#figuring out how to draw them has been very fun i get to do neat things

[cloudyydraws]

More Weeg

#mario fanart is breaking me out of artblock thank you luigi #figuring out how to draw them has been very fun i get to do neat things #also kagamine mario bros as a different piece this time bc i liked the last one sm #but maybe expect more mario fanart bc its been kinda fun #luigi #mario #super mario bros #vocaloid #? i guess #kagamine rin #kagamine len #mario bros #super mario fanart #cloudy draws #my art #art #fanart #super mario bros fanart #prince peasley #luisley #smb #smb luigi #smb fanart

[0theghost0]

Update

Hi hi, everyone. I know it's been a long time. I was actually typing up a message to @prince-infidel because of an ask they sent me, but I realized I should probably just make it a post. So I guess this is an update. Okay, short version: The end of 2022 and the entirety of 2023 was horrible for me. A lot happened, and 97% of it was not good. Now to get into a bit more specifics. While all of this crazy stuff was going on, a friend of mine really needed help with their company. They were just going through a ton, and I jumped on to help them while they were trying to figure that stuff out. Turns out that I was a good fit. So I've completely changed careers currently. Also, with all of this crazy shit going on, I stopped drawing entirely. That's a first for me. No matter what was going on, I always had my drawing as an outlet. It was very new for it to be gone. I actually only recently started drawing again, and when I say recently, I mean last week. I haven't even finished anything and my progress comes in very small doses. Baby steps I guess. Now the stuff you're actually probably interested in. Even though I haven't been drawing, I have been making art. - I've been putting crazy amounts of effort into making costumes. It's really fun and I've level grinded a lot with sewing and fabrics. I made an entire Victorian costume on my own. It was cool. - I weirdly started working on dolls? I have no idea why I started doing that. I hate dolls. - I started making weird... sculptures? I don't know how to describe them. It's basically recycling and turning materials into monstrosities for my own entertainment and to scare random people. - And I've delved more into my hobby of SFX makeup.

I have been being creative, it's just a bunch of stuff that no one cares about. It makes me happy and that's all there is to it really. Which brings me to the long version, because I have no idea how to continue this without going into details. I can only assume all of this answers anyone questions who might be curious. Time to get a bit more specific.

I don't know how to start this, so I guess I'll just say that my interests have completely moved. I think everything above should make that clear, but when I'm referring to interests, I mostly mean the things that inspire me. This is actually typical for me. I love fiction and am a fan of many, many things. I get really involved in a fandom for a while, get bored, then move on to one that is piquing my interest more. Eventually I come back and the cycle starts over. I always keep up with all of my interests simultaneously, it's just that one usually dominates the others. The thing is, comic books have completely lost my interest currently.

There's a lot of factors. I'm not going to repeat stuff that you've probably heard a thousand times from other people about the current state of the comic industry, comic writing, the movies, the video games blah blah blah whine whine whine. I think one of the big things though is that this last year has really changed me. I'm just a really different person now. I'm not that happy-go-lucky nerd I was before. I think my major concern is that I honestly think it would be fucked up if I continued to post here.

People started following me here because of my art and my posts. It would be fucked up to switch that around on them and just show back up as this different person with different art, different interests etc. I've thought about making an update on here a bunch of different times, but I never did because of stuff like that. However, in a way, it's been really nice. It's been nice to just do whatever stupid art project comes into my head, and to do it just for the sake of making something. I think dropping drawing all together (not by choice, mind you) turned out to be good for me. I think I got in tune with a creative side of myself that I'd lost a long time ago. It's been pretty neat.

I've thought about just leaving this tumblr to history. I honestly think that I should. It can be a weird time capsule of this specific fandom in this specific time period. I've thought about just making different social media accounts so that people who want to see any of my new, awful creations could if they wanted to. I don't know though. I'm just all up in the air all the time now lol

I get this isn't an "all questions answered" kinda post. Not that most people needed them, but I know that there are people who just liked my art in general and I knew they must be curious. So I hope I at least answered some stuff and gave some clarity.

#updates #text post #I've read through this a few times and I think it makes sense #I'm currently very sick #I hope this isn't just flat out nonsense #I also hope it isn't needlessly dramatic sounding #whenever I try to type this stuff out it always comes across so intense lol #I'm also going to be a dick and post this in the middle of the night #if I leave it until morning I'll forget it exists

[dindjarindiaries]

Security - Chapter 59: The Lesson

summary: Din teaches Astra how to use her new armor while their family lays low with the covert.

warnings: canon-typical violence, food, fluff, light angst

rating: T

word count: 5.824k

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chapter 59: the lesson

When Din wakes the next morning, he’s alarmed to find that he’s alone. He sits up in a panic, his chest tightened just as the cyborg’s trap once had been around him. It’s only when he allows himself to further take in his surroundings that he hears the jovial voices of his family floating in from the living area.

Din exhales a deep breath of both relief and affection as his tightened jaw relaxes and his lips start to curl up in a smile. They’re not in danger anymore. They’re safe here, making this temporary space a home of their own.

Din steps out of the bed and makes it neat, though he doesn’t bother doing the same with himself in his eagerness to greet his family. He walks past his pile of beskar and only stops when he sees the other pile that’s sitting alongside it. His chest warms with a reverent flame so ardent he’s certain it could consume him whole, but for the sake of his unsuspecting family, he keeps it buried within him and continues out of their bedroom.

The sight he’s met with only makes that flame burn brighter in the most beautiful of ways. Astra sits with both Grogu and Zora as they eat their breakfast, the children receiving assistance from their mother as they babble to her and each other. With each sound they make, Astra nods in understanding, her sweet responses always coming with the ghost of a breathless smile painted on her lips.

Din makes his approach as if he’s in a haze, each step a subconscious movement. He’s more than aware of his family’s effect on him and how dangerous it could be, but he can’t get enough of it. Din only stops when he’s just behind Astra to wrap his arms around her, his chin resting upon her head as he draws her in close. Astra’s smile is audible in her voice while her hands cover his own.

“Good morning, my love” Astra greets. She kisses his hands and Din has to take a deep breath to keep his heart from bursting. “Sorry I didn’t wake you. It’s rare that you sleep longer than I do and I figured you needed the rest.”

“It’s all right.” Din can’t stop smiling even as he presses a kiss to her head. “I just hope you three haven’t been having too much fun without me.”

Astra laughs, though any chance of her responding is thwarted by Zora’s excited squeal and wave. “Guh muh, Papa!”

Din stays with Astra as he lifts a hand to wave back at her. “Morning, baby girl,” he responds with all the warmth within him. Grogu also babbles and waves at his father. “You too, buddy.” Astra’s head leans against one of his arms as he goes on. “What have you been up to so far?”

“They’re having a warrior’s breakfast,” Astra answers for them. Din chuckles at her wording.

“And you as well?” Din observes the nearly completed meal on her own plate.

“Of course.” Astra lifts her head to look up at him. “I have to prepare for our first training session today.” She raises an eyebrow at him. “I don’t expect you to go easy on me.”

Din returns her look. “I could say the very same thing about you.” He gives her their first kiss of the day, one that he’d draw out longer if their children weren’t present. For their sake, he parts from her and takes his place at the table alongside her. A share of his own awaits him and Din digs in to match the pace of his family.

“The caretakers offered to watch Zora and Grogu again,” Astra informs Din while he eats. “Apparently they were very well-behaved for the storytelling session.”

Din nods with approval at them. “Very good.”

Zora looks at Din with her brown eyes widened, a pout starting to form on her lips. “Papa,” she whines, her arms held out towards him.

“Zora,” Astra warns, “what did we talk about?” She gives her daughter a firm nod. “Ask, don’t whine.”

Zora glances between her mother and father and tucks her lip back in. “Papa?” She focuses on Din and signs please in Tusken.

Din nods, offering Zora a smile of encouragement as he stands and reaches for her over the table. She sits on his lap with content, her curly head resting against his skin as he kisses her head and continues his meal. Grogu’s started entertaining himself by lifting the remaining pieces of Astra’s meal with his powers and bringing them to her mouth. Astra laughs even as she accepts them and Din’s smile is constant through it all.

If only this weren’t temporary.

The thought lingers at the back of Din’s mind and he forces it to remain there. He refuses to do anything other than take things day-by-day, starting with helping his wife to get comfortable with her new suit of armor. That’ll require most, if not all, of his energy and focus, even just at the mere thought of it.

Their family finishes breakfast and Grogu supervises Zora as they play in the living area. Din and Astra get themselves ready for the day ahead by beginning their newest ritual. For years, Astra’s helped Din put his armor back on, and at long last he gets to return the favor for her. Putting the pieces of her suit together is akin to the way she pieces each vein of his heart in place, and when Din gets to her pauldron that bears their clan’s signet, he can’t keep himself from pulling her beskar-clad body against his own.

“I’ve never seen beskar look so beautiful,” Din confesses, his voice hushed.

Astra smiles and gives him an obvious once-over. “I have,” she insists, pressing her curled-up lips against his own. The moment lasts longer than it had before, their bodies and hearts melting together in the way they know best, but it’s still forced to be cut shorter than either one of them would’ve liked. They stay close even as they part, and after a long moment of them studying each other, Astra’s gaze shines with amusement. “We’re gonna be in trouble, aren’t we?”

Din chuckles and shrugs at her. “I guess we’ll have to become stronger in more ways than just one.”

Astra bends down to pick up Din’s helmet before she nods at him. “Challenge accepted.” She doesn’t stop smiling even as she helps Din slide his helmet over his head.

The Djarins make their way to the shore, where much of the covert has already started running their drills and sparring matches for the day. One of the caretakers steps up to take Grogu’s and Zora’s pod, and once the youngest Djarin receives some encouragement from her father, they head off on their own adventure without a problem. Din takes a deep breath to steady himself as he turns to his armored wife and escorts her to a part of the shore that isn’t as crowded.

“Before we can start with this,” Din begins, gesturing to the Rising Phoenix upon Astra’s back, “we’ve got to teach you the basics of your vambraces.” Din nods as he lifts his arm to show her. Astra mirrors his actions, the amusement having faded from her gaze as she keeps all her attention on him. “This will help you control your jetpack amongst many other things.”

Astra nods and looks between both her arms. “The Armorer said I have a blade, a flamethrower, and a fibercord whip.”

Din tilts his helmet at her, unable to stop himself. “That’s almost the same as my own.”

“And for good reason.” Astra offers him a playful raise of her brow. “Can you show me how to use them, or should I also stare longingly at you all day?”

Din swings his helmet away from her and adjusts his vambrace. He’s grateful that his helmet hides the warmth of his face from her, though he knows she’s well aware of how he looks behind his mask. “We’ll start with the flamethrower,” he announces, his voice low in embarrassment.

Din finds himself able to focus as he runs through the basics of the weapon with Astra, mostly due to his own concern for her safety. The process is as successful as it is fun, with Astra once laughing hard enough to double over when she tried engaging the flame and was instead met with a small puff of smoke. Din can’t help thinking back to when he taught her how to speak Tusken back on Tatooine.

“Okay, okay,” Astra says after another laughing fit. “I think I’ve got it this time.”

Din nods at her. “Go ahead.”

Astra braces herself and extends her arm forward, letting the flames rush forward. She controls it with the skill of a warrior who’s been trained for many years, her arm rising and circling without the flames ever stopping. They only disappear when Astra lowers her arm and looks at Din with a hopeful smile. “How was that?”

Din crosses his arms and lets his pride show in his voice. “Perfect.”

Astra’s grin widens. “I was drawing a mudhorn.” She gestures to the wisps of smoke that still hang in the air. “Not that you could really tell.”

Din’s shoulders rise in a breath that he holds within his chest. When he finally releases it, he uncrosses his arms and points his finger at her. “You’re making this harder for me on purpose, aren’t you?”

Astra lifts her gloved hands in mock surrender. “I’m not doing anything!”

“You just said you drew the symbol of our…” Din stops himself, setting his hands on his hips and taking another deep breath. “No. I’m not letting you win this challenge.” He gestures to her vambrace. “We’re moving on. Time for the whip.”

Astra’s lips curl up into a grin Din recognizes all too well. “That sounds—.”

“Astra Djarin.” Din lifts his finger to his visor as if he were setting it over his lips. Astra covers her mouth with her gloved hand as he shakes his helmet. “Cuy. Ulyc.” Be. Careful.

Astra lowers her arm back to her side and nods, standing with the determination of a true Mandalorian warrior. “Okay, Din Djarin. Understood.” She gestures to her vambrace. “Teach me.”

Din returns her focus just as she does. Thankfully, the fibercord whip is easier to master than the flamethrower, and Astra’s quickly able to use it to latch herself onto the rocky structures behind them as well as take Din’s blaster from him when he offers it to her as a target. Din’s about to move on to the last weapon of her vambrace when Astra speaks up.

“There’s just one more thing I’d like to try,” Astra insists.

Din nods and sets his hands on his belt. “Sure, rid’ika. Go for it.”

Astra launches the whip and Din has no time to react when it wraps around himself. She gives it a hard tug that the beskar on her vambrace reinforces, causing Din to trip a few steps as he’s forced towards her. Astra helps to steady him as she sets her hands where his own just were on his belt, a wide smile decorating her lips as she stares up at him. “Cuy ulyc, riduur,” Astra uses his words against him. “You never know when someone’s gonna grab you like that.”

Din’s visor stares at her in disbelief for a long moment before his hands cover her own. “Respectfully, cyar’ika, you’re the only one bold enough to do such a thing.”

Astra lifts a gloved hand to pat his beskar cheek. “That’s what I like to hear.” She retracts the whip and steps away from Din as if nothing’s happened. “The blade is next, correct?”

Din’s forced to keep his voice low for a moment. “Yes.” He shifts his weight and crosses his arms. “Thankfully, it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

Astra looks from her vambrace to his visor, her brow furrowed. “You don’t sound very excited.” She feigns a concerned lift of her brow. “Is this not enjoyable for you?”

Din tilts his helmet at her. “Quite the opposite, ner kar’ta.” He moves his hands to his hips. “Mandalorians are simply well-versed in composure.”

“Sure.” Astra engages the blade from her vambrace, throwing a jab to the open air as she goes on. “This will just help me pack in an extra punch to my hands-on fighting, right?”

Din’s gloved hands slide off his hips and tighten into fists at his sides. “Right.”

As Astra continues to run through her drills on her own, Din’s reminded of the days long, long ago on Sorgan when he would watch her train the villagers. It was well before he’d come to terms with how he felt about her, and to see where she stands now—the beskar armor of her own reflecting the planet’s sunlight—makes his knees weak.

She’s the only warrior who could ever take him down without using a single weapon.

“I think I’ve got the hang of it,” Astra’s voice breaks through Din’s reverie. She sheathes the blade on her vambrace and nods at him. “What’s next?”

Din approaches her and gestures to the sky above him. “The Rising Phoenix.” Astra’s eyes burst with a breathtaking sparkle of excitement. Din smiles even as he holds her chin and maintains his severity. “I always adore getting to have a good laugh with you, cyar’ika, but this part of your training could get very dangerous if we don’t focus.”

Astra nods at him. “I understand.” She takes his hand from her face and holds it between both of hers. “I’ll focus. I promise.”

Din returns her nod. “I promise, too.” He exhales a soft breath and free his hand from Astra’s to lift his vambrace. “All right. Let’s start with the basics.”

Din walks Astra through every bit of training he can recall, intent on giving her not only the most thorough but also the safest rundown he possibly can. They start small and go step-by-step, with Astra getting herself just a few feet off the ground. Din doesn’t let her get any higher just yet, instead waiting until she masters her strength in the air at a height where she couldn’t possibly get hurt. Together, they run drills that aim higher and higher, going until they’re able to weave around each other in the air.

Astra’s confidence in her ability to fly never fails to make Din smile. She lets out a small laugh of joy whenever the wind hits her face, especially as she flies upward. He remembers well the feeling of freedom he had the first time he got to use a jetpack and how excited he was when the Armorer finally gave him a Rising Phoenix of his own on Nevarro. To see Astra experience the same thing with her own suit of armor fills his chest with an unprecedented warmth.

“Okay, rid’ika, we’ve been in the air for a while,” Din calls to Astra over the roaring of their jetpacks. “Let’s head back to the ground before we run out of fuel.”

“Sounds good,” Astra responds, giving him a smile before she begins her descent. Din watches her go, his heart swollen with pride at how easily she’s learned.

Until her jetpack begins to sputter, a sure sign that she’s already lost fuel.

Din curses to himself as he kicks his jetpack into full gear, diving forward to match the pace of Astra’s freefall. He reaches her just in time to press her against his front and turn over onto his back, causing them to slide against the sandy shore on Din’s jetpack. When they stop, Din checks to make sure Astra’s okay, both their breaths coming heavy from the chaos of the moment. Astra’s hands press upon his cuirass as she assesses him for the very same thing.

It’s Astra who breaks the tension first with a laugh she can’t hold back. Din lets himself laugh with her, his chest flooding with that sweet warmth again as Astra rests her forehead against his helmet. Din’s gloved hands hold her waist to keep her steady on top of him as she catches her breath and smiles at him.

“Thank you for saving me,” Astra says, her voice hushed in her honesty.

Din lifts a hand to brush it over her head. “I had to think about it,” he jokes, earning an amused huff from Astra.

Before either one of them can go on, another voice speaks up from a distance. “You two were given private quarters for a reason,” Bo-Katan teases them, and when Din’s visor looks her way, he can see her tilting her helmet at them with amusement.

Din turns his helmet away from her in embarrassment while Astra starts to laugh again. She eases herself off of him and helps him to stand up before she brushes the sand from his flight suit and armor. Din sighs and swallows back any of his remaining shyness. “We should call it a day,” he states.

Astra’s quick to meet his visor with a raised brow. “Can we spar before we head back in?” Din doesn’t have time to get a protest out before Astra goes on. “Just once?” She presses a hand upon his cuirass. “Please?”

 Din could never resist her. “Fine.” Astra grins with gratitude. “But no weapons.” Din takes a step away from her and watches her brow furrow in curiosity. “I want you to practice using your armor as your sole defense.”

Astra nods at him. “Okay.” She gets herself into a ready position, her gaze already glazing over with the determination Din admires so much. “Don’t go easy on me.”

Din gives his helmet a quick tilt. “If you insist.”

He lets her make the first move. She charges with a few steps forward before ducking low, but Din knows Astra well. When she turns and spins with her leg extended, he clears it and knees her armored shoulder to knock her against the sand. Din’s about to pin her in place with his boot when she rolls back and makes it onto one knee. With Din still having a height advantage, he starts to step around her to wrap an arm around her neck, but Astra rolls away again. She recovers with enough time to give his cape a harsh tug that makes Din trip back a step.

It’s all the momentum she needs. Astra elbows the back of Din’s knee to make him fall onto it. She succeeds in what Din had desired to do, her arm wrapping around his neck from behind. Din throws himself forward to flip Astra over himself, using the force of the movement to roll himself over her and twist around fast enough to pin her underneath himself. His hands only pretend to grab at her throat, his gentleness returning in his concern for her safety.

When Astra struggles to get him off of her, Din offers her advice. “Use your vambraces,” he urges her. “Cross them over my hands and tug hard.”

Astra does what he says, the movement pulling Din’s hands away from her and making him unstable enough for her to push him onto his side. She turns with him and hooks her leg around both of his, rendering them useless as she uses one gloved hand to pin down his cuirass and the other to unsheathe the blade on her vambrace. It remains further away from his throat than it would with a real enemy, but it still marks the end of their fight.

Both their chests heave from their efforts as Astra tightens her lips in disappointment. “You had to help me,” she says, still breathless. She sheathes her blade and unhooks her leg from his.

“Because you’re not used to fighting with armor,” Din assures her. “It’s your first day with it. That’s okay.” He lifts his hand to her cheek and gives it a gentle tap. “You still won the upper hand.”

Astra lifts her brow at him. “Only because of your help.” She helps him up from the ground and releases a deep breath, a smile stretching across her lips. “Thanks for not going easy on me.”

Din nods at her. “You almost had me. You just have to keep learning how to use your armor to your advantage. I’m sure you’ll get there quickly.” He takes her gloved hand and laces it with his own. “You’ve already almost taken me down just by wearing it.”

Astra laughs and rests her head against his arm. “I appreciate the time you’re taking to help me with it.”

Din tilts his helmet at her. “Of course.” He gives her hand a squeeze. “I’m very proud of you, rid’ika. You’re a quick learner and you’ve already mastered a lot of it.” He takes a moment to rest his helmet against her head. “You’ve earned this armor. Easily.”

Astra beams at him. “Thank you, riduur. That means a lot.”

Din tries not to get choked up in his sudden emotion as his pride for her threatens to make his heart burst. “This is the Way.”

Astra gives his hand a squeeze. “This is the Way.”

The exhaustion of their long training day is satisfying, but evident. Din and Astra spend the rest of the afternoon with Zora and Grogu in the privacy of their own quarters, sharing another meal with them and playing with them until their tiny eyes start to droop in a tiredness of their own. Din offers to finish cleaning up their dinner while Astra takes them to bed. He takes his time, enjoying the peacefulness of hearing the gentle hum of Astra’s voice through the curtain of their children’s bedroom while he works.

Eventually, Din’s curiosity gets the best of him. He finishes what he’s doing and makes his way to the kids’ bedroom, gently pushing aside the curtain and leaning against the threshold when he sees Astra sitting on the edge of Grogu’s bed as she speaks to them.

“Then, he flew right out of the dragon’s mouth!” Astra’s saying, her tone as dramatic as the hand movements she makes to demonstrate her words. “He set off his trap and the dragon was slain. The hero made his way to the ground as the dragon fell and the people cheered him on. They were saved, and even though the hero would never take credit for it, they all knew that he was the reason why.”

Din crosses his arms over his chest, his lips spreading in a smile wide enough to make his cheeks hurt. He doesn’t say a word as he watches Astra finish the story for the children who are already fast asleep.

“You want to know who the hero was?” Astra asks, pausing for an answer despite their children’s sleeping states. “It was your father.” Din has to force himself to look away in his ardent admiration of her, though he can still hear the gentle kisses she gives both their children’s heads. “Goodnight, my angels.”

Din looks up when Astra turns around to face him. She beams as she makes her approach, her hand reaching for the side of his face as her sparkling gaze searches his own.

“Are you ready for bed too, my love?”

Din covers her hand with his and nods. She stays close to his side as they leave their children’s room together, closing the curtain behind them and heading over to their room. Din draws Astra against him with his hand on her waist. “I liked your story,” he tells her.

“Did you?” Astra responds, her voice as soft as a breath.

“I did.” Din holds the curtain open for her to walk through before he closes it. He removes his shirt and hands it to Astra, laying in bed while she makes herself comfortable. “I’m surprised you chose it. I know that was a hard experience for you.”

Astra smiles as she slips his shirt over her figure and joins him. She rests herself on top of him just as she’d done on the shore earlier, her chin resting upon her hands that she’s pressed flat against his chest. “In retrospect, it was pretty badass.”

Din laughs before he sighs, his hand brushing over her head before it does the same with her scar. Astra’s always been the picture of strength to him, but the gentleness that balances her out never fails to amaze him. Her storytelling remains stuck inside his mind as he speaks on his thoughts. “Sometimes, when you’re talking to the kids, you just…” Din pauses and shakes his head, his knuckles trailing down the side of her face, “you remind me so much of her.”

Astra’s brow furrows at his words. “Of who?”

Din smiles to himself. “My mother.” Astra’s gaze softens even before Din continues. “At least, what I remember of her. It’s been a long time, and I was so young.”

Astra takes his hand and keeps it pressed against her cheek. She doesn’t speak and in her silence, Din’s inner panic starts to take over.

“Is that... a strange thing to say?”

Astra shakes her head. “No, Din, not at all.” She gives his hand a squeeze. “She meant a lot to you. It’s an honor to be compared to her.”

Din smiles at that, the anxious knot within his chest loosening at her reassurance. He frees more of his vulnerabilities to his safe haven. “She used to tell me stories, too. She spoke of people all over the galaxy, even Mandalorians. Her stories were always about people helping each other to make a better galaxy. She just loved to love others.” Din holds Astra’s face between his hands. “You’re the same way. That’s how I know she would’ve loved you.”

Astra kisses one of Din’s palms, her gaze never breaking away from his as she beams at him. When she speaks, her voice is a soft whisper. “Thank you for sharing that with me.” She rests her cheek upon his chest. “You carry much of her with you, too.”

Din finds himself unable to speak anymore. His hand brushes over her head repeatedly, the lump in his throat only dissolving enough to say one more thing to the better half of himself. “I love you.”

Astra’s smile can be felt against the skin on his chest. “I love you, too.” 

Din closes his eyes as he takes in both Astra’s words and the pleasant exhaustion of the day spent at her side. For the first time since the day the Mandalorians took him in, Din’s fully at ease, as if he’s a child who’s just been told a story by the people who gave everything to keep him safe.

But he should’ve known better than to think that peace would last.

The disruption comes after countless days of training spent with Astra and her armor. It’s before anyone from the covert emerges onto the shore for the day, the engines catching their attention long before the ship even comes into view. The whispers made their way to Din and Astra quickly.

“There’s an X-wing on approach,” Bo-Katan delivers the news to them as she stands in the threshold of their quarters. Din and Astra share a concerned look even through his visor.

“Who could it be?” Astra asks the question everyone’s thinking.

“Who knows,” Din murmurs. “The concerning part is how they found us.” He looks between Astra and Bo. “We should help the covert investigate.”

They both nod to agree with him, though Din doesn’t miss the uncertainty in Astra’s gaze. Once the children are secured in their pod and the group is on their way to join the rest of the covert, Din reaches for Astra’s gloved hand, letting her keep it in his own for whatever silent comfort he can provide.

By the time Din, Astra, and Bo reach the rest of the covert, gunners have already taken to the top of their hideout and are reporting to Paz. “The pilot’s stepped out of the ship,” Din hears one of them say through the muffle of Paz’s comm.

“Hold your fire,” Paz responds. “For now.”

Din and Astra share a glance. The pod at their side remains closed, shielding their children from whatever awaits them. It’s only when a voice rings from the outside of the cave that Din’s gaze widens behind his visor.

“Captain Carson Teva,” the pilot announces himself. “Adelphi Rangers.”

Astra looks at Din and speaks in a hushed voice. “Isn’t that…” She trails off and Din offers a nod in response. Her eyes double in size.

“I have a time pressing matter to attend to,” Carson continues.

Paz becomes the first to emerge from the cave. A few other Mandalorians follow while Din shifts his weight and exchanges a nervous glance with Astra. “Clear out, Blue Boy,” Paz calls to Carson. “The New Republic isn’t welcome here.”

“Sorry for dropping in unannounced,” Carson begins his defense, “but if I’d given warning, your settlement would’ve cleared out before I ever hit atmosphere.”

Din gives Astra’s hand a squeeze before he lets it go and steps forward. She follows close behind him, her pace matching his own as he starts to weave his way through the members of the covert who stand guard just outside the cave. Carson stands in his bright orange jumpsuit with his hands raised in surrender, a hint of relief painted on his expression once Din’s presence becomes known.

“How did you manage to find us?” Din questions. He keeps most of the friendliness out of his tone for now. Carson’s hands lower as Din continues his approach. “Mandalorians pride ourselves on our secrecy.” Din stops when he’s just a few paces away from Carson. Astra stands right alongside him.

“Fortunately, someone I served with in the Rebellion is amongst your ranks,” Carson answers.

Din turns his helmet in confusion, but once he hears the telltale beeps, the pieces fall into place. His jaw tightens when R5 rolls out of the cave, apparently having awoken from his long slumber ever since they landed on planet. Din resists the urge to sigh audibly. Droids.

Carson gives R5 a casual salute. “Thanks, R5.”

Din swings his helmet around to face Carson again, his annoyance evident in his tone. “The entire covert will now have to relocate.” Astra shifts her weight at his side and Din already starts to ache with the urge to comfort her.

“Or we could kill him,” Paz speaks up. Din gives him an incredulous look. “Stay right here.”

Astra grimaces at him. “That’s not—,” she starts to say.

“This man cut me a break once and now I’m returning the favor,” Din insists, setting a hand on Astra’s armored shoulder in both silent reassurance and apology for cutting her off. He sets his focus on Carson. “Clear out, Blue.”

Carson remains unshaken. “Greef Karga sent this holo-message,” he informs him, reaching for something on his belt. Everyone starts to lift their weapons, causing Carson to lift a hand in surrender while the other grabs the comm device. He puts it on obvious display before he tosses it to Din. Din catches it and inspects it while Carson continues. “Nevarro is under siege by pirates. He’s asking for help.”

Din gives the Mandalorians behind him a brief look before he sets the comm device inside the pouch on his belt and walks closer to Carson. Astra stays back for now with Bo having joined her at her side. Din lowers his voice and speaks softly to his complicated ally. “Why are you really here?”

Carson gives Din a grim look. “They’re about to blow Nevarro to hell.”

The two of them start to walk further off together. Din tilts his helmet at the ranger. “Then call in a strike. We don’t even have ships.”

“Coruscant doesn’t care,” Carson insists. “Karga is your friend. You won’t let him die.”

Din sighs to himself. Carson’s right; Greef’s done a lot for him and his family. He can’t let him and his people suffer this way. Still, Carson’s insistence keeps Din suspicious. “What’s in it for you?”

“The New Republic has to know that the Empire is growing again,” Carson explains.

Din stops to face Carson with severity. The mere mention of the Empire sends a blazing fire through his veins. “And you think the Pirate King has something to do with it?”

Carson sighs and gives his head a shake. “I can’t say for sure, but something doesn’t smell right.” Din looks away from the ranger and weighs his options. The thought of giving up his family’s peaceful life here makes his shoulders feel heavier. “Look, it’s not your fight. I just came to tell you, your friend is in danger and I thought you should know.”

With that, Carson heads back to his ship. Din watches him go, though he’s well aware of both Astra and Bo making their approach. His decision’s been made, but he doesn’t know how he’ll reveal that to his wife. The life they have here is what they’ve always wanted. Now, he’s about to jeopardize it yet again.

Before Carson takes off, he looks at Din and speaks loud enough for him to hear. “I know you’ll relocate anyway, but you have my word I will not reveal your location.”

Din doesn’t respond. He can’t. His thoughts still remain with both his wife and Nevarro. He draws the comm device from his belt as the three of them watch the X-wing take off, though he’s well aware of Astra’s gaze on him.

“What are you thinking?” Astra dares to ask him.

“He’s right,” Din answers, his visor remaining fixed on the device in his gloved hand. “You and I gotta’ help the guy.”

Bo looks between the both of them. “You two can’t do it alone,” she insists. Her visor looks at the assembled group of Mandalorians and Din and Astra follow her gaze. “Let them help.”

Din doesn’t speak on his doubts just yet. It’ll take a lot of convincing, and even then, he still hasn’t found out what Astra wants. But when his visor meets her gaze again, the answer is obvious. Her eyes shine with the same determination she’s shown in all her training thus far. Her mind was made up the moment Carson mentioned Nevarro, and if Din’s being honest with himself, so was his.

They may be losing their temporary home, but at least they’re one step closer to finding out where they actually belong—and doing so in the name of helping their friend.

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[dballzposting]

okay my brain isn't fully turned on and I have more to say on this subject that won't come out of my brain rn but ive been thinking about this for days and i need to share

I think trunks is like. he watches culturally important films, or like cult classics, a lot bc he feels it is a good way to expand his worldview or like just become more cultured. but by and large he does not like them.

oh for sure there's some he enjoyed. And there's a few where he's like 'Well, I didn't enjoy it, but i definitely think it was a good film. Just not my thing.'

meanwhile goten does not seek them out at all. he could not care less. BUT if Trunks is watching one when Goten wants to hang out, he'll sit his ass down and watch! He's not passing up a free fancy people movie!

And almost every time he REALLY likes it. And after every single one he goes on for like 30 minutes about Themes and Symbolism before interrupting himself to see if trunks wants to go get milkshakes.

and then after they get shakes trunks has to spend the night thinking about it. Why does goten seem to Get things so easily? Why does understanding worldviews he doesn't necessarily agree with come so naturally to Goten, when Trunks is actively trying?

Why won't Goten stop asking to see the movie where a disembodied head bites a girl in the butt (Hausu)??? Why does he think that's so funny????????????

PART 2: (Copy & pasted just to keep it all in one place)

okay i think i figured out the rest of what i wanted to say re: goten and trunks cultural movie bonanza as an example it's not like goten knows what chiaroscuro is. but he DOES notice and enjoy how filmmakers use lighting to draw the eye to or away from stuff. He picks up on the little clues. and once he starts watching enough of a certain genre he likes noticing how so-and-so film stands against the others. it's like i spy to him. and he likes hearing what a film has to say, under its layers. trunks talks like that sometimes, when he's doing business stuff. it's all code. it's mental stimulation but Trunks is like UGH nobody has said anything for FIVE MINUTES can we PLEASE move the plot along. this is like a BUSINESS MEETING tbh. and it's not like he doesn't get the plot or, once he's taken a film class, the meaning of certain techniques. he just can't bring himself to care. AND THE MAN JUST WON'T LEARN HIS LESSON AND HE KEEPS WATCHING THESE DAMN FILMS. also Goten like. he doesn't know these movies. his parents don't fucking watch movies. i mean maybe chichi watches like. romance and martial arts movies probably. he probably likes to compare himself to crouching tiger hidden dragon. so he DOESN'T know what to expect!!! when trunks is like 'hey im gonna watch Citizen Kane or Vanishing Point or Deliverance' or whatever and goten says NEAT i would like to watch also and trunks is like 'I know. that's why i told you. come over around 4 okay' and so goten doesn't have any sort of knowledge of these movies! it's exciting!!! bc the movies he saw growing up were his moms movies about kissing and punching and then whatever trunks took him to see in theatres. so like action and comedy and some horror. so it's new! it's fun! even when he doesn't really like the movie he's like 'well im glad i got to experience this new thing with my best buddy Trunks' ALSO they watched Eraserhead once and goten sat there afterwards on the floor (he likes to sit on the floor) for like ten minutes chewing his lips before turning to trunks and saying something to the effect of 'Trunks. I'm worried about what kind of father you're going to be.' and trunks just sort of. sat there. and looked goten in the eyes for a while. bc he didn't have a response. okay i think i got it all out of my system thank you for your time (i have been making my way through my movie bucket list so this is very strongly on my mind)

TL;DR: Trunks watches classic and high-rated movies becasue he thinks that he's an intellectual / because he's interested in increasing his cultural/artistic literacy & expanding his worldview. But he doesn't really enjoy most of them. And it is Goten who actually is able to see through to the heart of the film, exercise deep empathy, and reap delight at the tactics of storytelling unique to the medium. He's like WOOOAH SO COOL & MEANINGFUL .. (offers a critical analysis perfectly, that is sensitive and insightful). And Trunks is like wtf .... (stays awake at night pondering his deficits.)

DBALLZ COMMENTARY:

I WANT TO BE GOTEN ...

From what I'm gathering he A.) Has the capacity to UNDERSTAND what he's seeing B.) Has the capacity to ANALYZE/INTERPRET what he's seeing C.) Has the heart to EXPERIENCE the movie in full and D.) Has the faculty to ARTICULATE/VERBALIZE what he's experiencing.

Goten no doubt is lacking a lot of cultural and artistic context, but he makes up for it with his observant eye, and then over time what he gathers from one movie transfers to the next and he's able to feel even more moved and offer even more insight ....

It's because his heart is open .. Trunks is trying too hard without realizing it. And you can't have an open heart when there is inner pain that you're not aware of. That's what I think about Trunks .... his trying to be someone he's not (a movie-savvy type of guy) is entirely self-removed without intending to be... He thinks it's self-improvement but really he's being entirely daft to what intrigues his mind and what would really facilitate his growth. And he can't be open-minded toward others if he can't be open-minded with himself.

But the format of movies I guess really works for Goten, they're not usually longer than two hours and they're faster paced than say a novel and they're colorful and they have a lot of movement and the mode of drama-deliverance is altogether captivating for him .... They can communicate a lot with a few small visual or auditory details and Goten is hip to just picking up on those, because he's genuinely engaged and enjoying himself.

But Trunks has elected to adopt this hobby on an intellectual principle. But all the rest of him is like ehhhh whatyever. He probably likes sitting and chilling and eating popcorn. But there's a lot he's not into. It's just not his medium. Just doesn't work for him

I also think that part of it is that Goten notices a lot of things just because they are new to him. Trunks has been watching movies his whole life. Menahwile Goten has been only watching the movies of LIFE ... The lighting of the sun and the pacing of the seasons <3 Also Ponyo

So the whole thing is new and he's like "WOOOOAH .. SO COOL HOW the camera was so high in that shot so that it made me feel tall..... really shows you how small the character feels..." And Trunks just like Didnt notice that

Also trunks just DOESNT CARE !!!! But he doesnt know that he doesnt care. SILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like this part regarding Goten: "He picks up on the little clues. and once he starts watching enough of a certain genre he likes noticing how so-and-so film stands against the others. it's like i spy to him. and he likes hearing what a film has to say, under its layers. trunks talks like that sometimes, when he's doing business stuff. it's all code. it's mental stimulation"

Thats such a way to put it .... Goten is being such a genius rn. He would liken it to the mysterious business-speech. IT'S ALL CODE. IT'S MENTAL STIMULATION.

I don't know any of these movies but I do agree that Goten would sit for 10 minutes and then say that to Trunks ... It's like him to assume that Trunks would be a father one day becasue that's just natural to him that's just life.

When this all started I think that Trunks was like "You sure you wanna watch this with me? It's not like Kung-Fu Panda or anything."

And Goten said "Are you kidding? I LOVE your movies. They're like delicate poetry being told through the form of telenovelas."

Becasue the only life-action TV Goten had been exposed to before was his mother's telenovelas.

I don't really agree with this next part but it's obligatory.

Goten would pick up that Trunks isn't enjoying the movies as much as Goten is, before Trunks even gives proper acknowledgment to his boredom. Trunks just keeps watching them and Goten respects that and doesn't think about it much, but eventually it must be pointed out that hey, Trunks isn't getting as much out of these as Goten is.

Maybe he keeps inviting Goten over so that Goten can tell him what the movie is about. That would make sense. But really I think that Trunks just likes to chill out with him.

But the way that Goten woiuld crunch the numbers in his head (if he's ever removed enough from the movie to ponder) (maybe during a pee break or something) is "He doesnt like the movies. He keeps watching the movies. He keeps inviting me to watch the movies. He doesnt like the movies. But he always invites me. Why do people watch movies with somebody if they don't like the movies? As an excuse to be with them. He just wants to hang out with me."

But he would take it too far and he would fall on the couch next to Trunks and start kissing on him sweetly and when Trunks goes like WHAT Goten says "you dont even like the movies. You just want to hang out with me and eat popcorn."

And the most self-awareness that Trunks had exercised about this whole thing was when he was wondering why he sucked such shit at watching movies compared to Goten. He never really thought about WHY he was doing this to begin with. And so he's doing some hard calculations in his head meanwhile Goten nuzzles him like a pigeon

#dballz posting #dballz asks #goten & trunkz

[thecourtjester12]

For the DCA fandom question thingie: 1, 5, 9, 16, 19, 20!

Thank you for the ask and the questions to answer from it! ^-^

how did you get here?

I'm a long standing FNAF fan! (not THE longest since I got into the fandom around late 2016 early 2017 just around when SL came out or a smidge before it really…) And when SB game out at first, from the trailer's at least; I wasn't TOO keen on the DCA's or how things would end up with the game, it was pretty out there to me. BUT! When it finally game out and watching GTLive play through it the daycare section (And Moon's part in partically) really drew my attention, was-and still is- my favorite part of the game, I grew attached to them and it grew from there!

I already had a FNAF special interest and in turn grew one for th DCA specifically as well!

if you make content, what's your favorite piece you've contributed?

Oh dear…this is a tough one….I'll start with written first It'd be a tie between 'System Overload' and 'Pretty Moon?' My first and 4th works with the DCA's they hold a bit of sentimentality.

As for drawing…While a bit of an Au drawing, this illustration of J-tol Moon (Moo) I just really love how they turned out ^-^ (Reminder to please use they/them for Moo!)

what do you think of the dca's canon appearance? Scary? Cute? Something else?

I think they look neat! All the little details are fascinating and it makes curious how they would function if they had existed in the real world!

Along with that I generally have a fondness for celestal themed things (suns, moons, stars, clouds) along with star and striped patterns, I just think they're really neat, so the DCA's design really fits these lil things I enjoy! Andddddd……..Moon's design reminds me an itsy bitsy bit of little porcelain clowns I collect so that's neat!

what's something in the fandom you'd like to see more of?

That's hard to say…theres so, so, sooooo many wonderful things already in the fandom and so much wonderful creators and creations! Always new ideas and new twists on ideas, its amazing to see!

Maybe more….I wouldn't say crossovers….but more stories and other creations with the DCA's and older fnaf games and characters! I don't tend to see this very often but I LOVE all of FNAF and I love getting to see the DCA's interacting with previous games characters and lore and making twists so the DCA are appart of older games, like new timelines and all that its just so cool to see!

do you think you'd actually get along with the dca if you met them irl?

Ignoring the fact a first meeting irl with…any of them would….not be good (many reasons…. :' D) While I haven't watched HW2 yet I have the jist of things from it and…Sun? Maybe?

But…no strong guarentee….bit more likely with Moon but….also iffy cause…its Moon.

Eclipse tho, I'd probably have the best chance to get along with them (I have…been told by friends i am 'eclipse-core' and come across as similiar vibes to them at times?) So one yes, the other two….iffy unfortunately. (I'm moreso meaning on their end, I would Irl be cool with em all personality wise, but whether THEY would with me….less so :' D)

free space! talk about whatever's on your mind

Let's see let's see...While I will admit to having been a wee bit distracted with other fandoms past little bit, my love for the DCA and the fandom has not died out!

I've still been engaging in the fandom if a bit more...out of sight such as with some fun little projects with beloved friends both with the PDC au blog (tho limited on there >_<) and other things I can't say quite yet!

And a lovely little blog that.....well if you know of it and know it's me behind it....good on you for figuring it out! Unfortunately that little lovely is one you'll have to find on your own!

And while im a tad slow, I have been picking away at working on things for LSAU lots to do, lots to do before i can get into the fun stuff and start showing it off properly tho!

I suppose last but not least...I'll leave with this!

This wonderful story by ShivaCheshire! I've recently started reading it and its just really well written and captures the DCA beautifully! Would highly recommend (and its even better if you're looking for a long fic!)

#jesterposts #jesteranswers #dca fandom #long post

[dracocheesecake]

Can you describe Kai parents appearance from your headcanons more detailed pls? If you describe their costumes that would be great. So if me someone would ever draw them they'd match your headcanons :> if it's fine to you of course

In your last writings you mentioned that Kai's son has his granfather eyes it was so💔🥹 I personally had a headcanon of his mother having blue eyes but father instead is cool too! If I got it right his father is (technically?) chinese and in terms of humans it's still possible for them having blue eyes way more rarely than mongolian and other turk people though

"IF IT'S FINE WITH YOU?!"- YES IT'S FINE WITH ME YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO ASK I'M HONORED DHSHSGSHDH😭💖😭💖😭💖😭

Hemhem anyway:

Yes, Kai and Yuelong both have blue eyes inherited from Bingwen, Kai's daddy. Bingwen is Chinese, but because they're animals and not humans I figured they're allowed a little more diversity in eye color (Tai Lung's gold eyes, Po's green eyes, etc).

I sadly don't have access to many good sources about traditional Chinese clothing during the warring states era, but from what I could glean I think Bingwen would have been wearing something like this:

However, Bingwen was not a peasant but a scholar, but not a particularly well-known one during his time; however, like I said, I have no great sources for how a scholar would have dressed then. He was alive during the middle/late warring states period (perhaps about 250 BC?) and lived in the Qin state, so that might also factor into his clothing choice. I'm sorry I don't have more details than that, and that what I do have isn't very historically accurate. ;-;

His overall appearance, however: he was a Chinese Black-pied bull, had no mane, and wore round-framed glasses. His head was black, save for a white mark on his forehead that had four points resembling a star (something else his grandson inherited from him). The rest of him was covered in black and white splotches as a typical cow. Kai got his horn shape as well as eye color from him:

Khaltmaa is much easier: she's basically a female Kai (or, in this headcanon, Kai is a male version of her) with longer fur, brown eyes, different horns, and her mane actually tied up into neat braids instead of unkempt and loose like her son's. Her horns were like a typical mongolian yak's:

And she wore a deel:

Probably something like this (as both men and women wore deels at the time), but again, I have no good sources of historically accurate information, so please do forgive me if this is wrong!

I'm not certain if anyone would be able to get any coherent picture out of what I provided here, so honestly just use it as lose guidelines and have fun with it. If you do draw these two though please do show me!!!! I will absolutely explode with happiness! 😭💖🩷💖🩷

#ask #thank you for the ask! #I am again very sorry if this isn't so great a source of details #thank you for showing interest in them!!! #i love talking about them and their son #kung fu panda #kfp ocs #general kai #kai #kai headcanons #kfp3 #kfp headcanons #please please please do show me if you actually draw them I will explode 🩷💖🩷💖

[kahvilahuhut]

wip questions tag

thank you @sunset-a-story for tagging me!!!!!!! (and sorry it took me a while sjfjfjfjfj)

tagging @void-botanist @avi-why @televisionjester and anyone else who wants to do this :3

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

Worldbuilding!!! I've always loved Mars (influenced by Doom probably? i just think it's neat :]) and the idea of a whole society on Mars is just very cool for me. All the possibilities and things that can go wrong. And the political debates.......

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the intro song be?

HMMMMM this one is hard bc i absolutely su k at picking music for story playlists and this is waaaaaay harder. I think I would love it to be instrumental or smth tho!

That said I would soooo much rather have it become a video game, and and if I were to pick a song for a trailer I'd go with either Black Mambo by Glass Animals or something from Depeche Mode. My brain is currently telling me to go with "Pain That I'm Used To" but I wouldn't say it fits Cynosure that well KFKKFFKFKFK

3. Who are your favourite character(s) and why?

Tobyyyyyyy <3 I love him so much he is such a...guy. He's some guy. A chemist who has spent a bit too much reading his dad's books about social theory and stuff since he was a child. All he wants is that people would be happy and he has so much love to give for the world, which mostly means him helping people a lot (people pleaser guy). Tobias isn't really that special, he wants to do something he likes, he's scared of guns (for a reason) and just wants a calm new life. Too bad that's not happening for a while.

To think he started as a copy of Nathan I made for a The Outer Worlds playthrough and then it all kinda turned into a bigger thing and he became his own self and I just decided to pull him + Klara & others out of being fandom ocs and put them into Cynosure.

putting the rest of questions under read more <3

4. What other pieces of media could share a fan base with your WIP?

HMMMM I'd say basically any kind of scifi book that has some societal themes in it + has some comedy and stuff. Same for video games maybe?

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing your WIP?

I'm going to be honest I haven't really started writing Cynosure yet JFBBFBFFKF

My biggest struggle is having a job and being a master's student basically hehe

6. Are there any animals in your story?

Haven't really figured out if I'd want to showcase Mars wildlife in it + what kind of wildlife would it be, BUUUUT!!! There's definitely Klara & Toby's cat, Melody. She's a lil tabby cat :3

7. How do your characters get around?

I'm a public transport fan so I'm putting public transport into my wip!!!! I'd say Mars has lots of fancy trains and the ocean area has ships. Buses, too, though probably not what Cynosure characters will end up using.

There's also cars and motorcycles, though they're hovering instead of having wheels. Mars terrain sucks for wheels.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

Figuring out the plot + finishing up worldbuilding <3

9. What aspects of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

Hmmmm! I'd love to say worldbuilding or like, whatever is going on in Mars power struggles. Making fun of capitalism too (i'm a social scientist), maybe even the characters? Who knows :^)

#💥 cynosure #tag game #writeblr #writeblr wip

[paging-possum]

So one of my friends who makes games (here’s her itch.io, she’s made some REALLY neat stuff AND is currently making some even neater stuff right now that I may or may not be helping with) recently told me about the concept of developer logs. And I heard that and immediately was like… “Well I love talking about my projects…and I’m currently working on a comic.” So I'm making the Milwaukee Protocol devlog! Which will hopefully keep me on track with working on it! I’ll also throw in smaller updates about other side projects at the same time, just for fun. 

Milwaukee Protocol is a horror comic about- you guessed it- rabies. It follows Lyssa (named for everyones favorite virus, lyssavirus) after she gets bitten by a weird animal in the woods and starts experiencing rabies-like symptoms despite the fact that medically, there’s nothing wrong with her. It’s about losing control! It’s about changing in ways nobody understands! It’s about suffering the consequences of completely avoidable choices! It’s about instilling the sheer terror/fascination surrounding rabies that I’ve had since I was a child in other people! I’m not sure how coherent it is, but it’s still being written, and at the very least I’m excited about it.

I’m still writing the script and working on actually figuring out what everything and everyone looks like (something I skimped on for the last comic I made, which I think made it suffer), but I’m hoping to put my all into this one! I’m hoping to have the script done by mid-November, and this is where we are now. 

Thrilling. I know. God I love Notion. I'll hopefully have actual drawings of them next week but it has been a very overwhelming 2 weeks and also im sick so things are going very very slow.

While I figure out how to put this beast together, I'm also trying to put together some search and find pages just for fun- I started one for the Fool tarot card, since it felt like a fun theme to start with. That said, I'm not a huge fan of the composition so I might go back and redraw it. I'm also making a comic for college using a rubber duck as an allegory for having a crush on someone because they make you do weird stuff in art school sometimes.

I'm also listening to a bunch of stuff this week! A lot of Parkdale Haunt, which is a horror podcast about two women and the creepy old house that one of them inherits. Probably not the best when my only roommate right now is a fridge that makes sounds like human breathing, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for a good horror podcast. 

#comic update #im aiming to do one of these a week because I so deeply want to stay on track with this #also I looooove talking about my projects

[atundratoadstool]

Hello. This is inspired by Dracula Daily and all the long posts in the hashtag. I was wondering, outside of proper referencing, what would turn the theory/interpretation posts of Tumblr into actual literary analysis done by scholars such as yourself? Are there substantial difference, syntactic (the rhetoric and words used) or otherwise? I'm interested in the process. Thank you.

As flattered as I am by it, I often feel a little awkward when people draw too much of a line between my work as a scholar (I have all of one publication, and I'm still ABD) and themselves as scholars. I am very much a person who shifted pretty handily from enthused tumblr meta into academia. I'm hoping that a lot of readers, even if they're outside of the academy, consider their insights to be worth considering as scholarship.

That being said, the three moves I really think people need to get comfortable with in moving from fan meta to academic writing are (roughly) as follows:

Setting out your interpretive framework: This can sound intimidating, as "interpretive framework" often conjures up anxieties about critical theory and reading dense volumes of Foucault and Derrida, but what is really key here is that you set your reader's expectations for what the sort of ground rules are in which your argument/observations are taking place. A lot of fan meta, in my experience, makes assumptions about what comprises canon, whether authorial intent is significant, and how one should interpret evidence that aren't really spelled out--with authors often not really recognizing that they're taking a specific stance on interpretation from the onset. Signalling to your audience as to what lens you're using to view a text (feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic?) and what additional texts, historical context, and other information are or are not going to be taken into account sets the groundwork.

Responding to other scholars: This is the part that tumblr really can't prep you for, as Tumblr University tragically does not have much by the way of academic library access (and the inaccessibility of scholarship is something we should all be angry about). However, if you are moving towards something publishable, you'll need to check and see what other authors have said about the topic and how you do or do not agree with them. I also think--having been somebody who was once very bullheaded and hostile towards other critics--that part of developing this skill involves letting go of the idea that your reading is uniquely correct and that other readings are innately incorrect. Academic scholarship is ideally about conversation and not combat. If somebody you disagree with has faulty evidence or is making a logical misstep, however, by all means point it out; sometimes parts of conversations need to be shut down.

Having a good takeaway: For scholarship to really be worthwhile, it needs to tell us something new about the text and give us a deeper understanding or appreciation of it. I think a lot of fan meta is great at observing patterns, at meticulously recording evidence, and at explaining how the gathered information can be used to infer something about chronology or setting. What you need to ask yourself, however, is how your conclusion makes for a richer read. A fun fact I figured out at one point, for example, is that a seemingly inconsistent moment of Dracula's timeline can be explained by checking the train schedules for the Orient Express in the 1890s. This, by itself, is really neat trivia, but fundamentally, just knowing the origin of the train time doesn't give me a much better Dracula than one in which the dates appear fudged. Doing something that explores why the obsession with accuracy in transportation is so prevalent in the text (This is--in part--the topic of one of my chapters) can give the reader a new way to enjoy the novel, giving them reason to look to the minutiae of train schedules and shipping invoices as something that tells them more about the broader moves of the narrative.

Beyond this, there is a certain tone/vocabulary that is typical of academic writing, and its something one eventually picks up a little when one reads enough scholarship. I would advise, however, to focus more on being clear and understandable than in getting every aspect of the lingo down. If you're employing complex terminology specific to the field, there should be a clear and specific reason you're choosing those words beyond attempting to sound fancy. A lot of scholars lament that their peers are lacking in clarity.

Hope this helps!

#Dracula #Dracula Daily #Dracula Daily asks #grad school life #scholars with brighter future careers and a better grip on academic mores should feel free to chime in

[pyrrhocorax]

4 10 20 35 !

OKAY I know you asked this a bit ago sorry i got busy!!! work!!! turtle took a tiny chunk out of my finger!! the usual! y'know What's a headcanon you need to work out? i am blanking real hard with this but i Guess what i consider to be estonia's true name b/c von bock is von bullshit has been a constant Thought of mine for a long time. sme goes for a lot of nations that have bad canon names or no canon names like what the FUCK would i name them. it takes so much effort for me to decide. How long have you been in the fandom? What's your lore? i've been around a while! i can't date exactly when i started but it was at least sometime in 2008. i Think it was in the late fall of 2007, i've been trying to do the backwards math and i think this makes sense timeline wise, but my memory isn't exactly great. i figured out yesterday i am Pretty sure i was into hetalia before den/nor/ice were released?? which is. wild to me. anyway the story is that i occasionally saw hetalia fanart in passing and i was like. what the fuck is this but i don't care enough to investigate. and then i watched darker than black and was like wow i gotta tell my (now ex-)friend about this new cool anime darker then black b/c i am enjoying it a lot and i think she would too! and then my friend was like "i am going to totally ignore you. watch this thing called hetalia instead. you like other countries and history and languages and shit you should like this it's so funny" and i watched it and i didn't find it as funny as she claimed but i thought the concept itself was utterly Fascinating and i became Obsessed. my initial favs were japan/prussia/estonia initially, all for radically different reasons. i can elaborate on that if prompted it's just more text than i care to put here. then the den/nor/ice dropped and we had some comics with the nordic 5 and i was like oH FUCK these character dynamics between them are So Fun!!! and i have been in Hell every since. this is my third time getting back into hetalia after swearing it off for good and uhhh i think i have just been in denial this entire time that i am stuck here forever. Favorite Hetalia relationship dynamic? Any combination of the Anko Trio without question. they're such an interesting little complicated group. Post a Hetalia sketch or draft you want an excuse to share i am not very good at drawing and draw from the perspective of a more refined 8 year old child or something (positive). but i also don't have anything currently drafted writing wise that feels complete enough either so i am gonna share a dumb doodle i did and also share some upcoming things i plan on doing.

one of the chapters of the SOS sequel is going to be called "The Joy Machine" and i am. very excited about that.

also have a neat NorAus idea i am obsessed with and will probably write soon-ish. once i sleep and think a bunch

#pyrrhocorax fic #pyrrhocorax ask

[floofe-trans-doggie]

TF2 Summer 2023 Map Tier List*

*Not including the VSH maps because I've only gotten to try a couple of them on community servers, since it still doesn't work in Casual

S Tier-

Phoenix

Taking the top of the list, it should be no surprise to see Phoenix here. The map is GORGEOUS and incredibly unique in its art style while fitting perfectly into TF2, and it plays incredibly smoothly. Every point offers something slightly different, and overall the map always plays incredibly well. This is one of the best maps I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

Sulfur

Do you have any idea how long I've waited for another map that plays like cp_steel? Sulfur was a map I'd been very much hoping to see in this update, and here it is! It's aesthetics are beautiful and expand upon the same visual style we see in Suijin, and though its layout and unique objective takes a minute to figure out, it's incredibly fun and feels overall quite balanced.

A Tier-

Selbyen

LOOK AT THE SEAL GO LOOK AT THE SEAL IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN HIM! Cuteness aside, this is the first Player Destruction map that isn't season-locked that we've gotten since the mode was first added with pd_watergate, which is absurd because there's 7 total maps in the gamemode. It plays well enough, with shorter buildings that you can traverse atop, but the real draw of this map is the seals and how damn cute they are. In terms of gameplay, though, it can be a bit lacking. It feels very cramped at times with how small the map is, and this makes certain classes feel disproportionately powerful, especially Gunslinger Engie. Regardless, though, it's not a bad experience, and it remains at the top of A Tier. Mainly because of the seals.

Cashworks

This one's been around a while. Never heard of it by name, but I had heard of its unique winding second point before, which is interesting, though in my experience the real gameplay comes in the choke immediately afterward. In terms of looks, it's quite nice, though not the most distinctive of this update. In terms of gameplay, it's also quite nice, though it tends to get very chokey as Payload often does. This may just be everyone still needing to learn the map, though. Also there was that day-1 bug where RED could just walk right into BLU spawn, which was interesting.

Rotunda

I mainly like this map because you can ride the train, I'll be real. That's not to say it isn't a great map in other regards as well, I just really like the trains. But regardless, this map has a stunning visual aesthetic, and I'd be shocked if it weren't the map with the most trains in all of TF2, which is certainly a proud accomplishment. The dilapidated train depot turned doomsday device storage facility is visually striking, and hiding around the McGuffin on the center point to capture it is interesting gameplay-wise, though it tends to get very spammy and the walls around the point combined with Engineers being able to set up within them means some very nasty and annoying nests can be made. It's also a very inviting map for projectile spam onto the point, with plenty of space above and an open roof to facilitate this. Gameplay-wise it's a mixed bag, but it's so visually interesting it can't go any lower than this.

B Tier-

Sharkbay

Remember when we all knew this map was being added way beforehand because Valve slipped up? Yeah, good times. This map has some neat, unique stuff going for it. The control point is a fishing boat, it has shark tanks in spawn, there's the sharks, obviously, and there's even a new kill icon for them. Pretty neat. While I love how this map looks, it tends to go very one-sided in terms of how it plays. I have yet to have a solid back-and-forth on this map, and one team usually rolls the other, though admittedly it has just released, and it may get better with time.

Reckoner

It's a solid 5cp map. The aesthetics are fairly unique. Doesn't really have anything too interesting about it, though, at least in terms of gameplay. I don't have much to complain about with Reckoner, but there isn't much that stands out about it to me. Comes with all the rolls and stalemates of any 5cp map.

Hardwood

Rounding out the bottom of B Tier we have Hardwood. It's a pretty good map. It generally plays fine in my experience. Three full points to capture give it a decent bit of length without stretching on like multi-stage Attack/Defend maps do. Visually, it's quite nice, but it doesn't really strike me as anything too special. It's well-done, but it isn't the most unique. Not much to really complain about, of course, but I can't lump all the good maps into S and A Tier, so here it sits, the lowest of the maps that I actually really like.

C Tier-

Pelican Peak

For a Capture the Flag map, Pelican Peak is great. A tad small, but it has a nice visual aesthetic with the fog and the alpine setting and the bridge over the center. Unfortunately, it's Capture the Flag, and it really doesn't do anything to remedy the usual problems the gamemode has, especially with only a couple routes into a frankly rather small intel room with a briefcase you have to climb up a small structure to get to. If Capture the Flag were a good mode, this map would be much higher. Unfortunately, it isn't.

D Tier-

Venice

Aesthetically, this map is fine. It's unique, taking place in, of course, Venice, Italy. However, there's a lot that's just a bit off about this map and makes it easily the weakest of the entire update. For one, the texturing feels a bit weird. Maybe it's just me, but in a lot of spots the textures just look off, particularly on the corners of buildings. I'd love to be more descriptive, but I am running on very little sleep and this is hard to describe. Love to see if anyone else sees it the same way or if I'm just losing my marbles. Also the floating cart on the first point looks really really weird. It doesn't look like it should be buoyant, and it doesn't have a custom model that would suggest it is nor anything guiding it along a track, so it doesn't look like it's floating in the water as much as levitating in it. But visuals aside, this map is hell to play on. It's chokey, has absolutely ridiculous sightlines without much cover, and if BLU doesn't roll, they're probably not making it to the final point. Aside from Pelican Peak which is only not-great because it's Capture the Flag, this is the only map in the entire update that I find frankly disappointing.

#team fortress 2

[raeloganthesonic06fangirl]

Wanted to draw, but then the laptop decided it was time to spend all day doing updates, so I decided to share some scrapped and WIP doodles instead for some of my sketches for the Amnesia AU

I'm gonna put this under a Read More because it's quite a few, and a couple of them has some unsettling imagery that depict Jacky after the initial accident, so I wanna give a slight forewarning although nothing is colored and most everything is in blue linework anyway.

Starting off a little fluffy here, but I gave up on trying to figure out how to make Claire's beak was going to work here, but anyway, that little playful dance scene.

Jacky from the Faux-80s era thing (the non descript pre-snappage setting that I decided technically takes place in the 80s but the DWD comics created a snarl by boosting technology to mimic the 2010s despite the original cartoon being in the 90s and no one aged a single gosh dang day), and its that one hospital visit where he's molting from a stress-rash brought on by the anxiety during that trial over the recall on his products. Mostly a quick loose doodle to get a visual on how absolutely uncomfortable he's feeling.

Nothing in particular, he's just freaking hyped over something.

Face. Nothing else, I don't even think I wanted to draw anything other than face. A little more on-model than usual, tho.

Very sassy "Y'all seein' this junk??" More proportionately closer to my general style, but I didn't get around to lining and coloring this one yet.

Blanket cocoon, Jacky trying to get over that cold he got while insisting he's fine, but Claire thinks otherwise

Figment!Jacky as seen during the fever chapter when Jacky starts imagining him as he saw himself on the tape of the "Fell Out The Window And Cracked His Skull Like An Egg" incident that landed him here to begin with. Originally described a little more scuffed in the story proper, I wanted to figure out a design to work with for the illustration purposes (I wanted to keep the image put in the AO3 release to not go as hard as the actual words, and also drawing injury to a blorbo is way freaking harder to endure than typing a few words down because you gotta stare at that the whole time making it ahhhhhhhh) that adhered to the description, minus the... um... stains, so one working idea was to draw the headfeathers more ruffled to give the indication that the injury still existed. Also, there's like NO reference images of QuackerJack with his cap askew so I had to figure out how the angling and eyeholes are going to work, so you can imagine this is a challenge for me.

POV: You're Darkwing and this is the moment where the AU starts, after QuackerJack was launched out of a third story window by two large sentient banana toys. He's got the concussion of a lifetime from hitting concrete, and doesn't remember the last four months (AKA: My initial estimate for the timeline of the first half of the comics). He doesn't realize that his life is in your hands right now. Good luck, Darkwing.

This was intended to be the illustration of the incident, but I still can't figure out how to tone it down while still keeping the urgency of the scene intact. Again, blorbos in ouch ain't exactly fun to draw but I suppose the solace in this is knowing that he gets taken care of and put on the mend right away, so it's not like this is totally bleak, but still... this has been sitting on the backburner for months...

Let's do a palate cleanser for a sec after that jarring image. This ain't got anything to do with the AU, but it's still a neat unfinished sketch.

Not exactly part of the AU, but remember that Wereduck!Jacky thing I did around October last year? Here's a playful sketch of him wagging his tailfeathers with his tongue out because he am puppy.

And that's a handful. I tend to scrap things if I either just don't like how the layout is or if I'm unsure if it's appropriate yet to do so, either because spoilers or because I don't think enough context could make it make sense yet.

#rae's art #art by rae #darkwing duck #quackerjack #quackerjack amnesia au #claire

[merklins]

Hi merky! Just know I'm going to bed now but I have ideas for the drawing prompts!!! Im considering drawing both, but ive actually never watched ToH.. im taking your ask however as the final sign that i should so i shall share my thoughts with you >:] I'm also gonna try and snap some minecraft pictures tomorrow, but I didn't cuz my brain was sooo fucking tired and I forgored [and also have to figure out how to take screenshots on my computer ;^^]

I built a huge house though!!! It's three stories but kinda narrow? It's got a kitchen, an attic (which will be my room) and a really tiny bathroom that's just for afk ^^; im also planning to make a living room! I've also got a really nice exterior going which I adore!!! #o(>♡<)o# so many plants and shrubs... there's also a really big and nice basement, but I didn't build that! I just mostly worked on the house, which started as a temporary dirt hut and kinda evolved into something more elaborate over time!

Anyway, I hope your day was well! I care for you and im here if you need anything!! ^◇^-Ollie

WAIT YOU HADN'T ALREADY?? I sent you Raine as the alternative because I was trying to pick out something from another fandom you were in and VAGUELY remembered seeing an Owl House reblog from you. OH WELL! It's a neat show and I'm sure you've heard more than enough about it already so I'll spare you from any more haha. I got a couple prompts of my own sitting in the inbox right now, so if any of those were yours, then good news! THE IDEA IS IN MOTION! ( After spending. an embarrassing amount of time deciding which card and what flowers I was using)

Also your Minecraft house sounds lovely and I can't wait to see pictures of it!! I can't promise it'll work on every kind of computer ever, but usually pressing fn and f2 at the same time will take a screenshot for you. You'll have to go fishing around in the game files to find your screenshot folder, but it gets the job done! If you have a printscreen button that'll send a screenshot right to your clipboard, but if you don't play in fullscreen it'll capture your taskbar too so be careful of that.

NOW INFO DUMP UNDER THE READ MORE FOR MY NEATO MINECRAFT WORLD <3

OK so I don't actually have much built on this one yet because I've been busy surviving BUT I have big ideas!! IMPORTANT CONTEXT BEFORE I GO OFF HERE my world has a mod on it that realigns all the Minecraft code so being underwater is GOOD that's how I'm supposed to play! It's fun and safe and I can do all the stuff I need to down there! BUT ON THE OTHER HAND being in air does the little bubble popping and eventually kills me. Context over!

First big question right off the bat. WHAT HORSES... Horses don't do water Minecraft! WELL WELL WELL One day I had Minecraft open in the background during a thunderstorm and a skeleton trap spawned right over my cave. I triggered the trap by accident while collecting kelp aaand after defeating all of the riders I now have a bunch of skeleton ponies (: Skeleton horses are cool because in Minecraft Skeletons CAN'T drown. So these guys cruise around the caverns like it's nothing! I can ride them too, which. isn't any more effective than swimming because I swim VERY WELL with this mod. But it's the thought that counts! Companionship is hard to come by down there so I LOVE these freaky little guys. They scream horrid sounds from the abyss while I work and I just <3 those are them!! I haven't given most of them names, but one is called Fibia (Fibula + Tibia. I was tired and forgot those weren't one word)

I've been working on re-shaping the caverns before I start building, because while the caves and cliffs update is EPIC there are just sooo many nooks and crannies to get lost in. THANKFULLY the caverns have so many openings to the surface that I can usually swim back around to my base of operations (first cave in the cavern that I dumped all my junk in while I build). I'm going to grab some screenshots once I'm done with all that terraforming and sketch out some ideas, but right now I'm thinking that I should hijack some kind of sunken research facility. I'm talking fallen vessels, abandoned equipment, THE FULL SHEBANG! It's going to look so cool and be the perfect use for all of this copper I keep digging up.

So if you happen to find any cool submerged architecture and technology in your travels I would LOVE to be tagged for that kind of stuff! And also. I left you hanging on the bird thing. I WILL GET YOU THAT BIRD PHOTO!! I don't have any of them yet because I haven't been taking my camera out with me, but the next chance I get I'll see if I can snap those guys!

#m asks #m craft #< my tag for my minecraft world #Hi hi! It's nice seeing you in the inbox (: #Same goes here! Whatever Whenever? I'm your! . ! Person for the job! #I don't usually do custom tags for askers here. but if that's something useful for you then just let me know and I'll come up with some!

[princessrainbowpastel]

✨🎶💕💔🏳️‍🌈💢

AAAA THANKS HON!!!!

Disney’s Hercules/Hercules the Animated Series is my current obsession so yeah lol

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

Well honestly I got drawn in from the villain of the movie: Hades (that’s literally how I get drawn into basically all my fandoms lmao I have an f/o in it and now I’m obsessed lol). But I love the twist they did for the Greek lore of Disney’s Hercules! It’s really interesting and I think Greek mythology is really cool and interesting too! I’m not a huge Greek mythology buff, but the movie as well as the series (and some anons on my Disney blog lmao) have taught me a lot of neat Greek mythology stories and fun facts!

🎶 if your hyperfixation has songs/an ost, what is your favorite song from it?

Lol well I have 3 favorite songs from the movie: The Gospel Truth II (because it’s pretty much Hades’ villain song since he doesn’t sing in the movie lmao), Zero to Hero (a bop and the video that made me fall in love with Hades/made me obsessed with the movie and series lol), and I Won’t Say I’m in Love (a certified banger)

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

…HADES 💙❤️‍🔥 he’s just this weird mix of ugly and handsome and I love that lmao, that seems to be my type lol. Also I just love that he’s different from other classic Disney villains and from what you’d expect him to be like. He’s not some dark and menacing villain that’s all serious and out for revenge, he’s this super laid back, sleazy, fast talking, schmoozing used car salesman of a god lmao. I also love that he has a secret soft side! It’s very rare to see in the show and even the movie (if you squint lol), but it’s nice and it shows that he really isn’t as cruel and heartless as he seems. ❤️

💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

Oh jeez, that’s a hard one lol. Honestly, I love all the characters in the movie and the series spin off, so there aren’t a lot that I don’t like. I’d say maybe Zeus? I wish he were more considerate of his brother’s feelings and weren’t so naive about the fact that he’s unhappy with his role as a god and that the other gods don’t like him and don’t treat him with the same respect he gets (probably because Hades has done shady stuff in the past but still lol).

🏳‍🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you?

Heck yeah I do!!! I headcanon Hades as pansexual just because he seems like the type to be into anybody lol, I also headcanon both Hercules and Meg as bisexual because they both give me strong bi couple vibes lmaooo

💢 what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it?

The movie? Well, I’d certainly give Hades his beautiful little flowery spring goddess wife. He deserves it, this dude has been through so much with his crazy father and his stuck up brothers lmao. But other than that the movie was flawless! As for the series….I’d change the entire plot. It’s supposed to take place before the movie like a prequel series (like the Little Mermaid animated series), but the thing is: THE ENTIRE SHOW ISN’T CANON TO THE MOVIE. Idk why but it bugs me so much lmao. Like don’t get me wrong I LOVE the show, but it’s pretty much an AU. Like Hades is the main villain of the series and Hercules is supposed to be in highschool training to be a hero (pretty much the series is supposed to take place during the whole One Last Hope montage), but Hades doesn’t even realize Hercules is still alive until Meg runs into him in the forest when he’s 18. Herc is like 16 in the show and constantly runs into Hades and the other gods. Tbh I don’t think Hercules even realized who his parents were until he was like 17 because I figured he had graduated by then and went to travel and find his “true self” and all that. But yeah, anyways lol sorry I always end up ranting about the canon divergence of the show 😂

#princess posts #ask #hercules 1997 #hercules #Disney #disney’s hercules #hercules the animated series

[chaudharis]

hey ! would YOU like to know more abt him? awesome because im gonna dump my design notes and lore notes for him here for funsies! i just wanted to make an info post for him! thank you for reading if you do!

its a bit of a long one btw, so apologies for thwt. i am very much open to ideas and suggestions for developing this little. interpretation? au? whatever you might call this. feel free to play around with him as u like hes not my oc :^] just a fun idea

DESIGN NOTES:

i want to make it clear most of the design stuff is bc i thought it was cool. then i bullshit my reasoning behind it. remember this.

i also dont know how exactly to organize this so smth more lore related might be in the design section and vise versa. i dont care enough to make this better

also design is still very subject to change because i enjoy constantly fiddling with things. fun! might update if its different enough.

uses mostly reds/purples to directly complement athetos's greens and blues. trace takes comfort in this, for the most part.

just a fun idea but i rhink its neat to have traces Not Human-ness be biological, to contrast with indras being entirely technological/robotic. adds to their parallels. (and both of them being physical at all is a parallel to hammond being fucking dead /j)

wonder why his mouth has those faint marks at the corners? because it can do this now!

why you might ask? i dont know. ask someone else. i thiught it was cool. the orange line on #3 is supposed to indicate where his mouth normally wouldve ended. so he has a wider mouth technically!

hes much more movement based now! since this also acts as a fun idea for what if in a future av game(s) we got gameplay that was even more abt the movement. so hes pretty good at parkour now. specifically climbing. ive been imagining he moves a lot like u do in celeste, except probably more stamina and faster climbing. less focus on dashing. but he can air dash too!

he has his gun i promise he has the gun i just dont like drawing it it sucks to draw

yea so he is covered in carapace, since ive had to scrap that with a different chatacter (if you know, you know) i get to put it on the same character but in a different direction. i can do whatever i want forever.

size comparison over his weird. tentacle things idk what ud call them exactly. they got bigger because i can do anything. also bc when i originally drew them i didnt look up a ref (i rarely use refs for charas and prefer to go off of memory unless i need to) and so i was like ok so thwyre big right? right. well turns out theyre not. but guess what. now they are. it is so awesome for him

for funsies i think trace can put stupid shit in his hair. its a tangled mess stuff will very easily stay in there. he hasnt brushed it in years man. he always forgets what he puts in there btw so its always a surprise for him

oh also his labcoat also is Different but i cant figure out what hed have that isnt already in av1. so imagine he does smth new WOW WOW SO COOL !

LORE NOTES:

this whole hashtag Look is either from the original bioflux mutation getting worse or a few different ones. i havent decided which one i wanna go with. either way this is a gradual change. it will get worse!

see i dont have much for What hes doing because i dont have any ideas for what the rusalki are doing now so thats very much up in the air. all i have rn is that hes helping them somehow. not of his own choice really.

has a very. Not Great relationship with the rusalki. hes incredibly bitter about his situation (lack of any real control) and so. well they arent besties. hes a lot more snarky and rude to them. which is fair i think how would you feel in a situation like that huh. not so great huh.

his best friend is oracca bc shes the only person who hasnt lied to him and has only been helpful and he loves to chill with her. she never speaks or does much of anything but thats fine with trace, he doesnt mind. likes to do the rubber duck thing with her (says thing out loud to pin point whats wrong with whatever hes working on). she also doesnt mind id like to think

hes. a little more aggressive but as a defense mechanism. hes in hostile territory all the time and under incredible stress all the time, can you blame him realky? stress can make people aggressive, it turns out. crazy.

also with this, i say hes more aggressive but hes just more all bark no bite. hes like this

but if you take like, anothwr step closer hes like this

see. hes still kind of a weenie dw. i understand

he really wants to be kinder again. but hes not in a situation where he can. this kills him

also! heavy unreality issues. this is what happens when you spend months if not years thinking ur living ur life as usual until it gets revealed actually you were in a dream simulation the whole time. unrelated but i think he hates the movie inception.

the unreality is still a massive issue but he copes with it by after so long just going "ok well ill just assume Everything is a dream no matter what because the opposite would be horrifying and i have no evidence that disproves this. but i can act like i dont think this on the off chance rhat it is real. but i know its not"

doesnt come up much at all because hes not ever around someone New but he is pretty self conscious about how he is now. i think hes also a very touch swnsory person so he develops lots of touch related tics. like when nervous he starts to pick at himself, runs hands through hair a lot, etc etc. very touchy. with the parts hes most self conscious abt.

massive identity issues, especially because of his distinct lack of humanity. how can he really be trace anymore if hes changed so much, etc etc. those questions. he can feel his connection to The Trace Identity sorta fading as he becomes his own kinda guy away from this but it fucking sucks for him. because if hes not trace then what is he. who is he. if you tell him athetos hed curl up and cry

speaking of curling up and crying, thats what hes kinda doing a lot internally. he really wants to go home man and for real this time he wont want to go back to sudra this time he promises. but also if he does go back he will be 100% convinced that isnt real. which is fair

if you ask him how long hes been there he'll tell you "a few months, i think." this is not true, he has been there for years doing somethinh, couldnt tell ya what tho!

Generally Not Doing Too Great On Many Levels But Hes Dealing With It

ok thats abt all i can think of atm? ill update this if needed. otherwise hi if you read this ur very kind and i appreciate that. it feels nice when people read my stuff. makes me feel good :^] i hope you feel good today too. today is a good day

#txt #trace #beast mode #my art #wheeeeee !!! wheeeeee

[pbandjesse]

We are driving though glacier national park and I could cry it's so beautiful. Today has been so beautiful. I am seriously having the best trip. 

It has been a very long day, both figuratively and literally. Because we cross two timezones we gained hours! And it's just been really neat.

I did not sleep a lot last night. After I got my post up I decided I would stay up for Minneapolis even if it wouldn't be until midnight. But the stop isn't actually in Minneapolis, it's in St Paul. But it was still fun to sit and watch things go by I loved so dearly. 

And I just watched videos and watched the world go by. 

James woke up to use the bathroom and sat with me for a little bit. I had gotten a little upset when I realized I lost the back and battery of my Bluetooth remote for my phone camera. I was sure it was in this cabin but with the beds set up I could not find it. And it made me feel really dumb and bad. But James helped me feel a little better because we went to sleep for real. 

I was woken up by the sunrise. James was trying to come down from the top bunk and I grabbed their foot. We cuddled a little. But then it was time to get dressed. Which was a little hard but basically like changing in the back of the car so it was fine. And then it was time for breakfast. 

Which was very good! Mine did get lost for a little. It eventually came out after getting stuck in the dumbwaiter.  I got a breakfast quesadilla which I would enjoy very much. James had French toast. We talked to the women at our table a little but they weren't super chatty. Which was fine. I enjoyed James's company. And once we were done we went back to the cabin, where our attendant had changed our space back to seats. 

We would just enjoy watching the world go by. We would talk. And take pictures. Lots of laughs. I did some drawing. And eventually we got to go outside for a little break in North Dakota. We walked the length of the train and took pictures. And then it was back inside. 

They told us lunch would be at noon mountain time. So we had some extra time. We hadn't even switched to that time zone yet. But that was just fine. I had the rest of my quesadilla and played a game. It was just so beautiful outside and I was having the best day. 

Eventually we got the call for lunch, our table mates from yesterday basically run past our door so we ran after that. It was very silly and we were all giggling at how dramatic we were being. 

Lunch was good! I just had a salad, it was nice to have some kind of vegetable. It was a strawberry salad which isn't my top pick but I actually enjoyed a lot. The movement of the train is a little hard on my tummy though and I would get nauseous really quick so that is something I have to consider with the foods I choose. But the salad was good and I felt happy. Me and James shared a butter cake. Our table mates this time were our neighbors! And it was very fun talking to them about my thesis and art. They were very good sports about me talking to much. I was telling James I know that Europeans can think Americans are a lot, but Americans can already think I'm a lot so I hope I didn't scare them. They are very nice.

Me and James went to the observation car next. And while it is neat, I prefer our car. We can be cozier, my things are there, I have my activities. But we stayed there for about an hour. I listen to the rest of the scary story I had been listening to. And James worked on figuring out how to fix the airport mistake.

Somehow we got a return flight to an airport in Virginia. 2 hours from home. So thankfully we were able to find a car to rent but it was just not what I was hoping we were going to have to do. But there are no flights direct to bwi, so unless we want a 20 hour layover this is our best choice. If something has to go wrong I'm glad it was just that. 

We went back the our car after that was sorted. Where I found the back of my shutter! I was thrilled. 

We would take silly pictures in the cabin. And I just felt so happy and relaxed. I did some sewing. I did some drawing. I was just in a great mood. 

We were finally in mountain time. And a little into Montana we got another fresh air break. At this stop we got to see an old train that I think was the former empire builder engine car. We took pictures with that and were just enjoying the sunshine even if we forgot our sunglasses and could not see without squinting. We were just giggly and happy and this has been such a wonderful trip so far and it's literally just the begining. If the rest of the trip is half as fun it'll be a blessing. 

The rest of the afternoon was watching the plains. It is unreasonably pretty. And I took over 130 pictures just today because it's so stinking pretty. 

And then it was dinner time. The woman we sat with wanted to see our wedding pictures and had lots of questions and that made me feel so good. She said we were such a fashionable couple and that was such a big compliment. Made me feel great. And the dinner we had was good too. I got Mac and cheese, James got a steak. It was fun watching on the map to see when we went through the Blackfoot Indian reservation, and all of us were speculating when we would get to the mountains. 

Me and James went back to the cabin and watched the world. We fixed our bags a bit so tomorrow will be easier for packing to move out of here and arriving in Seattle. We saw some interesting things. Like pheasants, antelopes, bleached bones, and even a child mooning the train. Hilarious. 

But all I cared about were the mountains. I was practically vibrating with excitement once we could see them out in the distance. As we edged closer I saw a white fox and a beaver and a horse that had left it's fence. But then the mountains were closer. And they were beautiful. My pictures don't do them justice. I'm so glad we got to see them for almost two hours before the sun went down. Because it was everything. We saw meandering water, babbling brooks, we went under tunnels and saw cabins and snow. We went through clouds and fog. It was just. Magical. 

But I did lose service as soon as well got up here. So this post won't be there when I want it to. But as soon as I can get it up I will. I apologize but I'm on my honeymoon so you don't get to be upset with me. Just know I am having an absolute blast. 

Tomorrow we should arrive in Seattle in the early afternoon. We will see when it actually happens. We are both excited for full showers and a hopefully big bed. But also I'm excited to see another place! 

I hope you are all having fun as well, sleeping good and appreciating the nature around you. Goodnight!!