#this is the most anime thing ive drawn in a while all things considered

[l-flyhight]

Kung fu panda the dragon knight characterisation and scene analysis. (Shipping problems aswell)

(This has been a long time brewing)

Disclaimer : this analysis is strictly from my trained observation using proof and layout of a scene. Thusly any scene signifiers and connotations used is viewed not from an audiences eye but from the perspective of a media analyst and animator view. Consideration under the ruling that this is merely by anaysis. disagreements while valid are not to be posted"

(Also take a shot for how many times the word subtle is mentioned)

Right so where do i begin? Where all things start i suppose. The premise.

To cut a long symopsis short two weasels travel to china to gain magical relics and po must stop them. Along with a knight from England whos agender relies heavily on revenge.

Simple plot. Nothing special. I can deal with it. Fine.

But things get complicated along the way as things do. While season 1 and 2 are flawed its fun. Like paws of destiny. Just a pinch of salt. Fun.

But i still have issues and one such is the nonsensical chaos that is implied in shipping. I was quite happy with the subtle chemistry and bonding po and blade had. Subtle being the key word.

ive a degree in snimation and excelled in character design, lore and characteristic signifiers. The subtlety here is how po would look at her during the moon festival. Its not platonic. Why you ask? He looked her over up and down in a way that signfied a hint just a hint of developing affection.

Now fast forward to when blade was angry with him saying po took advantage of her anxieties so she could let her gaurd down and unwind a little.

So lets look at how po spoke suring his response. The cues as it were dictate

"I just wanted you to see what you'd miss about china - and...what you'd miss about me"

The last part wasnt as strong at the opening statement. Their was a pause. That pause shows sadness and the rest of it was said in a gentle vulnerable way. Perspective? One of two things po is an innocent guy so it could be construed as him just wishing to be missed but due to the cues again can be caught as something else.

Blade throughout season one and two actually likes po for him. They've bonded through thick and thin.

So now we come to the simp himself Collin. So here we had emphasis on had a bad ass tracker who was tracking down blade because she was a wanted criminal. Po was collateral or at the very least he saw as an accomplice. Now this comes to an important analysis. Towards the end of season 1 blade and collin are fighting on top of the mountain. Collin is very vehement on doing his job. Fair enough. But lets for a moment fast forward to season 3 where he literally simps for blade because reasons? If he hesitated during that fight in season one just for a moment that the stones for s3 are set. But nope.

Also lets look at some signifiers that suggest romantic scenes. Or at the very least implied. Back to season 1 end. Po and blade share a very long hug. Po even leans into it nose to neck. Intimate. But we also see the romantic view of the mountain scape. Its drawn out to say the least. Ooookay subtle doesnt need to have any emphasis on it really.

If po hugged tigress like this then people would be frothing and loving it and i digress the scene sets itself. You do not hug fruends in this manner as its considered affectionate or intimate.

Bored yet? Annoyed that theirs analyse? Well its not over yet and it only gets worse.

So season 2 is littered with what we can call growth between our band of heroes. Po and blade holding hands all the time. The bit that comes later worth note is when blade is at her most vulnerable and po writes in a book about the rules of being a dragon knight. He doodles master masterdon giving po a piggyback. When blade mentions it po gets all embarrassed which again is subtle like he doesnt want to look like a dork in front of his friend. He later grabs blades hand and fistbumps the air. Staying like that for a bit. Now while this is sweet and hes very much riding out the high.

"You can let go now"

"Not yet"

But again it shows chemistry and banter of growth. A huge contrast in season 1. Growth.

Season 3 is such a mess. Pacing of story issues. Character cringe. Twists that actually made no sense and at one point they could of very well summoned captain planet.

So collin still wants to bring blade in but hes not subtle about showing he very well has a crush on blade. Now this gets rather intrusive as the episodes continue. Collin doesn't really add anything to the group. Akna has her ingenuity though is socially awkward. Ruhkmini is the literal voice of reality but brings the group together with hiw resourceful she is. Collin just stumbles along. Which again is a shame considering what he brought in season 1. Weiman was also wasted potential.

So season three kills off the main villian which is somewhat derivative. Veruca was such a poignant character with a goal in mind to ravage England from those that rejected them to create something new. Fine this was fine and they should have kept it that way. But no.

So lets cue to season 3 where blade reunites with po. He runs to her picks her up, spins her around and they hug? This is very romantic coded. You would not pick up your sibling this way nor a friend. Later we find po is so depressed that blade does all she can to help him (the episode is one such pacing issue) so both are in a gorge po is paralysed by a plant and cant move and blade is literally high of a plants pollin. I wish i was joking. So po does everything in his power not to get up or attempt to rid the paraylse but to hold her hand. Again subtle.

So lets cue to the end if we can even call it that. Collin asks blade out finially asking her i suppose and she just shook her head. Keeping it open i guess as her response could be taken in a few ways. But theirs a but. Then we see blade returning to china to star gaze with po which is a stark contrast to season 1. They also share baobao buns. In a moonlit restorant outside in a seating area. Signifiers, the moon has such strong romantic connotations.

England has nothing for blade anymore. Shes a wanderer free to go as she pleases. Unhindered and in no ones shadow. So if she actually said yes to collin it would complicate a lot. She doesn't want to be a knight and being a debutante is something she voiced very clearly thats not what she wanted. Whats she going to do wait till hes fone with the dutys for the day and thats it? Collin would possibly like that. No actual chemistry between them. It'll be like zuko from the legend of Aang falling in love with after after chasing him all over the globe.

Blade is independent and from what we do see she comes back to po?

The whole bestie signifier just isnt convincing nor is this oh they act like siblings. Its as if they were queer coded. Like perish the thought po would be into another a bear.

This is long overdue and again i really wanted to get into alot. So much more about pacing issues and when the script contradicted what we actually saw.

Po and blade for the record never actually wanted to officially get together. I was quite happy for them to be hinted at, subtle and sweet.

End of shipping/character analysis. Now piss off im tired.

(British humour)

(Will need revising at some point)

[softlyspun]

Costuming Research - Greyson Ives

So... I've been reading a remarkably compelling kink fic (Ginger and Mint). And because I'm a historical costumer (and also insane), I feel compelled to figure out exactly what these characters would be wearing. This is a long one, so most of this is under a cut.

So, to start out... When and Where are we?

Well, it's a fantasy world, so things aren't strictly bound to a real world timeline. But to get a basic handle on things:

-Horse-drawn carriages, buses, trains and cars are all mentioned.

-Trains seem to be the most common form of long-distance transport, even among the wealthy and powerful.

-Bean-bag chairs exist.

-Subsistence level hunting is very much a thing

-Yearbook photography is a thing.

-Electricity doesn't seem to be specifically mentioned.

-Letters seem to be the main form of long-distance communication.

-Mass-communication, like radio, phones, and the internet don't seem to be mentioned.

-No one seems to have to fumble with things like lights and stoves

So, to me, this feels like a late-19th/early 20th century world. (I'm going to say been bags are timeless). The setting is vaguely American/European, without directly correlating to a specific location.

Now, to get a little more character-specific. Let's take a look at Greyson Ives, reluctant hunter and equally reluctant di-mage.

Deer Woods, Greyson's home town, very much has the feel of a small Appalachian town. The exact industry that keeps it running is beyond the scope of the story, but IRL, these were often mining communities. Places like this can seem frozen in time, often decades behind the fashions of the big cities.

The Ives family in particular are borderline-subsistence hunters. Poor, even within a poor community, they actively disdain any kind of excess or even perceived wastefulness.

So, what materials would they have available?

Leather and fur could be easily procured. I imagine that probably sell the higher-quality furs and hides, but they probably have the wherewithal to tan hides for bags and waterproof outer garments.

That being said, leather really doesn't breathe. You need plant fibers (cotton, linen) or animal fibers (wool, silk), which would have to be bought. Considering the Ives family disdain for excess, I can't imagine that they'd actually buy bolts of fabric to sew up, or new-made clothes. Instead, they're probably buying used garments, regardless of quality, and wearing and repairing them until they go to pieces. (This is less a region-specific thing, and more an Ives-household-specific thing. Ben, the shopkeeper's son, while still quite poor, probably owns clothes made in the last decade.) For fibers, anything made of silk would be beyond their means, but linen and wool are quite durable, and, depending on the specifics of fiber production for this world (beyond the scope of this fic) cotton might be within reach.

Whatever color the clothes started out, they're likely to wear down to a fairly uniform grey-brown. (While synthetic dyes would be available in period, I cannot imagine the Ives household springing for Sundour to brighten their wardrobes.) If they dye their clothes at all, it's likely to be with locally available natural dyes, in fairly dark colors. (I'm picturing black walnut husks.)

Let's look at some sources! (Yes, I'm using Wikipedia as a source, because I'm lazy.)

So these are miners from Montana in 1889. This is probably actually a little nicer than the stuff Greyson would have access to, but could hypothetically be typical for Deer Woods in general.

Images of "Mountain Men" might be more useful (though a lot of these pictures would be deliberately sensational.)

Yep, that would be a cotton/linen shirt, with a fringed leather jacket.

Not a photograph, but I think this catches the archetype.

Another conclusion from looking at these: at least while still working at home, Greyson probably needs to wear a hat. Something durable, of either leather or wool felt.

So, my headcannon on Greyson's wardrobe at the beginning of the story: undyed cotton muslin or linen shirts, heavily worn and heavily patched/darned. Possibly woolen sweaters for the winter, likewise heavily darned. Woolen pants in dark colors, typical for the 1870's/1880's. A leather jacket, probably long, possibly fringed, for bad weather. (Though Greyson's jacket is later described as "threadbare", so it might actually be made of wool, instead) A haversack, likewise made of leather. Any buttons would be likely to be made of wood, antler, or bone. While hunters in turn-of-the-century Appalachia *absolutely* had the time and skill to decorate their clothing and accessories, the Ives family austerity probably means all of these are minimally adorned, if at all.

But! There's a change at the Midwinter Ball! Greyson actually gets new clothes! Which means we get to look at turn-of-the-century formalwear! For a description, we get a "smoky grey formal jacket"

Now, I'm partial to the evening wear of the 1890's, so I'm inclined to give Greyson a tailcoat. Something like this:

Bramley is described as wearing a bow tie, which would exist by this point (though I'm very tempted to stick the man in a cravat, on the ground that cravats are cool.

I'm going to do everyone a favor, and spare Greyson the truly ludicrous facial hair common to the period (as fun as 19th century mutton chops and mustaches can be), and assume he's clean-shaven.

Anyway, that's... way too many words on one character's costume! Next up will be Elliott Vale, and a dive into the finer side of men's fashion. The girls are going to come last, since that's going to require considerably more digging.

[lokilysolbitch]

My new fixation is bad poetry

and its making me think about how to define art and poetry and what makes poetry good etc but I can't go back and find my sophomore english teacher and rant about it so I'm making it yalls problem. but mr c if ur in here pls read also what do you mean thats one way to skin a hamster. thats not how it goes what are you talking abou

first of all, ive finally figured out my current definition of art: records of the human experience or just experience in general. so yes paintings and poetry but ALSO tiktoks or a decorated room. idc if you think its stupid there are remnants and references to human experiences ALL OVER those. so basically if it left a mark at any point, its art. maybe not always "good" or skilled, deep, etc but it is art (to me)

secondly, what is poetry? the same sophomore english teacher asked this at the beginning of a unit and the class was struggling. every time we listed a requirement for poetry he went "is that necessary though?". "it has to rhyme" "does it?" "it has to be deep" "does it" "it needs to have words!" ".....does it?" man idk i was 15 and sleep deprived

but now im less sleep deprived and i have an answer. I would consider poetry a spectrum (but not necessarily flexible. i wouldn't say you have to bend it's meaning to make something fit) but also playing with language, to be playful with it and have fun with it, to use it as a toy in a way. using language in a way different from its intended use. so writing a personal narrative about a deep topic? not poetry. maybe you had fun with it but thats still its main use. to make words rhyme, to alliterate, to use words just plain wrong? probably poetry. its still a spectrum. and im aware this means that saying something like "yew nork/glass fork" would count as a shitpost and poetry while "Ill love you and ill never stop loving you" doesnt and um i dont care i said what i said--

this would also mean most books and speeches would have little bits of poetry in there and i stand by that too. maybe the entire thing isnt poetry but bits of it could count. i came to this conclusion on the meaning of poetry because i saw too many "aesthetic" free verse poems that were just. tweets. you coulda just made it a sentence and posted it for free. there was no attempt to play with language. you just used it the way you were supposed to. its just a quote.

im definitely going to add more onto this about what i think poetry critics miss sometimes and why formal teaching of poetry is flawed but not all in one post bc its a lot. However i have one last concept to attempt to define. this one has always made me the angriest

GOOD VS BAD POETRY/ART

where do i even start. maybe we should just get rid of these terms completely and make people say what they mean. is it good or did he just use literary devices correctly. is it good or is it genuine. is it good or is it deep. is it good or is it entertaining. is it good or do you like it. is it good or is it popular. is it good or is it complex. is it good or is it creative.

ive been saying since i was i was maybe 12-13 that even though good does not have a solid stable meaning, there is still a sense of what good is. We know what its supposed to be. classical music, Edgar Allen Poe, Da Vinci are good. sure most people barely know or understand or care about these things other than one piece of work they can recall because they had to look at it in highschool that time and the teacher seemed to appreciate it. and we know that reality tv, messily hand drawn animals, and half assed near unintelligible tiktok skits are bad.

but....wait we like those though

ive come to the conclusion that while still shifting, "good"'s meaning in scholarly settings tends to come down to whatever those somethingth century european dudes and what the modern smart looking guys deemed intelligent. and in colloquial settings, what everyone likes.

many pretentious types will say rap is bad and the subject matter is crude and the same way im sure some old european guy would have said or has said traditional african music is too weird and primitive to be respectable.

now. i dont really listen to rap intentionally. if its in there its in there. I used to be pretentious and after changing i just never got too deep into it BUT. i listened to a Nicki Minaj song one time just to see and yeah it was not family friendly but dear god was it clever. the way she'd drop the most genius alliteration-personification-allegory-englishvocabword and then just keep it moving like im not gonna have to stop and ponder the seven layer reference to bedtime hanky panky. its smart. its creative. its complex. and so many rappers can write about the same topics over and over and still come back with a new way of phrasing it. its genuinely impressive

but so many still wouldn't consider it good.

the term good when it comes to art, while having somewhat of a meaning is still useless. make your own personal standards for what is important for you to see in art. its kind of silly for us to collectively decide "okay this art? we like it. this is good" and then go to a different community (age group, culture, race) and go "were going to show you the new gold standard for good! its what we liked! you dont do it like this?? then yours is bad!". historically thats never been a good move

what i find important with poetry (and by poetry i mostly mean song writing bc i dont even read poetry like that) tends to be "is it a poem? or a sentence/paragraph". everything other than that just has to do with my taste and what I prefer in the moment. and it goes the same for everyone else. there's no universal good or bad with art. its just what a dominant or culturally respected group of people said was important.

limericks are bad tho jesus told me/j

TL;DR: i think anything that records an experience is art. i think toying with language mostly makes it poetry, and i think its weird people create little boxes for good and bad and make everyone else adhere to it

[six40seven]

September 16-18th

I didnt go to school. I told Niki i was feeling too sick to and she just nodded and said it was fine. Just by her body language i could tell she was distracted by something else and i didnt want to bother her more then necessary. I wanted to say thanks to all the people on here sending kind messages and concerned asks. I am okay. I was just a little rattled these last few days and well, of course today. I havent slept in almost 32 hours. There is no way in hell im closing my eyes and waking up somewhere strange again with no recollection of how i got there.

This doesnt make sense, and i can tell youre telling me in your head “Ran you need to sleep.” And i know you’re right but it was just horrifying. I have a hard enough time remembering what i do when im awake. Why would this suddenly start happening to me. Its unfair. I was doing fine. Now im not, and i dread falling asleep again. Im too afriad to ask Niki to instal a lock of sorts so last night and the night before and really any time I’ve been feeling the urge to sleep.. well I’ve began to tie my foot to my post. ITS NOT TIGHT. I just dont want to wander off again.

Fall break is soon. I mean sorta. I attempted to attend school online the second day home after the ordeal but my connection was too shit. I guess its the trees blocking the signal. Or maybe the mountains. Speaking of trees, i havent left my house since that day. I dont want to risk whatever happened happening again, worse while im awak. Not that i think it will but the way the trees just… tempt me sometimes. I cant risk walking to the bus or walking even out of my house. WHEERE i use to consider it a blessing to not live in the town houses, i now regret never moving closer. Fuck. Its been so long since I’ve been outside im worried my skin will fall off my body and ill die if i spend one more day barred in my room.

Its okay, for the most part. besides the natural (?) urge i have to be outside all the time. Ive sort of forgotten to document much these o past few days. But i dont think anything else significant happened. As far as related to me. Niki didnt come back the first night and i spent all that time in ym room with the blind drawn and the lights on. I was afriad if i turned the lights off i would nod off. I ended up watching YouTube and Netflix on my laptop as well as cleaning my entire room.

Usually my room is a trash heap, i like it that way, its like having my own nest. But that first night. I couldn’t stand all the things and i pretty much Ed cleaned everything top to bottom in less then 3 hours. I found a few interested things while i was doing that, including but not limited to: a box full of my old Polaroids and camera, a stuffed animal i thought i had lost which went back onto my bed, and a total of 20 spare dollars made mostly out of 1 Dollar bills and quarters.

The only thing of real interest was the Polaroid camera. I thought i lost that thing years and years ago. I only know i had one at all because i have some older pictures pinned places and tucked into my phone case. Theyre all of people i dont really know but i like to think i do so i can carry some part of them with me. They must have been important to me at some point yk. So i decided to look through and sort out any of the Polaroids i remeber or anything like that. These are my findings. I’ll explain them after i show them to you.

starting at the left top and going left to right. It reads Nov 1st 20##. all of these are from when i was a kid. maybe when i was in 4th or 5th grade? Im not entirely sure the exact age i was. The photo shown is a picture i must have taken of some sort of important journal entry, i cant really read it but at least if i ever needed to remeber taking a picture.. I remember, thanks past me.

The next one, in order, is a picture of two shadows. Maybe three. Probably me. Maybe Niki… or Eryn. we were close when we were kids and hes in two of these already. So ill just mention him. idk if he will be okay with me talking about him on here. I dont think he knows i have this account. hopefully he doesnt find it. Not that i would care very much. He just doesnt like me. The caption is just a date. oct 3rd. no year. I wonder when it happened? sometime in my childhood probably. I havent used this camera in years and years. I lost it so long ago.

The third is a weirdly saturated picture of a park in my town. The bigger town. Its just weird. And the caption says… evacuating or something. Its sorta weird. also Niki might have taken this picture because her name is on it too. Seems like her type of thing. from what i remeber as a kid, when we still lived in the big town, she was into weird saturated pictures. Something about scene. I dont know really.

The fourth is on the second line of pictures i found in the Box. On the bottom left. It says July 20## again sometime in my childhood. It shows aforementioned Eryn crouching ont he ground showing something to everyone. Or the viewer. I can see myself, or younger me. Younger me off to the side. Someone else took this picture. I dont remeber this happening. But it was important enough to keep so there it is. Thats pretty much it.

The fifth, wow thats a lot of numbers. Its got a smiley face :) on it. and its a picture of the lake. Yk the one bordering the left side of the bigger town. Its one of the smaller more muddy parts so its all gross. Probably from a hike that i wanted to remeber with Niki or something. I loved the lake when i was a kid. It was fun to swim in but after… after awhile i stopped going and then it closed because of something weird and now you can only go hiking near and around it.

The sixth. A picture of me and ****** hugging. Eryn in the background. It reads Eryn & ##### July. Its a cute picture. I dont know… who ****** is? Yeah i dont know. but i must have known them at one point because thats them. Yeah. They look familiar in the worse way and i pretty much threw that one back in the box as soon as I could. I dont like lookign at it. My stomach hurts when i do.

The seventh. And last a picture of a cat. Even when i was a kid i also apparently liked cats. It reads Spring 20##.

So yeah. I just wanted to say im glad i was able to find them and document them somewhere. I also thought while im explaing photos and stuff ill go into a little detail about what i discovered from that night. Posted on here.

The first piece is clearly a path somewhere in the forest. If i were to say, somewhere further in the mountains, near where the older remains of mines are. The only thing wrong about this piece is that…. When i posted it, theres no wya for there to have been snow. So either the photo is altered in some way, which is unlikely, because from what i can tell it was posted in the middle of the night. Or it was actually snowing wherever i was. even though all the previous days it had been raining.

The next picture looks like some sort of underground tunnel, lined with bricks and ending in step leading up to a barred and maybe locked? I dont know, barred iron gate. I have never seen that place before. Ive been in a lot of abandoned buildings that I’ve found near here but I’ve never seen something like this. The only explaination i can give for the location is possibly a sewer enterance somewhere in the basement of one of the older buildings, not from the big town but rather from the smaller town nearer to my house. Again, it looks like its snowing. Which makes no sense in any context, since it was snowing when i woke up (even though i said i thought it was) and because if this was underground where would snow be coming from? The title says… I heard you. Im here. I dont remeber this. Obviously. and i dont know who i would have.. heard? It doesnt make any sense.

The third picture… i dont have much to say. It looks dark. Maybe its related to the second picture, maybe its on the otherside of the gate. But I’ve never seen a place that dark before. Especially if it has walls. which I think it does. so it must be in a building somewhere out in the forest. Sorta supports my abandoned building theory. Or abandoned mine shaft? I have no idea. But the capture is clearly a long hallway. the caption says something is wrong. No duh. I am clearly self aware even if i dont remeber. I wonder if i act different..

Anyway, thats all for the last few days. I probably will end up attending school tomorrow. Niki isnt home yet, its near the end of the day so if she isnt home by now im assuming shes staying overnight at the office. wouldn’t be the first, wont be the last. I might get a snack before trying not to fall asleep a third night in a row. If anyone wants to chat with me, ill be open to the distractions.

[screamingay]

Do you have any OCs? feel free to talk about them if you do What was the first piece of media you engaged with on the internet? Are you still interested in it? What's something you made or did that you're proud of? What's something that made you smile this month?

ooh this is so fun tysm!!!

i do have some ocs! ive been working on them on and off since high school and i still dont have an overarching story or anything for them but i'll go over the basics if anyone's interested o.o

the basic premise is a group of friends who start a band called good question, but ive always considered the main couple of this universe to be renee and pj (who i just renamed a minute ago dont worry abt it) even tho they aren't really in the band. the band is made up of alysha on lead guitar and vocals, juan on drums, and anis on bass, with meg as a roadie and sati as their social media manager (and also regular manager). calypso is the newest addition to the group, they're the youngest and im not entirely sure how they'll fit in but i think they're just gonna be a younger college student or something. ive sketched and drawn everyone in the group, some more than others, but i'm still really working on their designs and physical & personality traits and backgrounds and all that. i know that pj likes anime and sati & anis are exes and alysha is an amputee and renee is jewish and all kinds of stuff but i haven't really fleshed them out as much as i want to eventually. lmk if ur interested in hearing more abt them bc it would definitely encourage me to work on them more hehe

i dont really remember what my first internet media was, but i feel like it mostly started with youtube and stuff like charlie the unicorn. my first fandoms were book series, the hunger games and hp and the mortal instruments and all that, and im absolutely not into most of it anymore except the hunger games i still think they're brilliant

i'm definitely proud of some of the stuff ive made! i havent been working on my skills as much lately but my gf has been inspiring me bc i love drawing her body <33 so other than those drawings of her in my top posts rn and that taz comic i did a while ago i like these too

lots of things make me smile!! getting this ask made me smile! also harper got her first tattoo and it happened to have my lucky number in it and my cat is so cute so im happy every time i get to see him and i saw the sun set on bare trees in front of dark clouds a few days ago which is one of my favorite things to take pictures of <3

thank u again for all this!! i love sharing things abt myself and idk if this was like a chain or what but i might send it along to someone else anyway bc it's so nice ty

[karatecaulfield]

Hi, may I have a ship for Cobra Kai & Outerbanks. I go by she/her and am bi with no preference so any gender is fine.

Ive been told I typically wear what would be considered 90s type of style but leaning away from more feminine things tho I’m not opposed to dresses and all. 

I do get pretty anxious when thrown in certain situations rather that be talking to a group of people or just one person. But on occasion and definitely when I get to know someone I never stop talking. I am a ranter and rambler which means I could be ranting about something that happened and then start talking about something else that may or may not be related to the original subject. Basically I will always find something to talk about though I do enjoy listening to other people talk. I am considered the mom friend because I tend to be the most logical. Im also a very determined, stubborn person who usually is kinda pessimistic but still has a huge imagination. And despite all the anxiety I am usually a relatively confident person and am not afraid to take up for anyone I care about. Also I am pretty good in school despite having a kinda bad memory. Also an INTJ, Sagittarius, and Ravenclaw. 

I absolutely love writing and have for the longest time. I also love drawing and painting (mostly art related to animals and the occasional landscape) I’ve also been a big music fan since I was a kid, I honestly dont know what I would do without it. I also really enjoy reading, I could spend hours getting consumed by whatever I’m reading. Which also travels into me when I’m watching things. As in I spend a good bit of time just binge watching new or old shows. I also really like walking around and enjoying nature. Theres a few nature trails I love going on and would go to the zoo every weekend if I had the chance. Also I do like going to random places with my friends. 

And thats about all I can think of to say, hope it wasnt too much lol. But anyways, thanks in advance :)

Robby Keene! I think that he would be really drawn to your overall vibe. He kind of likes a challenge when it comes to getting an s/o so I think he would like you being shy and first, then more open when you get to know him. It makes him feel special. He needs someone who is a good listener and falls more on the logical side of things because when he’s upset he can be a little impulsive. It would mean a lot if someone was there to talk him down from his anger. He would love to show you Miyagi-Do karate and help you connect to nature, but also help you connect with him in a way. While he would always be happy hearing about your books and music tastes, there’s just something about the outdoors that makes him feel more bonded with a person.

Sarah Cameron! I think she would love your style, and you’d be sharing clothes a lot. She’s the kind of s/o that would be great at talking you out of anxiety attacks, reminding you that you don’t always have to be the strong one. The two of you would have some really amazing, deep conversations together, which is something that would simply stay between you guys. Sarah would really encourage your artistic side, wanting to see every step of something that you’re working on even if it’s a long time from being finished. Being in Outerbanks is kind of hard unless you are one with nature, in terms of the ocean and things like that. She loves feeling connected to the water, and with you.

A/N- thank you for the request! I hope you enjoy, please feel free to request again if it isn’t what you were hoping for <3

[maeborowski]

@catball sure! or well i can try anyways, but fair warning im by no means an intellectual wrt art history or even furry culture rly so take this more as me thinking out loud lol

i suppose its similar to any genre/movement/aesthetic/whatever thats prefixed with a "post-," in that it retains the characteristic qualities of the niche it spawns from, while ditching the limitations of the recognizable convention. of course, which traits are deemed "characteristic" and which ones are "limitations" is a completely subjective distinction, but ill try to explain what some examples look like to me the first time i heard the term referenced was in this post by scribblechicken, which i came across after seeing this post by the same artist. warning for slight nsfw i suppose. at a glance, its a silly gag recontextualizing something horny into a practical inconvenience, but i also find it interesting that the gag here, can really only be made within the context of the greater convention within furry art. a sexy anthropomorphized airplane, is an absurd subject, yet one thats become commonplace as a "furry" concept. in a piece like this, the absurdity isnt in the subject itself, but the recognizably of it, the fact that it is an icon to be familiar with. i feel the typical furry perspective on the subject could be described as "an admiration for form," to whichever end that serves, but this imo shifts that lens, into an absurdist one, a loving recognition of familiarity to the unfamiliar

another artist id put in this category, at least at times, is unibrawn, particularly thinking about this work. there is a furry character present, but they're buried in abstract expressionism, almost to the point of having to search to find them. this is far from the "traditional" structure of furry art, to place the character in some way that the viewer is immediately drawn to them. yet still, i find it a celebration of furry design, as my eyes are drawn most strongly to the expression, a "cartoony" face being the lighthouse in a sea of texture.

one last example is qsfocus / qs75834 on twitter, particularly this piece. a complete inversion of the positive/negative space of a standard furry pic. in fact, there is no "star" of this pic, no likeness to view. the swirlings of tail and paw serve to suggest and imply a furry setting, yet all remain hidden within each other. the setting carries the familiarity, but the piece leaves you feeling its loneliness, with only glimpses in your periphery.

now, i dont wanna put words in mouths. i really have no idea if these readings are correct whatsoever, or even if these artists identify with "furry" "postfurry" labels beyond whats stated. but i cant deny a certain aesthetic intuition i get for these types of pictures, that goes beyond just an "esoteric art style" or whatever, i see a difference in intention! (and, notably, i see antithesis of that in other particular pieces by the same artists, that feel more overtly "furry"). at the end of the day its a new label ive only seen some people toss around, maybe its the beginnings of a niche recognition, maybe it blows over. maybe

what i found interesting in the context of my original post, was how, trying to find meaning in the concept of "post-furry" made me reevaluate how i view, furry. it was never smth i really saw as an "art movement" in and of itself, but it feels hard to deny when i consider it. there seems to be a cohesive framework of particular types of visages, and how they're consumed. and this differs from simply having animal features in an art piece, jokes aside, we can tell the difference between a modern furry pic and just an anthropomorphic animal in art. and these conventions are interesting! the way things like anthro planes, pooltoys, open species, niche kink, or even just particular art styles become sorta become "canonized" as icons is neat. the way that the art is seemingly presented to be consumed, gazed at for its model. to illicit certain feelings! and to take these icons, these feelings, these conventions, and stick them into other environments, or to see how they fare without their typical substance, is so cool! to branch them out from one niche community that has grown to recognize them as normality, and carry that normality into broader artistic recognition feels like something that warrants the donning of "post-furry"

post-furry is actually an incredibly interesting thing to think about from an art movement perspective

[skytroops]

ash needs to stop being........kawaii

[welcomebacktohoimicraf]

season 7 is the quintessential hermitcraft season to watch

Admitedly, i’m not THAT old of a hermitcraft fan, ive only been around since s6 and will vanquish the Mic of Opinions to fans whove been around for longer, but what i CAN say to all the newbie hermitfans who want to get into the community is this:

watch season 7.

bc while hc s6 is regarded as the ‘turning point’ for hermitcraft and holds a lot of influence on the following seasons, its a fairly daunting task to backwatch and experience it in all of its glory and chaos. Its called the Season Sixfinity for a reason; it lasted nearly twice as long as any season before it, and is just not accessible for everyone. Scar alone has about ~100hrs worth of content on that season. What more if newcomers wanna backwatch the series of other hermits like xisuma, grian, falsie, etc?

And thats not even considering the fact that historical context is very relevant for this time. Season 6 was in 2018— the minecraft renaissance era was in full swing, and the minecraft community as a whole was going through a lot of changes. Its just a lot of stuff to take in for a new viewer. (in particular: new gen dsmp fans who are alr pretty burnt out by the concept of Multiple Povs I Am Obliged to Watch, and is a common reason why so many of them migrated to hermitcraft recently in the first place)

But season 7? It has the perfect balance of everything. If you comb through the hermits’ channels youd find that for most of them, their most viewed hermitcraft videos IS their s7ep1 bc thats simply how hype the season was!! Minecraft was on a good track of evolving as a game. The hermits were left flushed from the previous season and eager to ramp up their Minecrafting AND Youtubing skills.. Season 6′s main problem—immature discourse during server-wide events—began largely dying down and has become pretty much extinct by the time s8 came around (partly because grian’s clout began to bleed over to the other hermits and by the end of the season so many of them have finally, finally gotten the recognition they deserve and have passed/are so close to passing the 1mil milestone.) 

Season 7 was The Return of hermits like etho and xb. keralis and bdubs’ first full season in a while. wels’s return from burnout— it tied up Old and New hermitcraft with a neat little bow.  The vibes were simply IMMACULATE. 

Some ppl didnt even know that season 7 is where winged!grian became a thing. [EDIT: I meant the pesky bird!variety, he's been drawn w elytra since season 6 but s7 was when he began to have floofy feathery wings :>] or that this was when scar and grian really began becoming buddies (desert duo enthusiasts know your history!!) When mumbo began letting loose his loony side. stress’s pink cardigan becomes magenta, bdubs gains his anime eyes, and joe gets his bright neon green hair. It has a fair amount of historical events of its own: the Button. the mayoral race. the Turf War. the HCBBS. the boomers. the keralis secret-base games. the first hermits helping hermits stream. the first inclusion of proximity chat. the armor stand book. Decked Out and Amogus (tango popped off this season fr!!) and the BUILDS oh my god the world was so built up this season it was insane!! the absolute madlads on this server man.

and then season 8 is easy to continue on from there. lasted very short which is good for catching up on and the hermits whose s7 DID suffer (doc, who had his little one and jevin who also went through burnout) get their redemption in s8. the addition of gem and pearl. which then brings us to hc s9 where the hermits are on top of the world and going back to their roots, and being honest w themselves about what kind of balance they want to achieve w their content (mumbo, being currently on break and taking time to recharge and we love him loads <3).

The whitelist is now at top notch quality, full capacity. Theyre on top of the world, and theyve decided to take it chill for the while before returning to your daily schedule of hermitcraft shenanigans with a fresher outlook on life. A truly inspiring and satisfying emotional journey. 

tldr; dont know where to start? Start from s7. 

[knifesxedge]

hi love im deep in ur art blog for reasons and im SO in love with the fact that ur ghoul has his OWN nickname tattooed on him in party's writing they are SO 🥺 was wondering if you wanted to talk a bit more abt ghouls tattoos??? theyre just SO gorgeous and intricately laid out

HI i LOVE u i am KISSING u i would love love love to talk about ghoul’s tattoos 🥺❤️

^ yeah ghoul & party have each other’s handwriting tattooed!! for party it’s one of the only tattoos they have & it’s right over their heart (im sure ive mentioned this fact before but idk if ive explicitly noted that it says ‘sunshine’) and ghoul didn’t have the space to put his right over his heart because poison’s kj symbol is there so his is on his upper arm (they ARE soooooooo 🥺 i love them)

ghoul’s tattoos are a healthy mix of sentimental ink and things he just thought were beautiful. when he met the rest of the four he didn’t have THAT many tattoos because 1. he was 14 2. he’d only been in the zones for a little under a year and a half at that point but the ones he DID have (aka his oldest tattoos) were his knuckle tattoos (‘freed’ and ‘fuck’ what can i say he was 13), the big raven on his upper shoulder and neck (he started believing in the witch very early compared to other cityborns but yeah that tattoo was both a way of symbolizing his devotion to the witch and a way of marking himself as a killjoy/shedding his past in the city in the way that he considered clearest), the fangs on his hand, two bats on his leg, the zombie bite on the other side of his neck (i could get a little more into this but BASICALLY ghoul being an ex-crow trainee + a cityborn + being the only surviving member of his first crew had a problem with feeling inhuman and a lot of survivor’s guilt and so he really. idk he connected a lot with zombies & frankenstein’s monster and ghosts & the like when he was a runner for dr. d post-his crew’s deaths. he got better about Seeing Himself as a Person especially once kobra + the other two showed up but the fascination remained) (also not tattoo-related but that’s when he chose his name. before that he’d been called ‘sandpup’ by his old crew & he never had a chance to tell them before they passed but he really loved that they used that as a name for him especially with how much he didn’t want to associate himself with the city) (ghoul had A Lot of issues but the difference there is that he worked thru them a lot earlier than the rest of the four) and “I FORGIVE U” on the back of his neck (in remembrance of said former crew).

umm along with that kind of fascination with the undead/feeling that kind of connection are the frankenstein stitches on his wrists (tho thats more of a common hc) and he has this pretty big tattoo of abstracted bones following his vertebrae down his throat and chest that he’s gotten expanded/fixed/touched up over the years. ik i do a lot of b&w doodles but i feel like i’ve been kind of inconsistent about coloring (most of his tattoos are color). pretty sure ive mostly drawn them in green (???) but in my head they’re like a faded light blue using natural skin tone as highlights.

his more sentimental tattoos…let me see if i can outline them here. this might not be exhaustive but i will do my best to list what ive figured out at least thus far:

the two little bats on his right thigh are for his grandmother and little sister. his sister (juliet adele fujikawa, b. april 2009 d. december 2014) was killed in a car crash shortly before he left the city, and likewise, his grandmother (charlotte fujikawa [藤川 千尋] b. june 1936 d. december 2014) was “moved to retirement housing” at about the same time. that was pretty much the last straw & ghoul left battery city within the week

there’s his crewmates’ symbols on his chest (in order from his right to left: kobra, jet, party) (gotten when their crew had been together for a while. dating this one is based on a couple things: 1. ghoul had been with them for long enough that he felt secure 2. poison and ghoul were friends by this point, or else he wouldn’t have included their symbol and 3. poison’s is over his heart so you can read into that as you will)

text from the graffiti bible on his right calf, as protection for his crew & as a reminder of one of his former friends who was a droid that believed very strongly in destroya’s return

his raygun on his chest (he was pretty proud of the design! this was when he was ~15 or 16) that he had poison’s added to post-sing post-engagement pre-commitment ceremony (so. september 2023) (yes i have my handwritten timeline + my own drawings + my fics out in front of me rn cross-referencing sldkdksksbx!)

one of the girl’s childhood drawings (one she drew of him & her & the stuffed animal he made for her when she was a baby all having a tea party together) from when she’s about 5 or so on his right hip (december 2022 or so)

shooting stars on his upper right shoulder, partially because they’re pretty and blend well with his other tattoos and partially because they’re a reminder of a lot of things, including but not limited to his first night out in the zones seeing the stars for the first time, stories his grandma used to tell him, and right when he’d first joined the fab four and him & kobra sat on the roof during a meteor shower

besides the other one i already mentioned ^ he has more of poison’s handwriting on his left inner forearm — this is also one ive mentioned before but once they’ve been in a relationship for a while they get into the habit of leaving little love notes around for each other! there’s nothing particularly special specifically about the one he got tattooed, besides the fact that it reminded him of poison and they love each other. the text in full (which i don’t think ive ever put anywhere, though im pretty sure ive put fragments of it in fics and art) is as follows:

Good Morning baby <3! I needed new paints, went on a run. Kobra has the Girl @ the Crash Track, Jet’s at the station. call me when you wake up! I love you, be back soon. XO Party <3

he also has the anniversaries of when they started dating and their commitment ceremony (03•03•21 and 10•26•23 respectively) on the inside of his right wrist ^ !

he’s got a snake wrapping around his left leg that kobra picked out and a hand of cards with the ace of spades face up that jet picked out (and these ofc are because they remind him of his crewmates!!)

he has the phoenix witch tattooed on his ribs, left side, styled vaguely after catholic saints (since that imagery can still be found in the inner zones & especially where ‘joys who still practice that religion gather!)

there’s a version of the eye from the mailbox on his right shoulder, and this one is also a sort of symbol of protection/good luck, to show devotion to the witch and to help protect himself and his crew

the constellation libra on his left forearm! this one was done a little while after he started running transmissions and supplies for dr. d! he liked the connection that astrology — whether he believed in the practice or not is up for debate — gave people to the stars, and the feeling that he had a place in the universe, predestined or not

after charlie is born, he gets a portrait of her (~age 4) with her name and birthday underneath done on his left thigh! (~2036)

and on his lower back, he has a fairly simple tattoo of two crows on a wire with their beaks pressed together (aughhhhhh romance) that he gets done as an anniversary surprise for their 10-year (so. 2033)!

his non-sentimental tattoos are largely based off of images from books, either from dr. d’s collection when he was working as a runner for him or from cherri’s after he joined up with the fab four, or else they’re naturally occurring in the zones!! this includes but is not limited to: california golden poppies on the back of his left shoulder, strawberries around his left bicep (he doesn’t ever have a strawberry until he’s like 35, this one is absolutely based off of a particularly pretty illustration), a thundercloud with lightning on his left elbow, a moon on his right inner bicep, a ring of thorns around his right forearm right under the elbow, a dagger on his inner left calf, and a sun, small bat, cross, rose, ribbon (with the word ‘faith’ in script), and wing on his right forearm and hand, all picked from flash sheets

so yeah! that’s about everything i have to say about ghoul’s tattoos atm but ty ty ty sm for letting me ramble abt them i think about his tattoos so much 😔❤️

[murroyilodel]

PICK   FIVE   TROPES

i.   screw the rules, i’m doing what’s right / good samaritan

The first one and I am already breaking the rules myself by combining two tropes into one, because I did not know which to pick. Esme possesses a lot of empathy. She cannot see anyone suffering and walk away. After she sees Quasi tied up and being mocked by the crowd and pelted with vegetables and possibly worse, she goes to him and steps onto the pillory, despite this meaning that she is spoiling an entire populace’s “fun”. At that moment, she does not care for them, she is only concerned about the person in front of her who is suffering. She tends to him, and even apologises to him, even though it is not her fault.

That is where the Good Samaritan comes in. As for screwing the rules, she lives in a society where the law considers her race a crime. She is always hiding, always running, just to get out of trouble. When Frollo tells her to stop helping Quasi and get lost, she is still trying to be polite and speaks in a calm tone and and addresses him as “Your Honour”. It is when he pushes it, that she finally snaps and pretty much screws it, and whips out her dagger and defies Frollo in front of everyone and lectures him for his hypocrisy.

ii.   defiant to the end

Esme’s first choice is to get out of trouble if she can, as mentioned above. But if cornered, she does not break down and does not back down, even though she is panicking inside. Whether it is retorting back at the two soldiers because they falsely accuse her of stealing, or sparring with Phoebus both verbally and physically when she thinks he is on the authorities’ side, or finally, spitting into Frollo’s face after he gives her an unthinkable ultimatum, Esme will never surrender. It is not a matter of pride or martyrdom (she would very much like to live in peace thank you very much), but it is about keeping her dignity and conscience.

iii.   world’s most beautiful woman

There is literally a lyric calling Esme the “finest girl in France”. Her whole design is gorgeous, with her poofy black hair, thick eyebrows, green eyes, brown skin and clothes that are quite detailed for a 2-d animated movie. The whole impression is to showcase how she stands out among a sea of people, holding them captive with her natural looks and sultry dances. Despite making her earthly and more mature than the previous Diz princesses, the animators / directors also imbue an ethereal quality in Esme, as angelic music is played in the background when Esme approaches Quasi to help him and soft candlelight caresses her face when she sings “God Help the Outcasts”.

A large part of what drives the movie and other characters’ motivation is Esme’s beauty after all. Phoebus is immediately drawn to her beauty in their first scene together - though he comes to appreciate her for so many other things later. Quasi - I think - is more touched by her kindness, but he does gape at her when she starts dancing during the festival and calls her a wonderful dancer later. Frollo in short sang Hellfire and burnt down Paris just to look for her.

iv.   reluctant fanservice girl

Being the most beautiful woman - as with dramatic stories - means Esme’s life isn’t easy. She uses her charms because they help her earn money, and it is pretty much the only way she can earn money. She is not educated, she is an outcast, worse, she is believed to be a witch. While comfortable in her talents and sexuality and while capable of being quite flirtatious, she does not enjoy relying on her looks and does not fully embrace being a sort of femme fatale. When she expresses wholehearted admiration for Quasi’s artistic talents, she says “Oh, if I could do this, you wouldn’t find me dancing in the streets for coins.” When Quasi protests and says she is a wonderful dancer, she sort of brushes it off and says “Well, it keeps bread on the table, anyway.” Given the chance, it seems clear that she will not choose dance as her job, no matter how much she likes it.

v.   improv fu

Esme fights hard and dirty with all she’s got. Two soldiers against her? High kick into one chin and Djali headbutting the other. Ten soldiers surrounding her at Frollo’s order? Disappear in a puff of pink smoke, use the people to crowd-surf and swing a metal helmet at the soldiers themselves etc. etc. Phoebus catching her off-guard and waving a sword at her? Take a candlestick and aim it between his legs before slamming it into his face. She is quick to check her surroundings and make use of whatever she can get her hands on.

TAGGED BY.   @flyngfree​​   ( thank you for this, it was great to write ! )​

TAGGING.  @thecurseisinourblood @sanctamater @xthesparequeen @hoopsheartthrob @emcads @musemelodies @iniziare @listered @enchantedorigins @adversitybloomed @misroberts / @gehwalt @riidcr​ @starsailingcaptain​ @keepmovinjunior​ @tharanduil​ @bulletballet​ & you, please say I tagged you!

[citialiin]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. tagged by: @forseenclade thank you ! man i am so bad at doing memes.  tagging: @blossomingbeelzebug @zhrets @lupichorous @dansiere yayayayayayayaya

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated [ z/iggy stardust is DEFINITELY not my original character, but 683 is, and every single part of how i rp ziggy from his backstory to his personality was made up by me. that being said, ziggy is still a character that exists in media. ]

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO. [ im pretty sure ziggy is tied with the thin white duke as one of b*wie’s most famous fictional personas? ]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES ? / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. [ maybe a little overrated ]

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ celebrity rock god of limitless talent vs inevitable overrated washup. most celebrities are polarizing anyways ]

How strictly do you follow canon?  — there isnt much canon to go off of i think? the album barely even states if ziggy is an alien and b*wie himself got really wishy washy about it (sometimes saying z is a human who was contacted by aliens, he was an alien himself, etc). i dont think we know anything about him besides what he looks like (red hair / weird eyes / pale / “well hung” lmao) and he has a band called the spiders from mars, he plays the guitar left handed, he’s bisexual + androgynous, and he’s charming and popular with the teens but inevitably is a victim of his own ego. and he dies.  that too.  but that’s literally it! we know Nothing else about him.  so i filled in all the gaps because my brain has worms.  theres a little bit of the story that verges on fantasy (that he’s some sort of messiah messenger for “the infinites,” whatever the fuck THAT means, david) so i nix that because i prefer hard scifi.  and theres one BIG part that i just ... deleted out of his canon, in that the world is ending in 5 years in his timeline, and he’s like ... aware of this ?  but that’s dumb and confusing.  i legit dont care anymore. my OC now.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  im so embarrassed i know i could be genuine and actually try but i have brain blockajjolajlakala33lak33klak333ak3jka3akjj323j3 i guess it’s like ... ziggy is truly the ultimate expression OF humanity because he reveals everything both wrong and right about the human condition, he literally embodies the best of humanity and the worst at the same time, he’s a really interesting critique on the idea of genuineness/earnestness vs commercalism in art, the perils of fame, and also how humans are so inherently corrupting?  a lot of thematic stuff i like exploring is like what is innate to humans vs what is learned behavior, what are things that humans do naturally that ziggy mimics out of his desire to be like us?  i think he has a really good story arc -- he went from being a literal nameless CLONE in a society full of pragmatic forward thinking science-oriented people to a sell out rockstar celebrity in a society of people that value individualism and self expression and art, but in the process completely lost his mind and himself and gave into the worst that humanity has to offer like rampant selfishness, drug abuse, self destructive tendencies, etc. characters changing is always interesting and ziggy truly changes for the worse -- but he is never just black and white, he was never good and then suddenly evil, he just was always the same person putting on different facades and trying to be himself by constructing an identity that maybe was who he wanted��to be versus who he actually is.  i dont know what im talking about. hes just an alien trying to be too hard to be human in all the wrong ways.   i just like how “gray” ziggy is. he isnt good or bad, he can be very nice and he can be very mean, he’s overtly showboating confident but at the same time deeply afflicted with self-consciousness (why tf else would anyone be So obsessed with how they present themselves?).  hes an icon of individualism but also commercialism.  he’s freakishly alien but is almost more human than humans themselves.  he struggles as lot in his head -- which makes for interesting writing, i guess !!  Im so emabrrased im not going to go back and read what i wrote so if i typoed dont look at me

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  i think ziggy comes across as really mean and nothing else.  his horrible bitchy rudeness comes across as hee hee hoo hoo sassy isnt he a rascal when it’s supposed to be more like ... he’s so far gone into the celebrity delusion he’s conflated aggressive rudeness with charmingness because no one told him otherwise and everyone worships him to the point where he’s just given into the delusion that he can do no wrong.  i think theres the general simplification problem that happens with a lot of fictional characters, it’s easy to see him as just a whacky sassy glittery quirky rockstar when i guess it avoids the inherent tragedy of like ... everything else about him. his totally fake and false sense of identity built up from superficial things like fame and labels and stardom.  maybe my version of ziggy is just too weirdly depressing and sad when i know his original iteration wasn’t quite so ... grim.  im not very sure tbh.  

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  hmmm ... a lot of things! i just really got into b*wie stuff in early 2019, i’ve ALWAYS loved aliens and sci-fi, and i was really shocked that db sets up such great visual storytelling potential but does it through music.  i just really liked ziggys “story” and i like any chance to think about aliens so i just got invested into piecing together a little backstory for him using, like, the cumulative knowledge of literally every other piece of science fiction ive ever consumed in my life.  this was summer 2019 when i was making initial pitches for my thesis film, and so i just randomly decided to pitch “animated version of ziggy stardust” as one of the potential ideas.  shockingly everyone liked it a lot and so did my professor who thought it was really cool, and then i just ended up sticking with the character and working on him for an entire year.  ziggy became my hobby but also my homework.  he was such a fun character because everything about him was interesting to me and i had just enough source material to have a starting point but so much room to take him in any direction i wanted to.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  honestly, yooooou guyssssss. i have some really amazing fwends that ive met thru here .... and some of our dumb stupid stories have literally become NOVEL length. it just self generates inspiration because you realize the limitless amount of stories you could tell with this one single character when your character enters his story or he enters their story and etc. etc.  ive drawn endless amounts of comics and stuff for him ... ziggy is just so endlessly interesting ...   cringe be cringed bro but recently (i know this sounds dumb bear with me or die.) ive kind of realized a lot of how i rp z comes as some metaphor for the experience of being an asian immigrant/being asian in the US -- his home “culture” is a lot stricter than the rampant selfish individualism of the usa (he only lives in the uk and usa, so he thinks the whole planet is like this), he’s dissuaded from standing out from his community and his selfishness becomes a community burden rather than a personal flaw, and when he does come to earth, he goes through such awful culture shock, literally nothing makes sense to him and everything is Different.  and while some things are different in a Nice way, something things are different in an Awful way, and he’s given the option between losing his true personal identity as an atominan and giving it up to be a human.  the allure of being a human is a little too much but losing yourself like this is traumatic, in a way.  obvs like ... a little silly and definitely not something that i actively intended to put into his story arc, its just something that fell into place cuz i guess i worked so closely with my own personal experiences and feelings of “alienation” (pun intended) to try to understand how he would feel being a literal alien an shid. its cathartic to write about him. but he also has a lot of my own personal interests just thrown in -- 70s fashion, scifi, science, tryhard implications about human nature, art history, whatever dumb nonsense i get into

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO / SOMETIMES?

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO  [ i would prefer information to spring up organically in the story but cuz threads always get dropped i end up just telling people outright. i didnt want anyone to know his home planet/his old name but barely anyone writes enough with ziggy to get to that point to reveal it (i legit managed to do it organically Once) so i just had to write it in a post lmao orz ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO [ wrote a ton of drabbles ! drew a ton of comics! ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO 

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO / I DUNNO?

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / HAHA NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES  / NO. / IDK ? 

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  definitely!  like i said ... my version of ziggy ended up being the protag of my thesis film and for 1 yr straight his characterization, backstory, design, and even how i wanted to animate his fucking movements (ziggy stardust timing charts.) were beaten to death in a classroom environment, torn apart and rebuilt into something better.  had i stayed with what i originally wanted to go with, ziggy would be so different than how i write him 2day. amazingly my pre production professor is a literal two time emmy award winning storyboard artist and animator so he definitely helped me design him (my version of ziggy is meant for ... a cartoon, obviously, not real life) and give him a better backstory?  and my post production professor is a retired disney animator who worked on hercules and a bunch of old disney channel shows?  had i gone wah wah wah i dont want to hear ur critiques i wouldnt have made him better.  if you ever think ziggy seems inconsistent or poorly written ... tell me !! i literally major in ... animation. cartoons. entertainment.  my job is to entertain you. if you are not entertained, there is a problem.  ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED ????

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  I LOVE QUESTIONS? i love ... answering questions ... if you ask me something ill come kiss you.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  sure! i dont know why that would happen, though, because i mean ... he’s an OC. but i gues someone could be like “i feel like this is incongruous to things you’ve previously established in his character” or somethin

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  i feel like a lot of b*wie stans would find my version of ziggy weird but i mean thats fine!  i guess my goal is to have a well written character, not necessarily an accurate version of ziggy

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  if you hate MY version of ziggy thats fine but if u hate ziggy stardust in general (like the bowie concept) then u need some taste what the fuck is cooler than a egomaniac genderless bisexual rockstar alien with red hair? nothing. go back to watching your CW shows you dirty filthy normie

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  yes! dm me though. dont clown me on the dash like that.  i usually write your replies 12 AM - 4 AM so it’s expected.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  hmmm ... maybe! i do like to talk to people and i am VERY nice, trust me, if youre ever sad ill do everything i can to make you feel better. but im quiet! i dont really reach out to people and i tend to just keep to myself.  im not very social or extroverted at all haha i barely can make ooc posts without feeling like god’s coming to beat my head in with a brick. im sitting here at 5:30 AM with this meme feeling like if i post it i will die (BUT I MUST)

[therealvagabird]

Jasper Reed

I have a new short story out - a little fluff piece featuring a farming girl rehabilitating a desolate world. More of a short character showcase for an OC and the little homesteader life she leads than anything.

Below the cut, though you can also give it a read and leave a comment on WordPress.

Jasper felt as though her lungs were filled with pure energy when she took a hit from the oxygen canister. Putting the supplemental to her lips like an inhaler, she helped herself to a long drag of fortified O2 as she watched the storm on the horizon.

The sky was grey, as it always was, but far over the western wastes it darkened in an abrupt wall of thunderheads that flashed and crackled with silent lightning, the thunder coming long moments after like a diminished drumroll. There was no telling yet if it would spell rain. Across the barren, rocky expanses of the countryside, transitioning from her small patch of black-soil flats to broad waves of glassy, igneous hills, the sheer size and majesty of the storm couldn’t be ignored. With no mountains to block their progress, and nothing but dust and stone beneath them, the winds could be a fearsome force.

Managing to pull her eyes from the awesome sight, Jasper Reed set her attention back to the task at hand. She wasn’t afraid of the storm – at least she didn’t fear for her life. Regardless, if it decided to roll in the direction of her farmstead it could spell trouble for all her operations if proper precautions weren’t taken. She pulled her facemask back on to ward against the cold, though she yanked off one glove to access the maintenance hatch of the machine in front of her; one of the pipeline regulator pylons which managed the flow of fuel, water, waste, and other underground conduits that fed through its section of the property. Jasper had seen to shutting down all conduits to the outer perimeter of the farm to ensure that if they were damaged in the storm it wouldn’t cause leakage problems. Of course, when she’d accessed the main controls back at the house, just one pylon had to be acting up.

“Ornery thing…” she muttered to herself, muffled by layers of cold-weather gear. One dexterous hand worked its way along several rows of breakers, before she disengaged another latch that allowed access to the circuitry of the controls themselves. She saw that one of the rotors had stripped itself, though she had no clue how. Preparedness was her middle name, however, and so she stepped away to access the half-buried repairs trunk that was attached right by the pylon’s base. A second rotor was retrieved and, with cursing all the while, installed in place of its broken predecessor. Another round of fiddling with the breakers, and the regulator came to life, just to be shut down in the proper manner by Jasper.

“There!” the homesteader exclaimed with a mix of satisfaction and tired relief, slamming the access panel shut and heading back for her home.

Her’s was a multipurpose farmstead in the more rural reaches of Q11-R01-D33-S49. Locals preferred the name Evernest. On the horizon, not an hour’s transit by rover, could be seen the lights of Silvermead township. About the town, a few miles removed from its outer buildings, rose the artificial forms of great steel and concrete buffer walls, same as those that rose like miniature mountains at broken intervals past the edges of the Reed Farmstead, beyond the outer fields and the micro-quarries. It was these buffer walls that ensured storms rolling in off the wastes were seldom fatal, as their colossal bulk prevented largescale uptake of the fragile soil, or even lesser buildings. Still, the walls couldn’t do as much for the other symptoms of the storm, and so people and animals were always encouraged to seek shelter.

Evernest, that region of the countryside in which Silvermead lay, was a rural settlement defined by its prosperous coastline and black-soil flats, along with the glass hills that marked where the wastelands began. It looked like many other places on the barren world of Epsilon Iota IV, or “Menelaus”. Silvermead was itself an ancillary town to the geodesic city of Erde, with the Reed Farmstead included as part of the township. It was – like the vast majority of settlements on Menelaus that were not massive, industrial cities – a colony dedicated to the long-term terraforming of the rocky, near-lifeless planet into something close to what it once was.

Jasper ran up to the steps of her house as the winds began to pick up again. Whether or not the storm passed over was irrelevant when the freezing winds of this time of year were reason alone to shelter inside. Her house – built something like a castle due to the way the architecture of colonial ready-made, reinforced construction approximated a traditional rustic manor – issued a golden glow from its windows promising warmth and reprieve within its otherwise imposing walls.

The beleaguered woman tramped inside and punched in the code to finalize the storm-readiness sequence for the whole farmstead on the terminal in the foyer. Silvermead didn’t have access to many outright luxuries, but they had all the tools needed to survive and thrive in the inhospitable stretches of the Menelaen wastes. Though the changes weren’t obvious to an outside observer, a complex series of mechanical failsafes were in place to prevent any catastrophic damage to the property, whether by natural disaster or freak accident.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Jasper pulled off her outer gear and hung it up in the entryway closet, mind turning to a hot mug of tea.

Jasper Reed was a well-built individual of average height, with broad shoulders and a fair amount of musculature, though her’s was more the build of a working individual and outdoorsman rather than something like a soldier. Her skin was a rich umber, and her features were strong and pronounced, though balanced by enough femininity to appear almost androgynous, with an elegant nose, full lips, sharp jaw, and bold eyes. Those eyes were one of her two more exotic markers, as her irises were a vibrant shade of gold – the color being a purposeful side-effect of expensive enhancements she’d splurged on many years ago. Her hair, likewise, was a rich violet. That was nothing more than simple dye, as her natural hair color was a straw blonde, despite what her dark skin would imply. Her cascading purple locks were brought together into two half-braided pigtails that were tucked away over her shoulders for convenience.

Heading into the kitchen, she had boiling water in just a few moments thanks to the automatic kettle and selected some homegrown loose-leaf she’d dried just at the end of autumn. Seasons were not too different on Menelaus, despite how alien and desolate it appeared, than other temperate or otherwise Terra-like worlds. Most of the year the weather was mild, if dry, with summer being hot but bearable save for the very worst days, while winter was about the same.

As she set the pot to steep, she spared another look out one of the house’s front windows. The Reed stead was a fair plot of black-soil flats, about twenty acres altogether. Most of that was given over to growing plots, though the barrier fences and squat, sturdy shapes of the stables, livestock barn, coops, and the like could be seen at the far edge of the property. Beyond them were the micro-quarries which ground down the glassy stones of the surrounding barrens into more usable topsoil. Quite compact. For almost four years now Jasper had sunk everything she had into maximizing the efficiency and quality of her little piece of Evernest. Where once she’d gotten by on subsistence farming and a few cash crops, now she was the proud producer of most of Silvermead’s artisanal goods and considered among the up-and-coming leaders of the township’s community. Even Erde City had taken notice, though Jasper had been hesitant about accepting anything from the local government, even in the ways of tax credits. She’d helped herself to more irrigation allotments, though. As her farm contributed to large-scale soil fixing and O2 balancing as part of the terraforming effort, she was entitled to enough water to compensate for the lack of natural rains in the thin atmosphere.

Among the fields could be spotted intermittent structures, no more than a handful, but with a distinct rounded shape and greebled texture that seemed to blend with the rest of the farm’s technology only when not given a closer inspection. Jasper, of course, knew what they were, and they were one of the major keys to her meteoric rise to success.

Not three decades had passed since the end of the War. Though the farmer looked about that old herself, she’d been in her teens during that time, and remembered life as a refugee on far-off Terra. A strange virus had swept the scope of the colonies, turning the burgeoning AI systems of humanity against them. It had almost spelled extinction for the entire human race, but by some miracle the machines had been halted, rehabilitated, and all that was left was to rebuild a now fractured galaxy.

Menelaus had once been a garden world of significant population, but both sides of the war had deployed superweapons of devastating power in their battles here, and now most of the planet’s surface was nothing but carbonized glass. It was the Terran Central Government’s wish that one day, through many, many years of careful terraforming, the planet might be coaxed back into working order. Of course, technology was only so advanced, even in this age, and so it was the task of simple people like Jasper to try, acre by acre, to set the natural magic of farming, moisture-locking, fertilizing, excavating, and various other life-seeding techniques to work. To build a biosphere from scratch.

The tea was ready, and as Jasper poured herself a cup her attention was drawn to a shuffling sound from the living room hallway, the kitchen being open to the living room itself.

“Have a nice nap?” Jasper smiled, “It’s alright, I was just freezing to death outdoors, but I’m glad you’re having a relaxing weekend.”

“I’m sorry—” Poppy’s voice sounded apologetic through a yawn, but Jasper just smiled and shook her head.

“No, it’s fine, I had to do a quick repair on one of the regulators. You want tea?” she saw Poppy’s nod from the corner of her eye, and so poured a second cup without a spare word.

Poppy and Jasper had been married for about two years now, with their anniversary having just passed. She was a Silvermead local – self-trained in a multitude of topics. Before Jasper had known her, she was a kind if somewhat awkward girl who spent more time at the local library than at her own rather run-down house. Her impish, darling face, short mousy hair, and overall rustic charm – along with her endless enthusiasm for as wide a range of topics as Jasper was interested in – had captured the homesteader’s heart from the start.

“Is the storm likely to hit the farm?” Poppy asked, taking her mug of tea as the two sat on the couch together, looking out the window at the sun falling towards the western horizon from the comfort of the antique loveseat. The shorter girl was dressed in baggy, comfortable clothes as she was want to do around the house.

“Maybe, but it shouldn’t be a problem,” Jasper allayed, “Don’t worry, hon.”

“What about the micros?” she asked, concern still tinging her voice, “Will they be alright?”

Jasper laughed, “What, like individually? Have you been playing with them again?”

“I meant like if their dispensers would get damaged.” The brown-haired girl pouted, “Don’t tease me! You got all upset last time you had to make repairs.”

“I know, I know,” dark lips planted a quick kiss on a rosy cheek, “They’ll be fine, along with the animals, the fields, the fuel lines – I’ve made sure of it”

The little mounds in the fields, the dispensers – those were the homes of the microtrons, or “micros”. One of the main reasons why Jasper was so unenthusiastic about any government types coming out their way. She remembered when she’d found them; or been gifted them, more like.

Not far from the Reed stead there was another settlement not marked on official maps, and which but a few people in Silvermead were privy to. Tensions had been high between humans and machines ever since the War, even with all moves towards amends. AI units had never been the same since the virus, showing degrees of sapience once reserved for humans alone. In that settlement, there was a colony of AI units – veterans of the War, who preferred isolation to risking reprisal for their past actions, even if they couldn’t be considered responsible. They led lives centered around their own pursuits, not unlike those of Jasper and her other homesteader friends; but where the humans took to farming, fishing, and otherwise trying to keep some balance of nature on this crippled world, the machines devoted themselves to unlocking those technological secrets still leftover, hidden, buried all over the countryside of Menelaus from the time of the War.

The micros had been a gift from these machines in exchange for Jasper’s amicability and discretion – automated harvester units of single-minded intelligence, but far greater sophistication than anything made by human hands alone. Government regulations weren’t fond of unaccounted AI, or any technology that might have some taint from the War on it, so they’d been the guarded secret of the Reed Farmstead.

Poppy liked to talk to them and play with them, when she wasn’t busy. Jasper had tried explaining that the spherical little robots, for how expressive they could be, were little more than advanced drones, but her wife had not had any of it.

“Maybe if we make sure they like us – like us for more than just keeping them repaired – we wouldn’t have to be so fearful about any kind of virus turning them against us one day,” Poppy had explained, in her frank and sincere way, “Maybe they’re not like humans or full AIs, but why would you treat them with any less love than the cat or the chickens?”

Jasper wasn’t the most sentimental type when it came to technology, but she had to admit Poppy’s romantic view of the little drones had rubbed off on her. She did owe the majority of her farm’s efficiency – and the fact she didn’t have to deal with managing any human workers – to the ministrations of the foot-high bots.

“Town fair is next week,” Jasper commented as the two sat close together, sipping their tea. It was delicious – so many people in the colonies had to depend on processed spacer food, but when you were an artisan farmer there were payoffs to all that hard work, “You still wanna make that cake?”

“Of course. I’ve been making sure the chickens stay nice and happy so their eggs will be top notch.” Poppy cracked a sleepy grin.

“Should maybe bring a gift to the machines as well. You reminded me, talking about the micros.” Jasper mulled. The settlement of the rogue bots was just a few miles to the west, in the ruins of what seemed to be some old facility that had weathered the worst of Menelaus’ apocalypse. They didn’t want for much, the AIs who sheltered there, but with the harsh realities of their day to day survival she knew they could get grungy, worn down, etcetera. They might appreciate some fine cleaning oils, crystals, and fresh cloth from the farm.

“Do you think this is gonna work?” Poppy asked then, to the faint rumblings of thunder.

“Is what gonna work?” her wife asked, leaning over to read her face, gold eyes meeting those colored like a deep ocean.

“All the terraforming stuff? I mean, I know from a mathematical standpoint it all makes sense, but – from a regular one? All the time and energy involved? You think people are still going to be rebuilding this world centuries from now?”

Jasper’s brow raised, a stark yellow on her dark face, “Getting a little existential there, hon.”

“Well?” Poppy didn’t appreciate Jasper’s blunt affect sometimes, when she knew they both were capable of serious discussion.

“I don’t see why not. Yeah, it’ll be hard, and a long haul, and random disasters may happen all the same, but—” the farmer shrugged, “Why shouldn’t we try? I think, y’know, so long as everyone works towards a common goal, there’s no reason for it to be impossible. But I understand – I’m honestly more concerned about people and AIs and how they’ll act, rather than things like time, or luck, or fate, I don’t know.”

“Mm.” Poppy muttered. Even when she frowned, her face had a beautiful softness to it.

“Hey,” Jasper leaned in, kissing her temple, “At the end of the day, it’s just us. We can’t change the universe all at once. We can only control our own lives, and how we approach them. And, well, how we treat each other.” She smiled.

“I think I want to try applying for university.” Poppy said then, “I don’t really know what for – maybe I could teach, or just be a clerk, or maybe go to a trade school or something, but – I feel like I’m at my limit for what I can do in Silvermead. It only really has so much to offer.” She looked to Jasper then with wide eyes, “Not here, of course. Not you. Just. I mean. It would be tough, being apart, but – I could achieve something.”

“It’s alright,” the farmer smiled, rubbing her wife’s shoulder. Poppy had dropped hints to this effect in the past. “I’ll support you no matter what you do. I’m proud of you! But you will come back to me, though, won’t you?”

“Of course!” she cried, almost indignant, “I never really wanted to do anything amazing. I just wanted to be content, and maybe help some people. Be important to some people. When I found you, and you offered to let me move in, marry, help on the farm – it was like a dream. But I think I maybe just want to see a little bit more of what’s out there, learn more than I can here, before I settle down for good.”

“We could go together.” Jasper spoke then, as their faces were but an inch apart.

“But the farmstead—”

“It’ll still be here. The micros will maintain things. We could have someone just keep the house. Maybe Preston, or your brother, or even one of the AIs. Maybe Rho?” her face furrowed in thought for a moment, “I never really intended to go anywhere else once I settled down in Evernest. I’d already had enough of travel and cities and whatnot to last a lifetime, but I didn’t consider that those were things you’d never even gotten to experience in the first place.”

“It’d only be to Erde.” Poppy’s head listed to the side, “I mean – I don’t think I’d have any reason to go off-world. Maybe if we took a vacation one day or something.” She laughed.

“Whatever you decide,” Jasper and Poppy’s poses were mirrored as they sat next to each other, looking into each other’s eyes, with the taller woman’s dark skin and almost alien hair and eyes playing off the simple charm of Poppy’s earthy bob and oceanic eyes, “I’m with you one-hundred percent. We can always figure out the details at a better time.”

“Yeah.” Poppy smiled then, before surprise graced her face as Jasper leaned in to catch her lips in a passionate kiss. They drew the moment out for a good several seconds before their lips parted, and a bright flush filled the pale girl’s cheeks. “I’m happy to just have tea with you tonight.”

“Not much of a choice,” Jasper grinned, “Storm’s not gonna pass until morning.”

“Then keep me warm.” Her wife brought her legs up onto the sofa, curling up beside the larger woman, eyes half-closed and steaming mug right below her nostrils.

Jasper reached over the back of the couch for a blanket, and once that was draped over the both of them, she grabbed a manual on chicken raising from the side table. The two women would stay in that pose long after they’d finished their tea, sharing a blanket, each with one arm around the other, reading their respective books.

[starflyfarm]

(hmgh the inbox is empty n im kinda bored so have sum incoherent thoughts n ideas abt lou under the cut)

(i think ive mentioned a few times tht lou likes singing but that is admittedly an understatement. he loves singing. he hears a song he knos the lyrics to and he feels incredibly compelled to sing tho his lack of confidence stops him in public spaces. u may hear a bit of humming when no ones paying attention to him tho)

(going off that there are certain kindsa songs he likes singing more than others, think its been mentioned that he likes higher energy music generally speaking so naturally thats the kinda music he likes to sing to but he REALLY likes songs he can just belt to it feels so satisfying to him. he is surprisingly good at adele songs)

(he cannot sing really rough throaty songs to save his life tho like just thinkin abt it makes his throat hurt. he likes a fair bit of metal and screamo n stuff but his voice is just too smooth to sing it. smooth but lightly textured. like vanilla icecream w the lil vanilla beans n stuff still in it. hes also not very good at whistling)

(hes mostly a tenor but he does have a pretty decent range and his falsetto is p decent tho it does hurt his throat)

(its also been mentioned that hes alright at guitar but i like 2 thnk inbetween whatever actual lessons he took the very first songs he taught himself were probably sum very embarrassing sappy little love songs w simple chords. u kno how it is when ur a repressed gay teenager)

(idk how any of yall read his voice but generally he talks kinda quietly, very much not a very loud or present person, which is good for not getting caught committing crimes but not very good for socializing as he has discovered.)

(his semi soft voice is decently reflective of his physical characteristics too, i think i mentioned like once that his hair is very thick and soft, but his skin is also p soft with the exception of some scars here and there)

(speaking of his more notable scars are a burn scar on his right forearm from when he was really young, no one remembers exactly how he got it but it had something to do with a kitchen accident, and sum cut scars on his left shoulder from shortly after he’d moved out of his mom’s house. he also has various minor scars on his hands and wrists from handling/playing with cats and getting into the occasional knife fight back in the city as well as a very small scar on his upper lip from a time a dog bit his face when he was young)

(u might not guess it but he is incredibly clumsy and does not have the best spatial awareness when it comes to like. objects. he does fine not crashing into people but hes probably bumped into a lamp post at least once)

(idk if its ever come across but he also does lots of hand gestures when hes talking. snapping his fingers or shaking his hands when hes tryna think trying to illustrate what hes talking about with vague motions. he does a lot of shit w his hands in general, tapping fingers on surfaces drumming his hands on his legs, doin peace signs n finger guns and playing with his fingers/clothes mindlessly)

(hes also the kinda person who has an idle animation™ when hes not distracted by talking to someone or just paying attention to something he’ll probably rock back n forth on his feet or bobbing up and down probably to the rhythm of a song stuck in his head or something, speaking of songs, again, humming is a thing he does too)

(if u read the previous 2 points and thought “that sounds like stimming” ur exactly right)

(he stumbles over his words a bunch when hes excited, even if hes trying to keep his cool stumbling and stuttering are some of the most tell tale signs of him being excited tho it also happens when hes anxious or flustered. id say it applies to strong emotions in general but it absolutely does not apply to stuff like when hes real angry or sad)

(when hes real angry or sad his speech tends to actually be much more concise, he’ll speak slower and take time to really consider his words. when he’s angry both his expression and the words he chooses have the potential to cut like a hot knife thru soft butter, and when he’s sad hes more considering his words to try and keep from bringing the person hes talking to down)

(ive drawn him with a sketchbook a couple times but he probably has a journal with some writing in it too, nothing serious just thoughts he has sometimes phrased with flowery words but its not like. super amazing poetry or anything. hes no elliott)

(speaking of sketchbooks he absolutely draws his friends from time to time. hes incredibly embarrassed by it and hed never show anyone but he does it. a lot of his doodles are accompanied by lil thoughts and comments he has while makin em)

(back when he worked for joja i like to think he was like a phone operator for like. the joja help line or smth which is an oxymoron and he probably spent most of his work day getting yelled at by ppl over the phone. he does not like talking on the phone. much prefers texting)

(idk how clear ive made it on the blog but he absolutely hates morris. morris is probably the only person in town who hes like physically threatened. morris has thusly elected to avoid fucking with him as much as physically possible)

(i think its been mentioned he carries some kinda pocket knife on him at all times but he also likes to carry one a those novelty combs that looks n acts like a switchblade but its not. mostly just to fuck w ppl. pull out what looks like a switchblade then open it and hah uve been fooled it was a comb all along)

(speaking of combs bcus his hair is thick and wavy as mentioned before hes gotta take real good care of it or it gets. Unmanageable. when he was a teenager he didnt take care of it for a while n it got so long and tangled it broke like 2 combs it was awful)

(that in mind he is prone to getting wicked bed head. catch him when he first wakes up and its like a rat king was planted on his head)

(also did i mention he has several knives? pocket knives switchblades hes probably got a decorative dagger in a box somewhere, and ofc his monster fighting sword. he probably has a pair of brass knuckles somewhere too)

(its defintiely been hinted at more than a few times but lou is a huge foodie. he is always hungry and loves food but he cant stand mint or bitter tastes sometimes he has a hard time w sour stuff too. he likes spicy and savory/umami/w/e foods best, and while he does have a decent sweet tooth he can make himself sick off sugary stuff pretty easy especially w really dense sweets like fudgy brownies n shit)

(the reason hes not so good w mint and bitter things is cus his senses r very keen and bitter and mint are very unpleasant to his mouth and nose. theyre intense and stick around much longer than theyre welcome and it just feels bad ykno. this in mind he could not explain to u why he likes spicy stuff as much as he does)

(hes also really sensitive to like actual temperatures, especially heat. if it gets too hot and humid it can make him real nauseous n give him a migraine, hes better in the cold but even then it makes him really sneezy n sniffly. this is moderately ironic considering the previous point)

(jhjh im gonan stop here bcus this is getting super long but this is absolutely not all the stuff ive thought of. its mostly just the more lighthearted n mundane stuff that i could remember off the top of my head lmao)

[ingayderzim]

not to be that person who asks a googleable question but wtf is hazbin hotel bc i googled it and the only “critical” thing i could find was a typo-ridden article of someone saying it has good animation and its haters are stupid. i was able to glean what it is/what it’s about but idk about the discourse lmao

Im actually so glad u asked this. Here's the lowdown, this is my definitive answer to hazbin shit from here on out, unless new info comes about of course.

Hazbin hotel is an independent cartoon by vivziepop. Most people (that ive seen) have agreed that the pilot of the show really isnt that great but the reason it has so many fans is bc of the entertaining livestreams, massive amounts of canon content produced (she has had these characters for years), unique art style, and the characters. (Ass ugly but unique.)

Its haters are totally justified bc of some of the "controversial" (read: bad) things vivziepop has done. Here's the conclusion that my friends and classmates (several of whom are Black, one Hispanic woman, and one trans woman...nellie if ur reading this i 💜 u) and i came to after discussing this stuff. I am NOT saying "well my black/trans friend said it's ok so i dont have to think about it!" this is based on a few different conversations that my friends and i have had about this topic so what im saying is that my opinion was formed by talking about this situation with multiple people affected by the controversy.

One controversial thing is a drawing u can easily find on google (called beastiality.jpg i believe?) It's a cropped (chest and up, but hes obv naked) drawing of vivziepops character, drawn by vivziepop, moaning, with a snake around him. The character is 17. Many people have interpreted this as child porn. I dont think this image is pornographic, i think it's a stupid joke (it was even tagged as a joke iirc) and completely inappropriate but since it's 8 years old on top of not being porn, i think it's just an example of a dumb drawing. That being said, i would NEVER argue that someone who is uncomfortable w the drawing (im uncomfortable with it! It's gross just not porn) or considers it porn is wrong. They are entitled to that opinion and i would never expose them to vivziepops work or talk about her stuff around them if they expressed to me that they disliked the image.

Another thing is that she drew a doodle of two racist TERFs. This is the one where my friends of color, my friends who are black, and my friends who are trans women took the lead. I sat back for this part and here's their and my opinion on this after talking about it and verbally going through this whole situation.

She was following these women (who had done blackface and stuff) and drew art of them. The art was a "quick doodle" that she did apologize for and she said she didn't realize the extent of their beliefs. She knew they werent great but hadnt consumed much of their content in depth. I believe her bc while ive never followed anyone as bad, ive certainly followed some pieces of shit and didnt notice for months simply bc im not online all the time and bc of the volume of people i follow, combined with the non chronological algorithms lately.

At the risk of screwing myself, im going to admit that there was about a year or so of my life where i enjoyed The Amazing Atheist. I was even subbed to him. I was a nonbinary lesbian (2 things he cant stand lmaoo) in catholic school and therefore i strictly watched his videos about theological stuff since thats what was frustrating me at the time. I had no clue the type of evil racist, transphobic, homophobic (yes ik hes bi), misogynistic things he thought, said, and did, bc i didnt watch those videos. I literally only watched select theological ones that could be of use to me while edgily debating my teachers (sorry mrs macdougal but u had it coming). I was about 15 at the time and im 19 now. Im sorry to everyone i hurt by ever having supported him. I had one of his quotes written in the inside of my religion notebook in high school. I regretted it and ripped the page out the moment i discovered the truth about him. I cant stress enough how much I HATE HIM. Thats an example of what i think happened here tho.

One of my friends who is a trans woman said (paraphrasing) "i think the worst thing shes done is that terf art but i believe the apology especially bc it was a quick drawing."

That being said, i would NEVER argue with someone who wanted nothing to do w vivziepop bc of this. That's their right. 100%. I would never expose them to her work after that.

The last thing i remember is something about a pedophilic couple in a comic but i heard it was a 17 year old and a 19 year old. Im 19 and if one of my peers did that i wouldnt say pedophile but id say ur a fucking weirdo, BUT, the kids were fake and being written by an adult so i can totally see her thinking that age gap is much less of a big deal than it really is. Like she forgot what it's like at this age. Idk how true any of that part is tho, i heard that info entirely secondhand.

Another thing to do with racism is that there's a joke within the show where one character says to the other

"don't get your taco in a twist"

"Was that supposed to be racist or sexist?"

"Whichever one pisses you off more"

I thought that was gross but one of my friends pointed out that vivziepop is of el salvadorian descent so that's her business. Like if i made a lesbian joke of equal or greater offensiveness than that and someone tried to call me lesbophobic over it id be like "that's literally my territory."

Oh speaking of which that character's name is vaggie and shes a lesbian but it's not pronounced w the same G you'd hear in "vagina." Vivziepop seems to name characters weirdly (like how in helluva boss theres a guy named blitzo and the o is silent) so maybe it's a pussy joke but i have no idea.

The animation was.................better than i could do, i wanna say the faces and gestures were good but god i remember there was a part with a car and my gf had to pause so i could laugh my ass off at it. I wouldn't describe the animation as a highlight but i liked the style in motion i thought it was a fun change. Vivziepops style is not appealing imo but i appreciate it as an art student and as someone whose friends all like she ra and steven universe where every character looks the goddamn motherfucking same, and while its chaotic and i dont care for it, the style actually works way better in motion than you'd think.

A good rule that i def use is to assume hazbin fans are guilty until proven innocent. If someone says they dont care about the discourse surrounding it and like it no matter what, RUN! They would support the show even if the creator was in fact a pedophile, or had done the blackface/was a terf herself! They probably support some horrible ppl and are probably "anti antis." A lot of them are minors tho so i'd say block and move on.

So, do i like it or not? Im an art student and all my friends like it so while i didnt think it was funny, i do fuck with it. At the convention this weekend my friends and i had a convo that led to me drawing an ahego hoodie where the faces were angel dust (a character's) face. It was a joke that i could make a killing by selling that in a booth at a con.

Theres really nothing compelling about the show but my friends like it so i join in on their conversations, and i do have a soft spot for angel dust bc he's like a worse, less amazing and gorgeous version of one of my characters, Candy, the love of my life.

A lot of people say the show was edgy/offensive and maybe im just desensitized but besides the taco thing i didnt pick up on that whatsoever??? The Archer episode "Swiss Miss" is worse than helluva boss and hazbin combined and even archer isn't offensive.

Im probably not aware of all the "discourse" (aka people being reasonably uncomfortable by weird and bad shit this random woman has done, and other ppl saying their opinions are wrong when it's literally just an opinion about a show) so if anything she's done isnt included in here it's not to defend vivziepop, this is genuinely all i know. I wouldnt describe myself as a fan of hers.

[tymime]

I generally consider Gen IV the last good generation of the Pokémon franchise, but really only up to a certain point. I’ve played a bit of Platinum, and it’s... okay. Doesn’t inspire me with wonder like Gens I and II do. And I pretty much gave up entirely on the anime after the Battle Frontier arc.

And looking at the Pokémon introduced then, I really only like Bidoof/Bibarel, Buizel/Floatzel and Riolu/Lucario. Buneary/Lopunny is pretty good, and Gible etc. is okay, but almost all of the rest of them I can’t stand their designs at all.

Of course, I really like HeartGold and SoulSilver, but I guess I’m biased.

Back when I was growing up, the anime was the most important to me, and it still is. I hardly ever played the TCG, as I was more of a collector, and I didn’t even play the games that much because I was so bad at it (although I did complete Silver). I remember that when it came to Pokémon, the online fandom in the early 2000s was mostly concerned with the anime as well, whereas you mostly heard about the glitches and rumors in the games and schools banning the cards. The main reason I preferred the anime was because of the characters. Ash, Brock, and Misty made a great trio, and Jesse, James, and Meowth are among the greatest sympathetic villain characters of all time, imo. Nowadays you hardly ever hear anybody discuss the anime.

But ultimately the reason anybody becomes a fan of Pokémon is because of the cool monsters. I think sometimes fans forget this, incredibly- too much focus is given to gameplay mechanics and metagaming and competitive gaming, which I really couldn’t care less about. I remember one of my first interactions with a Pokémon fan, way back in 1999 or so, was when somebody asked what my favorite Pokémon was. I told him it was Charmander. And why not? He’s a cute, fire-breathing dragon-lizard thing! His reaction was “But Charmander is weak!”, and all I could do was stare at him incredulously. I didn’t care if he was “weak”, which is an exaggeration anyway. Must I quote Karen?

That’s actually the entire point of Pokémon. Lots of PETA-types didn’t understand this: We’re not forcing them to fight as slaves, we’re making friends with all these creatures. The early episodes of the anime especially emphasized this, culminating in the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back, and it’s message of peace, sacrifice, and love still makes me misty-eyed to this day.

The anime started going downhill as soon as Ash left Kanto for the Orange Islands. We all remember how incredibly dull and pointless Tracy was, and how repetitive and formulaic the Johto episodes were. This was despite how amazingly good the G/S/C games were. It was around this time that the fandom was diminishing, and people who weren’t all that in love with it in the first place started sneering at it and saying it was “for little kids” and “uncool”. I remember Digimon fans were especially obnoxious about it. Here’s the thing: It might sound a bit shallow, but I don’t think I would’ve become interested in Pokémon if the monsters didn’t look cute or cool. I’m very keenly aware of what kind of character designs I like, and if I don’t like the way a cartoon looks, there’s absolutely no way I can get into it. Lots of people are gonna hate me for this, but I find the vast majority of Digimon to be downright butt-ugly. They’re mostly wrinkled and lumpy and look as though they’re made up of leftover puppet parts. There’s a tiny amount of them that I actually think look decent, but not nearly enough to make me want to watch the show.

But that ties into what happened next- when the Gen III games were coming out, I was looking forward to it, but I was disappointed in how unappealing some of the Pokémon designs were, especially the legendaries. I thought they looked more like Digimon. I don’t see anybody else who has this view. Sure, occasionally I see someone complain “They don’t look like Pokémon anymore!” but they’re always shot down with the rationalization “Who says what Pokémon look like is set in stone?” It’s not a good idea to slowly drift the art direction of an ongoing franchise with an established look and continuity. It’s what makes for a TV series suffer from Early Installment Weirdness and Seasonal Rot, among other things. Things like Mickey Mouse and Looney Tunes can get away with this because they don’t have an established canon, but a series like Pokémon shouldn’t start looking weirder and weirder. I remember having high hopes for the Hoenn episodes of the anime, hoping that the fresher, more sophisticated animation would bring the series out of its doldrums and return to the more heartwarming, personality-driven stories of it’s golden age. For a while it seemed like this would be the case- Ash seemed wiser and more experienced at first and the Pokémon were showing more personality. But it slowly but surely entered a long string of indistinguishable contests for May to compete in. Another thing I wish there was more of in the anime is the Pokémon themselves having more personality. Too often they’re just used as battling tools and have few chances to show emotion or interact with the other characters. The Hoenn episodes also made one thing clear: Ash was going to replace his battling team pretty much every region from now on.

This trend flies in the face of the early franchise’s message of friendship. Ash’s Pokémon from yesteryear are hardly ever seen again once they get sent to Prof. Oak or to some other place.

I suspect this new attitude towards the Pokémon is why they’re becoming uglier and uglier. It doesn’t matter what they look like, you just want to train something NEW, right? Something with good stats and EVs?

I've never seen anybody who shares my view about the Pokémon designs from Gen IV and onward. There was a brief period when older fans were saying the new Pokémon were dumb ideas- ice cream cones and garbage bags and key rings aren’t my idea of a cool concept. But then came the whole “Genwunner” backlash. “But Gen I has inanimate objects too! Dont’cha think Voltorb and Grimer are dumb??” people would say. My answer is this: A living Pokéball and a pile of toxic sludge are cooler than keys and garbage. And just because Gen I had a dumb idea like a bunch of eggs doesn’t mean you should repeat it. And of course there’s an excess of foxes, cats, bats, small electric rodents, and cutesy legendaries that look vaguely like Mew. When the Pokémon aren’t stupid or ugly, they’re redundant. And now it seems like older fans are almost entirely silent about their opinions.

I don’t understand why this isn’t a more common opinion. A Pokémon’s visual appeal is absolutely crucial and yet they still continue to look inorganic, cluttered, and awkward looking with every new generation. There’s only a handful of recent Pokémon that ever get fanart, and 100% of the time the fanart is better drawn than the official version.

This seemingly coincided with the American dubbers having the brilliant idea of replacing the entire voice cast of the anime to “celebrate” the tenth anniversary. It was difficult watching the anime after that, and I only stuck around because they were revisiting Kanto. After that, I stopped watching it entirely. It got worse, of course- Ash was redesigned and looked almost entirely different. The eyes are the windows to the soul- if you ask me, by changing Ash’s windows, they changed his soul.

The Pokémon franchise was dead to me by then. As far as I’m concerned the whole series is a shambling zombie, a shell of its former self. And with the anime using retconning flashbacks and remaking the first episode and Mewtwo Strikes Back, the anime has split into two different continuities anyhow. And yet people still try to defend it, even older fans, which boggles my mind.