#up & up

[lucabyte]

"So what's the weirdest possible first (second) impression Loop could make on the party in postcanon?" "Yeah, that, probably."

+ Bonus

theyre just standing there in direct party order while this happens. normal tuesday.

[katabay]

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A KNIGHT...

the visual inspiration for this was a combination of Frederic William Burton's Meeting on the Turret Stairs and also Bernardo Cavallino's The vision of St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin

this was supposed to be just a one off illustration to get the thoughts out of my system, but then I started thinking about medieval politics and warfare and plagues and a castle and home as both a place of refuge, a prison, and a tomb, so perhaps they will end up as ex voto characters as well.

you may say, hey! that rosary looks like it has too many beads! it's a fifteen decade rosary, probably. dominicans are really into marian devotions. it works out.

also. spiral style stair cases. oh boy. it was that unexpectedly more difficult than I originally thought it would be to draw. the more I think about it, the less I understand them, even though I had a million photos of the stairs in front of me while I was drawing it.

⭐ I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!

⭐ and other places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

[demaparbat-hp]

Love it! What about innocent cheek/cheekbone kisses?

The waterbender and her princes.

[jade-len]

Tired, 39 year old Shen Yuan is constantly nagged by his parents about giving them grandchildren. At a certain point, they were done with begging for him to marry a nice lady and just skipped to pleading for grandkids.

While the idea of having a child does make his heart yearn in a way that will definitely be dangerous if thought about for too long, he just doesn't have the time! No way! And what kind of father would he be, secretly reading cheesy, terrible webnovels in his free time? Which, mind you, is rare nowadays. He'd like to spend that valuable time getting rest via napping, thank you very much.

So what if Shen Yuan's heart swells when he sees his students run up to their parents with adorable, toothy grins? So what if he treats his class like they're his own children from time to time, spoiling them silly and proudly wearing the badge of "Best Teacher!" every year? So what if he wants a child to call his own!?

To love and care for a child, Shen Yuan has accepted that it would simply be a privilege he'll never experience.

...Think, think! Don't get so mopey now, Shen Yuan! Try to outweigh the baby fever with the pessimism you (slightly) obtained from your mean older brother!

How about this: There'll be no time for himself, none at all! Just more and more work. Come home from his job, dealing with a bunch of rowdy kids to find your own permanent little monster running around the house! At least he's getting paid for the first one!?

Shen Yuan had seen those videos and posts of kids accidentally exposing their parents embarrassing tendencies. Knowing him, his hypothetical child would have piles upon piles of blackmail on the Shen family's youngest son! Leave this old man alone, alright? Non-existent dumpling, theoretical baobei, please don't be so careless with your father's reputation...

(It would be careless too, to become a gaping hole in the heart of his child. Wouldn't it be selfish to have one, only to die a few years later?)

Over a decade ago, believe it or not, this esteemed Mr. Shen had gone by the shameless persona of "Peerless Cucumber" on the internet. He'd been an infamous anti-fan of the male power fantasy stallion web-novel series, Proud Immortal Demon Way and would leave scalding essay-length comments and posts ranting about its terrible plot point and flaming the author for his awful characterization and overall writing. That era of his life was when he actually had the time to stare into the digital sea of texts and write entire documentaries as replies for twelve hours straight. Fortunately or unfortunately, Shen Yuan doesn't have the same luxury as of now.

Despite the constant hate spewing from his younger self, present-day Shen Yuan is honestly very impressed by the constant thousand word updates every day. Honestly, looking back, how did that man accomplish that? Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky, dear author, are your hands okay? Youthful Shen Yuan's hands cramped all too much from simply typing up angry comments, now imagine PIDW's author??

Aaah, yes, the former hater Peerless Cucumber had long forgotten about PIDW. The author mysteriously disappeared one day, leaving Luo Binghe out on his own for more wives to dual cultivate with as Shen Yuan had realized his passion for literature (and critique!).

With a newfound, realized passion in his heart, Shen Yuan went off to actually pursue the college education his parents had very lovingly saved (and were ecstatic he was actually using) and became a literature teacher! NEET 21 year old Shen Yuan would be quite astonished to see this dignified Mr. Shen now, yes, very much so indeed.

Now, Shen Yuan.. doesn't quite remember PIDW all too well. He begrudgingly admits that it holds a dear and special place in his heart, but in all honesty, Shen Yuan can remember merely a handful of the wives and plot points. Ah, this is what happens when you actually get a life, interesting! Clap it up!

The most Shen Yuan remembers is the stallion novel character, Luo Binghe. His favorite, and - he really can’t stress this enough - an absolutely wasted potential of a character. Shen Yuan may be an older and wiser man who doesn't waste constant time on the internet like before, but that only means he actually has a degree to be critic. Serves all of those self-righteous, questioning commenters right from all those years ago! Look at him now!

Importantly however, Shen Yuan also remembers just how badly he wanted to coddle the protagonist, blackening or not, pre-abyss, post-abyss, even as a demonic tyrannic emperor! Can you believe that none of Luo Binghe's wives wanted to squeeze his cheeks and kiss his forehead!? Master Airplane, throw in some fluff, will you? Spare the poor boy from all of these succubi (metaphorically and literally) and let him take a nap! Ahhh, who really cares if Luo Binghe has a kingdom he needs to take over? Throw a blanket on him! Cranky, old Mr. Shen knows the feeling of being terribly overworked, so imagine how the protagonist feels!? Shen Yuan nods his head approvingly at the thought.

All of those mistresses flocking over to Luo Binghe... If Shen Yuan were his guardian, he would kick them all out without a second thought in place of good family bonding time.

Women, power, sex... really, what's needed is a loving father who'll coddle and take care of Binghe when no one else can!

So, Shen Yuan guesses he shouldn't be surprised when he wakes up in the body of Tianlang-jun.

[tiedsh0es]

My favourite pose of his

[chloesimaginationthings]

i absolutely love your characterization of movie vanessa,, like she is so mentally unwell but also she is full of whimsy!

The duality of Vanessa Shelly,,

[screwpinecaprice]

Alternate timeline where she didn't meet Steven. I may be exaggerating lmao

Yapping under the cut because I'm waiting on a line rn

Okey, so. Entertaining the thought: An introverted feral kid and a girl who gets a sort of high off adrenaline; but was taught to be polite and proper. You know, all that perfect girl stuff. We would also consider how her empathy level is questionable, based on how she just casually suggested cutting off his arm when it got stuck. (Still not sure if immediately being excited seeing swords is just amazement or 'OOH How convenient!') So perhaps she would learn to understand empathy in a practical (not sure if that's the word I'm looking for) way rather than in an emotional way.

Thankfully she was coaxed out of her shell and she had outlet early on. Also, to have genuinely learned friendship power! 😊

But what if she never got that outlet. 🤔 I mean, she could have gotten out of her shell in a different way. But, like. Imagine if she had to bottle it up all these years. It could go south or she'll be able to manage it because it ain't as bad. Just fun to think about the former.

She would be like: This thing I'm reading is SO morbidly interesting! I wonder what it feels like in a personal level though? Could I do it? Could I do it better now that I have the knowledge of foresight? But what if I still mess up? I can't have a negative record! And the curiosity and the adrenaline just mixes up together. Lol

Haha I'm not really seriously headcanoning that is exactly what's gonna happen. I mean at least not to an intense extent. It's so fun to think about.

[breadandlottery]

[infamous-if]

what is it with your story that people are always trying to find a love triangle in the routes? lmao

i kinda get it tbh i dont shy away from showing that other characters are attracted to the ROs but i mean what do you expect when playing with a cast like this lmahxsksjs but it doesnt mean that it means anything deeper in the greater narrative

😭hopefully it comforts people that i absolutely hate love triangles. it is my most behated thing in literature i avoid reading books with love triangles i avoid watching movies with love triangles i (mostly) avoid writing love triangles they're just not for me !!!

[likeastars]

Is kpop demon hunters hitting all of us with a magic missing sashannarcy hours beam or what

[stitchy-face]

Jagshaw, 2019

[piratefishmama]

Eddie would be that little shit who kisses his opponent trying to win an arm wrestling competition.

and Steve would be the bigger shit who kisses right back without breaking a sweat and wins anyway.

[sailordoublevenus]

There’s a brand new a song for the Welcome Committee Frankie Stein doll which mentions their love for Cleo AND they’re both on the album cover 💗 This song just dropped TODAY it’s called “Amped Up”! This is the first time Mattel has acknowledged their relationship in something promotional for the dolls! 🥹🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[filurig]

ok so i have finally given my tomtar a bit of a Revamp... i was unsatisfied with them just being basically. anthro corvid. now i mean theyre still kind of Anthro birdish creature, but now they arent birds anymore and rather related to harpies and basilisks (whose ancestors are the scansoriopterygids).

ive been pondering some world lore with them and also vätte technology as well as their energy resource so yes they now fit a bit the "dwarvern/gnome tinkerer" archetype hehe...

[dirtytransmasc]

thinking about the scene in highground where Jake tells Spider to turn himself in and getting angry again.

I find it crazy that Jake, who was seemingly so concerned with getting slowed down[?] by Spider, who was honestly keeping up, and was pretty fairly out of breath cause he can be seen:

A. breaking himself through Hellsgate, getting to his siblings, and breaking the seal of an sealed/airlocked door to free his siblings with essentially his bare hands

B. trecking through the forest, which at one point includes making sure Kiri keeps up, to the point of likely physically up and forward

C. more running and climbing up a massive cliff face, and picking up massive boulders up over his head and throwing them, and kicking others down the cliff side, to hit at The Hellhounds to protect Kiri and Tuk

D. continued running even after that

like yes, he's he was exhausted after that, and fell behind slightly. but he wasn't asking anyone to slow down, he wasn't asking anyone to help him like he had helped Kiri or to be carried like Tuk was (both of these things are fair. but again. perspective). he was exhausted and panting but still running, a bit behind the group, but he was keeping up.

and Jake stops the entire group to get down on his knees in front of this kid and tell him to stay behind. actively putting them in more harms way then Spider lagging behind them ever was.

crazy work

gets crazier too.

cause mind you, this is all happening because he was trying to send Spider to the RDA with his foster parents in the first place (which is a whole can of worms of awful. taking that kid from the only home he ever knew. the language, lifestyle, culture, religion, and way of being he's ever known and adapted to as his own. and forcing him to become the very thing he was hated for his entire life; one of Them. he would have had to be an RDA citizen, a well behaved one at that. which means he would probably be punished still his spirit broke or it killed him). his kids went to go rescue their brother and were then captured by his foster father, Nash McCosker. Spider saved them from being sold off to Ardmore, and whatever on Eywa's green earth she planned to do with them, likely to subdue Jake.

but at this point he is asking a 15 year old to do 3 things: stay in the forest by himself where they are shooting at everything that moves, where there could be another potential wave of ground forces or hellhounds or just more heavy fire, until morning. turn himself in, more then likely no longer under the terms of amnesty, so he would have ended up a prisoner. and to do so willingly.

he wasted his time, his family's time, precious time to evade the RDA, to do that. he wasted his time to tell a child "oh sorry, you should just stay here". to ask him to walk to a prison sentence, even if he ever left that forest alive.

I cannot justify that by any means of the care Jake cloaks those words in. especially with his earlier explosion at Spider when he begs to be allowed to stay. to go to High Camp. this independent kid who would have likely needed next to no supervision. who would have demanded no love or attention from him. just he chance to stay and not be forced to be a cog in the RDA machine. he asked to stay and Jake exploded on him. sure, call it stress, but that's unfair. followed by this?

it feels like Jake wants to get rid of this innocent kid by any means possible, with 0 care for not just his quality of life. but his life in general. he did not care if Spider made it out of that forest alive. even if he doesn't conciously realize. Jake is a man who keeps himself and his mind very internal and compartmentalized. so while I don't think he was aware or even actively wish it, but part of him rathered Spider dead then part of his life. (I think this is because Spider is where he has displaced his own self-hatred for his past and humanity, hence the odd and inconsistent relationship he has with him)

and then, because Spider is a literal saint, he does, of course, keep running, and keeps up, and helps protect his siblings. when they get to the airship, he literally pulls Kiri up, almost by himself, before Lo'ak and Neteyam help him, before the family can even realize how far behind she's fallen and catch her in his place.

when the airship hard lands on the water and flood, he stops Kiri from drowning, once again, bodying her weight himself, and then helps patch up their pilot.

all after Jake tried so hard to get rid of him twice in one day. he ends up saving his daughter at least 4 times, not to mention how he saved the life of Lo'ak and Tuk at least once, and helped keep the whole group of them safe while waiting for backup. and he doesn't get so much as a thank you. it makes me angry.

[ariadne-mouse]

As others have noted along the way, Liam's choices as Orym have kept Dorian feeling very present in the story, and in Orym's story in particular, despite the fact that he hasn't been around since episode 14 and all we've had since then are a handful of Sending replies via Matt and that one pre-recorded one from Robbie. And of course it may be that Dorian does not appear again in C3's major arc, at least not "in person" - scheduling can be hard and people are busy and there's a lot going on in the story already. I am enjoying the story how it unfolds and I don't have expectations. But if Robbie Daymond ever walks out and sits at that table I am going to lose my goddamn mind