#then i did this redesign just for science

[goodfish-bowl]

Can Something Like This Really be Contained?

Ectoberhaunt 2023 Day 12: Obsession vs Repression

Danny and Vlad have very different coping mechanisms and it shows.

Ectoberhaunt 2023 Master Post

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Antiusurpation and the road to disenshittification

THIS WEEKEND (November 8-10), I'll be in TUCSON, AZ: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

Nineties kids had a good reason to be excited about the internet's promise of disintermediation: the gatekeepers who controlled our access to culture, politics, and opportunity were crooked as hell, and besides, they sucked.

For a second there, we really did get a lot of disintermediation, which created a big, weird, diverse pluralistic space for all kinds of voices, ideas, identities, hobbies, businesses and movements. Lots of these were either deeply objectionable or really stupid, or both, but there was also so much cool stuff on the old, good internet.

Then, after about ten seconds of sheer joy, we got all-new gatekeepers, who were at least as bad, and even more powerful, than the old ones. The net became Tom Eastman's "Five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four." Culture, politics, finance, news, and especially power have been gathered into the hands of unaccountable, greedy, and often cruel intermediaries.

Oh, also, we had an election.

This isn't an election post. I have many thoughts about the election, but they're still these big, unformed blobs of anger, fear and sorrow. Experience teaches me that the only way to get past this is to just let all that bad stuff sit for a while and offgas its most noxious compounds, so that I can handle it safely and figure out what to do with it.

While I wait that out, I'm just getting the job done. Chop wood, carry water. I've got a book to write, Enshittification, for Farar, Straus, Giroux's MCD Books, and it's very nearly done:

https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Adoctorow+%23dailywords&src=typed_query&f=live

Compartmentalizing my anxieties and plowing that energy into productive work isn't necessarily the healthiest coping strategy, but it's not the worst, either. It's how I wrote nine books during the covid lockdowns.

And sometimes, when you're not staring directly at something, you get past the tunnel vision that makes it impossible to see its edges, fracture lines, and weak points.

So I'm working on the book. It's a book about platforms, because enshittification is a phenomenon that is most visible and toxic on platforms. Platforms are intermediaries, who connect buyers and sellers, creators and audiences, workers and employers, politicians and voters, activists and crowds, as well as families, communities, and would-be romantic partners.

There's a reason we keep reinventing these intermediaries: they're useful. Like, it's technically possible for a writer to also be their own editor, printer, distributor, promoter and sales-force:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation

But without middlemen, those are the only writers we'll get. The set of all writers who have something to say that I want to read is much larger than the set of all writers who are capable of running their own publishing operation.

The problem isn't middlemen: the problem is powerful middlemen. When an intermediary gets powerful enough to usurp the relationship between the parties on either side of the transaction, everything turns to shit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/

A dating service that faces pressure from competition, regulation, interoperability and a committed workforce will try as hard as it can to help you find Your Person. A dating service that buys up all its competitors, cows its workforce, captures its regulators and harnesses IP law to block interoperators will redesign its service so that you keep paying forever, and never find love:

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2024/02/13/1228749143/the-dating-app-paradox-why-dating-apps-may-be-worse-than-ever

Multiply this a millionfold, in every sector of our complex, high-tech world where we necessarily rely on skilled intermediaries to handle technical aspects of our lives that we can't – or shouldn't – manage ourselves. That world is beholden to predators who screw us and screw us and screw us, jacking up our rents:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/yes-there-are-antitrust-voters-in

Cranking up the price of food:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

And everything else:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

(Maybe this is a post about the election after all?)

The difference between a helpmeet and a parasite is power. If we want to enjoy the benefits of intermediaries without the risks, we need policies that keep middlemen weak. That's the opposite of the system we have now.

Take interoperability and IP law. Interoperability (basically, plugging new things into existing things) is a really powerful check against powerful middlemen. If you rely on an ad-exchange to fund your newsgathering and they start ripping you off, then an interoperable system that lets you use a different exchange will not only end the rip off – it'll make it less likely to happen in the first place because the ad-tech platform will be afraid of losing your business:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

Interoperability means that when a printer company gouges you on ink, you can buy cheap third party ink cartridges and escape their grasp forever:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Interoperability means that when Amazon rips off audiobook authors to the tune of $100m, those authors can pull their books from Amazon and sell them elsewhere and know that their listeners can move their libraries over to a different app:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/07/audible-exclusive/#audiblegate

But interoperability has been in retreat for 40 years, as IP law has expanded to criminalize otherwise normal activities, so that middlemen can use IP rights to protect themselves from their end-users and business customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

That's what I mean when I say that "IP" is "any law that lets a business reach beyond its own walls and control the actions of its customers, competitors and critics."

For example, there's a pernicious law 1998 US law that I write about all the time, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the "anticircumvention law." This is a law that felonizes tampering with copyright locks, even if you are the creator of the undelying work.

So Amazon – the owner of the monopoly audiobook platform Audible – puts a mandatory copyright lock around every audiobook they sell. I, as an author who writes, finances and narrates the audiobook, can't provide you, my customer, with a tool to remove that lock. If I do so, I face criminal sanctions: a five year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

In other words: if I let you take my own copyrighted work out of Amazon's app, I commit a felony, with penalties that are far stiffer than the penalties you would face if you were to simply pirate that audiobook. The penalties for you shoplifting the audiobook on CD at a truck-stop are lower than the penalties the author and publisher of the book would face if they simply gave you a tool to de-Amazon the file. Indeed, even if you hijacked the truck that delivered the CDs, you'd probably be looking at a shorter sentence.

This is a law that is purpose-built to encourage intermediaries to usurp the relationship between buyers and sellers, creators and audiences. It's a charter for parasitism and predation.

But as bad as that is, there's another aspect of DMCA 1201 that's even worse: the exemptions process.

You might have read recently about the Copyright Office "freeing the McFlurry" by granting a DMCA 1201 exemption for companies that want to reverse-engineer the error-codes from McDonald's finicky, unreliable frozen custard machines:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

Under DMCA 1201, the Copyright Office hears petitions for these exemptions every three years. If they judge that anticircumvention law is interfering with some legitimate activity, the statute empowers them to grant an exemption.

When the DMCA passed in 1998 (and when the US Trade Rep pressured other world governments into passing nearly identical laws in the decades that followed), this exemptions process was billed as a "pressure valve" that would prevent abuses of anticircumvention law.

But this was a cynical trick. The way the law is structured, the Copyright Office can only grant "use" exemptions, but not "tools" exemptions. So if you are granted the right to move Audible audiobooks into a third-party app, you are personally required to figure out how to do that. You have to dump the machine code of the Audible app, decompile it, scan it for vulnerabilities, and bootstrap your own jailbreaking program to take Audible wrapper off the file.

No one is allowed to help you with this. You aren't allowed to discuss any of this publicly, or share a tool that you make with anyone else. Doing any of this is a potential felony.

In other words, DMCA 1201 gives intermediaries power over you, but bans you from asking an intermediary to help you escape another abusive middleman.

This is the exact opposite of how intermediary law should work. We should have rules that ban intermediaries from exercising undue power over the parties they serve, and we should have rules empowering intermediaries to erode the advantage of powerful intermediaries.

The fact that the Copyright Office grants you an exemption to anticircumvention law means nothing unless you can delegate that right to an intermediary who can exercise it on your behalf.

A world without publishing intermediaries is one in which the only writers who thrive are the ones capable of being publishers, too, and that's a tiny fraction of all the writers with something to say.

A world without interoperability intermediaries is one in which the only platform users who thrive are also skilled reverse-engineering ninja hackers – and that's an infinitesimal fraction of the platform users who would benefit from interoperabilty.

Let this be your north star in evaluating platform regulation proposals. Platform regulation should weaken intermediaries' powers over their users, and strengthen their power over other middlemen.

Put in this light, it's easy to see why the ill-informed calls to abolish Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which makes platform users, not platforms, responsible for most unlawful speech) are so misguided:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

If we require platforms to surveil all user speech and block anything that might violate any law, we give the largest, most powerful platforms a permanent advantage over smaller, better platforms, run by co-ops, hobbyists, nonprofits local governments, and startups. The big platforms have the capital to rig up massive, automated surveillance and censorship systems, and the only alternatives that can spring up have to be just as big and powerful as the Big Tech platforms we're so desperate to escape:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

This is especially grave given the current political current, where fascist politicians are threatening platforms with brutal punishments for failing to censor disfavored political views.

Anyone who tells you that "it's only censorship when the government does it" is badly confused. It's only a First Amendment violation when the government does it, sure – but censorship has always relied on intermediaries. From the Inquisition to the Comics Code, government censors were only able to do their jobs because powerful middlemen, fearing state punishments, blocked anything that might cross the line, censoring far beyond the material actually prohibited by the law:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/22/self-censorship/#hugos

We live in a world of powerful, corrupt middlemen. From payments to real-estate, from job-search to romance, there's a legion of parasites masquerading as helpmeets, burying their greedy mouthparts into our tender flesh:

https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/visas-hidden-tax-on-americans

But intermediaries aren't the problem. You shouldn't have to stand up your own payment processor, or learn the ins and outs of real-estate law, or start your own single's bar. The problem is power, not intermediation.

As we set out to build a new, good internet (with a lot less help from the US government than seemed likely as recently as last week), let's remember that lesson: the point isn't disintermediation, it's weak intermediation.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/07/usurpers-helpmeets/#disreintermediation

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en (Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

[hybbart]

Hey guys, I would really appreciate it if you stopped sending me messages about Lizzie's appearance. I get that most of you are just happy and/or think it's a compliment, but I've literally never had so many weird comments on a woman's body before, and it's getting really uncomfortable.

While I know I'm not always as good about it for men, as a character artist and as I hope is made clear in the design sheet I did for all the hermit and empire girls, I have always and will always draw all sorts of body types. That includes not just fat people, but fat people with different distributions and shape language- different everything. Lizzie and Cleo and Stress may all be fat and round but I like to think I did a very good job of making them all distinct in shape from each other in a way that converys their character.

I redesigned my Lizzie recently because I was wanting to draw her more, and I wanted her to allign better with my mental idea of her. She hadn't before because 1) I started off drawing her as the ocean queen and mayor who are very unlike her base self and monstrous, because she's cool like that. And 2) I never sat down and made a design sheet for her, so I constantly drew her differently and mixed her up with my Gem design. (which, go firgure, as a fan of sister characters, when I finally worked it out that mental idea ended up having a body type similar to my own little sister. Which makes it extra uncomfortable on a personal level.)

The fact is, when I draw women people casually comment on their body a LOT more, which is already a bit uncomfortable- and baffling, given that most of my sexualized pictures are of men. I get similar comments about how tall Pearl is, I've probably gotten more comments about how tall Pearl is than I have about how tall Jimmy is, and I draw him multiple times a week. But those comments are often at least done with a bit of amusement and not just straight up ogling her.

Every single time I've drawn Lizzie recently, though, I got an absolute flood of comments specifically talking about her body and nothing else. How fat she is, how attractive she is because she's fat, cat calls, and other more unsavoury language. Even backhanded compliments. I certainly didn't try to make her ugly, but I've not drawn her in pinups. She's doing the exact same things as every other character I draw, including herself before my redesign. And given that timing and VERY pointed nature of the comments, it's not exact rocket science.

Most of the comments haven't been too gross, thankfully. I'll chalk that up to a lot of the messages being people projecting onto her, which- that's a whole different can of discomfort worms. But it is constant and it is in place of literally anything else. I draw a whole comic about a funny moment with multiple people, and art I'm pretty happy with, and the only thing a dozen asks have to say is "Lizzie's fat!!🤤" which stands in quite the contrast to all the comparatively few comments about Jimmy being about how I drew his banana costume.

Anyways, what I'm asking is to please just be a bit more normal about women's bodies. I get that it's rarer, and it makes some people happy when they see characters like them, but focusing on how beautiful an unconventional woman is is still objectifying and making that woman's beauty her worth.

[halfway-house-in-hell]

nifty redesign

(click for better quality)

thoughts under the cut

ok so!!

-my nifty backstory is a bit less fleshed out so stay with me here

-she was an aspiring science fiction writer born in japan late 1940's

-unfortunatly she never got to live out her dream as she was married off into a mafia family at 15

-this may have been the mafia family angel dust belonged to ☺️

-neither of them know this☺️☺️

-from then on she was whitewashed and essentially brainwashed into the perfect housewife

-if she disobeyed she got hit, so she did what she was told- until one day it got too much for her. she snapped, and murdered her husband in her sleep

-this got her sent into a mental asylum where she got diagnosed with hysteria and lobotomised

-she died soon after

-despite the murder reasonably being in self defence, murder is still classified as a Damning Sin in heaven's eyes and she got sent down to hell

-she is obsessed with neatness and incredibly hardworking. she will often work herself to the point of exhaustion, in which case alastor will step in and communicate her worries for her - she never complains, doing so makes her feel useless

-her obsessive tidying has led to finding loads of Banned Objects in guest's rooms

-she is the hotel's maid, chef, waitress, gardener, pest control, room attendant and accountant. they are severely understaffed

-alastor is her best and only friend. he is the only one that listens to her odd ramblings (speaking of odd ramblings, the stuff she says would be less "i like to kill bugs murder death X3" and more,, just odd facts and weird sayings and fucked up things that happened in her life but like,, sugarcoated. like shes trying to convince herself that they were good-kinda like kitty from ghosts abt her sister). she spies for him, it is pretty easy for her to go unnoticed due to her small stature. nothing goes unheard that alastor doesnt hear about

-her and alastor sometimes just go for walks together, with her perched on his arm like a falcon. i imagine a side plot of an episode being them taking one of their walks when they come across a sinner trying to move out of the pride ring, they try to help him hijinks ensue ect ect

-she isnt in it for the money, which is good bc shes not paid much

okii thats it :33

[maxwellatoms]

I decided that this week it's Ghastly Week on eBay, and I figured I'd share some stuff over here too!

Up top is (I think) my first drawing of Ghastly after the pilot. You can see some early Estroy sketches and my notes on who I was planning to hire for storyboards.

The rest of the sketches are from the model pack we did for the redesign. And at the bottom, there's the title card image from "The Pie Who Loved Me".

Since ECC was my Saturday Morning Action Cartoon Satire show, I knew I wanted an Evil-Lyn/Baroness type character in the crew. But it always bothered me that those women didn't really have anything going for their characterization. So I decided that Ghastly would basically be a good person. She was really just into science and didn't have any interest in taking over the world. She probably would have bailed on the whole operation long ago if she weren't not-so-secretly in love with her boss' mind.

No one said she had good taste.

She's got the rubber outfit, which was also inspired by G.I. Joe's Baroness. And probably all of the goth clubs I was going to. It seemed funny to me that anyone would choose to wear a rubber catsuit on a hot tropical island.

Since Grey DeLisle was already doing the voice for Mandy, I had some idea of how versatile she was. She'd done a Judy Garland impression for me at some point, and that was the starting point for Ghastly's voice.

I wrote Ghaslty's speech patterns and penchant for calling her boss "Chief" after The Beverly Hillbillies' Jane Hathaway.

[jellyfishsthings]

Family Redesigned

WARNINGS: I guess my bad writting

An: Decided to take a spin with the DC Fandom and write for my favourite... not quite well if I might admit...

requests are open

In the bustling halls of Wayne Enterprises, where marble floors gleamed and the scent of strong coffee lingered in the air, a young woman was about to redefine what it meant to be a modern pioneer. Her project, a cutting-edge programmed nanotechnology that would apply to the neurons of injured people that lost a member of their body to work with a robotic substitute. She and her team had fascinated not only the attendees of the annual science gala but also caught the attention of none other than Bruce Wayne himself. With his signature charm and a penchant for philanthropy, he had decided to fund their ambitious endeavor.

Little did she know, their project was not only stirring excitement among investors but also causing an unwanted stir in the hearts of the Wayne family. Dick Grayson, Bruce’s charming and light-hearted adopted son, had just mustered the courage to express his feelings. Whenever he bumped into her while delivering coffee or visiting the lab, his confident smile often accompanied a playful quip.

“Are you sure you’re not an engineer? Because you’ve clearly engineered a way into my heart,” he quipped one afternoon, leaning casually against the doorway as she adjusted the settings on her prototype.

“Very smooth, Grayson,” she responded, feigning disinterest but unable to suppress a smile.

“Oh, come on,” Dick continued, taking a step closer. “With this project of yours, you must have some serious chemistry skills.”

She rolled her eyes, her cheeks slightly pink as she returned her focus to the project. Flirting was hard for her to deal with when she was neck-deep in wiring and graphs. Still, there was something charming about Dick, a knack for making even the dullest moments seem vibrant.

Their first encounter was the most memorable.

It started innocently enough one day when she was deep in thought, surrounded by scattered papers in a bustling Wayne Enterprises lounge. Suddenly, she collided with a tall body, scattering her carefully organized notes like confetti.

“Watch it!” she grumbled, looking up to find a charming yet roguish face stifling a laugh.

“Sorry about that. But in my defense, you were like a tornado going through your notes,” he said with a smirk. “Dick Grayson, at your service.”

She raised an eyebrow, judging by his look of mischief that he was trouble wrapped in charisma. “Thanks, but I prefer my tornadoes to be slightly less charming and a little more focused.”

“Touché,” Dick said, taking a seat across from her. “What’s the project about? Saving the world, I hope?”

“Something like that,” she said, her competitive spirit sparking. “It’s about harnessing neurotic energy using nanotechnology. Bruce always has an eye for the future.”

“Very ambitious! Perhaps you’ll save the planet, then?” Dick leaned closer, the playful glint in his eyes suggesting he wasn’t just flirting with her project.

“Or get a decent grade. Much less glamorous, I know,” she chuckled, feeling the conversation warming up. A hint of blush crept onto her cheeks, an odd reaction she hadn’t expected.

“Who said grades can’t be glamorous? I once did a project on the benefits of pizza," Dick confessed, to which Edwina burst out laughing.

As their banter continued, she unwittingly inspired Dick. He began to hover around her lab more often, throwing out quips and jokes, but every time she flipped the script and tossed back a rebuke, he felt an exhilarating challenge.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Wayne manor, the youngest of Bruce’s million children, Damian Wayne, was busy brooding over a math homework that seemed more challenging than his usual sword fighting practice. She, having spotted the little assassin frowning at an open book, had selflessly offered her help. Miraculously, Damian had absorbed her explanations, hanging onto her every word as if they were the last pages of a thrilling novel. “Why do you care about this so much?” Damian asked, eyebrows furrowed as he struggled with a particularly difficult algebraic equation.

“Because everyone needs a little help sometimes,” She replied earnestly with a gentle smile.

Somewhere between deciphering equations and sharing small laughs, something unexpected happened. The stoic young assassin found himself blushing under his usual grumpy demeanor. This made his heart race—a feeling he had never quite felt before.

“I… appreciate it,” he finally muttered, this surprising show of gratitude softening his usually cold exterior.

Back at the HQ of the Wayne enterprises, Bruce Wayne was having his own crisis. Normally known for his unreadable expression and laser-focused business sense, he found it exceedingly hard to ignore her enthusiasm when she discussed her project during one of their weekly meetings. She was bright, driven, and utterly disarming, diving into topics like neuroscience and computer science, while Bruce sat at the edge of his seat, hanging onto her every word.

“Her project is admirable, I mean if you look at the prototypes and the coding or the engineering sketches she and her team had made,” Bruce said, inadvertently leaning forward in his chair. “That’s… brilliant.”

“Uhhh, Dad?” Dick nudged him, eyes glinting with amusement. “Slightly creepy how you’re hanging off her every word like that. Just a bit.”

“Shut up, Dick,” Bruce shot back, too distracted to notice the amused laughter of his other children.

But the chaos didn’t end there. Jason Todd, the rebellious older sibling participating in a book club as part of his community service, came home one evening with surprising news. With mischief lighting up his face, he proclaimed, “You guys will never guess who I met at the book club. Dick's godess that accidentally fell on earth is a member! Can you believe it?”

“Yeah, right,” Dick replied, crossing his arms with a smirk. “You must have a real knack for screwing things up, Jay. She wouldn't join anything that would put her with you.”

“Oh, she totally did,” Jason insisted, grinning. “In fact, we bonded over a mutual disdain for the ending of the last Batman novel.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t just say that,” Damian deadpanned, though his intrigue was evident.

The realization hit Dick hard, and it came with an overshadowing sense of protectiveness. The thought of his family all being smitten with the same woman—his girlfriend no less—was an unwelcome twist. As she began to flutter into their lives more and more, he felt his shield of vigilance slip away amidst the chaos of her radiant energy.

The day of the big presentation arrived, and she stood behind her booth, butterflies in her stomach. The Wayne family, now a blend of supportive allies, stood gathered, every one of them uncharacteristically eager. Bruce, Dick, and even the usually unimpressed Damian sat side by side, eager to see her shine.

She began speaking about her prototype, detailing the mechanics and the purpose behind her project, each word pulling the audience deeper into her passion.

When she spoke of miscalculations and victories, Bruce nodded in agreement, making direct eye contact with her. Dick watched with a mixture of admiration and mild jealousy, while Damian listened intently, his mind processing the logistics of her project.

“Thank you all for supporting me,” she concluded, now beaming with excitement. “I genuinely believe we can make a difference, one person at a time.”In that moment, something snapped. Bruce, usually so guarded, smiled genuinely and exclaimed, “That’s fantastic ! I’ve never heard anyone articulate the importance of neuroscience and engineering so well.”

Her blush was immediate, and the warm glow in her cheeks competed with Dick's growing admiration. Just when all seemed to settle, Dick leaned over softly towards her, whispering, “Now that’s quite the power move, mind if I take you out to celebrate your big win?”

“Maybe after you help solve some math problems for Damian,” she teased, laughter spilling from her lips as realization struck the brothers.

“Maybe both,” she added cheekily, eyeing Damian, who was trying to maintain a grumpy expression despite the spark of joy in his eyes.

With the evening coming to an end and plans being made amidst shared laughter, she found a place in the hearts of the Waynes, her project becoming more than just science. It was fueled by the chemistry, unpredictability, and warmth of family and specifically love.

[kandy-sticks-zaza-blogs]

Baxter Re-Redesign

When I saw the announcement of Baxter a month ago since Vivzie neglected her goddamn character I swear don’t messed up the goddamn trans rep character Viv

I just kept his design but make him more ruggedly,tired and messy since he deserves to look more like an anglerfish and being trans male bc females only have lantern on them.

He have many fish antenna on his hair and his body as well but he hid it so nobody would find him weird looking.

He is slightly chubby but his lab coat makes him look saggy wearing it.

He died on the business trip to the ship as the storms has began he was outside that he is oblivious while he doing his invention about lightning his rival made his trip as he fell onto the ground breaking his bottom jaw as he slipped onto the wet railing while the ship tilted and drowned to death in the ocean because no one noticed he’s shouting for help when the storm is to loud.

He cannot afford to do top surgery instead he did it himself by using machine.

He’s just a civilian scientist with no home from the envy ring since he’s always jealous of his rival in his entire life.

[yoursweetwife]

Synopsis: Ruan Mei decided to give you a birthday present, but she got distracted.

Warning: fluff, soft Ruan Mei, female reader,

Ruan Mei considers it pointless to celebrate any holidays, including birthdays. The time that people spend celebrating is more than enough to spend on research. Therefore, you do not need to remember dates either, instead you can fill your head with new facts and discoveries that you can learn during the day spent in the laboratory.

Several times, colleagues invited Ruan Mei to a party, but in total they received the same cold look and a dismissive response.

"I'm busy."

Everyone began to think that there was only room for science in her life. And this is partly true. Although Ruan Mei seemed to be an insensitive person who didn't care about interpersonal relationships, even she had a little secret.

Right now, she was sitting in her lab and analyzing the letter for errors. One of the hands caressed a gift box lying next to it. Deep down, Ruan Mei wished that the gift she had put her whole soul and time into would please you, you are the only person for whom the scientist has found time.

With exceptional pedantry, she wrapped the gift in only the best materials, smoothing out any creases. Even the color palette of the gift was redesigned and now it was similar to the palette of Ruan Mei herself (she really hoped that she had not crossed the line) in the hope that you would remember her every time you looked at a small thing.

Ruan Mei couldn't put into words her excitement, although she looked very calm from the outside.Very carefully, she wrapped the letter in an envelope. It may seem old-fashioned in the current realities, but Ruan Mei believed that it brings a certain romance to the relationship. There was something really sweet about it.

According to her calculations, the letter should arrive just in time for your birthday.

Finally, she decided to leave a kiss on the letter (you and Ruan Mei had such a tradition).

The loud sound made her turn around. The frightened eyes of the researcher met the cold blue eyes of the scientist. There was an envelope not far from her face, which she involuntarily clutched in her hands, which made the scene more awkward.

"Miss Ruan Mei, I don't seem to be at the right time..."

The researcher tried to break the suffocatingly awkward silence that filled the room. The woman cleared her throat and tossed the letter aside, remaining unperturbed.

"Not at all, what did you want?"

The researcher handed over some papers and quickly left, referring to some business. Ruan Mei didn't even look at the stack of paper and picked up the gift again.

This time she managed to leave a kiss on the letter. All she has to do is send it all to you.

Walking to the messenger department, she couldn't help but notice the looks of disbelief. People were whispering not only about the box with the letter in Ruan Mei's hands, but also about what they saw in her office. A small smile appeared on her beautiful face.

"How quickly gossip spreads. It's very interesting."

[theaxolotlkween]

Next up is Caesar Salazar, or as I spell it for this redesign, César Salazar because just. Just look at him. He looks more like a César.

His actual design in the show has never made any sense to me because it doesn't really tell anything about him as a character, and as a character he is extremely silly. And in flashbacks he wears a nice shirt and tie and neither of his looks scream silly but unintentionally dangerous science guy, which is his character. I feel like my design does a good job with making him the kind of guy that if Van Kleiss said that you couldn’t trust him, you’d go “really??? This guy???”

César also reads as autistic to me so I essentially just defaulted to my signature silly autistic guy design thing and gave him sweatpants with little to no other clothes that actually go with sweatpants. I swear I’m not trying to project, sometimes characters just have the vibe of something I would do. I also gave him a LEGO brick shaped chewing stim necklace because I thought it would be cool to have a little thing that neurodivergent people tend to use as a sort of “I know what you are” thing.

I tried to keep his colour scheme close-ish because it does fit him pretty nicely, but obviously with a big fluffy cardigan instead of whatever his outfit is. Tiny little fun fact, I did actually make him and Rex have slightly different skin tones. Colour pick them, I dare you. You cannot convince me that César has ever seen the sun. The doodle of their whole family was a way for me to sort out what traits César and Rex get from each parent while still making them look very obviously like brothers. Also I think it’s pretty cute.

Now the biggest thing to me in César’s redesign is that he seemed like the kind of guy who would wear socks with either crocs or sandals in a lab setting, because César and lab safety are mutually exclusive concepts. It also gives him an easy-access chancla to smack his unruly experiments. The idea is that it could potentially lead to a running gag that every scientist he’s ever worked with has gotten super pissed off that he doesn’t wear covered shoes in a lab setting and he doesn’t see why he has to and just. Keeps doing it. The mental image of Van Kleiss especially losing it and going off on an off the rails rant when he realises that César is STILL not adhering to basic lab safety is absolutely hilarious to me.

I feel like I put a little more conscious thought into his design than Dr Holiday’s, but the design I have for Dr Holiday just felt correct and it just popped into my head as it was. Next in the design thing is going to be Circe. It might take a minute because even though I have come up with a design for her in the past it needs a bit of tweaking.

prev || next || masterpost

[bighairybuffmen69]

RS Went Out of Her Way to Give Hades an Oedipus Complex.

Something struck me as odd when I saw images of LO’s pilot.

This was Rhea’s original design; she had galaxy skin like Kronos.

When Lore Olympus became a WEBTOON original, her design changed, which I honestly consider a good thing. Rhea was always associated with nature as opposed to space. So, did RS give her a more rustic design? Did she get her signature turret crown, or maybe a lion motif?

Nope.

Rhea, (who is described as an EARTH titaness within Lore Olympus itself) was redesigned…to be a pink Persephone clone.

And this isn’t a case where you can argue “oh, well everyone is a Persephone clone cuz same face syndrome, it doesn’t mean anything in-universe!!,” because in the comic, Persephone was established to be a canonical Rhea lookalike when Helios mistook a description of Persephone for a description of Rhea.

They have fundamentally identical designs, and both RS and the narrative know it.

On top of this, Hades describes both Rhea & Persephone to be very kind (and otherwise just similar personality-wise). So, um…Hades basically married a fun-sized version of his long-lost mom.

Which makes this line all the more disturbing.

Hades is interested in Persephone being titan-sized, and I feel like it isn’t a stretch to say this is a sexual thing. The fandom treats it as a haha funny joke, like “aw Hades has a giantess fetish lol 🤪” but I feel like everyone’s ignoring the fact that giant Persephone would look exactly like a pale Rhea clone. It’s not rocket science; large Persephone is basically just Rhea.

And Hades wants to see this….for fetish reasons?

RS knows what she’s doing. She deliberately redesigned Rhea to be pink (when she is canonically an EARTH titaness, and would’ve benefited far more from being a shade of green or brown). She went out of her way to create both physical and personality parallels to Persephone and Rhea, even having a character confuse a description of Persephone for Rhea. She threw in implications that Hades has a giantess fetish, meaning he’d be sexually attracted to Persephone when she’d look exactly like his mom. She made all these story decisions…to give Hades an Oedipus complex. There’s no classy way to put it; RS made Hades fall in love with a clone of his dead fucking mom.

You can’t even argue “oh, well, it’s Greek mythology!” because, correct me if I’m wrong, but Hades wanting to fuck his mom was nowhere in the original myths. Plus, RS has taken measures to remove incest from her story. Persephone is not related to Rhea in Lore Olympus, there is no reason she should look this much like her. This serves no narrative purpose, RS did it for shits and giggles, and it only makes Hades look like 10x more of a creep.

I’ll end this post with a little spot-the-difference between Rhea & Perse. To make matters worse, this is arguably the most Rhea-like Persephone has looked…and it was in Hades’ dream. So, uh, do with that as you will.

[dedolubka]

Guys! I need help from the fandom. I want to draw a series of art with the high lords of all the courts. The task is difficult because there is very little information about them in the text. Here are my suggestions/headcanons: Spring Court - Because of my headcanons I'm going to have to redesign Tamlin. Britain 17th century, Renaissance, Shakespeare (anyone surprised?)

Summer Court - I thought for a long time, but decided to offer the image of Ptolemaic Kingdom. Closest to the reign of Cleopatra. And a bit of fantasy sea... I think.

Autumn Court - I wanted to suggest Ireland, but sjm said otherwise. It's not clear from the names, Lucien, Beron, Eris - different names of different cultures. So France of the 15th century. I can't think of a better one.

Winter Court - Norway, vikings. These guys are crazy enough to ride polar bears! Their women are also on equal footing with the men (Vivienne served on the border).

Day Court - Babylonia. Babylonia was conquered by both Persians and Greeks at different times. That's why it suits Hellion. In addition, sciences were widely developed in Babylonia and special attention was paid to magic. Symbolic.

Dawn Court - DAMN IT I WAITED FOR THIS... I mean /clears throat/ the wuxia genre did everything for me. The main thing is to decide on the era. And add a bit of Clockwork City from TESO

Night Court - I don't fucking know (；￣Д￣) Seriously, I have no idea. Velaris looks like New York. Hewn City is like a drow city, only with a patriarchy. Illyrian....no comments yet. Can someone tell me how they could come up with such a pile? I need help here, I don't know what to draw

I didn't even try to fit everything into one time frame. It's impossible. But I tried to get into the character of each region. Please note that the movie stills are just a rough idea of ​​what I want to incorporate into the designs!If anyone has any good ideas, I'd love to hear them! (⌒_⌒)

[hellaverse-critical-confessions]

WOAHH so I've received the Hazbin leaks (can send the link privately if anyone else wants to check them out, but I've gotten flack for sharing leaks in public posts before)

Let's talk about them (SPOILERS AHEAD):

ROSIE!!!! GIRLBOSS!!!!

She's the one Alastor's soul is bound to!! Slay madame slay. I've loved her in S1 and I love her even more now possibly (and whatever evil plans she might have, I support)

The Sera and bird angel song is honestly quite good. Is that... Heaven's equivalent of a Goetia? Don't the Goetia also originate from Heaven? Who knows

Human Pentious is... pretty cute? I mean he looks about how you'd imagine.

HAH. So Human Alastor (who had a much better hairdo in life) made a deal with Rosie. Interesting... that does raise the question of how sinner demons can communicate with the living? Unless she's not a sinner demon? Based on all this she must be more than she seems...

OOOOH. Vox will capture Alastor! And the LED mask gag has a frown projection to further disarm him, as his smile is his weapon and show of unwavering strength and confidence...

He looks extremely jarring but I guess that's the point

Vox my beloved. He's such a bastard I can't wait for more of him (I like his voice and mannerisms, bite me)

I'm also digging Lute's song. I'm wondering where she is (there seem to be a lot of big glass walls... windows?), and there's also her hallucinating Adam... oh boy. Lady you may be going slightly mad

(I'm guessing that the "Adam returns as a sinner" theory is a no-go, then?)

VoxTek has been spreading misinformation about the day of the battle, Killjoy is there... sounds like Brandon now... okay

So Pentious' sin was sloth. And... that's it. No unethical experiments or killing in the name of science, fucking things up with his inventions... nope. He just didn't act when he could've brought a murderer to justice. I mean that also does land you in Hell, I can see it, but considering he ended up endeavoring to cause mass destruction in turf wars and challenging overlords to usurp them (or something along those lines... it's been a while for me y'all), that is definitely underwhelming. Like he wasn't that bad. So how did he become a villain wannabe down there. Also that bird woman is apparently a representative of God; I am thankful that she isn't actually God herself. She's easily the kindest character we've met in Heaven, I like her. (Wonder where she was during S1...) Lute losing it and being demoted was also pretty cool to see, and uh... hi, Abel? Hope you don't get killed again by a bloodthirsty Lute so she can take back control...

Alastor is INJURED yes we love to see it. I'm cheering like Vox whenever that bastard is suffering. B-but where is his deer tail. He should have a tail

Lucifer doesn't even know anyone's names. Still don't like him either. WHY does Alastor swear so much.

(I just noticed Niffty showing "KYS" to Killjoy...)

He used to have a pencil moustache but of course. That is a universal staple of evil yet still dapper men. (Could've also used to have it in the afterlife... thinking of some redesigns I've seen now.) Rosie I still love you

Oh hooray there's Baxter. But why... do we have blush sheets. Should I be afraid

ANIME??????

Yep that's about it thank you all for coming. I only looked at the browser viewable ones, don't wanna download viruses ✌️

[deathclassic]

art tag

love a good art tag so thank you @doshiart for thinking of me <3

How did you start drawing? What year was it that you become more seriously and consciously interested in it?

uh ive been drawing all my life, i wanted to be an 'artist' when i was 6 and then it kinda went into different ideas surrounding art - tattoo artist, graphic designer, illustrator, etc etc and then i decided to pursue graphic design afer high schoo about 8 years ago? and have a degree in that now

When you felt the urge to share your art with other people? When did you start posting your drawings on social media?

i was always drawing for other people and then i started posting my fanart when i got twitter and tumblr in 2010, so it's still floating around on here

Your first/earliest drawing. What were your impressions of it back then and what are your feelings now?

i was probably really proud of it and had probably never seen a giraffe at all, i was 5. there's earlier ones out there of course but this is the earliest i could find around me

Your first fanart ever

i cant find my fanart of my little pony from 2004, or my fall out boy, panic at the disco and my chemical romance stuff from 2008. i drew this of ian in 2011 though.

Your first gallavich fanart

see above

When you had bad days and things didn't work out, what inspired you to keep trying?

what else was i gonna do with my life lol, im not good at maths, im not good at english, im not good at science so this was the only thing left. i dont share what i draw most of the time, no one needs to see it, so i just sketch whats around me, i scribble just to get the anxiety out. and then i come back sometimes weeks later like it never happened.

Show your old piece that you strongly dislike and tell why.

i was just getting back into the shameless fandom after being in and out since 2011 and i hadnt actually drawn them for a long time so i hate this one with a burning passion.

Show your old piece that you very like and tell why. What's the difference with the previous?

this is a scanned version, it's done entirely in sharpie. i like how simple it is, just one medium, stark contrast, and yeah. difference between them is that one is digital and one is traditional, one was done after drawing them for years and the other was done after taking a break to draw for other fandoms.

Show your old piece that you were very proud of back then.

maybe this one from university? i made a guidebook of architecture of melbourne and i drew every building by hand, i did this maybe 4 years ago?

Do you do any practice sketches or warm-ups before you draw something big?

oh yeah - mind maps, thumbnails, hand drawn text exploration, figure sketches, writing down different values. every single one of my drawings that get posted start like this

Sketch vs Final. Show your process.

i had to redesign the blair witch movie poster

Your most recent drawing.

logo ive been working on for a client - not bound by contract so i can share it with you because i dont want to share my secret santa thing lol

Give yourself some praise! Look at what improved in your art!

im glad you kept going. through all the death threats, through people selling your stuff without you knowing, through the depression. who knew you'd still be drawing for the same fandoms decades later?

Any advice you'd give to your earlier self?

stop giving a SHIT about everyone else. draw for yourself and no one else.

Set a goal for yourself for the coming year.

stop getting taken advantage of <3

im tagging @spookygingerr @ghoulish-art-tendencies

@vintagelacerosette @suzy-queued @cal-tastrophe @iansw0rld @heymrspatel @grumble-fish

[weaselle]

Several years ago I started writing a book that was kind of an exploration of what the fey have become in modern times. I never wound up finishing because the plot sort of got away from me.

I've posted a couple of excerpts from it, particularly mutuals may remember seeing posts containing the Ix and the Ips, but recently i found like three chapters i thought i'd lost forever.

Here is one of those chapters, introducing Glimmer and Gleam, the looking glass twins, if anyone is interested in that sort of thing (Jinx switches dialects and accents all the time, it's a Thing about him; Helix runs into him while she is a tourist in London, and she has been trying to incorporate British slang into her vocabulary with limited success.)

...

As they hurried off the train and up a flight of stairs, Helix tried to make sense of the situation. “What was that you told him about me?” she demanded of Jinx after a few minutes of climbing.

“Nothing but a truth he won't believe hidden in the truth he knows I'm compelled to tell, in exchange for more than disbelief is worth; but less than he wanted to tell me- the proud bastard.”

Helix spent a while trying to work this out and gave up. Besides, she had more pressing questions “Um, do these stairs ever end?”

“Of course they do, silly me lass; surely you don't believe in sorcery” Jinx laughed, and winked.

“Well,” said Helix dryly “I'm still inclined to think that magic is just science I can't understand, only, if these stairs really do end, what are the chances there's a loo at the top?”

Jinx guffawed “No need to invoke the Dame, worried me lass; there's a priv near the top, sure enough.” And there was.

...

The library was grey stone, rug laden and plush inside, drapes and tapestries thick on the walls.

Nibs the Scribe turned out to be a very old and strange little man, about five feet tall, but stooped with age. He had an odd blunt face and a slopping forehead and stood before Helix, examining her like a shop keeper with new merchandise, while quizzing both she and Jinx “And it names her to the cover?” he asked Jinx.

“That it did, Nibs old friend, my own eyes told the tale.”

“And you have how many for years when it finds you?” the little man queried Helix

“I was nine,” said Helix, working her way through the grammar.

“And then you must be over here and we are see” the little man decided, and sat them down at a table while he got a trolley out and disappeared into the bookshelves.

“Jinx,” said Helix desperately, “you have to tell me what the shit, man; I am way out of my element here. Or my head” she muttered.

“Right y'are, I s'pose, “ sighed Jinx, “well.. it's the Book, innit? Ye ought never 'ave come by it Helix, lostling or no.”

“What? Dude, speak English.”

“Look you, there are many of your people that are compatible with the All Side, but have never woken up to it or found their way here. We call them Lostlings. Now that Book is from the All Side, and designed for a .. a strange Working, and fit for a specific mindset at a certain age. And you, lost me lass, come along at that age, all trimmed to suit it, and find the one that I mislaid.”

No pin dared drop as Helix sat looking at him.

“Yeah right,” she said, finally. “Jesus Christ, where are we even sitting right now? How can this really… really? I mean… really??” Helix looked around herself “did you like, y'know, put acid in my coffee?”

Jinx tilted his head, “Do yas truly not believe in spellcraft 'n' gods? Amazing.”

“Magic.” Helix said slowly, “Is just. Science. I don't. Understand.”

Jinx looked at her as if gauging her ability to reason. Finally he said “Then do you understand that each of the particles in The Book which you found is a Worked Creation, and each of those is its own limited consciousness? With a body and a will to direct it? And there are among us beings whose bodies have stopped aging, whose minds are redesigned? And can you understand that the One Side which you are from is .. is a spectrum out of the available rainbow? And that the Laws of Physics as you call them that you are just now grasping are only a ninth of the Laws that govern the Single-Yet-Multi-'Verse?”

Helix was quiet a minute, thinking. “Nnn… nano-bots, genetic manipulation, multidimensional string theory?” she ventured, and then was forced to sit for several minutes trying to tell Jinx everything she could remember understanding about nanotechnology and string theory.

Jinx looked at her for a minute, and burst out laughing. “That. Is. Amazing. I mean not really, no, but, you've gotten so much closer so quickly. I mean, yes, some of what you said are the things I said… in the way that a rubber ball is the same thing as it's surface area. I s'pose you might, if you were taught by a specialist for a few years, be able to understand the basics of even maybe most of it, given enough tutoring.. and perhaps a few modifications.” Jinx paused. “No, challenged me lass, you'd best stick to calling it magic,” he said, finally.

Helix sat as Too Good to Be True and Too Frightening to Be True and Too Real to Be Untrue fought a small tournament in her skull. She leaned back into the safe cushions of disbelief “Come on, Jinx, I gotta stop this nonsense and go back. Or maybe I wake up from this ricockulousness and go get my passport?”

“Passport! Shite! Thank you for reminding me. Stay here” and with that, Jinx got up and hurried off into the books.

Helix, hardly having slept in so long, put her head down on the table, trying to digest it all. "Oh no, it's not magic," she thought sarcastically, as her mind gently closed the shutters on her and took itself off for a nap, "it's just that they've figured out how to actually cut her in half."

Helix woke up face down on a wooden table surrounded by books, saw the time, and panicked. And when she finished panicking about the possibility of missing her passport appointment, and considered where she was and what she could be panicking about instead, she collapsed sideways off her chair in a fit of laughter.

Jinx poked his head out from around a huge pile of books, and said, “Well, laughter's rarely a dangerous or permanent affliction” and returned to being one of two stacks of books having a conversation. Helix subsided to giggles.

"I bet he really could so turn himself into a stack of books," she thought in delirious delight, "With science. And a wand." and she giggled some more. Gradually she remembered her appointment and wondered aloud, “Do I even need a passport anymore? Am I even in the real world anymore? HA!” she suddenly burst out, “LET'S SEE THE N.S.A. RECORD THIS CONVERSATION!” and she hopped up and did a little dance around the room, pumping her fists triumphantly.

Jinx and Nibs looked at her like a pair of dog-sitters worried the aged poodle they're watching might not live 'til the Mctaggarty's vacation ended. Concluding she wouldn't die of whatever was wrong with her, they turned back to their research.

Helix wound down like a top, coming to rest back on her chair. “Seriously though,” she said after a moment of quiet, “should I still be trying to get to my passport appointment?”

Jinx didn't look up from reading “Of course you should, only not yet, you've got a while still.”

“I think,” said Helix, “and I could be wrong here, but I think it's quite soon, actually. It's just, I worked so hard to get my appointment”

Now Jinx looked up. “What are you on about, confusing me lass? I made yer appointment. For tomorrow night. That is to say, at this point, much later this evening.”

“No, but, and I'm really fairly certain about this part, I made an appointment to get my passport for ten thirty this morning.”

“And more requirements for bring All Side License offices is having All Side provisional permit, One Side passport, and One Side birth certificate.” Nibs interjected, finger holding his place on the page. Jinx and Helix stared at each other in shared dawning of comprehension.

“Oh no,” moaned Helix. “Profusions of Paperwork Perfidy!” Jinx swore. Nibs caught on to the situation. “And how many time is between now and FIRST passport appointment?” he asked.

Jinx and Nibs (who turned out to be surprisingly spry) rushed around, filling Helix’s hands with a cascade of items and her head with a hopeless jumble of descriptions while they argued about some problem concerning dual transfers that escaped Helix entirely.

“Aye, Jinx, and if she is not making the return- Helix you, this is being 17b schedule of acquaintance and a new seeing eye, take- then she is open advantage to the twins and being a card in the hand of the Lord,” said Nibs, giving Helix a sheaf of papers and a small rectangular box.

“Yes and truly, Oh Nibs, therefore- Here, Helix, red is Unacknowledged blue is All-ignored, never wear both at once- therefore back she comes with them to cancel such, and that's an end to that!” said Jinx pressing two rings into Helix’s hand. “I don't see a more likely way, Oh my me no” Jinx concluded, apparently winning the argument. “Alright, dashing me lass, you're kitted up proper, if a touch old fashioned. Let's see if we can set up a meeting with the Looking Glass Twins.” He stood still and lifted his hat long enough to pull an eyepatch down into place. “let's see,” he said staring into space, “which one, which one, right… next scheduled location… damn. What about her sister… right, right…. no…still no… brilliant!” He raised the eyepatch, tucking it back under the edge of his hat. Then he held his wrist up to his mouth and said, “Jingo! Jingo! Heeeeeere Jingo!” and shook the belled bracelet he wore.

Jinx had a lot of bits and bobs about his outfit, but was very quiet when he moved. Helix had never heard any bells from Jinx yet, but this one tinkled now. Jinx paused a moment and winked at Helix “They never come on the first call, you know” and shook the bell again. “Jingo!”

There was an answering tinkling sound, which grew louder. All three of them turned towards the sound, and after a few seconds, a dust mote there seemed to rapidly grow until a small black cat wearing a slender spiked collar with a tiny silver bell appeared to leap into the room from somewhere that was simultaneously six feet from them and very far away.

She ignored Nibs completely, walked distrustfully around Helix, and wound between Jinx's legs. He leaned down and rubbed her ears and said, “There's a precious pretty, now. I've an errand for you, lady kitling” The cat stopped purring and sat with her back to him, tail lashing. “Now, don't be like that, Jingo me kit, it's even one you'll like, just like old times” The little cat put her nose in the air. “Easy and fun, I promises, sweetest, come along.” Jingo sniffed and ignored him for a second, then turned her head over her shoulder and looked at him. Jinx grinned “So, see my little lovely… I need you to break a bathroom mirror in the One Side.”

A minute later, they stood in front of a full length mirror in another room. Jinx, who was kneeling, finished giving Jingo some kind of complicated coordinates, and bumped foreheads with the diminutive feline. Jingo tamped down like a leopard seconds away from dinner, and did her entrance in reverse, simultaneously leaping six feet and a million miles away into nothingness.

Jinx stood. “And now to earn a smile from the Lady.” So saying, Jinx pinched a coin from the air and flipped it, calling “heads!” then, slapping it on his wrist, lifted his hand to reveal it tails. Before them, the mirror flashed, and the reflection of a woman stepped from the edge of the mirror into view. Helix looked around. There was no woman in the room with them. She looked back in the mirror. There was very definitely a woman standing there, in a white sun dress, with platinum hair. A tiny dragon of liquid silver hovered over her shoulder.

Spying Jinx, she laughed. “Oh Jinx, of course it's you, you silly thing; what happened to my scheduled mirror?”

“Ah, weell, I am ever loath to postulate, but I s'pose it could be that my Jingo may have crossed paths with it.”

“Clever Sir, and should I wonder the mirror I default into be shared by the Left Hand of the Lady? Oh well done, sir, good game!” and she laughed again. “And so?” she said, “I do have Work, you know.”

“A small boon of you and your sister, if you would be so kind?”

“Well enough, do you have the means?” she asked, petting her little dragon on the snout.

“Aye” Jinx held out his hand and Nibs gave him the small mirror he carried.

“Step forward, please,” the mirror lady said. Jinx did so, and pointed the mirror in his hand at the one on the wall. In the reflection, there was an infinite series of the woman in the wall mirror, who turned her back on them to face an image of her own back in the reflection of the hand mirror. Then she reached into the reflection of the hand mirror and laid her hand on her own shoulder.

Next to Jake, from the mirror Jinx held, a woman's hand reached out, and into the mirror on the wall. It grasped the refection of the woman by the shoulder and pulled her out of the wall mirror into the room with them, then withdrew back into the hand mirror with a shattering sound, as the lady in the room let go of the reflection she'd pulled from the image of the hand mirror and pulled her own hand of the mirror on the wall. It sort of looked like an infinite line of women with their hands on the shoulder of the woman in front all took a step backwards, and then there were only two: the woman now in the Library with them and her reflection where she had been. The woman turned around, so that both she and her reflection were facing Jinx.

The pair were identical in every way, except, Helix noticed, the little dragon actually in the room with them looked like it was made of living cut diamond instead of mercury.

Jinx swept his hat low in a bow, “Shimmering Ladies, I present a guest of mine, Helix the One Sider; Helix me lass, meet the Looking Glass Twins, Glimmer and Gleam,” he leaned over and said out of the side of his mouth, “Ye can tell 'em apart by their wee beasties, Flect and Fract”

“Uh, nice to meet you,” said Helix while Jinx grimaced at her uninspired phrasing. The twins giggled in unison.

“Now Ladies, I have a wee boon to ask: it seems young Helix has an appointment in the One Side that she cannot make, nor miss, if perhaps you would bless me with a favor and see her safely to her room in London, and let her pass back through on the return?”

“Oh Jinx, smuggling lostlings are you?” The lady in the mirror chimed in, “And you're sure you need both ways? One would be easier.”

“Oh my me yes, both ways, and no mistake.”

“What then for our troubles, Oh Jinx on High, the least not that we've missed an appointment of our own?” asked the lady in the room.

“Why, my gratitude, of course! Which is not so very inconsiderable, no?”

“Ah Jinx,” said the one in the mirror “We'll have need of better coin than that.”

“Well then, I could tell you something worth the trouble if you like, and call it even.”

“Hmm.” The sisters looked at each other, like one woman staring into her own reflection.

“Fair play,” said the one in the room, at last, “Share your news, Jinx of All, and we shall guide your lostling home and back, oath-unbroken.”

“Oath-unbroken, this there is: The Ix have waked, and threaten the calm of All and most; even the Dame's Right Hand fidgets.”

Twin platinum eyebrows quirked at once “That is news- and news within. Huh. Come along then Helix of the One Side, let us see you home.” Jinx nodded at her, so Helix took Gleam's offered hand, and was pulled with her as they both stepped from the room and into the mirror.

[nekojetto]

Did I already say how much I love Barbie Thor from What if...? ? x,)

Just a big Himbo god, and I love the fact he's becoming friend with everyone EVEN Supreme Strange HAHA This friendship is so precious x,)

Oh AND if I don't have the "THEY'RE FRIENDS FROM WORK!!!" line at the Guardian of Multivers's reunion in the season 2 I'm going to be feral...

Once again I precise I adore the original design just imagine this redesign for a 2D production instead of a 3D one :) And I only realise now his Science tattoo is on the wrong arm... my bad! x,)

From this project btw

[i-can-not-art]

Can I pretty please have more angel lore? 🥺🙏

I love how you do angelic stuff with your OCs ><

Angel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCsAngel OCs

Sure pookie💖

The last lore post even made me get off my ass and actually name+think a bit more about the seraphim siblings

So I was kinda vague with the advancement district last time since it’s kinda (really) messy, but it’s basically the huge hospital/laboratories of heaven, where technology and experiments are held.

Only thing is, Hui Shizhuo, by far the youngest Seraphim and the seraphim in charge of the district, is secretly dead and Yang Hu (military seraphim) is illegally acting in place of him being a lil silly.

And one day, Yang Hu he saw Qing Xia down on earth who got a score of 800 on the gaokao (massive test every Chinese student has to take that determines their entire future, irl highest score is 750) and did a bunch of other stuff in the scientific/medical field, basically being any Chinese parents’ dream.

The only problem is that when he went down to earth, Xia was happy and didn’t wanna abandon literally everyone she knew for some shady angel. So he did the only sensible thing and dropped some of his blood into her eye, allowing him to slowly affect her mind and make her obsessive about her research and stuff (why she has weird red veiny marks on half of her body, the “veins” grew down from her eyes over time).

Then he left and let his blood kinda fester in her mind, until everyone left her because she was literally going insane and starting to only value her science (also she killed a bunch of people or something). When he came back she accepted and she became the only human working him heaven..

For what she does, well during the centuries war a lot of angels died, but angels don’t decay so heaven just had a bunch of fresh corpses laying around, and they gave a bunch of them to Qing Xia for her to figure out how to “improve” angels.

Eventually her research led to Yang Hu “redesigning” Yin Hu and her sister (who is currently declared fallen and dead, but is definitely not actually the very much alive Wei Zhi) to become stronger but also more feral and now they murder 100x better.

For the civilian seraphim, Chaoxiang Ji, he’s the second oldest and probably the sanest of his siblings, probably since a insane person looking after 80% of the population of angels wouldn’t end good.

He doesn’t really have much going one, but he doesn’t like Yang Hu, and is very aware of how cruel and dangerous he is even for a seraphim. So when he notices Shizhou suddenly making strange decisions that line up with Hu’s line of thinking, he became suspicious. Eventually his suspicions get so bad, it leads to him making a shady deal with Liu’s dad.

For the missions seraphim, Wang, they were originally the civilian seraphim, but got moved and Ji took their place. They’re the oldest and the most mysterious, even to their siblings (why only their last name is known). They’re definitely the favorite child and the most connected to the Order god, it being said they have direct contact with them.

They rarely make children, even during the war where angels were dying left and right, they only made 2…. who died and Qing Xia has since “revived” in questionable ways.

They have certain beef with Caihong Liu’s dad, who is basically a unofficial angel but of chaos (also a great deadbeat, who knows where he currently is, certainly not Liu or her mom). During the centuries war Liu’s dad managed to find Wang and cut off one of his wings, making him go into hiding indefinitely (to this day, they rarely even talk to their siblings, just assigning and accepting or rejecting missions sent their way)

And finally the military seraphim, Yang Hu, is the second youngest, being made near the start of the centuries war, hand in hand with the arch angels. Despite not being a archangel himself, he’s noticeably more aggressive than the others, having his outbursts and giving threats much more commonly than them.

He was made especially cruel and uncaring for his children because of his job and basically all the arch angels hate him for being like your work manager but 100x worse (AND they’re all forced to carry his stupid last name).

But the rest of heaven actually kinda love him because while he didn’t win the war, he helped make it end in a tie which allowed heaven and the angels to continue existing (However that opinion quickly changed when they found out about a certain secret of his).