as much as possible too so just try your luck if you’d like <33

࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ ᝪ LUCIFER HEADCANONS!

starting off lightly with his obsession with ducks; i personally like to believe that god had his favorite angels (or high ranking ones, aka seraphims, which lucifer is theorized to have been) had each of them make one animal from scratch to place in the garden of eden, and lucifer’s contribution was the ducks. he thought they were adorable!!

i’ve made a post about this before and i’m not sure if this counts as a luci headcanon but i strongly believe lilith was modeled after lucifer. if hazbin decided to go with the popular belief that lucifer was god’s favorite and that lucifer was god’s prettiest angel then it would make sense for god to have one of the first two people to be modeled after him. lilith is associated heavily with the color purple because of the morningstar’s formal family portrait, and lucifer has purple eyelids. lilith also has blonde hair like lucifer and is slicked back in the same exact way, even going as far to have hair curled around her cheeks/jaw like him. the only real difference is that luci has short hair.

lucifer makes himself small on purpose, and for trauma related reasons. before hazbin was created we all would imagine the devil as something big and scary with a demonic voice or as a hot human guy in some other games (ahem obey me) but lucifer in hazbin is the exact opposite. he’s literally smaller than most sinners. it’s worth remembering that lucifer can not only shape shift, but it’s also an essential part to who he is considering that’s how he approached eve, plus the apple motifs. if he can shape shift, he can definitely adjust his own height too. he was also short during his time in heaven and we know this from the first few minutes of the first episode when charlie was introducing the overall premise. the other angels who were talking down to him were visibly bigger than he is. it made me think that maybe because of how belittled he felt when he was in heaven, he had purposely made himself smaller. not to mention, being god’s favorite or the prettiest gets you targets on your back. and it doesn’t help that he has ideas or a mentality that heaven doesn’t like. and his decision to stay small only grew more intense when he found out how people saw him on earth—he didn’t want to be that guy. he absolutely hates the characterization humans have of him because it’s nothing like him. so when people see him and go ‘you’re much shorter in real life’ (alastor) it doesn’t faze him in the slightest. he wants you to react that way. or, he wants you to realize that, ‘huh, the devil is nothing like i thought he was.’ because that’s the truth. he’s not. and the best and most immediate way for people to see that is if he dresses in all white, a color known to signify innocence and purity which is the exact opposite of hell, and if he’s not physically intimidating at all, like if he was small. upon your first glance at him, you’ll already know the devil is not the man you think he is. and he wants everyone to know that.

i have a fic based off of this, but because humans started calling gambling and the games related to gambling ‘the devil’s game’ (though the original game is roulette, people have come to generalize gambling as a whole to be the devil’s game) he never loses when gambling or playing a game related to gambling, even for fun or when there are no stakes involved. never loses in blackjack, poker, roulette, tables games—any game related to gambling, he’ll always win.

i can’t entirely say if lucifer has had sinner friends, but i do believe that he acquired the hyperfixation of the carnival/circus aesthetic from sinners or humans. this is because his outfit was intended to look like AND inspired by a ringmaster’s, and carnivals and circuses was an elaborate concept made by humans. it could also be possible that lucifer was the one that planted that influence in humans, however it was stated that lucifer’s punishment was that he was never to see the good of humanity, only the bad. so i’d like to think a ringmaster or an acrobat or a circus performer in general died, ended up in hell, met lucifer and told lucifer about the circus, and then he got the idea of building luluworld in hell.

alternatively, if it was the other way around, i think that he occasionally gets to experience the world through being summoned. i mean, we’ve all heard of rituals to summon the devil and whatnot, right? i think those do summon him into earth and then instead of showing up he actually just leaves to go explore what’s been happening until he has to go/he feels he’s getting weaker/the people that summoned him ‘close the portal’ etc. and then that’s where he very sneakily, in his own way, introduces the circus concept to humans.

because of his personality, i don’t believe his ring is an indicator of his current marital status. i think lucifer is a sentimental person, and he doesn’t let go of things easily. it’s entirely possible that him and lilith are through, but he just doesn’t want to remove the ring. something we fail to consider is that lucifer isn’t like any other person; if he marries someone, divorce isn’t the same for him and lilith as it is for humans. hell, when they first got together, they were literally the first beings to be genuinely in love with each other. back when the garden of eden was still being inhabited with lilith and adam, the only beings in heaven would have been god and the angels. if lilith didn’t love adam but married and had a kid with luci, that means they were the first ever beings to have ever been in love and the first ones to have had sex (unless for some reason, lilith and adam did it which i highly doubt.) now, all this to say that we may live in a world where people break up or get divorced all the time, but this is reasonably a foreign concept to lucifer because he’s only ever been in heaven, then hell, and even if he observed it in hell it would have been very briefly and from a far, 3rd person perspective. if lilith and him were basically the first people to have felt such intense feelings and closeness to one another, it would make sense that divorce or not, he would keep the ring because it serves as a reminder of a time when he felt the happiest/alive/most himself/free.

lucifer has autism + adhd! now i know this one’s loaded (and ofc i have audhd too) but hear me out; these aren’t listed in any particular order but they’re what comes to me first to last. # ONE : when charlie was talking to him about the hotel for the whole walk till the roof, and then she asked what his thoughts were, he focused on the first thing that came to mind which was something that was right in front of him—the railing. then charlie had to remind him of her initial question. # TWO : he wasn’t paying attention even when he himself was speaking, thus the infamous ‘and now, i am going to fuck you!’ and when charlie corrects him, he goes ‘wait what did i say?’ # THREE : This may just be for ‘comedy’s sake’ but when mimzy first approached him he suddenly switched up from being completely uninterested to suddenly trying to seem interested, his eye even twitching when he turns to her while his smile is visibly awkward. this particular thing reminded me of autistic masking. like. there was something about it that made me relate to it deeply. and then after she’d greeted him he went ‘charmed i’m sure.’ and he looked more relaxed despite looking uncomfortable seconds ago. like he’d gotten ‘comfortable’ with the mask. # FOUR : i feel like i don’t have to mention this but obviously, the hyperfixations with ducks and the circus theme. i don’t think i need to say more because his room literally has tubs and heaps and piles of ducks. that is a full on hyperfixation, no doubt about it. # FIVE : when charlie had asked him to help her get another meeting with heaven, he said no and was very insistent on that. but the moment she’d blended in the invitation of having him over for the purpose of getting him to agree with her, everything else was forgotten. the only thing on his mind was, ‘my daughter wants to see me!’ and it shows with his, ‘WAIT. YOU’RE. INVITING ME OVER?!’ his brain latched onto that immediately, completely forgetting the fact that charlie had only invited him to have him do something he doesn’t want to do. now i have a few more things to support this theory but i feel like this is getting long so lmk if you want an independent post on lucifer’s audhd tendencies in the show!

[luciftixs]

the yi sangela post

I’m having autistic zoomies right now

I want to talk about Yi Sang and Angela because I like them both A Lot and I just think it’s fun to do comparisons. My partner made this lovely checklist with a few similarities I jotted down in a notesapp on my phone before I passed out and I will be cooking a meal thats geared solely to me but ur welcome to try and eat it if u want

Let’s get into it. There is no structure here but maybe we will find it as we go along!

I wanna start w a disclaimer that this is FOR FUN its not actually that serious and ALSO its obviously not a 1-to-1 comparison because these two are also so starkly different in not only their circumstances but also their overall personality when it comes to having deal with said Issues. I feel like tumblr users are more chill these days but after some shit ive seen on projmoon twitter I am covering my bases this is just a Post by a Stranger Online LOL

Let’s take a look at our first point on this silly little chart. That point is:

Bird

Angela’s black dress heavily resembles the feathers of a bird; specifically that of a corvid like a raven or even crow.

Even her head librarian outfit has some bird motifs to it. I’m going to get into corvid symbolism in a second but first

Yi Sang also leans heavily into the bird motifs. His base EGO is named Crow’s Eye View after a poem by the RL Yi Sang, and the narrative draws some inspo from the short story The Wings by the same author.

Wings show up often in some of his EGOS and CGs

Now, it’s not simply generic birds either of them are inspired by; Angela’s black feathers, Yi Sang’s EGO title, they are specifically invoking corvids. Corvidae include many different species of birds, such as magpies and jays, but the most commonly thought of corvids would be the ones with black feathers; ravens and crows. Corvids are incredibly intelligent birds, and they are rich in symbolism and meaning.

Specifically, crows have a heavy association with death and the afterlife. Both Angela and Yi Sang are impacted by heavy losses; Angela is made from a woman who took her own life and is forced to oversee countless loops of people suffering and dying; Yi Sang witnessed his friends being driven apart in a violent manner. His two childhood friends die before him, he wishes he could kill himself and die, and is trapped in a purgatory state with his current coworkers where bloodshed is as common as breathing. Death has marked both of them.

But! That is not the only thing corvids symbolize! In more modern times the birds are said to also symbolize transformation. In a way, that ties into death, as what is death if not the final transformation in life? But neither of their final growths end in their deaths; rather, both learn to find a way to free themselves from the shackles of their past, and to push forward.

THEN WE HAVE

Book as weapon

This one is just silly.

*beats you to death with a book beats you to death with a book beats you to death with a book*

Next point

Narrative haunted by a female figure

This one is in that “not a one-to-one comparison” territory, but it’s still just fun to poke at imo. In Angela’s case, she can never truly escape Carmen’s influence over her. For Yi Sang, Dongbaek is a ghost from his past. Both these women are integral to the overall narrative at hand.

Not only do these women haunt the narrative, but they also mirror the person they haunt. Angela’s desire for life is so strong because, in the end, Carmen wished to live. Dongbaek admired Yi Sang and his dream of flying. She yearned to bloom in a way not dissimilar to a bird spreading it’s wings for the first time. Angela’s Lobcorp design invokes Carmen- her hair color is Carmen’s inverted. She wears the hair time Carmen wore. Dongbaek’s hair has become white from the trauma- the inverse of Yi Sang’s black hair. Yi Sang takes up a Dongbaek identity in a mirror world to further drive home the similarities. These women play a major role in the overall identity of these two characters.

And this is just my brain going “hehe neat” but Carmen’s whole like. Brain stem mimicking a tree and its roots. Dongbaek becoming flowers. Visually very similar vibes.

Onto the next point

Loomed over and controlled by a male figure

This one probably seems second most self explanatory. Ayin meet Gubo Gubo meet Ayin ect.

The deal is simple: you do what we want you to do, and we have employed dubious methods to ensure that you do what we want you to do! Both Ayin and Gubo are self serving when it comes to the end goals. The levels of agency at play here are different; Angela truly had no choice, but Yi Sang’s mental state is not Great and that is being capitalized on him to help perpetuate his isolation and dependency.

Another thing: Ayin and Gubo are just really fucking mean to Angela and Yi Sang. Ayin actively dehumanizes her and neglects her; Gubo verbally and mentally abuses Yi Sang. Fun stuff.

Now, the penultimate point:

Yearning for freedom

This naturally comes with the territory of being a bird. Angela longs to not be confined to a place (Lobcorp or the Library). She wants to experience the world and be free. Yi Sang is similar; that desire to spread his wings and fly. For both to accomplish this, they have a talk with the ‘self’. It’s only by confronting their pasts, and themselves, that they can finally get that push to live life on their own terms.

MY FINAL TALKING POINT

SEXY

Like wow hot a what? And yes I chose fourth match flame because it ties into the whole post like they’re sharing an EGO that’s basically having your hopes burnt to a cinder and also an intense longing for a better life whoa thats crazy

Concluding thoughts

I just like them both a lot. My little caged birds getting out of the cage and mending their broken wings in order to take flight. Very kino. I love them.

If u actually read this thanks ur pog

[george228732]

A little fun fact about my AU here since AU Posting is busy.

You know that in several art pieces, I used Film Tape symbolism? My AU, basically can be interpreted as a theater play, in which the outcome is always a bad ending.

In context, Cosmounse made the script that way, and Fylass wants to rewrite the part of the script that's not written yet, based on countless other scripts he managed to see in back stage (Note, this is not literal, just an interpretation of certain outcomes based on that idea since the AU was partly written with that interpretation in mind, that's why in my fic, the names of the chapters are from other stories or plays).

Which for it, means that Fylass helped in changing the ending, with the help of the others, reason on why some parts of my AU seem to be very fitting in the context of a play. I made jokes about Fylass "Undooming the Doomed narrative" but it's not really that much of a joke, which pretty much implies that if no one had done anything or be made aware of what was happening, my AU would've always ended up in a hypothetical Bad Ending.

Besides the religious take on it that's basically what happened in the Garden of Eden with Fylass being Lucifer, and Adam and Eve being the ones he loves. The Apple is the "Forbidden Knowledge" so in this context is basically The Truth and yet another reason why Fylass' main color is Red.

It kinda goes along with the lines of Fylass hating Magolor! Just that in Magolor's case, He's both Jesus and Judas, but in Fylass' case, God and the Devil are one and the same, since at the end of the day, you can figure out he has both roles. Fylass did bring down the Pardus Clan with him, like how Lucifer brought down Adam and Eve, but also in Popstar he tries to take the role of a messiah figure to save 4 people, also why Crowned Fylass both takes inspiration from the bible and pagan holidays, with the main one being Walpurgisnacht (Witches Night).

Also for more parallels, Walpurgisnacht was a celebration for the person "Saint Walpurga" who seemingly kept the witches away from the masses and healed the sick, not too dissimilar from how Fylass behaves with the Dream Team and Wave Three. And last but not least, it was rumored that Saint Walpurga was a witch herself, and the reason why Fy is a basilisk, which are creatures that are kings of serpents, fire, and usually come from Hell.

Now Niru

Niru, for the ones that don't know, is Void Termina when Kirby was still part of him, being the body that surrounds Void's Soul. He is often associated with Water, but specifically fluids in general, since he's meant to be something that flows as time passes. He gave impurities and some darkness to his creations to truly enforce free will, but overall, he was sad seeing his creations be sad over these things and knowing that if they believe in god, they would be begging for them to cleanse their sorrows, so at one point, he regretted his decision and started to slowly consume those impurities himself, being something like, carry the burden of others upon himself, but eventually this made him lose himself in corruption and became Void Termina.

Before he was sealed though a part that wasn't corrupted by the Darkness was separated from him and became Kirby, while the Darkness that got loose in battle became 0, who can reincarnate constantly thanks to Niru's impurities.

At the end of the AU, both parts reunite, and Kirby swears that he, along with the others will help him carry the burden and cleanse him of his Impurities, something they achieve.

In terms of Motifs, if Fylass' motifs are religious, Niru's are Cosmic.

Normally, when a Star gathers insane amounts of energy, they explode and become supernovas, a thing that parallels Niru but instead of Exploding, he gets consumed by a Black Hole he did himself.

Also the fact that he's based on Owls, being Night Birds, and Lovecraftian Entities, specially Cthulhu, who belong to Cosmic Horror.

He also shares a motif with time and a play along with Fylass and Cosmounse

If Fylass is the Pendulum and the script writer, and Cosmounse is the hands and the Director, Niru is the Hours and the Play itself, or rather, he's the End Roll.

Also he's based on The Happy Prince

[gracebethartacc]

I’ve been seeing ppl when making their HMS designs usually point out design details and I didn’t initially do that w mine when I posted them so uh better late than never ig!

Gonna repost the designs here just for reference: 

Ok on to the notes!:

Heart: 

-circles/round shapes 

-fluffy/poofy hair 

-more casual/comfy clothes (almost like a pajama look?) 

-black as a accent color to act as a call back to that originally being his color 

-lots of heart shapes (the sides of his shoes, shoe laces being loopy rather than the X shape I usually do to make a heart style shape, the tie on his sweatpants etc etc)

-stitches/rag doll aesthetic (nod to the “tore me at the seams” line, also just because I personally associate stitches with hearts?? No reason idk just an unconscious thing ? Maybe it can be seen as a foil to mind being robotic and heart being “soft”? Idk there’s definitely symbolism to it I’m just too stupid to articulate it sorry lol 

-blindfold is expressive/works as an emoter/has sonic eyes logic, just bc I think it’s really fun to draw, he can be cartoony, as a treat.

-eyes start like the others (white w black/dark iris) but after going blind the colors inverse (black with white iris) (OMG LIKE IN FNAF!???!?🤯)

-purple heart shaped pupils 

-wings optional I’m still debating on them BUT I’m definitely making it be so him and mind get a angel and devil on the shoulder theme (plus the added thing about heart playing the victim “perfect little angel who can do no wrong” and how he vilifies and (quite literally in this case) demonizes Mind) 

-bleed from chest

Mind:

-square shapes

-hair slicked back rather than in his face like the others

-collared shirt under sweater to give a more presentable vibe

-platform boots to make him taller/give him the superiority complex (plus they look cool that too lol) 

-necklace is a brain because …you know…. mind (made my designs before the Q&A revealed what the necklace actually was, so jus’ took creative liberty, plus so him being the representation of the mind was more visually shown considering how heavily I plastered hearts and eyes on Heart and Soul lol (I’m just gonna say the irl/drum stick necklace can be part of my CJ/Whole design instead)) 

-YOU UNDERSTAND MECHANICAL HANDS ARE THE RULER OF EVERYTHING ok but seriously: robotic design just in general, I really like his split on the top head I’m proud of that idea lol (actually if it’s not obvious but I tried to give all of them some form of… something going on with their faces!! So hearts stitches minds bolts and souls half and half you get it) 

-blue square pupils, it’s hard to make out unless you zoom in but I give him android style eyes (those lines going from the corners of his pupil to his iris, kinda like how portal does it?? I don’t remember oof but that almost like— camera zooming in kind of look? That, I was going for that)) 

-like heart, his old color (white) acts as an accent color 

-would have bat wings as previously mentioned to insinuate demon motif 

-bleed from head

Soul:

-triangles/sharp/pointed shapes 

-combo of both half and half and gray colors 

-almost like?? Punk style clothing? 

-patches on jacket (a crown, upside down cross, eye, eclipse, trident, and heart respectively) (the cross was semi a nod to hokum all ye faithful just bc I like that cover a lot personally lol) 

-messier hair

-halo intended to resemble rope/noose but idk how obvious I made it idk ??

-shadow half of face to reference the CCCC cover art and their appearance in light/night 

-the extra eyes are optional/at will 

-more a lore thing but I HC the “shadowy form” was originally an at will thing when he became mad, but after some particularly bad day it ends up getting stuck like that

-gets a more biblically accurate angle style appearance (eye motif/body horror/halo etc) Soul is the god to Heart and Minds shoulder angel and devil if you get what I mean (both to nod to the general concept of the soul being rooted heavily in religion as well as two wuv and the soul electric) 

-red ring shaped pupil to insinuate a halo shape

-half and half wings 

-bleed from eye (eyes are the windows to the soul/angle motif/soul always watching and having to keep an eye on H&M) 

Whole: 

Wasn’t going to mention him considering I literally just… drew Chonny from TMR and that’s it lmao?? But eh might as well mention him while I’m here

-regular shaped pupils (static colored)

-tally hall color nail polish (nod to the CCCC cover art)

-hair is more naturally drawn rather than stylized/shaped 

-white sweater to act as an inverse to HMS all having black/dark colored sweaters

-similar shoes to Heart, half and half jacket to match Soul, necklace to match Mind (not in ref but will be added later probably)

Extra/general stuff/small details:

-Their hair frizz bits are all matching their previously mentioned shape language (and lack there of in Whole’s case)

-eyes:

-the before (haha get it) they fully formed/gained consciousness designs keep to same general shape language idea, and gray specifically has a mouth as a nod to how Soul was the first one properly shown/we were shown their lips while the other two still were kept as the white and black heads for a bit before they inevitably got shown properly in TME

-the pre night/light designs I also don’t really feel the need to mention just bc they are pretty straight forward n snagged from TME/just their regular designs but missing the added layers n jackets n stuff ? Plus ig the added detail they are much more humanoid at the start I think is neat :3

uhhhh ig that’s it ?? Yeah sorry idk how to end this post just wanted an excuse to talk about my designs lol 

[milkbreadtoast]

Ask and ye shall receive! I am here to ask you to tell us all about your OCs! What kind of world do they live in? What kind of story do you want to tell with them? Their personalities? Your favorite aspects of each of them? What do you associate with them, like, what thing, when you see it, makes you go "ohhhhh! This reminds me of them!" Please tell us!

OMG.... THANK U FOR ASKING AAAH 🥺🥺🥺 so im going to answer this for the 2 OCs i drew and posted most recently... these guys...

FIRST OF ALL want to start off w a disclaimer that I'm going to talk abt them as if it's like. a story or webtoon or webnovel that im going to make but in reality i think theres a slim chance of me making that a reality even tho i rly want to TT but its still fun to think abt/develop them...

This OC story has a main 4 (2 guys and 2 girls); there's a 💙girl, 💚guy (the 2 protagonists) and ❤️girl and 💜guy (on the opposing/"antagonist" side). This story is actually based off a dream I had back in 2018 LMAO but my subconscious just gave me the very basic concept/vibes (like a prompt basically) and i had to flesh it out from there... also only 3/4 showed up in the dream, the 💜guy I had to make from scratch and he went thru the most changes(+all r still being developed)

-what kind of world do they live in?

So in this universe there's a power system/a small percent of the population has powers... I've just been generically calling them "psychic powers/espers" like in mp100 (超能力/초능력, lit: superpowers) bc i dont have a name for them like "nen" or anything... I'm not going to go into detail of how it works yet but I think it does share some similarities w mp100 (like how some r born w it and others can awaken it thru stress)... Anyway, both 💚 and 💜 are very strong psychics(aka have strong power)... I think all 4 of the main charas have some powers, or at least 3/4 (💙 is also a very strong psychic.) Other than that I guess it takes place in modern day Korea..? Except... I may be Korean American but I know very little about actual Korea/have never lived there, so if I was ever to make this story a reality(again prob neverㅠ), I'd have to do a lot of research and/or have a Korean writing partner/consultant...

-their personalities (v basic intro)

💚guy... His name is Hyojun (lastname tbd) and he's the son of a rly rich family (3/4 mcs are from rich familys...def influenced by ouran smhdsj). Even tho he's from rich society, he doesn't really look or act like it (he's handsome, but has a rough/rowdy look), and really detests this environment and most of the people; finds them suffocating, obnoxious, scummy, Fake, etc. He has a rebellious personality, hates rules and values freedom... He's also really good at and enjoys fighting/sparring. He is a powerful psychic and is also physically strong (knows martial arts + how to fight). (yyh yusuke is def one of his influences heh..) The "hyo" in his name means filial piety/duty... basically a name given with the hope that he'd be an obedient and dutiful son...

His color motif is green💚 and his animal motif is snake🐍 (secondary motif: lizards in general). He's one of the 2 protagonists!! (The other is the 💙girl)

I like the idea of one of the protags having an atypical animal motif that's often associated with evil (or being slimy/conniving etc) like a snake... tried to incorporate this subtly into his design too (slit pupils + cute fang(s)... the fangs give him a cat/dogboy look but it's actually bc snake motif😙)

💜🦋: I kind of designed him to be a foil to hyojun and contrast him in many ways... He's one of the main "antagonists" of the story! (in that he's on the side opposing the "protagonists"... not that he's necessarily "evil"...) He's the heir to a very rich & powerful family, and Unlike the rough and rebellious Hyojun, he's refined, elegant, reserved, calm, polite and gentle. His design is made to look very soft in contrast to Hyojun's sharp edges (literally designed him to contrast hyojun in as many ways as possible lmao🫣). He's also a powerful psychic. He and his family are involved in some shady business behind the scenes... He usually seems kind and gentle, but he's hiding a lot of things behind his smile... He and Hyojun may be opposites in terms of personality, but they may have more similarities than they seem. 👀 I'm being vague but KDJSKDN basically know that he's the smiley faker type... like Clotted Cream Cookie... (clotted actually matched so many of the ideas i had for this OC which I think is 1 reason why I got so attached to him when he came out bdkbdn... his lore is diff but his personality/vibes r p similar + both have parental issues/trauma...)

His color motif is purple💜 (+yellow) and his motif is butterfly🦋!! (/moths? +insects in general) I really love this motif for him bc butterflies have an image of being docile, fragile, gentle and pretty... I love the trope of villains/antagonists with aesthetics/motifs that are soft/pretty/unassuming and atypical of villains... Just like w hyojun having a 🐍 motif as a protagonist... But I also love the butterfly motif because besides being pretty, as insects, there's a somewhat creepy/horror element to them too? I think the duality of butterflies suits the duality of his chara perfectly... And I tried to incorporate the motif into his design thru his spotted eyes... They're normally light on dark and look like sparkly eyeshines, but the colors invert when he's using his powers and become dark spots on light, inspired by spotted butterfly eyes (u can google "butterfly eyes"), creating an entirely different vibe + invoking slight trypophobia (but in the latest/final iteration of his design I simplified the spots to just 3 as to not go overboard)

(Btw I actually wanted all the psychic charas eyes to look diff when using their powers as a cool visual indicator... 💜's are prob the coolest atm but Hyojun💚's eyes also change/invert; they go from black w a light green slit pupil to green with a black slit pupil)

-what kind of story do u want to tell w them?

If I had to describe it, it'd be like a mix of a shounen/action genre piece (action scenes, fighting, facing an evil org, superpowers etc) and at the same time play heavily off of/include a lot of elements/tropes of the shoujo/romance genre??? This won't make sense without more context but... there'd be a lot of insp from/playing off of (and subverting) tropes from shoujo romance manga/webtoons... while at the same time blending it with the action genre... The goal is to draw heavily from both and take these tropes and mash and twist them up and create something new and really fun (and hopefully funny... I def want it to be a comedy kdhfj. But also I want it to include well rounded characters with deep and angsty backstories and relationships... def a lot of overcoming trauma...) Even the makeup of the main 4 mirrors the main character tropes of both the action/shounen and romance/shoujo genres... there's 4 main charas, mirroring the main 4 of some of my fav shounens (mainly YYH and HxH), but they're also evenly split in terms of gender, 2 guys and 2 girls, which mirrors the main cast formula of the romance genre (ex: female lead, male lead, sub male lead, sub female lead/rival)... It's definitely going to have a strong theme of friendship/found family/platonic bonds (as is typical of shounen genre) bc I eat that sht up... It wouldn't be classified as a "romance", but that doesn't mean it won't have romance... just not in the direction one might expect... Idk how much I should say but it'd be sooo hetbait dkbfdjd I love the idea so much... (hetbait but actually gay kshdjdh)

Anyway I want to make a story that'd have readers (like the webtoon commenters i see) confused about what genre it is lmaoo... like is this supposed to be action or romance... and also be like who am i supposed to ship... KFJSKJ (i have my own ships but it'd be fun to see who ppl would ship during the course of it... ppl liking diff ship dynamics... fantasizes abt it being a real thing even tho it prob wont happen lmao)

I need to draw updated art of 💙girl and ❤️girl..!! In the meantime here's some older art of 💙girl(2021-2022) that I apparently never posted... my pookie she is everything to me mfbdn Her name is Seol!

And here's some even older art (2018-2019)!! I've had these charas since 2018 (well... 💜 didnt exist back then... conceptualized in 2019) but I only drew/developed them once in a blue moon bc i usually just draw fanart of my hyperfixations🥹... sorry for neglecting u, ocs...

edit: I realized I forgot a very important piece of info... ages MCNDNB Hyojun and Seol are both 20 (at least for now? it could change) and 💜guy(NEED TO NAME HIM SOON FR) is like 1-2 yrs older. hmm... when i first made them they were my age but now theyre younger lmaoo. Maybe I'll age them up or not but they're all over 18 at least

[kob131]

Weapon Symbolism in V9 E1 (and RWBY in general)

This aspect needs it's own post.

So, it's no secret that RWBY has heavy themes of individuality. The characters are all named after colors due to a war fought over self expression. They wield powers derived from a person's unique soul, based ON said soul. The schools focus on cultivating the individual. Each of the main girl's conflicts are built off their own individual goals and issues. The main bad guys are a force of uniform creatures that, due to their darkness motif, can blend together and lose themselves in the dark. And Atlas' main criticism was it's suppression of the individual.

And nowhere is this more evident than the weapons, which are the purest form of this expression of individuality.

-Cresent Rose- A huge scythe that also doubles as a sniper rifle. While it doesn't seem to fit a girl like Ruby due to the scythe's association with death and the sniper rifle's association with pragmatism- one has to remember that the scythe is also a farming tool, something made to help a farm produce food which they sell to others alongside how a sniper rifle lazer focuses on a single target. Much like Ruby is motivated to help others and focuses on that goal above all else. It's weight also pairs well with Ruby's speed, allowing her to use her momentum to hit above what her weight class would be, much like how Ruby pushes forward the most even as the youngest.

-Myrtenaster- A rapier that primarily uses Dust. A rapier is usually used as shorthand for 'elegant nobility' or 'quick, graceful knight'- both of which apply to Weiss as the heiress to the SDC as well as her goal of redeeming her family by being a Huntress. Dust is obviously symbolic of her connection to her family as well as the privilage that her upbringing granted her. It's versatility also foreshadows Weiss relaxing as a person.

Gambit Shroud- A pistol/shortsword sort of weapon with a ribbon attached. The ambiguity and versatility of Blake's weapon serves as a parallel to Weiss, showing the connection they share through the conflict between the WF and the SDC. The weapon prioritizes quick slashes and shots, showing a kind of weakness in Blake due to her intital cowardice. And the ribbon can also serve as an easy escape alongside maneuverability, another sign of her weakness and her renegade beginnings. But, it can also work as an effective frontal weapon, much like a soldier's side arm or a knight's backup shortsword which shows that Blake can stand her ground.

Ember Celica- shotgun gauntlets. Emphasizes Yang's direct, brawler fighting style as well as her friendly and strong demeanor. However, between the use of the recoil, the close range control of a shotgun and the change in ammunition show that Yang isn't just a dumb brawler. But Yang must remember that she has these options available and it can be easy to default to powerful but simple strikes, showcasing that Yang can lose herself in teh fight.

And Crocea Mors- A simple sword and shield that has been upgraded with both an enchanced broadsword mode and greater shield mode. A simple, classic combination that demonstrates what Jaune wanted to be- the hero, the knight in shining armor. But the simplicity also shows that Jaune can't really be the hero he wanted to be originally- that just isn't who he is. So as he grows as a person, so does the weapon's capabilities. The broadsword shows Jaune's resolve to keep fighting and the shield shows his acceptance of who he is and of Pyrrha's death. Speaking of, the incorporation of Pyrrha's accessories symbolize how Pyrrha has permanently changed Jaune and thus his family.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's discuss where the weapons are at the moment as of V9 E1.

Crescent Rose- Missing with no signs of where it is. Ruby as a person is heavily unstable and unfocused at the moment. There is no clear path for her to focus on nor can she really help anyone at the moment. She's lost who she is.

Ember Celica- Half of it was incorporated into Yang's prothestic arm, which is currently missing, much like how Yang was destabilized by Ruby being targeted and her sacrifice. However, she can still defend herself with teh other half, showing that she is in a better condition than Ruby.

Gambit Shroud and Myrtenaster- Gambit Shroud was missing but found in the same episode in a joke scene and Myrtenaster was always by Weiss' side. While Blake was shaken by Yang's fall, they quickly reunite and was in stable condition along with Weiss. They are the best adjusted among RWBY.

Crocea Mors- Broken by Cinder in the finale of V8 on the part covered in Penny's blood with only the shield intact. If I had to guess- it shows Jaune's broken resolve with the shield acting as the main way he would recover through his memory of Pyrrha.

Just a thought I had looking back.

[afklancelot]

something i really love bout Danielewski's books is the use of color, not only by using it to signify a place/character using a color, but also text related to the place/character being the same color as well.

yeah, that doesn't make sense. elaboration in the Read More, but if ya don't wanna be spoiled on House of Leaves and/or The Familiar, then do not read any further.

Ok so first, House of Leaves. The first thing that comes to mind when I talk about color motifs AND House of Leaves is, obviously, gonna be having the word house be blue.

Out of every instance of the word house showing up in the book, only one instance has the word house be black. thanks to that, the readers start associating the House with the color blue; for example, the blue square framing the long rambling of what the House doesn't have. in general, seeing the word blue in the book makes one think of the house (though are are examples of blue being used that oppose the house). Even the instance of the house being black has the reader associate black with the house and its dark labryinth and ashen hallways.

in addition to blue, red text shows up as well: when it talks about the minotaur. and this isn’t just the word minotaur being red: any text pertaining to it will both be red and crossed out. example below:

like with blue and house, we start associating red with the minotaur thanks to the text about it being red. and so when Johnny tells the story of meeting Johnnie and using the word red to describe her and how unsettling she is, we automatically think of the minotaur. the fact that Johnnie seems to be an aspect of Johnny (almost same name and everything) helps connect the minotaur and Johnny as well; how Johnny starts becoming more obsessive and violent, culminating on the beatdown of Gdansk man.

there is one more colored text that is important in House of Leaves: purple. this colored text only appears three times, and the first two are within the cover and the very first few pages: A Novel and First Edition (the latter of which is crossed out). unlike the former two colored text, we are unsure what the color purple has to do with the book. by the time we get to the last instance of purple text, which is also near the last of Johnny's sections, we understand: Johnny seems to associate the color purple with his mother Pelafina, best seen when he sees purple flowers and starts to hyperventilate (according to his mother, she tried to strangle Johnny as a child). this is confirmed when Pelafina and her letters note that she had long purple nails when she was first admitted (this was when she describes the strangling). of course, with the first two instances of purple text, the theory that it was Pelafina that wrote House of Leaves, but i aint here to theorypost.

Now onto one of my favorite book series: The Familiar. notably, unlike House of Leaves, the use of colored text is benign. the word familiar is allways colored pink, whether or not it's part of a bigger word (familiarity) or being used in different contexts (the title pertains to a familiar a witch has, but in the series it's used as the adjective). notably there ARE some instances of the word house being blue as well, but there are much fewer compared to HoL.

What TF DOES have though is interesting. see, there’s nine total narrators in this book, which is a lot and kinda makes it hard to keep track of their own personal stories (only three of them actually intersect on a daily basis). to compensate for this, each of the narrators’ sections have a colored tag, pictured badly below:

can’t tell if picture bad bc it just looks better when reading it or bc ive had the books for about 2 years, but as you can see, there are colored tags, each pertaining to a specific narrator. when the colored tag changed to another on the next page, you know you’ve switched to another section w a new narrator.

for example, Xanther has a pink tag, Luther has a black tag, jingjing has a blue tag, and so on so forth. Xanther specifically is important: since both the word familiar and Xanther are associated with pink, that signifies to the reader that Xanther is important, and this is correct as she’s the central protagonist to the main storyline.

this carries on into mentions of colors in the story, perhaps even moreso compared to HoL. whenever a narrator's color shows up in another narrator's section, we automatically think about the former narrator and any possible connections to the latter. for example, Xanther is often described with clothes of both pink and black, the latter color making us think of Luther and the fact they seem to foil each other (not to mention Xanther has a black banner underneath; more on that on another post). conversely, in the first volume Luther ends up with a pink umbrella, making us think about Xanther (ironically enough, this is when Luther says "You think a color's gonna tell me who I am?" which is, well, wrong).

idk how to end this beyond the fact I wish colored text would be used more in other novels, no matter the genre it's just realllly good.

[applestorms]

ooo wait i love that interpretation, BGD as both dirk and jake’s potential for (morally good?) power is great actually. also, big Agree about jake’s intelligence being hidden, the interpretation of the kids’ fetch modus being a representation of how they think fits that idea too (jake’s being too large to even fit on screen -> his intelligence being kinda unknowable even to him). pretty sure it’s also pretty explicitly referenced in BGD’s intro following that long ass conversation between 13yo dirkjake (“GT: I have no business knowing those things.” pg.4875). ok now for this one:

OHOHOH. okay very interested in hearing your elaboration, but my understanding of abraxas is mostly limited to the way they’re referenced in the hermann hesse novel demian (and also all the explanations of gnosticism given in those optimistic duelist lore videos i obsessively binged as a teenager, epic). for denizens specifically though, we’re mostly limited in canon to john and caliborn (and i guess roxy?) for more extensive looks at the denizens besides basic visuals & names. so john does his whole oil quest with typheus (and is killed early on by him thanks to terezi) and caliborn gets the house juju from beating yaldabaoth, both incredibly significant moments for the Alpha Timeline™️ of homestuck.

we get very little information in hs canon about abraxas as a denizen, only really knowing that they’re jake’s because of the web browser thing (and also maybe karkat? forget where the evidence for that comes from). outside of the text though, abraxas is stupidly relevant when it comes to the whole duality motif that surrounds the cherubs, and many other key themes/visuals in homestuck. carl jung calls abraxas a god both higher than and a combination of the christian god and devil- pistorius also says this when teaching emil sinclair about abraxas in demian, i believe- essentially the ultimate evil and ultimate good combined. the appeal of abraxas to emil sinclair’s study is this specific duality, something he struggles with throughout his life from very early on with the worlds of light (family, religion, safety) and dark (danger, social taboos) he describes from his childhood. in demian, pistorius is basically emil’s transitional mentor at a time when max demian himself is not present, so this teaching of abraxas is quite significant. it’s actually really interesting then if abraxas is in fact karkat’s denizen too, given that both jake and karkat have a lot of jesus imagery associated with them w/ the hope angels/golgothas & sufferer respectively; abraxas is kind of blasphemous w/ their whole God&Satan thing when it comes to christianity.

jake and karkat in general have a lot of connections to the cherubs, actually. karkat is presumably a lime blood but mutated to bright red (calliope & caliborn’s blood colors), his gray text is right in the middle of callie and caliborn’s, and his struggle between passivity (more natural to him w/ his blood aspect) and violence (the Alternian standard, thanks to doc scratch). jake’s whole intro page is basically a hehe wink tease with how much lord english shit surrounds him, and he is later explained to have direct influence on lord english’s attire and, yeah, name.

the whole point of a denizen is that they can be either defeated or worked with, so the fact that karkat and jake both have abraxas, the ultimate symbol of extreme duality, as theirs is. PRETTY MEANINGFUL, i mean you can basically interpret that as jake and karkat are the best subjects to defeat the cherubs right?? which makes sense, especially when considering their strengths in relation to the meat/candy distinction of the epilogues. if you don’t like the pumpkin route thing and want alternatives to both meat & candy, karkat’s aspect being blood and all about relationships, with his biggest strength during the troll’s session being his ability to keep everyone working together, is a good alternative to the shitshow of compulsively heteronormative relationships in candy. and in terms of meat, with jake…..

yeah no, the evidence in favor of ultimate jake just keeps stacking up, jesus fuck lol.

clawed my way through (some of) the epilogues and hs^2 again for dirkjake crumbs and i think there is a Genuine place for ultimate jake to fit into canon (or at the very least, lord jake english) since meat timeline jake never actually shows up visually in hs^2 and his final appearance in that timeline (minus a phone call or something w/ roxy? or was it kanaya fuck) is giving ult. dirk his spaceship and then proclaiming his undying love while desperately trying to get dirk to let him join him, to which dirk responds that he’ll “never let [jake] break [his] heart again” (ch39). agony.

two interesting things about the end of his arc in meat actually: for one thing, it’s kinda implied that along with giving dirk a spaceship, he also gave dave/karkat/roxy/kanaya/etc a spaceship to chase after him, so he’s at least taken some action to try to stop him. again though, we never see him after that point so like. the idea that he could just hope himself into becoming an ultimate self in the background is actually kind of a possibility?? like while the others try to chase dirk down, jake is figuring out how to brute force himself into ascension as a backup plan. second thing, dirk is very snarky in the narration about the fact that this dramatic goodbye he’s giving jake is the last time he’ll ever get to see him (jake see dirk, i mean) but ult. dirk also seems to lack power against alt. calliope when they fight over the narrative so jake ascending would actually pose a serious threat and might be able to override that, assuming dirk’s power over the narrative extends that far in the first place (thinking about that post talking about how narration is also a reflection of characters’ thoughts…)

candy timeline jake is also pretty interesting since he very notably starts being advised by BGD to be a kind of spy on the inside against jane’s. whole thing in that timeline. i actually completely cannot remember what jane does in the meat timeline, i think also some presidency bullshit, right?? that’s what the davekat thing was about??? but anyway BGD sounds pretty normal in all his dialogue, or normal for BGD at least, and is aware of both the game over timeline and ult. dirk’s bullshit enough to make fun of it so. idk maybe i’m just misunderstanding how ultimate selves work, but the fact that BGD wasn’t really “integrated” into ult. dirk feels significant to me, especially considering the fact that we can see caliborn/LE’s influence on ult. dirk so much (his narration in ch39 gives AR too, frankly, like the epilogues are obvs way more openly horny than hs proper but AR was always kinda like that too, especially about jake). hs^2 also ends super abruptly with some lore shit i skimmed half heartedly between calliope, roxy, and john again talking about his initial decision between candy and meat. that whole conversation pretty deliberately frames the decision between meat and candy as being parallel to terezi’s coin flip about whether or not to kill vriska, and roxycallie even tell john straight up that he needs to get vriska again to fix the story, perhaps assuming that’ll work again since it did when he was retconning the timeline? but imo, though maybe i’m biased cause i didn’t really review what vriska does post-canon again, it seems more fitting to me that jake would be the one to fix the bullshit timelines, considering 1. dirk is the one going bananas out of his fucking mind w/ control of the narrative, 2. thematically, pumpkins are the most logical, healthy alternative to meat and candy, fitting since caliborn explicitly aligns dirk and jake’s color scheme with them in the smut-drawing conversation and since (in the same breath) he establishes that he hates them and prefers meat/candy. but that’s getting into sherlock secret final episode levels of conspiracy, and i’m not sure i’m ready for that one

[nyandereneko]

Feeling emo about my two green boyfriends I’m gonna have to own up about eventually because they’re my most significant/prominent f/os right now and all my brain cells and creative power are just going straight into anything and everything to do with them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[sodistinctlyhuman]

13, 15, 34 for the SAYER ask game

oh, thank you!!! ^^ i like these a lot!

13. You have to be roommates with one of the main characters - who do you pick?

okay i am a little scatterbrained and disorganized and for this reason i almost want to say SAYER, because i think the passive aggression would force me to get my act together, but also because i feel it would be a pretty calm scenario once SAYER sasses me into better organizational habits. it would prob use me as a sounding board early in the morning when im half-asleep over a cup of coffee and then we would just go our separate ways for the day and i think thats fine. sayer talks a Lot though and i think seeks out the audience subconsciously so its a good thing i dont mind

but for less stress i think Brady because then we have tired coffee drinker solidarity and brady would be amenable enough to head into town and pick up the good cough drops if im ever, like, dying. i think that one would be a markedly warmer setup. brady could be persuaded to binge x files w me i think. i would bring him snacks when he is working on reports. symbiosis

its a coin toss

15. Which of the main characters do you trust to do your makeup?

....... caulfield? feel like he's got an eye for coordinating colors and his pride won't let him get away with anything but perfection. like he could do it but i prob would ask him to unless i was desperate. excellent work but at what emotional cost. 6/10?

brady's blending is smudge-ridden and cakey although he did try and he feels kinda bad, 3/10 for effort

mayyyybe hale, actually. he wouldn't do a great job but he would be very gentle about it, 6.3/10

34. Are there any things that aren't related to the podcast at all but that you still associate with it for one reason or another?

definitely! i really like bee motifs bc of the recurring No Bees on Typhon thing. i think abt it when i see or work with speakers and subwoofers too, bc i like to listen to the podcast on my setup in my room and you can feel it in your bones whenever sayer speaks. uhh corporate aesthetics and language in general bring to mind aerolith! also the colors red-black-white :) oh, and the moon. stargazing in general. birdsong

also just media that is even remotely about artificial intelligence because sayer is the quintessential example of AI and philosophy !

[ferusaurelius]

Nihlus Fic Headcanons

My latest fic, The husbandry of victory is blood (on AO3), is basically a Nihlus Kryik and Mass Effect mercenary/batarian culture headcanon backstory where @expertmakodriver reacted by asking me to ... please translate w/e I was on about.

So here it is! The English translation of my Nihlus Kryik worldbuilding art project.

In reality, this type of character sketch is something I would normally keep private. But since we need more Nihlus content, both it and the headcanon basis are all public and free to use and/or transform as you see fit without attribution.

Please, I’m begging anyone who might want to use any of these ideas in whole or in part: write it and save me from having to do it myself. You do not need to credit me, but I would appreciate a link to your work so I can promote it! :)

Tfw you actually need to annotate your own fic...

Long post - everything is under the cut!

Organized by the order each element is referenced in the fic, with the divided sections labeled as [NUMBER] on the left.

Edited 5/28/2021 because I forgot some things.

[Title] “The husbandry of victory is blood” - Taken from “Sparta Says No” by A.E. Stallings. I actually thought about using this as an alternative title for another fic, but I figured this background sketch for Nihlus more aligned with the themes. I strongly suggest you go and read the poem without taking my word for the following interpretation: the contrast between growth and destruction, and civilization built through conquest or through agriculture. I enjoy the high-level commentary on society. The metaphorical encounter between farming and war is something I wanted to bring to my work, and I wanted the title to color the tone of the epigraph from Virgil’s Georgics. On a more personal level -- my grandfather joined the military in part to seek out opportunities he wouldn’t have had if he’d stayed on a farm, and I decided to draw on that experience for Nihlus.

[Epigraph] - Virgil, Georgics Book I (tr. H. R. Fairclough) - I picked a public domain translation of the poem and went hunting around for a line that had juxtaposed farming and war imagery. It’s a fairly common classical motif! Wars often stopped and started based on the seasonal harvest and the necessity of feeding the community and supplying the troops. You can’t fight a war and gather in wheat at the same time. Digging up the weapons pf the dead in farm fields is a powerful image. My take on Nihlus draws on the tension between fighting and negotiation that I also connect to the symbolic opposition between agriculture and warfare. The Georgics are also just really neat.

[1] Half-face markings - I could write a whole headcanon post on turian colony markings and how mercenary modifications fit in with them (and I will at some point). You’ll see in this fic that I regularly use terms for how much ‘real estate’ the colony markings cover. My HC is that there are variations of colony markings that can be worn as minimalist (smallest critical details), half-face (upper or lower, may include simple full-face designs without a lot of paint), full-face (both, usually more elaborate), and full-crest (what it sounds like on the tin). These are all just different styles and up to personal preference, though there are a few cultural connotations or stereotypes about people who choose which version. Plus I felt really bad for people who might have super-complicated full versions of markings and wanted to give them something more aesthetically lightweight that would have the same meaning. 

[1] Batarian trader patois - An evolving lingua franca with many dialects. Nihlus is uncannily fluent at the one spoken in the Terminus, which is mutually intelligible with the dialect spoken in the Attican Traverse. This is a language without a formal codex that sounds a little strange even to batarians born into the Hegemony. Since batarians have been around and in contact with the Citadel and council races for ~1000 years longer than turians (true if the timeline on the wiki is correct, but I haven’t done the backdating myself), I HC that batarians have a more refined and developed spacer and trading culture. Traders and smugglers are infamous for liking to be beyond Hegemony control and when their government withdrew from Council space, they just kept up with business as usual. Many of them have a shared religion based on debate and argument over the meaning of the Pillars of Strength and the way to live an honorable life.

[1] Terminus languages - They exist, both with and without formal linguistic codexes available to ordinary citizens of Council space.

[1] Hierarchy basic - The common turian colonial language spoken in Hierarchy space. Nihlus was born outside turian space, so he had to learn it from his parents and from educational videos. While he has only a vague accent, certain words and phrases he uses come off as very strange to turians who were raised in Hierarchy space.

[1] Draughts - A popular ancient board game dating back to before the Romans. Pieces move by sliding on the board or jumping over each other to capture. I originally wanted to use river stones as a metaphor, but Nihlus at that age had never seen naturally flowing water. I figure everyone has a version of a capturing/marker/stones sort of game.

[1] Amma and appa - Batarian words for grandmother and grandfather. Nihlus is a bit of a ‘surprise’ baby for his parents. This nice older smuggler couple are longtime associates of the mercenary group and, while they have never done fighting themselves and have no children of their own, they are friends of his mother and father and are absolutely delighted to “adopt” him. He is their smol spikey grandson, they teach him to speak and act like a proper young batarian, and anyone who argues with them about how exactly he is related will end up on the wrong side of an airlock.

[1] Vatar - A canon planet in the Mass Effect universe with a cold and inhospitable environment, located a short relay hop away from Omega (“downtown”) in the Terminus Systems. Mercenary groups have outposts dug into the surface. I rolled with it. 

[1] Falx - The turian name of the mercenary group Nihlus is born into. A falx is both a Roman entrenching tool and also the most overhyped Dacian curved blade weapon you’ll see in ancient art and literature. In essence? The word has been used to refer to both weapons and farming tools for a very long time. The group is a batarian-lead mercenary company with a very long history of turian cooperation, which enjoys stable political ties to other such batarian splinter groups. Traders and smugglers often form the links between them. The batarian word for members of this same group translates as “harvesters” or “reapers.” HAHA. And you thought this was a no-Reapers AU…

[1] Truce customs - A batarian mercenary outpost thing. If you’re friendly and in mechanical distress, or if you have something to trade, it’s not unusual to head to a known group of mercenaries and ask for truce on tightbeam broadcast to get someone to meet you or actively flag your ship with their ident codes (aka: make you temporarily register in local space as belonging to their ‘fleet’). This is usually for medical essentials, emergency mechanical trouble, and also serves as an informal way for Terminus merchants and traders to make a living without having to worry about being boarded every time they deliver the groceries. It’s considered a grave breach of etiquette to violate truce terms and those who do are hunted down as examples to the rest. Truce terms make “ordinary life” possible for outposts that are otherwise on the edge of traveled space.

[1] Trade-cloth - A canon quarian cultural object. Mentioned in the the fandom wiki and probably part of a quarian codex somewhere. Intricately patterned cloth is common on the Migrant Fleet, but the personal cloths are seldom given to outsiders. Nihlus’s gift is one used in trade, but displays a pattern with more ‘friendly’ cultural connotations than something that would be sold and mass-produced in a shop. It was made special for him by his childhood quarian friends. It’s something that it would be appropriate for him to wear like a scarf on formal occasions when he’s dealing with quarians, or when he’s invited to quarian parties or festivals.

[1] Colony crescents / Falx sickles - Yeah there’s some repetition here, but it’s mostly to contrast the two. I HC that Nihlus’s base colony markings are already curved. “Sickles” are embellishments which add a cutting or combative edgeline in some places and very overt stylized weaponry to standard colony markings. They are additions or alterations that are unique to mercenary groups and may read as “flamboyant” or “aggressive” because they are noticeably different in appearance to Hierarchy turians. This is more or less on purpose, and is a bit on the taboo side. One does not wear these additions or draw their markings in these styles without genuinely belonging to one of these groups -- the patterns are not easy to reproduce correctly or in the right places, and they are generally a source of stigma in Hierarchy basic training.

[1] Sand-bath - How you clean a turian when water is scarce and everyone has to share it.

[2] Draw and fire from retention - The shooting-sports specific term for “shooting from the hip.” Kinda. This breakdown of a scene from Collateral, one of my all-time favorite Michael Mann films, will give you an idea. All of the referenced gun techniques are also more or less real, and lining up your body posture so that it helps with aiming and putting the rounds where you want them to go is a real thing.  Nihlus has a great deal of practice in shooting as self-defense and was training alongside professionals from a young age. Going to the range is one of his hobbies (but not mine, I’m lame and that’s loud).

[2] Triginta Petra - A canon Mass Effect world that is a dustball home to hardscrabble turian farmers. Kavala Kryik’s family were some of the first colonists and they’ve been scratching a living from the surface since she was nine years old. They are very proud of this fact, since it gave them opportunities they wouldn’t have had on their native Oma Ker (also a canon turian world).

[2] Laskaris - Nihlus’s mother’s original family name. Kavala Laskaris. While I don’t have any particular headcanon about whether or not turians do the whole ‘changing surname’ thing when they marry or pair off or whatever, Kavala really liked both the alliteration and the overall aesthetic. Joked with Inaros Kryik, her husband and Nihlus’s father, that she only married him for his pretty colony markings.

[2] Lupulin - Literally, hop acids and the essential oils that you get from ‘hoppy’ beer. A direct reference to hops (Humulus lupulus) and brewing, because why not? Actually is a mild sedative and produces a bit of a chemical high.

[2] Stiletto - A pistol from Haliat armory (turian weapons manufacturer).

[2] Blooded sickles - Worn only by mercenaries who are full / fighting members of Falx or their direct allies. Batarians have their own culturally-coded marks, some of which have been adopted and/or adapted by their turian members as embellishments to colony markings. I HC that newer “commercial” groups like the Blue Suns and Nyreen’s Talons, without a shared cultural background, are imitating this style of marking rather than the other way around. Merc-born turians with old-style batarian trade connections tend to recognize each other through these symbols, which are used most often outside of Council space (i.e. the Terminus Systems and the Attican Traverse).

[2] Pillars of Strength - Canon batarian religious artifact. I treat them as a text or a particular philosophy that values free will and independent action as the signifiers of ‘strength.’ While I don’t have a fleshed out or specific HC for what the ‘tenets’ are, I do know that slave implants are treated as anathema.

[3] Struthious - A reference to Earth ostriches. Some kind of chicken-like prey animal that turians like to cook and eat. Mostly because the thought of Nihlus running around like a chicken to entertain his sisters made me laugh.

[4] Cutter - Bigger than a personal clipper and better armed, with living space for a crew. They come in various sizes and are smaller than frigates.

[4] Cup of mourning - A turian funerary ritual. On Taetrus, performed with a distinctive form of dark ale. Different colony groups have different cultural traditions.

[4] Thalia, Tomyris, and Traian - Nihlus’s three turian siblings. Thalia and Tomyris are his younger twin sisters. Traian is the youngest and his baby brother. While they’re only hinted at in this fic, I do plan to make some references to them in the Air Needing Light arc at some point. There’s also a chance they’ll get their own short!fic appearances.

[4] Hierarchy military grants - A HC pool of money that the Council races put up to fund large-scale basic training for anyone (turian or another client race) completing compulsory citizen service.

[5] Talons and suns - Generic references to other symbols that are common incorporations for mercenary groups. I HC that these were adopted and color-coded by the Blue Suns and the Talons rather than conceptually created by them! 

[5] Fuck the cause, we’ll die for a drink! - Profane versions of the turian Hierarchy anthem are popular drinking songs among the merc-born. If it’s a patriotic and well-known song, you can pretty much guarantee turian mercenaries have parodied it.  Awkward for colony-born squadmates who find these renditions hilarious and catchy—but also a little horrifying.

[6] Optio Sideris, 85th Atrax Legion, Fifth Cohort Operations Section - A one-off turian Blackwatch OC I may bring back in another fic at some point because I ended up liking her. The Hierarchy military organization borrows from the HCs I use for the Air Needing Light AU: 85th Atrax Legion is a joint special forces organizing legion made up of six cohorts. The 5th Cohort is informally known as Blackwatch, while the “Operations Section” is a generic term used by intelligence operators. Optio is a mid-tier leadership rank.

[6] Batarian body language - Batarian language and manners are highly dependent on physical cues according to the Mass Effect canon. I took this one step further with a HC that Nihlus is essentially a native speaker of turian-adapted gestures that translate successfully into batarian social patterns. This physical vocabulary is most refined and most present in culturally batarian mercenary and trading groups with a strong history of turian association and recruitment. While older turians can learn and approximate the gestures, they are best learned and absorbed in childhood. Nihlus “speaks” a form of gestural batarian that places him as a native of the Terminus Systems.

[6] Interrogating batarian prisoners - No torture involved! Optio Sideris trains Nihlus in a more practical form of intelligence gathering that involves building rapport, establishing trust, and remaining consistent. Even pirates or smugglers who would not normally give information to a Hierarchy patrol flotilla can be convinced to—if not speak—occasionally offer hints about the locations and activity of slavers. Nihlus is notable for actually being conversant in traditional batarian moral interpretations of the Pillars of Strength, as well as being able to walk the fine cultural line between guarded respect and abject deference. 

[6] Merc Red - Nihlus’s batarian nickname among the patrol flotilla’s prisoners. A sign of individual respect, since it contains no profanity and is just blandly descriptive.

[7] Broken weapons - A traditional sign of thanks between two non-allied mercenary groups when one has agreed to truce terms. Mostly symbolic.

[7] Tattoos - The permanent marking method of choice when turians are full-grown and have developed a strong preference for the color and personal style of their colony markings. Nihlus decides on a complex ‘full-crest’ Taetran colony pattern embellished with Falx blood sickles. This is more or less him being loud and proud about both his colony origins and his mercenary background, as well as putting them on an even footing by tattooing the entire pattern: mercenary symbols and all.

[texanredrose]

Since it was the first of your stories I found, I would love to see the director's commentary on "Omega's Strength" if you're willing.

Yo, Omega’s Strength is definitely a passion project (that’s nearing completion!) that I love with all my heart. I’m almost to the scene that sparked the whole story and I genuinely can’t wait, the anticipation is killing me!

Aside from being extremely self indulgent, Omega’s Strength is the first time I’ve actively re-written the rules of something established. Sure, I love my AUs, but when it’s an AU of my own design, I can make my own rules. Omegaverse AUs, on the other hand, are almost defined by the fact they all use the same rules. Most of which, I hate, because they’re stupid. So, I decided to make my own AU of an AU to incorporate elements I actually wanted to see- using heat and scent marking and such in a positive, conscious way rather than... well... the borderline-not-consent way most stories use them.

This is arguably one of the stories I put Yang through the most shit. It focuses heavily on Yang’s poor state of mind and self image following the amputation of her arm and really dwells on it, for the purpose of showing how to overcome it. That’s the main thing about Omega’s Strength that I don’t think gets mentioned enough; yeah, I put Yang through shit, and her bad headspace allows her to make some bad decisions, and she hurts herself almost as much as the events she goes through hurt her. However, through the course of the story, she gets stronger. She picks herself up, puts herself back together- and that’s a big thing for me. It’s not someone else fixing her. It’s not someone else making everything okay. It’s Yang reaching her lowest, realizing it, and saying ‘fuck this’, and then clawing her way out. She has her friends and family for support, sure. She can lean on them when she needs to, even when she’s being too stubborn to ask for help. But, she’s the one being proactive and taking the steps she needs to heal. Confronting herself, her situation, her reality. Gritting her teeth and doing the work to get back to a better state of mind. Rediscovering her confidence.

There’s a companion piece to Omega’s Strength that I’m working on as well, told from Winter’s POV, which is something I generally don’t do for my fics. Offhand, I’ve only done this one other time with Monochrome, and fairly recently; once I’ve told a story from one perspective, I typically don’t revisit the same events. For this one, though, I feel like I have to, because Omega’s Strength, for all the angst, only tells a small fraction of the story. It’s taking a world spanning trek to save the people of Remnant and giving the reader only one set of eyes to see it through. It’s limiting- which works, in some respects, to amplify the drama, because all the events are only examined in how they affect Yang- but it leaves a lot unsaid. We see how Yang interprets Winter’s actions and intentions, but not how Winter intended them to be taken, so I look forward to finishing the story, and then releasing Winter’s side of things. I’ve often said that, for all that Yang suffers through the story, Winter suffers just as much, it’s just not shown. While the saying goes “show, don’t tell” sometimes not showing everything and not telling everything ends up painting a much more interesting picture in the long run. Stories like Omega’s Strength are more akin to puzzles, each piece of which an agonizing journey to find and fit together, but when you step back and see the whole picture... it’s something else.

This is also one of the few fics where I incorporate a ton of OCs. Amusingly enough, Terry Cotta (the first of their name) and their team was designed back in V2 as a direct response to someone else claiming there was only one way to make an OC team in RWBY. Long story short, the person claimed that the team ‘motif’ shouldn’t be decided until the end, after character creation. So I said ‘fuck that’, picked two motifs to blend together, and created the characters that way. Terry Cotta, Dal Semper, Aegean Forecastle, Rudy Cirrus, and one as of yet unintroduced character draw their inspiration from the five branches of the American Military (also, fuck, now I have to make a sixth for the dumbass space forces, good grief) and five branches of emergency services. Terry Cotta, of course, represent the Army and Police, that’s where they get their name, and why they’re both Winter’s best friend and her worst enemy, depending on the AU (I might fall into both categories myself but I’m also highly critical of my chosen professions). Dal Semper represents the Marines and Firefighters, which is why she’s characterized as being stubborn, direct, and hotheaded. Aegean Forecastle is the Navy and EMTs/Paramedics, which is why he’s the polar opposite to Dal and often watching her back. Rudy represents the Air Force and Search and Rescue, specifically mountain rescues, which informs his quiet but dependable nature. The last member of the team represent the Coast Guard and Dispatchers and as the Coast Guard is often neglected when talking about the branches of the military while Dispatchers are often forgotten in terms of emergency services, she’s often in the background getting shit done rather than on the front lines with the others. Together, they form Team TARDIs (which I admittedly offered as a cheeky joke to piss off the person mentioned earlier) but formally named the Atlas Rapid Response Team, or ARRT for short, keeping the color themed naming convention intact. Because of what they represent, I’ve always headcanoned that ARRT would be opposing Team RWBY in some way, because they represent organizations that should benefit the public, but can be misused to the public’s detriment, and I always wanted that to be a recurring theme with the characters. It’s why Terry’s such a little shit in almost every incarnation, whether they’re allied with Winter or not. Terry- and the rest of their team- ultimately has the best of intentions but not so great execution, and it entirely depends on who they’re following. When they follow Ironwood, they get used to devastating results, but when they follow Winter/Team RWBY, they’re much more helpful.

On the other hand, there’s Team SNOW. They are as much a result of me being cheeky as me interpreting the color rule to its logical extreme. Stryker, for instance, has a predominantly predominantly black and white color scheme. This isn’t because she’s from Atlas; it’s because she’s a soccer ball. Her name makes me think of soccer (football, for you non-American folks), and that makes me think of the black and white balls used for matches. Nigel? Makes me think of Nigel Thornberry and his ridiculous orange mustache, which is why he’s Inexplicably British(tm). Oswald? Makes me think of that one otter Pokemon, which is predominantly blue. Wisteria? A running joke in some of my other Elderburn fics, a rejected name for Winter and Yang’s kids because Yang wants to follow the ‘W’ naming rule but Winter doesn’t. Ergo, makes me think of white and yellow and blue and purple and all the other colors associated with Winter and Yang. There’s a lot of ways to read ‘evocative of color’, and I took it to its furthest possible conclusion, not just literal translations but more of a word association exercise.

Also, yes, I hate Stryker with a passion. Is it because I used to be a goalie? Possibly.

[shewasanamericangirl]

kamen rider OOO review

a young man, having dozed off a night on security guard detail, awakens to find an odd red coin engraved with a bird motif. assuming the coin is payment for his work, he goes to change into his civilian clothes and oh fuck there’s a giant hole in the wall.

after a quick police interview revealing that our hero 1. is thoroughly naive and 2. has an unusual fixation with underwear, he puts his clothes on and goes to spend his “payment” in a vending machine and--whoops, dropped the coin under the machine. fortunately, a very strong (and CUTE) young lady is nearby to help lift up the machine...and nearly drops it when they see the monstrous disembodied arm crawling out from beneath! then the arm, who can talk and has a terrible personality, starts giving underwear boy orders. oh yeah, and i totally forgot to mention the opera rendition of “happy birthday” played over a bunch of weird monsters terrorizing civilians as a snappily dressed executive decorates a birthday cake on his office desk.

welcome to the world of kamen rider OOO! (pronounced “ohs”--like cheeri”os”.)

^ oh, the sexual tension.

plot: there’s two other fictional worlds that OOO has brought to mind for me multiple times. the worldbuilding and unique magical elements of OOO combined with a heaping cupful of absurdity and a pinch of homoeroticism reminded me quite a bit of jojo’s bizarre adventure--crazy and ridiculous stuff happens, but it’s built up in such a way that you generally understand enough of what’s going on that it isn’t too confusing. furthermore, the themes of desire, evolution, beginnings, endings, and nihilism bring to mind the dilemmas at play in the shin megami tensei games--many of the platitudes expressed in OOO could’ve easily been quoted from lucifer...and others from smtiv’s white. you’ll want to learn the truths. you’ll want to see what happens next.

characters: despite what ankh may claim, this show is not about him, as evidenced by the fact that its title is not bird greed ankh. he sure is a Character, though. heisei kamen rider is great at giving its viewers morally iffy or outright bastardy characters so unique and interesting that you wind up cheering for as much as if not more than for the heroes, and ankh is a primo example of this.

i love him, but also fuck that guy.

eiji hino definitely fits into the tradition of himbo tokusatsu protagonists. he’s not a complete dumbass so much as he is a pollyanna. like others in said tradition, he’s endearing, and i believe in him. you learn a lot about him over the course of the story, and how you see him closer to the end may surprise you.

the cast is colorful and fun. hina izumi, the super strong girl from earlier, becomes inexorably entwined in this drama of medals and monsters when her beloved older brother shingo winds up possessed. shintaro gotou, a former police officer, now works on behalf of the mysterious kougami foundation with the aim of fighting evil and protecting the innocent--but isn’t so sure how he’s going to do so. akira date, a roguish bad boy doctor and self-professed slave to desire, takes on a very special job to fulfill his goal of earning 100,000,000 yen. more oddballs can be found in service of the kougami foundation as the story continues...

oh, and the greed. or greeed. i’ve seen it both ways. i believe i’ve said a bunch of times before that i like a toku series with good fucking villains--you learn who they are and what drives them, you get how what they’re doing fulfills those goals, and you see how they relate to those around them beyond the customary shit-talking of the heroes. not only that, but the greed are a novel concept with fascinating aesthetics. i greatly enjoyed learning their secrets.

fights: instrumental to every battle is the abilities OOO has access to, which are determined by the medals he has in his possession--ancient coins which act as the DNA of the greed, and grant OOO different animal-themed powers. he equips the cheetah medal, and he can move at great speeds. he equips the hawk medal, and he can see great distances. naturally, such powerful artifacts are in high demand--OOO and the greed are constantly stealing them from each other, meaning what he’s capable of can vary greatly from episode to episode. only being able to switch out different hands is so 1980.

abilities that change again and again throughout the series make for some awesomely unique fights. mix that up with the various greed and the unique monsters they create using the power of human desire--yummies--and the fights don’t get dull.

visuals: the fact that i started watching kamen rider w with @shylax while still watching OOO made me notice something interesting: OOO appears to be the point that neo-heisei kamen rider became the bright shiny lightshow we see today in zi-o. w, while not visually lacking, still has the sort of drab, overcast quality to it that i’ve also noticed in ryuki and decade. i don’t know the technical terms needed to describe this phenomenon more accurately--just that something changed in 2011, and kamen rider really brightened up.

OOO’s suit forms are colorful and bold. many of the characters are associated with color motifs. cous coussier, the eccentric costume cafe that becomes eiji’s base of operations, is constantly switching up its theme and outfits. and as always, toei provides lots of visually striking sets.

music: the unusual opening theme, “anything goes”, will definitely make an impression; i initially found it weird, but damn, it gets me fired up now. strong inserts and moving incidentals are included too. “anything goes”, along with inserts “time judged all” and “reverse re;birth” have their own music videos, the latter two featuring the characters singing.

if you actually read all that, it should come as no surprise that i had a blast watching kamen rider OOO and highly recommend it. kobayashi knocks it out of the goddamn park once again!

as for my next series...i’m looking at a few possibilities. kamen rider 555 is one, as it’s a series @shylax definitely enjoyed. i’m also curious about other yasuko kobayashi series, seeing as they’ve proven great investments of my time so far. i’ve also grown curious about metal hero after seeing the new space sheriff gavan on kyuranger, though i’m at a loss for where i’d start with it. in the meantime, however, i’m going to watch the OOO movies!

[infini-tree]

alright so i think ive got the Oogway Spam(tm) out of my system lets actually talk abt the kids and some first impressions (whose names i dont know and ill just call them by the color of the associated constellation they have)

- black: probably the potential tank. in one of the clips he looks to be generating a forcefield that has tortoise motifs (and he does seem a little bit surprised by it). maybe a bit of a rash kid to contrast oogway

- white: with how there are so many ribbons(? i think???) on his vest he looks like an overachiever-- theyre probably going to play off that in some eps i can feel it

- blue: has tigress' vest circa 1/2?? idk what That means but maybe shes also a fan of her like lei lei. she also says 'destiny' a lot and i get "trying rly hard to be the designated leader of the group" vibes from her

- red: probably the gentle giant of the group-- he Did do the dumpling bit po did in the movies (kinda). if the battle auras have Some sentience/personalities these are the two that are the most at odds w each other due to how bad they clash initially

[blackkudos]

Aaron Douglas

Aaron Douglas (May 26, 1899 – February 3, 1979) was an African-American painter, illustrator and arts educator. He was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Early life

Aaron Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas, to Aaron and Elizabeth Douglas. He developed an interest in art during his childhood and was encouraged in his pursuits by his mother. Douglas graduated from Topeka High School in 1917.

Douglas received a B.F.A. from the University of Nebraska in 1922 and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Kansas the next year. Commenting on his days at the University of Nebraska, where he won a prize for drawing, he recalled: "I was the only black student there. Because I was sturdy and friendly, I became popular with both faculty and students." His ability to get along notwithstanding, Douglas longed to draw from an undraped model and felt constrained by the "Victorian attitudes" that prevented the school from using nudes in the classroom.

In 1925, Douglas moved to New York City, settling in Harlem. Just a few months after his arrival he began to produce illustrations for both The Crisis and Opportunity, the two most important magazines associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He also began studying with Winold Reiss, a German artist who had been hired by Alain Locke to illustrate The New Negro. Reiss' teaching helped Douglas develop the modernist style he would employ for the next decade. Douglas’ engagement with African and Egyptian design brought him to the attention of W. E. B. Du Bois and Dr. Locke, who were pressing for young African-American artists to express their African heritage and African-American folk culture in their art.

In 1926 Douglas married Alta Sawyer. They lived together in Harlem and for the next several years, opened their home to an important, powerful circle of artists and writers we now call the Harlem Renaissance.

Douglas was heavily influenced by the African culture he painted for. His natural talent plus his newly acquired inspiration allowed Douglas to be considered the "Father of African-American arts." That title led him to say: "Do not call me the Father of African-American Arts, for I am just a son of Africa, and paint for what inspires me."

In addition to his magazine illustrations for two of the most important African-American magazines of the period, he illustrated books, painted canvases and murals, and tried to start a new magazine showcasing the work of younger artists and writers. It was during the early 1930s that Douglas completed the most important works of his career, his murals at Fisk University (on which he had the assistance of painter Edwin Harleston) and at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture).

Throughout his early career, Douglas looked for opportunities to increase his knowledge about art. In 1928–29, Douglas studied African and Modern European art at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania on a grant from the foundation. In 1931 he traveled to Paris, where he spent a year studying more traditional French painting and drawing techniques at the Academie Scandinave. In 1944, Douglas received his Master of Arts from Columbia College in New York, New York.

Later life

In 1940, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for 27 years. Coinciding with this move was a shift to a more traditional painting style, including portraits and landscapes like the one at right. Aaron Douglas has been called the father of African-American art. His striking illustrations, murals, and paintings of the life and history of people of color depict an emerging black American individuality in a powerfully personal way. Working primarily from the 1920s through the 1940s, Douglas linked black Americans with their African past and proudly showed black contributions to society decades before the dawn of the civil rights movement. His work made a lasting impression on future generations of black artists.

In the film Hidden Heritage: The Roots of Black American Painting, David C. Driskell—an artist and a leading educator and scholar of African-American art—discussed Aaron Douglas' role in art history: "Douglas is the leading painter of the [Harlem] Renaissance movement. A pioneering Africanist, he accepted the legacy of the ancestral arts of Africa and developed his own original style, geometric symbolism. At a time when it was unpopular to dignify the black image in white America, Douglas refused to compromise and see blacks as anything less than a proud and majestic people."

Best represented by black-and-white drawings with black silhouetted figures, as well as by portraits, landscapes, and murals, Douglas' art fused modernism with ancestral African images, including fetish motifs, masks, and artifacts. His work celebrates African-American versatility and adaptability, depicting people in a variety of settings—from rural and urban scenes to churches to nightclubs. His illustrations in books by leading black writers established him as the black artist of the period. Later in his career, Douglas founded the Art Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Beginning in the 1920s, Douglas' illustrations appeared in books by James Weldon Johnson, Countee Cullen, Alain Locke, and other prominent black writers, activists, and intellectuals. They were also featured in such magazines as The Crisis, Opportunity, Harper's, and Vanity Fair. From the late 1920s through the 1940s, his art was shown across the United States at universities, galleries, hotels, and museums, including the Harmon Foundation in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas, Howard University's Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and New York's Gallery of Modern Art. In addition, selected works by Douglas were assembled for a landmark traveling show of Harlem Renaissance artworks sponsored by the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1988. According to Driskell in an essay for Harlem Renaissance Art of Black America, "It was Douglas' own strength of character and inventive artistry that enabled him to have a lasting impact on the future course of black expression in art." In A History of African American Artists from 1792 to the Present by Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson, Douglas was quoted as saying, "One day [my mother] came home with a magazine [containing] a reproduction of a painting by [black artist Henry O. Tanner]. It was his painting of Christ and Nicodemus meeting in the moonlight on a rooftop. I remember the painting very well. I spent hours poring over it, and that helped to lead me to deciding to become an artist." Years later, Douglas visited Tanner in Paris.

Douglas died on February 2, 1979, in Nashville, at the age of 79.

Work

Aaron Douglas's style owes much to African art. Developed in the 1920s, it synthesized aspects of modern European, ancient Egyptian, and West African art. His best-known paintings are semi-abstract, and feature flat forms, hard edges, and repetitive geometric shapes. Bands of color radiate from the important objects in each painting, and where these bands intersect with other bands or other objects, the color changes.

The modernist painting "Let My People Go" (1935–39) is the artist's interpretation of Moses’ plea to the Pharaoh to free his people. Douglas was looking at biblical history and social matters for the subject matter of this painting and drawing comparisons between historical matters such as the Pharaoh in Egypt and more current issues like slavery.

Listing of notable work

Painting Let My People Go, 1935–39, oil on masonite

Illustrations for The Crisis and Opportunity, 1925–1939

Illustrations for James Weldon Johnson, God's Trombones, 1927

Mural at Club Ebony, 1927 (destroyed)

Illustrations for Paul Morand, Black Magic, 1929

Harriet Tubman, mural at Bennett College, 1930

Symbolic Negro History, murals at Fisk University, 1930

Dance Magic, murals for the Sherman Hotel, Chicago, 1930–31

Aspects of Negro Life, murals at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1934

Illustrations included in selected editions of Countee Cullen's Caroling Dusk and Alain Locke's New Negro. Illustrations also published in periodicals such as Vanity Fair, New York Sun, Boston Transcript, and American Mercury.

Collections

Let My People Go, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

The Judgement Day, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

The Founding of Chicago, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS

Study for "Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction", Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD.

Wikipedia

[fearfragmented]

1, 10, 13, 15, 21, 33, 34, 41 >:3c

↠ Character Development| Accepting

1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy?

       If he’s walking with someone he matches their speed. If not he tends to walk p fast. I’m not entirely sure what it means by rhythm and energy. But for gestures? He tends to gesture wildly when he’s experiencing strong emotions. Anywhere from anger to excitement to “im crying so hard im going to puke” sadness will have him kinda flailing and gesturing wildly at things.

10. What energizes and drains them most?

       answered here

13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed?

       Ok being completely honest Asura hates life. He doesn’t.. exactly enjoy living, per say? Eh. I’ll say it outright, Asura’s fucking depressed, with emphasis on that in me prized ol’ Redemption Au. When he was younger, and being raised by Eibon he had a much better outlook on existence and his future in general. But once things went down with his lines of sanzu showing, and the person raising him became Death, Asura started to think less and less of both himself, his life, and his potential future. Those feelings carried through the years until he became a kishin. Once being revived? Look.. Asura knows he has no future. There’s even a part of him that knows he can’t win. That everything is in vain. But uh. There’s this song called “nothing left to say” and it works.. really well to explain how i imagine Asura feels, especially regarding this.

Who knows how long I’ve been awake now?The shadows on my wall don’t sleepThey keep calling me, beckoningWho knows what’s right? The lines keep getting thinnerMy age has never made me wiseBut I keep pushing on and on and on and on

This particular verse i associate really heavily with Asura from 800 years ago. He doesn’t… he’s very confused. He’s scared, and uncertain, and Arachne’s training is blurring the sense of morality that Death tried to shove into him.

Below my soul, I feel an engineCollapsing as it sees the painIf I could only shut it outI’ve come too far to see the end nowEven if my way is wrongBut I keep pushing on and on and on and on 

Now this.. reminds me heavily of canon Asura. Note the italics there. Asura knows that he’s doing wrong. He knows hes fucked up, he knows he’s beyond the point of no return. But he doesn’t care. It’s not that he wants to win at this point, it’s not that he thinks “if i keep going i will win”, its just that he isn’t exactly ready to give up and just let himself die. He’s not willing to let go of this one part of him he has left, this rebellion he’s waged again Death. It’s like.. he feels like he’s completely lost himself and this is all he has left. And.. it is. But. He sees Kidd and how Death treats him, how Kidd lives a life Asura had always wanted, how brave and strong Maka is, and maybe he also keeps going because of something akin to spite. I dunno. that’s how i always thought of it and this got a little… off track, whoops. But uh.. idk how to properly explain it. 

also just as a bonus

I keep falling, I keep falling downI keep falling, I keep falling downIf you could only save meI’m drowning in the waters of my soul

this reminds me of redemption asura before being. ‘saved’

15. What kind of inner life do they have — rich and imaginative? Calculating and practical? Full of doubts and fears? Does it find any sort of outlet in their lives?

        .. i have no clue what this means

21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why?

       God i’m bad w/ this question. For intentionally seeking out… he tries to find friends who he thinks he can get to trust him, sort of. People he thinks he can trust but never does, people he can sort of cling to without forming a real strong bond. But… ok. Asura. Is an attention seeker, in this way. He doesn’t like spotlight or anything like that, he hates that. But attention from friends? Having friends? He loves it. Even if this person isn’t his real friend. He search desperately for anyone who’ll pay him the least bit of attention and then he attaches himself but.. without every fully trusting them. He just searches for anyone who’ll give him any form of attention, negative or positive, and then latch on and call them his friend.

       Uh, cultivating… i’m not sure how to explain this b/c i dont.. know how to explain Asura’s relationship with the people he has actually made his friend. As for social contact? He just kinda.. wants a one-on-one kind of thing. He hates crowds and hates having to actually go out somewhere crowded or loud or even to the movies or anything? He prefers to just kinda. Hang out, for lack of a better word. Or watch a movie indoors. 

33. How do they learn about the world–what is their preferred learning style? Hands-on learning with trial and error? Research, reading, and note-taking? Observation or rote memorization? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Seeking patterns and organization? Taking things apart and putting them back together? Creative processing via discussing, writing about, or dramatizing things?

       Oh!! Oho!! Ok ok ok Asura LOVES  hands on learning stuff and that includes taking things apart and putting them back together. Eibon would teach him about certain things by letting him actually see what it is y’feel? Or with like fish and things he’d take Asura by the nearest body of water and they’d look for fish and see if they can figure out what fish is what species, why it lives there, stuff like that. Or Eibon would tell Asura ‘bout a specific species of bug and then they’d go find it. Stuff like that. Asura learns really well doing that kind of stuff. Also in teaching uh. basic math stuff? They’d use physical things like apples and rocks. 

34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

       send help i dont understand

41. What associations do they bring to mind? Words or phrases, images, metaphors or motifs? Why?

       OH SHIT BOY BUCKLE IN 

Songs ( this is all i can name for rn ):

Nothing left to say now - Imagine DragonsBeekeeper - Keaton HensonSmall Hands - Keaton HensonYou - Keaton HensonSmells: Strawberries, Apples, Old items of clothing, that weird fall smell

Motifs ( i think ? ): EYES & HANDS. idk why hands though.

Aesthetics: Generally dark things, Eyes, Blood, Bruises, Hands, skulls, horror, those oddly depressing words on weird backgrounds

Words: Red.. Eyes

Colors: ^ Red & also purple for some reason?

Foods: Strawberries & Apples. Any variety, for strawberries. Strawberry cake, strawberry pies…

Animals: Cats, Wolves, DOBERMANS ( why? idk idk idk )