#this is one of the best things ive ever read

[exilethegame]

i apologize in advance if this is too long and rambling lol. i just need to make you aware of the moral quandary i’ve found swimming around in my head all day. firstly, your book is amazing. i don’t think ive seen a writer capture my attention and also rip my heart into pieces so throughly (although, I, the Forgotten One is maybe tied with yours in my mind).

so, trystan and syfyn.

IRL i consider anyone who sits by as atrocities happen to be completely complicit and (sometimes) as equally as guilty as the perpetrator. your story makes my head spin as this is a stance i take very strongly and i struggle with hating syfyn and trystan. on one hand, my MC does hate them for things they’ve done (breaking his arm, holding him down while people essentially experiment on him, and even not really doing anything after finding out what happened to MC and learning that the queen is working with the “enemy”). other times, my MC can’t hate them for being a victim of circumstance, just as MC himself was (and is). my MC sees them for who they used to be, how their circumstances have shaped them, and how they may be punished for defying the crown but also can’t help but feel a personal and… maybe political betrayal? my MC, and me by extension, have been grappling with a couple questions: at what point does being a victim of circumstance no longer absolve someone of guilt? how many horrible things must someone do before their allies see that something must change? at what point does someone become just as guilty as the perpetrator because they refused to lift a finger either way? is it wrong to hate someone as a whole because of circumstances that, up to a certain point, were beyond their control? is it wrong to hate someone that follows a tyrant because they fear for their safety? what if it’s all they’ve ever known and they have no clear path forward without their leader?

i hope all of that made sense and don’t seem like the ramblings of a lunatic lol. i’m not very intellectual but these are just some things i’ve been thinking about as i gave your story another read last night and i was bursting at the seams to share my thoughts. like i said before, your story is beautiful. tragically beautiful, perhaps? i’m wishing you the best of luck in your work and personal life! and thank you so much for sharing this story with us; we don’t deserve it, but we will try to.

(also sorry if i misspelled trystan lol)

Ah no don't apologize!! I love discussions like this re. the characters, especially because pretty much all of them are morally questionable to one degree or another. It always makes me happy to hear when the game has made people start to think and worry about bigger moral questions like this :)

I think both Syfyn and Trystan definitely are intended to make that question be asked. And the game won't push a particular agenda either way re. if the Commander forgives/doesn't forgive, blames them/finds them to be victims, etc.

Of course, something I do think is fun that plenty of characters are wondering this very same question about MC, and the role they used to fulfill for Plaithus vs. what they are now, post-exile... 👀

Thank you so much for the kind words :)

[calamarispiderart]

hello hello!!! random question before i get started on work haha

how do you come up with dialogue for ur hms comics? the back n forth of them feels so heavy and realistic. especially the casualness paired with the bleeding-brooding (alliteration for fun) violence makes everything just. hit. in a tragic and hopeless way imo. it’s so neat :0

i’ve been trying that kind of writing out a bit lately too. this is what i’ve managed with my iambic pentameter gang (hms but rain world iterator). MiND is being threatened by the rage pent up inside himself. and, strangely enough, it has the voice of HeART.

constructive feedback is welcome ^_^!

once again, hello hello! sending good wishes and all :]. i love ur work ^_^ 💛

oooo hmm... this isnt something ive ever really thought about trying to explain, thank you for the question! big fan of the posing in the piece youve added here btw, i like the alliteration in 'heliocentric heathen' B:•∆

honestly the way i go about writing them isnt something i feel i can put into words with a clear structure of process... often with my comics it starts with me simply having a vague idea of 'i want to make a comic today', and drawing what feels right to lead into it. the words typically link in with the actions as well - i usually draw something, draw the next thing, write a bit of dialogue, draw the next thing, write more dialogue.... not in that exact order but the words always feel to be a reaction to the actions and the actions are a reaction to the words (and/or, words and actions work in tandem). people rarely talk in a vacuum, especially when theyre having the conversation in person, so i find it helpful to see the actions as part of the dialogue and vice versa.

occasionally ive scripted out dialogue beforehand (always with actions included within the script.) but even with a script what actually is said needs to adjust with whats been drawn. when i dont write with a script (which is the norm), its often while im drawing the next frame that im thinking over whats being said. typically i just go over and over a sentence mentally, adjusting bits until it feels right, looking at it once its written on the page and adjusting it more if necessary.

perhaps a bit vague? apologies! i do have certain mental rules i try keep in mind for each of the threes characters while writing. 'how would heart respond, how would he word this? mind? i cant word it this way because i know he doesnt do this...' <subconscious questions and thoughts but they are important to keep in mind. i find it the most helpful to keep the core traits i personally see in them in mind, and let those traits kind of... guide what is said. if i think of how that collection of traits and facets would respond to something, the vague concept that creates can then go through the filters of dialogue traits i have in mind for them. ...ehhh, put more simply... 'what is the general response this character would have to this situation' and then 'how would they structure that response through words and/or actions?'.

i, being who i am, cccc being what it is, am somewhat naturally inclined to writing grim and bleeding-brooding (nice word) things. i also consider myself to be quite a grounded person, which i hope comes through in my work! however, natural inclinations aside, cccc itself is quite a bleeding-brooding album (at least it is to me). its one about depression and self hatred and it really doesnt pull many punches in that respect. or at least, thats my read on it! as a result, that becomes reflected in my interpretation of hms. however, id also note that cccc is silly at times, theres humor in it. all good grim things need a bit of levity to really make it feel Real... people joke in the worst of times, not just the best, and it really helps in writing serious things to have just a little bit of joke to it, even if its not immediately noticable... this is hard to really give examples of honestly but it is relevant i promise. im unsure if youve read much of my writing aside from my comics, but theres just a bit of absurdity and humor in both my cccc pieces that would make the writing feel sorely lacking without in my opinion. notable with how violent and tense both those pieces are.

lots of words now! hopefully helpful ones B:•] or at least interesting! ill try write out some of the core traits and details i keep in mind when writing hms so as to give better reference points to all my prior words:

heart: reactive, not instigative. he doesnt start fights, he finishes them. he also doesnt need an insane amount of prompting to get going... but he does need prompting. apathetic, a bit fanciful. hes depressed, and not in a cute way. he talks casually but he uses serious words. no point in simplifying his language - he wants to be taken seriously, and while he makes himself look small and weak at times he is Not weak and he is Not small. hes just as much of a wordsmith as the other two. he covers his mouth when he speaks sometimes, and he puts his hand over his chest... a bit defensive? muffling his own input, but notably he still speaks. lies by omission or by twisting facts - if full honesty helps his case, thats what he uses. if a white lie works better... i personally see him as a bit of a planner too. sometimes his reaction to things is built up to; it never comes out of nowhere, even if it may seem like it.

mind: instigative, less reactive. he still reacts to things but hes generally the one starting shit and hes honestly very bad at Not talking shit. uses contractions. <this is a small one but mind says 'dont' and 'cant' and i dont think ive ever heard him Not use contractions to any notable degree. kind of weak! hes proud of himself, very proud of himself, and even in the moments of the album where theyre getting along he cant drop his superiority complex. hes bad at making compromises that put him as the lesser one. hes also quick to point blame and to lie (even if hes a bit roundabout abt it). hes also not That smart - or at least, hes not any smarter than the other two. he Thinks hes smart and hes quite confident about that but that doesnt actually mean hes right lol. aggressive verbally, passive physically. hypocritical.

both of them tend to see soul as an afterthought, or as something to benefit from. note the 'something', not 'someone'. imo, they dont really see him as a valid living entity in the same way they see themselves. speaking of soul...

soul: hes difficult. hes a difficult and complicated guy. vague, fanciful, depressed, suicidal, tired... i personally see him as quite passive. both passive and active... hes violent, towards himself and towards the others. just as they dont see him as an individual, i believe hes too apathetic and burnt out to see them as individuals either. when he threatens to hang himself, thats a direct threat to the two if them as well - and it functions as one, seeing as they are all linked in that way! his suicidality isnt purely self destructive in the way it would be in other story contexts which i find important to remember. i see him as someone who sleeps a lot... and as someone who is treated more like a tool than anything else. but he is, simultaneously, idealistic. he hopes for the best and would do anything (Anything.) to try and achieve it. he wants things to Get Better or to Stop. most of the time when i write or draw him its within the 'Stopping is the only option to Get Better' stage of things. hes tired and he doesnt want to deal with things but he has to and he doesnt want to and hes at the end of his rope. honestly within the album he feels a bit like a ghost. hes granted a similar level of personhood as the shadow of what could be, which is both more and less than mind and heart get.... hes confusing! hea a difficult guy. honestly you can take a lot of my notes and thoughts on his character with a grain of salt because hes always been such a puzzle to me haha. i find him easiest to convey in art... OH yes one last thought/trait is hes a bit... arrogant? hes tired and hes careless. listen to me or fuck off and die. arrogant. what a guy.

ahaaha this kinda became me just rambling about my reads on the three but.. hopefully helpful!! this is all stuff i try keep in mind when im writing and drawing them. theres certainly nuances ive missed and things i havent worded as well as i could, but you get the idea i hope! all of that informs how i write them and... in a way they almost lead me through the piece.

also! this isnt something i often think about because its just a natural part of the process, but sometimes i end up scrapping stuff! entire paragraphs, panels and poses, because it hits a stasis where i cant find any way for one or the other to continue the interaction - theres a distinct difference between this and the interaction hitting its ending point. if ive written one person saying or doing something and none of the parties involved are able to respond in any way at all, thats a sign that ive conveyed their characters wrong and i need to go back. people *always* have a response to something, whether thats continuing the conversation or leaving or anything. if none of them can come up with a response that feels like them, ive messed up somewhere. dont be afraid to go back and rewrite things.

ummm yeah thats all i can think of to say now! thank you for the question, and thank you for the nice words!! B:•∆ im very happy my comics come off the way youve described, and very happy youve enjoyed my work enough to want to ask me about it!! means a lot to me B:•] your rainworld iterator hms concept sounds swag as hell, id just say to keep at it!! from what youve shown here youve already got a great start B:•∆ thank you again! hope you and anyone else reading this has a good week!

[sunstormrecs]

ship Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin tags Bachelorette Party, "Stripper" Seo Changbin, You'll see what I mean, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, but like barely, This Is STUPID, BAF Alpha Stripper Changbin Fest

summary Changbin, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man impersonator, gets hired for a different sort of event than he’s used to (and makes the most of it).

[gunstellations]

boop! 💙🤍

[biorust-art]

My man....dalorian

So recently I read @ryehouses 's 'a simple thing' again and UGH. I love this fic SO MUCH. The characters, the characterization, the heart, the Mandalorian(s) of it all... I love it to pieces. One of my favorite parts is the meeting at Krownest where everyone gets blinded by the embodiment of Manda that is Din Djarin. King of my heart.

These drawings are technically not from those chapters, but inspired by them. I just think Din's pretty with blood on his face and also with snow on his eyelashes. That's all.

[Image Description: Two drawings of Din Djarin from the Mandalorian, inspired by a fanfiction called 'a simple thing'. The drawings are on a gray background and are just the bust. The first is Din smiling, open mouth with his eyebrows raised and a gleam in his eyes as he looks to the right. he has blood running from a cut on his forehead down to his chin as well as a bloody nose. He has blood on his teeth and a bruise on his cheek. He is enjoying himself despite the concussion. The second drawing is him turned to the side looking down in concentration, his eyebrows are furrowed, and his mouth is slightly open as he thinks. There are snowflakes in his hair, on his cloak and on his face. END ID]

[swiftsalad]

This is a very sentimental piece that I recently drew of Armand, specifically from a couple chapters of the fanfic-in the deafening polar province called You. Please read it first if you don’t want to be spoiled bc I’m about to talk about spoilers.

Spoilers free TLDR: Armand’s trauma being this shapeless thing over his heart, that is fragmented due to his broken memories, is a well of pain that seems endless, and so all he can do is claw at his skin.

GOOOOOD I really love this fanfic. I feel that the author really understands Armand’s character and his relationship with Daniel and they expand these concepts in such a beautiful way. And the first couple chapters that summarize Armand’s POV of the 2 weeks in Dubai, are done so well where I can really feel how Armand is comfortable in his relationship with Louis but isn’t really happy and how in his mind he can’t really comprehend why he does what he does but really only knows how to act in the moment when his security is jeopardized. So of course he runs after Louis when the truth is revealed because Louis is his safety blanket, and without it Armand knows he’ll be alone again. That feeling is also what pushes him to tell Daniel about their past, stringing along enough information so Daniel keeps him around for a couple days once they’re back in New York. But then you have that chapter where Armand realizes that his relationship with Louis turned into comfortable complacency and that he never stopped loving Daniel and then a hint of subconscious, self sabotage because he really let Daniel reveal the truth without realizing it. AND THEN YOU GET THE FLASHBACKS. it’s my personal belief that we get the flashbacks as Armand himself is remembering/thinking about them since it’s his POV, like I think every flashback is done not only so its in sync with the plot beats but also because its Armand’s line of thinking.

Returning the memories to Daniel; heartbreaking, their last time having sex; heartbreaking, their first time having sex since; heartbreaking, “what we both want, we get”; heartbreaking, Daniel once again asking to be turned; heartbreaking, Armand trying to dissuade Daniel from vampirism by having him kill a guy and drink his blood via Armand straw; INSANE but heartbreaking, Daniel pinching and poking Armand until he agrees to turn Daniel; so funny and real but heartbreaking.

Then we get to the last 10 chapters and the whole time I felt as though there were a thorn in my heart and I was on the verge of tears the whole time. If these previous chapters were heartbreaking then these last chapters are DEVASTATING.

“I need you to keep it together”; DEVASTATING, “take it all and punish me for this”; DEVASTATING, Armand seeing Daniel’s gold eyes for the first time; DEVASTATING, Armand needing to be in pain for their first time as maker and fledgling; DEVASTATING,

And I quote:

“Five hundred years, Armand’s heart has beat the same lonely rhythm. Five hundred years, and every moment has been captive to the pounding, pulsing need. To the question that has forever gone unanswered. Do you love do you love me do you love me?”

“You can feel it now.” Daniel murmurs, irises nearly clear, pupils blown wide like two yawning holes Armand wants to fall into. “How much I love you.”

Daniel’s heart beats and beats and beats.

And yes, Armand can feel it. Daniel inside him, his heart and its steady I do I do I do, so certain that not even Armand’s own can find a way to doubt it.”

End quote.

So DEVASTATING that I’m crying, screaming, and throwing up. This chapter is one of the two that inspired me to draw something from the concepts and themes that arose with these characters. The other chapter that inspired the composition of the drawing is only a few chapters later in chapter 23, the moment is too long to quote fully but to put it simply, after Armand has a nightmare where he relives his trauma(btw as someone who has trauma dreams, this was written really well and realistic to how trauma works in dreams) Daniel wakes him up and he slowly realizes that in his sleep, he clawed at his chest, directly above his heart, subconsciously trying to rip it out. When I tell you, I had to look at the ceiling for many hours after chapter 23. And then I spent a week trying to draw it, I scrapped so many sketches because it was so important for me to get right. What’s crazy is that I felt as though the fanfic was not the same after chapter 23 either, like in the following chapters until the epilogue, there’s this weird melancholy in Armand’s narrative, and then in the chapter where they temporarily split, Armand directly calls it a “bomb” that hasn’t detonated yet. Like Daniel is simultaneously a reprieve from Armand’s self-loathing and now the source of it. Everything, everything, everything in this fic is exactly what I want from Devil’s Minion, past and current. The gentle violence, the violent intimacy, the bond before the blood bond, before the vampire bond, the constant draw to one another, the push and pull, the unspoken parallels; young Daniel being similar to Arun, old Daniel being similar to Amedeo, old Daniel with returned memories being something new but getting closer to being Armand’s equal, then vampire Daniel not only being Armand’s equal but being ONE with him, of course with the help of the vampire bond, where Daniel feels Armand’s feelings before Armand can even recognize them. And any time one of them puts their hand over the others heart it makes me just want to roll around on the floor or sink to the bottom of a pool, I really need that to be canon at some point.

THANK YOOOU @shineforthee for writing such a compelling fanfiction, I’m literally obsessed with everything you write it's not even funny!!!

[birrdify]

this is soooooooo totally not the actual writer but there's this oooooooone fic called Sever the Ties that me, this totally nameless anon SOOO didn't write, it's kinda like, emotional as all hell but also kinda gay. That writer also who totally isn't me is also planning a less 34 focused sequel to it since they liked writing it so much it's just taking a while. The plans do exist tho and a bit of the beginning

HOLDON WHAT???? HELLOOO????? OH MY GDO NICC IM SO SORRY I JSUT FOUND THIS??? HELPLP I TOOK A DOUBLE TAKE AFTER READING "SEVER THE TIES" cause i went oh my god! thats the fic i read! and OH MY GOD!! THATS THE FIC I READ!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fic HERE and thsi is nicc: (since i dont think anon asks give notifs) @34saveme34 (IF YOU DONT MIND ME TAGGING YOU MY BAD

[whirlybirbs]

it’s 5:20am i cannot sleep i am consumed with thoughts and yearning for keigo takami i need to be euthanized

[s-n-o-w-p-i-e-r-c-e-r]

Posting this because although there have been several aspects of the books which I don’t think the show did justice, this took the cake.

Spoilers for Slow Horses S4 finale under the cut

This is how River and Frank’s fight ended in the book. This shows how fucking insane, dangerous and willing to kill his son Frank is. The whole book turns everything in the show to 11, every character had huge moments that (although some cannot be replicated because a show can simply never be inside the mind and hear the monologue of a character), in my opinion were missed.

I should note, I love the show. So much. Jack Lowden is the best actor they could have chosen for River (I’m not just saying that because he’s my favourite actor; if nothing else, book River also literally has a mole above his lip), the entire cast portray their characters very very well. But sometimes the show does something wildly different and I just wonder why.

Side note - last season when Louisa killed Duffy? Yeah that was River in the books and it was a whole character development moment because he had such a huge amount of internalised hate for Duffy based on everything leading up to and including when he interrogated him (which isn’t funny like it is in the show it genuinely hurt River)

But these are just my opinions, and as I said, I ADORE the show. But it isn’t perfect imo.

[slavhew]

FINALLY DONE WITH THE FIC I REFERENCED HERE

Just shy of 14k of platonic oc and Dirk hurt/comfort. We get down to brass tacks of why this guy is the way he is (One of the reasons at least)

Read it HERE:

[mostly-aquatic-velvet]

new month new hyperfix and it's space probes this time. feeling slightly insane.

no better way to deal with a brainrotting interest than to make human desings of non-human chatacters! and don't get me wrong, i love the androids and objectheads and just straight up satellites, but please understand I'm too insane about them currently to be drawing machinery

(i will get to it soon tho i already have like 2 pinterest boards for android desings)

[bigolidioot]

When I tell you this has altered my brain chemistry and I'm not even halfway through. If you are going to read any jonmartin fic let it be this one

[borealing]

not to be like "my mother bullied me out of everything i enjoy" but i love doing photrealistic art sometimes but every time i do draw in this style i get reminded of her looking at one of my pieces and going "i just dont understand why anyone would bother to draw like this, you can just take a photo" so thank you guys for enjoying my art lmao

[scare-ard--sleigh]

yeah if you read the g*iman allegations and are still quibbling over how this is "hard" for you as a fan and you wanna separate art from the artist, i do not have space for you in my life.

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

Vent in the tags....

[br1ghtestlight]

skimming through my big bob and lily fanfic cuz its been a while and i barely remember writing it anymore and for WHAT reason did i make this so goddamn dark lmao??