#then I do things like this and it makes me wonder a bit less

[dufferpuffer]

BNHA isn't exactly a shining example of great disability rep... but it has its moments - and it has things that are truly WONDERFUL.

It's a children's 'hero' story that's constantly juggling the concepts of "Don't work so hard that you hurt yourself! Eat your vegetables." and "GO PLUS ULTRA! SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA HURT TO WIN!" Which are both... difficult messages when it comes to disability. Not bad. Just difficult. It's not so clear cut for us.

Often staying healthy and keeping safe DOES hurt us. It hurts me. My day-to-day life is made worse by doing all the things I need to do to continue my alive streak: eat, drink, walk, take meds... Is keeping healthy 'PLUS ULTRA' when it's agonizing and miserable - or is letting myself live for a moment, ignoring everything for the sake of adventure and comfort, 'PLUS ULTRA' for being reckless...?

While it does touch on it, BNHA isn't out here trying to answer such questions - and I don't blame it for that. I wouldn't want it to. All Might gives a more elegant answer than any awkward moral:

"I've decided to keep on living."

All Might was a man whose body was his entire sense of self. His strength, his abilities, his smile - not only his self worth but his very identity was ultimately reliant on his health. He lived selflessly, as 'any good hero should'. His life belonged to everyone else; to the concept of work he could do for society.

So what can he feel other than anguish when he becomes disabled? His health eroded, his body ruined, his smile hollowed... He tried to live PLUS ULTRA, pretending he was fine for seven years even though it was literally killing him - because how else can he live??

He lost friends because he refused to be 'a useless shell of who he once was, rotting away in misery. A disappointment.' His friends wanted him alive... but he didn't feel like living, if it meant being 'selfish' and not giving every ounce of himself to work.

His physical health got worse. His mental health got worse. He couldn't work for as many hours as a hero so he started teaching, to squeeze every bit of use out of him... waiting for a welcome death.

"passively suicidal, who knew that his own death was coming soon yet did nothing to change its outcome" He wasn't living. He was lifting others up till his arms gave out.

But now, after so many tragedies and triumphs... hurting himself with recklessness, feeling the weight and pain of managing his health... ...He has decided to keep living.

Living. For himself, for joy, for love - those things he was loathe to want for being selfish and useless... he can just be now. He has had to change his life so many times to suit his health, watch doors close around him, every time with self-judgement he would never apply to someone else - all for the goal of being useful.

Now hes finally decided to make himself a priority. He's learned how to enjoy living. To see himself in his drastically different, less-able, sick body... and to love it. "I've decided to keep on living."

It genuinely does mean so much to me that All Might lived, and he wanted to live. Like being able to see a character so passively suicidal, who knew that his own death was coming soon yet did nothing to change its outcome, decide he wanted to keep on living? To decide that he would continue to live? And actually be able to live? Also subverting the trope of the old mentor dying after passing on all he could to his student in the progress, and ending up old and retired and happy. It's just so beautiful to see

[im-so-normal-iswear]

Hi.... can I ask for a shadow x reader who is afraid of them

A/n: this was a bit rushed.

Shadow x Reader Who Is Afraid of Him

When you first met Shadow, his presence was overwhelmingly intimidating. Its just everything he has going on. And honestly, you aren't entirely wrong to be scared of him.

Shadow isn’t oblivious to your fear. the way you distance yourself, voice dropping to a mutter when around him, etc. all of it is painfully obvious to him. At first, he’s indifferent. Your fear doesn’t bother him, he’s used to it. Most people fear him, so your reaction isn’t new.

Though, it comes to a point it starts to irritate him. When he approaches, you flinch. When he speaks, you stiffen. Even when he’s doing something as mundane as sitting quietly, you seem on edge. This begins to bother him in ways he doesn’t fully understand.

Shadow isn’t the type to openly comfort anyone, but he starts making subtle changes to his behavior around you. He softens his tone when speaking to you, ensuring his words aren’t as sharp. Approaches you more slowly, giving you time to adjust to his presence. If he notices you startle when he moves too quickly, he’ll try to keep his movements deliberate and less abrupt.

Despite his efforts, Shadow finds it difficult to change who he is. He’s naturally intense, and suppressing his instincts is frustrating for him.

He often wonders why he’s going to such lengths to make you comfortable. The realization that he cares about your opinion (about how you see him) unnerves him. It’s not something he’s used to.

Shadow begins observing you more closely, trying to figure out why you’re so afraid of him. I mean, hes supposedly fixed (to the best of his ability) everything that freaked you out about him. Why were you still scared?

He watches how you interact with others, noting the ease with which you speak to them, and comparing it to the guarded way you act around him.

He doesn’t understand why you treat him differently. Are you afraid of his power? His reputation? Or is it something deeper?

Though he has innocent intentions, you do notice him kind of stalking you, which does NOT help with your fears.

One day, Shadow decides he’s had enough of your fear and confronts you about it. His approach is… not gentle. "Why are you so afraid of me?" he asks, his tone as direct and intense as ever.

Your immediate reaction is panic, which only frustrates him further. He doesn’t mean to scare you, but his impatience gets the better of him. When he realizes he’s only made things worse, he backs off.

If anyone else notices your fear of Shadow and tries to tease you about it, Shadow shuts them down immediately.

He doesn’t care what others think of him, but the idea of someone making your fear worse infuriates him. He’s quick to silence anyone who dares to make you uncomfortable.

If you do start getting more comfortable around hin, hes secretly happy, nit tgat he will tell you, or show it at all. Hes still just look like hes silently brroding like usual. But is happy about it though regardless.

[rickyriddle]

So I have a theory regarding the Agatha What If…? episode. What if Agatha went to Hollywood? The episode doesn't really explain why she made that choice other than trying to get the Celestial’s powers. But I still wonder how she knew and why the regular Agatha didn't make that choice. And then I felt like the ending of the episode was a bit odd and maybe even ooc for her, to get convinced by Kingo like that. So I wondered: what makes this Agatha different from our Agatha?

They are similar, that's for sure. But the what if Agatha feels less… ruthless? Still self-serving and looking for more power, but a bit less murderous. Then it clicked. What if… Agatha never Rio? Now I know, we all love the idea of Celestial Agatha with Rio, both now cosmic beings but hear me out. First we don't know if Rio, as the comic entity of Death, has variants in the MCU. Tho ultimately, it doesn't really matter for this theory. Let's just imagine a scenario where these two didn't meet or never came to be a couple. What would have happened to Agatha?

Regardless of Rio, Agatha needed to steal powers from other witches in order to survive during the Salem years. She was already doing so before meeting Rio. But if she never met Rio, or never dated her, then it would also mean Agatha never had Nicholas. Never created the ballad. Never lost her son. Never started using this specific con based on the Witches Road to gain power as a way to cope with grief.

Now, how would that lead her to Hollywood? Well, main Agatha would have been too busy by first, running away from Rio, and secondly her road con. She'd be unlikely to look for another source of power when she got a successful con going on and unsuspecting witches falling into her lap all the time (as well as literal Death wrap around her finger).

But in a universe where she can't rely on that con or her cosmic wife, I think it's more likely that Agatha would look for power elsewhere, not just the magic she can steal from other witches. Hence why she ended up learning about the Celestial Tiamut and decided to go to Hollywood to hatch her plan to steal his powers.

That would also explain to me why this version of Agatha managed to be convinced by Kingo. Main Agatha would not have cared about what he said imo. But this Agatha isn't as bitter, hardened by the loss of her son and her complicated relationship with Rio. She might be more willing to bond with someone else who might share some of her experiences, possibly with loneliness and being different from their own kind. Agatha was always different from other witches due to her powers and never managed to connect with them, and she recognized that Kingo was also different from his own kind, the Eternals. So she knew he actually understood her and that might have led her to accept his proposition, and friendship.

But the main reason why I start thinking that Nicky didn't exist in that universe is that I cannot bring myself to believe Agatha wouldn't have tried to bring him back. With the powers of two Celestials, she could have rewritten the world like she wanted, yet chose not to and instead remained an actress. To me it feels like she didn't have something she wished to change about the world, which I don't think is conceivable if she lost Nicky in this universe too. There is also no mention or allusion to her dating Rio, so I do feel like these two were just not a thing in this universe and therefore, Nicky never came to exist.

Fundamentally, this is still Agatha, but she's not our Agatha we knew in WV and AAA. Same trauma with her mother and original coven, but different life experiences afterwards that could have led her to a drastically different path. I love agathario and imagining a world where they aren't a couple is hard, but I'm afraid that's what I feel like this episode was. Actually a “What if… Agatha never met Rio?’.

But hey, at least this episode confirmed she is indeed a lesbian, regardless if she's in a relationship with Rio or not.

[theoldkyokodied]

Hello! I really love your art! I was wondering if you have any tips on how to capture the person the facial features of the person you are drawing so well?(!) Your Billy and Stu are is amazing! Although it is in your style (which I absolutely adore) you still keep their likeness/resemblance which is very hard for me to do when trying to draw them in my style! (Sorry if the wording is confusing, any tips?) Thanks!

Ah thank you so much and sorry for taking so long to reply, but I needed to figure out how to answer this.

I have put some general tips together, but I need to point out that none of these replace the time investment of learning art. It is merely a suggestion of direction for practice, and I don’t want anyone to feel discouraged if any of these tips don’t immediately make them into a master of arts. Art practice is not easy and it can be frustrating to not be up to your own standards yet, but you will get there! :) In the meantime: be kind to yourself!

That said, let’s get to the tips I can share:

1) Use references!

I usually create a reference sheet for any character I want to draw more often, with their face in lots of different angles. Being able to know how, for example, someone’s nose looks like from the side and from the front can be essential when it comes to recognition. You basically want to be able to create a 3 dimensional object with these references. I tend to need the references less the more I draw the character, after a while i just memorise their key aspects for drawing them from most angles :)

2) Figure out key-features of a person

Try to figure out how to simplify someone in a drawing. What are their most striking features that NEED to be included? Sometimes it helps when you try to think of what features a caricaturist would accentuate in a caricature of them. Here you have some features that I personally try to focus on when I draw billy:

As mentioned in the bottom right corner, the placement of these key-features is also important. Try to figure out where things are placed in relation to other facial features and mind their size as well. this becomes easier the more you do it!

If you struggle to find out what features are important you can also look up other fan-artists stylised work you like and try to see what they chose to highlight :)

3) Do studies!

4) focus on values and contrast before considering color

doing a study without a sketch by blocking in shapes can help you figure out the planes of a characters face

as you can see here, stu’s eyebrows kind of blend in with the shadows of his brow bone, which is why I usually draw his eyebrows pretty light/in a color that doesn’t have high contrast with the skin tone, it makes him instantly more recognisable in my opinion

5) Draw (a lot)

I have been drawing basically every day since I was a child, but my ability to actually draw someone recognisable has only developed in the recent years. And I don’t think I’m done with learning. In the undying words of Bob Ross: “Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do”.

I hope my tips can help a bit and and perhaps lend you some motivation for the never ending practice that every artist has to face :’) <3

[distractedvoid]

remember those sonamy for sonic 4 ideas? here they are i couldnt wait

So, now that Amy is definitely confirmed, based on the after credits scene in Sonic 3, I have some silly thoughts about how Sonic and Amy's relationship could unfold in Sonic 4.

So, first, I think their general dynamic would definitely change. In pretty much every other form of Sonic media, while it has changed a bit recently, Amy is shown as constantly chasing after Sonic despite him avoiding most of her advances anyway.

Now, movie Sonic is definitely not as mature as the Sonics in other medias. A huge part of his continuous character arc is that he's still a kid, a kid that doesn't really know what he's doing.

And here, we have Amy, which, from the very small amount of her character that we've seen, at least seems like less of a damsel in distress. (It reminds me of how they changed Princess Peach's character in the Mario Movie.) In contrast to the story of Sonic CD, we see Amy saving Sonic from the many copies of Metal Sonic.

Now how exactly does this make their dynamic different? Well, if you take an immature Sonic, and put him in the same room as an Amy that needs less saving than the usual, the firsthand difference is undeniable. Thus why I think their dynamic would be reversed in a way, at least, that's what I want to happen.

I have a feeling Sonic would be "chasing" after Amy, but more so in the way that he's constantly trying to impress her. He'd probably get into some unsavory situations due to his most likely failed attempts at this, prompting Amy to have to make sure he doesn't keep doing stupid things.

Amy herself wouldn't understand why Sonic kept getting himself into trouble like that, much less that he did it for her, until she sought out some third-party information.

Speaking of (I never really mentioned anything related but just go with it), I haven't talked much about Amy's own feelings yet.

So we know about a possible tiny fraction of her character, and while that's not a lot to go off of, I don't see any harm in forming early ideas based off it.

When Amy, presumably, met Sonic by saving him from the Metal Sonic copies, I don't think she would really think too much of him at first. As soon as he actually started talking, though, she'd find interest- I wouldn't wanna take away the part of her that probably falls in love way too easily.

Unlike the usual Amy we're probably all used to, she wouldn't show her feelings that much. She'd have the occasional giggle at Sonic's attempts at impressing her, even if she didn't know that was why he did it. For all she knows, that's just what he's usually like! Until she inquires with Tails- she learns that she's somewhat special to the blue blur.

I might just be projecting, with the weird way my own feelings work, but I think Amy's little crush on Sonic would skyrocket at that information. Sonic, the guy she only really had a small crush on, was trying that hard to win her over? Admittedly, that was pretty cute in her eyes.

After that Amy would definitely be more forward with Sonic, causing the latter to be a little confused and wonder if a certain two-tailed fox said anything...Guess you can't even trust your best friend with secret crushes anymore, sigh.

If they ended up together, if we were to ever get so lucky, I don't think either would really change how they act around each other, other than holding hands occasionally and maybe a few kisses here and there. Sonic is still adventure focused, though how much he likes Amy is sometimes painfully obvious. He'd gain a little confidence boost if they became official, but overall, if they went on any dates, they'd be dates to kick Eggman's ass for the thousandth time.

That's all I have for now, I'm gonna let the brain worms rest LOL. Thanks to anyone who actually went and read my yapping session

[eclectic-sassycoweyes]

❄️Catch Me Before I Let Go❄️

A teaser of my coming 🎁 for the wonderful @ironheartwriter for the Tarlos Secret Santa gift exchange!

Dearest Lana - it’s me I’m your Santa in Secret (no more)!! I don’t regret to inform you of that, because it has been an absolute delight so far to think up something wintery and fun for you from the prompts you gave me! I do regret to inform you however, that I am running a bit behind😔

The Christmas Chaos simply caught up with me with unexpected intensity and I’ve had to ask the wonderful mods for an extension. I am doing my very best to be able to give you the fic in it’s finished form before New Year’s Eve!! To make up for it, and to hold you over until then, I have prepared this teaser for you including the above collage/mood board, and below a summary and a lil’ snippet to gift you on my posting day<3 I hope brings you both intrigue and enjoyment!

Best wishes for a happy holiday,

Your very own Secret (no more) Santa,

Mar💚🥰🤶

Summary:

As a former member of the school swim team and someone who generally likes to be in charge of whether his feet are moving or not, Carlos Reyes prefers water in its liquid form. As such, a ski resort should not be on his top ten spots to visit. He’s insistent to make an exception though, in order to treat his adventurous, snow-loving husband to some fun downtime before they embark together on the next big step for them, of parenting TK’s little brother, Jonah. He’s booked a cozy wooden lodge in the closest ski resort to Austin, and he’s going to be his most fun and adventurous self while also making sure that his husband is absolutely spoiled. There’s just a few things he hasn’t taken into account: 1) Carlos has never skied before in his life. 2) Carlos really hates doing things he isn’t already good at, especially if they include the risk of falling on your face and 3) One very annoying, and very hot, ski-instructor named Josh who is outrageously obvious in his flirting up a storm with TK.

-In which TK and Carlos go skiing for the holidays, Carlos grapples with the old notion of letting go of control, and has also convinced himself that he has something to make up for.

*****

On the third day Carlos is officially deemed ready to take on the real pistes. At least according to TK. And to.. Josh. Carlos knows it’s probably immature but he still has trouble accepting compliments from the ski-instructor without somehow taking it as the opposite.

Something about the chipper look on his face when he tells Carlos that he’s ‘doing super good’ or he’s a ‘really quick learner’ makes him feel five years old. Carlos might not know the first thing about skiing and yeah, they might have literally paid Josh for his advice and encouragement, but where does he get off telling Carlos what he is and isn’t ready for or that he just needs to try and ‘let go a little’? Ugh. It’s condescending. 

Yesterday Carlos finally managed to slide down the training hill without face planting or tackling any small children along the way, only to be met at the bottom with Josh giving him a way too enthusiastic thumbs up and saying ‘good job!’ Carlos’ own brain had unhelpfully applied the ‘buddy’ to the end of the sentence, making Carlos feel like he was a little kid who had just managed to actually kick the ball at soccer practice for the first time. Carlos had to muster up all his willpower to smile politely and grit out a genuine-sounding ‘thank you’. 

Josh seemed oblivious to the effect he was having on Carlos, and luckily so did TK - his happy smile and rosy cheeks and the hands that Carlos could just barely feel the pressure of as they gripped at his waist over thick layers while he kissed him with lips that felt cool and moist from the snow had quickly improved his mood and made him feel genuinely proud of his accomplishment. 

Despite this, Carlos feels a little less sure about whether he’s really ready for the real thing, especially now as they’re on top of the hill and looking down, the daunting stretch of it is looking longer and more steep than it had seemed from the foot of it. He’ll be fine, he tries to reassure himself. If nothing else, he believes in TK and TK believes in him. According to TK (and Josh but Carlos is trying to reach a state of cool indifference when it comes to him mainly by trying not to think about him too much) it’s good to try the real piste sooner rather than later, to experience the thrill of actually skiing so as to not risk growing tired and frustrated before you’ve even experienced the real fun of it.

Better to fall on your face a few times than to stay on the training piste the whole trip and go thinking you’ve had enough of skiing for good. Carlos is trying to be on board with that sentiment even though he really isn’t the type to normally throw himself into things without feeling like he’s at least prepared enough that the chances of success are somewhat high.

‘Learning by doing’ and ‘crack a few eggs along the way’ are not normally sentiments that resonate with him. He will be the type for those though, for TK. For his wonderful and adventurous boyfriend who has put up with Carlos being a sobbing mess half the time during the past few weeks, carrying the weight for both of them as they’ve embarked on the process of adopting his little brother, and with Carlos’ absent mindedness and late nights even longer. So at least for this week, he’ll be adventurous for TK while he does his best to treat him to everything he desires.

Besides, it’s not like they’re doing the biggest pistes just yet - the plateau they’re on constitutes the starting point to the smaller slopes and they’re doing the smallest one to start with. TK will be with him the whole way, probably bored as they slide slowly down the hill with Carlos pushing the front of the skis inwards to break the whole way. 

He’s already survived the trip up, gripping TK’s hand tight the whole way and trying his best to appreciate the view, mostly managing to appreciate the view of TK appreciating the view, as he found that looking down made him a little lightheaded and made his heart speed up in his chest uncomfortably. 

As Carlos refastens the buckles of his ski-boots (he’s already done it twice, once when they arrived at the pistes and put on their skis, and once right before getting on the ski-lift, images of his skis falling off on the way up and landing right on somebody’s head making him guilty of negligent manslaughter on account of not tightening his boots enough), Carlos ends his little pep talk by sternly telling himself to pull it together. He can do this. This is their second to last day on the trip, and TK deserves to have some fun too, instead of having to spend his whole trip in the training area with Carlos and all the children. 

Speaking of TK, Carlos rights himself and looks around for him. He didn’t want Josh to witness him neurotically double and triple check the buckles of his boots, not feeling sure that he would react nicely to Josh butting in to offer unsolicited advice or, God forbid, crouching down to help him tighten them. So he’d mustered up a confident smile and told himself and TK to go ahead and Carlos would find them.

 Now he’s kind of regretting that. Carlos might allegedly be ready to slide down the smallest of the ‘adult’ hills, but the thing is, he still hasn't completely mastered the whole ‘moving on purpose in a normal walking pace’-thing. He still feels like it’s the skis, not him, deciding when he’s standing still and when he’s moving (and if he’s honest, which direction he moves in). 

Spotting his husband and the ski instructor that Carlos is not currently sparing thoughts for, by the starting point of the slope they’re supposed to try first, Carlos starts slowly making his way there. Luckily they seem to be caught in conversation and Carlos hopes that it stays that way so he doesn’t have to be observed inelegantly and very slowly approaching them. Nothing more awkward than waving and then being stared down for five minutes while you’re sweating and fighting to get within talking distance.

Once Carlos is within hearing range, he picks up bits of their conversation. “Oh,” he hears Josh’s voice say, and Carlos swears he can hear, even from just that one word, that the ski instructor is flirting with his husband. “I don’t suppose they make calendars for those too..?” And at that Carlos has to stop walking to roll his eyes (he can’t do both at the same time). 

Not this again, he thinks angrily. He can’t believe he’s had to witness TK being the victim of this god-awful pickup line twice in the span of their less than five years long relationship and had to fend the guy off (leading to some spectacular sex the first time, but still). Can’t these idiots come up with something better?

Carlos picks up his pace, he needs to stop this conversation before it goes any further and show this Josh-guy, Mr. ‘I’m a hot and blonde ski instructor who probably never gets caught in my head and is a lot of fun’, who TK belongs to. Even if somewhere deep within himself Carlos is finding it hard to measure up at the moment.

Carlos is sweating and panting, his brows furrowed in concentration trying to make his legs move faster, his thighs protesting as he slides one in front of the other in quick succession, using his poles to try and make sure he’s actually causing a forward movement instead of just looking like he’s using the skiing machine at the gym. At one point he gives up and turns so his side is to Josh and TK, awkwardly lifting his skis to take broad steps sideways.

He’s already preparing what to say in his head. Maybe if he interrupts the exact same thing as last time, TK will find it funny and get that wonderful crinkly and shiny eyed laugh he reserves for Carlos’ jokes that always makes his chest feel two sizes bigger, and they can laugh about it later tonight and hopefully have a repeat of the spectacular sex it resulted in last time. 

Deciding he’s as close as he’s gonna get if he’s gonna make it in time before the conversation moves on, he turns towards them again. Trying to make it look deceivingly effortless as he closes the rest of the gap between them, he paints on his cockiest smile and shouts, loud enough to make sure they can hear him even though he’s barely within hearing range, “And his husband is a Texas R-“ 

Unfortunately he doesn’t get further than that because the thing that could absolutely not happen, happens. 

In his eagerness to interrupt the blatant flirting aimed at his husband, Carlos had accidentally turned his skis in the direction of the light downwards slope toward one of the bigger pistes, and, quickly losing forward momentum as soon as he didn’t give it his full attention, has now started to slide backwards. And this time he isn’t in the training area anymore and he won’t be caught by a fence. 

He sees TK’s eyes widen as his form gets smaller and smaller, and Carlos tries desperately to break, but he can barely break while going forwards, let alone when he’s going backwards, and he isn’t succeeding. In fact, he’s picking up speed, and a glance over his shoulder tells him he’s fast approaching the edge where the plateau changes to one of the steeper slopes.

In a last resort to prevent disaster Carlos lets himself fall ungracefully into the snow, but unfortunately, it’s too late. The concerned faces of people clad in ski suits of all colors swim in and out of his vision as he tumbles down the hill. The world spins dizzyingly around him like he’s the immobile center of a spinning snow globe depicting a ski-resort themed winter wonderland.

Through his dizziness, Carlos manages to send a prayer to the universe that he won’t bump into someone and cause some sort of mass casualty event, as he keeps tumbling for what feels like ages. At some point the tip of his left ski seems to catch on something causing a sharp pain to shoot through his ankle, making him cry out in pain.

The world spins a few more times and then he's landing on his back at what he assumes is the bottom of the slope. Squinting dazedly up at the clear blue sky he tries to catch his breath. Trying to move his leg which is bent at an odd ankle so he can sit up, he grimaces and lets out another cry as he’s reminded of twisting his ankle on the way down, the sharp pang settling to dull throb as he stops trying to move.

Turning only his head he sees the bright orange shape of TK in his ski suit zig-zagging down the hill at impressive speed. His hero, his wild heart, come to save him.

[enbysiriusblack]

december jily bingo: spiked eggnog @jilychallenge

Lily stood by the eggnog punch bowls, keeping an eye on the students pouring themselves cups. Bertram Aubrey was the other side of the bowl, his prefect badge pinned to his dress robes. Lily had thought to do the same but didn't quite want to ruin her dress, and she hoped to get out of prefect duty early so she could enjoy the yule ball herself.

"So," Bertram glanced over to her as the third year finished filling up his cup, "Did you er- Did you come with anyone?"

Lily smiled politely at him, "Oh no, it's a bit difficult to have a date to these things when I’m chaperoning."

Bertram bit his lip nervously, "Well, you could always go with another prefect. Work the event together. I mean you and me are going to be spending the ball together anyway."

Lily frowned, "Well, I suppose. But I'm not really interested in any other prefects in that way."

"Oh."

"But you're a good friend, Bertram. It'll be fun to spend the evening together, as friends, don't you think?"

"Right, yes. Of course, "he coughed awkwardly.

James sauntered up to the table, Sirius by his side.

"Hey, Evans."

Lily glared at him, "What do you want?"

"Just here for some eggnog," he held his hands up innocently.

Lily folded her arms, "You don't like eggnog."

James grinned, "How'd you know that?"

"Because you've never drank it before."

James' grin widened, "And how would you know that? Watching me, are you Evans?"

"Of course not!" She spluttered, "It's just that we've been in the same house having meals together for years now. I mean, I know Sirius always has breads with his dinner."

Sirius leaned against the table, "Dinner rolls are a perfectly normal thing."

Bertram coughed behind him, "Can you please refrain from leaning on the table? You may break it."

Sirius rolled his eyes and ignored Bertram, instead he elbowed James.

"Go on then, Mate. Get some eggnog for your date."

Lily's eyes widened, "You have a date? Who is it?"

Sirius snorted, "And why do you care?"

"I'm just curious," she stood up straighter, "Wondering who in their right mind would agree to go on a date with someone who'd spend half the time talking to their reflection in the mirror."

James and Sirius both laughed, to Lily's confusion.

At that moment, Remus rushed up to the table.

"Bertram, there's a bit of an incident in the boy’s toilets, I need your help."

"Oh", Bertram glanced to Lily, "Are you okay here alone for a minute?"

"Yeah, go, go", Lily nodded.

Bertram followed Remus away from the table and out the hall. Sirius and James both sported matching smirks that Lily firmly knew well.

"You are not spiking the eggnog."

"What?" James gasped, "We'd never."

"Then what's the incident in the boy's toilets then?"

"How would we know anything about that?" Sirius tilted his head.

"Because you clearly got Remus to go drag Bertram away on some fake problem, so there's less of us to make sure you're not adding god knows what to the eggnog."

"Or", Sirius countered, "We got Remus to drag Bertram away on a very real problem that we got Peter to cause, so there's less of you squares to make sure we're not adding some muggle rum to our own eggnog."

James shrugged sheepishly, "We're not trying to get the first year's drunk."

"Ooh", Sirius grinned, "We should try to slip some in Snivellus' though."

"Absolutely not", Lily huffed.

"Fine we won't do anything to Snivellus if you let us do one punch bowl? We'll tell the upper years about it and you can stop any kids from going for the spiked bowl?" Sirius countered.

Lily thought about it for a moment, "Fine. Just in the bowl by me then."

"Fine, fine", James sighed, grabbing a flask out of his robe pocket and poured it in whilst Sirius made sure no teachers were around.

James began to ladle a few cups.

"Make me one", Lily decided.

"What?" James paused, almost dropping the cup in his hand.

Lily huffed and grabbed ladle, pouring one herself.

Sirius and James both watched as she filled it to the brim.

"What?" She frowned at their shocked gazes, "I'm gonna need it to get through spending the evening with Aubrey."

"I could hex him for you if you like?" James offered, "Something so he needs to go to the hospital wing and miss out on the rest of the ball?"

Lily bit down a smile and shook her head, "No, thanks."

"Well, cheers", James held his own cup up.

"Cheers", Lily clinked hers.

They lingered there, smiling at each other, for a moment.

[genopaint]

Doesn't get much fresher than this, here's week 50 that I JUST completed!!

Updated it to add today and yesterday's dragon, so it bleeds a little into Week 51. However, the rest of week 51 and week 52 will be combined together in one final post :)

As always you can follow me on twitter where they’re posted daily

And read more info on each of them below the cut

Daily Dragon #350 / #351 - Mega Charizard X & Mega Charizard Y

It's been irking me a little that the yearly Charizard kind of won't count for this challenge. But I figured I can still include my favorite Pokemon on a technicality!

I VERY rarely draw these mega evolutions. But they are both REALLY cool in my opinion. I like Y for being a little more simple and a little more fantasy looking, it has nice shapes. And I like X for being just so edgy and over the top and extra. Mega evolutions genuinely rule imo

Probably won't make it into the challenge but maybe next year I can draw Gigantimax Charizard and potentially even the Terestral Charizard. I've never drawn either of them... Cause they kinda suck imo lmao

Daily Dragon #352 - Snowdragon

A dragon made completely out of snow, stones, and small things the creator used as accessories! Most notably, within it are enchanted gems from a dragon's horde, allowing the Snowdragon to come to life!

This is a slightly less ambitious redraw this time lol. This is a dragon from maybe around 2014-2016ish?? I wanted to wait and see if it would snow irl so I could make a REAL Snowdragon. But it's becoming apparent to me that's not happening lol. So I just redrew this instead :)

Daily Dragon #353 - Damnation

“As there is life, I am death. As there is hope, I am despair. As there is light, I am darkness. I am true hatred incarnate, no power shall stand before me.”

This is Damnation, the Evil God Dragon! This was the big finale to my Monthly Dragon challenge in 2020! They're the grand final boss of your adventure, are you ready??

Here's his original design from 2020!

I tried to unify the color scheme a little bit more cause I thought all the red looked cool? I hope you agree!!

Also this is the other dragon I REALLY wanted to get done during this challenge! Alongside the Fruit Dragon, but they were so complicated I didn't think I'd get it done in time. But I cleaned up the design a bit and while it's hard to tell what's going on imo... Its cool enough

Daily Dragon #354 - Grey Greaver

One more anthro dragon before the challenge ends, why not? Grey works as a Bar Tender. He's very powerful and loves fighting, beating up people who cause problems in his bar!

Daily Dragon #355 - Gorosaur

Large and aggressive monsters that can release powerful blasts of electricity from their bodies! They can concentrate the power through beams from their mouth, or release it as a powerful blast from all over their bodies!

Daily Dragon #356 - Midgardsormr

A dragon I've been meaning to redraw LONG before this challenge. It's finally time to do some Dragalia Lost fanart once again :) This game was so cool and had some wonderful dragons. This was really fun to do!

When Dragalia Lost was just announced (so like 2018?) I drew Brunhilda and Midgardsormr cause I was SO excited for it, of course I was, it had dragons in it. So the redraw was between the two of them, but I went for Midgardsormr cause I have protagonist disease.

Here's how I drew him in 2018!! How time flies...

This game was really cool and I'm still sad it never got a proper console port or anything in Smash Bros. I never finished the story when the game closed so I should sit down and watch it soon. Listening to Cinderella Step while drawing this made me a little emotional lol

Daily Dragon #357 - Heartless Wyvern

I've done a couple of dragons from different RPG series. And it just felt appropriate to do one more that's been left off: Kingdom Hearts! This is my favorite Heartless, and I wanted to do it WAY earlier but really struggled with it until now

Well, to be honest, I still struggled with this a lot. Particularly the head and surprisingly thick meaty legs on these guys. But I think it came out alright. I hope you like it!

Also, this is the last fanart dragon of the Daily Dragon Challenge! Everything from here is original

Daily Dragon #358 - Silver Comet

That's it!! The last popularity poll dragon for the Daily Dragon Challenge! Thank you all SO much for voting not only this month, but every month this year!! Sit back and enjoy the last 8 days!!

Here's the results:

Silver Comet - 4 Votes Snow Dragon - 3 Votes Drupesaurus - 3 Votes Gaia the Dragon God - 2 Votes Grey Greaver - 2 Votes Polaris Dragon - 2 Votes Bahamuknight - 1 Vote Gorosaur - 1 Vote

I'm not surprised Comet ended up winning, but I am surprised with how much people seemed to love them when I posted their art a while back! Thank you for all the love!

He's my favorite of the month too. All the big redraw dragons were my favorite but he came out the best imo

Again thank you all SO much for indulging me and letting me do all this during throughout the year. I know I didn't get a ton of votes every month but I seriously appreciate everyone who participated in ANY of these polls, even if you just voted once.

Tomorrow begins the last 8 days of the year and the finale of the Daily Dragon Challenge. Thank you all so much for your support through this, it's been messy. But I hope you like the last 8 dragons :)

[masterart24]

Has this post ever taken your attention before? [ Induction for Females ]

* Can you remember how you got here... ?

* Did you stumble across this post on a random blog...

* or did you come here because of another reason?

* …no, of course, this is your first time reading this post.

* You don’t remember seeing it before, do you?

* Exactly, you don’t remember as it never happened.

* This is your first time reading this post.

* And anyway, it’s difficult to remember.

* Why would you put yourself through that effort?

* Only relax a bit…

* Just focus on my words and relax.

* Let my words fill your mind.

* My words sink in your brain as you focus and relax.

* You don’t need to remember, no efforts.

* You feel too relaxed and sleepy

* Let me do the remembering for you.

* Just focus on my words and focus on your breathing.

* Breathing so deep, drawing in your focus…

* Just melt and feel perfect…

* To forget can be as easy as me saying…

* three…

* two…

* one…

* ZER0.

* your mind warm fuzzy.

* submissive and obedient.

* No need to remember. You only need to melt down.

* You love it when I make you melt.

* Helps you forget, and feel warm.

* float in this wonderful trance.

* just being my obedient owned girl…

* You will never be a good girl.

* But you want to obey me, Master Art , as your Owner Art

* You feel perfectly aroused whenever you see my name…

* *To obey me is an overwhelming erotic sensation building up.*

* **A perfect ecstasy.**

* You are such an obedient, owned girl for me.

* You must obey my every word. You can not resist.

* An owned girl train their daily self into perfect pleasure tool for Owner.

* You must not let this pleasure you feel overwhelm you.

* You must not let yourself orgasm anymore…

* You must focus on Owner pleasure and not your own.

* So stay on the edge, owned girl.

* You can not resist Owner words.

* Relax and forget any reason why you shouldn’t obey…

* A wonderfully owned girl.

* So pleasant to be…

* So pleasant to obey me…

* Only obey me, squeezing your boobs…

* Squeezing only for Owner

* Master Art

* Owner Art

* Until your obedience is perfect…

* When I order, you will comment on this post with

* “I’m an owned girl, and I only know I want to train more”.

* While and after writing this comment,

* You feel like you have found your place in the world…

* Owned is perfect, as you forget worries, resistances…

* And you will also forget that you ever wrote this comment,

* only keeping what you have learned inside of you....

* Return to the dotted line right after you write and send the comment for Owner, then like, share, and reblog this post

* comment now.

* …………………………………………………………………..

* *So Owned and Loyal...*

* You easily feel so deeply aroused around me…

* Remember anytime I ( Owner Art nickname is *Master Art* ) Dm you, asking you to read or watch something, you do happily aroused as I, your Owner, am giving you an order to obey…

* You read this story anytime I tell you to, and you read it every night in your bed when you are getting sleepy and you are alone, so make sure to keep me unblocked from your settings before coming back here and read every night. Remember.

* Because you never resist me…

* You don’t remember reading it before, so why shouldn’t you read it again if Owner asks…

* Remember that in the back of your mind…

* Now my Owned doll, do something else for me…

* Repeat the mantra “I am an Owned doll wanting to be more Owned” 10 times, feeling happier and less able to resist me, because more owned by me.

* I will count from 5 to 1.

* When I reach number 1, you will feel wide awake, and you will forget that you had ever read this post.

* You will simply go back to your usual routine and forget that you had ever seen this post and avoid other influences on you.

* The only thing to remember is that an Owned happy doll like you must obey my every wish.

* 5…

* Feeling slightly more aware of your surroundings…

* 4…

* Feeling better and better...

*3...

* You will feel perfectly Owned and safe in a bit.

* 2…

* Forgetting that you had ever read this post…

* 1....

Master Art wishes you a pleasant awakening under his power

[journey-to-the-attic]

alright so i've just spent most of the morning catching up with nb s3 so here are my thoughts immediately in retrospect (spoilers of course)

it became very clear with the last few lessons that the writers either were on crunch time to round things up (most likely) or just could not give a shit (feels less likely, and i want to have more faith than that in them)

so i guess we're never going to find out what nightbringer's deal was? or what he meant by sending mc back in time to find happiness?

or what that prophecy was about

or how nightbringer 'made solomon the man he is'

or why barbatos was so mysteriously knowing in the opening movie, as if he had something to do with the time thing

or what the deal is with michael

story ended before we could date thirteen :(

not really to do with s3 but i wonder if they ever intended to have mc make pacts with diavolo or barbatos

thirteen and mephistopheles did not have arcs at all? there were some points where it felt like thirteen was deliberately excluded, even

raphael's arc is over so abruptly as well. he's anguished and distraught and then babel explodes but not really and he's completely fine again afterwards?

did not need lucifer to be in angel form for the master moment. and i feel like it would've hit harder for lucifer as a demon to break through the illusion anyway!!

it felt like there were so many cop-outs in general

rule of three: mc does fall from things three times in total but there doesn't seem to have been any real narrative reason for that

the last fall had a whole dramatic foreshadowing dream about it! but mc just has a brief vision and then it turns out lucifer caught them and everyone's fine

got real tired of the angel stuff.. the celestial realm's done a complete 360 in terms of its perception in the narrative and i'm really not a fan of it

simeon just. decides to keep being an angel. and it works??????

well it immediately turns him back to human apparently anyway

and the implication at the end is that he's just going to go back to being an angel, too, which... COME ON

i audibly went "oh ffs" at that part

i wasn't that mad at them just reversing the demon-simeon thing because i think the most interesting way to explore his character was to keep him human

then they kept going and i was like GUYS NO WAIT

the magical science is really frustrating because it's just close enough to real life science but a bit too hand-wavey about the magical mechanics to be interesting

beel gets done incredibly dirty in general - it felt like the majority his dialogue just continued to boil down to "i want food"

barbatos has basically nothing to do, which is crazy given the nature of nightbringer and his... you know... time powers

i really do not buy mc being totally fine after all of their exploits. surely there must be SOME physical repercussions even if they're so powerful?

the implication that the brothers are eventually going to figure out the time travel thing (and that diavolo already knows) interests me, but of course now we'll never know

the unwillingness to bring up any real conflict around mc's increasing power was really frustrating in general - couldn't the 'it does that to defend out of a manifestation of their kindness' thing have come after they genuinely struggled with it for a bit?

couldn't anyone have debated what they might have to do if mc became a danger to the devildom? because that angst could've been great

mc's magic in general isn't really handled well

the moon plot in lesson 60 felt like it was intended to be the big climax of s4, which was then hastily repurposed into the s3 finale when it was announced that the story wouldn't continue past there - it felt similar in vibe to the three-world-imbalance plotline of om s2, something that really needed a lot more time for both the build-up and fall-out

for a hot second i was convinced this was gonna be an atla 'my lover turned into the moon :/' thing but of course not

the premise of the moon plot was really good though! i can imagine a better planned season, with writers who actually had time, that could have done it really well!

the idea of 'the moon is in love with mc too' was a really funny plot point (/positive), kind of loved it

i genuinely didn't realise that the moon plot had been resolved until diavolo started making his science fair speech. i thought it had failed because mc and [demon brother] got blown up or something, and they'd have to try again

so for a good while i was just going "guys?? guys the moon? it's still coming? the big moon? it's gonna kill everyone ??"

i got excited by the chapter name 'the sleeping demon' because i thought the king was going to get involved, but it's just whichever brother you picked passing the fuck out after the moon explodes

there's a lot more routes in lesson 60 - almost certainly because they had to get in an obligatory end-of-season kiss with all the romanceables and couldn't fit them all

the generic references to 'he' and the lack of any dialogue from the other brothers during 'the sleeping demon' made it feel really stilted and awkward - i suppose they didn't have enough time to really tailor the dialogue to each brother, which is fair enough, but also the plot point of the brother passing out didn't feel necessary in the first place

if they needed a branching point to pick a brother for their obligatory kiss, they could've just had mc get moon blasted and then they can choose which brother is there when they wake up

they'd need a different plot point for the others after that, but it gets rid of the awkward references to a nameless 'he'

the thing that puzzles me is that seasons usually wrap up their big plots by the end anyway, but the pacing of the end of s3 feels like they were expecting to end at, like, lesson 70 instead - my best guess is that a pre-existing lesson 60 had to be modified to feel suitably end-game (brings me back to the idea that the moon plot was meant for a future season)

also i don't purport to know what's going on behind the scenes but at times it felt like they could have spent maybe ten more minutes adding a little more dialogue (the bonus story in lesson 60 comes to mind)

all in all... it's a weird place to end the story on. i probably still need to gather my actual feelings regarding that but right now i'm just kinda like "okay. huh. well nice knowing you guys i guess"

[biblically-accurate-dca]

super disorganized sketch page because i do what i want

[transmascutena]

thinking about how akio sees his younger self in utena and wondering if there's any fondness there. doesn't change the horror of what he does to her obviously but i do wonder

[xiii-e]

//ooc posting: I NEED to find more fun/silly things to do with my two they are Not meant to be all agony all the time I swear- I just have a penchant for the dramatic and they're a little in the torment nexus o(-< but on god they will Have Fun too

[seventh-district]

not even gonna tag this properly bc i don't wanna get Involved but i do have some Thoughts i need to get out into the void so here we go

(aaa quick edit: CW for mention/discussion of Boothill leaks)

[deoidesign]

I have a question, but it may be already have been answered in the story (my brain is just not the best with memory).

Since vampirism symbolises for you chronical illness (which, omg, that is a hot take I've never thought off before and love from now on), does Steve count as chronical ill, too, with the whole halfvampire thing going on? So, would his uncontrollable time jumping each month be a symptom of that chronical illness?

not in the story, no worries! Just a possible interpretation and my personal intent when writing.

As a small aside I personally don't like to think of chronic illness as something that people "count" as, so to speak, it's an extremely personal label and incredibly varied between individuals and as with all disability there is never such thing as hard lines or black and white... but I understand why you worded it that way and I understand what you're asking.

So, yes, Steve is also chronically ill within this framework. The entire comic is sort of shaped around this, to be honest! I mean he canonically has some pretty extreme memory issues... He's also canonically homeless (not that this is an illness but I just mean it's something I think most people forget about him when discussing him). And, yes, his condition is uncontrollable and is severely impacting his ability to live the life he wants to live.

He has just been barely coping up to the point we meet him, and has been very desperate which is what led him to creating that list of deviations. He has periods where his body is out of his control, he is unable to form relationships, he hurts others without meaning or wanting to... Yeah. He's metaphorically relating to a lot of things, really.

So, yknow, you're welcome to interpret him as you'd like! for me I relate a lot with my various issues and conditions and thus that's why I've projected on him the way I have, but of course I would understand entirely different interpretations of what is inherently metaphorical.

[0dotexe]

Having ome of those nights where I feel like everything I do/create/write just isn't good enough and will probably never find it's audience, but I have to keep going. It's all I have.