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eyrieofsynapses · 5 months

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why Aurora's art is genius

It's break for me, and I've been meaning to sit down and read the Aurora webcomic (https://comicaurora.com/, @comicaurora on Tumblr) for quite a bit. So I did that over the last few days.

And… y'know. I can't actually say "I should've read this earlier," because otherwise I would've been up at 2:30-3am when I had responsibilities in the morning and I couldn't have properly enjoyed it, but. Holy shit guys THIS COMIC.

I intended to just do a generalized "hello this is all the things I love about this story," and I wrote a paragraph or two about art style. …and then another. And another. And I realized I needed to actually reference things so I would stop being too vague. I was reading the comic on my tablet or phone, because I wanted to stay curled up in my chair, but I type at a big monitor and so I saw more details… aaaaaand it turned into its own giant-ass post.

SO. Enjoy a few thousand words of me nerding out about this insanely cool art style and how fucking gorgeous this comic is? (There are screenshots, I promise it isn't just a wall of text.) In my defense, I just spent two semesters in graphic design classes focusing on the Adobe Suite, so… I get to be a nerd about pretty things…???

All positive feedback btw! No downers here. <3

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I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the beautiful, simple stylistic method of drawing characters and figures. It is absolutely stunning and effortless and utterly graceful—it is so hard to capture the sheer beauty and fluidity of the human form in such a fashion. Even a simple outline of a character feels dynamic! It's gorgeous!

Though I do have a love-hate relationship with this, because my artistic side looks at that lovely simplicity, goes "I CAN DO THAT!" and then I sit down and go to the paper and realize that no, in fact, I cannot do that yet, because that simplicity is born of a hell of a lot of practice and understanding of bodies and actually is really hard to do. It's a very developed style that only looks simple because the artist knows what they're doing. The human body is hard to pull off, and this comic does so beautifully and makes it look effortless.

Also: line weight line weight line weight. It's especially important in simplified shapes and figures like this, and hoo boy is it used excellently. It's especially apparent the newer the pages get—I love watching that improvement over time—but with simpler figures and lines, you get nice light lines to emphasize both smaller details, like in the draping of clothing and the curls of hair—which, hello, yes—and thicker lines to emphasize bigger and more important details and silhouettes. It's the sort of thing that's essential to most illustrations, but I wanted to make a note of it because it's so vital to this art style.

THE USE OF LAYER BLENDING MODES OH MY GODS. (...uhhh, apologies to the people who don't know what that means, it's a digital art program thing? This article explains it for beginners.)

Bear with me, I just finished my second Photoshop course, I spent months and months working on projects with this shit so I see the genius use of Screen and/or its siblings (of which there are many—if I say "Screen" here, assume I mean the entire umbrella of Screen blending modes and possibly Overlay) and go nuts, but seriously it's so clever and also fucking gorgeous:

Firstly: the use of screened-on sound effect words over an action? A "CRACK" written over a branch and then put on Screen in glowy green so that it's subtle enough that it doesn't disrupt the visual flow, but still sticks out enough to make itself heard? Little "scritches" that are transparent where they're laid on without outlines to emphasize the sound without disrupting the underlying image? FUCK YES. I haven't seen this done literally anywhere else—granted, I haven't read a massive amount of comics, but I've read enough—and it is so clever and I adore it. Examples:

Secondly: The beautiful lighting effects. The curling leaves, all the magic, the various glowing eyes, the fog, the way it's all so vividly colored but doesn't burn your eyeballs out—a balance that's way harder to achieve than you'd think—and the soft glows around them, eeeee it's so pretty so pretty SO PRETTY. Not sure if some of these are Outer/Inner Glow/Shadow layer effects or if it's entirely hand-drawn, but major kudos either way; I can see the beautiful use of blending modes and I SALUTE YOUR GENIUS.

I keep looking at some of this stuff and go "is that a layer effect or is it done by hand?" Because you can make some similar things with the Satin layer effect in Photoshop (I don't know if other programs have this? I'm gonna have to find out since I won't have access to PS for much longer ;-;) that resembles some of the swirly inner bits on some of the lit effects, but I'm not sure if it is that or not. Or you could mask over textures? There's... many ways to do it.

If done by hand: oh my gods the patience, how. If done with layer effects: really clever work that knows how to stop said effects from looking wonky, because ugh those things get temperamental. If done with a layer of texture that's been masked over: very, very good masking work. No matter the method, pretty shimmers and swirly bits inside the bigger pretty swirls!

Next: The way color contrast is used! I will never be over the glowy green-on-black Primordial Life vibes when Alinua gets dropped into that… unconscious space?? with Life, for example, and the sharp contrast of vines and crack and branches and leaves against pitch black is just visually stunning. The way the roots sink into the ground and the three-dimensional sensation of it is particularly badass here:

Friggin. How does this imply depth like that. HOW. IT'S SO FREAKING COOL.

A huge point here is also color language and use! Everybody has their own particular shade, generally matching their eyes, magic, and personality, and I adore how this is used to make it clear who's talking or who's doing an action. That was especially apparent to me with Dainix and Falst in the caves—their colors are both fairly warm, but quite distinct, and I love how this clarifies who's doing what in panels with a lot of action from both of them. There is a particular bit that stuck out to me, so I dug up the panels (see this page and the following one https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-30/):

(Gods it looks even prettier now that I put it against a plain background. Also, appreciation to Falst for managing a bridal-carry midair, damn.)

The way that their colors MERGE here! And the immense attention to detail in doing so—Dainix is higher up than Falst is in the first panel, so Dainix's orange fades into Falst's orange at the base. The next panel has gold up top and orange on bottom; we can't really tell in that panel where each of them are, but that's carried over to the next panel—

—where we now see that Falst's position is raised above Dainix's due to the way he's carrying him. (Points for continuity!) And, of course, we see the little "huffs" flowing from orange to yellow over their heads (where Dainix's head is higher than Falst's) to merge the sound of their breathing, which is absurdly clever because it emphasizes to the viewer how we hear two sets of huffing overlaying each other, not one. Absolutely brilliant.

(A few other notes of appreciation to that panel: beautiful glows around them, the sparks, the jagged silhouette of the spider legs, the lovely colors that have no right to make the area around a spider corpse that pretty, the excellent texturing on the cave walls plus perspective, the way Falst's movements imply Dainix's hefty weight, the natural posing of the characters, their on-point expressions that convey exactly how fuckin terrifying everything is right now, the slight glows to their eyes, and also they're just handsome boys <3)

Next up: Rain!!!! So well done! It's subtle enough that it never ever disrupts the impact of the focal point, but evident enough you can tell! And more importantly: THE MIST OFF THE CHARACTERS. Rain does this irl, it has that little vapor that comes off you and makes that little misty effect that plays with lighting, it's so cool-looking and here it's used to such pretty effect!

One of the panel captions says something about it blurring out all the injuries on the characters but like THAT AIN'T TOO BIG OF A PROBLEM when it gets across the environmental vibes, and also that'd be how it would look in real life too so like… outside viewer's angle is the same as the characters', mostly? my point is: that's the environment!!! that's the vibes, that's the feel! It gets it across and it does so in the most pretty way possible!

And another thing re: rain, the use of it to establish perspective, particularly in panels like this—

—where we can tell we're looking down at Tynan due to the perspective on the rain and where it's pointing. Excellent. (Also, kudos for looking down and emphasizing how Tynan's losing his advantage—lovely use of visual storytelling.)

Additionally, the misting here:

We see it most heavily in the leftmost panel, where it's quite foggy as you would expect in a rainstorm, especially in an environment with a lot of heat, but it's also lightly powdered on in the following two panels and tends to follow light sources, which makes complete sense given how light bounces off particles in the air.

A major point of strength in these too is a thorough understanding of lighting, like rim lighting, the various hues and shades, and an intricate understanding of how light bounces off surfaces even when they're in shadow (we'll see a faint glow in spots where characters are half in shadow, but that's how it would work in real life, because of how light bounces around).

Bringing some of these points together: the fluidity of the lines in magic, and the way simple glowing lines are used to emphasize motion and the magic itself, is deeply clever. I'm basically pulling at random from panels and there's definitely even better examples, but here's one (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-16-33/):

First panel, listed in numbers because these build on each other:

The tension of the lines in Tess's magic here. This works on a couple levels: first, the way she's holding her fists, as if she's pulling a rope taut.

The way there's one primary line, emphasizing the rope feeling, accompanied by smaller ones.

The additional lines starbursting around her hands, to indicate the energy crackling in her hands and how she's doing a good bit more than just holding it. (That combined with the fists suggests some tension to the magic, too.) Also the variations in brightness, a feature you'll find in actual lightning. :D Additional kudos for how the lightning sparks and breaks off the metal of the sword.

A handful of miscellaneous notes on the second panel:

The reflection of the flames in Erin's typically dark blue eyes (which bears a remarkable resemblance to Dainix, incidentally—almost a thematic sort of parallel given Erin's using the same magic Dainix specializes in?)

The flowing of fabric in the wind and associated variation in the lineart

The way Erin's tattoos interact with the fire he's pulling to his hand

The way the rain overlays some of the fainter areas of fire (attention! to! detail! hell yeah!)

I could go on. I won't because this is a lot of writing already.

Third panel gets paragraphs, not bullets:

Erin's giant-ass "FWOOM" of fire there, and the way the outline of the word is puffy-edged and gradated to feel almost three-dimensional, plus once again using Screen or a variation on it so that the stars show up in the background. All this against that stunning plume of fire, which ripples and sparks so gorgeously, and the ending "om" of the onomatopoeia is emphasized incredibly brightly against that, adding to the punch of it and making the plume feel even brighter.

Also, once again, rain helping establish perspective, especially in how it's very angular in the left side of the panel and then slowly becomes more like a point to the right to indicate it's falling directly down on the viewer. Add in the bright, beautiful glow effects, fainter but no less important black lines beneath them to emphasize the sky and smoke and the like, and the stunningly beautiful lighting and gradated glows surrounding Erin plus the lightning jagging up at him from below, and you get one hell of an impactful panel right there. (And there is definitely more in there I could break down, this is just a lot already.)

And in general: The colors in this? Incredible. The blues and purples and oranges and golds compliment so well, and it's all so rich.

Like, seriously, just throughout the whole comic, the use of gradients, blending modes, color balance and hues, all the things, all the things, it makes for the most beautiful effects and glows and such a rich environment. There's a very distinct style to this comic in its simplified backgrounds (which I recognize are done partly because it's way easier and also backgrounds are so time-consuming dear gods but lemme say this) and vivid, smoothly drawn characters; the simplicity lets them come to the front and gives room for those beautiful, richly saturated focal points, letting the stylized designs of the magic and characters shine. The use of distinct silhouettes is insanely good. Honestly, complex backgrounds might run the risk of making everything too visually busy in this case. It's just, augh, so GORGEOUS.

Another bit, take a look at this page (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-15-28/):

It's not quite as evident here as it is in the next page, but this one does some other fun things so I'm grabbing it. Points:

Once again, using different colors to represent different character actions. The "WHAM" of Kendal hitting the ground is caused by Dainix's force, so it's orange (and kudos for doubling the word over to add a shake effect). But we see blue layered underneath, which could be an environmental choice, but might also be because it's Kendal, whose color is blue.

And speaking off, take a look at the right-most panel on top, where Kendal grabs the spear: his motion is, again, illustrated in bright blue, versus the atmospheric screened-on orange lines that point toward him around the whole panel (I'm sure these have a name, I think they might be more of a manga thing though and the only experience I have in manga is reading a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist). Those lines emphasize the weight of the spear being shoved at him, and their color tells us Dainix is responsible for it.

One of my all-time favorite effects in this comic is the way cracks manifest across Dainix's body to represent when he starts to lose control; it is utterly gorgeous and wonderfully thematic. These are more evident in the page before and after this one, but you get a decent idea here. I love the way they glow softly, the way the fire juuuust flickers through at the start and then becomes more evident over time, and the cracks feel so realistic, like his skin is made of pottery. Additional points for how fire begins to creep into his hair.

A small detail that's generally consistent across the comic, but which I want to make note of here because you can see it pretty well: Kendal's eyes glow about the same as the jewel in his sword, mirroring his connection to said sword and calling back to how the jewel became Vash's eye temporarily and thus was once Kendal's eye. You can always see this connection (though there might be some spots where this also changes in a symbolic manner; I went through it quickly on the first time around, so I'll pay more attention when I inevitably reread this), where Kendal's always got that little shine of blue in his eyes the same as the jewel. It's a beautiful visual parallel that encourages the reader to subconsciously link them together, especially since the lines used to illustrate character movements typically mirror their eye color. It's an extension of Kendal.

Did I mention how ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL the colors in this are?

Also, the mythological/legend-type scenes are illustrated in familiar style often used for that type of story, a simple and heavily symbolic two-dimensional cave-painting-like look. They are absolutely beautiful on many levels, employing simple, lovely gradients, slightly rougher and thicker lineart that is nonetheless smoothly beautiful, and working with clear silhouettes (a major strength of this art style, but also a strength in the comic overall). But in particular, I wanted to call attention to a particular thing (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-12-4/):

The flowing symbolic lineart surrounding each character. This is actually quite consistent across characters—see also Life's typical lines and how they curl:

What's particularly interesting here is how these symbols are often similar, but not the same. Vash's lines are always smooth, clean curls, often playing off each other and echoing one another like ripples in a pond. You'd think they'd look too similar to Life's—but they don't. Life's curl like vines, and they remain connected; where one curve might echo another but exist entirely detached from each other in Vash's, Life's lines still remain wound together, because vines are continuous and don't float around. :P

Tahraim's are less continuous, often breaking up with significantly smaller bits and pieces floating around like—of course—sparks, and come to sharper points. These are also constants: we see the vines repeated over and over in Alinua's dreams of Life, and the echoing ripples of Vash are consistent wherever we encounter him. Kendal's dream of the ghost citizens of the city of Vash in the last few chapters is filled with these rippling, echoing patterns, to beautiful effect (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-14/):

They ripple and spiral, often in long, sinuous curves, with smooth elegance. It reminds me a great deal of images of space and sine waves and the like. This establishes a definite feel to these different characters and their magic. And the thing is, that's not something that had to be done—the colors are good at emphasizing who's who. But it was done, and it adds a whole other dimension to the story. Whenever you're in a deity's domain, you know whose it is no matter the color.

Regarding that shape language, I wanted to make another note, too—Vash is sometimes described as chaotic and doing what he likes, which is interesting to me, because smooth, elegant curves and the color blue aren't generally associated with chaos. So while Vash might behave like that on the surface, I'm guessing he's got a lot more going on underneath; he's probably much more intentional in his actions than you'd think at a glance, and he is certainly quite caring with his city. The other thing is that this suits Kendal perfectly. He's a paragon character; he is kind, virtuous, and self-sacrificing, and often we see him aiming to calm others and keep them safe. Blue is such a good color for him. There is… probably more to this, but I'm not deep enough in yet to say.

And here's the thing: I'm only scratching the surface. There is so much more here I'm not covering (color palettes! outfits! character design! environment! the deities! so much more!) and a lot more I can't cover, because I don't have the experience; this is me as a hobbyist artist who happened to take a couple design classes because I wanted to. The art style to this comic is so clever and creative and beautiful, though, I just had to go off about it. <3

...brownie points for getting all the way down here? Have a cookie.

#aurora comic #aurora webcomic #comicaurora #art analysis #...I hope those are the right tags???#new fandom new tagging practices to learn ig #much thanks for something to read while I try to rest my wrists. carpal tunnel BAD. (ignore that I wrote this I've got braces ok it's fine)#anyway! I HAVE. MANY MORE THOUGHTS. ON THE STORY ITSELF. THIS LOVELY STORY #also a collection of reactions to a chunk of the comic before I hit the point where I was too busy reading to write anything down #idk how to format those tho #...yeet them into one post...???#eh I usually don't go off this much these days but this seems like a smaller tight-knit fandom so... might as well help build it?#and I have a little more time thanks to break so #oh yes also shoutout to my insanely awesome professor for teaching me all the technical stuff from this he is LOVELY #made an incredibly complex program into something comprehensible <3 #synapse talks

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francy-sketches · 10 months

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Hiiiii guess who finished her pmv. finally. um enjoy :3

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #valyrianscrolls #cersei lannister #and a bunch of others I don't feel like tagging them #wrote some of them in the desc if you scroll past my ramblings. the others I hope you can tell by context clues i believe in u #my art #pmv #it's finally joever oh my god #i dont want to look at it ever again. this is my child and I'm abandoning it at your doorstep 🏃‍♂️💼#btw confession time I started this before finishing adwd so like if you notice book inaccuracies. just ignore it #tbh towards the end i was just kinda going off the song lyrics more than anything #also like her hair should not be that long I think. the show poisoned my brain bc they do fuck all for like a year post walk #n e way ill talk about it more tomorrow probably. im gonna be so annoying about this btw I WILL force you to watch it #istg if it flops 🔪

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blacktofade · 4 months

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Fic: gemtho [NC-17]

Inspired by the "game" from Gem's S10E03 (aka I found an excuse to write filth).

“You said I could take anything,” Gem reminds Etho, who stares up at her, eyes wide and skin flushed above the line of his mask.

“Yeah, but I meant — ”

Her hands work at his belt and then his pants, getting both of them open, pushing and shoving for what she wants.

“I made my choice,” she says, managing to slip his pants far enough down his hips that she can see he’s half-hard already. “I’m gonna take you.”

His hands are tight on her waist and his mask shifts in time with his breathing, but he doesn’t argue. Not even about the fact that she has him flat on his back in the grass just outside of his home, where anyone might see.

“You could’ve just asked,” Etho groans when Gem spits into her palm and reaches down to stroke him.

“It’s about the game,” she reminds him, and it feels good to have the weight of him in her hand again.

They haven’t done this since they moved, swept up in the chaos of starting over, but she’s missed it — missed him.

And it’s clear Etho feels the same, because it hardly takes any effort to get him the rest of the way hard, the curve of his cock and the wet tip of it making Gem ache inside.

Etho’s hands slide higher, groping at her in a way he doesn’t usually, not unless she really gets him worked up, and she finds out quickly that it’s what she needs.

Part of her wishes she was wearing her skirt still, because if she was, all she’d have to do is tug her underwear to the side and she could take him. Instead, she has to pull back, away from everything she wants.

Etho grunts, but it doesn’t take Gem long to kick off her boots and slip out of her pants and underwear, and Etho stares like he can’t get enough, even after seeing her bare so many times before.

Briefly, he reaches down as though wanting to get her fingers on her — or maybe in her — but she bats his hand away, too impatient for anything that’ll slow her down.

“Gem,” he tries, voice tight, but Gem’s already holding his dick steady, guiding him into her as she slowly sinks down.

Etho’s head tips back, his throat bared, which makes it easy for Gem to fold forward and get her mouth on it.

He feels so good filling her up and he doesn’t move, letting her set the pace she wants, even as she works a bruise onto his skin. The fact that he doesn’t tell her not to makes her even wetter, knowing he wants to walk around with it, that he’s okay with anyone seeing it.

She digs her teeth in, just enough to make him moan as she finally settles on his hips, his cock as deep as she can get it. It’s been long enough that the stretch of it stings a little and she knows she’ll feel it later.

She gives the line of his jaw a final kiss before pulling away, sitting back and looking down at him.

His headband has shifted, his hair a little tangled and flyaway, but he’s breathing hard and staring back at her with dark eyes.

“Still wish I’d taken something else from your base?” Gem asks and Etho exhales forcefully.

“No.”

She smiles at the fact that he answers, like he knows she’d force him to if he didn’t, and then rolls her hips, giving him what he clearly wants.

He lets out another breath and Gem continues, enjoying the feeling of him nudging so deep inside, and she keeps at it for a long moment, reaching between her legs to rub at her clit to help adjust to him.

She could come like that, given enough time, but she doesn’t think she has the patience for it. After so many weeks with nothing but her own hand, she wants Etho to make her come hard and fast.

“Y’know, I never said you couldn’t move,” she muses, watching Etho’s expression shift. “You’re doing that voluntarily.”

His gaze tracks her and she sees the moment he understands, and she feels the moment he understands when he brings his hands up to her back and the world starts to tilt.

Somehow he manages to roll them, slipping out of her only long enough to untangle his pants from around legs, before he pushes her thighs open again and shoves back inside.

She laughs, throwing her arms out and enjoying the softness of grass beneath them.

Etho fucks her with a strength she still hasn’t grown accustomed to, still takes her by surprise, and it’s exactly what she needs.

“God,” she groans, curling her legs around his waist, trying to pull him even deeper with every thrust. “I missed this.”

The frantic snap of Etho’s hips wordlessly says he feels the same, but she can see it in his expression, too. The way he stares at her as though he’d try to find her in any universe they fell into.

She shuts her eyes and turns her hands palms-down, clutching at the ground beneath her, breathing hard and chasing the feeling growing inside her.

Etho moves against her, though his thrusts never stop, and Gem startles as his mouth finds her own, mask no longer in the way. She pushes a moan between his lips alongside her tongue and he kisses back with a fierceness she’s never felt from him before.

It’s like it’s the only way he knows to tell her he never wants them to be apart again.

“Yeah,” she says against his mouth when he finally breaks away to catch his breath, and she hopes he knows it’s the answer to his unspoken question.

Their bodies are loud in the silence around them, but she can hear and feel how Etho is already beginning to lose rhythm, the way he trembles trying to keep up the pace.

“Want me to pull out?” he asks, lips grazing her cheek and Gem shakes her head.

“Don’t care,” she pants, because either way she’ll have to wander down to the river to wash. She’s so wet, she’s a mess already.

Etho adjusts, just enough that every thrust manages to rub her clit at the same time, and she doesn’t stand a chance.

“Etho,” she begs, and in no time at all, he has her coming the exact way she’s needed — deep and devastating.

She’s still shaking from it when Etho gets a hand under one of her knees and pushes it up, fucking her faster but with none of the precision, and when he follows her over the edge, it’s with a loud groan that she can feel through his chest.

He keeps moving — maybe to push his come a little deeper, though probably just because it feels good — and with how wound up she feels, she knows she should take advantage.

“Keep going,” she tells him. “Just a little bit more.”

He’s probably sore and oversensitive, but he still obeys, and Gem reaches between them, circling her clit with two fingers just long enough to make herself come again, the second orgasm hitting sharper, but just as hard.

“Gem,” Etho says, sounding a little astonished, a little broken, but Gem lets herself go boneless with a laugh, her legs dropping from around Etho’s waist.

“God, I needed that,” she sighs, and Etho carefully pulls out before dropping into the grass beside her.

She stays there, eyes closed, catching her breath, a gentle tugging at her hair that suggests Etho’s playing with it as he rests next to her.

She can feel his come dripping out of her, cooling quickly, and yet can’t bring herself to care.

When she opens her eyes, Etho’s watching her, but when he notices, he smiles — a rarity for her to see.

Carefully, she rolls toward him, throwing one leg over his own and bringing a hand up to his face, thumb nestling in the dimple of his cheek.

“I’m glad we’re neighbors,” he tells her, and happiness bubbles up through her chest and escapes as a laugh.

“I’m glad, too, Etho.”

When she leans in to kiss him, he meets her halfway.

#thing wot i wrote #fic #dont read at work #gemtho #hermitshipping #also i know i said i wasn't writing anything until i finished my gridoc fic but i can explain #i mean i can't actually explain but like...the worms #they got me #they keep interacting and what am i meant to do??? ignore it???#anyway i'm already working on another gemtho ficlet bye

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maintitle · 6 months

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Now that I'm back in the online discourse of the Red Dead community after half a decade away waiting to have the ability to play and beat the second game, I'm really fairly quickly learning that there's this... weird, romanticized version of Arthur Morgan's character out there that really has no basis in reality.

Today I accidentally stumbled upon an anti-John Marston post and I'm not going to get into that here (even though I have A LOT to say), but the top comment was very strange to me. It talked about how Arthur is this 'giant', this 'greek hero', a perfect person, and as I read it I just... wasn't sure if I played the same game as them.

There's obviously a way of playing the game where he's this high honor hero, and I largely played that. But Arthur is also a deeply violent man, a deeply cynical and sometimes cruel guy. He's not a gentle humored guy, he's deeply sarcastic and at times kind of nasty with his humor, even to people he likes. He really often struggles with his worse nature, and it's not a struggle without reason. His first response to a situation is really often the most extreme, and the only reason I feel like people don't realize that outside of having a hand at deciding his honor is because he's the most outspoken about unnecessary vengeance... but that's not because he's opposed to it on principle, it's because it's important for him to protect his people, and that requires letting things go.

This isn't me bashing Arthur, by the way. The beauty of his character is how he struggles against himself, his own nature. How everyone can see his kindness even when he can't himself, even when his actions say otherwise. He's conflicted between what he wants his life to be and the life he has lead, the most important man in his life, one that's practically a father to him, instilled in him rules for life and he's watching him break every single one. For the first time in his life he has to figure out who he is and how he wants what little time he has to be defined. THAT'S a fantastic character, a hero even... but far, far, FAR from perfect. He's a deeply flawed human being who has done terrible things, and it makes me wonder the level of media literacy it takes to not understand that.

#Arthur Morgan #if he's a greek anything it's a greek tragedy #and that doesn't make him a pillar of heroism #Also like outside of the obvious ignoring of traits #(i should mention that this doesn't entirely surprise me from the rockstar audience btw #It bugs me because it's such a reductionist idea of how great his character actually is #To romanticize him as this perfect being is to devalue the wonderfully conflicted character they wrote #for multiple reasons #they have a weird habit of deifying male characters like this #and they also didn't realize nico bellic was a good character #and the ones that did didn't realize what his actual character was #or why things go the way they do in that game #rockstar has such a testosterone filled fandom that their literacy of morality and toxic masculinity should be questioned #this shouldn't have been a surprise to me)

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thevioletcaptain · 9 months

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if you as a fic reader ever become possessed by the urge to do a popularity bracket with the fics other people wrote and shared for fun and for free, consider:

don't ❤️

#just!!!! make a rec list!!!!!!!!!#popularity contests do nothing but drive writers out of fandoms by pitting people against their friends #and invariably result in people being assholes in the comments as if the people who wrote the fic can't see it #like ''oh clearly fic x is better than fic y''#or ''why is fic c even in this poll?''#nobody gains anything by you doing a bracket to see which fic is the ''most popular''#a stat which could be found more easily & less cruelly by simply hitting the sort by bookmarks/kudos button on ao3 #anyway ugh. i saw that one of my fics was being pitted against one of my friend's fics in this bracket that's going around #and i have no idea who is ''winning'' because i refuse to look. but either way it's gonna feel bad!!!#because i want my friend to get his flowers so i want him to win!!! but i also would like to know that people like my fic!!!!#so it's just a lose/lose situation even though i generally don't give a shit about numbers #but this turns it into a schoolyard popularity thing #and the emotional response to having people *vote* on if your work is *better or worse* than other fic is hard to ignore #cannot reiterate enough JUST MAKE A REC LIST #or if you absolutely must do a bracket like this do it in a private chat server or something #don't create a public forum for people to pass value judgements where the authors can see it #and feel bad if they get told their fic is ''worse'' than someone elses #but also feel bad if they get told theirs is ''better'' because it came at the cost of telling another author they weren't good enough #ANYWAY i still feel sick with a super sore throat and a headache & am probably extra cranky because of it #(still testing negative thankfully so it's probably just weather/allergen related)#gonna go make some tea and prep the fic updates i want to post today #cass says things #fandom problems #wank adjacent

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agirlking · 1 year

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“The Sullys didn’t owe Spider anything, they didn’t adopt him.” It is basic decency to not leave a child with the murderers that kidnapped him. Much less a child you knew since infancy, much less a child who at least two of your children love like he’s their own brother.

#spider socorro #spider soccoro sully #miles socorro #avatar #i'm probably done harping on this now i'll get off my soapbox #look i don't hate the sullys #i think it's weak writing that causes this issue honestly #they didn't have time to flesh out every main #and they needed him kidnapped to further the plot #and neytiri is (i believe) blatantly set up to have an arc wherein she accepts him as his own person #though who knows #maybe they'll make him go bad and botch it or something #he doesn't deserve that #BUT in terms of what happened it is deeply fucked up how the adults around him regarded him #i don't think they WROTE it to be that way #but i cannot ignore the child neglecting elephant in the room #why does fandom always inevitably demonize children over adults???#like kids have any trauma or bad emotion and fandom wants to crucify them #and the adults around them can do ANYTHING and it's okay #i saw it with harrison morgan from dexter #the vitriol toward that pooor child #who went through multiple traumas #is baffling to me #or travis and shauna from yellowjackets #constantly demonized and blamed for not handling a horrific situation perfectly well

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doodoodinklefart · 1 month

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back for another jjk yap sess, this time abt geto LOL...

im honestly a little surprised i never noticed this before but the way that geto (who thought that his best friend was killed and saw a girl he was essentially willing to uproot his life for get murdered right in front of him) tries SOO hard to stay calm while toji's talking and then the MOMENT he brings satoru up again and trivializes riko's death, suguru loses it. i'm thinking suguru let him talk in the first place despite the risk of letting toji reveal his pact (and wanting to kill him Very Bad) cuz he figured it would be better to understand toji's deal since he beat satoru, something that suguru trusted would not happen

but then he starts referring to satoru strictly as "the six eyes", and i think that suguru, one of the few people that saw satoru as a person beyond his cursed technique or his family name could not help but get super pissed abt toji's dehumanization of satoru (and riko too, who he only refers to as the star plasma vessel). i just thought that it was very interesting....... suguru cared so much and it makes me CRAZY AS FUCK.

like, to begin with i think its sooo so interesting that suguru made it a point to be considerate of all the human parts of satoru despite the fact that im sure most other people assume he doesn't need to be worried about. i'll never stop thinking about suguru asking if he needs a break since he's overusing his technique, telling him he worked hard after getting back to the school, trying to rush to his side after he's been stabbed and being conflicted when satoru tells him to leave with riko and kuroi... he didn't just assume satoru could handle all that shit on his own cuz even if he could have he shouldn't have to.

also related omg im almost done i promise but!! the scene where suguru gets to the star religious group and sees satoru again for the first time...

the way that he can't even believe his eyes, probably in part because he's acting way different but also because he thought he FUCKING DIED. and he had to drag himself out of the tomb of the stars and probably went to look for gojo's body before even going to shoko. and then he had to tell her he couldn't even find his body man WHAT THE FUCK!!! i think maybe saw a twitter post about this part in particular but he might have thought toji took riko's body and satoru's, so the thought that he went all the way there thinking he'd have to see two dead bodies of people he cared about... ugh. suguru geto i love you

#if this makes no sense at all that's fine i wrote it like i was possessed #i need jjk mutuals to talk to or something cuz i dont wanna annoy my friends with every silly thought in my head LOOL #ive been having a rlly hard time getting into drawing lately so i gotta get the worms out somehow #i plan on posting a fic actually at the end of the month but it'll probably be late LMAO #also i tried so hard to keep my deranged stsg headcanons out of this......... i dont think it really worked #anyway if anything in here is wrong or a reach uhhh just ignore it i tried my best LOL #i love riko so fucking much by the way its insane. i would draw her if i had the energy but since i dont maybe ill just ramble about her #geto suguru #gojo satoru #riko amanai #toji fushiguro #shoko ieiri #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk rambles #as a treat....#satosugu #sugusato #stsg #doodootalks

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beanghostprincess · 5 months

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Dreams that rest behind your watercolor eyes (Sanuso Fic)

Summary:

Sanji runs one of his nails through the paper and stares intensely at it. He shrugs his shoulders, sighing at the sight. “Nothing. It’s just-” When his eyes meet Usopp’s, the sniper wonders what kissing the hands he takes care of so meticulously would feel like. Random thought, yes, but he wants to try it anyway. “You see it too. The All Blue, I mean. I guess that I’m not so crazy after all, huh?” Sanji smiles, a manta ray they caught a few days ago moving behind his silhouette, and some other sea creatures dancing along to Sanji’s heartbeat. Usopp sees it, then. He understands. It isn’t quite understanding, though. Understanding isn’t the word he’s looking for. But he sees it. - Usopp has never understood what Sanji's dream truly means until now.

This fanfic came to me in a vision when I saw @m0thcl0wn's gorgeous fanart of Sanji. My hand kind of slipped because this wasn't exactly what I was going for and I really, really wanted to make it a short thing... But I don't regret any of it! I loved how it turned out, and I hope you all like it too <3

The fanart btw:

#i wrote this quickly today btw if it doesn't make any sense just vibe and ignore it #just feel the vibe feel the energy #i have no idea of what i wrote if i'm being honest with all of you #this is just vibes this is just these two being extremely gay for each other #kind of character analysis for sanji and usopp??? idk #there are no spoilers btw #i got too poetic and flew too close to the sun or something bc i genuinely don't think anything of what i wrote makes any sense #one piece #black leg sanji #usopp #sanuso #one piece fanfiction #sanuso fanfic #usosan

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batwynn · 9 months

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I really want to say something about the abuse of comic creators leading them to suffer and die young for so, so many reasons. But instead I will just send healing vibes out into the universe for Jeff Smith after his cardiac arrest, and hope that he knows that regardless of his life-changing work and the many number of people who are touched by his amazing creations who might want to tell him or meet him at comic cons. that his health should always, always come first. That healing and taking time to do so is the only priority.

#Jeff Smith #comics #comic creators #comic artists #just heal as best you can ok #I wrote out a whole angry thing #because I am genuinely furious about comic cons and no masks and people proudly going while very sick #and the forced labor of comic creators to do every part of the work #drawing writing printing editing promoting etc #that we get paid so little and treated like shit #and that people I look up to are getting sick and dying young #that people who changed my life so completely are being left behind #and ignored #I just #even if they hadn’t done anything life changing to me #they’re still people #we should protect and care about them #but we just sort of ignore the abuse #the bad pay #the lack of consideration and care #it just infuriates me #anyway #please send him healing vibes if you can #he’s genuinely a kind and amazing person #even if you don’t know his work or who he is

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innytoes · 2 months

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I'm sorry I can't keep making out if your cat keeps staring at us like that / Julie/Bobby

Sequel to this fic, in which Bobby learns he has a cat like several months after he adopted a cat.

It had been a little embarrassing to introduce Alfred to the rest of the guys. Because Reggie looked betrayed when he learned Bobby had been 'hiding' his cat from him, and when Bobby had tried to explain that no, he just didn't realise he had a cat until Julie told him, Luke and Alex dragged him so hard he'd almost revoked cat-petting privileges from them.

But these days, Alfred was a known and beloved member of the family. Hell, the postcard Alex sent from his vacation with Willie hadn't been addressed to Bobby at all. Just the cat. And Alfred seemed to love his friends just as much as Bobby did. Even though he was better at showing it.

Sometimes, though, he was a little too good at showing it.

"I'm sorry," Julie said, dragging away from some of Bobby's best work, if he did say so himself. "I can't keep making out if your cat keeps staring at us like that."

From the back of the couch, right where their heads had been when they'd been kissing, Alfred purred, looking pleased two of his favourite humans were there. Bobby bit is lip. He didn't want to kick Alfred out, or anything, and hurt his feelings. But he also didn't want to say that out loud, because it made him sound like a sap.

"Alright," Bobby said, slowly picking Alfred up and putting him on his lap, facing towards the room in general, and not Julie. "Fixed." He leaned back over, cupping her cheek, using the other hand to stroke Alfred and keep him in place. Alfred purred, seemingly okay with this new situation.

Which worked, until he got a little into kissing Julie, one hand buried in her hair, the other on her arm, and she pulled back again. "Ahem," she said, looking down at her chest, and Julie wasn't usually that forward, but it wasn't like Bobby was going to complain...

Except when he looked down, he noticed someone else had gotten there first, Alfred making biscuits against her breasts.

"Alfred, I can totally relate," Bobby said, picking the cat up and holding him in front of his face. Julie snorted. "But I'm trying to get laid here. You're cramping my style."

Alfred just purred, hanging limply in his arms.

They tried the laser pointed, which worked until it didn't. Then the catnip mousey. By that point, he'd managed to get his own paws on Julie's breasts, even if it was just under her shirt, through her bra. They'd laid down on the couch, and Bobby finally thought he was getting somewhere. Until the mousey landed on his back. And Alfred did soon after.

"Oof," Bobby said.

Julie laughed as he carefully dislodged his cat. "Maybe we should take this to the bedroom," she offered.

"Maybe we should," Bobby agreed, because hey, at least that was a step in the right direction. Alfred purred from his lap as Julie got up, dramatically taking off her shirt along the way.

"Alfred, I love you," Bobby told him, leaning over to whisper and give him little kisses now that Julie was out of the room. "But I'm going to close the door because if you cockblock me, you're moving in with Uncle Reggie. Love you."

It wasn't until weeks later that Julie confessed she heard him, long after he'd given up trying to look cool in front of her.

Thankfully Julie liked dumb sappy guys just as much as grumpy cool guys.

#julie and the phantoms #bobbyxjulie #fanfic #THE RETURN OF ALFRED #bobby gets to be a himbo too as a treat #uncle reggie taught Alfred fetch and Bobby's not sure he forgives him for that #I wrote a thing #ignore the fact that this took like weeks my brain is having a hard time writting anything at the moment

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aroaceleovaldez · 6 months

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Dude I don’t know where you’re getting this information that 13-14 guys can’t be tall at all. Literally every guy in my freshman high school grade (13-15 year olds) were all 5’6-6’0 at the beginning of the school year and they were all actively growing taller as the year went by. Letting people think Nico is average height or tall is not hurting nobody and you are still entitled to your opinion that Nico can be short. I believe all of Nico’s of various heights can coexist peacefully.

I did say "average" height and was only referring to the fact that Nico's canon height is never explicitly stated. Anyways allow me to rephrase:

my grievances only lie with the wiki for being baselessly wrong. tall nico headcanoners i have no beef with you understand i am simply being silly goofy on my blog mwah mwah

#ask #Anonymous #i just think it's fun to acknowledge that people have gotten taller in recent generations #so Nico's generation is short by comparison #nico grumbling that he's average height by his standards #and like. idk in canon he's short. whatever. do whatever you want. i ignore canon all the time #quite frankly Rick wrote some lame-to-terrible stuff at times that i do not wish to acknowledge #some of it because it is blatantly offensive. some because he is simply Wrong. others because i just feel like it #that is the beauty of fandom and i will never tell anybody what they can or cannot do #except for people trying to insist something is canon to prove themself correct when it's not. cause that's rude #nico's height is canon is a vague ''shortish'' but also char heights are wildly all over the place anyways #theres no numbers it could mean anything. just scale Michael appropriately in comparison #so who fuckin knows. go wild. i'm not your boss #im just here. i just go here.#there's a reason i differentiate ''coded'' vs ''canon'' (heavy quotation marks) vs ''headcanon'' vs ''theory'' vs ''extrapolation''#which is a whole fascinating literary analysis vs fandom thing you could get into but i am probably the only one who finds that interesting #short version: canon is simply a liminal state do whatever you want forever #and please never take anything from my blog as strict fandom law or something i'm just saying shit. i just do this for fun.

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bisolationist · 5 days

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This is the part that makes me go. Oh. Hmm.

The response seemed more along the lines of "well OBVIOUSLY it's true that men being sexually assaulted is an immeasurably lesser crime on the spectrum but we should be nice because maybe individually they're really hurt by it uwu"

This is what I mean by how I'm tired of subjectivity-of-experience being a vaguery by which people concede that our trauma (subjective response) might be great while the harm (objective crime) is vastly lesser. I already wrote a very off-hand post about this and I can't believe we even got another assault comparison. Now this response wasn't nearly so bad as what I was referencing to there, but it's still the same pattern of buying into that rhetoric.

The OP's response is seemingly compassionate (and I think there's genuine compassion behind it!), but imo is a rhetorical dead-end and hollow of meaningful criticism.

Saying that someone's trauma-response to something might merit compassion is good of course, but it does nothing to combat the implication that it should be a far lesser crime in terms of punishment, and seems to implicitly concede the anon's rhetoric on it being a different magnitude of harm. People already know different people react to events differently. But if they see you reacting strongly to something they seem mild, they see you as weak, manipulative, or both. So to people like anon, I think this response doesn't refute any of the beliefs they are espousing, it just reinforces the idea that male SA victims that exhibit trauma responses are reacting strongly to something mild and should be treated accordingly.

All of this to say... uhm, like sorry but sometimes the correct response is to say "being sexually assaulted is not like breaking a fucking ankle being sexually assaulted is not like breaking a fucking ankle being sexually assaulted is not like breaking a fucking ankle", not to plead the case that broken-ankle victims might FEEL as bad as someone who was violently hatecrimed, because that implicitly concedes the premise.

Note on that: not lost on me that the example chosen, a broken ankle, is something more associated with accidents. I've also written before on how people are determined to view victimization they think is unimportant as accidents/collateral and go out of their way to examine it as such (I talk about biphobia being talked about this way too, but I think it carries over to a lot of experiences).

#I'm not trying to be mean I really am grateful for what she wrote on the whole #And honestly I think maybe she was baited into a trap of bad arguments out of simply trying to be polite/neutral to that anon #But I can't not point out how this fits into patterns I've discussed before #I also think some of the comments about class analysis completely missed the mark #Or seemed to want to concede the unimportance of the topic to the anon #9% lifetime victimization means a dash under 4.5% of the population #That's comparable or larger to MANY minority groups #Paying attention to that is not discarding class analysis #Nor would it undo paying attention to the far larger prevalence among women #and Class analysis of women doesn't have anything to do with female perpetrators anyway like #It does not work against that class analysis but it's also not a basis for ignoring them

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pupyr0arz · 21 days

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eidolon deserves a time travel fixit.

—

Manton stumbles, eyes widening at the sight of him before he tumbles through the bleeding gash Eidolon tore into reality. The Siberian drops all pretense of attacking him, kicking off the wall and sailing through the hole, arms outstretched in an attempt to save it’s master. He shuts the hole with a wave of his arm, seam melding together tightly with little more than a mental note of what Earth to feel for when he isn’t so tempted to just tear off Manton’s head and be done with it.

Eidolon feels the urge to kill him in his bones, the alarms blaring in his head that he shouldn’t allow such an obvious threat to continue breathing just for a hypothetical. He clamps down on the danger sense and discards it, taking a breath. A stronger version than the one he found himself using, more specific and informative, but the emotional bleed through seemed a higher price than a thinker headache.

Teleportation, flight, transport, offerings are laid down and he pauses, dropping the powers he has at hand to appreciate the spread. It’s been a long time since he’s had movement so free, he cycles through what feels like a hundred types of flight. Eidolon had almost forgotten his capacity, and this still wasn’t at his absolute peak.

He wrenches his attention away, grasping at a teleportation power. Now of all times is not the time to get caught up with his abilities. There are more important problems at hand.

—

He takes two steps, then three, then his arms are around Hero, around Clark and how many years has it been since that name has been attached to the right face? He squeezes him tightly, checking twice, thrice, four times with the extended awareness a thinker powers give him that his heartbeat is in a normal range—that it exists at all— and that none of his slots have a brute power. The idea of accidentally crushing Clark’s spine after so long makes him laugh involuntarily, a breathless sound.

“Hey, big guy?” Clark asks, hands coming up and patting Eidolon’s back awkwardly. He feels hysterical. “What’s the occasion?”

“What the hell was all of that?” Alexandria demands brusquely, Legend standing besides her with a concerned and confused expression on his face. He feels nothing but fondness, back when Alexandria would drop most pretenses around them and sparked with temper.

He lets go of Clark, the contact leaving a tingling feeling. Anxiety still pumps in his veins, he’s had this dream too many times to believe it wholesale. Clark adjusts his visor and pats his arm and Eidolon doesn’t look over at Legend or Alexandria, cycling his powers as he asks what comes next. How does he die today?

—

“Beyond your abilities.” Eidolon says, gesturing to Contessa. She doesn’t respond, doesn’t purse a lip or even wrinkle a brow. Suddenly he misses her older self with a sharp pang of pain. The vulnerabilities she allowed him to see, had built a human there that hadn’t existed prior, even fourteen years into working together.

Not that he could really call what they were doing working together—these years had, with the wisdom of his hindsight, felt aimless. Unaware of Cauldron’s true cause, scrabbling around in the world building fairy tales and reputation to be put to no ends of worth. He had been an idiot.

The Doctor’s hand clenched around her pen. “Do you suppose he has any blind spots?” She asks probingly.

“Not myself.” He says. “Perhaps the Endbringers, but I hold my doubts. He was capable of their destruction either way.”

“You report he was defeated. How?” It feels more like an interview than one of their talks, her on the back step. Eidolon swallows and let’s himself mull on his memories a moment longer, like he could make more sense of them if he were only pressed harder.

“I’m not sure.” He admits, nails biting into his palms. “I…”

“How are you not sure?” The Doctor asks sharply, eyes darting upwards as the neutral facade fades away. “Were you not present?”

“I was under a master effect.” It’s not a total lie. He can’t fully trust her, Eidolon knows this, the consequences of associating himself with this organization. But he has other concerns and he doesn’t need or want to have to police an overzealous Cauldron and the Triumvirate. And Clark. Eidolon lifts his head, schooling his expression as the Doctor considers a master who would control him. He’ll have to take the reins in this relationship, even if he doesn’t want to.

“It altered my perception. My memory of the fight from that point onwards was hazy, but there was a definite end and my controller was still alive.”

—

“Eidolon, we’ve been looking for you. Why’d you just run off?” Legend asks, settling down next to him. Eidolon doesn’t turn from the dummy, keeping his gaze on the steel walls of the training room. He feels bile rise in his throat at the sight of Legend, unmarred, unsoiled by his future sins. Five minutes ago, Eidolon had been advocating for horrors none of them would’ve considered, and now he stands here, supposed to be their fresh faced equal.

Legend looks concerned in his reflection played over the metal walls. It’s different, purer than any way Legend looked at him after he and Alexandria had been outed. There’s no distrust, or even resentment. Just Legend, a comrade and trusted ally of his.

“I discovered the identity of the villain,” Eidolon lies smoothly. “I had promised to report on it immediately to the Doctor.”

Legend frowns, squinting. It’s a trait he cut back on once the Protectorate proper had truly hit its stride, citing it being an unattractive quirk. Eidolon turns his head to face him. “Who was it?”

“Doctor Manton.” Eidolon says shortly. “It seems our Doctor has had some hiring issues.”

“Manton? As in, Doctor Manton? Our Doc—“

“Yes,” Eidolon says, harsher than he should. He doesn’t want to think about Manton while he worked with them, as the kinder and personable scientists who took readings and asked to be brought up on flights to see the horizon line. It’s not a Manton Eidolon has deigned to acknowledge existed for years now, the name dominated by the bloody streak he cut through his life and through the country. “He stole from the Doctor and attempted to kill us. That’s the entire situation.”

#Worm #.bark #writing #snippet #eidolon #Legend #hero #alexandria #doctor mother #contessa #Writing with the idea in mind that I cannot write eidolon as ooc as spacebattles writes him so anything I do is infinitely better #Wormblr #wormfic #IGNORE TEH DIALOGUE. I KNOW ITS AWFUL #Not my strong suit okay…leave me alone it’s placeholder #I wrote this in 20 minutes so. It’s proof of concept.

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