#very fun indeed

[moonstruckdraws]

Morning Grass

Deciding to finally use the excuse of practicing my rendering skills as a reason to start making Sky art.

I love this game; it is extremely pretty (though I get flash-banged every transition lmao). Decided to draw my avatar kickin' some grass

So expect to see more of this character (and prob others) time to time

[pseudomicrothoraxdubius]

Chat broke Cleo with a level 17 spite train They said you can't keep me here forever and the chat answered with: Bet🤨

[fallenspirit]

the latest hitman elusive target was really fun to play

[l0ganberry]

Back at making more clay charms of our beautiful neighbors (FINALLY!!)

BONUS:

Head

[i-mybrunettelady]

One of the funniest things about speaking of a native speaker of your target language is the weird discrepancy in your abilities to discuss certain things. For example, I could explain to a native French speaker my thoughts on certain literary movements, but I'm also not sure whether I told her I was bored or boring. Thankfully she understood me but I'm questioning myself now lmao

[bethiewhimsy]

asra got me giggling & kicking my feet & shit

[2-dsimp]

Doesn't this just scream that we're gonna have a fun time

😇

@campanula-rotundifolia

[gummybugg]

(Penpal letter to Morgana, from Lizzy) Hey Hey! How's it going? My name's Lizzy! I wanted to try and make new friends, so I thought I'd send a stranger a letter. Hope this is okay, and hope your day is going great! Let's see, a little about me... My passions are animals, photography, and good music. I'm a wildlife biologist currently working to help sustain our ecosystems. (I'll try not to bore you with work stuff though.) I try not to pick favorites, but my fav animal would probably be the bobcat. I also have a ferret at home. He's so cute, his name is Muffin! Heard you are/were in college? What were you studying? I always encourage people to keep going as much as they can and try their best. Even if you don't use it, a degree looks good to employers. There's always tons of tutors and stuff too! (I know history, geography, and stuff was never my strong suit.) Can't wait to hear back! - Lizzy C.

Hello Lizzy,

I'm not quite sure how you got my address, and frankly, I don't really think I'd want to know. You seem to have good intentions, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to respond. Besides, I'm lonely, and I don't think I've spoken to another (living) person in a while, and it'd be nice to have a pen pal of sorts.

I suppose I should introduce myself. As you know, I'm Morgana (I promise it's a very masculine name where I'm from), and my favorite activities are journaling, collecting vinyls, writing messages in bottles, and people watching. We seem to share an interest in photography, which I find very curious. I like to take pictures of places after dark or places that illicit nostalgia, how about you? Also, what are some of your favorite bands? I like Weezer, the Wallows, the Ramones, and The Rolling Stones.

I love rodents and ferrets! In fact, I have a few....pet mice. They're named Juniper, Addison, and Vinnie. I really enjoy their company even though they are a bit irritating at times and don't always understand what personal space is. I can feel them looming over my shoulder, giggling, as I write this...

I'm not sure how you know I was a dropout, and it's not something I'm proud of, but I used to major in journalism--no surprise there. Things just got to be too much, and I let my solitude get the best of me. I do envy those who get to have the "college experience" because it's something I know I was never cut out to have....but I digress.

I suppose a break from school will do. Fuck tuition costs, fuck scholarships, I'm going back when I'm ready. And when I have a better hold on my life. Don't tell my parents I'm still not in college because they don't even have a clue where I am right now. I'm sure they already got a search party going after me, but they're going to find out soon enough that I mean what I say: I will not let them back into my life again.

I apologize for the rant since we don't even know each other that well. But I do sincerely hope to hear from you soon.

Signed,

Morgana

[weezley]

destructible environments with a repair spell to fix them is such a fun mechanic

[post-it-notes7]

You've spoken. A secret shall be yours.

[bleetusmcyeetus]

See fnaf brainrot is good up until the point when you remember that it is, in fact, a rather scary thing and there is, in fact, an entire game set inside a house at night, which is, in fact, where you are right now, and that is, in fact, genuinely fucking terrifying, and it doesn’t help that there are creepy murderous robots in the game, and in real life the books on one of your shelves do, in fact, resemble that silly little puppet guy, which is leading you to not want to look away from that shelf, and this all leads you to remember why you fell out of you first fnaf phase

[koszmarnybudyn]

Monster John is something that can be so very special.

[sofiaruelle]

Commission for the lovely @flowerandthesongstress of our fave triad, Sam, Abigail and Sebastian basking in the afterglow of a very productive band practice.

The Companion piece

[silvershayde]

Bruh going through these photos is so fun, i havent seen alot of these so im just going woahhhh, ooooo, so pretty wth

[hauntingofhouses]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

[123itsbri]

i rest easy knowing our love mixes in my heart