#true to form i have a bunch of drawings of this character but things get lost in my brain

[antimnemonic]

the aforementioned big booty gf, i promise to post the haya to her ryo soon

[koolaidoverliving]

GENERAL HCS FOR EVERYONE, GO!

OOOOOO FUNNNN

these are gonna be all over the place LMFAO just a bunch of random stuff they do in my AU nothing specific

GENERAL HEADCANONS

Characters: Jeff, Ben, Sally, Toby, Clockwork, Kate, Nurse Ann, Eyeless Jack, Lulu, Lazari, Liu, Jane, Nina, The Puppeteer, Bloody Painter, Judge Angels, Lucy, Suicide Sadie, Jason, Nathan, Candy Pop, Laughing Jack, Zero, Kagekao, X-Virus

Lazari has terrible pronunciation and grammar. Ben makes fun of her for it while Lulu teaches her better English.

Sally invites the proxies to attend her weekly tea parties. Except for Zero and Kagekao. They're banned.

Nina has a dislike for Clockwork due to her being Jeff's best-friend. She's rather petty towards her — like an annoying high school girl — which Clockwork rolls an eye at.

Over time, Clockwork and Toby help Nina realise how bad Jeff is for her. But right now in the AU, Nina is head over heels for a man who doesn't love her back.

Jeff takes good care of his appearance. He deeply hates how he looks since the incident, so he's always trying new things to make himself look better. For that reason he steals a lot of skincare, accessories and makeup.

Nurse Ann's hair was turned red due to Zalgo's influence. It's nothing significant, just an effect of her reanimation. Her original hair colour is brown.

Liu was somewhat of a delinquent when he was a teenager. He taught his little brother how to jump fences and steal from people at church.

Liu and Jeff have matching rosary necklaces. Jeff can't get himself to wear it anymore. Too much guilt.

Eyeless Jack likes gardening. He has flower pots lined on the window sill and a mini produce garden in front of his cabin. His favourite flower is the snapdragon.

He uses grown herbs to make herbal remedies and perfumes for Lulu.

Toby and Kate steal from Jack's garden. Kate does it unknowingly because Toby lies and tells her they're gifts from Jack.

Kate sometimes collapses in the woods after her Chaser form. When it gets too late and she isn't home, a few proxies go out to look for her.

The Bloody Painter and The Puppeteer are best friends, although Pup tends to be possessive of him.

The Puppeteer is superficially nice. The kind of nice that makes you wonder if there's something worse underneath the surface.

Zero's last name is The Hero. "Cower before me, humans! It is I: Zero The Hero!"

She is also colourblind (can only see in monochrome) and can't tell the difference between Toby and Cody.

Zero loves politics because of the tension it arises. She tried to run for "president of the mansion". Ben ran against her and he won.

Laughing Jack rarely leaves his box.

Once a month, Toby and Cody "switch places" — changing clothes and pretending to be each other. Cody hates this; Toby finds it funny.

Cody mindlessly lies about little things. It's like filler conversation. He isn't paying attention and just says stuff. "What'd you do this weekend?" "Built a snowman," Cody says, even though it's summer.

Lucy hates The Puppeteer because he's always stealing "dad" (Helen) away from "mom" (Dina). It's one-sided beef.

Dina is a bookworm. She's the type to sit under the shade on a plaid picnic blanket and read a novel while eating freshly picked strawberries.

Sadie is also a bookworm. Except she reads Colleen Hoover books and recommends it to Dina. Dina smiles and nods, knowing she'll never read that.

Jane listens to true-crime podcasts — or rather interviews with past victims. She finds it easier to cope with her trauma knowing she's not in it alone.

Candy Pop has a skill for writing. He had spent a lot of time in libraries, utterly fascinated by human works. Candy Pop writes poetry, novels and plays of his own.

He's pretty childish, too. He likes making friendship bracelets, drawing with chalk, crafting (ugly) dolls, etc.

The kids join in when Candy Pop is absentmindedly drawing on the streets. Lucy finds Candy Pop to be rather embarrassing and talks shit about him to Crystal. "He's playing with crayons and chalk at his big age!" "...No comment."

Nathan is a self-taught tattoo artist. All his piercings and tattoos are done by himself.

Jason and Nathan take care of stray cats that roam around. There isn't a vet at the town, so they try their best to keep both the cats and themselves safe. Candy Pop isn't allowed near these cats because he tries to juggle them.

Jason has a sweet tooth — particularly for biscuits and tea. The amount of sugar he consumes contrasts his bitter personality.

wow... long post. these are just a bunch of random facts!

send an ask if you have any questions!!! :D

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Peaceful Property went hard with dreams this week. You know, 'dream' like the American Dream? You know, 'dream' like Peach's dream of cooking in a palace for a bunch of rich people and refusing to make peace with a 'hypothetical' rival? You know, 'dream' like Home's nightmare of his poorer friend overtaking him for the harm Home caused him? You know, 'dream' like Home's fake dream of moving to America and having ten wives? You know, 'dream' like Home's real dream of having a normal family??

The dreams themselves had an air of love and hope about them, and they were nurtured with kindness and support by members of the ghost hunting team, but the show kept subtly drawing our attention to the hollowness, violence, and repression inherent to the 'dreams' in this episode. These were capitalistic and patriarchal styles of dreaming.

Notice, they exorcised no ghosts this episode. We saw instead our influencer Chai-Un (Pompam, doing THE MOST with this Old Queen stock character) ignoring Peach's offerings to his family's ghosts and going full glutton all by his lonesome. The upper crust might offer invitation to one or two from the lower class entering into their echelons, but what has that spiritually alleviated?

If the mutual heartbreak at the end of the episode wasn't enough to clue you in, these themes are the biggest indicator that Home and Peach will end up together as family. The show has framed the inherent harm and distrust between the aristocracy and the lower classes as foundational in making the patriarchal family primary. I had previously thought there was a possibility we'd get a little weird found family ending. Home, though, faked drinking to let us know he's faking other things--heterosexuality. BUT ACTUALLY, we got so many references to full-on gayness this episode, but in ways that let us know the show has a queer Marxist vision even for that. Chai-Un referring to his partner as his "wife" and playing the stereotype of Rich Gay: these aren't arbitrary.

This gay baiting question is actually thematically important. I've been enjoying the revisit to some old-school homoerotic subtext, because old-school homoerotic subtext was often tied into the same problems of patriarchal capitalism. They forged intense bonds that they then had to sever to form family units as they economically competed against each other and maintained the honor of their patriarchal position. The participated in societal dick measuring contests to see whose estates were grander and whose cok was long, as the neon sign says.

With Peach's adjustment to the contract, we are now left with the possibility for Home's queerness and desire for Peach to possibly disrupt his family's fortune in a major way. If Home really wants to exorcise the specter of Peach's pain and suffering from his waking dreams, Home can't be one of the 12 gay billionaires in the world. He's not going to be his investor or his savior. He'll have to let go of his patriarch's will to find something that won't sooth his wallet but will sooth his soul, something decidedly 'not normal.'

Side note: Who gave this show the right to let New and Tay and Jan show the true force of their full RANGE????

[lttleghost]

The Thematic Relevance of Jesse Pinkman as an Egg 🏳️‍⚧️

(I wrote this analysis awhile back and wanted to make a fresh post to update it!)

While not intentional, there is a lot in Breaking Bad that supports reading Jesse as an egg. This reading of Jesse has a lot of thematic and narrative relevance and also doesn't create any conflicts with the canon material. Jesse being someone who hasn’t realized he’s not actually a man yet could quite literally be canon.

This analysis is heavily based around parallels between Jesse’s character development and what Breaking Bad thematically associates with gender. It’s also heavily interconnected with the show's overarching theme of change, and also, at least for our two main characters of Walt and Jesse, the revealing of true self. There’s plenty of evidence that each of them already had the traits we see them with at the end of Breaking Bad. Jesse being this very kind and compassionate young adult and Walt being this egotistical monster.

But I would consider Walt's self-deception to be more shallow than Jesse’s self deception. While Walt did end up in a lifestyle that was opposed to who he truly was, he consciously knew what he wanted to some extent, whereas Jesse fully convinced himself that he was a different person than the one he truly is because he never really got the chance to actually figure out much about himself. 

There are a lot of examples of Jesse’s disconnected sense of self throughout the show, but the first one that comes to mind has to do with his superhero OCs-

EDIT: YO! if you find video essays more engaging than reading a bunch of text, this analysis now also comes in video form [link]

I think that Jane’s observation that all of them looked like Jesse was, in fact, correct. I wouldn’t consider him doing this as a conscious decision but I feel that he almost admits it. After initially denying that his OCs looked like him and after Jane affectionately teases him he ends up saying to her “like you never wanted a superpower.” And while you could interpret this as just a response to her teasing, I’m convinced that there’s an additional layer to it. Especially because when Jane leaves to check the door, there's a moment where Jesse looks at the sketchbook with his drawings and it seems like he’s considering something, and I’d bet you anything that what he’s thinking about is whether or not he had actually drawn himself and this is REALLY interesting since-

Jesse is a criminal right? And while superheroes themselves are technically criminals as well, as vigilante justice isn’t actually legal, they’re still typically known to be ‘crime fighters’, and Jesse describes his characters as being such. So with his OCs subconsciously being depictions of himself and them being superheroes (crime fighters) and his current life as a criminal, you get the image of someone who doesn’t know who he is or what he wants deep down. 

There’s no way that Jesse’s current delinquent lifestyle was his truly… preferred path. It’s much more likely it was the only thing he thought he could do successfully. It’s evidently been the one thing he’s made a decent living off of. He has no support from his parents, and doesn’t seem like he has had it since he was a highschooler. Jesse is shown to have no support outside of the drug trade. Most of his personal skills and interests are artistic or honestly domestic in a world that assigns more value to academics and he’s a highschool graduate who doesn’t have any job experience. 

I also believe Jesse is very aggressively ADHD coded, and the combination of having virtually no support, struggling with addiction, and having undiagnosed and improperly self medicated ADHD would make slogging through any “respectable” job that he has access to, or any job that his parents might encourage him to do, unbearable.

So the drug trade was his best bet, Jesse even views cooking meth as a form of art, something that he’s passionate about.

I can’t in good faith ignore that doing something that is... generally frowned upon, didn’t factor into what Jesse chose to do on some level, as society and the structures that it’s built on failed him and there’s an inherent sense of rebellion that often forms in a person when they’re failed like that. Granted, superheroes also tend to often contain some commentary on societies failings as well. Jesse just couldn’t actually be a real-life superhero. So with the few benefits it had in practice compared to any other job, Jesse played into the rest of the role of a criminal, and convinced himself that the aspects of it that conflicted with his personality... didn’t, probably without even noticing.

Even more to this disconnect; When Jane asks “and that’s a superpower?” in response to Jesse explaining Backwardo’s powers Jesse responds with “come on, I was a kid when I drew these, it was like four years ago.” And Jesse is 24 years old in that scene, meaning that he would’ve been 20 when he drew these characters, and when I first wrote this analysis I was wondering whether or not Jesse had gotten involved with the drug trade other than buying drugs by that time, but there wasn’t really anything I could confirm any theories with. 

But now I've got the Better Call Saul episode “Waterworks” where Jesse has his second cameo, where he is in fact, 20, and in that cameo Jesse accompanying Emilio, a person we know is his partner in cooking meth, to Saul’s office makes me certain he’s in it by that point. And I just have to wonder if Jesse’s superheroes were almost a… subconscious vent, a manifestation of how being a criminal in the specific way Jesse is, is not what he wants. Something that suggests that Jesse’s actual identity and his current view of his identity don’t line up.

Another thing to point out about the cameo that could be seen as additional evidence of Jesse’s discomfort with being more than just a customer of the drug trade is that he was hanging out outside of Saul’s office, and until Kim gave him one he didn't have a cigarette, so he wasn’t out there to smoke. And while there could be other explanations to why he was outside on his own, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say, other than just his general skepticism of Saul, he was just not particularly jazzed to be where he was at that moment and not comfortable going inside.

So relating all of this to gender; that narrative of convincing yourself that you are the person that you’re supposed to be for your best chance of survival instead of being able to truly be yourself already works pretty strongly as an allegory for being trans. But to add onto that even more, thematically Breaking Bad associates “manhood” with the drug trade in one way or another, and paralleling how Jesse realizes he doesn’t fit into the drug trade like he thought he did with how he might not be a cis man like he thought he was makes for a really solid queer reading.

The whole show is pretty explicitly about toxic masculinity. Obviously in real life masculinity and manhood do not have to be toxic, and in Breaking Bad’s original intended story Jesse is a cis man who ends up not fitting into those toxic ideas of manhood. 

Things that the rest of the male cast don’t blink at or at least have more mild reactions to, just tear Jesse apart. He’s also targeted at least a couple of times for having emotional vulnerability that is considered to be “not manly”. It’s much easier to point out the differences between him and the male cast than it is to point out similarities between them and this just gets more pronounced the longer the show goes on. He doesn’t really have any positive ties to being a man and I don’t think we can say we ever see Jesse actually reclaim his own sense of manhood. And I think that lack of reclamation gives even more legitimacy to the reading that, along with leaving the drug trade and all of its toxic masculinity bullshit behind, maybe Jesse just leaves behind being a man altogether, and maybe it was something that wasn’t really ever a true part of him, just like his life as a criminal.

Even at the start of the series Jesse’s attempts at hyper-masculinity come off as really goofy and performative. In episode one  Krazy-8 mentions that Emilio thinks that Jesse might’ve ratted on him Jesse first has a much more genuine response of “that’s bullshit” which makes sense with his strong character trait of being loyal, but then he goes to say “I should kick his punk ass for even thinking that.” and it just sounds like fake bravado to me. There’s no way Jesse actually thinks he stands a chance against Emilio since Jesse has a body type that resembles a small bird and there's no way he has that little self awareness. He's just playing out a script that wasnt even well thought through, and while some of his other performances of masculinity don’t come across as that fake, there aren’t many that feel like they actually come from Jesse himself, they just feel like something that he just thinks he should do.

And while not every experience with men Jesse has is negative, there always seems to be some distance between him and the men he does have good relationships with. Jesse forms a parent-child type relationship with Mike that is healthier than any other he’s had up to that point other than probably his aunt, but there’s a part of Jesse that Mike never seems to fully get. When Jesse doesn’t want Lydia to be killed Mike says that 'this woman deserves to die as much as any man' and I think he misses that Jesse just still isn’t that keen on killing people even with everything he’s gotten involved with. Even if there are some acts of violence and even some people’s deaths he is fine with and thinks are justified, Jesse never fully adapts to “the job” the way Mike does, and Mike is just not quite able to understand that, or at least not why.

Jesse and his friends have a distance between them as well. Though they’re arguably not as entrenched in toxic masculinity as any of the other prominent men in the show are, and aren’t nearly as involved in the violence of dealing drugs despite being in the trade. Yet still Jesse’s interactions with them most of the time feel different and more withdrawn than their interactions with each other. Like Jesse really wants their presence and company and wants to fit in but there ends up being something that he can’t connect with alongside them, and this also gets more prominent as the show progresses. There’s parts where Jesse seems to be withholding how badly his “high rank” in the drug trade is affecting him when Pete and Badger seem to sort of idolize him for it and want in on it. I think Jesse sort of considers saying something to them about it, but he hesitates and doesn’t. He repeatedly doesn’t confide in them even though, while his friends do perform some facets of hyper-masculinity, they don’t really seem to target or reject vulnerability in the way most of the other men in Breaking Bad do. And Jesse’s distance from even the more harmless side of the male cast makes it feel like it’s not just the toxic masculinity that he’s disconnected from.

Jesse’s relationships with women even further separate him from the men of the show. His romantic relationships with Jane and Andrea read much more as relationships between equals, compared to Walt and Skyler or Hank and Marie. While Jesse does throw the “nice job wearing the pants in the family” insult at Walt in episode two of the first season, after Skyler almost caught him moving Emilio’s body, in Jesse’s own relationships he never actually tries to take control and doesn’t have any problem with Jane honestly being the person making more active choices for the both of them in their relationship, which Walt comments on by throwing that same “nice job wearing the pants” insult back at Jesse.

Another interesting thing found within Jesse’s relationship with Jane that ties them to specific gender roles happens after Jane doesn’t really introduce him to her father. Jesse asks about it and after a bit this Jane ends up saying “What am I supposed to say? Hey dad, meet the stoner guy who lives next door and by the way I’m sleeping with him?” and Jesse replies “Is that all you think you’re doing?”

It’s been pretty common for “the guy” to be considered as the one who sees a relationship as just being sex and “the girl” to see it as being romantic, and this is a very very dumb aspect of traditional western gender roles that this scene even has to subvert, but I think in the context of Breaking Bad’s dealings with gender roles the fact that Jesse is put in the role much more typically associated with women could be viewed as significant. And this significance can be extended to the show’s most prominent dynamic, dealing with the relationship between abusive men and women, Jesse is a victim. I’m not implying men can’t be victims of other men's abuse, but it does make Jesse easier to associate with women in the story, and while the narrative association comes from a negative place, the negativity is directed towards men. But the connection it forms between Jesse and women is a sense of camaraderie and even comfort, at least on Jesse’s side.

and with those connections with women I’d say the most accurate egg interpretation of Jesse is that she’s specifically transfeminine in some way.

I think in this analysis its important to specifically examine Jesse's journey with gender questioning as I think it follows the rest of the ups and downs in her learning more about herself in the resr of her character arc. My personal interpretation of Jesse is that she is a non medically transitioning nonbinary transfem person. The not medically transitioning bit is largely because I enjoy bringing attention to the existence of no-med no-op trans people and to push the point that not seeking medical transition doesnt make a person any less trans, though I do feel that since Jesse's relationship with gender is focused on the societal side of gender roles that don't really relate to physical form that it's a reasonable interpretation that she may not medically transition. I think she uses he/him and she/her pronouns, and is maybe a futch lesbian. I’m saying all of this because it'll be the lens through which I’ll be talking about Jesse’s journey with questioning his gender and how that progresses during the timeline of Breaking Bad. However I don’t claim this to be the only version of transfem Jesse that works with my analysis, or that it's necessarily better than any others that do work. I’ll also be mentioning concepts of “offscreen” additional scenes. That being said, if you’re someone who likes to stick 100% to the text given to us, the “offscreen” scenes aren’t exactly necessary for this interpretation to work as a part of the existing story as the general emotions behind them still stand.

I don’t picture Jesse as having any definable Gender (™) experiences when he was younger other than just a general sense of not belonging, though gender wouldn’t be the only thing playing into that. But as Jesse got older and struggled more, he started to purposefully play the part of what he saw as “a man” to survive in the only role that he thought he could. I see the thought “I wish I didn’t have to be a man” crossing his mind every so often though. I think he just deals with his place in the world for awhile, but after Walt enters the scene and Jesse experiences shit he really didn’t bargain for because of his old teacher, someone who is settling into a personification of toxic masculinity, Jesse’s frustration with being a man becomes more prominent and harder to ignore internally. 

In my opinion Jane is the person that helped him start to solidify what exactly those thoughts were indicating. Her approach to relationships would be considered not traditionally cishet, and so is the way she presents herself in general, so I think Jane has some sort of knowledge about the complexities of gender, if she isn't actually queer herself in some way.

And she’s one of the only people we see Jesse truly, truly open up to and so I think at some point later in their relationship Jesse might actually say something about wishing she wasn’t a man around Jane, and I can see Jane saying that Jesse doesn't have to be a man if she doesn't want to be.

But then Jane dies, and I think as a result of that and the lesson Jesse learned from rehab “I’m the bad guy” he goes into just total repression mode. Embodying this new belief Jesse very much dips into the hyper-masculine behavior of the drug trade, he is much more concerned with money beyond paying bills and having nice things, and he plans to do the one thing in the entire show that makes me truly angry at him because of this whole thing, attempting to sell drugs to the rehab group. I don’t think he would’ve ever thought of doing something like that before. He’s trying very hard to be something that’s even further from his actual nature than we’ve seen up until this point.

Part of Jesse’s grief over losing Jane, a person who he confided in probably more than anyone else at that point, was to just completely close up, even to himself. Forget all of those parts of himself that resisted the rougher aspects of the drug trade he was getting dragged into and definitely forget about wondering if he really is a man or not.

At least until meeting Andrea and Brock, which snaps him out of that “I’m the bad guy” mindset, but by that time I think just, too much starts to happen for Jesse to have much time to question her gender. I wouldn’t consider her to be as actively repressing any sort of “I wish I wasn’t a man” thoughts but the amount of turmoil and danger that she’s in, just really really doesn’t lend itself to that sort of gender introspection as much. 

I’ve got some additional thoughts on Jesse’s journey with gender that are more headcanons than actual analysis of the show so I didn’t include them in the text above. But I still really wanted to share because I like them and think that they really add to the analysis, so here they are;

I mentioned that I don’t think that Jesse had any particularly notable moments that might’ve suggested that she was trans when she was younger other than feeling out of place, but maybe he did have some interest in playing with “girls stuff” and her parents discouraged it because as we know they’re the shitty type of people who value their child being “normal” at the price of that child’s happiness, but I can also see her being one of those kids who just didn’t even grasp the differences between boys and girls stuff for a longer time than others, or I can even see Jesse’s last connection to the "male" side of gender being from when she was a little boy, before he was aware of the concept of what being a man was, and that it would be expected of her.

But later, in his adulthood, after the idea and pressures of "manhood" became very present in his life, one of the more certain instances of gender questioning I picture Jesse having is at some point while hanging out with Badger, Pete and Combo, Jesse screws around and puts on a dress. And he's like “haha I look like such a queer don’t I?” but is internally thinking something more along the lines of “ I will die before I tell anyone how this makes me feel” (that being that it makes him feel happy). 

And then, as we enter into the timeline of the show itself; when Jane first tells Jesse that he doesn’t have to be a man if he doesn’t want to, I don’t actually think that Jesse would be receptive of it at first. I think it’s more likely that he’d decide he suddenly doesn’t want to have this discussion anymore and change the subject. Jesse would still have the misconception that you need to medically transition or at least be required to fit some sort of ‘criteria’ to be trans, instead of just identifying as a different gender than your assigned sex, and I think that would play some role in his not wanting to talk about possibly being trans. And even more because, while he could opt out of telling anyone that he’s trans, Jesse’s in a world in general that isn’t trans-friendly, but the drug trade he’s in specifically is very lgbtq-phobic. Jesse himself is definitely gonna have some internalized transphobia, we’ve seen his homophobia, and I definitely read that as a result of his environment rather than actual hatred considering at Jesse’s true core he’s a pretty caring person. But there are definitely people in the drug trade who would be violently homophobic and transphobic, and Jesse would know that, and would probably perceive even realizing that he is trans to be a threat to his safety. But, later on, further into her relationship with Jane I think she’d open up, even if only to Jane.

And that’s what I like to focus on the most with this analysis, all of the happiness and freedom and healing that Jesse gets to feel detaching himself from manhood, something that honestly contributed so much to every part of his suffering. And god does this girl deserve some happiness.

Then when for the most part too much is going on for Jesse to consider whether or not he’s trans, I still sometimes think of a situation where Jesse might’ve suggested? Her gender questioning to Mike, and while I don’t think Mike’s personal reaction would be technically negative, I think he’d tell Jesse to ‘please not share that with anyone else kid’. Which would be discouraging to Jesse, and she’d quickly backtrack, some because of the reaction on its own but also because he really already knows that it’d be stupid to say anything to anyone else, but it’s not until Jesse’s really free from the drug trade that she can finally crack that egg. I really like to think about the comfort and relief Jesse would get to feel no longer having to try and be a man, cause she finally realizes that she isn’t one.

[dluebirb]

Alright, so I finally jumped on the bandwagon (for better or for worse) and redesigned the main cast of Hazbin Hotel!

Disclaimer: I am not saying that my designs are better than the ones in the show, I am just saying that this is what I would have done if I were to design the characters, plus addressing some common criticism of Vivziepop's character designs. I enjoy the show, and with that comes some artistic liberties. Proceed.

So I'm going to show each character individually, plus a brief explanation (EDIT: They were not as brief as I thought... I love these characters, so sue me!) of what I changed and why, and then a lineup at the end!! Stick with me please, I put a lot of work into these!

@theosb0rnway they are real and in decent quality this time!! Wow!!

First up, Charlie! I had no idea she was meant to be based off of a porcelain doll. I thought she was a weird hell-vampire thing ngl. Fangs, pastey skin, you get it. The only thing the doll thing had going for it was the cheek marks, and I though that was a design choice for blush, like Mabel in Gravity Falls!

Porcelain dolls are really just those gen alpha tiktok influencer-level skin care routines plus dresses from two centuries ago, so I decided to go with a more puppet-leaning/mouthpiece design, plus some more goat-ish attributes, like her lil hoovsies!

Her color pallatte is brighter than the other designs because I wanted to show how she (while still utilizing the pinks and reds of hell) is the most pure-hearted of the bunch, as she's the only one who really doesn't belong in hell.

If this does well (or I want to) I might do her demon form!

VAGGIE! My girl. I love her.

So my main problem with Vaggie's current design: HER HAIR. I'm sorry, but how are the physics of that supposed to work?? Please? /gen

She also says in the show that she's "not used to fighting with long hair, and the ponytail in episode 8 doesn't really serve that purpose? At least from the viewers POV, hence the bun.

I know she's not technically a moth demon, since she's an ex-exorcist, but I wanted to lean into the imagery. She and Charlie look a little too close to human in comparison to almost anyone else, so I wanted to give her some moth-isms. And I find it more believable that she could fight like this! Ik Alastor's the hotel's protector and all, but old habits die hard n such.

Onto Angel Dust! Okay, I gotta say, I should lower his colors general brightness-

But other than that, I think I did pretty good with him!

I am probably in the minority who thought the eyes thing in episode four was pretty cool, but I wanted to make him more visibly spider-like, and eyes seemed like a good place to start.

I will admit to taking inspiration from the iron spider suit in Avengers: Infinity War for his extra arms. I was a Marvel kid, the legends are true.

Also, PINCERS! I think that's what those are called- They're only sorta there because any other way I tried ended with messing up his general face, but the thought's there!

I did forget his spider ass, but it's there in spirit, trust.

BIG OL' SHOUT OUT TO OZ FOR HELPING ME WITH THE DEER MAN'S FACE. He was giving me a TIME-

His fuck-ass bob is NO MORE. I rest my case. Also the monocle was annoying me, so he gets old lady glasses. I don't know why his shoes look like deer hooves. he's a little fucked up anatomy-wise.

I don't have much to say about him, but I loved drawing his hair. He gets to keep some of his red, because he WOULD. I also have a design of Alastor with a coat/jacket thing that's more time-period accurate, but I really liked this design, so it's what you're getting unless someone asks for it.

I also don't have a lot to say about Husk- I took away a lot more than I added if we're being real.

Hat? GONE

Weird wing design that makes my brain hurt? GONE

Eyebrows? YOU BETTER BELIEVE THEY'RE GONE

(I had a grudge against his eyebrows, leave me be-)

He's also short and fat now, so... YEAH (for a while I thought he was real short, but that was only because I kept seeing screen caps of him next to Angel, and the guy's a beanpole-)

His wings resemble the succubi in Helluva more so now, because Hazbin has a weird relationship with wings, so I wanted to make the distinction clearer than it is in canon.

His eyes glow now because have you SEEN a cat in pitch black, dead of night? Scary little assholes. (/aff, I love my cats.) He's dead and in hell, so they glow perpetually.

As with Charlie, I had no idea Niffty was supposed to be a bug. This seems to be a recurring issue.

I shifted her hair and outfit to be a lil more 1950s-accurate, but it was pretty good before, all things considered. I actually like Niffty's Canon design a lot.

In terms of making the bug-ness more pronounces, I gave her antennae (they can glow because YES) and wings. I imagine the wings are kind of like grasshopper wings, so they make a lil weird noise. I also gave her four legs, because if there's one thing I know about bugs, they have an abnormal amount of appendages.

The quality got CRUNCHED so click on the lineup, PLEASE-

And yeah, there are the sillies! I tried to differentiate them from the RED, but I think I overdid it-

Eh, I like them!

Send an ask or comment if you want me to do any more characters, or send me a screenshot from Hazbin and I'll redraw it with these guys! It'll also give me the chance to work on backgrounds, which I need!

I really hope you guys like these!

[54625]

Five do you have any cloud tips? you are very good at them and i am struggling. (specifically rain clouds if you are able, but i'll take normal clouds too)

Hopefully this doesn't end up too long-winded, but here is MY general process on how to paint clouds. This is not guaranteed to work for everyone, it's just a walkthrough of how I see it.

On the (semi) realistic side of things

There are some general rules of thumb when creating the form of a cloud. With your average cloud, you can split it up quite easily into large shapes and layers, which you then simply detail a little to form the fluffiness.

This is a very simple and classic example of a cloud. I kept the basic outline of the cloud rounded, formed with essentially a bunch of intersecting circles. I made the layers slightly different colours to get across a sense of depth; don't forget that clouds exist in a 3d space and aren't just a flat shape. When adding in the highlights, I made sure to shape them. If you look a little closer you'll see that pretty much all of them make little "C" shapes, continuing to establish the roundness of the cloud. (I do this for traditional painting too; making sure that my paintbrush always goes in round, circular strokes to blend the paint into that shape.)

Now let's look at rainclouds. Same principle, a couple differences. Firstly, and most importantly; most of the time, when it is raining or storming, the entire sky is clouded, no blue visible. You can usually get away with portraying this by simply replacing the blue sky in the background with grey, but don't forget to introduce a little variation/shape to show that it's not flat.

Secondly, one thing I love to do with clouds like these is this sort of "negative highlight" thing. As you can see at the peaks of the cloud it actually gets darker, and the cracks or creases between the layers are the lightest parts. This gets across the look that the cloud is being lit from behind rather than the side, which makes a lot more sense for clouds like these.

On the stylised side of things

Clouds in real life come in tonnes of different shapes, sizes, and colours. Because of this, clouds can look like pretty much anything; you can and should use this to your advantage in your art.

Clouds are the perfect subject matter for stylisation, in my opinion, as they do not have to look realistic at all in order to get across their intended effect, and because their real life counterparts vary so vastly.

When drawing clouds in a stylised way, I find there are two main principles to remember:

1. Prioritise colour.

and

2. Contextualise.

It is pretty easy, despite the lack of detail, to understand what these colours are meant to represent. You can get a lot across by simply using very strong and well selected colours, and this is true for all aspects of art, not just clouds. The white and blue makes you think of bright clouds on a sunny day, the orange and pink is so famously associated with sunsets, and the dark greys remind you of storms and rain. Even without much form, good colour choices will still help you tell what you are looking at.

This is where "contextualising" comes into play. Your clouds will immediately become much more recognisable as clouds as soon as you give them a good context (with colours that match the atmosphere) to stand behind. You put them above a landscape or behind a building or above a character and it becomes obvious as being the sky. Adding a context frees you and really allows you to fuck around with styles and shapes to your heart's content, while still keeping the intention clear.

With this in mind, you can stylise in whatever ways you so wish, and play around with shapes and movement and brushes. (And hopefully be a little more creative than these examples 😅)

I hope this was at least a little bit helpful! I look forward to seeing what you have made/ will make.

[swallowtailed]

palisade 41

honestly don’t really know where to begin here.

because, like, we all kinda knew this was coming, right? odds were it had to happen sometime. now it has.

but there’s still a real cosmic unfairness to the timing of it. figure died right after they decided they didn’t want to. breaking the wheel of their resurrection is fine and all, but they fought so hard to escape clem and join perennial that it doesn’t really ring true to me.

hearing future in the same sentence reminded me that there’s another suite of definitions for figure, aside from the noun meaning shape or form—the verb meaning guess, consider, imagine.

i’m inclined to read future and perennial as two sides of the same coin—two views of the principality. future sees an inevitable road toward culmination, perennial sees that it’s all the same fucking cycle. also, future seizing on a moment of power from perennial and turning it to their own ends.

real gur just cannot catch a break. they’re stuck with future, inside their own reanimated corpse, guarded by the shell of figure? some real eternal torment there.

so, you know. shit sucks!!

i was really, really hoping eclectic would steal future, and it would also have been incredible for gur sevraq (who, as we know, stole the future) to be stolen from future, but the dice fall as they will

really interesting contrast between the two sides of this arc wrt divine/axiom/mortal/etc relationships. thisbe is guiding integrity and communicating with ebullience, building relationships across ways of being. figure is destroyed just by exposure to divine power, subsumed by the weight of a god rearing up on its own. the axiom being willing to treat with thisbe, the divine destroying figure. which is maybe less about those powers than about the hands moving them—instrumentalization as always a core theme of palisade. 

of course it is also a cautionary tale of the capriciousness of dice. if figure and gur had gotten to speak with future i can imagine it going more like thisbe’s side. but maybe not! we’ll never know.

characters being demanded to envision a future was one of my favorite beats in partizan and it was really cool to hit that again (and to call back to leap!). but also heartbreaking. cori, happy and safe…

aw fuck the crew’s still gonna have to find out that figure is dead… mortality of course goes hand in hand with grief. much like valence’s death i think the positioning of figure’s death is ultimately going to be shaped most by reactions to it

dre’s pc deaths are always so fraught, huh. valence and chine were also kind of messy, sudden deaths—no clean tragedy. which, like, is life, but also, ;-;

the music was incredible. like breathing. and the way the dirge just stops—blinks out.

eclectic drawing up the seismic power of opposition, his own power, was really moving. a bit of grace in that moment.

i’m not sure where they’re gonna go from here, especially in terms of character arcs. it’s a rough downbeat. kind of falls in line with the conflict turns, though—fighting back and forth down to the bitter end. might be a bleak finale although at least one more thing seems set to unfold in this arc so honestly who knows

incidentally, bets on that: the smell of computer parts immediately made me think of the nobel, but the mechanical whine heard across the continent made me wonder if it could be palisade waking up (/being woken up). either way, it’s definitely getting to be alarm clock time, right?? (on the other hand maybe this is just motion activating all across palisade, but a bunch of motion factories just got taken down.)

it’s nice that the a-plot crew were having a fun heist though. cori deserves an alise breka mission

tragedy-ass podcast.

[griffonsgrove]

OC || Introductions

hello my darlings!! I've really been wanting to introduce a few of my main characters to you all!! I was thinking of possibly doing headcanons/oneshots/drabbles in the future! (May be purely self-indulgent but we'll see) That being said, This is basically a very brief intro and info dump about each character. So let's get started!!

All characters and art belong to me!! Like I've said before I'm an artist and draw scenes and characters. I have a shit ton of art of all these guys that I'd love to share if anyone's ever interested!

cw: death, murder, cannibalism? minor sexual themes (one of my ocs is an incubus), minor violence.

Night

I've had her the longest, I made her several years ago. She's literally just a self-insert for EVERYTHING I enjoy sshejwka. But on another note! This is Night, she's a humanoid griffin hybrid (griffins being the mythological beast, half eagle half lion). She's very sweet and friendly. She's so mom-coded omg. Like she'll bake you little treats, makes sure your dressed for the weather, and reminds you of things you need to get done.

She has this locket around her neck that she keeps close to her. This is because it contains her "soul" or "spirit" inside of it. Every griffon has one, and it's what helps her to transform. Which btw shapeshifterrrr. Her true form being that of an actual griffin. She's a gentle giant though don't worry.

Tom

I know what you're thinking and no, he's not related to Bill Cipher. Tom is a 25-year-old art college student. He's a no-nonsense kind of guy, and very easily irritated. He's a fine arts major and does a lot of painting. He HATES his roommate (there's literally nothing wrong with him he's so nice and friendly, tom is just a dick). He's got a pet snake!! He's a hognose named Poncho! He's a total stonerrrrrrr, it's the only time he'll be chill honestly.

He and his roommate live in a city style apartment, on the first floor, complete with a basement. Unbeknownst to his roommate, Tom has a secret black market business selling organs to dealers. The basement is where he does all the harvesting, it strictly prohibited for anyone to go down there. It makes hella money though, which he uses to help pay his tuition (art college is expensive!)

Orphan btw. His mom is Night actually (an adoptive relationship) She loves and cares about him very much, the same goes for him. He usually acts more behaved if she's around.

Roman

Roman is, well he's a--thing?? creature?? I haven't decided in all honesty but he's dangerous. He travels all across the country, making sure to be well hidden. He's a serial killer oop. His signature weapon being a bowie knife. Bros got some major sadistic and animalistic tendencies. Eats his victims btw. He can't rly show his face in public, and the mans gotta eat right??

He likes to hunt. His victims are essentially "prey" to him, and he does so enjoy the thrill of a chase. He's got a looooooong tongue (as you can see) he's accidently bitten it once or twice with those sharp teeth of his. Has a tail as well, yk what espeons tail looks like? yea it's like that. His ears are sensitive btw he doesn't like them being touched.

Can never stay in one spot for too long, constantly on the move, he's got great stamina and can run for quite a long time.

Damien

WOOO. RUFFmEOW. BIG STRONG MAN LETS GO RAGHHH. ya so this is Damien. As you can tell I love him very much and I'm so very normal about him. He's an incubussss (sex demon basically). Literal definition of a Himbo. He's a big beefy guy who's wholesome and sweet, despite his line of work.

Super flirty, and also hypersexual. It's what he feeds off of, and how he regenerates and gets his magic. which btw, he can be summoned!

He's got a looot of body hair, happy trail for dayysss! Also has a bunch of peircings, snake bites on his face, and nipple peircings on his pecks. He's got numerous scars littered all over his body too. He's really sweet an attentive, as well as respectful! What more could you want in a man??

Alecto

BIG WOMAN. she's literally just my "villain" version of Night, however she's not a self-insert. I gave her, her own story and lore. She's the main antagonist in an animated series I'm creating. Her name is based of the Mythological woman "Alecto" Who was a fury of the underworld, she symbolizes rage and spreads it across the world.

She's very quick to anger. "hot-headed" (Pun-intended). The back of her hair is literally fire, and it can grow and change depending on her mood. Those gauntlets on her arms are strong AF and razor sharp, you do not want to get on her bad side. Ngl, she kinda feral at times, yk how Miguel O'Hara literally ran on all fours to chase after Miles Morales??? Yea she does that.

She's evil muehahshegsh, but also classy. She's also really tall!!! like about 8'6'' DAYUM. she'll crush you.

--------------------------------------------------------

annnndd thats a wrap!! These are the main Oc's that I adore and use on a regular basis, they each hold a special place in my heart. I rly would love to do occasional drabbles or head canons with my babies at some point, but I'm not sure anyone would read/enjoy them 😭

Nevertheless, I do hope you enjoyed my small ramble about these guys, as you can see, I'm totally normal about them.

Oh!!! and if you're ever wanting any more of my art just lmk!! I mainly post my writing on this blog, but if y'all wanna see, I can def show!!

[doublydaring]

Ron what are your top favorite tv shows

hi kait. thank you sooo much for this ask. television is my first and true love and i have a great many things to say about it.

Black Sails - Black Sails is like a show made in a lab to please me. It is a prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" which integrates the fake pirates from the book with the real pirates of history. It is about my number one interest of all time, historiography, the way that we tell the story of history. It is about the way that society uses stories and shame to control people. Its epic.

Trust FX - A miniseries. This is also about historiography, you will sense a theme. This is about the Getty kidnapping. It is full of beautiful sexy Italians and horrible horrible Americans. Brendan Fraser slays as a PI slash Greek Chorus. Luca Marinelli gives the performance to end all performances as Primo Nizzuto.

Justified - A tribute to the now rightfully dead Western Genre Justified is about a bunch of guys who suck that you cannot help but root for. A big city Marshall is forced to return to his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky after shooting a man. Some of the greatest characters of all time come from this show. Raylan Givens, Dickie Bennet, Dewey Crowe, Tim Gutterson, Rachel Brooks, and above all, Boyd Crowder. If you are compelled by slow talking, fast drawing men with problems, you will love this brilliantly witty crime drama.

MASH - Hawkeye Pierce is like a real friend to me. This too is about historiography. 11 seasons of swirling 70s sleaze and the hardest hitting antiwar commentary wrapped up in the warm and fuzzy packaging of a pleasantly green sitcom. In the first season Frank asks Hawkeye if he's ever serious, Hawkeye responds "I tried it once, everybody laughed," and it felt like my life flashing before my eyes. Trapper John McIntyre, BJ Hunnicutt, Margret Houlihan, these are just a few of the greatest characters ever written. And they're on mash.

This is where things get hard, this answer has changed a lot over the years, a few years ago, It's Always Sunny would have been like 2 on this list, as far as number of funny episodes, its still pretty high up there, I also have to mention The Monkees of course, Turn: Washington's Spies was a formative classic for me and me alone, Star Trek: The Next Generation is brilliant. There are the modern classics, Succession, Severance, and Santa Clarita Diet. The old greats, Cheers, Taxi, Star Wars the Clone Wars. My past obsessions, Jonathan Creek, TAITV, I Made America, Torchwood. Flight of The Concords and What We Do In The Shadows informed my humor so much. But I think in the end the 5th greatest television program is the San Diego Padres. Not a show in the traditional sense, but TV certainly, and a program I have probably spent more time watching than any other.

[lovelymessybubbly]

I love how there are all these “SFW” communities out there.

In my experience and opinion, these people are all just a bunch of late bloomer minors who haven’t discovered true arousal yet, and a bunch of teens, high school and college kids who are in denial that these weird ass things turn them on, manifesting those feelings into butterflies in their stomach, not their groins.

In essence, I think everyone’s a hypocrite lol. Except for the kinky adults who are actually honest with themselves.

And to the tickle community in particular: You’re going to sit there and tell me that getting red in the face and blushing, getting butterflies in your stomach, getting flustered and wanting intimate affectionate physical contact and giggling out of excitement…you’re really going to sit there and tell me that’s not some sort of arousal?

Do me a favor. Try masturbating during your next lee mood.

Boom.

Fireworks. You’ve just had your sexual awakening. You’re welcome.

oh ! actually, i am aroused by tickling ! i have a tickling kink (＾▽＾) and i have been very aware of this for a while. but i also know how to appreciate tickling in a fun and cuddly way, without it being sexually driven !! sometimes when i cuddle with my boyfriend, it leads to sex. other times, it’s just nice to cuddle. we take a nap and snuggle and all our clothes stay. sometimes, i give my bf sensual massages, with candles and oils. but then sometimes, i scratch my friend’s back as an expression of companionship. sometimes my mom rubs my shoulders because she loves me. and sometimes my boyfriend just scratches my back because i ask him, and it feels nice, and it’s a form of love, and that’s it.

sometimes my bf tickles me during sex. sometimes he ties me up with no top on and feathers me. sometimes i moan when stroked on my feet. sometimes i finish faster when being teased under my arms

but sometimes, my boyfriend tickles me to cheer me up, and his attempts to lighten the mood make me laugh more than the tickling. sometimes i ask him to tickle me while we are cuddling, and he playfully spiders my sides while i giggle into his shoulders. sometimes he times me at how long i can be ticked in one spot. sometimes he blows raspberries on my neck. sometimes he just coos at how cute i am while laughing. and no loins grow wet, no clothes come off, no sexual acts happen, and we still enjoy it very much.

i can appreciate the sfw side of tickling because i love tickling, i love drawing, i love seeing my favorite characters laugh, and i know how to respect others.

you, on the other hand, have way too much time on your hands and are going into the inboxes of people who are minding their own business and spouting this blue-balled nonsense (and to many MINORS at that) thinking that you are making a point, that you are the next andrew tate, and everyone is just going to have this hypnotic eye-opening and change all their blogs to Deviantart fetish accounts because your shallow words touched them so much, when in reality you are probably a single, unemployed, studio-apartment, mom-pays-my-phone-bill unshaven, unhygienic, uneducated, shallow and narrow-minded individual who will probably never experience a woman’s love (and trust me, women are WAY better in bed when they actually find you attractive) and will be miserable and alone because you spend your time spewing your garbage at people who don’t care you exist instead of doing something with your life.

you are so starved for attention and compassion that you are begging for attention from strangers, even if it’s negative attention. no wonder you cannot fathom people enjoying any form of affection that isn’t driven by sexual desires or ulterior motives. no one has ever given you that pure kind of affection, have they?

thank you for stopping by my blog, anon ! but please do not make an appearance again. tamadachi, keep doing what you love ! ♡ฅ(ᐤˊ꒳ฅˋᐤ♪)

[cattyanon]

Sonic but Undertale Souls: Forces Version 3 Sonic

If you aren't aware, this is one of many Sonic AUs about if the Sonic world has Undertale Souls in it. I explained how all that worked in a separate post and it's recommended you read that to understand some of what I say- and don't worry! It's not a long read!

Anyways this is specifically about Sonic Forces and version 3 of of the other two possible outcomes, all having something to do with Sonic's soul getting fucked up. Anyways, there's more about him and how I came up with the idea below the drawing!

He's finally here, and now I get to rant about what I came up with for him! >:)

You can probably skip this part but if you're curious how I managed to come up with this here's the story behind that: It came from me rewatching Jacksepticeye playing Undertale- specifically from the True Lab section and onwards. During his fight with Asriel I was thinking about how I wanted to do some cool design stuff like Asriel's God of Hyperdeath, but how? If the death rate for absorbing a soul is super high then how on earth could literally any of the characters absorb enough souls (not to mention why and how they'd absorb that many) to gain a form at least somewhat as cool looking as Asriel's? Then version 3 of my Sonic Forces AU came to mind and... well... I'll explain the rest below.

So idk the specifics but during Sonics imprisonment on the Death Egg not only was he tortured but Eggman did all kinds of unethical experiments on Sonic's soul, eventually causing it to turn a color nobody has ever seen before: Black.

With such a corrupted soul and many months of torture he eventually breaks and instinctively kills Infinite (the reason he's got that tail) and eats his soul. Not absorb. Eat. And in this way he gains soul power without absorbing another soul. (Note: He only has this ability due to the corrupted nature of his soul. If a regular person were to try and eat a soul one of two things would happen depending on how fast it breaks: 1 is that nothing would happen, 2 is that the souls attempt to combine and inevitably kill that person's own soul) He ends up repeating this process with Eggman and, deciding he's a monster, stays up on the Death Egg. But eventually he gets hungry. He tries eating the food on the Death Egg but it just doesn't fill him. There's still this cold, empty, and hungry feeling inside of him. And he has a bad feeling the only thing that'd satisfy him is a soul.

So he goes awhile without food, probably about a week, and eventually he's so damn hungry that ends up going down to earth to look for some animal souls to sustain him. He sucks the soul out of the animal's body and basically just secludes himself in the forest. He feeds on the souls of animals, getting ever so slightly stronger with each one, even if he has a feeling that human and mobian souls would be much more fulfilling.

But eventually a nearby village starts finding these untouched corpses left behind when scavenging for food in the forest since the war only very recently ended and get concerned that there's a monster in the forest. So they send a few hunters out and... well... they found what they were looking for, but died in the process.

As for Sonic he's having major issues after consuming a bunch of souls (also causing him to look like the drawing) that had murder on their minds. He tries his best to resist but he ends up wandering close to the edge of the forest near the village, just barely keeping himself from going on a murderous rampage. But then the village sends out a rescue party and he snaps. He ends up consuming every person he finds which is like almost the entire village cause he can see souls that are close by to him.

Although thankfully for literally everyone he ends up staying in that area and basically claims it as his own. The few survivors tell their horror stories and very few people (basically idiots thinking they can kill him with simple weapons) ever go there. But once the world kinda gets back together enough to establish communication again the Resistance Restoration hears about this monster and, of course, want to help. They've got super powers and Sonic has taken on plenty of monsters. All they gotta do is find the Chaos Emeralds and kick this thing's ass!

Thankfully the monster can't absorb their souls in their super forms, but it doesn't take them long to realize who said monster is. And given time the 'monster' might just find these people to be strangely familiar...

Anyways that's it for now! Feel free to ask questions while y'all wait on me to design the form they find him in. Might be hard since I don't wanna make it look like Asriel as much as possible but hey, we'll see.

[abarbaricyalp]

Written for the @sambuckylibrary anniversary event! Rated G, no CWs.

"You know, he's not half so scary in person," Carlos said from Sam's far side.

Sam finished crushing trash further into a garbage bag before he followed Carlos' gaze across the party to the table where Bucky was regaling many, many children with an, undoubtedly, dramatic story. There were enough swooping hand gestures and mimed explosions at any rate.

"Yeah, the TV adds seven layers of hostility," he joked. "He's actually just a good actor."

Carlos snorted and rolled his eyes at Sam's ribbing. "You always were the first one to offer a second chance to anyone and anything. Do you remember when you--"

"When that stray bit me three separate times and I still cried when animal control caught it and took it away?" Sam finished for him. The story had followed him along since he was thirteen. If someone wanted to boil Sam Wilson down to his essence, that was the story they told. "To be fair, someone told me while I was in the hospital getting stitches for the last bite."

"You spent weeks afterwards tryin' to borrow anyone's home phone to call and ask about it 'cause your mama wouldn't let you use y'all's phone," he continued.

"He wasn't a bad dog. Just scared," Sam chuckled softly. He moved his fingers over the textured edge of a paper plate. "It wasn't his fault."

Carlos just smiled at him like he and Sam were on the same page, which was never true. Carlos was usually seven steps ahead of Sam. It's probably what had made him and Paul Wilson such good friends, even though they were otherwise very different men. He clapped a hand on Sam's shoulder and then moseyed away.

Sam looked over at Bucky, still in the midst of his story, and wondered when the last time was that he'd had teeth bared at him as he offered out a helping hand. And, honestly, cold shoulders and sarcasm aside, he couldn't remember. DC all those years (and not years) ago, probably. Even watching the Winter Soldier work again a few weeks ago hadn't been enough to remind Sam that Bucky could be that kind of dangerous. Especially not when it only took a touch and a look from Sam for him to draw back out of the character again. Sam was in no danger of being bit. No good person around was. Definitely more like the kind of dog that wanted to be a lap dog despite being a hundred pounds of muscle.

Sam made his way over to the table, just to make sure he didn't need to offer Bucky an escape. From the angle he was coming at, and the way Bucky's head was on a constant swivel to keep up with all of the laughing and teasing and questions around him, Sam got a chance to just look at him. The sun was bright on his face, making his eyes look like they were lit up and painting his hair more of an auburn than Sam had ever seen it. There were curls forming close to his head, brought out by the humid salt air and Sam had never seen that either. It kind of knocked the breath out of his chest.

Finally, he stepped closer, about to interrupt whatever exaggerated story Bucky was telling, but the man's words stalled him before he could.

"And Sam came out nowhere!" Bucky exclaimed, miming a sudden flight dive with his hand. "He took out a whole bunch of bad guys without breaking a sweat. Steve told me it was the coolest thing he's ever seen."

"Steve Rogers thinks Uncle Sam is cool?" Cass asked, all wide eyed. Sam would be offended, but it was less that Cass was in disbelief and more like he wanted to hear Bucky say it again.

"Steve thinks Sam is the coolest!" Bucky assured. "That's why Sam's Captain America and not someone else."

Sam raised an eyebrow that no one was going to see, but he supposed that the simple version was best while Bucky recounted glory days with a bunch of kids. Bucky reached out to catch a girl by the back of the shirt as she worked on climbing to the other side of the table so she could stand on the bench. She struck a dramatic pose and stared off in the distance for a moment.

"I wanna have wings. How do I get wings?" she asked.

"Well first, you have to eat all your vegetables. And you have to make good grades," Bucky explained, tugging her down to sit. "But you also have to be kind and not selfish, right? Gotta behave like Sam does."

"Even to my brother?" she asked with a frown.

"Even to your brother," Bucky agreed with a solemn nod.

When Sam couldn't stand it anymore, he came over to put a hand on Bucky's shoulder and tug him back from the table. "Hey, mythmaker, you're gonna have to help clean at some point. Come on, let's go," he encouraged, pulled Bucky's shoulder until Bucky dramatically flailed backwards.

"I'm not a mythmaker," he argued as he carefully extricated himself from the table. "I don't exaggerate."

"I do not believe you," Sam promised lightly.

Bucky clicked his tongue and then waved at the kids around the table who had quite eagerly taken his spot, clambering over each other even as Sam and Bucky walked away.

"You can never let me have the spotlight," Bucky sighed. When Sam glanced over at him, Bucky already had his eyes on Sam and he was grinning easily.

"I'm really jealous, what can I say?" he jokingly admitted. They walked for another moment, past all the trash they really should be taking care of, before Sam jostled his elbow against Bucky's side. "It's not like they were listening to stories about you anyway," he teased gently.

"Well, just the last one. Or the last two, depending on when you showed up," Bucky defended. It was unconvincing, especially when he snickered to himself anyway. "Your stories are more family friendly."

"You were sounding pretty bragadocious of those stories."

"Oooh, there's a vocabulary word," Bucky laughed. He nudged Sam towards an empty pier and sat down so he could dangle his legs over the edge of it. Sam followed suit and watched the water lap at the old wood. Algae and barnacles clung to the supports and drifted in the repetitive current.

"I'm proud of you," Bucky eventually said, barely audible over the water. The noises of the party were far enough away that Sam could almost believe he was underwater, with the way his head went light with the compliment.

"Thanks, man," he said back just as softly. "You're not doing too bad for yourself either."

Bucky knocked his shoulder into Sam's and then stayed leaning against him as he stared out over the water. Sam let his own head come to rest on Bucky's, tucking his cheek against Bucky's sun warmed hair. The birds called overhead, waiting for their chance to swoop in on discarded food and open trash. Music started up from somewhere near the heart of the party. The water continued to gently keep time with the wind and the current. And Bucky was warm and solid and constant beside him.

Sam was pretty damn proud too.

[yourlocalabstraction]

your soul design is so yumilicious I need all the details now on my dinner plate

fr tho I want to know all the soul design lore how did you create such a creature /vpos

OKOKOHHHHHHOKOK BUCKLE IN. YOU’RE GONNA GET THE FULL DESIGN PROCESS

I struggled the most with Soul ngl. I couldn’t really think of anything I could add that would differentiate him from the fanon standard. I’m a lil upset I couldn’t think of something more original, but nonetheless he turned out quite lovely !!!

I started with the color picking. I was very insistent on making everyone’s colors proportional to eachother. The main colors should have (about) the same saturation/brightness, contrasting colors that are the exact opposite hue of the main color, respective black/grey/white values (soul’s ‘grey’ color is more teal bc color theory but yea), shit like that i guess. The final palette is on the right, it’s what I use today.

Soul never got fully fleshed out concept sheets like the other two. I guess my brain just filled in the rest of the gaps without having to draw them. (I apologize for never finishing these btw. It’s been months man. I hope the blorbo doodles in the corner make up for it) The second image was done a lot later than the first btw. Idk if that matters but I’m bringing it up anyway.

His fit inspo came mostly from Pinterest. I just compiled a bunch of shit I think he’d wear. Plus a majestic cape because it makes him look plenty more epic.

OK MOVING ON. I decided that his main gimmick would be my take on his shaded side. The idea was to make it represent dissonance, and how it affects Soul. The shadow is basically just this fuckin void. It has no physical form, and you can just stick your hand in there if you’d like (he sometimes stores the trident there). However I wouldn’t recommend it. The feeling is indescribable, but very uncomfortable. The void has a life of it’s own in a way. It does not stay confined within the Soul’s physical form (or in my case, his lineart). When conflict is at a high, like, tridential regicide level high, the void will get very close to fully overtaking him. It only fully disappears once true concord is reached, and starts reforming when the next cycle starts.

Also, the mask !!!!! Throughout cacophony, Soul is having a huge fucking identity crisis and shit. He doesn’t really have a physical organ like the other two. He doesn’t know why he’s here, or what he did to deserve this, or why nothing he’s trying works, and just. What is he if he’s failing at his main purpose???? I think because of this, he doesn’t like showing his face around the other two. He needs to assert is power, and thinks that showing his face will make him come of softer and less of someone to obey, if that makes sense. He only really takes it off when he’s alone in his room or pocket dimension (still trying to decide if they have a mock ‘apartment’, or ever did at one point). But once he has the character arc in Two Wuv, it permanently comes off !!! Wahoo!!!!!!! If only the next cycle weren’t to start, resetting his newfound self image to its previous state !!!!!!!!!!

Ok this is getting long im putting a read more thing

This image was very helpful for designing the tine shapes!! Guess which one is Soul’s !!!!!! (Spoiler alert, im pretty sure its either the 2nd or 6th ones in the 2nd row. However i genuinely dont remember. This may not even be the right image)

Soul also has a strange tie with eyes. If the halves have pissed him off to the point of no return, he does this fuckin analog horror stare that freaks the shit out of them (although heart cant see he remembers it very well. Plus, he just k n o w s that extra eye is there). I haven’t really played around with this, but I like the idea of a freakishly absurd amount of eyes hidden within the shadow. I should maybe like. Draw that sometime.

Also, expect a Soil patch update in the future!! I’d like to make his fangs more deranged, and maybe add an earth pattern to the cape. Right now, he has no symbols on him that represent him in the astronomy metaphor.

Uhhhh i hoped this helped??? If i missed anything you were hoping to know about, do let me know !!!!!!!

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Volume 4

The beginning of this volume flat out spoils things by putting characters that haven't been introduced yet on the character page. (MarineAngemon, the Juri clone, the D-Reaper queen...) Maybe that's a common practice with shounen manga...but it shouldn't be. Like, what's the point?

Ch. 22

Lopmon and Terriermon interacting will never get old. Love how they lift their ears with curiosity when they first see each other.

I think I prefer experiencing the ~sad~ part of Tamers better in manga form. I remember it being quite drawn out in the anime and I rather just blitz through it at this point. I think the whole Leomon death storyline just annoys me because they barely developed his character and then the writing expects me to be devastated. Juri was more developed, sure, but we barely got any insight into her relationship with Leomon so her deep, dark depression doesn't feel super warranted either.

Ch. 23

I think this chapter was pretty well done. They're giving an epic battle it's time instead of zooming past it.

It bugs me that there isn't a specific name for digimon/human digivolutions. In this translation they called it a "true mega form." On the wiki it's called both an ultimate and a matrix digivolution. IDK why it doesn't count as a jogress. I guess there's like...two different things: the way you digivolve (matrix) and the digivolution level (ultimate)? If it's confusing for me, I can only imagine it'd be confusing for a kid.

It's a bit weird for an English translation, but I like that Guilmon says "MMA!" a lot. I can totally hear him making that noise with his OG voice. Creative onomatopoeia.

Ch. 24

Grrr Jian said "crumbcakes," so done with this stupid translation

This chapter was hella short, not much to say about it.

Ch. 25

Okay, now they're calling it a "biomerge digivolution." I guess the localizers also thought "this needs a cool name!"

Casual 90s/early 2000s sexism sprinkled throughout this translation. Takato says he "screams like a little girl" in a previous chapter and in this one he says "easy to forget Renamon and Rika are girls when they're always kicking butt!" Eye roll...

SaintGalgomon looked super badass but for some reason when Sakuyamon appeared they chose to dedicate two closeup panels to her chest and high heels? Sus...

Ch. 26

Juri's face didn't look as sinister here as it did in the anime (when it's revealed she's possessed). I guess that's probably a good thing. More subtle.

I don't remember the sovereign digimon giving Culumon a "you're a real boy now" speech in the anime. That was sweet.

They cut the part where Beelzebumon gets zapped by a bunch a digimon. In this he just collapses after the battle with Dukemon, which I think I prefer. (But why'd he say he'd be "bunny chow?" He wasn't even fighting Terriermon...)

Ch. 27

The grotesque, over-the-top facial expressions the artist keeps drawing for Hirokazu piss me off. They're just so ugly.

Ugh...they really had to ruin a serious moment (Guilmon getting the ark to stop) with a poop joke. This manhua does NOT treat its audience with respect.

Hmm they completely cut out Juri's family. So much for developing her character I guess.

They kind of forgot to imply that the ark is sentient. I mean they showed it stopping on its own, but in the anime they really hammered it home by having Guilmon have a conversation with it and showing it's HAL-like eye. That was one of my fave parts so I'm sad lol

Ch. 28

Okay, this is starting to feel totally different from the anime, they skipped like 5 episodes worth of content. Also, IDK if the scanlation I'm reading is missing some pages because the ending with Dukemon being beat up was completely nonsensical (it cut from Beelzebumon being hit to a panel with Dukemon outta nowhere?) I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that there are missing pages...

The scene where Beelzebumon uses Leomon's attack to save Juri played out differently here. She doesn't seem particularly perturbed by it and Beelzebumon can't save her because he gets attacked, not because Juri recoils for too long.

Ch. 29/30

Lol they completely cut out Justimon. Makes Ryo's role even more pointless! Ryo doesn't even reappear at all...

This manhua series was crap to begin with but they really screwed the pooch with this ending. SOOO rushed. Grani appeared outta nowhere with zero introduction. Like they just went immediately to Grani's sacrifice. I still don't know if I'm missing pages or if the writing is just that garbage. Oh well! I tried.

[altocat]

I wouldn’t put this in the tag, but why do certain people in this fandom get so mad when Seph gets any form of humanization so much?? Keeping a bunch of his background a mystery is a reasonable request absolutely, but why is it so bad to see him emote and have connections and deal with shit before his downfall?

Why is it so bad to add to the subtle and delicate writing that surrounds his “fallen angel” arc? I mean, do people want a smirky, one-dimensional villain forever? (Not that he ever was one-dimensional anyway but apparently some think he was).

No villain should just be evil for no reason, and if we want their reasons to be a little mysterious, that is entirely able to be done without stripping them of their emotions or tragedy. Everyone’s favorite villains have carefully crafted downfalls and often there is tragedy and misunderstanding involved.

Seph is an absolutely iconic villain and deserves more of this treatment. He is frankly, overdue for some humanization that isn’t bound to the limits of an older game like Crisis Core that often suffered from a lack of deeper exposition or elaboration. He’s earned it after being a terrifying, mysterious villain for so long.

Just a touch of it doesn’t ruin anything. The writers seem to be treating it with care and delicacy so far, which is good. That’s what we need.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Twitter is getting on my nerves because people are saying things like “He better just stay crazy and enjoy burning shit for no reason.” and accusing people that disagree of “not actually being a true fan of the character.” (As if Crisis Core didn’t already make him more sympathetic!!)

(I’m also not using his full name so that this doesn’t show up in anyone’s search results if you don’t want to draw any contention. Cheers).

Pure evil villains are boring, unless it's full camp or they're having fun and it's delicious to watch.

I think people aren't paying attention to context. This isn't CURRENT Sephiroth, this is Sephiroth as a child. If he was always evil and always sadistic, it would take away a lot of the message the original game was trying to convey with him--Sephiroth is the product of SHINRA, the product of immoral ethics, war, and greed. Sephiroth was a normal baby given abnormal enhancement, shoved into extremely traumatic rules and expectations, and subsequently loses everything that ever made him human in a mad quest for revenge and control. To say Sephiroth was evil from the moment he was born is a HUGE disservice to his character, and his story as a whole. Sephiroth is a monster. But he is the monster Shinra created.

Now do I think Sephiroth should be redeemed? No, probably not. It's not about his journey back into the light, it's about his descent into darkness. That's what makes his character interesting. For the record, I don't want them to woobie him either. Part of the reason I find those Disney Remakes insufferable is how they take fun villains (Cruella, Maleficent) and try to make them all weepy and sympathetic. THOSE are villains where being pure evil works. It's entertaining. Their evilness is infectious. They're chewing the scenery and it's great. They're nasty little shits and they ENJOY it and they're cartoony enough to where you don't have to take it seriously. Sephiroth is a completely different beast, with an actual message to his story.

I've always found serious pure-evil villains completely uninteresting because there's no layers to them. No pathos. No depth. Part of having a good villain is looking into their eyes and seeing something of yourself in there. YOU could be that. YOU could become that. These are moral lessons for adults as they try to navigate a confusing and unfriendly world. You shouldn't turn into this because, in the end, succumbing to anger and hate ISN'T good. It ISN'T healthy. And these villains, at the end of the day, are extremely unhappy people who bring about their own destruction. You lose that when they're just a smirking sadistic killing machine. It's an empty husk that just exists for the heroes to defeat. I'd like to think that Sephiroth is more than that, and has always been more than that.

Anyway, rant over. Twitter is dumb, hence why I'm not on it. I'll agree with them if the Remake Trilogy attempts at a redemption arc and it's clumsy and unjustified. But this? A tragic Seph backstory was always a given when you look at the lore. So long as they go about it in a balanced morally gray way, it fits very well with his character.

[gracie-rosee]

Thoughts from an Elriel at heart who loves all ships and characters.

I’ve gained a bunch of new followers lately so… idk. Hi? This is the only post I will make about this btw. The only time I will share my thoughts on ships and the state of the fandom. My blog is a pro-positivity blog! So step into my mind for a brief minute before I bury this post on my blog and eventually delete it lol. I don’t tolerate negativity or bullying on my page at all. It’s an Instablock.

TL;DR: I love my elriel forever and forever. But all ships are hot regardless of canon and I don’t think it’s cool to police people around in fandom when we are all just here to have a good time. My blog is a place for everyone.

If this post isn’t to your liking in any way, keep scrolling and have a great day!

Okay it’s honesty hour. I genuinely think Elucien and Gwynriel could happen. Now listen.

I think that given enough time, their relationships could turn into true, deep romances.

But as of right now, where the series is at, there is no room for time. Koschei has been teased for like three books now and has made an actual appearance in the last book. He’s definitely going to be the villain that is fought in the next book (or two.) Plot wise, I don’t think there will be a big waiting period, meaning the next book will pick up almost right away. And considering it’s a romance book mainly, the actual romance has to start then too! Right away!

And I think Elain and Azriel are the only ones who have that build up to convincingly lead a romance book together.

So yes. I think Gwynriel has the potential to be a great couple. I think Elucien would be amazing.

Just not in this universe. Not right now.

Which is fine. I know, I just know the part of my heart that roots for these couples would be crushed by the story they would have if they were rushed and crammed into the next book. I’m already really wary of SJMs writing from the way she handled acosf and her re-write of Hofas. I don’t trust her with these ships to be honest. I think no one can write gwynriel and Elucien better than the incredible INCREDIBLE fanfic writers we have in this fandom. (I love you guys!)

I think in the canon world, they need more development. I need to see Elucien form a bond not influenced by their mating one first! I need to see Gwyn and Azriel’s healing on their own before they get together.

But Elain and Azriel? They have a story that’s already rolling. It’s been building since the moment they met, before Elain met Lucien and before Azriel started training with Gwyn.

So unless SJM kills one of them off, Elriel will own my head, heart, body, soul, and entire conscience LOL. 😂

But alas, Sarah is a very emotional writer. And I cannot NOT fall in love with almost every character she gives us. Years from now, one of these couples will be canon and I’ll still be reading fic and drawing for the others.

And isn’t that the point? It makes me sad that this fandom has developed the mindset that you’re not allowed to like multiple things. That there is a right and a wrong. That you have to pick sides.

Where are the people who love these books as a whole, not just those who are here for one couple that’s up in the air? Maybe I’m just old, but normally fandom is a place where everyone comes together for the love of all of it, not the hatred of part of it. 🤷‍♀️