#the idea that 100% it's a delicacy.

[fstbmp-a]

T-Rex steak...

[enjoyprettythings]

great interview with nick where he shares about:

the delicacy of identifying as straight and playing queer roles (he touches on this topic twice)

how much rehearsal and consideration went into his intimate scenes with taylor in rwrb, and their collaboration process with matthew lopez

working with the intimacy coordinator, robbie, on rwrb and then again on mary and george (where george sleeps with 14 different characters!)

hurting his ankle on set, and being glad for some rest after carrying the lead role on such a large project (he filmed 100 out of 109 days on mary and george)

the costuming choices on idea of you and how they wanted to create a new character (not harry styles)

how catchy the music is in the idea of you

how incredible it was to work with and learn from anne hathaway and julianne moore, who both brought different skill sets to the job

and so much more <3

[onelocket]

Fyodor with a self-neglecting lover

prompting guide -- gn reader who’s usually sleep-deprived, dehydrated, too exhausted to do basic tasks for their health because of their work. how would fyodor take care of you, given that he seems almost unfazed by his own health alone?

involves -- domestic relationship, mentions of pills (just vitamins), fluff 100%!

word count -- 1.9k

⚘

Taking comprehension of your situation

Fyodor knew from the start of how self-neglecting you could be. He doesn’t really do much, believing that you can take care of yourself without his word. You ‘just needed more focus on yourself’ is what he always thought. But when he soon realizes it growing worse, he can’t help but be a little worried.

However, instead of immediately talking to you about it, Fyodor kept his silence. When you come up to him, he’ll play his usual game with you—gentle smiles when the time calls for it, delicate hand gestures and touching, whatever you bring forth to him; he always has the same answer to it. Yet as you feel his hands more cautious of your face, eyes almost examining you instead of looking at you as lovingly—you can’t help to understand the slight change in it as time passes by…

He may always be busy but simple glances over you are enough to keep him updated with your state. If he sees you haven’t showered in days, he’ll bring it up casually. Same for the times he doesn’t notice you drinking water as often. Fyodor will say something simple, not really bothered enough to do anything if you don’t comply; since he already said it clearly the first time. He didn’t help much with your state, only bothering assist when you end up falling asleep in a place he needs to be in or having straight up fainting. Well, that was before at least. Now’s new.

Tea Dates

It’s rather difficult to call it a ‘party’ when it’s just the two of you, and besides—a date sounds more romantic and calm, does it not?

Whenever you’re finished from work and Fyodor can still see some stamina in you, he’ll come up to you and interlock your hand with his. Fyodor can easily tell if you’ve eaten or drank anything by just looking at your exhausted face, or after asking simple questions about food that you fail to realize that he was actually trying to find a specific answer from you. And if he’s certain you haven’t, he’ll rub your hand gently as he asks if you’d mind a small tea time with him. He never says it as a date, but with the way you two spend it, he definitely asks these little invites for an indirect one.

You two either stay at home or go to his casual cafe, which you end up also finding a favorite to overtime. Even if you didn’t drink tea—there were so many delicacies to choose from that you can’t help but feel much more relaxed after, with about two drinks and perhaps even a small plate of bite-sized bakery treats. And that’s what Fyodor wants. As he sees you smiling while you enjoy the taste, he almost mirrors it—small curves meeting his lips. He doesn’t say it, but he’s glad you’ve drank and eaten something today.

Showers with him

Fyodor was opposed to the idea at first. He doesn’t like the concept of you seeing his body completely nude, let alone be wet as well. It’s too vulnerable, and pretty vulgar depending on which mind the words go to. Fyodor thinks vice versa for your body as well. As much as he likes to see your body, he’s not so into seeing it naked all the time. He also finds it ‘too childish’ and not mature for your and his age.

But as he realizes you struggle to even get inside the shower sometimes, some… changes have been made. At first, Fyodor was hesitant to help out, but a cry of exhaustion from you while you were in the shower was more than enough to click his head unscrewed, knocking calmly on the open door as he’d ask if it’s okay to step further inside. You allow him, letting him help you out by washing your hair as you sit down on a stool or soaping your delicate skin to all rinse it off with water later. He always listens to you as well, having open ears to whatever you need to ask, say, or rant out.

He sometimes also joins you in your showers. Usually when you two are both extremely exhausted. It’s not frequent because Fyodor is still not that comfortable with the idea, but it still happens. For you, he allows it, because it’s clear to him that it’s an effective way to make you think more about your hygiene, and also because he can be sure of how you treat yourself inside the shower like this—because even if you do get inside, there’s no certain say if you’ll actually shower unless he himself is with you, is there?

Notes while he’s out

Fyodor isn’t always at home, and you knew that. While he has an office in the home you two share, he still has to meet up with his coworkers—or at least that’s what he tells you, and you choose to believe your man at all cost. Given such, while you worked from home, Fyodor leaves little notes and letters in places you’ll easily spot, even if you’re super exhausted.

Fyodor doesn’t necessarily like to show too much affection nor is constant of talking about his concern, because he sort of.. thinks it’s your fault for being so self-neglecting most of the time. He prefers you to understand your own state and situation before you come up to him for help if you need it. Though, perhaps he can assist you to get started on it.

Usually on the dinner table or by your work desk are envelopes colored in a shade even your exhausted little eyes can notice. The notes are marked with such elegance and effort. There are times they aren’t all so wrapped up, just the paper itself, but those are only when he’s extremely in a rush. And for a man like him, it’s pretty rare. When he’s about to leave while you’re still asleep, or you’re in another room, he’ll place a letter in spots you’ll walk by before leaving. They hold messages asking how you were feeling. At most he leaves three of these around the home, which help you recollect your thoughts when you attend to them. Sometimes less or more depending on how long he’ll be out for.

They actually help because you’re able to reply to them by waking up to express how you feel, and remind you of doing your basic tasks like drinking water or eating. Perhaps you can say it’s Fyodor’s way of asking updates from you without him actually speaking for it and while he’s gone, but it’s fair to believe that he only does this to get you awake throughout the day and remember your tasks. His notes of "How is my love doing? Have they eaten yet?" were but cliffs to throw you bottling your emotions away as you carefully reply to the letter, tired and needy for a conversation. You’d write things like how thirsty you were, making you realize that maybe you should actually tend to that as you have been neglecting it more than enough times necessary. It’s more of an effort than just texting, but it gets the job done. Both for you and Fyodor as he smiles reading your replies in, usually, hazy handwriting.

His own way of making you take vitamins

You can be very stubborn sometimes, intentionally or not. While the notes help you remember to drink water and eat—they lack the ability to make you do an important task, taking vitamins. Since you’ve let go of yourself quite a bit, you’ve been needing to take more vitamins like b12. You’re mostly dehydrated and sleepy, so the notes can only go so far against how hefty your light-headedness can be.

Though it can’t be helped, Fyodor tries to understand you can’t always listen to words on paper, even if it’s written by him—so he’s come up with another way that is usually the most effective one for you. It’s simple; food. Fyodor would bake you a tray of soft food, usually cupcakes. If you weren’t into that, Fyodor will make something else that’s still similar. It’s not for a wholesome moment as you might think, as he actually has a more proper reason on why he does this. It’s to hide your pills in them… the same way how pet-owners would do to their pets. Look- it’s not like there’s much of a choice, is there? Fyodor doesn’t like to be very verbal with his reminders of you taking your pills, and you don’t/can’t really comply most of the time either, so it had to be done.

While Fyodor isn’t opposed to teasing you by making you take the pill that’s in between his own fingers, he’s not always there for that to happen every time. Plus, using food instead helps in two categories for you—while you’re being well-fed, you’re also taking your pills. But don’t expect him to always be doing this to you. As stated, Fyodor will only make a tray, enough for half a month for you to eat on, and it’s up to you on how to take your pills there on. They’re always so obvious in the refrigerator, and mostly very (but not overwhelmingly) flavorful that will also cause you to drink water after. So really, this trick helps in three ways instead of two.

Your home strangely ‘motivates’ you (bonus)

Can’t think of a better title for this category. Anyway… Fyodor has one last way of keeping you aware of your own surroundings and well-being while he’s not home… and it’s something you probably would last realize out of all listed down. And it’s having a home that somehow makes you have this motivation to do the tasks that require a bit more effort than most—such as showering, cooking your own food, making your bed after waking up, and a lot more.

You find it hard to explain, but you just adore the sight of your and his minimalistic home, lured with natural light and faint colors of lit candles with a scent pleasing enough to make you smile. The books you two have are all neatly stacked, with a fresh bouquet of flowers always on the white table in the hallway—your home always felt like some sort of aesthetic to live in. Because you had a poor performance of taking care of yourself, your home isn’t always this beautifully set up either. As such, it makes you want to act like it while it’s there, playing through little routines to ‘appreciate your home’. Similar to those routines you’d see on the internet, specifically talking.

To you, it was fun to play that way, but little did you know that it was Fyodor’s way of tricking your mind into following a routine while he’s not home to remind you about it. He only seems to do this on days he’ll be gone for more than one night, aware the notes won’t keep you alert for long. It’s hard to keep up the effort every single day anyway. All he really benefits from this scenario is a better version of yourself as you smile at his return, hands hugging him with your hair damped from just taking a shower. While Fyodor kisses your head an ‘I’m home’, his gaze catches the same white table with all the new and previous flowers he bought for you—delicately placed inside an expensive vase as he replies with a smile, thankful that his efforts can help you even if it’s a slow progress. For the sake of a better world, he’s willing to take actions to have his lover taking care of themself better too.

[swannieluv]

Teyvat's Festa Junina!

✦⸼࣪⸳ Pairing: PLATONIC! Genshin characters x GN! Reader ✦⸼࣪⸳ 𝐖𝐜: 1,5k ✦⸼࣪⸳ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆!!: none (if I missed one, please tell me!!) ✦⸼࣪⸳ A/N: Hello! This is something I've really wanted to write, so I hope you can enjoy this even if you don't celebrate it! :)) ✦⸼࣪⸳ likes, reblogs and comments are appreciated!! <3

It's winter, and what better way to celebrate than under the covers and drinking hot chocolate? Holding a Festa Junina in Teyvat! It was a simple idea, but it took on slightly bigger proportions than intended.

Stalls with games, colorful flags and lots of food. These things made it one of the liveliest parties Teyvat has ever seen!

One of the main traditions is jumping the campfire in pairs. But by coincidence, the only person left was Bennett. His bad luck, coupled with his fear of jumping over the fire, could only result in absolute failure.

"Bennett, that's not a good idea," you hesitated, as you stared into the embers coming from the fire. "We're just going to hurt ourselves on that fire."

"Really?" the boy's face saddened slightly. Jumping the fire was something he really wanted to do — but he couldn't, not with all this bad luck. No one really wanted to jump with him, but it was a tradition that Bennett would really like to try.

Watching the other pairs jump the bonfire while Bennett stood still was a bit depressing. Of course, you didn't want to get hurt and ruin your colorful outfit; but if it was for the happiness of a friend, then it would be okay to come up with yet another accident story to tell.

"Okay, decided." With a sigh, you stood up and brushed the dust off your clothes. At least a jump of one and a half meters would be enough not to hurt yourself, since the fire wasn't that high. "We're going to make the biggest jump this world has ever seen!"

"Are you sure? What if we fall face first into the fire?"

"Trust me. I'm 100% sure we'll make it!"

Lie. Although the others could do it, you weren't sure about your own abilities at the moment. But as the saying goes: who doesn't take a risk, doesn't take a chance.

"We'll make it..." Bennett paused before grinning from ear to ear. "Let's do it!"

Hand in hand, you went to the back of the queue. The confidence of a few seconds ago seemed to disappear completely, replaced by a certain fear. Were the flames too high? Wouldn't the wind blow them onto you?

But as soon as it was your turn, you ran towards the fire. Holding each other's hands tightly, you matched your steps so that they were in complete sync; that's before you gave an impulse to jump over the fire.

It was quick, less than a second perhaps. And by some miracle you didn't hurt yourselves or knock over the wood during the jump.

You grabbed his hands, jumping for joy. "Bennett, we did it!"

"We did it!"

His face became confused for a moment as he looked around. "Do you smell something burning?"

"Yes..." With your eyes widening, you realized that the smell of smoke was coming from the back of his jacket. "BENNETT, WAIT A MINUTE!"

Just then, a kamera shot a picture of the two of you. Bennett's flaming jacket would stay in your memory forever, just like you trying to put out the flames with a little flag you grabbed from the decorations.

One of the most special traditions of the Festa Junina is undoubtedly the preparation of the traditional dishes. And who else could be in charge of such a task but Liyue's best chef: Xiangling.

Her stall had a huge queue all afternoon, so you couldn't wait to grab something. How much money was she making selling so much?

"[Name]!" As if in an instant, the girl grabbed your shoulders and shook you lightly. "There you are, I've been looking for you all afternoon!"

"Say, do you have any food left? I'm starving, and running after Bennett didn't help much..."

Xiangling went behind the tent, setting up a plate full of the delicacies she and Guoba had prepared. Putting a finger over her lips as if to shut someone up, even though no one was talking, Xiangling passed the plate to you as if it were a top secret item. "Don't tell anyone, it's all here!"

"But what exactly is... all this?"

Even with your decent knowledge of cooking, you had no idea what each of the things she put on your plate was. But it looked good, and that's what mattered.

"This is cuscuz, I made it with corn!" She pointed to a yellow pile, which seemed to be made of flour. "There's also freshly fried pastel! It's a kind of fried dough with cheese inside, a nice simple recipe, right?"

"Damn... I'm going to end up with a stomach ache eating so many different things."

Xiangling let out a laugh, pausing only to sort out more food, "It's not that bad, go! There's still sweets!"

"Sweets?"

"Pé-de-moleque, rice pudding, fubá cake. Everyone will eat later!"

"Let's see how it goes, I'll stop by again if I need to. Thanks!"

She smiled back at you and went back to the back of the tent. In the background, you could see Guoba wearing a hat with fake braids sewn into it — only the Festa Junina could bring moments like that.

On the bloody battlefield, hundreds fall during the fight. Victory is never certain in the face of the merciless monster that is Klee with a packet of estalinhos — little bombs made for children to play with.

"That... That's crazy!" Running like crazy, you couldn't help but get hit by some of the projectiles Klee threw. Since there was no real explosion, she had no restrictions on who she threw the estalinhos at.

Nothing made the moment worse than the certainty that your sanity was diminishing with every popping noise. You wanted to throw any estalinho back at her, but there was no box near you - Klee had monopolized everything.

"Hey, you!" a faint voice called out from behind a pile of boxes. While Klee was distracted by chasing someone else, you hurried to hide there.

"First time playing with estalinhos?" It was Diona, hiding with Qiqi. Although Qiqi didn't seem to be paying much attention, more entertained by the braid in her hair than anything else.

"Mhm. Why is it so difficult?!"

"Festa Junina is Klee's new battle ring. Well, pretty annoying, huh?" Diona's face frowned slightly. "It's impossible, we never beat her! Do you throw a estalinho? BOOM! She throws like seven!"

"There are three of us, aren't there? She's one."

Diona raised an eyebrow, looking at Qiqi for a few seconds and then back at you. "So your crazy plan is to go three against one? Really?"

"It doesn't hurt to try." You stood up, offering a brand new packet of the bombs. "Come on, let's do it. Please!"

"There! That's good, that's good!" She clicked her tongue, handing Qiqi some estalinhos. "Are you coming too, Qiqi?"

"I'm coming..."

And so began the great estalinho war of the Festa Junina. As it was three against one, Klee made no effort to throw the bombs. In the midst of so many people, it was impossible not to hit someone with an estalinho by accident. But you didn't expect to be the unlucky one to throw one right Jean 's face.

"Oh, what a thing! Now we'll have to stay here!" Diona complained, crossing her arms in sheer irritation.

Klee giggled as she re-braided Qiqi's hair, which had come loose while playing. "It was super, hyper, mega, ultra fun! Isn't that right, Qiqi?"

"Mhm... I wrote about it on my notebook..."

Being grounded, sitting on plastic chairs until it was time for the quadrilha, wasn't very nice. But the fun was worth it, at least they didn't kill anyone in the process - yet.

And then the most eagerly awaited moment arrived: the quadrilha. This year, you were the lucky one to lead the dance. Although it was easy, rehearsing so much made that tune stick in your head.

"Get ready to dance. Smile!" You joined your partner, leading the line of pairs to the center of the party. In the middle, the circle opened up and everyone joined hands to spin around the fire.

"Look at the snake!" With a jump, everyone left the ground at the same time. Then you turned in the opposite direction. "It's a lie!"

"Look at the rain!" Covering their heads, they continued spinning. "It's a lie!"

"Look at the mora!" They looked down down, pretending to pick up coins from the ground. "This time it's a lie!"

They laughed, it could be true — who wouldn't like a bit of free mora? But now, it was time to prepare for the tunnel, where the pairs go underneath.

"Tunnel!" You raised your arms upwards, instructing the others to do the same and create a roof over their heads. And then the first pairs began to pass through.

"Snail!" Holding hands again, you began to make circles. Back and forth, repeating the process twice.

Standing in the center, you can appreciate the decorations that took so much work to put up. The little colored flags that were strung from one end to the other looked radiant in the campfire light. In the end, everything went well. The quadrilha ended and you did a good job.

As night fell and the festive music stopped, people were already leaving. Perhaps it was time to end this year's Teyvat's Festa Junina and save the memories for the next year.

[desisailormoon]

Hey y’all! My server and I are making a Tokyo Ghoul themed cards against humanity game! Give us any ideas for white and black cards please:

🤍 White Cards (needs 500):

if someone were to write a novel about my life, it would surely be [black card]

Not to play Dove’s advocate but if ghouls [black card] then humans should have the means to [black card]

I’m not the one who’s wrong, what’s wrong is [black card].

(black card) is so delicious, its tantilizing.

Something you don't want to find in your warm cup of Anteiku coffee.

Just one bite please.

The perfect ending to a nice evening is [black card].

The delicacy amidst all the extremeness is [black card]

How the CCG is going to bring down Aogiri

Kaneki Ken did [black card] wrong

We have to do [black card] deep, so it leaves a [black card]

Centipedes in my ears, a bucket of fingers and toes

All the disadvantaged in this world stems from [black card]

🖤 Black Cards (needs 100):

Super peace

Dashing away from my problems

Taking a man out to eat his intenstines

Centipedes in my ear

A blood sugar cube

Murder

Tokyo Ghoul Muppet Episode

Big Madam

jar of pickled eyeballs

a stolen car

ghoul-on-ghoul cannibalism

[igotanidea]

Ren Fair: Dick Grayson x reader

summary/request: dick x reader going to a renaissance fair.

Warnigns: some innuendo (but funny ones I hope), some injuries (obviously), fluff.

***

She definitely didn't expect this.

It was just a regular Friday, and that usually meant counting down the hours until the weekend and dreaming of spending the entire two days in your apartment, in a comfy sweatshirt and sweatpants, doing nothing except maybe cuddling with your boyfriend.

With her beloved boyfriend Dick, who always knew how to take care of her, even if she wasn't aware of it.

And whom she loved because of it.

So when she came home from work, dropped her bag on the floor next to the door, kicked off her shoes, and fell face first onto the couch with a loud groan of relief, she was more than pleased to see a box wrapped in blue paper with her name tag on it. Apparently Dick's handwriting.

Her energy felt like it immediately surged again as she stood up, reaching for the gift, almost falling to the floor in the process. She was just too lazy to get up, so she took the classic "let's see how far I can stretch before I fall backwards" approach.

With the greatest delicacy and care, she untied the ribbons and took out the paper, looking inside.

She loved surprises from him.

Or at least until then.

What a pity she couldn't see her own face as she reached in and pulled out what looked like a dress but wasn't.

– Is that a damn corset? Y/N muttered, the frown on her face growing by the second. What the hell!? She never wore things like that! Did Dick get the gifts wrong? Maybe he wanted to give it to another girl? Was he cheating on her? But if so, shouldn't it be...sexier? Even though she was pained by the possibility of Dick's infidelity, she would eventually come to terms with him having a kink for a women in lingerie. But the clothes she held looked more like a habit than a seductive underwear. Did he like the nun cosplay for foreplay now!?

Cholera…

Her own thoughts disgusted her and she threw the outfit away with a groan.

Apparently she didn't know her own boyfriend.

“Hey, Y/n!”

She almost jumped on the couch when he entered the room (of course, he moved like a 100% vigilante even in his civilian version, so she didn't hear a sound. Knocking was overrated in this relationship).

"DICK!"

"Hey Baby." his eyes landed on the dress on the floor and his smile immediately disappeared. Didn't like your gift?

"I..." she began, stopping mid-sentence as her eyes landed on his figure, widening in pure shock. "What-? What are you wearing?!"

“Amazing, right? I know, I love it too. And you better not ask how long it took to find it and how much I charged Bruce's credit card. Dick chuckled, squirming around, flexing his muscles.

What the hell was going on!?

Her beloved boyfriend stood in front of the mirror and looked at himself with a huge and completely unjustified amount of self-love, while looking like...

"Clown". He smiled as if that explained everything.

“Mhm. Yes, of course. She made a confused face, barely keeping herself from palming her face. "The only thing you're missing is a hat with bells."

“You know what, that's a really great idea! Maybe I should-"

“Wow! Hold back, Grayson. Hold back! Do you want to explain this?

"But what?" he tilted his head with a confused expression, thus resembling the character whose costume he was wearing.

“Why are you wearing puffy pants and a diamond-patterned vest? Why is there a weird looking dress in the box with my name on it? Dick - "

"Wait. Wait, wait..." he pinched the bridge of his nose, turning to her. "Didn't you look in the box?"

"Yes but…"

"No? No. Inside inside." - he emphasized, and for some unknown reason a shiver ran down her spine. Should she be worried? Was there a themed toy there too?

Damn it!

She wanted to scream when, at his watchful, expectant look, she turned the box upside down and watched in amazement as a piece of paper fell out of it, which turned out to be an invitation.

What a relief

She clearly had that feeling written all over her face, because Dick's initial concern turned into a fit of laughter, which only made him look even more as a jester as he continued to shake his head.

“Y/N-” he almost choked. “What were you thinking?”

“Shut up…” she muttered, blushing

“Oh, no, please tell me. I insist!"

"Shut up you idiot!" she threw a pillow at him, which of course didn't hurt him, and focused on the list to keep her trembling hands occupied. “Renaissance fair?”

"Ta dah! Surprise!" - he smiled, throwing his hands in the air

“Since when have you been a fan of history?” Y/N frowned. “I mean, I know you're an 80s fan because Discowing….”

"Shut up!" he ran up to her and put his hand over her mouth before she even said a word. “It was comfortable and airy!”

“Can't argue with that!” She giggled, but it was actually liberating to know that he wasn't into the type of cosplay she had initially thought of.

"come on, let's go. It'll be fun, I promise. You'll be the lady-in-waiting, and I'll be your devoted clown, always ready to cheer you up."

“You don’t need that outfit to do that.”

“But it’s working,  isn’t it?” he smirked, enjoying the smile forming on her face, which he didn’t see for a while now. “Pretty please?” he pouted his lips, giving her a begging puppy look.

“can’t say no to those eyes, can I?” she ruffled his hair playfully.

“But we definitely are getting me that hat!”

*** 

Given all that, on Saturday forenoon Dick and Y/N dressed up (obviously not without her complaining about lack of ability to breathe because of the corset ties) and drove to the renaissance fair Dick was so excited about.

And apparently not only he had such feelings, cause the crowd of people coming from all directions was in fact overwhelming. Who would have thought that so many women would choose to spend their weekend dressed up in sixteenth-century robes, listening to the sounds of lute music.  Who would have thought that so many men would rather discuss the aspects of the works of the brightest minds of the era than lay on the couch mindlessly flipping through their phones or switching TV channels.

In a spacious field, here and there, were colourful tents, in which women showed Renaissance activities such as weaving and embroidery. In the very centre, at located there stage, at high noon, a typical scene from the life of people at that time was to be performed. There were costumed event participants everywhere, and the tables set under canopies were brimming under the weight of delicacies and drinks, the sight of which made your mouth water. The smells, sounds and the lazy atmosphere of sunny weekend day were creating an otherworldly and timeless impression.  It was almost like a time travel few centuries back, and despite her initial inhibitions and fear that it would all turn out to be a flop and a laughing stock it seemed like everything was buttoned to the last detail.

“are you ready m’lady?” Dick bowed slightly in front of Y/N reaching for her hand, the bells on his hat jingling at the motion.

“Grammercy (thank you)” she mirrored his motion „although I am not sure whether a Good Madam (lady of the court) shall be seen in such familiarity with a jokester.” Y/N turned her head away slightly, feigning the woman’s shyness.

“Grammercy? Oh, you little minx, you came prepared!” Dick laughed happily, trying to tickle her.

“Yeah, well, I did some research, but you have no idea how hard it was to find something more than please and thank you on the Internet on such short notice!“

“Mhm, sure…” he muttered absentmindedly, too excited by the fact that she was already starting to enjoy the day.. “You’re doing amazing one way or another. Now come on, love, I want to see everything.”

 ***

“Told you it was not a good idea to try and outdo the professionals!”

“I am a professional!”

“Not is this outfit, Dick!”

It was such a nice day, full of laughter, joy, tasting food and trying out new activities. No worries or stress or the pressure of time (pun intended). Just spending time together.

Well-

Until it was time for the acrobats to perform.

Obviously, after literal five minutes Dick crossed his arms and started sulking and muttering under his nose. Something about him being better and more skilled and if only he could get on that stage, he would let everyone know what a real SHOW was all about. Unfortunately, one of the performers heard his gabble, and unaware of the potential consequences and Dick’s attention-seeker attitude, invited him to join, before Y/N managed to stop them.

It wasn’t surprising to her that her boyfriend was in fact good, he was raised in the circus after all, but doing acrobatics, somersaults and pirouettes in the air, in a very specific suit and footwear was far from trying to do so on a slippery stage in a jester’s pompon shoes.

So, in result, she was now sitting with him in the shade of a tree, with his leg stretched out on the grass using some ice to minimize the swelling on his ankle, laughing internally at the whole situation.  

“But Y/N!”

“hush, Grayson. I swear I’m gonna put you on house arrest for bringing shame to me.” She chuckled, making sure the whole ankle was evenly cooled.

“HEY! That’s mean! And not true! That’s a slander!” he started to fidget, equally hurt and annoyed by those words. But the second her joy-filled eyes landed on his face and she gave him her prettiest smile he had to let go of the feigned resentment.

“You were so much better than those acrobats there, Dick. Truly. Thanks for bringing me here, I did have fun.” She pecked his nose briefly. “Regardless, you got to warn me next time you come up with such a crazy idea.”

“Where’s the surprise in- Wait, did you say next time?!”

“hush, jokester! It is not proper to address a lady this way.”

“God, Y/N, I love you” he grabbed her waist and not caring about correct reflection of the era’s customs pulled her close to his chest kissing her deeply. He adored that woman with her endless acceptance of his jokes and humour and staying with him despite his (sometimes childish) attitude and his openness and crazy ideas. And maybe he was keeping a little something in those puffy pants pocket, waiting for a proper time.

Which he was sure was going to come sooner than later.

honorary mention to @gone-batty-fics as a thanks for making me pay more attention to punctuation :D

[emin-folly]

Ok, can I ask for:

7. Auction

10. Bargin

11. Bard

14. Barry horse

18. Barry Jesse

24. Barry Superman 2

29. Battle of the fashion tastes

36. Cats

37. Cheetah

39. Clark reading Cinderella

40. Compromise

42. Cover flash

45. Crackship doodles

53. DC Barry and Kitty

55. DC Barry's obsession

56. DC Barry's weird fears

58. DC dad brawls

59. DC aeo styles

66. DC hole in the ground

73. DC nobody wants to save thawne

76. DC Slade's new pet

79. DC Speedsters and abugs

82. DC ableached

83. DC Furries

85. DC OC

90. Deer style

91. Flash AU doodles

97. Drunk Barry

100. Eohal

101. Eo medieval

108. Eo wants commitment

111. Eobard ivy doodles

115. Eobeth

116. Eo Carol

137. Gertrude

138. GL headaches

139. GL Human Infestation

144. Hamlet

150. Horse

155. Iris gets powers

160. Linda and Barry

161. Manga So

167. Mom j'onn

168. Monophobia

174. Ot3

182. Plaything

197. Ship comic

199. Sin

202. Speed dancing

204. Starflash

205. Swan thawne

206. Symbolism

210. Touchy feely

214. What eo eats

216. Women

219. xxx

& anything else you're excited to share ☺️

Yeah I really should've seen this coming LOL

O o f

Hoooooo kay, strap in babes, it's gonna be a JOURNEY

Also FYI, I won't be showing sketches for every single one of these, either because I didn't draw much for them or the sketch is just too ugly to be shown publicly lol Without further ado, let's get into it!

7. Auction

Okay, so this is one part of a SUPER self indulgent concept of mine, one I'm honestly kinda shy just talking about it but the idea is, in the DC universe, I think we can all agree there's slave markets out there. And I feel like speedsters would be considered very valuable, on account they're some of the few beings who are attached to this ancient and powerful force, Barry and Eobard being especially prized due to the fact of Barry being the generator of the Speed Force and Eobard being the only known host of the Negative Speed Force in the entire universe.

So the plot is basically Barry and Eobard get captured somehow (insert convoluted explanation here) and is delivered to a slave market to be sold and become someone's trophy pets/slaves. This picture is the part in the story where Barry and Eobard get put on display for prospective buyers~

10. Bargain

This is a weird one but kinda like in the same vein of the last one, if there's a market for speedster slaves/pets, there's also a open market for any illegal, special "delicacy" meat. I think there would definitely be a belief among some races that by eating the flesh of a speedster, it would allow you to harness the Speed Force along with a host of other benefits.

11. Bard

Nothing to much to say on this one, this is really just a sketchdump I use for miscellaneous Eo practice drawings lol

This is one I particularly like~

14. Barry horse

I could've named this better but this is supposed to be Centaur Barry, because I love Barry and I love centaurs so naturally I had to make an AU for it. There's a whole series of pictures I would very much love to get to someday featuring Barry and the other Flashfam members as centaurs but I gotta learn how to draw horses first OTL

18. Barry Jesse

This is part of my unofficial Barry series where I draw him with a character I wish he had more screen time with, this time it's with one of his own family members, Jesse Quick! Barry and her never really had a relationship in the comics, the most we got to go off of was Jesse having a lot of respect for Barry but that's about it. In my AU, I thought it would be really fun if Barry and Jesse actually had a sort of brother-sister dynamic~

Barry is an only child and so I think it would be neat to see him have a sibling kind of dynamic with other peers of the Flashfam. Jesse would be older in my AU, more closer to how old she was in the Pre New 52 age because if she's too young, Barry would most likely just adopt her as another of his Flashlings lmao

24. Barry Superman 2

Once again with the lazy titles. I tend to reuse my old canvases so that kinda explains why I just add a number to them lol Anyway, this one is actually based on a Tumblr post I stumbled across ages ago about Clark and Barry losing their powers so they team up to investigate a case and stop bad guys using their respective skills as a forensic scientist and a investigative reporter (if y'all know who posted that, pls lemme know!!) And anyway, this was very much up my alley hah There's a handful of doodles I wanna do for this (because I can't ever just be satisfied with one drawing) where Barry and Clark navigate the hurdles of Being Human, being shot at by criminals, accidentally jumping out the window or smashing their face into doors because they keep forgetting they're depowered. It's a lot of fun to think about~

29. Battle of the fashion tastes

Silver Age Barry and Eobard duke it out, claiming they have the better fashion taste. Thad and Bart aren't impressed lol There's also a doodle about Barry showing up to Ralph's wedding in less than conventional wear. Ralph is speechless, to say the least xD

36. Cats

This is a crack doodle I did randomly one day. I'm honestly surprised DC hasn't made this joke yet cause it's really hilarious in hindsight

Poor Cheetah is so weirded out rn

37. Cheetah Yeeeaahhh, this is just Barry and Eo as cheetah furries. I like furries, sue me lol

39. Clark reading Cinderella

This is a silly little comic that's actually based on a cute and charming Golden Age/Silver Age Superman comic where Lois leaves her super bratty niece with Clark and he tries reading her the story of Cinderella only for him to immediately fall asleep and dream of becoming Cinderella's Fairy Godfather and throwing hands with her evil stepmother. It's great, I really recommend it (sadly I don't know the exact issue number, if anyone does, please drop me a line!)

40. Compromise

Eo tries to compromise with Barry: if he leaves Barry's family alone, Barry will let Eo do whatever he wants to him. Barry agrees. The ending is...unexpected aha. Here's a sneak peek of Eo's smug rat face tho~

42. Cover Flash

This is a redraw of that one really gay Flash cover because it haunts me in the corners of my mind What was the artist's mindset drawing it? Did Joshua Williamson come up with the idea? I feel like he had to. It's just so hilarious and gay, I can't- Anyway here's Barry's looking very disturbed about having his privacy invaded

45. Crackship doodles

This is one the sketchdumps for one of my absolute favorite DC ships of all time: EoIvy. It started out as a "haha that's a cute ship" to "they are infesting my brain, the roots are so deep right now and there's no hope for a cure" askdhsgkdb I have like, a million doodles ideas for them, I just need to organize myself, and also find an Ivy design I wanna use (no hate to the Injustice design, it's... alright. Tho I prefer her having green skin over human tones)

These are about Ivy showing Eo off like the bottom bitch he is to other people, mostly Gotham Rogues, to which no one approves of lol

They're not any where close to being done but have a mini Eo I drew in the corner~

53. DC Barry and Itty

This is a little comic I started from before I read a lot of comics. I heard that Hal had a partner/pet Itty and at the time I didn't know how Barry really acted or if he knew about Itty, so I had him being very unnerved by him. Itty is just happy to have another buddy xD

55. DC Barry's Obsession

Oh this is a cute one. Okay so, I don't know if you played or watched the game Lego Batman: Beyond Gotham (which by all rights should've been a Green Lantern game but that's another topic for another day) Anyway, long story short, the Justice League gets hit by all the different Lantern emotions, Barry in particular being hit by the Orange Lantern Greed beam. So now you have a speedster that's taking anything that isn't nailed down, from batarangs to buildings, much at the dismay of the other heroes. Thankfully, he's still pretty reasonable even in this greedy phase, just telling him "No" is enough to make him put the stuff back.

I wanted to play with this concept cause I thought it was funny and cute to see Barry in this different kind of light. I haven't come up with something solid yet but I want to get to it sometime~

56. DC Barry's Weird Fears

Okay so, this one is a crack/silly idea I wanted to do where Barry gets affected by Scarecrow's fear toxin or maybe the Yellow Lantern fear or whatever but anyway, Barry is forced to face one of his nightmares...which, as it turns out to Eobard's surprise, isn't about his family or loved ones, but something else entirely--food. Yeah xD

I won't tell you the punchline cause I still wanna draw it someday so I'll just leave you with what's probably the best Eo drawing I ever did lol

58. DC Dad Brawls

Idk if you're familiar with the Green Lantern CGI animated series but this pic is supposed to be Hal and Sinestro fighting over who has the best daughter (in the show Hal more or less adopted Aya lol)

59. DC Eo Styles

Actually what it says on the tin, for once ahah. This is me practicing drawing Eo in the DCAU style and also experimenting with a cartoony style of my own.

I like this result a lot but I feel like it's not as stylized as I was going for. Plus it also feels a little too close to other people's existing cartoony art styles. Tho I do love how Eo looks like some rich bad guy from a cartoon who eats shit at the end of the movie lmao

66. DC Hole In The Ground

Oh boy, this is a throwback LOL I drew this back when I was a baby Flash fan and I didn't know the characters very well at all, I didn't even really like Eobard at this point

Some context: this tales place in an AU where, idk maybe Barry somehow took all his rage, hate and pain away, but Eobard is now a mentally adjusted, normal man. The Flashfam tho, hasn't taken too well to him regardless. This is a short crack comic where the kids, Wallace, Wally/Bart and Avery?? Jesse?? Take Eo to a six feet deep hole in the ground cause they needed his help. Course it's all a ruse so when Eo gets close to the hole, they push him in and try to bury him.

Don't worry, Barry got Eo out, tho not without a disapproving expression as he asks the kids if they're proud of themselves. They are xD

73. DC Nobody Wants to Save Thawne

This is also part of the "Thawne is Redeemed" AU funnily enough. The concept is a twist on the classic "villain takes someone hostage" scenario where some bad guy speedster takes Thawne as a hostage, threatening to kill him, to which everyone cheers. Bewildered, the villain then goes "OR...I'll let him go, to which everyone screams "NO"

Yeah, even good Eo still isn't liked by anyone xD

76. DC Slade's New Pet

This is also based on comic canon. In the Flash New 52 comics, Evil Future Barry makes a throwaway remark that he was trained by Batman, Slade and Lady Shiva and I have since then been utterly captivated by this idea, and I waNNA FISTFIGHT DC, LIKE HOW ARE YOU GONNA MENTION HE WAS TRAINED BY THE WORLD'S BEST FIGHTERS AND THEN NOT EVEN SHOW A FLASHBACK DO YOU HATE ME DC??! AUGH

ANyway, my pic takes place during Barry's training with Slade and what that might look like, complete with a speedster whistle. Barry's pretty much Slade's pet speedster and he's not amused about it 😂

79. DC Speedsters and Bugs

A funny little comic where Wally tries to smack flies in the JL watchtower. It...does not end well lol

Rip, Batman

EDIT: Whoops! I just realized I called this Wally when Bruce says "Barry" here, MY BAD

I originally meant this to be Barry but then it was pointed out to me that it would be more in character for Wally to swat the bugs so I changed it aha

82. DC Bleached

This is just me crossing DC with my favorite anime/manga Bleach, specifically reimagining what my favorite character, Kenpachi, would be in the DC universe. I think he would definitely be in the Yellow Lantern Corps and picks fights with Sinestro and pretty much everyone around him and getting lost. It's basically just this:

83. DC Furries

More DC furries but also with Clark this time. I tried making him into a lion cause I feel like that fits him the most (that or a bear) It...didn't come out good lol

85. DC OC

Ayyy I get to infodump about my girl, WHOO

OK so, something to know about me is that I don't really tend to do the whole OC thing. Not that I don't love it cause I do! I love the idea of making up characters for media I'm in and seeing other people's fan characters is so fun and inspiring. The problem is, I'm just really bad at creating characters OTL

But for DC, my need for a alien speedster finally won out and I decided to just make them myself. She's still very much in the early brainstorming stages, sadly I also don't really have any art of her so far but I do have some ideas for her:

• I haven't figured out the details about her species but she's basically based on an octopus, tho I would like to take some more liberties with it. She definitely has tentacles because I especially wanted her to have those and bc she's octopi based, she also has a beak for snatching and eating prey. As for her gender, I imagine it's different for her species compared to ours, but in human terms the closest thing to what she is would be a woman. As for age, she'd be the equivalent of 40-50 years old.

• Her story so far is she has lived a relatively happy and peaceful life, successfully raising her young with her mate for many years. Eventually though, her offspring has grown up and left, her mate has either died or is off world somewhere (still workshopping this) For most of the time, she ends up alone. She struggles with Empty Nest Syndrome and tries to fill her lonely days the best she can. Until suddenly, one day, she's struck by a lightning bolt that comes down out of the sky. I think you can guess what happens next lol

• She gets superspeed and is rightfully terrified and disoriented as all hell. She has no idea what's happening and probably thinks she's either dying or cursed. It takes a long time for their Green Lantern to help her but eventually they do. Word gets back to Hal who knows just the guy to call. Cue Barry Allen.

• He meets up with and finally gives her some peace of mind and helps her accept her newfound powers. She's still very unsure but she takes to Barry a lot and forms a great relationship with him.

• Anyway, from here on it would be her going on to find her purpose in her new family of small bipedal aliens, aka the Flashfam and finally feel whole again.

• Maybe I'll have her teach other aliens about the Speed Force or smth idk, I'm still figuring things out • As for her powers, I really kinda wanted her to utilize the Speed Force differently than the other Flashes. I'm not sure what it would be but I'm sure I can come up with something

Keep in mind, some things may change but yeah, I like her a lot and I hope I can show her to you guys properly someday~

90. Deer Style

This is also based on the Silver Age, more specifically a panel of Barry carrying Eobard in a very odd way. It kinda looked like he was carrying him deer style so I'm using that as my excuse heheh

Honestly, I'm very tempted to draw a compilation of all the bizarre and often unsafe ways speedsters carry people in the old comics cause writers really got kinda wild LOL

91. Flash AU doodles

Okay so this is based on @longitudinalwaveme's AU of an someone else's AU where Kryptonians has invaded Earth and enslaved humanity, but instead of it being centered around Gotham, it's about everyone in Central/Keystone City. This one: https://longitudinalwaveme.tumblr.com/post/655662017135427584/another-weird-flashrogues-au

AUs like this really make the wheels in my head turn and I also just love a good ol' enslaving AU lmao Anyway, this was actually fanart for it, these being some What If doodles of Barry and Henry where Barry discovers he has powers as well as Eobard cause it made me really curious where he would fit in this AU, like what if he ran back in time to save Barry/stop the Kryptonians. Maybe the 25th century is still Kryptonian dominated but they have long since become more benevolent and restored a lot of humans' rights to live freely again. Maybe Kryptonian and humans live among each other. Idk, it's so intriguing to think about~

But yeah, go check the OP's blog and the original post cause it's super interesting and show them some love in general <3

97. Drunk Barry

This is an idea I had for Pre-powers Barry getting bomb ass drunk at like, a party or something. My personal headcanon is that he would definitely be a cross between the super sappy drunk and the weird drunk who info dumps about disturbing true facts lol

This is a another comic I def wanna get to eventually, it's very fluffy and tooth achingly sweet so I'm excited haha

100. EoHal

I'm gonna skip this one because I'm answering it in another ask~

101. Eo Medieval

This is one idea I had for how Eo could possibly be reinvented for Dark Knight Of Steel, that fantasy/Medieval Elseworld comic DC has going around.

While I'm very grateful the comic at least briefly mentions them and DOESN'T kill them off horribly (the standard for us Flash fans are so low OTL) I was very disappointed in how little we get of speedsters in this universe. Like, you could do SO MUCH with them, their lore allows a lot of room for some fun and cool reinterpretation but alas, I guess I'll have to do it myself

For this one, I wanted to play off the concept of Eobard being a teacher. I thought maybe he could be a Professor who's shrouded in mystery, a cryptic who holds the knowledge of future events that will unfold. He is almost always seen with his students, a group of misfit children he may or may not have saved from less desirable situations. His goals are unknown but he seems to delight in turning kingdoms against each other.

That's pretty much all I have for him. I also don't really know how Barry fits in this AU but I guess we'll see~

108. Eo Wants Commitment

A What If concept where Eo and Barry were partners before everything went south. Eo's proposing that since they worked together for awhile now, he and Barry should finally "tie the knot", ie becoming exclusive superhero partners to each other. Like a marriage but totally platonic, lol

111. Eobard Ivy doodles

More of my rare pair cause I'm very unwell about them At All Times. This time it features Eo's sexy tramp stamp on his ass, courtesy of Ivy, she gotta mark her property, after all~

115. EoBeth

OK so I'm pretty sure I'm one of like, two people on this whole site that cares about Beth Arden and wanna see her make a comeback in Flash lore.

Some context: Beth Arden is a one off character from Flash: United They Fall. She's a lieutenant of the Speed Force Resistance who wears the Shift armor, a specially designed suit to allow humans to be able to go up against a speedster (though she is still very much outclassed by Barry). She was a brief antagonist before turning around and helping Barry.

Her story goes that she was a pupil of Eobard's and loved him a lot (whether it's romantic or not is not clear but it seems to be the former) She helped him design the machine that would give Eobard his powers. Unfortunately when he used it on himself, he touched the Speed Force and was this driven insane and shortly afterwards he killed millions people instantaneously. He then became a tyrant who rules Central City through fear and drugging his citizens by making them crave Speed Force fixes, so they'll worship him.

Beth naturally decides the best way to deal with this is to travel back in time and kill Eo's idol, Flash (which...one, I love how home girl just immediately decided to kill her crush's hero, that's wild. Two, it's a little confusing why she chose to go back to 21st century and kill Barry instead of like.... preventing the creation of the machine that made Eobard go insane but, well maybe she figured that he would've found a way regardless idk) That doesn't work so she teams up him to take down Eobard. The whole comic is kinda an AU already honestly.

Anyways, I really liked Beth a lot and I think she has a lot of potential to be really interesting and compelling addition to the Flash mythos. She doesn't have to be Eo's love interest or anything, honestly I would love to see her maybe as a rival? Or still a pupil of his?? Idk, there's a lot of great ways to reincorporate her (tho I don't really trust modern writers to do her justice unfortunately)

116. Eo Carol

This is a pic inspired from a supervillain team up in the old comics where Eo interacted with Star Sapphire. Now, sadly the Star Sapphire in the story isn't Carol Ferris but instead a French woman who temporarily took up her mantle. Despite this, I became super fixated on the idea of Eo and Carol being partners cause like, it's just too perfect

Barry and Hal are a great friends, so why not also have some of their baddies also be buddy with each other? Make it come full circle aha

137. Gertrude

Okay, this is a random doodle of a really obscure character from Alan Scott's 1940 run. In it, Alan's friend Doiby had a sentient taxi car named Gertrude...Yeah. This isn't explained nor does Alan or Doiby act like this is bizarre or unusual in any way. I personally would enjoy seeing her make a comeback, but that's just me xD

138. GL Headaches

A compilation of sketches, one is based on that famous panel of Hal struggling to think and the other one is a random Green Lantern seeing Clark's spaceship speeding by and asking if they're supposed to do anything about that xD

139. GL Human Infestation

This is a comic I did where a young GL recruit asks Kilowog to ragale him about the time in GL history when the GL humans first came along.

This comic is supposed to take a funny jab at how freaking many human lanterns there are, ESPECIALLY for the one sector/planet. I mean, I definitely get it, Green Lanterns are popular and people want to see all the cool variations of human GLs but man, at this rate they're gonna need to make a sub Lantern group called the Human Green Lantern Corps fr lol

144. Hamlet

That one Silver Age comic where Barry does the entire Shakespeare play by himself, playing the roles of both the men and women rotates in my mind 24/7. Crossdresser Barry is real and canon, DC can't take it back <3

I definitely have a handful of doodles I wanna do with this, Barry in a dress is too good a concept to just narrow it down to one drawing. Iris is definitely gonna be involved 😏

150. Horse

This is part of the Centaur AU, this time it's Eo. I can't decide if I want him to be a centaur or a human in this AU cause I really love both ways, guess I'll just do both askdgskj

155. Iris Gets Powers

Okay, so this is an idea I had that's inspired from the Flash New 52 comic where Iris temporarily became a speedster. Basically, it's that but "What if Iris got powers but when she's already married to Barry and they have the whole Flashfam?" I thought that'd be SO interesting to see and I really wanna explore that

It'd be about her finally getting to see the world from Barry's and the others' perspective. To finally get to feel the humming buzz as the Speed Force courses through her veins and reach out and blur and blend into everyone else, to feel as one with the other speedsters, to finally be able to run with her family awahhh

Fair warning though, it does have a kinda bittersweet ending so be prepared~

160. Linda and Barry

I really wanted to draw these two together cause honestly, it is SO mind boggling that these two haven't???? Had a heart-to-heart conversation yet??? ESPECIALLY after Flashpoint. I personally felt robbed and so I've taken it upon myself to give them their moment in the spotlight they deserve. Barry is full of regrets and Linda, after some time to soul search and to think it through, forgives Barry and they hug <3

161. Manga Eo

Ok so, fun fact, did y'all know there's an official DC manga?? And that Eobard actually appears in it (not Barry for some strange reason) and fights Hal? Yeah, that's a thing that exists

I really liked his look here, even if it is very subtle, like the thick black outlines around his mask and so I wanted to try drawing him myself~

167. Mom J'onn

Remember that Batman Lego game I mentioned earlier? Yeah, this is based on that too lol

So in the game, everyone splits up to go to the Lantern planets bases, J'onn, Cyborg and Barry visiting the planet of Nok where the Indigo Lanterns are.

Barry is still in his super greedy phase and Cyborg has unfortunately been zapped by the yellow Lantern energy so now he's absolutely terrified of every little thing. J'onn was one of the few who wasn't hit by the Lantern beams so he's pretty much the only sane and capable one here. Mom J'onn refers to him basically having to keep Cyborg from freaking out and Barry from stealing everything under the sun while also simultaneously fight off the mind controlled Indigo Lanterns and restore their power battery. Send some prayers for J'onn cause he is Stressed lmao

168. Monophobia

Ahh yeah, ok this is based on Post New 52 Flash Rebirth where Barry definitely experiences this, especially the part at his birthday party where he is consumed with the fear of Eobard killing everyone he loves. This comic is Eobard exploiting that, isolating Barry and giving him a taste of his pain. It's basically Barry whump which I love and will definitely deliver more on in the future <3

174. OT3

Oops, I think I listed the wrong file. OT3 is one I'm already done with, I think I meant to write OT3 1. My bad! Anyway, OT3 1 is some more EoHarlIvy because a handful of people seemed to really enjoyed my art of them 😊 In this pic, Harley's dive-bombing Eo and Ivy, because she naturally can't let them have their moment alone together lol

182. Plaything

This was actually inspired by @ftl-faster-than-lifewonderful's fabulous art of putting Eo in a collar and that sparked the idea of like, Barry and Iris finally deciding they had Enough and just slapped a collar on this idiot in the hopes he'll finally calm down. It kinda ends up backfiring on them tho cause now he's absolutely insufferable about being their plaything lmao

197. Ship comic

This was part of an art trade thing also for @ftl-faster-than-life where they requested I draw Eobard x Amanda Waller (yes, *that* Amanda Waller) In a rare twist of events, she's the one who has his ass tied up and is definitely planning on doing some nefarious things to him hehe

There's actually a two page comic to go with this but I think I'll make that it's own post

199. Sin

I'm afraid I don't have much to say on this one but these are more drawings of Barry and Eobard during their time in the slaver's market~

202. Speed Dancing

Okay yeah, this one doesn't really have a reason behind it except I just wanted to draw Barry and Eobard in fancy suits and dancing with each other lol

204. Starflash

Remember that one old comic I mentioned earlier with Eobard and Star Sapphire? This was supposed to be a kind of panel redraw of their first interaction, where Eobard lays on the charm extra thick and bows to kiss her hand and introduces himself as Professor Zoom and stuff. IDK why, I just thought it'd be fun aha

Old art is old

205. Swan Thawne

I got this random idea from being on Chinese fanart sites and seeing Eobard's last name often being mistranslated as 'Swann'. Swans in real life are pretty, graceful and can be absolutely vicious, just like Eo so why not draw him as one? lol

206. Symbolism

This was a piece that was supposed to represent Barry and Eo's relationship. I don't fully know what the context would be but it'd something like if Barry or Eo went into the other's mind. Chains are involved 👌

210. Touchy Feely

This is just Eo being touched starved as hell aha For as strong and anti people Eobard is, I feel like if someone caressed him lovingly, he'd immediately shatter. It's a great concept I like playing with~

214. What Eo eats

A lil comic thing about what Eobard runs on since he never seems to eat

It's spite lmao

216. Women

Once again creatively titled. This one is yet another genderbend pic of mine that takes some inspiration from the old comics where Eo flirts with a apprehensive Dinah, much to Ollie's shock and disgust lol

219. xxx

Yet another pic for my self indulgent slavery AU, this time it's Barry and Eobard dressed up in cute skimpy slave outfits and collars <3

AND THAT'S THE LAST ONE /ded

MAMMA MIA ,what a undertaking that was akshdjakj

Thank you EXTREMELY much for your interest~!! <33 This was a beast and a half to tackle but I absolutely loved talking about my WIPs and I sincerely hope you enjoyed hearing them as well!! :)

As for ones I'm excited to talk about, there are definitely some I can think of but this post is already way, WAY too insanely long so I'mma cut it here~

[dirtytransmasc]

I read your post about Spdier wanting to connect with Eywa and like, HE CAN?????

In the first movie, when performing the ritual of transferring consciousness from the human body into a Na��vi, both Grace and Jake were connected to Eywa through her roots touching their bone marrow/brain area. I’m not sure how that worked but Eywa must have stretched out her roots herself and so, I feel like she could do the same to Spider.

Like imagine Spider falling asleep under the tree of souls and the small roots, like nerves start moving on their own. They embrace him, glowing in the pandorian night and stretch out to the back of his head and BOOM, Spider wakes up in the spiritual world, shocked and confused af.

Que the Sullys/recoms (depending on when it happened) finding their feral child enveloped by Eywa as it pulses like a heartbeat. I feel like the Sullys would be so damn exited and amazed and proud and happy that Eywa recognised him, while recoms (specifically Quaritch) would get a level 100 heart attack thinking the tree is digesting him or smth 😭

ok, sorry this took so long, I'm finally dredging the bottom of my inbox.

but I could see this happening. eywa wishes to hold all her children, and she's gonna do it she doesn't care what it takes. so when the small child falls asleep on her (cause that wild child would never sit still long enough for her to do so before), she takes him into her 'arms' like any mother would. and as gentle as she is about it, it's a rude awakening for her sweet child, and he startles upon realizing he's in the spirit world. first he thinks he's dreaming, then dead, and then he has no idea what he's supposed to think.

he's calmed by the Great Mother, with the skill and delicacy only a mother can have, and he gets to meet her and his ancestors; Grace, Trudy, Tsu'tey, his mother. he finds himself frequently being called to the tree (mostly though the atokirina) and he takes to it as a frequent napping spot (as a child who was never held by his mother, he finds it comforting to sleep in Her embrace)

the sully kids think its amazing, cause once he's done it before, he knows how to do it again and again, so he gets to goes to the communions and talk about the ancestors. jake is proud, he knows what its like to finally connect, to feel right in the way that being one with eywa. neytiri (within the context of canon, for my new followers who are in it for my mama!neytiri content) would be forced to rethink some things; The Great Mother was going out of her way to be with him, he was one with Her just as the rest of her children, no person who could be anything like that Demon would ever be accepted by Eywa. so it definitely does shift some dynamics within the family.

the recom's do infact think he's being eaten by the 'big spooky tree' and spider came to just quick enough to stop them from cutting him from the roots of the tree. he then has to explain that no matter what is happening, for his sake, to not harm the roots, that they can very easily and very gently untangle him with no damage to The Great Mother.

[beesmygod]

HI EVERYONE: TODAY'S PAGE IS LATE.

im calling my shot too early, but i've spent the last 2 days getting my ass beat by lupus symptoms. im feeling so much better. the page is coming.

BUT in the meanwhile: i wrote this long post about why i left Hiveworks

ill put it under a readmore here on tumblr in its entirety:

intro: dont get your hopes up

look, i’m going to be straight up with you: there’s no messy drama or fallout that caused this. no juicy deets or salacious rumors to slurp down. you know if this were the case, i would have erupted across my various social medias in a frenzied rage with all the delicacy of a bull in a china shop partly for entertainment purposes. instead, this will probably be a boring at best navel gaze where i try to walk the line between pragmatically trying to explain why i left and moral grandstanding. because leaving abruptly looks weird externally, i do actually have to explain why instead of just mysteriously leaving during a period of time where i am being an obnoxious asshole. a combination of disdain for the current cultural zeitgeist and a growing culture of disrespect toward audiences has culminated in my online behavior devolving into the online version of grabbing people saying stupid shit on the street and shaking them very hard. this is something an insane person would do. i know.

the commodification and increasingly blatant commercialization of an art format that could once arguably be compared to other amateur transgressive arts (ex: underground comix, tijuana bibles) is borderline heartbreaking. not to be too dramatic, but i want to start smashing things like im a monster from the rampage arcade game to scare the NIMBYs away before they start building escape rooms where the fetish web comics used to be. there is no place unspoiled by the poison of advertising and sponsorships. except…

 

 

trying to make money in comics is a fool’s errand. go make furry porn commissions if you want to make money doing art! you’re completely out of your mind if you go into the arts to make money. full on detachment from reality if you choose comics. they should commit you if you choose web comics.

 

at hive:

i think people have a wildly different perception regarding the popularity of A Ghost Story so i have approximate data to give people an idea. having culled the SHIT out of my analytics results to remove bot traffic, i think i have relatively accurate results, i get about 1000 unique visitors a month (generously rounding up lol), about half of them are regulars, and 10% of them donate to patreon (this is, imo, an unfathomably large amount lol. shocking and humbling. thank you for your continued support of me in spite of [gestures]).  i feel like a small comic 99% of the time, but man. 1,000 is a big number. i can at least reasonably assume, i’m PRETTY sure, that i was a comparatively small comic in hiveworks.

my monthly payout was roughly $100 a month (and merch sales, if applicable) and their services included web site help, dealing with any merch sales, and site hosting in exchange for running banner ads (which have been a fixture on web comics since the conception of google’s ad program; remember the homestuck bidding wars??). banner ads felt like a small and reasonable compromise to be included in something that felt like a weird pipe dream. in certain circles, a hiveworks invitation was a stamp of quality with prestige; i was very aware of the company i was invited into keep and was initially pretty concerned with how my presence reflected onto them and their work. i was going through some serious brain problems due to a deeply stupid relationship and, as a result, i did my best to keep my head down, stay out of people’s way, and focus on not bringing undue shame to something i was well aware i was completely unsuited for. i had (and frankly, still have) no idea why i was chosen as i had not applied. i cannot stress enough that i was under no delusions as to the quality of my comic lol. my perception was that someone had stuck their neck out to make a special exception for me and i was constantly on the verge of fucking it up and humiliating them.

it was a very off-balance exchange extremely in my favor, and i was aware of this. especially since, being frank and honest here, i was bringing absolutely nothing to the table for them. i don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth, but its a reasonable conclusion that i was more trouble than i was worth, given the infinitesimal worth.

the vast majority of hiveworks readers completely bounced off my comic, which makes perfect sense given the hiveworks audience is i think more interested in the genre they primarily host: fantasy and magical realism. in comparison, “a ghost story” is a slow, slooow burn about federal bureaucracy and being insane with extremely amateur art; i know what i am! and that’s fine! but i became a little resentful (and i tried not to! honest!) after 7 years of perpetually being put on a back burner. it felt like i was being strung along for reasons beyond my comprehension or as the baseline of acceptable awfulness for the website’s quality. someone has to be the “worst”, objectively. it’s not a great feeling to know it, coming to terms with it i think was much healthier than trying to fight it. it was a really good driving force to keep my mind off the nightmare of my life at that point and improve my art a lot.

AGS’ irrelevance was underscored by it being mentioned once over the course of 7 years on official social media networks, upon which a great deal of importance was placed. but frankly, there is nothing worse than dealing with the guy who sucks whining for the spotlight as though they are clueless as to why they are getting the shaft. so i simply achieved enlightenment by getting over it and realizing where i was in the hierarchy and how lucky i was to have so much shit done for me. i was (am, unbelievably. it never gets less wild when i sit down and really think about it) making enough through patreon that the $100 became my monthly fun money while i lived in oregon. it was welcome, but not essential.

a lot of real life, awful things happened that suck and couldn’t be avoided: one of the main points of communication and organization became terribly ill, COVID happened and obliterated shipping and manufacturing rates for apparently all eternity, uhhh the fabric of reality began to unravel lol. it’s been a terrible couple of years. i want to underscore this stuff so that people understand i was not wronged greatly in the grand scheme of things.

there are things that started to chip away at me over time, which made me question if i was a good fit at all. genuinely: the only thing i want to do is to try to live happily within my morals doing what i love to do. even and especially if it means living very broke. that’s the exchange i’m consciously choosing to make when i pick up the pen every day. due to the generosity of the people who support me or have supported me at any time (special shout out to adam, who puts up with this shit for some reason), i am able to do that. i contribute a proportional amount to the household now but tried to be (was??) 50/50 or 25/25/25/25 when i had roommates. i don’t want my one unyielding selfish choice to be anyone else’s burden.

i was told by another artist in hiveworks that my confrontational behavior could be a poor reflection on the brand, which became the tipping point in my choice to leave. to be clear, no one in charge told me this, but even conceptually i was not comfortable representing a company that i felt i was a member of out of obligation or inertia. i didn’t belong there and my presence was an active detriment instead of a tolerated nuisance.

anyway:

when the offer to leave was presented, i didn’t feel regret, or anxiety, or upset at all. i felt a placid sense of relief. i COULD leave. that’s TRUE. i had been kicking it around on my private twitter for a few months going back and forth with myself over what was more important to me: being able to take care of myself financially or doing something about my own hypocrisy that kept me up at night. if my incessant argument is that advertising based commercialization is a societal poison, then i need to put my money where my mouth is. and if i’m consistently annoying, i need to leave as a courtesy to everyone else.

i don’t regret my time with hive at all, but the overarching transformation from a collection of cartoonists to a brand is not where i want to take my art. i can’t bring myself to work even within the proximity of seven seas, a deeply abhorrent company. i am completely disinterested in wasting time or energy worrying about “the algorithm” because i don’t make comics for the computer’s sake and recognize that there’s a finite number of people interested in web comics in the world and an even more finite amount of money to spend on luxuries (because none of us have any money lol). i don’t want to repeat the familiar cycle of lamenting the death of art as we know it every 6 months.

people who are choosing to spend their limited funds supporting me are making a deliberate choice to elevate my presence in their life. i want and need to keep this in mind at all times, because it drives my attitudes toward what i want to choose to focus on. i want to keep my art (“art”) free with additional goodies being as reasonably priced as possible in the hopes that in this way we scratch each other’s back. making money drawing comics is a ridiculous privilege granted to me by people willing to sacrifice their time and money to me; i need to be thinking more about all that i have instead of worrying about what i don’t.

[thisisevenharderthannamingablog]

Episode 7 Gun Scene AKA Give Kinn a (little) Break Please

I've seen lots of meta on the bathroom scene but not much on the precursor.

At the end of 6/6.5 they've cleared the air, established that they're still attracted to one another and that there are Emotions All Up In This Bitch. Kinn having gotten shot puts things on hold. You don't want to try to start a relationship while one of you is recuperating from blood loss etc. So we get some plot for a while, and shenanigans from Vegas and emotional abuse from Korn and pep talks from friends, and then we get the gun scene.

First of all, that hanging-up fake-out was cute AF. Second, Kinn sneaking into the minor house to see him was arguably dumb when there's a whole thing going on tomorrow. Totally worth it, though.

I don't think it's escaped Porsche at this point that Kinn doesn't generally attach value to objects. He's been around the house for a while now, would have noticed that compared to the rest of the family, Kinn's rooms are almost empty of personal touches. (See also, Life in Korn's Panopticon.)

[Aside: Being completely uninterested in objects is one way to perform being Rich as Fuck; you can always buy another one of whatever it is so who cares. I find it interesting how the things he does have tend to underline Kinn's physicality; he's all about the scents and textures, and that's a trait maintained during the sex scenes. An interesting choice in a purely visual medium. Later on, when they're dating, it's about experiences, not things. It seems like that's how it was with Tawan, too, so that's a core characteristic for Kinn.]

Back to loaning Porsche the gun. This gesture is deeply unusual, lets Kinn remind him that he cares without getting all mushy about it (got to keep his head in the game here). Porsche has that shy look.

[Aside: LITERALLY NO ONE in however many years he spent street fighting has ever told Porsche to come back safe. Chay loves him, but Chay needs him in a way that means even if he said the words, it couldn't be just on account of Porsche's value as a person.]

Kinn takes a visible breath before this next bit, takes the plunge and makes the conversation about sex. Bearing in mind that Kinn's usual mode since Tawan has been ordering off the escort menu, this has a fascinating-to-me mix of delicacy (yes! I mean it!) and directness.

First there's the conversational placement; it comes after the concern for Porsche's safety. Second, it's a blunt but not serious way to broach the subject. There's loads of physical space here, and they're alone; Porsche can back away or laugh it off if he's uncomfortable. He doesn't do either one; he keeps it playful, but his body language is let us say "engaged." That tongue motion, FFS. Wave good-bye to Porsche's heterosexuality as it disappears over the horizon. He isn't nervous about the idea or still angry about last time, is 100% DTF after the mission is over. They're close enough to kiss, not going for it, but you can feel the anticipation.

Porsche did ask for some words of encouragement. Be careful tomorrow, come back, and then we're going to do this right (and have a really good time) is pretty encouraging. Kinn's expression gets serious again; they both just melt into the softest of soft looks, forehead touch is my forever weakness. Because this is not just about sex. This is them about to embark on a relationship.

Which they manage to do after a Vegas-induced hiccup that lasts all of a minute and a half.

I think all of that setup explains a lot of Kinn's initial reaction in the bathroom scene; the fact that it was Vegas of all people explains the rest. As far as Kinn can tell in those first few seconds, he let down his guard and just got knifed in the gut for it, and he's got an emotional whipsaw going through the whole scene as he realizes that he jumped to the wrong conclusion. Also explains the rapid shift into sexytimes. It's not just that Kinn prefers actions to words, although he definitely does that; bro has literally been thinking about doing this all damn day. I hope he didn't have to try to focus on any work.

Final note - I'm not sure Kinn actually does have as much of a possessive streak as seems to be a common interpretation? He doesn't act like that about anybody else we see. His jealous streak is mostly focused on Vegas, and that's had a lifetime to accumulate. He has a competitive streak a mile wide (thank you Korn, now there's a man who treats people like possessions), and that does show up consistently with other people.

[xxlordalexanderxx]

"Christmas in Xandora?"

I didn't mean to make this so long but I've been working on super charging my lore in the background when not active here. So uh yeah here we go:

❄️ .: Crystal Solstice :. ❄️

The Crystal Solstice festivities take place in the village of Drakehaven, the castle town closest to Castle Xandoria.

The bazaars are busier than usual and Alexander always doubles up on merchant approval to bring business to the kingdom. While he personally doesn't like winter he doesn't deprive his people of enjoying it and supplies them with whatever they need to partake in the activates. As well as keeping good favor with the kingdom in the mountains or the ice kingdom known as Auroravia. There are no religious aspects of this holiday but it does celebrate warmth and being with family and as always a good feast. Not really Christmas but adjacent—more winter like but gifts that can be exchanged.

.:Ice Sculpture Garden and Decor:

Artisans from the sky kingdom of Zephyros are commissioned to come down and create an ice garden for all to visit and admire, adding to the decorations of the village. Many decorations include string lights and lanterns and hanging baskets filled with frostbloom flowers.

Crystal Solstice Lanterns: Symbolizing hope and warmth during the cold winter nights.

Crystal Snowflakes: Representing the unique beauty of the season.

Aurora Ribbons: Colorful ribbons hung around the village to mimic northern lights.

Enchanted Ice Sculptures: Glowing ice sculptures that light up the pathways and create a magical ambiance.

.:Aurora Night Dance:.

Frost druids from Auroravia are sent down to put on a sky show, painting the sky with auroras, while live music is played. Participants can take part in wall flowering or dancing. And even though it is winter the temperature is always controlled in the village so that it isn't too cold to be out, but still one should bundle up.

.:Frost Feast:.

Everyone can have one in their own respective homes but a lavish and public feast is held in Drakehaven where residents from Auroravia come to share some of their dishes and delicates with the lower kindgom as these dishes are typically not common. A lot of sea food and wild game are served, some warm and cold, and fan favorites such as frost berry tarts, honeyed bread and spiced cider.

.:Gift of winter:.

Is a tradition set up for children mostly, inspired by easter, it's a scavenger hunt for little enchanted gifts hidden in the snow. The gifts in question can range from small blown glass trinkets, or magical snowflakes made of eternal ice that never melt, or sugar-ice a winter time specialty candy/confection.

.:Snowlight Market:.

A bustling market where vendors from Auroravia sell handmade crafts, enchanted trinkets, and winter treats and a verity of fresh caught fish and other delicacies from the northern sea. Visitors can enjoy hot combuschestnut choclate or without if you have a nut allergy. ( Chestnuts that explode and self roast when being harvested can also be bought without the risk by the pound)

.:Tales by the Hearth:.

Elders gather children around the great hearth to tell ancient tales of bravery, magic, and the origins of the Crystal Solstice. These stories are accompanied by shadow puppet performances. Alexander banned any stories told about him because got tired of them scaring the kids. Those are saved for the older teens or adults who can stomach that story.

.:Wishing Tree:.

The beast folk, despite still having some reservations about humans did like the idea of having a decorated tree, but instead of chopping one down all the time there is a huge tree a good 90-100 ft tall in the middle of the village that is decorated with lights and ornaments each year that Cromwell grew to replace the statue of the old king that once ruled there. Villagers write their wishes on parchment and hang them on the tree and sometimes generous or the wealthy lords and ladies might grant them, sometimes Alexander himself.

The Crystal Solstice is a time of joy, togetherness, and enchantment, where the harshness of winter is softened by the warmth of community and the magic of the season. One that Alexander is slowly warming up too.

[scotianostra]

February 9th 2002 saw the death of John Noble, co-founder of Loch Fyne Oysters and Loch Fyne Restaurants.

n 1978, Noble was looking for a way to help support the estate, which he had inherited, along with considerable debts, from his father in 1972. When Andrew Lane, a marine farmer, suggested the idea of growing oysters, Noble was immediately enthused.

Recalling that in his childhood he had ground up oyster shells to feed to the hens, he was also aware that the unpolluted Loch Fyne waters, warmed by the Gulf stream, would be ideal for growing shellfish.

However, when he told his bank that he was going to lay an oyster bed, they were unimpressed. “Everyone must have a hobby, Mr Noble,” they responded.

But Noble realised that oysters, which had once been a cheap staple in Scotland, could again be popularised. “We were,” he recalled, “reverting to an ancient tradition.”

The venture grew from a few hundred seed oysters to the millions that are laid down today. Noble and Lane created a flourishing industry, and Loch Fyne Oysters are now exported to shops and supermarkets across the world.

Noble himself became something of an oyster expert. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of oyster growing and a great love of bivalve trivia; he enjoyed explaining the prodigious feeding habits of oysters, which, when in search of food, filter so much seawater that, were they the size of humans, they would down the equivalent of five municipal swimming pools a day.

Soon Loch Fyne Oysters was branching out with oak-smoked salmon, mussels, langoustines and many other delicacies, which are sold through Noble’s successful mail order business.

In 1980, Noble and Lane decided to set up an oyster bar at the head of Loch Fyne. It began as an umbrella and a trestle table and was then transferred to a nearby cowshed. Soon the venture had become a restaurant, open all day (which particularly suited Noble, who regularly took breakfast there) and serving oysters on ice and fresh seafood in simple surroundings.

Noble’s ethos, that anybody should be able to enjoy good food at a reasonable price, proved highly successful, and Loch Fyne Restaurants is now a large chain of eateries.

Noble was immensely proud that his smokery, restaurant and mail order business at Ardkinglas provided “as many, if not more, jobs” than it did when it was a traditional working estate in his great-grandfather’s day. At the time of his death, his enterprises employed more than 100 local people.

Greene King bought the business over in 2006

Unfortunately due to spiralling costs the majority of the Loch Fyne restaurants have now closed. At its largest, the chain had over 40 restaurants. Some had already closed by 2020, and due to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, Loch Fyne permanently closed 11 more restaurants, with further closures following and the last restaurants closing in November 2023.

The mokehouse, Seafood Restaurant, Oyster Bar, Deli & Home Delivery at the head of Loch Fyne is still trading as a separate business, it too closed for a time, but reopened last month. https://www.lochfyne.com/?fbclid=IwAR3Dqq6GDxH77ZX-CN_6h9Ega3VebU3gTpe0e-1PDnuzxOQFGAXgmxQBLPE

[factsfair]

Fact About Hands: Shocking Things You Never Knew About Your Own Hands

Facts about hands indicate the extraordinary complex body parts. Our hands are strong instruments that allow us to engage with the outside world in many different kinds of ways, from their complex skeletal structure to their key role in everyday activities and communication.

Gaining an appreciation for these remarkable facts might help us recognize the importance and potential of our hands in everyday and unique situations.

Fact About Hands

1. Human Hands Have 27 Bones

27 bones make up the human hand, making up for approximately 25% of all the bones in the body. These bones are the 8 carpals in the wrist, the 5 metacarpals in the palm, and the fourteen phalanges in the fingers.

2. Fingerprints Are Unique

Even identical twins have different fingerprints. These unique designs provide a reliable way of identification since they are created in the womb and remain constant throughout an individual's life.

3. Hands Contain a Dense Network of Nerves

With their extensive nerve network, hands are extremely sensitive. The ability to feel even the smallest touch and to move with precision and delicacy is made possible by this high concentration of nerve endings.

4. The Thumb Is Special

Since the thumb of a human being is opposable, it can make contact with other fingers on the same hand. This is a fundamental characteristic that separates humans from the majority of other animals and is necessary for gripping items and carrying out delicate tasks.

5. Hands Can Detect Temperature Changes

Your hands' skin is extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations. The skin's thermo receptors that can sense even minute changes and shield you from extremely high or low temperatures and are the cause of this sensitivity.

6. Hands Can Heal Quickly

The healing capacity of the hands is exceptional when compared to other body parts. This is because there are many blood arteries that are rich in oxygen and have a high blood flow, both of which encourage quick healing.

7. The Palms Do Not Have Hair

The palms of the hands lack hair follicles, in line with the majority of the human body. When handling objects, this hairless area promotes greater sensitivity and a stronger grip.

Read: Dark Facts About the Fashion Industry You Didn’t Know

8. The Flexor Tendons Control Finger Movement

The forearm's flexor tendons are in charge of allowing the fingers to move. The fingers may bend and curl because of these tendons, which act like ropes.

9. Hand Dominance Is Linked to the Brain

The majority of people have a dominant hand that is usually controlled by the brain's opposing side. In fact, the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls fine motor skills, is more dominant in right-handed individuals.

10. Hands Are Essential for Communication

In non-verbal communication, hands are just as important as writing and using tools. Sign language, handshakes, and gestures are just a handful of the nonverbal ways that people can communicate complicated ideas using their hands.

11. Hands Have Over 100 Ligaments

More than 100 ligaments bind the bones in each hand, giving hand movements stability and support. The varied and complex movements that hands are capable of, including gripping and fine motor tasks, depend on these ligaments.

12. Fingers Don’t Have Muscles

While fingers are quite strong and flexible, there are no muscles in them. Rather, the palm and forearm contain the muscles that regulate finger mobility, while tendons provide the force required to move the fingers.

more >>>

[tomwambsmilk]

Made a post saying that Roman was almost always right but nobody ever listens to him and someone replied like “how do these people even watch this show?” Like bro how do YOU WATCH IT? Almost every prediction/business call Roman has made is the right one so??? Lmk how I’m the idiot here???

LMAO okay here's the thing. When it comes to Roman's competency I very much agree with Gerri saying that he has great instincts and he also has horrible instincts. He was right to be hesitant on Pierce, he's the one who finessed the deal with GoJo in season 3, he figured out the Vaulter employees were unionizing, and he figured out that the Turkish private equity would be unstable. At the same time he was responsible for that satellite blowing up on the launch pad because he rushed production, he leaked the Pierce deal because he didn't appreciate its delicacy, it was his idea not to cooperate with Congress, and he's waaaaay too enamoured of 'The Hundred', something which is objectively a terrible pitch.

I think Roman's strength boils down to the fact that he understands people. All of his major successes were either because he was able to develop a relationship that no one else could, or because he understood a person in such a way where he saw something no one else did. He finds out about Vaulter unionizing because he takes the employees out and builds rapport with them; he calls it on the turkish deal because he can read the kind of person that Eduard is and see the ways he isn't being honest; he makes GoJo work because he understands Matsson. And in season 4 we see that continue - he understands his siblings and his dad and Nan and Tellis and that's why he (quite accurately) calls the fact that Kendall and Shiv just want to fuck Logan and Tom and can recognize that this is going to be an issue, even before he knows exactly what the issue in question is. Likewise, the areas he falls short usually aren't "people" areas - its questions of operations, or of the social landscape, or a situation where he simply doesn't have enough information to effectively solve a problem.

That said I 100% agree that a lot of people wrongly assume Roman is fully incompetent and it does drive me nuts. I think we're meant to take it at face value that Roman has a lot of potential - he just needs to learn to distinguish a good instinct from a bad instinct, and to better understand his own strengths and weaknesses, and also he probably does need someone like Gerri to reign him in because he does have an unfortunate tendency to shoot from the hip that can sometimes get him into trouble

[tutuandscoot]

Opinion Post:

I’m so glad VM retired when they did.

- An Essay

The idea that one of the most beautiful artistic partnerships to ever exist- on par with the likes of Lennon and McCartney (within their field), at one point had to come to a kind of end, is a difficult topic to discuss. On one hand, to think we will never see another performance with the excitement and emotion of MR, the delicacy and heavenly beauty of Mahler, the boundary pushing of Carmen or even the quiet intimacy of LTR, is a tough pill to swallow. But on the other hand we can be contempt in the sentiment they have declared that they will always be partners- life goes on but so does our partnership. The love and care and trust they exhibited for 22 years on the ice and shared with the world will never go away.

The way I look at their retirement is through their eyes, and they stopped because it was time for them. I think about that decision for them with empathy- it would’ve been the hardest decision they ever had to come to, but having come to it equally at complete peace would’ve been the most satisfying and coming together in order to step away- is the most grateful they could’ve hoped to feel.

So here below are my thoughts and feelings about this inevitable end and why I’m so glad it happened the way it did.

They weren’t prepared to continue putting in the work it would require them to maintain a level of excellence they were satisfied with- if they couldn’t be all in and be the best they could be then they didn’t want to do it- they didn’t want to put each other through that dissatisfaction. It meant more to them to know the other was thriving doing something they were all in on and 100% dedicated to-even if that was apart from each other, then feel the disappointment in the other that they were in some way letting them down by not being their best on the ice. That takes a level of respect and maturity I don’t think many of us could possess- it’s one thing to realise that in yourself and have it only affect you, but making that decision together, being on the same page, and it being in a way, for each other- to let each other go and explore new things, not hold each other back- they joked throughout their career that they were holding their partner back; S would say it about himself and T about herself, they always said it jokingly but as has been made clear because they admitted it, it was an insecurity of each of theirs. Now after they had achieved everything possible (that they wanted to) in their careers, after so long by each other’s side only striving to be their best for each other, could not do that to each other- hold them back for selfish purposes.

I have nothing against ex competitive (at a high level- world/oly champs) continuing to have long professional careers. That is completely their choice and if they still enjoy it and want to dedicate themselves to it then good for them… but (and it makes it more justifiable knowing TS didn’t want to continue) I would not have wanted that for TS. (And I’m thinking about it, they are maybe one of the only super high level/successful skaters that have not gone on to have long pro careers). Whether I ever got the opportunity to see them live or not, I would not have wanted to knowing or thinking they were continuing riding on the success of an iconic Olympic moment (MR) and performing increasingly laboured versions of it, along with other watered down new/old programs, group numbers, or god forbid a tacky themed/story show. Essentially being a tribute band of themselves.

I like the fact that they were kind of so good, and respected their own legacy too much.. to prolong a professional career that wasn’t satisfying to either them, or an audience anymore. I feel like the main reason Torvell & Dean are so well known to the general public is because they had this whole professional career- post competition and mostly through their ‘Dancing on Ice’ competition show- a skating version of Dancing with the Stars (that’s how I first learned about them). VM are no where near as well known (by name Id) to the general public bc they didn’t do dancing with the stars or let manager and publicist take advantage of the fame they gained through legit super human achievement throughout their athletic careers but especially PYC 2018.

It’s like when a great movie goes and makes a sequel or series or follow ups they definitely shouldn’t have. Eg the series Big Little Lies. The first was amazing, a great story, they tied it up very well.. sure there was a cliff hanger left but it was a fantastic mini series that didn’t need to keep going, but because it was incredibly successful they did another and everyone’s performances and storyline’s (maybe except Nicole’s) went down the drain, and now it’s kinda been ruined for everyone who loved the first season, there won’t be a third to tie up how the second ended, so it’s been left on an underwhelming note.

I would never want that for TS. For them to continue, have a prolonged ‘second career’ (an officially post-amateur pro career lasting decades) where their skating and performances weren’t up to level they were once capable due to watered down chore, not Olympic level skating ability (they would still be amazing but just inevitably not the level of the olys) I would’ve hated that for them.. then add on all the a**holes going to these shows just to criticise them and say they are awful and objectify them. They did not deserve that so I’m glad they didn’t give it (much of) an opportunity.

Again it’s easy to say in hindsight but looking back and tracking the timeline of their last.. really 3 years, so last competitive season and two years pro.. the trajectory really lines up and makes a lot of sense.. eagle eyed (sane and normal) fans of theirs will be able to quote times they had said long before how they would love to do their own tour and specifically do one with the theme of thanking their country. How they wanted to step into the producing side of things- specifically saying they looked forward to exploring their working relationship in new respects (because they love working together so much) throwing a festival for their (yes THEIR hometown T is an honorary Ildertonian Scott said so and her name is on the goddamn entrance to the town) is totally on par for them. Working with a choreographer they had long wanted to and skating to a song they had held onto for more than a decade.. just as they did their comeback, they designed the last two years precisely because in all likely hood that decision had been made.. I imagine before the olys and if not, not long after.. I truly feel they knew November 2019 was the end of their skating careers and that ‘people would be surprised to know we felt this coming (to an end) for a long time’, was a later decision that confirmed it. And I love that! So very few artists (dancers) and athletes in the world are fortunate enough to be able to decide when it was time.. let alone DESIGN their exit- live out their very retirement from the stage (ice) the way they wanted to knowing it was coming and were 100% satisfied with and ready for. What more could you want? Why would they want to continue when they could do it exactly the way they wanted when it felt totally right for them?

I understand people would’ve loved to have seen them keep skating, but the fact that they didn’t want to disappoint their audience by not being the standard they set for themselves shows they care about the people who have supported them all their lives and want to leave us with the memory of them at or close to their best.

Them retiring from skating DOES NOT MEAN people should no longer be fans of theirs or support them. Like a lot of us here- myself included, discovered them so much later.. literally the last two weeks of their competitive careers and I only deep dove like 18 months after they retired officially, and I ADORE them. Their athletic achievements, them as artists, people to be inspired by, their freaking hearts with capacity for love so so big they can fit everyone who needs to be there inside- a huge part taken up by each other. They don’t need support in the form of audiences seeing them skate live anymore. They were satisfied with leaving that behind, and not to say we all have to be too (never getting to see them skate live is something I don’t let myself think about), but we should be satisfied with their decision and respect them for it, because really I think it was the best time and best decision for them.

They were too good. A burning flame as finite as theirs couldn’t keep burning forever, that it burned for 22 years is extraordinary, so better to put it out and be left with the memory then trying to relight something that won’t shine as bright as they did at their brightest.

I compare their humility and maturity in making the decision to step away to that of Ash Barty. After she won AO in 2022, she knew with certainty she was done. She was the best female player in the world and only in her mid 20’s, she could’ve kept going another 10 years, but she wasn’t one of those athletes that just wanted to keep winning and winning- that wasn’t satisfying to her, the satisfaction was in the work and getting better and she’d found she reached that balance point of professional success and personal satisfaction and that she couldn’t justify continuing. After AO and before she announced her retirement I had a feeling we wouldn’t see her compete again.. she didn’t seem like the athlete to keep going just for more titles. Some may feel that argument falls apart with TS since they won sooo much and came back with the goal of winning the olys again, but if you really believe them (which how can you not??) it was more than anything for their personal satisfaction and a passion project of theirs to find out just how good they could be together- athletically but even more spectacularly, how they could push to the limits of what they were capabale of as people on this journey together- how they could be their best selves in supporting each other, the intimacy they could explore, going to the depths of dark and nuanced stories, telling that story through movement together. Their own fascination with the psychology of their partnership- the intellectual, holistic, meditative practices and connecting on a pure instinctual level. Designing their own life project with a business focus, redefining their brand and solidifying their legacy. The gold medal was the end goal but the work was what they were in it for. That would’ve been a million times more satisfying than the gold medal and they came back to competition knowing that because they had been there before and the gold medal was not what had satisfied them.

A career as great as theirs deserves to have the fairytale ending. It’s absurd to me that anyone would think after THAT Olympic moment in 2018 they would want anything more after that- they knew it was too perfect to be replicated or bettered, and anything less.. their competitive legacy deserved to bookend on the highest of highs. It’s not a knock to anyone else in any sport who has mounted a comeback and not won or had the celebration that TS did- the chances of them actually achieving what they did in the comeback let alone PYC are so minescule and it was only their formidable will power and talent- they were the X factor in achieving what they did. But it’s kind of disappointing when you see athletes mount comebacks that don’t have that kind of satisfying ending.. whether that ending is winning or not. I’m thinking about Simone Biles returning for Paris 2024, these a few Australian swimmers I think would be better off finishing on the high they did. There is also the matter of passing the torch to the next generation.

Just to set myself up for another fight on current ice dance, seeing certain teams hanging on and on when really they have probably already reached the potential they were capable of, the landscape and standard has just changed- better teams have retired, which is why they are having success now.. but given in the case of Figure Skating at the highest level they are working in 4 year cycles and aim to peak both athletically and in terms of material for the Olympics.. falling flat of their goals at that specific competition and continuing.. just doesn’t leave the same nicely tied up with a bow legacy.

TS were- while being the humble precious bbys they are, aware of the legacy they were potentially leaving and just as the risk they took coming back to competition in the first place was astronomical, so was the risk of going for more and more out of competitive addiction. No doubt they miss the olys and competing and if there was no physical limitations or other goals they wanted to achieve in life of course they would keep going, but that isn’t realistic, and they are such intelligent, passionate humans it seems like a waste of their still young, incredible lives to limit themselves.

When they say ‘cashing their chips in while they’re ahead’ that’s kind of a.. you know just using a turn of phrase to say it but the sentiment is right in they respect themselves and their legacy too much to go for another olys, a) attempting to defend again or b) coming back just for fun. They are competitive and coming back and not winning.. it’s not an option for them.. 2018 on some level loosing wasn’t an option and in no way shape or form did they win those Olympics out of luck, but they know how hard it is to actually win and they wouldn’t compete… at all unless they were there to win, them saying later on how they had to reconcile the fact- before returning to competition that they may finish last in the Olympics and somehow still had to be satisfied with that.. I think we all.. you know very few things are certain in this world but VIRTUEMOIR finishing LAST in the Olympics isn’t one of them.. but they still had to reconcile that and go through the mental preparation for that scenario.. that kinda makes me sad but also, AGAIN, is so inspiring and shows that this was about so much more than the end result. That’s the difference between them and a lot of others- obviously everyone wants to win but in the nature of their sport not everyone does- not the big competitions, and again it wasn’t through luck- they worked harder than anyone for it, but they’ve been blessed to have a career defined by winning and so to come back for a 2nd or 4th or 10 place at a 4th Olympics just for fun was never an option for them. Theirs is not one of those careers.

Also with the direction ice dance had started taking just in their two years away from competition, it seems even had they stayed in past 2018 it would’ve continued to move away from the focus on skating skills, innovation, close holds, and rewarding difficulty. And I’m sure many of us would agree VM were too good to be forced to dumb down their still for a system that never rewarded or respected them the way they should’ve been in the first place.

I can’t even begin to explain to all of you how freaking happy and grateful I am that they never did DWTS or even that BOTB show (as competitors). I legitimately think the idea of skating or dancing without each other (in that respect) not only sickens them, but frightens them. I don’t need to re-quote to you all the instances of them saying this one way or another (if you need reminding it’s literally the subject of the pinned essay at top of my blog). That they value their partnership so much as to not interrupt it with a “fling” of a dance or skating partnership either mid-career or post competitive career. In retirement- and in fact not long after they were first paired up, they made somewhat of an unspoken promise that they would never partner anyone else ever again because what they have is too special and too sacred.. I LOVE to use this word to describe it: they only felt safe doing this together.