#we'll see if i ever draw this design again

[mumblejar]

this, too, is miku

[fossilizedhysterics]

me when anything i like: ...ok but what if they were cats notes abt the hypothetical au these designs exist in below the cut :3

-still deciding on where exactly darkclans territory and camp will be, either in an alleyway or in a dilapidated house/greenhouse... either way theyre very close to thomas's house! -speaking of thomas, he is the owner of the 4 cats that make up lightclan! -they arent reeeally a clan, being made up of kittypets and all, its basically just them roleplaying -this makes darkclan really mad -"erm, why are these KITTYPETS pretending to have the hard life of a WARRIOR" -even though they themselves r basically just rogues and also have a kittypet for their healer. theyre just petty -rattlestar does NOT have 9 lives no matter how much she says she does -also, her warrior name was rattleshade! (probably... this is subject to change if i ever think of a better one) -virgil (warrior name a wip, probably gonna have something to do with storms and spiders), used to be a member of darkclan, before being adopted by thomas -the cloak rattlestar wears used to be virgils :(

-thomas has tried several times to befriend roadkill and rattlestar, to no avail -he is also just very confused as to why it seems that his cats and those strays seem to have a very personal beef. he swears he sees them arguing -yes he is still allergic to cats here. its funny

-roadkill has HELLA fleas and ticks -as such, he must sleep on the couch (in a seperate nest from rattle) 😔 one like equals one flea and tick medication for roadkill

[good-beans]

(Milgram self-insert oc masterpost hehe)

Name: For the sake of posting online I’ll call her Rose!

Color: #E7355B [the pink in the art]

Age: I guess she’d be 20 given when Milgram started huh.

Status: Milgram Staff, Machine Technician

Symbols/imagery: ballet/musical theater, science experiments

Song genre: very similar to Mahiru's, something upbeat and extra pop-y

Tentatively she's number 011? She's not really prisoner but she's also not free to come and go, so I'm not actually sure if she'd get a number (Edit: I've decided she'll actually be 012. Staff is given the 01X range, and even though Es doesn't actively have a number they'd be staff member 011, making her 012.)

Story: Since the project is supposed to be realistic/present day, the mv machine would be brand new and unpredictable tech, so they’d want someone keeping up on maintenance and making sure the brain-invasive process won’t cause any harm to the prisoners. Rose was studying abroad in Japan working on some cool neuroscience tech (irl I know nothing about technology or brains but shh) and she stumbled upon some secret tech/plans from Milgram. Long story short, she was dragged into the experiment to make sure things ran smoothly.

Writer's Reasoning: She’s really fun for me to play around with, as she allows me to work with a character who has a tiny bit of pull over Es’ mindset in conversation but not the final decision (aka mirroring the voting system), and someone who is simultaneously trapped in the prison but has a reason to see all the canon content.* I really enjoy the character interactions and dynamics Milgram has set up so far, so it’s been super fun seeing how things change for better and worse when someone not quite aligned with either Milgram/the prisoners is thrown into the mix!

*As much as I love dramatic irony in fiction, it would drive me crazy if I knew every detail of of the vds/mvs but Rose didn't – and every single Milgram character is The Worst Communicator Ever so I couldn’t justify that she’d hear it secondhand from them...

Story roles:

She’s a bit conflicted -- she’s officially Milgram staff and knows she should remain neutral on the prisoners, since she won’t be allowed to interfere with the process/executions. At the same time, her job description is literally “make sure the machine doesn't hurt them and everyone's safe :)” and she's way too emotional to avoid getting hopelessly attached to everyone 😅

I really enjoy the theory that the machine extracts videos based off of priming, so one of Rose’s duties involves listening in on the interrogation and making sure there’s been enough material discussed/not too much time has passed overall (hence the ringing of the bell happening at different lengths for each vd -- That's her ringing it :3). She then watches the mvs along with Es to make sure there are no machine glitches, and know how to calibrate it better for next time.

(IEdit: I've since decided to add in official trial mvs, but before when I wasn't ready to tackle that:) She has to run some tests on the machine to make sure things are calibrated correctly, so she'd extract little things here and there. It gives me the opportunity to think up lyric snippets and recurring symbols for her without worrying about full encompassing music videos.

I'm not afraid to admit she can fall into Mary Sue territory every so often by being everyone's friend, because it's less about "aw everyone likes her" and more about "canon is too painful rn and I need a fix-it tool to take care of these guys and give them hugs and tell them someone forgives them and cares about them and unfortunately these characters wouldn't let anyone less than a friend do that." Rest assured she's definitely not perfect and will fuck everything up on occasion :3

Miscellaneous: Whenever I play around with normal au ideas she's still working on the machine (but in a public, more ethical setting), and she's Mahiru's roommate :) Her character isn't super focused on love, but if I had to pick a cover song it'd be Stickybug II. It's very much my vibe, the lyrics fit well enough (better than most songs, at least lol) and it's one of my favorites out of my limited knowledge of unchosen Deco songs! (Edit, I've actually given her non-deco cover songs hehe)

So yeah, I hope she's not too boring without a cool crime to decipher, but I wanted to share since I was really proud of her! It took a bit of tinkering to find a way to fit her into a perfect secret-third-thing role that runs very smoothly with all of canon, so I was very excited!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

omgg lol [guy who won't stop going "more like scapeGOATED" voice] now hold! on!! lmao [same guy just saw encanto voice] Hold on!!!

[scootatwoni]

im so tired lol goodnight

[bryantobikomi]

SMILING CRITTER DOODLES BEFORE THE YEAR ENDS

Ever since I started my Smiling Critter fixation back in February, I've been wanting to draw every single critter, starting with Bobby Bearhug (my personal favorite at the time). I would draw at least 6 unique doodles of each critter and getting feedback from friends on which critter to draw next. It was a fun journey, but also an enriching one. Admittedly, each critters design changed with time, spanning months until I would pick up on them again. Despite that, I'd manage to finish each and every one of them! Looking back at my first time drawing the critters, I can see what design philosophies worked and didn't worked, which is the end result here. I also want to take this time to thank you all who have enjoyed my Critters artwork. My fixation has waned and I'd like to go back to what I enjoy most... however, I still have some ideas I'd like to try out with these characters, so I'm not done yet! Not sure what I'll do next, but we'll soon found out. :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

[hazele-omega]

(clears throat)

(brushes dust off suit)

"May I present to you..." (lights dramatically dim as I place my hand on the drape concealing the display next to me)

(lights brighten) (audience gasps dramatically as I whisk the drape away to reveal...)

"V1 ULTRAKILL REAL!!!!!"

(TUMBLR. NO. WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE QUALITY. click for full resolution please)

ahem. Anyways. I have not drawn anything beyond a doodle in quite a long while, but I've been wanting to draw a colour image of V1 because even though I haven't played ultrakill yet (no spoilers please) I absolutely Adore its design and it's really great for practicing more dynamic poses. There are definitely things I dislike about this one but ultimately I'm pretty proud of how it came out. No idea whether this means I'll be drawing more frequently again now, but we'll have to wait and see how life goes. For now though please enjoy the robot ever

[isabellamagic]

Diana and 47 things I commissioned part 3, aka my favorite batch

Let's kick it off with the thing that actually started this entire "isa throws money into the fire for hitman commissions" journey

Airport chibis

I wanted a custom fourana figure so I made the drawing above for the clay artist to follow (I had more refs but this was the main part)

For the figure, I love the hair shading, it's super cool, the way the artist matched my chair design 1:1 was pretty neat, and the tiny bag next to Diana was so carefully made, it's impressive

One thing to note is that I wasn't given any updates during the figure making progress, so I'm a little bummed about it. The expression didn't 100% match my idea, and the way they sit wasn't really natural lol. I had to do some adjustments after I received the figures (paint smears, cracks, leaning issues), so I wish they had allowed me to give feedback during the process

This was the first thing I commissioned, while it took a while to be finished (sep 2023-july 2024), I do like how they turned out, quirks and all

Bonus agent burnwood and miss 47, and also my nails I guess

Tiny posable dolls

Once again, my drawing was used as a reference. These cost so much for such a tiny size that I would probably never do it again lmao ($150!!!!!!)

I do have nendoroid dolls in mind for the future though, but they will require more time since I have to source many parts like faceplates, hair sculpts, outfits, shoes ect

Despite the insane price, these are indeed very cute, and I'm glad my design was just slapped onto their faces, they look like my drawings have come to life and that's super cool

Last but not least,

Papercut drawing based on @/inuitaiyo's fanart:

+ desk setup, I finally found clothes for the plushies

I saw SUN's fanart years ago and it's been lingering in my mind ever since, so when I found an artist that can do papercut drawings, my mind immediately went to that artwork. It's my favorite 47 diana fanart, it's so subtle and amazing, and SUN's gorgeous style was the cherry on top. I'm glad that the artist I worked with managed to capture what I love about the original artwork

I had total control over the entire process of this comm, so I added a neat little detail: If you look under Diana's hair, you can kinda see her eyes looking down at 47's lips ehehehe. I made sure that was gonna happen no matter what lol. I'm so happy it worked so well

That's all for now. Next time should hopefully be me finally getting custom fourana nendoroid dolls + a 1/6 scale mendoza diana doll. We'll see, money is a limited resource after all

One more link to SUN's art to end this because I think it deserves so much more love

[inanimateinsanityrsau]

Ahem… Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3!!

Ok- there we go!

HELLO INTERNET! It’s Fan here- though I mean I’m sure you’ve heard of someone as- uh, as cool as me with being on the ever popular show Inanimate Insanity!

I’m here to talk to YOU guys!! It’s like, yknow, a fun little chatting place for me down in my hideout! And, well, I mean I’m sure you could ask my fellow contestants also!

I’ll catch up with you all later! But please go ahead and send any and all asks you’d like! It’s like my own special interview..!

Ok, ok, ok, bye now. Where’s the off button on this thi-

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

//Hello!! Mod Whippy Creamy here coming at you with a hit new askblog!!

I’ve had this AU idea in my head for a while, but I’m just now finally doing something with it.

It is a pretty standard roleswap AU, but just to clarify some things:

This is NOT a personality swap. Characters may differ in their personalities, but any changes to personality are done only so the character can plausibly fit the “role” they’ve been swapped into.

Only the contestants have swapped roles! Outside characters like Cobs and Meeple products such as Mephone4 and Mepad have also not changed roles.

[UPDATE: ASKS TEMPORARILY CLOSED!!] Currently, every season 1-2 contestant is open to asks! Roleswap list here

Mod information and Tagging key below the cut:

MOD WHIPPY CREAMY:

“Heya! Mod Whippy Creamy here. Once again. I’m the creator of this AU, but I have enlisted the help of my very talented friends to make this silly little askblog become a reality! I use any pronouns!!

I will do my best to include little doodles in every ask that I possibly can, at the least. If you’d like to check out my main blog, go look at @aricatastrophe! Have fun, and enjoy the ride ;)”

MOD SKETCHPAD:

“HIIIII ^_^ im mod sketchpad and youll NEVER KNOW WHO I AM HAHAHAHAHHAHAH anyway i use it/any pronounce and im here to vibe . ill probably be drawing a bit for funsies but we'll see ^_^ . peace out (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)"

MOD TELESCOPE:

“HEYY IT’S ME MOD TELESCOPE!! Any/all pronouns are good for me, ill include doodles whenever i can and more high quality art for important stuff :D my main blog’s @gillionspookstrider and i shall see you on the flipside!”

MOD JOURNAL:

“hiii!!! i'm mod journal. it/it's pronouns. i'm mostly just here to have fun!! my posts will all be text posts since i cannot draw at all LMAO !!! i'm so good at introducing myself”

MOD COMPASS:

"Hi there! I'm mod Compass and I use it/its and they/them pronouns! Not much to say about me except that I am here for fun and I will absolutely draw as many of my responses as time will allow >:D"

TAGS:

#iirs - general AU tag!

#iirs fanart - FANART TAG?! if you make fanart PLEASE tag us thatd be so so cool

#mod[name] - designating which mod made the post!

#ooc - For posts not talking in character

[nguyenfinity]

Long post incoming 'cause I really enjoyed making this but timeline project!! Parameters were to show a timeline using pop culture references so I did the life of a neutron star with Madoka Magica (specifically Homura's arc during the main series)!!

For some meta/symbolic/design purposes I inlaid it in a clock :]

This is a 16-inch clock btw, the design itself is like 14 inches-- Stages Nebula: Inception of a star; the gravitational collapse of dust clouds forms its base. Akemi-san's been in the hospital for some time due to a heart condition. She hasn't been to school in quite a while, so I'm sure she'll run into a lot of difficulties. Make sure you all help her out, okay?

Protostar: The protostar spinds rapidly, causing further collapse of the nebula. The star keeps spinning, trying to reach equilibrium between its internal forces and gravity. I-I'm A-Akemi H-Homura... I, uh... I-It's nice to meet all of you. T-Tauri: Energy comes from gravitational forces since the temperature is too low for nuclear fusion. The star enters the main part of its life when it can finally start nuclear fusion and achieves equilibrium. Hey, don't be so nervous. We're classmates, after all. Main Sequence: 90% of the star's life; fusion continuously occurs until hydrogen is depleted, initiating the death of the star. Homura-chan, I'm really glad we became friends. Red Supergiant: The star swells up to a massive size; nuclear fusion can still occur until the star forms an iron core. We can do this together. We'll beat the Walpurgisnacht, just the two of us.

Supernova: As soon as an iron core forms, the star instantly collapses in on itself from the sheer force of gravity. THIS time, instead of her protecting me, I want to become strong enough to protect her!

Research/more design notes below the cut

There were so many directions to take (as you can see, like lifespan of a star would also be very viable for Rinne) but pmmm is so near and dear to my heart that it would've felt criminal not to do it and especially for like. A golden idea, like I think I hit conceptual gold--

It was so hard picking a singular route 'cause there's so many ways a star's life plays out and so many fitting storylines (Godoka for a neutron star, Akumura for black hole, magical girls in general etc) but I also had to take the physical presentation into account 'cause we were allowed to do that however, and Homura's main story arc fit really well because of the time loop and how clocks are. Yeah (and also the symbolic meaning of it being a clock)

There's more symbolism in the specific route I chose being a neutron star because those are the densest object ever, like how Homura repeating that month over and over again kept converging fate onto Madoka worse and worse--

i literally had a presentation with this and I couldn't think of what to say and if i recall anything i'll add it in the replies but MAN this project was so so fun (not the illustration part. i hit major artblock when trying to figure out how to draw it.)

[fourraccoonsinacoat]

The beautiful subtleties of the Astarion scar scene, and why this is that headcannon scene where Tavurge draws Astarion.

***Trigger Warning for discussions of body autonomy and sexual trauma.

And we're back for yet another midnight dissertation where I over analyze the F out of a video game character romance, because I can't stop thinking about how amazing the storytelling is. I need help.

So we all love that Astarion romance headcannon where Tavurge draws/paints/does-something-to-show-Astarion-his-face. It's a beautiful headcannon and I adore it. But, allow me to convince you that Larian did, in fact, give us this scene. And it's the scene where Tavurge draws Astarion's scars.

Jump in the car, here we go:

The song playing in the background of this scene is "I Want to Live." I think that's a very deliberate choice, as that song is very tied to Astarion. So much so, that you can stand on a rock behind his tent and suddenly the full song starts to play, lyrics included. Music reminding us of the one thing Astarion wants more than anything else?

Astarion wants the freedom to live a life he chooses, he wants his choices to matter. He's been living 200+ years, but can't remember ever feeling alive until now. He is so deathly afraid of what he has being ripped away now that he's had a taste.

Because every other time he ever felt hope, Cazador tore it away and punished him. Cazador has caught him before when he ran, and locked him in a tomb to starve in darkness for a year. There's a reason the game makes it clear that this is his worst memory. It has to constantly be haunting him, fearful that at any moment Cazador is going to rip this away, too.

So, Astarion sleeps with Tavurge and is suddenly told that the design Cazador drew on his back is written in Infernal. Infernal being the language devils use to write Infernal Contracts. Astarion has to be out of his mind with fear that whatever is on his back binds him to Cazador in some way. Maybe in a way he doesn't know about.

I need to say something about body autonomy trauma, so trigger warning for those who struggle with these subjects. Sexual and body autonomy trauma both play into why this scene is powerful. I struggle with both and there's a reason his story hits particularly hard with me.

****Trigger For Description Of Emotional Response to Trauma: Having control of your body taken away leaves you with a type of deep, primal fear that is very difficult to explain. It's ridiculous and cliche, but the honest-to-best way to describe it is it, feels like a hole deep in your chest where something used to be. And it was literally wrenched out of inside your body, a place where nobody should be able to go because if your body isn't safe then where the fuck is? So keep that in mind.****

Not only has Astarion not had control of his body, he can't even see it in a reflection. Let that sink in.

To add it all up: he has something written in Infernal on his back that he can't see, but that could mean the one thing he's dreading = being bound to Cazador and having all of this ripped away. Again. And then he'll be punished, doing nothing but thinking about what he only just got a taste of.

This is why the cycle of abuse just crushes hope out of you. Because things hurt so much worse when you're hoping for them to work. At some point you're just hurting yourself by hoping.

He's terrified and he can't even look at his own body to see what someone forcibly mutilated into his skin.

So, Tavurge approaches Astarion from behind, just like in the mirror scene. Except this time, Astarion can't see them approaching.

Tavurge surprises him, in what's already a vulnerable moment, and surprises him from behind. A position of weakness. We'll hit on this more in a moment.

Astarion snaps at Tavurge due to being caught in a vulnerable moment. But, he quickly slides back into his charm and apologizes. Mask back up.

He explains what he was doing and the dialog choices here even throwback to the mirror scene. You can tell him you'll be his mirror in this scene.

He's hesitant about the idea. He's not comfortable with vulnerability, and outright tells Tavurge this isn't their problem. This is an extremely vulnerable thing, especially for someone with body autonomy issues. You're turning your back on someone and asking them to show you what's on your own damn body! What if they lie?

This is a major trust moment for Astarion. If you ask later to talk to others in camp about his scars, he is quick to say no.

He's not ready to trust that much. He just was vulnerable with Tavurge and that took too much out of the vulnerability reserves to push for more. Got to let those reserves build back up by seeing more reasons that show it's okay to be vulnerable.

This man does not want to turn around. He keeps his head down and grimaces, closes his eyes to brace himself. Think about all the triggers he must have about turning his back on people. He wasn't exactly bringing the morally upright back to Cazador. And Cazador, himself, obviously took advantage of his control to force Astarion to turn his back to him. Thus the scars.

Given all of that, he still turns around in an act of consent.

I love that you can just choose to quietly draw. You don't tell him how bad it looks, you don't try to comfort him by saying it's not that bad (which he would likely only hear as patronizing in this moment), and you can choose to not make a joke. I feel that's meaningful.

He turns around and can finally fucking see this thing that's been on his back for over two centuries.

At least he got to see his face, even if he can't remember almost anything about it. At least he can touch his hair, touch his face to get an idea. He can't even do that with the scars.

This means a lot, guys. Tavurge has drawn something that I argue is more meaningful than Astarion's face.

Tavurge has drawn a significant key to his future. The future he wants more than anything.

He needs to figure out what the hell this is before Cazador possibly activates it and Tavurge just made that significantly more possible.

And then, Tavurge has the option to call the two of them "we" for the first time in a way not tied to sex. Telling him "we will figure this out" and not asking for anything in return or giving him a hard time about it - at least not too much. The "shut up and turn around" dialog is one of my favs, and I feel Astarion appreciates the candor.

He's definitely sus when you say "we".

That is the face of sus.

But also...amusedly hopeful?

I like that he calls Tavurge "sweet" here. It makes me think of him calling them "cute" in the spawn ending at the grave with the flower.

I think Astarion really picks up on small things. Things people say and do genuinely, and I think it both amuses and confuses him, and in the beginning (here) still makes him uneasy and suspicious. He even asks it as somewhat of a question. Like, are you really actually this genuine?

I also would like to make an argument to the court that this is a significant moment when Astarion starts to realize he !FEELS! something for Tavurge and it's wigging him out!

They're making him hope again, and that's scary.

So, there. That's my evidence for why this scene is the drawing Astarion scene that we all love in our headcannons.

Tavurge is drawing something of extreme significance here. And I love how incredibly subtle this scene is in not blatantly pointing that out.

It's beautiful writing and that is all, your honor. Midnight dissertation - but also I may be in court - over!

Thank you for reading any of this nonsense.

[dragoncxv360]

So uh, in honor of today's episode, I finally drew Solar lmao 💀 (will make a digital version later)

Kinda messed around with making my own design 'cause I like designing characters and especially outfits (all at once my fav and least fav part of drawing tbh, fav 'cause I love drawing clothes (I wanted to be a fashion designer as a kid actually) but least fav 'cause I gotta cover all the fun anatomy I like spending time on, tho I didn't spend as much time on it this time since I knew it was gonna be covered 😭). Also I like the apron some people (namely @/witchysolfan) draw him in and I've read fics mentioning him wearing an apron so it's canon in my head XD.

Very rough sketches of the VR vs @/ayyy-imma-ninja's design 'cause I wanted to wrap my head around those ones first before attempting my own

Might try to take more colour inspiration from the VR model/more VR accurate thumbnail design? Idk, we'll see. I did legitimately think Meg's design was canon tho lol so when I saw Solar's actual model I was like wait a minute who the fuck is that??? (I never watched any episodes outside of the very first one several years ago till a few days ago, so I mainly just know stuff about the show from people talking about it and the more canon compliant parts of fics, so I've only ever seen fanart of Meg's design lol)

Also I kept drawing his pants after most of the rest of his clothes and it was making me laugh. My brother told me to give him some damn pants please XD

(Also if any tsams fans follow me from this post I just wanna give a heads up that this is my first time drawing anything tsams related and most of my dca art is actually my own aus where Sun and Moon are lovers, so if that's not your thing I would suggest not following me 'cause you'll see a lotta sun x moon art. Also I do personally ship Solar and Moon so if that's not your thing again I would suggest not following 'cause you'll see a lotta solarmoon art reblogged and at least some in the future actually drawn by me)

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

My drawing stylus died yesterday but I got it to work again! Divine Falls Mabel and Dipper will be out tomorrow in all of their glory with creator notes! I'm actually enjoying Mabel's design way more than I thought I would.

Anyways, I feel like I should post Divine Falls lore/plot because... I want to.

In chronological order, not in order of how the show goes.

Ford and Stan, the twin gods of Life and Death respectively, are born to Caryn and Filbrick, married gods of Propecy and whatever I decide Filbrick gets because I literally can't think of something good for him. Ford, as Life, is put on a pedestal. For the first few years of their lives, Stan and Ford (and Shermie, god of conception or some shit, I'm still working on it) have their own wings of the main temples that their parents have. Caryn and Filbrick have one shared temple with a bunch of wings for various things.

College in this AU is replaced by temples, or rather, the status of temples. West Coast Tech is replaced by Ford being offered a large temple so large that a large city will be built around it. Think Athens. And yes, this era is very ancient Greece era because god au. Don't worry, we'll hit modern era.

So Stan wants to travel to spread his blessings. As the God of Death, he doesn't have many, but what he does have are the blessings that go unappreciated. Like granting a peaceful death to people or letting people say final goodbyes. Extending someone's life just long enough that that they can say goodbye to those that matter to them. And he wants to adventure. He wants to spread his blessings silently and see as many things as possible. He wants to do all this with Ford, whose blessings are way more obvious - long and prosperous life, fertility, that sort of thing.

When they're about to set off into the world, a human architect approaches the temple that's run by Caryn and Filbrick offering a huge temple to Ford. Filbrick wants those sweet offerings that mortals make to gods, but Stan doesn't want Ford to take it. Ford is conflicted but promises that if something goes wrong, he'll go with Stan travel the mortal world.

As an accident, Stan accidentally kills the forest where they want to build the temple and the town surrounding it. Stan becomes a pariah because he messed up his brother's chance to have his own temple. Stan goes on the run, pretending to be a mortal and spreading blessings more subtly. He still ends up in jail because people think he's suspicious, but he manages to break out every time.

Meanwhile, Ford is struggling to make his own mark. Because his first temple was ruined so dramatically - rotted trees and cracked stone all the way down - architects see him as a bad omen. He manages to share a temple with Fiddleford for a while, then finally gets his own little temple in a small, newly founded lumber town, where he becomes the main religious figure. People have to make pilgrimages to him, but for the most part, he's free to just exist as a god in a remote mountain town in butt-fuck nowhere, oregon.

One day, he's wandering around disguised as a mortal when there's not many people praying to him as he often does. He finds a cave and senses divine energy and decides, fuck it, he's gonna go in. He finds an inscription on a wall in a language long lost, even to him, and recites it in stuttering words. He's almost disappointed until Bill shows up.

To Ford, Bill feels divine, but weakened. So, naturally, instead of assuming Bill is a fallen Old God (which is the correct answer), he assumes Bill is an archangel for a fallen god - "Maybe even Stanley's archangel? Did he ever have one?" - because archangels are much closer to mortal life than gods are and can be seen in their most powerful form without driving a mortal insane. Basically near-mortal vessels of pure divinity. Bill being a triangle, well, it's odd for an archangel, but Ford's willing to handwave it because divinity does strange things to the mundane and a part of him is latched to the idea that Bill is somehow the mortal hand of Stan (where mortal hand is shorthand for archangel or other mortal vessel of divinity) despite the fact that that makes no sense. Bill uses this to convince Ford that his power, his remaining divinity, can be restored by a certain magical artifact that needs to be remade.

Now, Ford is good with creation and life, but not so much with recreating ancient artifacts with inscriptions from gods and divine entities long dead. So he calls up his old pal Fiddleford, god of Science, to help. Instantly Fiddleford is suspicious of Bill because something feels off. Additionally, Ford was always the one who preferred learning new things about mortal life and ancient artifacts, yet he didn't even bother trying to translate the text? But alas, Fiddleford doesn't know a lot about translating the odd and the strange, so he leaves it at just an odd feeling.

As I'm sure you know if you are a Gravity Falls fan, Fiddleford is right to be suspicious of Bill. In this, Bill's trying to restore his powers and status as an Old God. Part of the way through the reconstruction of the artifact, it goes haywire and Fiddleford receives a fraction of Bill's sealed power, which includes a lot of very not good things, like straight up mass mind control with no cooldown or wind up. It makes him realize that, oh, Bill is an Old God in disguise. He leaves the project and Ford gives up a fraction of his divine influence so Bill can use it to finish the project. He's nearly at the end when Ford takes over again to go grant a blessing. And then he realizes Fiddleford was right.

He calls up Stan, first verifying that he's been tricked and that Stan never had an archangel or other mortal hand due to being an outcast despite the fact that, as Life and Death, Stan and Ford could have mortal hands. When Stan affirms this, Ford calls him over.

Despite being a god, Stan has to manually travel to Gravity Falls, Oregon - his divine influence is weak and many people don't even know that there's a god of Death anymore, let alone worship him. He's stealing offerings from other god's altars just to survive at times - and often gets thrown in jail because he's seen as thieving from the gods when he, himself, is one of them. When he gets to Ford, Ford has descended into paranoia and the town is nervous and anxious due to their town's patron deity not interacting with them anymore. Ford is in his human form, which seals most of his divine influence, when Stan gets to the temple. He's paranoid and isn't even letting people in his temple. Luckily, he has enough offerings to sustain himself, but he's basically starving himself so he and Stan have about the same amount of influence - basically none.

The journals are literally the same except they cover different topics. Basically, Ford gives Stan a book (Journal 1) that covers how best to perform the duties of Life. Journal 2, as held by Gideon, describes how best to use offerings and influence granted by worshippers. Journal 3, once discovered by Dipper, is a record of divine phenomena such as how festivals affect divinity and how the flow of time can sometimes warp strangely (see: The Time Traveler's Pig in canon for why I need to write time travel into the journals). All three have mentions of Bill, and the diagrams and notes for how to recreate the divine artifact.

Ford, instead of getting thrown into the multiverse, has his influence sealed and his power is scattered across the universe as a rogue natural force. He's sentient but he can't interact with anyone, not even as a wisp of influence. His power has been sealed in the same place most of Bill's is, which makes it so he can interact with Bill's well of influence. He spends his time attempting to annihilate Bill's power while sealed, resigned to never being brought back because the artifact is partially crushed, mostly used, and two of his journals have been relocated around the town.

Stan takes over the temple. It starts small, where he just uses some of the stockpiled offerings, one after the other, but eventually, he runs out of influence and needs to reopen the temple. Luckily, if he steals some of Ford's accessories that are the things most vividly depicted in murals of him, he can pass as Ford, the God of Life, pretty easily. He uses the journal to bullshit as many of Ford's powers as possible, but that's rather difficult so he ends up just using any of his powers that he can. Because he has a lot of blessings he can give, it works, and he's able to pass as a somewhat-subpar Life for a few centuries.

Fast forward to probably about the same time Gravity Falls takes place (if not a little earlier). Mabel and Dipper, twin Gods of Earth and Space, live with their parents, the Sun and the Moon, until they're sent away to live with "Stanford, god of Life" in his temple. The idea is that they're learning how to harness their powers best with an experience god on their power level while also using the small town that's very used to the divine and supernatural due to the sheer amount of gods walking among them to learn how to interact with mortals. Dipper finds Journal 3 and uses it to learn a lot of things about divinity and the anomalies.

Something that might be seen as a plot hole: the Earth and Space have existed probably longer than Life of Death. As have a lot of the concepts embodied by children - Pacifica is the god of Change which is one of the oldest concepts ever and Gideon, as the god of Magic, has existed as long as magic has existed. To cover for this, every once in a while a God's essence needs to be returned to the fabric of the universe to merge with other concepts and create new world and religious orders. For example, when Pacifica and Fiddleford (Change and Science, respectively) die, their essences will meld together into Progress. Therefore, Mabel and Dipper were likely part of an entity known as Reality before they died and split into twin gods.

Dipper, as Space, is naturally inclined to keep learning everything about everything - things symbolized by space include mystery, magic, and knowledge, after all, so he's likely to seek out the strange, paranormal and divine.

Mabel, as Earth, is a free spirit who adores creation and finding new, fun mortal pursuits. In general, she's a lot more focused on the mortal side of things than Dipper is - where he wants to learn everything about godhood and their divinity, she wants to enjoy walking among mortals for as long as possible.

When Ford gets brought back, he yells at Stan, revealing he was about to destroy the seat of Bill's power and now they have to go about it the hard way.

Most of the series plays out mostly the same except Weirdmageddon is replaced by Bill regaining his godhood and is defeated by erasing his divine presence with something similar to the memory gun, which has been invented by Fiddleford to prevent his influence from fracturing. There's new logistics behind it which I will. get to. eventually.

So that's basically a broad overview of the plot and I might end up making this into a fic because I have gone feral over this AU. In case you. Couldn't tell.

I might make a separate blog for Divine Falls stuff one of these days because this is a lot, but I'm not sure I will.

[srs-deep-dives]

Minato & Kushina: A "Deep Dive" Analysis (Section A, Part I)

Greetings and welcome to a deep-dive into this masterpiece of a love story, where we will analyze Minato and Kushina as characters and examine their bond on the personal and plot level. We'll have five overlapping sections as follows, considering Minato and Kushina:

A. as each other’s anchors;

B. as drivers in the world narrative;

C. as cogs in the Konoha narrative;

D. as perfect compliments; and

E. as foils/parallels to other characters.

Due to the image-limit per post, I have split each section into smaller, more digestible parts. A link at the end of each part will take you to the masterlist. Now let us commence.

(Spoilers for the manga, anime and occasional spin-off. You've been warned.)

(Section A) Minato and Kushina as each other’s anchors

Let us start with some brief yet profoundly meaningful etymology. "Minato" (ミナト, 港) is the Japanese word for harbor, a safe haven for ships. "Namikaze" (波風) translates wave wind(s) – or wind wave(s) – and "Uzumaki" (渦巻き) whirlpool. Put together semantically, Minato is Kushina’s ‘harbor amid winds and waves;’ the anchorage point that keeps her from drowning in the turmoil of being Kurama’s jinchūriki.

Kushina’s strength meanwhile, as we shall see, is the reason Minato fell in love with her, and she he humbly ascribes as his pillar and constant in all spheres of life:

In this first section we will explore how these anchorages were reached. Seeing the first reveal of their bond traces all the way back to geninhood, let us start at the event pinnacle to Naruto’s question:

(A) I. Kushina as Minato's anchor

Long before he declares it in the oneshot, Naruto Gaiden: The Whorl Within the Spiral, Minato’s attraction to Kushina’s strength is inferred in metaphor. After saving her from the Cloud ninja, he says he noticed her hair right away. This manga chapter, in fact, is named after it: My Ma’s Red Hair.

The anime’s expansion (episode: The Orange Spark) draws a subtle link between Kushina’s hair and strength – which Gaiden goes on, as we’ll shortly see, to stress as directly synonymous. The rescue infers two things about Minato’s feelings. First, his “right away” noticing of Kushina’s hair was because of its beauty. Him noticing the trail is not a singular event; he had been noticing her beautiful hair ever since they’d met at the Academy.

Second is the more subtle inference – that it was Kushina’s hair specifically which drew Minato to her. In symbolic terms, Minato was drawn to her strength:

Minato’s noticing of Kushina’s strength is weaved through her recount of their childhood. We are shown it in the classroom when she catches him laughing as she takes on her bullies. We are shown it again when she spots him in the sakura tree after her scuffle with a genin. Where the rescue reveals this implicit link, however, Mito in Gaiden states the explicit. Assuring Kushina in her fears of hosting Kurama, Mito ascribes their hair to strength:

Every fullblood Uzumaki in the series (bar Ashina) has a different shade of red hair. Nagato’s is darker, like the aged Mito’s, while Karin’s is very light. Kushina’s hair, like Mito’s in her prime, is as “lustrous” as you can get – designating her “particularly powerful chakra” among the rest of her clanfolk.

But Mito is not simply referring to Kushina’s chakra reserves. And we are shown this through the declaration of Minato’s love occuring in a paradox.

Severely wounded when Kushina’s seal breaks (her strength failing), and supporting her by augmenting it (being the strength for the both of them), Minato declares with unwavering resolve that Kushina is “stronger than [him].”

Minato believes, with every ounce of his being, in Kushina’s mental fortitude, and he will risk his life to fight for her, facing Kurama himself. It is in these lines that we find the central theme of the entire series, with both characters serving to embody it:

Kushina has, in her short life, endured a tremendous amount of suffering. She was brought to Konoha to host the most powerful and hateful of all the bijū. She was bullied by her classmates and had no friends, teased and shunned as an outsider. Her clan was massacred. Her home village was destroyed. Kurama tormented her in her sleep. She was under permanent surveillance by faceless guards, to have her every move watched in a barrier circumferencing just a corner of the village.

Her endurance throughout it all, first and foremost, is this “strength” that won Minato’s heart. And this strength plays a monumental – if not the center role – in him becoming Hokage. (We will focus on Hokage in Section B, but this is summed in our starting panel and the anime screen below: “Kushina… you’re the one. It was you that made me the Fourth Hokage.”) If a ninja is “one who endures,” then the Hokage is the ninja who walks in endurance before all the village. How awesome that Minato’s inspirational drive is his number one supporter and other half.

Now it baffles me how many readers/watchers miss just how strong (mentally and physically) Kushina is. So let us elaborate with the starkest display: the night Naruto is born.

She gives birth – not an ordinary birth, note (already an exhausting ordeal). But a long, agonized labor with Kurama wresting to break out of her. Then Kurama is forcibly extracted – an event which thanks to her “particularly powerful chakra” elongates her death, leaving her body in a slow, taxing battle for its draining life. Minato saves her from Kurama’s strike and she tells him to save the village, thinking of everyone else as soon as she learns their baby is safe.

The now-dying Kushina spends the short duration of Kurama’s rampage with her newborn son. She should be resting. She should be healing. She should be in her husband’s arms. Instead, with no alternative for the village’s sake, she is brought with Naruto to the battlefield.

Kushina – on death’s doorstep – pins Kurama with her Adamantine Sealing Chains, projecting a barrier to stop him escaping AND keep the villagers OUT. A jutsu that leaves her coughing up blood as she expends her fading chakra. A barrier so strong that Hiruzen, hailed the “God of Shinobi,” cannot get through it.

While she holds Kurama down (and Hiruzen out), she tells Minato she’ll take Kurama with her – i.e. she will reseal THE ENTIRE Nine Tails back inside herself and drag him with her into death. She has just pushed her baby into the world, had Kurama ripped from her body, and is, with her lifeforce draining away, prepared and able to seal him back.

Kushina keeps Kurama pinned while under the greatest mental anguish a wife and mother could experience: her husband plans to sacrifice himself, leaving their baby an orphan, and make their baby – THEIR NEWBORN BABY – the next JINCHŪRIKI. She argues but accepts Minato’s decision even though it crushes her. Then when Kurama strikes to kill Naruto she also moves in to shield him. Kurama’s claw through her belly, Kushina still keeps him chained, buying Minato the rest of the time he needs to finish the seal.

Her nindo, lived out here, can be summed by her favorite phrase, which according to the databook is: 最後まで諦めない (“Don’t give up until the very end”).

This is the mental fortitude that Minato is talking about. And when he says “stronger than me” you can bet he means that in every definition of the phrase. (Now please don’t misunderstand: I am not at all saying Kushina could best Minato in battle. I am saying that when it comes to sheer endurance and resolve, Minato views her as his stronger half. Never does this take from the other side either – Minato being Kushina’s stronger half. As we’ll discuss particularly in Section D, they are perfect compliments.)

Kushina being Minato’s pillar carries through even after their deaths. When Minato is resurrected with Edo Tensei, he fights at Naruto’s side, facing their odds with the following inner monologue:

Later, again, as Naruto carries out his strategy, we get:

So Kushina is Minato’s inspiration, drive and rock, embodying the theme of endurance. We will return to this theme in terms of Hokageship, but let’s next look at the other side of the coin: Minato as Kushina’s 'harbor' and how his love enables her to overcome Kurama.

Section A, Part II here.

[conputir]

Hey, a commission!... For myself 🤫

Below is actually the same picture, except here's where my tw comes into play (I'm really unsure wether or not it should count for a warning, but I'll add this extra bit for safety (Oh and also a bunch of selfish ramblings, there really is no need to go down there, have a nice day)).

Just popping in to say hi!

Joking aside, I always wanted to draw something like this. It's still too far from being perfect in my eyes and I don't think it will ever be perfect, but that's not important right now. What is important however, is that I can finally get the idea off of my shoulders.

It's me, in the present day! Oh wow! Not a scheduled post with an ancient old art?! (As you can see, nothing changed in the quality--)

I won't go into details, but experiencing tsp had helped my life take a massive turn. Somehow both releases (I'm talking about the original version and ultra deluxe obviously) happened to corelate with exact time of my in-life problems and experiences. And having the game be by my side has been my saving grace throughout the pains of life. I live for and because of tsp and the only thing that I could wish for, is to be better at expressing it.

Anyways, I will forever be grateful for the existence of tsp and a fandom around it. I have never seen this ammount of passion and creativity being spread throughout the every corner of the fandom for a long while. I absolutely adore every iteration of the designs, of the story, of the settings and characters. Things like that really matter, giving characters more time to live, to be remembered and real.

Thank you for your overwhelming support and for simply being here, reading this text for some reason.

We'll meet here again, at the scheduled time, from the past. 💚

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

art by em year in review 2024!

i find myself surprised i drew much at all this year considering the circumstances (completing a bachelor's degree. concerts. international trip. starting a phd. general state of world.) however, for the fifth time i am happy to present my yearly retrospective.

as always, reflections under the cut.

jan: i feel like my weakest pieces always happen in january 😭 this was definitely one of those where concept > execution; some of this feels woefully flat and i wasn't too enthused about how herc looked. oh well. that was literally one of the only things i drew in january

feb: one of the developments that came about this year in my drawing was that of my cartoon/comic style, because i wanted to have a record of all the funny shit that happens in my music life. i've continually been surprised at the reception of it online haha. tita conductor is OUR internet microcelebrity now i guess

mar: ah, the douglas seventh wheels the hercolyn wedding fic i've been saying i'd write for almost two years. well, that actually got written and will go up later this week. but anyway, Hurt That Old Man!

apr: in which some professor of media studies with a slide whistle chose to examine a 160-year-old novel through the lens of an intergenerational relationship, and i took it personally. i was not drawing a lot during this time, so i was naturally falling back on my favorite subjects, namely. herc and linda. so much for branching out this year LMAO

may: a pen test for my graduation gift to tita conductor (finished version here, which she loved so much she couldn't stop talking about it when we next saw each other in september). someone once said to me 'it's weird that you can draw her from memory.' i replied 'looking at her is kind of part of the job description.'

jun: drawing theresa is probably one of the ways through which i measure my art progress, given that out of all the character designs i have (bar one, which i don't share on this blog for Reasons) hers is the one that has stuck around the most persistently. the grey is here to stay‼️

jul: i drew this one while having stomach problems in the philippines 😭 but something about the philippines (and like. being around people of my ethnic background on a daily basis) made me think a lot about my character designs for the soft-shoe-shuffle trio, so i wanted to do something with them a bit

aug: for all i talk about martin i sure never draw him, ever 😂 it's probably not obvious, but i was trying painting an base layer rather than an overlay (which i've been using pretty consistently since last year). in the future, i want to experiment more with coloring: i think i've not been eager to touch that part in my art and that needs to change. also pour one out for what i almost captioned it:

if i got onto a plane and i saw a twink in that mfing pilot seat i'm jumping off 😐🤚🏻‼️

sept: the piece that got the most attention this year i think. i'm not sure how well it came across that douglas is supposed to be ever so slightly horny in this one. oh well. it was funny.

oct: i think it was this piece that made me start to realize that i have kind of developed a problem with making everyone's faces super long. which. i don't really know how that happened. anyway this is really cute still. read the theresa-becomes-a-pilot fic.

nov: omg guys remember when i was obsessed with the theresa-maxi dynamic. well it came back for a blazing second of glory in november. maybe it'll come back to me again for good. we'll see

dec: again, familiar subjects during a tumultuous time. not much of note here, except i have noticed myself getting very lazy with lighting recently. also i wrote a fic about this.

overall: going into the new year, i think the whole 'making everyone's faces look super long' thing needs to be addressed; otherwise, as stated earlier, i really should start experimenting with coloring and base layers and shading and lighting.

thank you everyone! and a happy new year to all!