#when you can just...take a basic shape that worked for you and adapt it

[regressionschool]

PAMPERS PUBLIC SCHOOL REFORM: EDUCATION REIMAGINED OR REGRESSION GONE TOO FAR?

By Emily Dawson, Investigative Reporter

For years, education reform has been a topic of heated debate. Traditional schooling often leaves students overwhelmed by stress, struggling with expectations, and ill-prepared for real life. In response, school districts across the country have begun partnering with Pampers Corporation to introduce a radically new approach to learning—one that eliminates unnecessary pressure, fosters emotional well-being, and removes the burdens of growing up too quickly.

The Pampers Public School Reform Program has now fully replaced traditional education in multiple districts, converting high schools into structured learning environments tailored to a simpler, more guided lifestyle. Students are relieved of responsibilities that once weighed them down, such as complex coursework, college preparation, and even basic hygiene routines. In their place? A nurturing, preschool-style environment where comfort and security come first.

While many officials praise the program’s success, not everyone is celebrating.

"I’m Not a Toddler—Why Are They Treating Me Like One?"

Emma Reynolds, 18, had spent years working toward an honors diploma, with hopes of attending a prestigious university. But when her high school was converted to a Pampers Academy, she found herself pulled into a system she never agreed to.

"It’s not school—it’s a daycare," Emma hisses, gripping the edge of her desk, which is barely big enough to accommodate her.

Around her, the other students seem perfectly content in their new reality. The majority have already transitioned to full-time Pampers, no longer expected to even attempt bathroom breaks. Many sit in their seats with thickly padded bottoms, others waddle freely around the classroom, their sagging diapers peeking out from beneath colorful onesies. Some suckle on pacifiers while listening to their teacher read a picture book aloud, their attention spans seemingly far removed from any concern about essays, exams, or college applications.

Emma isn’t like them. She remembers what school used to be.

"They call me ‘sweetie’ and ‘princess’ and pat my head when I get answers right. They make me sit crisscross-applesauce on the rug during storytime. They don’t teach math, they teach shapes. We have scheduled nap times. And worst of all?" She shifts uncomfortably, her thick pull-ups rustling beneath her skirt. "They won’t even let us use the bathroom like normal people."

Under the Pampers system, students are placed in protective undergarments based on their "developmental needs." For most, that means ultra-absorbent Pampers diapers, ensuring accidents never disrupt classroom learning. Only a handful, like Emma, are still permitted pull-ups, though even that comes with restrictions.

"I told them I don’t need them. I told them I can hold it during class. But guess what?" She clenches her fists. "I couldn’t."

She shakes her head, looking away. "And when you have an accident, they make a big deal about it. They take you to the ‘quiet corner,’ change you, tell you it’s okay, and give you a sticker for ‘trying your best.’ It’s humiliating. But the worst part?" She swallows hard. "The more accidents you have, the more they ‘adjust’ your routine."

At first, Emma was only required to wear pull-ups during class. Now, she’s in them full-time. She doesn’t know what the next "adjustment" will be.

"What happens if they decide I don’t need pull-ups anymore?" she whispers. "What happens if they decide I need…more?"

A Mother’s Concern: “I Don’t Know How Much Longer She’ll Last”

Emma’s mother, Debbie Hall, initially believed the program was an opportunity for her daughter to learn patience and adapt to new challenges. Now, she isn’t so sure.

"She’s been fighting this since day one," Debbie admits, rubbing her temples. "But every time she resists, the school just… doubles down."

At first, Emma refused to use her Pampers-issued pull-ups, insisting she would simply wait until she got home. It didn’t last.

"She told me she’d hold it," Debbie sighs, shaking her head. "She didn’t."

When the school called, Debbie was asked to bring a fresh pull-up and a change of clothes—a moment she describes as one of the most surreal experiences of her life.

"I stood outside the classroom, holding a pack of training pants meant for toddlers, about to hand them to my eighteen-year-old daughter." She exhales sharply. "I don’t know how much longer she’ll last before she stops fighting it."

And that, she fears, is exactly what Pampers wants.

Success Stories: “Happier, Healthier Students”

Despite cases like Emma’s, school officials and many parents insist the program is working. According to Superintendent Laura Whitmore, dropout rates have plummeted, student anxiety is at an all-time low, and behavioral issues are almost nonexistent.

"When we take away the pressures of growing up too fast, we allow students to flourish in a safe, nurturing space," Whitmore explains. "Pampers helps us create a structured learning environment where students can focus on emotional well-being and positive reinforcement.

Studies show that students in the program are better rested, less anxious, and more cooperative. Many enthusiastically embrace their new routine, growing attached to naptime, play-based learning, and the security of their Pampers uniforms.

"Some students come in fighting," Whitmore admits. "But as they settle into the routine, they come to appreciate the comfort and care we provide. And the best part? They never have to worry about making ‘big kid’ mistakes again."

The Future of Education?

With more schools adopting the Pampers model, traditional high school education may soon become a thing of the past. For students like Emma, who still long for independence, the future remains uncertain. But for many others, a world without adult pressures, expectations, or even bathroom breaks is a dream come true.

And as the Pampers program continues to expand, one thing is clear:

For the next generation, growing up may no longer be necessary.

(Sponsored in part by Pampers Corporation. Because learning should be comfortable.)

[paluding]

Taking the 4t2 concept too far. Yup, that's the Sims 4 face converted to The Sims 2, in all its blurry glory. Well, just a quick and really messy conversion, to be more precise.

Yet another Sims 2 face experiment I tried. Full disclaimer: nope, I will not finish this project. This was just a fun one day experiment I tried, because why not.

I made a ton of mistakes in this process, will definitely learn from that. Speaking of which, did you know you can make Shape Keys (Sims morphs) from rigged meshes in Blender? That's in fact the excuse I took to practice and learn in this little project. Sims 4 faces are rigged with joints, contrary to the Sims 2 faces which are animated with morphs. It was actually way easier than I anticipated.

The reason it looks so blurry is because I figured if (and a big if right here) this project was worth working on, maybe keeping the UV map mostly intact would help when transferring textures from TS4 to TS2. That's why it looks so pixelated. It's the original UV face map squished to fit into the TS2 mapping. I have to say, as uncanny as it looks and, even with the limited amount of morphs I made, I... kinda like it? But yeah honestly this is not worth it at all. It would require replacing all base face meshes, default replace all the Eaxis face templates, remake all the face sliders for these new meshes… All of that, but also for every single age and gender. Basically replace the whole Sims 2 face system! And then you would realize skins, makeup, eyebrows, and any face overlay would need to be adapted as well. So uh… that ain't happening, no thanks. If anything, it'd be better taking the original Sims 2 faces and making a couple changes here and there to improve their geometry. Better eyes, noses, ears, mouth, remove the original eyelashes and make them as optional accessories… As much as I love the iconic low poly Sims 2 faces, I still think there's quite a lot of room for improvement.

Well, that’s all for now! Here you have a couple extra screenshots I took in game, as a reward for reading this random ass post lol.

[chocodile]

Amaranthine Magic System PART I: Remedial Magic For Beginners

This is Part III of a three-part worldbuilding set.

Part I (you are here) - Part II - Part III

Okay so… weird starting point, but do you remember these jerks from middle school math class? Function graphs! (I hated these things so much) The simplest possible function is a basic straight line, but by modifying the function, the graphed line can distort and take on all sorts of new shapes.

Magic is a lot like that.

The best way to describe spellcasting would be “filtering waves of energy”. Imagine a sine wave, oscillating up and down in a simple, predictable pattern. That is magical energy in its default state. It exists as background radiation throughout the whole world and permeates all living things… though some things conduct magic better or worse than others. (Magic has a lot in common with the electromagnetic spectrum in the real world)

What wizards do when they cast magic is that they amplify and tweak this ambient background energy in just the right way to contort it into a new form (lightning, a shockwave, fire, etc). The core nature of the energy doesn’t really change, but by exaggerating, filtering, and suppressing that oscillating wave in just the right amounts, in just the right places, in just the right order, it can be transformed into something very different than its base form. You could also think of it a bit like a musician playing a wind instrument, modulating the tone by covering and uncovering holes, or a puppetmaster pulling strings of a marionette—you need to deeply understand the physics at play and give each string just the right amount of slack and pull to make it do what you want.

The most common type of magical energy is magic in a neutral, passive state, just sort of existing passively as background radiation. Like the electromagnetic spectrum and gravity, it is deeply intertwined with how life evolved in this world, but also is so innate as to be largely unnoticeable. It is energy without a physical form. However, it can be harnessed and stored, given the right conduit. Under these circumstances it behaves similar to electricity.

Certain types of physical material are better at holding and manipulating magic than others. Substances that hold or amplify magic work because something about their physical molecular structure bends and filters the magic “waves” in a way that “traps” that energy inside of them, or amplifies the frequency of the waves. Nearly all crystalline structures and precious gems have some sort of magic-amplifying capability, with the best ones being highly prized and fetching crazy prices for large, pure specimens. Skilled Old Kingdom wizards could engineer such gemstones into Catalyst Stones, a special type of battery/amplifier that wizards could use to cast spells beyond their normal limits. Gemstones and crystals have been traditionally associated with wizards for this reason. However, they are far from the only material with a magical affinity—just one of the most easily recognizable.

…Additionally, other materials might have the opposite effect. Iron is well-known for its wizard-subduing properties. Simply being in a room with a large piece of iron makes a wizard feel ill and weakens their powers. Iron manacles and chains are commonly used to imprison criminal wizards. Not only do they aggressively drain magic from the air, matter, and flesh around them, they prevent the hand gestures that might allow a weakened mage to do any magical manipulation at all.

Magical energy is distributed throughout the world unevenly. Occasionally, the concentration of magic in an area is so high that the environment itself becomes effectively enchanted. A certain range of mountains might be rich in magical ores that have a subtle effect on how water in the region behaves, causing strangely shaped caves and ridges to form in the region. A woodland might be home to a large number of mushrooms that have adapted to make use of magic as a defense mechanism, causing the glen to disorient travelers who walk through it. Magic is infamous for distorting compass readings, too, forcing travelers to carry protective charms to keep their tools usable.

There are all sorts of weird subtle little things like that that can be caused by high concentrations of magic, and magically concentrated areas often have very unique biodiversity that evolved to make use of that specific environment. Discovering, exploring, studying, and documenting these regions is of great interest to many magical scholars (as well as the state interests sometimes backing them, of course).

Magic can do a lot of weird stuff in Amaranthine, but it isn’t as open-ended as most other types of fantasy magic. Things like turning oneself into a dragon are no more possible than they are in real life (unfortunately for some who may wish otherwise). You can get pretty creative with it, and there are surely techniques yet undiscovered that even Hyden doesn’t know about, but no matter how fancy your spellcasting gets, it’ll always just be “manipulating waves of energy”.

[djuvlipen]

i'm so shook on your rick riordan rb whaaaat. i didn't know aaany of this shit. defending arranged marriage is crazy

the rr crit tag is a very interesting rabbit hole to fall into if you have time, here is a masterpost

the thing with rick (i'm calling him by his first name, in true former pjo fan fashion) is that he doesn't do research when it comes to representation. like he doesn't even do the bare minimum. so samirah (the muslim character in Magnus Chase) is pretty religious but she takes her hijab off in front of the thousands of men who live in walhalla because she "considers them as her relatives". this doesn't make sense. another example; he has a native american character in Heroes of Olympus (piper) and she wears a feather in her hair to "reconnect with her heritage". she's literally just wearing a feather in her hair. and another third example; in Magnus Chase (again), there is a deaf character who is constantly described as being super expressionless (in terms of facial expression), and hard-of-hearing readers have constantly explained why this literally made no sense as being expressive is a p important part of sign language (if i remember correctly)

it is lazy representation, and he is only including it because it gives him some clout among the liberal audience. you can tell it's lazy writing and lazy character work because he never really thinks about how being from [insert ethnic group / sexual orientation / religion] might impact a character's life. example 1: hazel (in HoO) is a 13yo african-american girl who was born in 1928. she dies and comes back to life in the 2010s. it is said she faced horrific racial abuse in the 1930s but this somehow had no real psychological impact on her character, she isn't really shown (although it's stated, but once again that's lazy imo) to be struggling adapting to the 2010s, and like. the massive discrepancy between life as an african-american girl in the 30s and the life of an african-american girl in the 2010s isn't even mentioned. not even once. even though many things happened in the USA between the 1920s and the 2010s wrt civil rights for black people

second example; nico was born in the 1930s fascist italy, his mother fled to the US with him at the start of wwii, then he got stuck in a time loop of which he got out in the 2000s/2010s. he is gay. the impact that growing up in 1930s italy (a fascist and v catholic country) had on his relationship with his sexuality isn't ever brought up. like with hazel, it's vaguely stated but this doesn't have any real impact on his character, it didn't really shape him in any way shape or form. that's unrealistic as fuck

(nico and hazel are canonically hitler's half-siblings. rick didn't really think about how this would have impacted their life or their relationship with hades (hades is hitler's dad). but also he backtracked on demigod!hitler and implied he meant hirohito or mussolini instead. who knows. maybe all three are demigods)

third example; lavinia (in Trials of Apollo) is a jewish roman demigoddess. jewish people were systematically discriminated against in the roman empire. but this is never addressed. and if you're wondering how lavinia and samirah factor in their monotheist religion with the fact that ancient gods exist... this is not explored! they don't have a problem with it, it's barely even addressed!

he just writes straight, white characters and then slap an "oppressed" label on their forehead without really thinking about the implications of what he is writing. he doesn't even google the basic stuff. a lot of his characters are walking stereotypes (leo is the one that comes to my mind rn)

his retelling of greek myths brings nothing to the table. he doesn't bring out new, interesting takes on greek mythology (the way the musical Hadestown does for example). but his goal isn't to depict ancient greek culture and mythology as accurately as possible either (we don't hear about ancient greek cultural holidays, about ancient greek sports, about the olympics, about the tragedies, about the philosophy. misogyny, homophobia and slavery in ancient greece aren't ever brought up. and obviously he did not have to bring it up BUT if he had wanted to actually advocate for women and minorities' rights, as he so often says, i think it's a road he could have easily taken if he had given it just a little thought). so instead we are stuck in a weird limbo where we don't learn anything new but we are also NOT being presented with another perspective on what we already know. it's lazy.

and the misogyny. hera is one of the recurring villains of the books; she is portrayed as the literal embodiement of the "bitch wife/evil stepmother" stereotype, and all the aphrodite children are presented as shallow. the one i'm the most pissed off about is artemis. she requires her hunters to be single and kills the ones who break the rule. in Trials of Apollo, it's revealed this rule ALSO applies to lesbian relationships. so you have this elderly lesbian couple who had to flee from the hunters otherwise they would have been killed. lesbians having to flee their community because they might be killed is a very important conversation to be had but the fact it's treated so lightly (it's mentioned a few times, the lesbian couple feels grateful because artemis actually "let them live" and this whole experience didn't really traumatize them in any way) is a pretty flippant way to handle lesbophobia and femicide. the fact that the perpetrator of lesbophobic violence is artemis (and that it's implied that she has killed lesbians in the past!!) is also particularly distasteful. artemis has long been associated with the feminist movement for refusing to partner with men, for running a female-only group of hunters and being the goddess-protector of pregnant women, mothers and women fleeing male violence. this also erases the fact that the biggest perpetrators of sexist and lesbophobic violence are men.

(and don't get me started on reyna's character)

oh, also. in Heroes of Olympus, Amazon (yes, Jeff Bezos' company) turns out to be actually owned by the Amazons, who are portrayed as a group of female supremacists who wear tight leather clothing and whips. they keep men in cages and use them as slaves. yes, this sounds like the plot of a female supremacy fetishist porn movie

also also. the age gaps. hazel is 13 and in a love triangle with frank (16) and leo (15). now i know three years age gap are not that crazy but i do think a 16yo boy and a 13yo girl are at two very different stages of their life (emotionally, physically, sexually) and when i was in high school, my friends and i always gave our male classmates who dated middle school girls side-eyes. anyway, that's hazel. but there's also sadie (from the Kane Chronicles), a 13yo girl who is in a love triangle with walt (16) and anubis (the god) (> 5000yo. he presents as a teenager though). and you know how this ends? that's right. she dates them both. they are a throuple. this doesn't make sense

anyway i don't agree with all the anti-rick criticism, some stuff that ppl criticize about his books make me roll my eyes bc i think they are really not that big of a deal. but these are the things that i do find pretty problematic. i also wouldn't care that much but i find him (and his fans) very hypocritical. he has vocally criticized jkr many times in the past and he is always presenting himself as the representation writer who actually cares about minorities (like, that's his whole pr), but some of the stuff he has written would definitely have gotten jkr a few dozen of thousands of death threats

[newttxt]

hi quip! i really like your one piece comics and i am curious how you do them! i'm not good at comics and want to be better at drawing them! how do you learn how to make comics?

thank you!

uh oh... im afraid u have caught me at the perfect crossroad of "bored at work" and "unrelated task ive been meaning to do but keep putting off."

this is long. i hope you like reading (and grayscale progress pics). and of course!!! disclaimer before we begin that this is just how I, personally draw comics. there is no "right way."

quip's comic-making process!

Switching my typing to make this more legible...

My process can kinda be broken down into 6 steps:

Brainstorming

Thumbnailing

Sketching

Panels & Text

Lines

Tones/Colors

1. Brainstorming

My brain is a leaky sieve on a good day, so I sloppily jot down ideas in my phone notes the moment I have them. This helps me when it's time to draw too, because if I feel art blocked, I can look through old concepts and see what catches my interest.

Otherwise, I love drawing for other people's writing. :) And if worst comes to worst, doing manga/comic page redraws in my style teaches me new things every time.

Once I have my idea, I'll usually make a bulletpoint list of "plot points" or "story beats" I want. Then I plan the comic with this format that I've adapted from a tutorial I read once. I'm going to use my most recent comic (original comic post) as an example.

I start in the third column, writing notes of what I'd want to see in each panel. I also include the dialogue (in this case, I didn't have to write the dialogue! it's from the fanfic linked in the original comic post!). I usually write the whole name like [Luffy:], but at this point I've drawn so much of these guys, just the first letter works.

I like to handwrite these notes to get an idea for how much text I'm putting in a single panel.

After I describe all the panels, I go back and separate them into pages. I can't tell you how to know how many panels to a page. It's whatever works for you. I just kinda know about how big each panel will be, and so I can feel when I'm probably running out of space. (Also. You can change things later. I don't in this example, but I add/drop pages/panels all the time.)

2. Thumbnailing

Thumbnailing—as the name suggests—should be done tiny. Too tiny to accidentally get sucked into details.

This is about marking down blobs where items/characters go, and figuring out the paneling. I'll draw and redraw these a bunch of times too.

This is also the most time-consuming/brain-working part for me. If I were in a zine that did progress percentage, I'd try to finish thumbnailing around the 50% mark (but I'm also a moderately fast artist, so your mileage may vary).

I think the terrible quality makes them charming, actually. I really like how silly they look. :')))

I will add, when you draw your "page" rectangle, make sure it's the same proportions as your actual canvas for the final image. You want an accurate idea of how much space each panel will take up, especially if you have a lot of text.

3. Sketching

This is my most recent change to my usual workflow, and it's saving me a lot of time. I make my thumbnails a bit bigger (each one about half the size of the final canvas), and I sketch these basic body forms right over them.

It just helps give me placement for my actual lines!

I usually draw these in a paleish color so I can lower the opacity and not get distracted by them while lining. The random darker parts are to either help keep two forms separate (like when two characters have their limbs all over) or to better define sections that were too sloppy/poorly proportioned.

I also think this helps my poses stay looser, because I have more dramatic/wriggly shapes that aren't too bogged down by proportions yet.

Sidenote: I CANNOT show this here, but sometimes this is when I take videos. Of myself. I prop my phone camera up and shoot a video of me acting each panel. :/// It looks really dumb, but it also shows me fun body language ideas like hand gestures, expressions, weight distribution, etc. Just pretend you're an overdramatic cartoon character, and try not to worry about your roommates or mother walking in on you doing odd things. (You can also use the video for anatomy reference later, but I usually just capture the vibe and don't try to copy the actual video frame.)

4. Panels & Text

Oh, boy. So, the panels are usually just straight lines (though it's fun to make creative exceptions, like a round panel to mimic looking through a spyglass), but there are some fancy rules that I don't strictly adhere to.

I believe (I have no technical training in this. Take everything I say with a grain of salt) the vertical gaps (between two side-by-side panels) should all be a consistent width and the horizontal gaps (between two panels on top of each other) should be another. The vertical ones? Should be thinner? Because you want the eye to easily glide between them, whereas the horizontal gaps should be a visual barrier to keep you from jumping ahead. Just something I've vaguely noticed.

There are lots of fun "default layouts" you can look up. Or keep it a consistent grid. I think it's fun to sometimes have characters/objects sticking out of panels and overlapping others. This is just a matter of taste, creativity, and inspiration. (Read Witch Hat Atelier... It has some of my favorite paneling...)

You may also notice I have already done the speech bubbles. This is, to me, a crucial step. This helps me catch early if I don't have enough room for all the words. It also lets me plan the art in each panel with the speech bubbles in mind. There's nothing worse than working really hard on a panel, and then you realize there's no room for the bubbles.

I also try to lay them out in a way that guides the eye! Even without art, can people tell where to go next? Better yet, if I want people to look at panels out of order (aka not left to right, in my case), can I use the speech bubble path to make them? Here's just a vague example of what I mean.

As an added bonus, doing speech bubbles early also allows me to be lazy! :) Ignore the comic; I'm not supposed to post it yet oops,, There's a whole lot of drawing to do on each comic page, and I am not wasting my time on stuff that will be covered up. So yes, if I hide my bubbles, there are a lot of unfinished lines trailing off into nothing. (As a bonus, if there's a part of a character you're struggling with—and it won't look weird to do so—you can move speech bubbles to just hide the problem area yayyy)

Making the actual bubbles could be their own whole tutorial, tbh, but there are some general guidelines I use.

Zoom out when you choose your font size. You want to know how it will look to the average reader, so it isn't super teeny tiny or way too big. You generally want to keep the same text size for all your pages/bubbles.

When I draw bubbles, I try to size them about one vertical letter height (and some change) around the words [left side]. This isn't always the case though, because humorously large or funny shaped text bubbles can convey different feelings [right side].

On Procreate, I set my bubble lines to Reference and just drag-and-drop the white fill on a separate layer below the lines. (Remember to turn Reference back off again when you're done, or your fill bucket won't work right when you're drawing.)

To get the white outlines I use to keep the bubbles from cluttering up the art, I literally just Gaussian blur an all-white copy of the lines + fills... and then I copy and merge it 5 times until it's opaque enough. This is a terrible way to do it, but it works for me. :')

5. Lines

This is the part that I can't tell you how to do. I literally just. Draw right over my wacky sketched body forms. Boom. Comic drawn.

I'll make three suggestions:

Don't focus on making every panel perfect. Give a little extra love to big ones or ones you want people to linger on. Otherwise, know that people are typically speeding through the art. It's way more important to focus on storytelling than art technique. In my opinion, a good story that's told well will always be better than a beautiful one told poorly. (Some comics are beautiful AND well-written... Alas, I am just a hobbyist who needs to get the ideas out of my head at top speed.)

Put your background lines on a different layer. Put your foreground lines on a different layer too, if you have those. Basically, I try to keep the main part of each panel (usually a character or object) on my lines layer so I can erase background/foreground/etc lines to ensure clarity/focus.

You can make background lines lighter colors too. I have too many numbers sorry. (1) Background. The stuff that's farthest away. Lightest lines. Few details; more focused on shapes and the suggestion of a background (I'm not good at backgrounds). (2) Midground. Same distance away as the characters are. Lines can be black. (3) Also midground, and also the same distance away. But they're very detailed, so I lighten them so they aren't so distracting. (4) The characters. Black lines for focus. For people who haven't seen the comic, I swear they are just hugging. This is SFW. D:

6. Tones/Colors

Do not. Do NOT ask me. I don't understand colors. I hate working with them, but I try because I want to improve. I hate doing anything beyond the simplest grayscale shading. Please go elsewhere for your coloring/tone advice. This is how my color picker looks 95% of the time. I have pre-set "percentages" of black that I got by lowering the opacity of a black layer and just color picking it. I don't even know the exact percentages I used. Good luck out there. Be better than me.

7. Sharing

This is a bonus step that I didn't mention earlier, but it's actually the most important of all of them.

You need a friend. Or maybe a groupchat or discord. A family member or coworker if you're really close like that. I don't know.

Find SOMEWHERE you can spam wips and be cheered on. Drawing comics takes a while, especially if you're trying to tell longer stories than I'd dare to attempt. If I don't force someone to praise me for every line I draw, I shrivel up and die.

Also if and when you post online, add alt text. I'll admit I'm the first person to complain and drag my feet on this, and I literally use a screenreader myself when my eyes hurt (strong prescription glasses wearer). Comics should be accessible, because stories are fun and everyone should be able to enjoy them.

***

Learning???

And I guess lastly, how do you learn to make comics? Two steps: 1) read them and 2) make them. This is the tragedy of creating things.

1) Reading them: I grew up reading comic strips, western serialized comics, and webcomics. I've always loved graphic novels too. Then in late middle school, I started reading manga (Death Note and Haikyuu were my first two), and now I'm trying to read more webtoons (sorry im so slow bree)!

I also... mass-consume doujinshi, thanks to proxy mailing services and bilingual friends/Google Translate/knowing some Korean. (I have an entire bookshelf of doujin, actually,,)

The thing is, it's not usually enough to just read comics. You also need to be thinking. :/ I notice paneling, comic devices, clever comedic timing, etc. as I go. It's just a lot of studying/learning while also enjoying the story.

2) Making them: You just have to start. :( Even if you think they're "bad." My first comics were actually just drawings placed randomly all over the page, connected by speech bubbles (yay... I was already practicing how to place bubbles to lead the eye around the page...). I was going to post a pic here, but I'm a coward. Backscroll my account and you can find some older ones though.

I also know my art in general improved dramatically when I did ten comics in ten weeks for my friend's fic. Don't do this. It hurt my hands/wrists. But do practice in moderation.

***

If you actually read all that... I hope it made even a modicum of sense. And maybe it was even helpful? Just know at the end of the day, there is literally no right way to draw a comic.

And if you aren't ready to go for it yet, you can start by just adding a couple speech bubbles to your illustrations or doodles! It's a way to add storytelling and dialogue writing to things you may already be making.

Yay. I love comics. :))))

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

The many faces of one-sidedness

I love Heesu in Class 2. But before I delight you with my own opinion on the series, let me tell you that I haven't read the manhwa and am only referring to the series here and perhaps a little discourse on expectations and the shift in the viewership of bl series will follow. I just know I can't write meta without digress.

During the broadcast of the series, I noticed how divided opinions were. While some were crying after the original source and didn't even want to give the series a chance, on the other hand there was a debate about whether it was a good bl series or not and what it should be. I don't understand why adaptations can't be seen as a medium in their own right. While the manhwa forms the basic framework on which the story is built, the adaptation is perfectly allowed to go its own way and use its own motifs, build its own storylines that fit better with a filmed story. An adaptation is still its own story with its own story being told, because a one-to-one transfer will mostly never work. @bengiyo wrote a fantastic meta about it! And if you want to read why Heesu in Class 2 is a lovely queer kdrama, go and check out @lurkingshan and her breakdown of the whole story. But well, I already digress.

Heesu in Class 2 was such a good story about the different ways and difficulties to have a one-sided crush. Take Heesin, for example. Heesin feels like she falls in love with men every other day and always confesses it immediately. According to her logic, you can only get over a crush if you confess. This makes her life both very simple and very complicated. She contributes to the daily, loving chaos in the Lee family. She suffers and loves with all her heart. And it seems like it's no big deal to confess that you like your crush. She seems like the opposite of Heesu, whose queerness doesn't allow him to love and suffer so carefree. He suffers quietly without confiding in anyone, while Heesin can celebrate her heartbreak without expecting anything but pity.

Heejeong is the responsible one. The one who gives up her dreams and her love because of fear. Sometimes loving means daring. You jump into something uncertain and make yourself vulnerable in front of another person. Heejeong wanted to study overseas with her boyfriend, but she got cold feet and lost out on an uncertain future. Instead, she lives her 9-5 everyday life with her siblings, in which nothing really exciting happens. And it doesn't have to be to lead a fulfilling life. But she is not happy. She is still hanging on to her dream and she should be able to at least try to live it or live the life she has dreamed of.

Fear can be a major obstacle. Heesu gives her the advice to do what she wants to do. As the most responsible character in the household, portrayed as the most grown-up, she has so far taken on the role of the parents and moved further and further away from her dream self. She has kept a part of her personality, of her self and her past a secret from her siblings. In the end, she realised that this is her life, which she can only shape on her own. She is the architect of her own happiness. Her unrequited love is not even so much for her ex-partner, who she still sees and who is still a big part of her life, but rather with her missed self that she has always dreamed of having. She has spoken out and faced her fear. She wants to be happy for her own sake and to do this she has to overcome her fear and find herself.

Heejae. For me, Heejae epitomises what it's like when the boundaries between romantic love and friendship become blurred and you're caught in a world in between. Being in love with your best friend is one thing. But being in a relationship with someone you love as a best friend is something else. Just as friendship can turn into love, love can turn into friendship and the process of realising this is often difficult and lengthy. You have got used to each other. You feel comfortable. You think you have everything. But her partner has noticed how things have shifted, that something is missing at the end. So he breaks up with her. He no longer wants to deal with this unrequited love. That's not enough for him. He wants to be loved. Loving as a friend is a wonderful thing, but for most people it is no substitute for romantic love. And sometimes it's not easy to realise that your feelings have changed, especially when you've been carrying and cherishing them for so long.

If you want to read more about these siblings you can read An Ode to HeeSu's Sisters by the lovely @soypim.

The sisters are representations of parts of Heesu. Heesin is the antithesis of Heesu. As a heterosexual woman, she can make confessions of love without receiving direct backlash. At best, she is remembered fondly and makes the person feel good even if the feelings are not reciprocated. She stands in the same spot as Chanyeong and Jiyu. It's so easy for heterosexuals to show their vulnerability. Heesu can't do that. In a homophobic society, it's not easy to tell someone you like them. It might not be remembered as a nice memory, it might be seen as an attack, an event that has negative connotations. It's so much harder for Heesu to be so open in his world. And the series manages to realise this so incredibly well.

Heejeong on the other hand stands for the missed moments, for the what-ifs, for the fact that sometimes you have to dare to take the next step if you don't want to stay trapped in the black hole of yourself forever. It's interesting that Heesu is the one to give her the advice to decide for herself, for what makes her happy, and that she shows him again that this is possible by taking a step into her own, hopefully happy future. You can decide for yourself and that's good. Heesu can also decide for himself and decide not to step into the black hole, but to pull himself out of the swamp and follow his dream. Everyone has their own black holes. Everyone deals with them differently. But trying to be happy should be possible for everyone. And even if you decide to stay in your 9-5 or, well, in your closet, that is totally fine, too. No one should stop you from doing what you want, but it is always good when there are people who support you and cherish the person you are.

Heejae. Heejae is just one step ahead of Heesu. She had her best friend as a partner and didn't realise that love had changed. She wouldn't and couldn't let go and had to wait for her partner to break up with her to realise what was going on. Heesu is caught in a similar dilemma, in love with his best friend and at some point, no longer able to distinguish between romantic and platonic love because it has always been like that. Sometimes you get lost in your feelings. Sometimes you don't realise the shift. Sometimes you need an outsider or the other person to realise this.

One thing I didn't understand is the resentment Chanyeong got. Yes, he had a lot of screentime. But that was perfectly ok. He was not only part of the side-couple, but also one of the most important people in Heesu's life. His best friend and secret crush for years. And the perfect parallel between his own heterosexual world and the queer reality in which Heesu moves. While Chanyeong had this secret crush on Summer without realising it was Jiyu, he breaks dozens of girls' hearts when they realise that he doesn't reciprocate their feelings. For Chanyeong, it's so natural for someone to confess their feelings to him and always have, and his approach to his relationship with Jiyu is also simple. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. End of story. And while the two move fearlessly together in their world and bring out the best in each other, Heesu stands alone. He has found a relatively safe anchor with Seungwon and is pretty sure that he would accept him, considering the fact that he has two mothers, but he still has to go through everything alone. He doesn't have the freedom that Chanyeong has.

And while some people have certainly been waiting for Heesu to finally confess his feelings to Seungwon, or vice versa, he first must make peace with Chanyeong. Because this friendship is threatening to drift apart. The friendship is one-sided. And they both realise that. To save them, Heesu has to be honest. And Chanyeong is allowed to react the way he did. He is allowed to be overwhelmed. He is allowed to not know how to deal with the fact that his best friend was in love with him for a long time. It's okay to be human. The important thing is that he talks to Heesu in the end and gives them a chance to readjust their status as best friends. Because Heesu is Chanyeong's best friend, and he wants to be that for Heesu too. It hurts when you feel like you're not the safe haven you always thought you were. It is allowed to have feelings. It is allowed to express them and it was bitterly necessary to do so. And it was just as necessary for Heesu to tell him the truth, because only then did the two of them have the chance to redefine their friendship. It was only through this openness that the one-sided friendship could become an equal friendship again.

Heesu. He says himself that Chanyeong and his unrequited love were his black hole. He had to face it in order to free himself from it, to free himself from the attraction of this well known crush. Because only after he's done that can he be free for the new feelings for Seungwon. I thought it was so great to see how these different infatuations manifested themselves in Heesu. With Chanyeong it was so well-rehearsed, so normal, that in the end he couldn't even know what it was like to just be Chanyeong's friend. The feelings blended together and became a daily mask for Heesu, which he knew exactly how to wear. For Seungwon, on the other hand, these feelings are new. He is helplessly at the mercy of his insecurities, the butterflies and all these new feelings.

I enjoyed seeing him like that so much. And I was happy that he was allowed to be angry with Seungwon. I could understand how he felt so well. ‘Was it fun?’ Oh, I felt that! ‘Do you know how much I struggled by myself?’ Heesu thought he had found a safe place with Seungwon where he could be who he is. And then, in the end, he finds himself alone. Heesu is hurt and finally lets it out. The boy who wanted to please everyone and had advice for everyone, who everyone confided in, but who is alone with his problems has had enough. And it bursts out of him. Fortunately, Seungwon finally manages to open his mouth, apologise and clear up the misunderstanding. And in the end, although not everyone is perfectly happy, they are on the way to a happier future. And every single character was important not only to write a good story, but also to portray the characters genuinely and realistically.

I love my bl bubble and I wouldn't want to miss it. I enjoy watching two boys fall in love and kiss in a world of candy floss and rose-coloured glasses. But I don't forget my roots either. And apart from the whole bl bubble, I think it's great to watch a series from time to time in which queer people are embedded in everyday life and you realise how different experiences in everyday life can be. How difficult it is to move as a queer person in a heteronormative world and how difficult it can be to do the seemingly simplest things for others. Heesu in Class 2 is not a bromance, but a realistic portrayal of queer youth in a society where they can be lucky that people think they are only very bromance-coded when they go to school arm in arm. In other societies, even this gesture would be unthinkable. And as beautifully simple as the bl bubble usually is, I think it's good that such soft tones also exist, which can bring life and the beauty of love in all its tones closer to a larger audience and allow a society to grow up that is more value-free, unprejudiced and open. And an adaptation of a well-known and loved story is the perfect try to give this topic a bigger audience.

I've noticed over the last few months that the bl bubble is more interested in explicit scenes than well-told stories. Why bother with a story in which the protagonists don't even kiss? Why settle for such a bromance when you can just watch two good looking guys make out, fuck the plot. And I'm not saying anything against an interlude of honey on the carpet, it has its appeal, but that doesn't mean I deny a show and its character its queerness just because there's no kissing. Sometimes the quiet sounds are the ones that need to be heard. Sometimes it's the quiet tones that have the most impact. Sometimes it's the quiet sounds that make you understand what it's like outside your own bubble and what difficulties there actually are.

If I only consume media on one side of the spectrum, then I only have a limited field of vision of everything around me. And I understand that not every type of story is to everyone's taste, and that's a good thing. Otherwise it would be pretty boring. But every now and then you should take your head out of your bubble and look around the world.  And just because something is not to your liking doesn’t mean it is bad or not well written or not worth to be told.

If you need some inspiration for some queerness in kdramas, @lurkingshan and @twig-tea gave us all a very detailed History of Queer Representation in Modern Kdrama. Thank you for that!

[stxrrgirlz]

Can you please do Stray kids Lee know as your boyfriend

Leeknow x fem!reader

Tysm for the request I literally can’t stop thinking abt it he’s just the best bf omgomg <333😵‍💫

Leeknow might not open up at first when you start dating, but when you do? He’s the cutest!

FLUFF

He will try to visit you as much as possible with his busy schedule, and if he can visit you, he will FaceTime you. He’s the type of guy to fall asleep on the phone with you, and he always falls asleep first, even though he tries to stay up to see you drift off first.

Whenever you two are together, he will want to take you shopping or just out in general to spend time with you. Expect a lot of food when you guys go out; he’d love eating with you.

He’s going to rest his head on your shoulder whenever possible; I definitely feel like he’ll cuddle into your body and wrap his hands around your waist while you sit and scroll on your phone.

He’s not into PDA much, but he will hold hands with you and stay close to you at all times, no matter where you are! He doesn’t care if you're in the changing room trying on clothes; he’s right outside the door!

He goes all out on your birthday and holidays, and he doesn’t expect much in return. You could give him one thoughtful present, and he’s practically overheating you with how tightly he’s hugging you.

He will bring you to the studio some time so you two could talk and hang out while he’s working. Even if he can't talk much when he’s practicing or recording, he’s just happy to have you around.

When he introduces you to the rest of the group? You know you’ve made it. The rest of the group accepts you pretty quickly and thinks your relationship with Leeknow is the cutest. They have considered stalking you two on a date before but decided against it.)

He doesn’t use pet names like “doll” and prefers more basic ones, like baby or even just your name; nicknames are also a regular exchange between you two.

SMUT

This man is the best in bed. Though he might not have much experience before you, he’s a quick learner and is good at adapting to what you like and your likes. He has your body memorized like the back of his hand and knows exactly where your G-spot is.

He’s a decent 6.5 inches, and his girth is lethal. This makes it kind of hard for you to give him a head, but he’s definitely more of a giver than a receiver anyway.

Like I said before, he's more of a giver than a receiver. Your pleasure over his always, and he just loves seeing you moan and writhe under him, and he sucks and licks are your puffy clit.

He will prep you 1000 times just to make sure his girth won't hurt you when he slides in. He starts slow and loves slow and sensual sex, but if you tell him to speed up, he most definitely will obey.

Claw at his back; he DOES like it. He likes the fact that you left your mark on him and also reassures him that hes doing a good job when your hands are holding on tightly to his back, forming crescent shapes with your nails.

He has really good taming but will stop after the first round because he knows how annoying your orgasmas can be, but if you tell him to keep going, he definitely will! Anything to please his sweet gf<3

He’s so good at aftercare and will take care of you so well, running you a warm bubble bath and picking your fucked-out body up gently and washing you before dressing you himself and lying down to cuddle you.

Best boyfriend ever, he does no wrong<333

[wisteria-lodge]

SORTING DISNEY LADIES (1999-2004)

Part 1 - Disney Ladies 1937-1985

Part 2 - Disney Ladies 1988-1993

Part 3 - Disney Ladies 1995-1998

I’m going in chronological order, and doing both A Squad and B Squad, because I’m interested in tracking how the ideal “disney girl” has changed in the last (almost) 90 years. Right now I’m only looking at the human-shaped heroines of Disney animated theatrical releases. A more detailed break-down of the system I’m using is right here, but the basics are these: 

PRIMARY (ie MOTIVE) 

BADGER ~ Loyal to the group.

SNAKE ~ Loyal to yourself and your Important People.

LION ~ Subconscious Idealist. Ideals are linked to feelings and instincts. 

BIRD ~ Conscious Idealist. Ideals are linked to built systems and external facts. 

SECONDARY (ie METHOD) 

BADGER ~ Connect with the group. Make allies, work steadily and well. Be whatever the situation calls for. If you find a locked door, knock.

SNAKE ~ Connect with the environment. Notice things. Tell people what they want to hear. If you find a locked door, get in through the window.

BIRD ~ Collect skills, tools, knowledge, personas, useful friends. If you find a locked door, track down the key or learn to pick the lock.

LION ~ Be honest, be direct, speak your truth. Either the obstacle is going down or you are. If you find a locked door, kick it in.

JANE PORTER (1999)

(& Tarzan, Kerchack)

Disney’s Tarzan is a ridiculously Snake primary movie. Like,  just to make this really, really clear, the first thing we see - the absolute cold open, is - 

Burning ship! Storm! Fire! Tarzan’s parents get into a lifeboat! He looks at her. She looks at him. Phil Collins --

PUT YOUR FAITH IN WHAT YOU MOST BELEEEIVE IN!!!!!!

We get it. You can lose literally everything, but if you’ve still got your Person, you’re going to be OK. 

And this movie’s ethos is definitely Snake, not Loyalist. Badger primaries do not get a flattering edit. The antagonist for the first half is Tarzan’s adoptive father Kerchack, who is deeply protective of his band of gorillas (all girls, by the way. He's the only guy. Which is how gorillas work, and the film doesn’t exactly bring attention to it, but still. Interesting detail.) He’s a loud Badger primary: the only thing that matters is keeping his family out of danger, and from his perspective Tarzan is a problem from day one. He is too obviously an outsider, not a true member of the community, and Kerchack makes it clear that Tarzan is not his son. “You can’t learn to be one of us," he says.

The antagonist for the second half of the film (it’s a weirdly structured film) is the Jaguar/Clayton. They are 100% the same entity. Clayton shows up immediately after the Jaguar dies, and shows up wearing the exact same color palette. There is a recurring misunderstanding where Tarzan refers to the sound of a gunshot as “Clayton.” This is not supposed to be a person, this is violence personified.

Clayton is also our visual representation of The British Empire/Colonialism, with his spats and his khakis and little pencil mustache, and Brian Blessed doing his voice. He is there to grab the resources (gorillas) and take them back to England. So… that means we’ve got some more Toxic Badger going on here too.

In this film, the Badger primary idea of “community” is framed as stifling, artificial, at odds with nature. Clayton, Jane, and Jane’s father show up in the jungle dressed all wrong, and while the sympathetic Porters gradually shed layers, Clayton’s character design never changes. He does not learn to adapt to the jungle, he is only England™

There’s also the recurring joke of Jane’s “Proper Victorian Lady” persona. It’s very useful for getting Clayton specifically to do things for her… but she also brings it out in moments where it seems false and not terribly appropriate. Like when she’s talking to monkeys, or to Tarzan. The second she realizes that Tarzan can speak English she snaps into “Proper Victorian Lady” instead of following up on the attraction that’s clearly there. She’s holding him at arm's length, and why??? The moment where he comes out dressed in European clothing is bittersweet, like Tarzan is hiding or losing part of himself. “Society” is at odds with instinct/freedom/love, and in terms of Primary, that’s the major conflict between Tarzan and Jane.

JANE. Tarzan, you can't imagine what's in store for you. You're going to see the world. Everyone's going to want to meet you. Kings, scientists and famous writers. (...)  TARZAN. And I'll be with Jane.

Jane is talking like a Badger (you’ll be part of the community.) Tarzan is talking like a Snake (I’ll be with you.) And Jane DOES feel like a Badger through most of the movie. She talks a good game. But right at the end - when it really comes down to it - that’s not the call she makes. 

JANE. I belong in England, with you and people and — PROFESSOR PORTER. But you love him. Go on.

At which point Jane joyfully jumps off the boat and swims to shore, implying that her Badger primary was a model, and she was always a Snake primary underneath. 

Jane Porter might model Double Badger extremely well, but she’s actually a double Snake like Megara. She’ll go all Proper Victorian Lady to flatter Clayton, but she’ll also manipulate the baby monkey (“Oh I can’t believe you fell for that one”) before commenting on how its performance isn’t quite up to her standards (“Don’t give me those crocodile tears.”) She’s also something of a Single-Player Environment snake. When she gets comfortable, she starts learning how to use the things in her environment. She’s delighted when she learns she can use her parasol as a weapon. Jane also seems to pick up that Tarzan is a Bird secondary and interacts with him accordingly, which her slideshow of buildings, customs, and art from the mainland.

(Tarzan is definitely a Bird secondary: he's an inventor, he makes weapons, he loves teaching himself things. He’s much more tactical than Kerchak, who - as a 300 pound gorilla - uses his lion secondary to literally charge into fights. Phil Collins tells us all we need to know about Tarzan with the lyrics: “I want to know / Can you show me?” Perfect Snake Bird anthem.)

When we see Jane at the very end of the film she’s entirely improvisational and fluid, down to her absolute bottom layer of clothing, surfing the vines with Tarzan. It’s a gorgeous bit of animation. I definitely get a sense of the joy she feels at being so unconstrained and evenly matched. That's one more thing that makes me think she's a Snake secondary, who ends the film in Neutral.

KIDADIKASH  “KIDA” NEDAKAH (2001)

(& Milo, King Kashekim)

Atlantis is so close to being a good movie. All it needs is a slightly longer runtime, and like… two less characters. (Mole and Cookie. Don’t need them.) Kida gets less screen time compared than some of the the other ladies on this list, but she has enough presence and a cool enough design that she easily earns heroine status. It also helps that she’s basically the plot.

Kida wants to restore the traditions and knowledge her people have lost, and that motivates pretty much everything she does. She finds the history and culture of her ancestors deeply important, comforting and grounding in a very Badger primary sort of way, and laments that “We were once a great people. Now we live in ruins. The kings of our past would weep if they could see how far we have fallen.” She is very much not Jane, who needs to shake off “civilization” in order to live her best life. 

The problem though, is that Kida falls into a very Badger primary trap. When she’s asked to give up everything to protect the group - including her well-being and identity - she does it without a second thought. She gets turned/turns herself into a magic crystal in order to power her civilization while it’s under threat, and I cannot think of a better metaphor of what it means to be an Invisible Badger, who is only the group with no identity outside it.

The ‘Heart of Atlantis’ crystal that “thrives on the collective emotions of all who came before us [and] in return, provides power, longevity, protection” is just a good metaphor for a ‘Badger Primary’ in general. Also, the way that the Atlantean King tries to weaponize it, ultimately destroying his civilization, works as a metaphor for the way a Badger primary can Explode, becoming authoritarian and harmful to the same people it is trying to protect.

Clearly the film itself is not a fan of this decision, as our protagonist Milo loves Kida and does everything he can to un-crystal her. I think it’s implied that his love is one of the main things tethering her to humanity? Still, I would say that this film, unlike Tarzan, has a pretty Badger ethos. King Kashekim is our tragic misguided Snake primary, willing to let his whole civilization crumble so long as he gets to keep his daughter, and our villains seem to be mostly Hedonist Snake treasure hunters, willing to destroy a culture so long as they get paid. The film is definitely critical of certain types of Badger primaries, but ends on a note of collectivism. Milo has finally found a community that values him, and he stays behind to help Kida, now the Atlantean Queen, rebuild her civilization. She’s still a Badger, just one with better boundaries. 

She’s also a Lion secondary. Kida moves in straight lines, speaks her mind, and doesn’t care if you have a problem with that. She does the thing where she’s so honest and blunt it’s almost rude. I suspect that her father is also a Lion secondary - we know that he was reckless and militaristic when he was young, and he seems positive that if Kida even knew about the Heart of Atlantis, she would make the Lion secondary call and dive headfirst into it. Sadly, in the main timeline of the movie the King’s secondary is extremely burned, and he’s basically incapable of any kind of action. 

Milo has an idealistic Lion primary that's a bit Burnt at the start of the film. When we meet him, he’s spent years being told that everything he believes is a joke, and he’s finally starting to doubt himself, scraping by just using his Bird secondary. Like a lot of Burnt Lions, Milo latches onto someone (Kida) for their confidence and their purpose. Luckily, once he unBurns there's a Paragon Lion under there that matches up very well with her Badger.

LILO PELEKAI (2002)

Lilo is an interesting one to sort, because she’s little - and also kinda going through it. Her parents died in a (fairly recent) car crash, and even though they’re not *on screen* and honestly mentioned very little… their absence is felt. Lilo's unofficial family motto is “Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind.” But objectively, Lilo’s parents did her behind, and she spends the entire film trying to reconcile that.

Lilo is very young, dealing with a tragedy, and I also think the interpretation that she’s on the autism spectrum makes a lot of sense. We see her having meltdowns, struggling to transition from one activity/location to another, she clearly wants to make these connections with kids her own age, but it’s just… not working. All of that could absolutely point to a five (six?) year old on the spectrum. So the question becomes - okay, so is Lilo acting this way because that’s her personality, or is she acting this way because of the autism/trauma? That's a question I get a lot, and my answer is… I don’t think the traits this system is interested in are created out of nowhere. But, circumstances can absolutely make them louder or softer. 

Like, Lilo has a number of very strict rules that tip over into magical thinking. She can only eat peanut butter sandwiches because she has to feed part of her sandwich to her fish, and she can’t feed her fish tuna (dead fish) because that’s “an abomination.” It’s very important that she keeps her fish happy because her fish controls the weather. And THAT’S important… because her parents died in a rainstorm. All of this is 100% a coping mechanism: Lilo is trying to create rules in a chaotic world to feel safer. She’s after a sense of control. This also ties into her fascination with 'goodness' versus 'badness:' she’ll say things like “I’ll be good I promise,” worry about being an “abomination,” make charts of Stitch's "badness level" and also voodoo dolls because “my friends need to be punished.”  It’s something she's focused on, and I think it’s because she is aware that… she’s kind of a problem.  

Her older sister Nani loves her… but Nani also loses her patience (she’s 21, 22 at most) and Lilo is aware that she stresses out her sister and makes her life more difficult. But, she has trouble changing her behavior because she's, you know, a traumatized autistic six-year-old. Which is really important when it comes to understanding Lilo’s relationship with Stitch. On one level, she identifies with the way he leaves all this destruction in his wake. He makes her look better by comparison, and I think she also sees a path towards redemption in teaching Stitch to be “good” (ie - useful and less weird.) When she tells him “You wreck everything you touch, why not try to make something” - I think she’s projecting, and really talking about herself. If Lilo is teaching Stitch to be good, then she has a purpose, and a way to affect the world. We know that feeling powerless is a big thing for Lilo. 

So, if I’m putting her in the SHC system, she is definitely an External primary. None of this is about being true to your heart or even being true to another person, this is trying to figure out the rules of the world and putting together a workable system to live with. This focus on morality and punishment is also something I see a lot with young External primaries. While this trait might have been exaggerated by the events of Lilo's life, I do think it’s something that was just in her the whole time. 

At first I thought she was a Badger, because of the way Lilo focuses on the importance of family. Also, her first instinct after she thinks Stitch has betrayed her is to outgroup him: “You’re one of them - get out of here.” But “Ohana means family” seems like it was something her parents said a lot, and ‘Stitch isn’t one of us,’ is something she’s heard from Nani (absolutely a Badger primary.) I think a big reason Lilo values hula dancing is because hula dancing is important to Nani.

So now I’m leaning towards Lilo being a young Bird, trying to cobble together a system for understanding the world under non-ideal circumstances. She’s very comfortable believing fantastical things, and is cool with accepting that Stitch is a weird kind of dog. Like Tarzan and Atlantis, Lilo and Stitch is lightly critical of that Badger ethos: the group is wonderful, yes - but the group will not always be there. The conclusion Lilo (and the film) comes to is: Ohana means family, family means never getting left behind… but sometimes people leave. Either because they want to, or because they have to. What you have to do is remember them. You make them part of yourself. As Lilo puts it, "I’ll remember you, though. I remember everyone that leaves." I think this is such a lovely way of understanding Bird primaries, which unfortunately have a reputation for being cold and detached.

In terms of secondary, I think Lilo is probably a Lion. She’s very direct, very honest, terrible at lying, and unintentionally trails destruction. Nani tries to give her a kind of script to follow when the social worker comes over - but even in the moment she seems to know it’s kind of a lost cause. However, Lilo is also really young and the narrative doesn’t give her the opportunity to solve many problems. So I would not be surprised if Lilo's secondary looks different when she gets older. She is fascinated by Stitch, and Stitch is a shapeshifter-mimic. He’s kind of a cartoon version of a Snake secondary. Maybe that's a clue that Lilo's best self is a Snake Secondary too, but she hasn’t built a bridge to that part yet. Eh, I could see it either way. Definitely an Improvisational secondary though.

NANI PELEKAI (2002)

Nani is a very Burnt Badger primary. There’s this recurring thing with her and her love interest David, where they’re kinda dating, or were dating… either way, Nani can’t quite bring herself to let him into her life. Even though she likes him, he likes her, and he even gets along with Lilo. She spends a lot of the film looking like she’s 100% focused on her little sister in a Snake primary way… but Burnt Badgers look like miserable, stressed-out Snakes, and that is absolutely Nani. She clearly used to have a big community - at one point she even tries to leverage it for a job. But I think she responded to the death of her parents by closing up, refusing to let anyone new close to her. She might lose them too, and that would hurt too much. 

This film is also really good at putting Nani in situations that would be really rough on a Badger primary specifically. Nani clearly feels deeply connected to her Hawaiian culture - she’s an accomplished hula dancer, she loves surfing, and in the most heartbreaking scene of the movie she sings “Aloha Oe” to Lilo, when she thinks child protective services are going to take her away in the morning. This is famously a song written by deposed Hawaiian Queen Lili'uokalani, after she was forced to leave her people. These are all things that Nani pulls on to give her strength. However… she is also working as an honestly quite objectified waitress/hula dancer in a theme park-ified version of Hawaii catering to tourists. She’s not happy there, and it's an important moment when she leaves. 

Even when she’s in really serious trouble, Nani can’t bring herself to tell anyone what’s going on, to get help or even just emotional support - and that's the Burnt Badger talking. When she is absolutely at her wit’s end and has no idea what to do, she grabs David and she grabs Lilo and they all go surfing. It’s that Badger primary need for community, even if there’s no way that community is going to help.

Nani is probably a Bird secondary. She practices when she's nervous and has a lot of skills - but is much more overwhelmed during the wacky finale than Lilo, and definitely needs a second to get it together and figure out the situation. She conceptualizes ‘dealing with Lilo’ as a skill that she has learned and gotten better at: she’ll build little ‘traps’ to catch her younger sister, and can translate things into “Lilo.” I think she may have constructed a bit of an Actor Bird model for dealing with her sister (and another for dealing with her boss.) Lilo will use bits of her system to argue with Nani, and clearly expects this strategy to work.  

LILO. Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind, or forgotten.  NANI. I hate when you use ‘ohana’ against me.

CAPTAIN AMELIA SMOLLET (2002)

If Nani and Kida share a deep connection to their cultural history, Captain Amelia and Kida share this incredibly direct, blunt, borderline rude Lion secondary. Only Amelia's is is less 'cultural misunderstanding' and more just... British.

Captain Amelia absolutely rubs Jim Hawkins and Doctor Doppler the wrong way (an occupational hazard of being a very loud Lion secondary.) But she also comes off as extremely trustworthy, which something you get from the You-Move secondaries (Lion and Badger.) Amelia is a version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Alexander Smollett (just also a cat girl, and in space) and this bit from Treasure Island suits Treasure Planet equally well: “Contrary to all my notions, I believe you have managed to get two honest men on board with you, that man [Captain Smollet] and John Silver.” 

Of course, Captain Amelia wins over Jim and Doppler once they understand that she wants her crew to be equally direct right back at her. She wants all the information, as quickly as possible, so she can make the best decisions. Her eyes light up when Doppler tells her she’s wrong about how supernovas work... because she’s able to use the new knowledge to create a daredevil way to escape the situation. Near the end of the film, Jim comes up with a crazy solution that involves a piece of alien tech. He knows how the tech works, doesn’t have time to explain it. But because they’ve had enough practice being honest with each other, Amelia just does what he says - no questions asked.

This is also why she gets so offended when John Silver tries to flatter her… and Silver’s good at flattering. He charms his crew, he charms Jim. But Amelia tells him to “keep that kind of flim-flammery for your space court floozies” because of course the two captains on opposite sides of the mutiny are foils. Silver makes Jim feel important and special. Captain Amelia tells him point-blank when he’s being an idiot and gives him no special treatment. The nuanced position this film takes is that Jim… kinda needs both. 

In this movie about treasure hunting, Captain Amelia is the only character who doesn’t seem to care about the “Loot of a Thousand Worlds" at all. She is here to do her job, and is deeply skeptical about treasure hunting in general. Her speech at her First Mate’s funeral makes her priorities clear: “Mr. Arrow was a fine spacer. Finer than most of us can ever hope to be. But he knew the risks, as do we all. Resume your posts. We carry on.” Her highest praise is that Arrow did his job well... and part of doing your job well is making peace with the fact that you might not make it out alive. She takes her job, her title, and her ship extremely seriously. 

So, Amelia is definitely an Idealist primary, and her Cause seems to revolve around being the best captain possible and… going on adventures. This is also the case with Doppler, who she ends up with at the end. He frames his treasure hunting trip in very Badger primary language when he’s talking to Jim’s very Badger Primary mom… but in reality he just wants to go on an adventure. 

I could honestly see either Lion or Bird primary for Amelia. But, the fact that she’s ex-military and still in good enough standing to write Jim a recommendation letter makes me lean Bird. (I think a Double Lion Amelia would have burned more bridges.) Also, the rules and organizational system she lives by seem to exist outside of her in a very Commodore Norrington sort of way. It’s not something she feels internally, and this is comforting. Honestly, Amelia gives off very Commodore Norrington energy in general, and he’s a pretty loud Bird primary. 

HELEN "ELASTIGIRL" PARR (2004)

( & Bob/Mr. Incredible, Edna Mode)

Helen’s superpower is ‘flexibility,’ so of course she’s going to be an Improvisational secondary. I'm going with Lion instead of Snake because - like Captain Amelia and Kida - Helen is very comfortable being incredibly direct. She actively sets up confrontations, waits in the dark for Bob after he stays out late with Frozone, then actually gets in a plane to confront him when she thinks he’s having an affair.

Bob Parr is also a Lion secondary, and unlike Helen (who is able to turn down the volume during Dash's parent-teacher conference) he has trouble even softening what he says, phrasing it in a way that’s palatable to the person he’s talking to. That trait gets him in trouble with Buddy/Syndrome, then his boss at the insurance company, and there’s also the implication that the government keeps relocating them because Bob keeps blowing their cover. (This is 100% the case in a cut scene set at a neighborhood barbecue, where Bob appears to cut off a finger and instead breaks the knife.) 

I also think the fact that Helen and Bob are both Lion secondaries is a big part of what makes their relationship function. Lion secondaries seem to really value the opportunity to have arguments and fights… while also knowing the interaction is fundamentally safe, and isn’t going to spill over into the other parts of their life. When Bob gets back late, he and Helen fight in a way that honestly just seems like their way of blowing off steam. They’re both able to turn it off completely when the kids walk into the room. 

Helen also calls herself out for “overreacting” and has to force herself to take a moment to think when she first figures out that Bob is lying, a very Lion secondary moment. She gives Violet the insanely Lion secondary advice that “When the time comes, you’ll know what to do. It’s in your blood.” Edna Mode is also a cartoonishly loud Lion secondary, and I'll bet that shared secondary is a big part of why she adores the Parrs. Also, Helen loves her motorcycles, which at least in fiction is a very Lion-secondary coded mode of transportation.

Helen’s flexibility extends to her primary as well. When we first meet Elastigirl in the “documentary” prologue, she’s completely happy doing the superhero thing while Mr. Incredible is already thinking about settling down. But, in the main timeline of the movie, Helen seems perfectly happy doing the suburbia thing and raising the kids. Then in the sequel, after the Deavors convince her that she can do the most good by being a poster child for non-threatening Supers, she has a fantastic time doing *that.* The fact that she’s able to change her worldview so easily without having a big emotional crisis about it (the way that Bob does) makes me think she’s probably a Bird primary. That difference in primaries seems to be where most of the friction in their relationship comes from. 

Helen actually tells us her philosophy in the sequel: “If laws are unjust there are laws to change them, otherwise it’s chaos” and “World is what it is, we have to adapt.” It’s a bit Badger flavored - work within the system, adapt to the system - but the way she lays it out is Bird. And then she gets a little tipsy and starts debating philosophy with the villain for fun. Which is a very Bird primary activity.

VIOLET PARR (2004)

(& Dash)

Violet feels very at odds with both her family and her world… and since she’s a Badger primary, that’s especially rough. She wants to fit into a community, but there is no community for her. She’s the only member of the family who actively does not want powers: “We act normal, Mom! I want to be normal (...) What do you know about normal? What does anyone in this family know about normal?” We also get the line, “Mom and Dad’s lives might be in danger, or worse - their marriage.” Which is definitely a joke about Violet’s slightly cartoonish Badger primary priorities. 

It makes absolute sense that she’s so hung up on the idea of popular dreamboat Tony, at the center of so much community, since that's exactly what she wants. And because she herself is very not normal, she tries to hide - both with her superpower and with her hair. Violet is the first computer animated character who wears their hair long and loose, and the animators put in the effort because it’s so tied in with her character. As she gets more and more in tune with her family over the course of the film, the way Violet wears her hair changes. Her mom tucks it behind her ear, her dad comments that he likes this new way she’s wearing it better. She eventually pushes it back with a headband because she’s not hiding from them anymore. Violet is happy and effective being a part of the superhero team that is her family. It’s interesting that her powers (invisiblity, creating force-fields around herself) are fantastic support/team-attack powers, but not that useful on their own.

However, one more source of friction between Violet and the rest of the family is that she’s the only non-Lion secondary. Her little brother Dash is a Lion. (He’s probably a Double Lion like his father, they’ve both even got a little of that Glory Hound Lion primary thing.) But Violet’s powers keep her out of sight, she is the opposite of confrontational. It took me a second to recognize her as a Snake secondary, because most fictional Snakes are much more comfortable around people…  but Violet is also in a less-than-ideal situation. Still, she is observant, good at picking up on what’s going on around her, and uses those things to solve problems. It’s her idea to track down Syndrome using the coordinates he’s put in the rocket, and in the sequel she’s the one who figures out how to use Jack Jack like a gun, and successfully turns the out-of-control ship around.

Violet is sneaky, using her abilities to spy on her parents and stow away on her mom's trip. She doesn’t like using her snake secondary at other people - she’s very self-contained - but she is more than happy to direct it out at the world. Violet is also perceptive when it comes to people, and will often just come right out and say things like “Are we going to talk about it… the elephant in the room” or “I think Dad has made some excellent progress today, but I think it’s time we wind down now.” Which can look a little like Lion... but in this case, it's definitely Neutral Snake.

Tl;dr

Jane ~  Snake / Snake, models Badger / Badger

Tarzan ~ Snake / Bird

Kerchack ~ Badger / Lion 

Kida ~ Badger / Lion 

King Kashekim ~ Snake / Burnt Lion 

Milo ~ Burnt Lion / Bird

Lilo ~ Bird / Lion (possibly Bird / Snake) 

Nani ~ Burnt Badger / Bird

Captain Amelia ~ Bird / Lion 

Helen/Elastigirl ~ Bird / Lion

Violet ~ Badger / Snake

Dash ~ Lion / Lion 

Bob/Mr. Incredible ~ Lion / Lion

Edna Mode ~ Bird / Lion 

(art credit to Cursed Concepts for the beautiful pins I have used to illustrate this series.)

[villiun]

Im too lazy to give Harry a proper drawin but i have lore so… (TXM OC, TXM by @blackkatdraws2 @blackkatdraws :D)

So, Mixed Genres, I haven’t touched on that in a bit. So lets seeee,

1. If a Mixed Genres is to get sick, injured, etc, etc, it can be a lot more dangerous than you think. Let’s say Harry gets a cut on his finger and it gets infected, well, if he were to shift into say a 2D, shape guy (I’ll leave that up to imagination cuz I cant put my thought to words but like shapes with no conceivable human form, Harry would most likely use that form to hide) then the infection would spread entirely throughout the area where the finger had been smooshed into. So when he swaps back, half his body could be infected instead of just his finger. This only applies to forms that won’t look human when changed into, so Toon to Grim won’t have any affects on the body but anything abstract can drastically affect the body if the immune system/body is compromised.

2. Crime syndicates will always be on the lookout for stable and unstable Mixed Genres, this forces Mixed Genres to be in constant hiding (adapting to one genre and maintaining their emotions) as to not bring attention to themselves (Hence Harry usually being a toon but he also bends the "rules" A LOT for his stories 😭). However, unstable Mixed Genres will often give up and either be taken by crime syndicates or often they perish in alleyways (usually due to malnourishment, environmental factors, or other means).

3. Fiends will usually pry around alleys for the rare find of a Mixed Genres’s corpse as they are both powerful and could allow them to be in any environment or group of people they wish.

4. Due to the lack of information on Mixed Genres, healthcare is something Mixed Genres will avoid as they will only be treated as the genre they are presenting as (say there’s an illness only Grim genres can get but the Mixed Genre is in a Toon form then they will be treated for the closest Toon illness despite it being the totally incorrect diagnosis).

5. Mixed Genres will be prone to every illness in every genre. The typical vaccinations for said illnesses will also not work as they are only curated to the particular genre that has that illness. Basically, Mixed Genres can only protect themselves from illnesses that have a universal vaccination across all genres.

6. Mixed Genres are also hidden from the government’s eyes, being so rare, many members of the public and government officials deem it as an impossibility, something that could never ever happen.

7. The oldest Mixed Genre alive is Harry Letterman (65 yrs old) (before Harry, was his mentor, who I will touch on her lore later). Mixed Genres have a very poor lifespan, despite their strength and powers, the outside factors affects their longevity so greatly.

8. Being a Mixed Genre is something you are born with (occurrence of 1 in 350,000 births), however, the effects start at any time after 3 months of being born up until they are 20 years of age. The main effect is becoming unstable, it is only with guidance and training does someone go from unstable to stable.

9. Mixed Genres are compatible with all genres, the strength of their abilities won't be affected regardless of the area HOWEVER ☝️ the only way they can use them is if they incorporate the genre they are in currently with whatever abilties they wish to use, essentially they have to be in an unstable form to able to use them.

It also depends if the two or more genres a Mixed Genre wishes to use are compatible with eachother. So say, to use a Toon's ability in a Realistic Genre, Harry may take a Realistic form, and want to use a Toon's stretch, in that instance it wouldn't be optimal as a Realistic forms bones aren't supposed to stretch like a Toon's🧍‍♂️But say, Grim appearance and Toon strength, well that works quite well (I'll be making Harry do that BAHAH). It all depends on the ability and the physical form, as long as the abilties and body are compatible it'll work.

But environment/societal factors also need to be taken into account, will mixing their powers bring them attention in said Genre, most likelyyyy, yes. Yes it will. Therefore endangering themselves even more.

Not to mention the dangers of being in an unstable state itself. A stable Mixed Genre can go unstable but still maintain a normal physical form with the ability to use the mixed up powers but even the smallest amount of emotional instability can cause the body to revert back to a completely unstable form where it causes the Mixed Genre extreme amounts of pain.

Hence why the majority of Mixed Genres will never attempt to use/mix powers outside of the Genre they're currently presenting in.

[specialagentartemis]

I just started trying out stained glass, which I know you also do...any hot tips for beginners or things you wish you'd known when you were first learning?

YOOO STAINED GLASS. Fave. I would love to see what you come up with!

Are you primarily using foil+solder or lead came? I've never actually used came so I have very little advice in that department, though I do want to at some point...

Some things to keep in mind, some imparted to me by my craft center teachers and some discovered by trial and error:

Get a designated box to cut glass over, because the more ambitious the shapes you want to cut, the more shards WILL go everywhere and you want to keep them contained.

If you're cutting glass by hand, you cannot make sharply concave shapes. You will think you can. You will think it can't be that hard. You WILL push your luck. You will end up frustrated. Avoid concave shapes.

If you want to cut concave curves, make them very gently and generously sloped.

If you want to incorporate concave shapes in your design, use multiple pieces of glass to make the curve.

Design with glass in mind from the get-go, rather than trying to adapt a complicated image. If you're designing your own work, try to build it around larger, geometric shapes, without a lot of small fiddly curves. Small fiddly curves DO make fun images, but they will also drive you crazy when they inevitably don't quite fit together right. Make sure you build in enough larger, geometric shapes into your design to anchor your piece and save your sanity.

That said. NGL incorporating things like fossils and marbles and weird shaped natural things is Fun. You can wrap anything you want in copper tape.

Draw or print out your pattern on paper and number each piece on both the pattern and the glass itself. Sharpie wipes off glass pretty easily.

When grinding glass, make sure each piece is ever so slightly smaller than it is on your pattern. The thickness of copper tape seems negligable but adds up when you want pieces to fit precisely.

There are non-lead solders, and they're basically fine, if a little more annoying to use. Lead melts more easily, but I usually use zinc because it's not lead lol. Though if you're not eating off of your stained glass, using lead proooobably isn't a huge deal. Always wash your hands after glasswork regardless.

Tip tinner is your friend! Tin the tip of your soldering iron before and after use, it makes it so much easier.

When you're soldering pieces together, I find laying down a base of thick cardboard, laying out your design on the cardboard, and then using thumbtacks around the edges to anchor the glass pieces in place and prevent them from sliding around helps a lot.

If you want to hang up your stained glass creation like a suncatcher, add loops or hooks, and try to put them at junctures/seams of different pieces of glass to distribute the weight and pressure. My go-to method to make loops for hanging the pieces is to take a metal paperclip, and then loop it around needlenose pliers to make a circle with the wire sticking straight out on either side. Lay the flat wire ends along the outside and solder it down. It makes good secure loops that you can tie a ribbon or attach a chain to, while distributing the pressure along the outside of the piece. And it’s metal so solder sticks to it.

I hope that's not too much! I love working in glass, it's fun and it's so pretty.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

your “sentimonsters vs tropes” post made me realize how sentimonsters don’t work as a metaphor for marginalized people despite what other people say, because even if it was intentional, the show doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the majority of them get killed by the heroes, including Adrien and Felix (who are part of their race). Honestly, it makes me wonder if Miraculous ever did some sort of allegory right at all

(Post in question)

Before we get into it, I wanted to quickly define allegory in case that's a new or forgotten term for anyone as it's hardly common parlance:

An allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

In the linked post, I chastised canon for not using the sentikids to say anything about personhood or self worth. While I stand by that, I will also give canon credit for the fact that sentimonsters as a race are not presented as a clear allegory for anything. The sentimonsters that weren't meant to be equal to humans are just worthless akuma knockoffs created to act as canon fodder. The human-equivalent sentimonsters are basically perfect humans who happen to have remote controls. You are never supposed to think about the implications of that frankly bizarre difference. There is not meant to be a deeper message and that's the right call because, when you look at the setup we just went over, you quickly realize canon didn't set itself up to make the sentimonster race an allegory for anything but eugenics.

While you can argue that canon is eugenics apologia, that is very clearly not intentional. I don't worry about kids walking away thinking eugenics are good because you only get that as a takeaway if you're actively searching for a message in canon's writing. There is no on-screen discussion of which sentimonsters are okay to kill or any other type of blatant allegory for eugenics. If eugenics = good is the intended message, then it's incredibly subtle.

While plot-level* allegory can be subtle, that tends to be rare in family-oriented media as the point of allegory is to convey a message. If no one is picking up on the message, then you've failed to make your point. That's why no one is watching Zootopia or Elemental and walking away asking, "Huh, I wonder what that film was trying to teach kids?"

Miraculous doesn't have anything that stands out as a clear allegory like I'd expect if the intent was to use allegory to teach kids something. I'd normally say that means there was no intentional allegory in the show, but we have straight up insane statements from the writers like this one about the season five final:

In the next scene, we can see Marinette taking the miraculous that have been standardized and industrialized by Gabriel and putting them back in shape. The writers specify that this is a parable about craftsmanship vs industrial production. The miraculous will now be adapted to every person, but we can’t see what they look like just yet! In this new world, the powers are all shared, among people who they trust and know will work for the common good.

Did anyone get this from the show? I certainly didn't. With the writers making statements like this, who even knows what messages they're trying to send. Between this and the reveal that Lila learned about Gabriel by reading Nathalie's lips in the season four final, I've given up trying to figure out what these loons are doing with their wacky storytelling. It's always fascinating to hear them talk about the story they think they've told versus what the average viewer came away thinking. I have never once seen a fan get the Lila thing. Everyone I've seen thought she was just evilly enjoying Nathalie's suffering, but it's pretty clear that the writers are quite proud of this and think it was a great choice! You know what would have been an even better choice? Letting Lila read lips at any point before or even after that scene to establish this is a skill she has. That's basic setup and payoff! Storytelling 101!

*As a quick clarification, when I said "plot-level allegory" that was me trying to find a term to convey the sort of high-level, in-your-face allegory writers use when actively trying to clearly convey a message to the audience. There are lots of works that have no obvious allegory, but actually contain subtle allegory for those who enjoy analysis or a select group that's in the know. Something the author had fun playing with, but doesn't expect the audience to get.

An example of more subtle allegory that comes to mind is The Little Mermaid. There are many valid queer readings of both the original story and the popular Disney film, especially since the book was written by an openly bisexual man after a man he loved got engaged to a woman and one of the movie's producers/major creative influences was an openly gay man. These fact have lead many to argue that the stories were always meant to be about queer acceptance on some level as opposed to the stories simply being ones that can be used to discuss that topic in spite of the author never intending that. (Which doesn't invalidate the value of a reading, btw. As far as I'm concerned, author intentionality only matters in very specific types of discussion. Most of the time, I'm a death-of-the-author girl.)

However, even if the two works are meant to be an allegory for acceptance of "alternate" sexuality, you'd be hard pressed to argue that the allegory is presented in a way that the average viewer is going to get. Everyone gets that Zootopia is all about prejudice being bad. I generally hear Disney's The Little Mermaid described as a silly fairy tale about "a girl giving up everything for a man" even though that's only true for the original story.

[ethereal-feline]

Ok so I've been getting a lot of Invincible in my youtube feed and yo Cecil in MHA would thrive. Not that its necessarily good for everyone else but either through dimension hopping/time travel shenanigans or Cecil born in MHA during time of Quirks, I think he's gonna still be Cecil.

Like, if its through dimension/time travel, he's just gonna adapt like "ok, a dimension/time period where superpowers are a lot more common and even lawfully regulated" and then find the GDA in some fashion and if its GDA wholesale, you can bet Donald Ferguson is still gonna be around. So then they get to work on sending Cecil back no problem, but in the meantime Cecil is gonna Cecil and see if he can bring back any Quirks.

If Cecil is born in MHA, that would be a perfect view into the gritty underbelly of Pro Hero work. Like how Underground Heroes were supposed to be I think? Anyways, his job is more or less the same. Coordinating Pro Heroes and keeping eyes on potential threats. If his backstory remains the same just in MHA, someone like All Might or Izuku would definitely be shocked with his methods.

"But its All Might! He's the Symbol of Peace! He would never harm civilians!" Izuku probably says after finding out he has a micro chip taser in his neck that would stun him at Cecil's discretion.

"He can turn a thunderstorm into a clear sky by snapping his fingers. I'm making sure you don't do the same to someone's skull." Cecil after already getting blood samples to compare All Might and Izuku if he doesn't already know about OfA and AfO and probably thinking of how to fan Endeavor's one sided beef to make sure he's in tip top shape because a focused and locked in Endeavor is now their best shot at AfO with OfA in a first year high school kid, so Cecil is gonna chuck the adult at AfO first before yeeting the kid.

Its not like Cecil doesn't care. He does, really. He just commits atrocities like hiring a mad scientist to create a robot zombie army because he believes its for the greater good. To Cecil, you're either a good person or someone who can save the world, but not both. So I think he's gonna remind Endeavor about his goal to surpass All Might and press the Touya Button if/when Kamino happen because if it ever gets out (Cecil is probably helping investigate the LOV and has a hunch about Dabi) about how Endeavor treats his family he's gonna need a shit ton of PR so keep the moping at home and hop to it soldier, we'll check on the wife and kids for you.

Cecil wouldn't even bat an eye at the previous HPSC president's methods of having Nagant take out corrupt Pros (ok maybe with how close range it seems she's a sniper!) or at how the next one basically buys Hawks like a puppy from the store to train. Cecil would just do some mental math about the budget and nod, reminding himself to keep an eye on the kid because Fierce Wings is real versatile (flight + each feather can be sharpened + can detect subtle air changes to hear conversation + pick up weight up to an adult human) while he monitors on the American Pro Heroes.

I haven't fully caught up yet or read the comic but Cecil seems like he'd be a good foil to Izuku. Does the right thing with the most questionable methods because he tried the "right" way in the past and it doesn't work, and Izuku challenges that. Pro Heroes do not kill for PR reasons but they absolutely can, Cecil is gonna remind Izuku of that, especially about Shigaraki, and Izuku will insist he can both save and stop Tomura/Tenko. And Cecil's response?

"Better be in the budget, kid."

Might go looking for Invincible/MHA fics now lol

[alifeasvivid]

I really like the idea of England thinking of himself as someone who is very nurturing and caring. Taking gender out of the equation, he basically wants to be everyone's mom and he thinks that he's good at it. He's a gardener, a tender of tender things. But the truth is that his presence as a caregiver is much like a desert: mostly absent of any real life-giving quality and when the rains do come, they are too much and wash away anything substantial that had been built in the absence. Perhaps a bloom comes after, but it dies just as quickly.

He is doting rather than nourishing. It's partly born out of the anxiety of wanting so badly to be liked and not lonely. The more difficult work of giving someone what they need or even what they actually asked for can often, though not always, be overshadowed by the gratification he feels in the overt delight they display when given pleasure (of any variety).

Having learned much over his long life, I think he comes to find a shape he fits better: something like a mentor and provider, perhaps a more father-like figure instead of the mum he secretly sort of wishes he was. He's an exceptionally pragmatic person who is willing to self-reflect and adapt in order to achieve his goals, though he most certainly will also do a bunch of mental gymnastics as to why his shortcomings are the fault of circumstances or other people and not his own.

I also think there's a version of Arthur that is more self-centered and selfish than even Alfred is. It's the natural progression of his "Everything I want is mine, even if I have to take it" disposition that if something doesn't currently hold much interest for him, it doesn't really need his care. Even having lived so long, he still sometimes struggles to put the needs of others ahead of his own wants, though he has gotten better with time.

Sometimes, I just want to look England in the eye when he says he is satisfied with needlepoint and gardening and knitting and baking and keeping a good home and caring for his loved ones and say, "Sure, Captain. You keep telling yourself that."

[cy-cyborg]

Hey Cy,

If I have a character with a disability that makes him an ambulatory wheelchair user, with a prosthetic shoulder-left arm, prosthetic above knee amputation on his right leg, and who helps fights monsters in multiple different settings (but who’s usual setting is a city one) what default wheelchair would you suggest?

Before he starts using a wheelchair he uses prosthetics full time which is incredibly taxing on him but he does it bc he has some internalized ableism he works through as the story progresses. Towards the middle-to-end of the story he starts adapting to using a chair more.

I’m having trouble mainly because I don’t know how he would move his wheelchair if he would need both arms to propel it but he only has the one arm. I saw that some wheelchairs have a gear shift-esque handle on them to propel them forward too which might work. I thought of a power chair for him but if I’m working with a high speed city terrain idk if a power chair would work.

One of his magical abilities is that he can mold and shape the terrain and ground to his liking which I thought would help with the terrain issue and bumping/falling over broken pavement but if you have suggestions for that power as it relates to his disability please lmk.

Thanks for reading all this, I appreciate any and all feedback on this. :)

So take this with a grain of salt, since I'm not an arm amputee/don't have any (major) upper-body mobility issues, but there's a few options.

A power chair would probably be my first suggestion. While lower-end power chairs can be pretty slow and clunky, higher end ones can be fast and durable. I've tried a few that were even all-terrain (though that's probably not what your character would need).

Something like an Omeo could be another option. Omeos are very new so they're not super common yet, but they work kind of like a segway, you lean in the direction you want to go instead of pushing your arms, so they're gaining popularly with arm amputees. They require a lot of core strength though (my abs ached for a week after using one for a few hours, but I'm really out of shape), and they can be a bit... touchy? My partner nearly threw me out of the one I tried by putting his hand on my shoulder when I wasn't paying attention, so it could be risky if your character takes a hit. They can also be a bit harder for leg amputees to use, but since your character still has one, they should be fine on that front.

Some people I know have just a regular active chair like this, but get it modified so one side is heavier to offset only being able to push on one side, or get attachments like a smart drive (basically, cruise control for wheelchairs) or Batec Handbikes, which are an attachment that clips onto the front of a manual chair which has motor-bike kind of controls.

I have no idea what her name was, but I once played wheelchair basketball against a woman from Canada with one of her arms entirely paralysed. I don't think her chair had any modifications (they're pretty strictly against that in wheelchair basketball at the higher levels where I met her) but instead she had a very distinct way of pushing to account for only having one functional arm. If anyone knows her name, lmk, she was on the Canadian national women's team so there's probably some footage out there of her which might be useful to look at.

As for powers, be careful with terrain manipulation specifically. It's a pretty common trope to give a character with a disability powers that specifically mitigate their disability and it's impact on their life, which terrain manipulation definitely could. It's not impossible to do it well, but you would be walking a very fine line. If you do decide to stick with terrain manipulation powers, be sure to show that this doesn't "fix" issues of inaccessibility (e.g. technically, he can use his powers to turn stone stairs into a ramp, but doing so in town will almost certainly get him fined or even arrested for destruction of property, so it's still not solving the problem. It also only solves it for him, but other disabled people are still left behind due to a lack of access).

[imagoddamnonionmason]

Jodie “Bell” Hall

Basic Information

Other Name(s):  Nadežda Pugacheva (before brainwashing), Nadya (family and Perseus Operators), Nad (Keith), Jo (Mason, Woods), Bell (callsign), Auntie Dodie (Toddler!David Mason). Later become Jodie Woods, once she and Frank become married in 1984.

Physical Appearance

Eyes: honeyed brown

Hair: auburn brown

Skin: porcelain, cool undertone

Tattoo(s): none

Scar(s): shoulder, chest - gunshot wounds. Other misc. scars. 

Face Claim: Kate Beckinsale

Description: At first glance, Jodie seems to be quite plain, though this is something that she prefers given her line of work. Her hair is just past shoulder-length when she wears it down, but when working it is pulled up into a ponytail/low bun. There are some bangs that frame her forehead and sides of her face, which can be wayward when she attempts to tie them back, so usually leaves them alone. 

Her facial features are sharp, nestled on an oval shaped frame. Occasionally, when a situation calls for it, she will wear minimal makeup - she feels out of place when she does wear it, so often opts out of it. Her ears are pierced with a singular stud, but takes them out when on missions. 

As for what she wears, Jodie will often wear jeans and a plain grey t-shirt when in the safe house or her downtime, accented with a jean jacket, or cardigan if it’s a little cold. She does have a thicker, muted green winter jacket for colder weather. She also wears plain pumps. 

For missions, it’s often a muted green turtleneck, dark jacket and combat trousers, with military boots. She will also wear the appropriate paraphernalia attributed with operators to carry extra clips, lethals and other such equipment. 

Personality

Like(s): coffee, dogs, nighttime, rain, puzzles, cyphers, that people actually trust her, Frank's beard (if he shaves, she fights), intelligent conversation, her daughter (loves her so much)

Dislike(s): dark chocolate, when it’s so hot you can’t breathe, being snuck up on, being spoken about as though she isn't there, people questioning her loyalty or her integrity, being left out of important conversations that involve her, if anyone messes with her daughter, being judged based on her past, not having full recollection of her past

Strength(s): calm, efficient, loyal, fast thinker, keen eye for patterns and details, can be very patient, willing to compromise where needed, adaptable

Weakness(es): can be cold and mistrustful, can be very guarded even against those she trusts, lets past trauma rule her sometimes, even though loyalty is also her strength it can also be her weakness, her calmness can be taken as being cold, detached, even apathetic sometimes, at other times she can be stubborn and her anger can get the better of her. When she sees red, it's red.

Relationships

Parent(s): unnamed Russian mother, Timofey Pugachev (father)

Sibling(s): Radomir Timofeyovich Pugachev aka Timosha (brother)

Friend(s): Sarah and Alex Mason, (after a time) Russell Adler, Aleksandra Adler (@alypink's OC)

Spouse(s): Frank Woods (husband)

Child(ren): Ashley Woods (daughter)

Biography

1949 - Nadežda’s family is captured by the MGB and sent to [redacted], an undisclosed Gulag within rural Russia. Father, a WW2 veteran, was executed at the time of capture. There were rumours that he was critical of the current government and had become belligerent with his negative opinion of his leaders. By extension, his family were heavily scrutinised and kept at the Gulag. Her mother passed away in the labour camp. Initially, Nadežda and her brother, Radomir, were kept there with their mother, until her death, then were sent to a children’s orphanage. 

1953 - Nadežda is approached by an old friend of her father’s, who said to have fought alongside him during WW2. He makes her an offer she can’t refuse and joins his ranks despite her young age. She did this as this old friend promised he could find a suitable family to keep her brother safe and grow up to live in a better Russia. From then, she trained to fight and became an excellent tool for Perseus to use. (He had been too late to ask for her father to join his ranks, but she was the next best thing in his mind.)

1958 - At the age of eighteen, Nadežda was ordered to join the KGB by Perseus, to work alongside comrades and earn their trust, so that he may learn ways to exploit them if the need arose in the future and to seek potential operators to join his ranks. She studied at the Higher Intelligence School in Moscow, where she extended her espionage knowledge.

1960 - [redacted].

1962 - Nadežda is ordered to collect information regarding growing US involvement in Vietnam. Any encoded information regarding US military operations is passed over Nadežda’s desk. Also ordered to decode any Russian intelligence regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

1965 - [redacted].

1968 - encoded intelligence regarding Operation Fracture Jaw is decoded by Nadežda. 

1969 - [redacted].

1976 - Nadežda, alongside other Persues operators, rescues Vikhor “Stitch” Kuzmin.

[Following paragraphs are redacted.]

1979 - Nadežda makes contact with Special Officer, Keith Wells, offering crucial insight into Perseus’ organisation. What causes this change of allegiance is unknown to the CIA. Nadežda is informed by Officer Wells that there is a mole within the CIA and not to trust any other operator other than himself, as they could not risk the information crossing the palms of the wrong person. They come to an agreement that Nadežda would claim no knowledge of him in the face of possible interrogations, if ever that came to happen. 

[Following paragraphs are redacted.]

1981 - January 13, Nadežda accompanied Arash Kadivar to Trabzon airfield, Turkey. Subsequently, Kadivar shoots Nadežda after revealing that he knows of her betrayal. He states that it’s a shame one of Perseus’ top agents turns out to be nothing more than a traitorous dog. CIA operatives, Alex Mason, Frank Woods and Russell Adler assassinate Kadivar, preventing the weapons from leaving the country. Upon sweeping the tarmac for survivors, Adler finds Nadežda still alive with a dossier related to Perseus. 

Following Nadežda’s capture and recovery from her injuries, traditional methods of interrogation did not succeed. She had hoped that, due to her captors being the CIA, word of her capture might reach Officer Wells, as she intended to keep her word and say nothing of their interactions; after expressing, in one interrogation, that the only operator she would speak with was Officer Wells, she is informed that he was presumed KIA and possibly at the hands of a Perseus Operator. Nadežda does not know whether to trust this information, given what Officer Wells had said in the past and so kept her mouth shut out of loyalty to him.

Several weeks later, through psychological torture, neuroactive drugs and hypnosis, Adler, the CIA, alongside MI6 Agent Helen Park, brainwashed her. A connection was formed between Adler and Nadežda by use of fake, implanted memories inspired by Adler’s time in Vietnam with the success of implying a years-long friendship between the two. 

Nadežda was no more and Adler gave her the callsign Bell. 

Alongside this, a whole new persona was fashioned and Bell was an MI6 Agent, Jodie Hall, from London, England, though information of her past never went further than that.  

“We have a job to do.” was the common trigger phrase to keep Bell in check as well as slipping small amounts of neuro-stimulant drugs to Bell to keep their conditioning effective. 

Volkov is captured. 

Bell and Woods uncover a Spetsnaz training ground - encrypted information regarding Operation Greenlight is uncovered. 

KGB headquarters infiltrated with the help of Dimitri Belikov uncovering previously erased names of Sleeper Agents, who Perseus aims to use in their upcoming infiltration of Operation Greenlight. 

Sleeper Agent Theodore Hastings is followed to Cuba, where the mission goes south - Bell saves Park’s life but is unable to save Lazar. 

Adler and the team reveal Bell’s true identity, but she remains loyal to their cause, revealing the location of Perseus and the station which will be used to detonate the nukes aimed on half the world. Though she is confused, betrayed and angry, she understands this choice is the right one and, somewhere deep down, she knows she didn’t need the conditioning to have made it. 

Solovetsky is attacked and the nukes are stopped. 

Bell is MIA for a short while.

She is located shortly after the events of Solovetsky with a bullet in her gut and barely clinging to life by CIA operatives that were sent in to scour the area for any information that may have survived the carnage. She is rushed into care and brought back from the brink of death.

Once healed, a deal is made with the CIA's Director Fia (@lorvdz's OC) that she would offer her services and any information she had on the Perseus faction; in addition, it became her sole purpose to hunt down any remaining Perseus Operators still in action. All of this in exchange for starting a new life in America as her given persona, Jodie Hall.

Divider Credit: me.

[lost-inthedream]

Yuchan from A to Z

Surprise, babes!

One more smut alphabet because it's so necessary

Pairing: Yuchan x female reader

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Aw, boy gets bubbly after the thing. Something about the fact that you made him feel so good works wonders for him. He will be sensitive for a while, kiss your face and repeat how much he loves you a thousand times before dozing off.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Chan loves his abs because that's not really hard for him to be in good shape. He can count his packs easily and he is gonna take off his shirt first thing once your make out session becomes steamy.

On the other hand, he is all about your eyes. The way you look into his eyes hypnotizes him. Also, he loves it when he makes your eyes roll back.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Omg he cums so much (that's never too much but again, how can a man spill so much seed??). He enjoys creampies if you are on the pill. Otherwise, he will gladly paint your belly white.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He jerked off to a cute selfie of yours before you became his girlfriend and he is so ashamed of that...

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He has enough experience. Still can count how many partners he had but he definitely has learned a lot with them.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

If you let him choose, he will be on top. But I'm not saying you shouldn't order him to be under and let you ride him like the good boy he is. oops

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

Not serious at all. He's such a baby: always excited about how close you are and what you will do next. He just wants to love you and be loved.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

He doesn't have much hair naturally so he doesn't need to trim very often. His hair looks good actually, that's an adornment.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

He is so romantic in his own way. All the excitement and smiles are his way to show you love and adoration. He is a precious partner.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Do I still have to say it? He is a simple guy, he likes sex and daydreams about you... He's bad at controlling himself so yep, it goes downhill and he ends up stimulating his tip and whining alone until he gotta speed it up.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Top 3:

Mutual masturbation (I might have said that in another headcanon)

Hickeys (giving and receiving)

Dirty/sweet talking (you talking)

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Other than in a bedroom, on the pool deck if possible.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

It can be anything depending on his mood... But if you wanna be assertive, touching his abs will do the job. He will be like "please, go a bit down"

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Restraints. He needs to move freely or he will be very frustrated :( He also won't restrain you because he is so afraid of hurting you.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Prefers receiving because you are so gentle and he says you give the best head ever. And... he becomes a poodle, all spread and shaking like a loser.

He eats pussy pretty well though. He's enthusiastic, you truly feel appreciated when makes out with your sex. His cunnilingus is WET.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

He adapts to whatever you prefer but usually starts slow to test the waters.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

He is so ready for quickies! Yet he regrets it when you have to stop and he doesn't feel satisfied. Chan reluctantly dress up after you all came only once.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Any minimal chance of getting hurt gives him bad feelings.

He didn't mind getting caught until Donghun saw you sucking him off and started to tease him about it. (He was literaly crying out of pleasure)

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Kinda too much stamina. That's why quickies aren't a good idea. Poor you (or not)

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

He enjoys vibrators, especially when they are cute, such as in pastel colors and small forms. Won't use anything by himself though, he prefers your company. Sometimes he will ask you to hold a bullet vibrator against your clit while he fucks you slowly. You look so pretty overstimulated.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He plays hard to get before you all take off your clothes. Then he can't separate from you and will be stimulating your erogenous points either with his hands or pushing his dick inside.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Medium volume, but very whiny. He may beg if he can form words.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He looooves his ass and the back of his thighs grabbed when you kiss.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

That's an average dick in terms of thickness and length, also straight and with a proportional head. Excellent to get sucked

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

It's high. He may ask for it at least 4 times a week.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Yuchan sleeps fast. He probably spends his entire stamina stock with you and all those rounds. Then don't count on him to watch the sunrise with you. He will be sleeping like an angel by its time, a smile on his face and no pajamas.

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You will find more smut alphabets on the tags