#second-to-last image is the first draft of its design

[worldruins]

Uncast Shadows, my beloved guy. He’s a very nervous iterator with a deep well of anger in him. He has lego man hands as a punishment for misbehavior from his creators.

#rw #mine #ruinart #oc: uncast shadows #aka cas :) #the whiteboard drawings are just there for funny btw he is veru much on the string #second-to-last image is the first draft of its design

[pastelcheckereddreams]

Four Seasons Manor (四季山庄): Set Layout!

If you’ve been following my descent into madness my research progress for my next set design project, you’ll know that it immediately became impossible for me to work out the layout of Siji Manor from screenshot studies of the show alone. To backtrack to about a year ago: it quickly became clear that the exterior shots of the manor’s first courtyard and the birdseye view we see in episode 24 is not located in the same set, or possibly even film base, as the “interior set”. Unfortunately, that secondary set is where many of the indoor scenes take place (with significant rooms, such as Wen Kexing’s bedroom being redressed to be used for other scenes in the show), and is where the secondary courtyard is located.  I soon realised that I had to do three things in order to create a Four Seasons Manor for my project that feels as authentic as possible to the one we are presented with in the show. First, find the full film base on Google Earth (which has the most up-to-date satalite imagery I can find); second, identify all the buildings to create a “complete” Manor and confirm the secondary set isn’t just another part of the first; and third, find the secondary set in order to correctly map its layout and marry it with the birdseye view. Friends, I have achieved two of those three things. The second set still evades me. But so far, I have finally managed to correctly and completely identify the film base that is presented to us as Four Seasons Manor:

(Full research breakdown under the cut.)

This is one of two full manor sets on Hengdian World Studio’s No.1 Mountain in the ‘Spring and Autumn Tang Park’ filmbase. In anticipation for the birdseye plan in my set design project, I’ve gone ahead and mapped it out faithfully to the satalite image:

As you can see, there's five distinct areas that make up this manor: three courtyards (labelled 1,2,4) and two gardens (3,5). The first courtyard will be familiar to everyone who has watched Word of Honor:

It is the main courtyard of Four Seasons Manor. Likewise, the fifth area will also be familiar to you all, although you may not realise it yet. It's Sanbai Manor:*

*With the exception of the main gate. The main gate of Sanbai Manor is actually from another set in the Spring and Autumn Park filmbase - the Tang Palace. There is fantastic drone footage of that set here. The Sanbai Manor gate is at the rear of the set, but you may recognise the opening shot of this clip as another place we see in the very first episode of WOH 🤫 Edit: I forgot I had a second douyin clip for the Tang Palace set.

These are the main two areas used in WOH of this set. Confirmation of the rest of the set comes from drama New Life Begins and various douyin videos and tourist photos on the internet. I won't bore you with a breakdown because Tumblr has eaten too many drafts of this post and I am Tired, but here is a snapshot of my confirmation process:

Find the difference between these two pictures

Edit: On rewatch, I can confirm that are 4 is also used in WOH. We see it in the very first scene of episode 1, dressed as the Military Governer Li’s Manor:

Here is a daylight photograph (source here) of that same building:

You may be wondering though, about the alternate layout I have detailed in my map:

Friends, this is where I would like to hear your ideas.

After scouring many clips and photographs trying to confirm whether these photos are part of this same set or a later development, I've found that since the satalite picture of this site was taken by Google Earth in 2020, corresponding to what we see in WOH, Hengdian has remodeled this part of the set. You can see a wonderful walkthrough of areas 4 and 5 here, in which you can see the remodelled layout:

This douyin video was the last confirmation I needed to place the photographs from the article. This photograph in particular feels very much like Siji Manor to me, and so I will be trying to include this remodelled layout in my project design:

But.

Despite not having located the secondary set yet, I have been thinking over which area would be best to remodel myself, to try and incoporate the kitchen space and the two rooms it sits between, which I have confirmed to be WKX and ZZS's rooms:

Reminder of that early process here.

There are two options that I see right now:

1) I use area 4 as this second courtyard. I remove the gate, make the main room ZZS's room, remove the side halls, drop in a kitchen, put WKX's room where the gate was. Chengling's training dummies then get dropped whereabouts the hexagonal pavillion is in the alternate layout, and I tweak a random building here or there:

However, somewhat crucially - the view from WKX's moon widow would be blocked by the big building that is the centerpiece of area 5. I don't like that. Past the first courtyard, there's a certain sprawl and lack of uniformity to Siji Manor created in part by this CGI shot. I think that's why the above photo appealed so much to me.

So, 2) I remodel area 3. It's pretty sparse. I was thinking of making courtyard #2's main hall into a private study or meeting room, with the sidehalls being ZZS's "medicine room" and the "first night room" - the Cold River Room, as @minnarr​ called it in their stellar sleuthing post (I hope you don't mind that I'm using the name? And may continue to use it? Also, I'm still searching for this set and your sleuthing is going to be so much help.) - they could later become Chengling's room (and Han Ying's. For hanwenzhou headcanon rights).

Area 4 could then be used as a training courtyard and lecture hall perhaps? Meanwhile area 3 can be completely redone, to have ZZS's room at the bottom facing north, WKX's facing south:

The "training area" is then still technically past a covered walkway to the left of their courtyard. The spirit remains. However, crucially: The dotted line between areas 3 and 4 is indicative of a drop in elevation. The whole set is on a slope, with areas 1,2 and 3 at a higher elevation to 4 and 5. So. If the moon window in WKX's room did face west across the garden and down the mountain, it would actually be true to the CGI we see out of his window in the show: Especially because you see part of a roof. That could totally be the roof of the building that sits against the dotted line.

But additionally, there's also this alternate orientation:

It makes the kitchen feel more tucked away, and the additional screened walkway would give ZZS and WKX their privacy. But the view from the moon window would be blocked, and there's no reason to not have the rooms central to the courtyard the way they are here.

...Does any of that make sense? I bypassed Normal about this show a solid year ago. I'm leaning towards option 2 right now, but I will continue my hunt through cdrama for this other set. What's irritating is that I can see its style in lots of other places, including Lotus Pier, and I just can't find the real world setting for it...

ANYWAY, as always, thank you for joining me on my research adventures. Supporting me through ko-fi, and checking out my previous CQL projects here and on inprnt, would be greatly appreciated. 

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

#nikkidraws #nikkispeaks #my neurodivergance is showing #but more importantly #also my epic sleuthing skills #true to form i will now yeet this post from me because my brain is DONE with it #woh set design #set design saga #word of honor #four seasons manor #siji manor #wenzhou #my hanwenzhou agenda #shan he ling #hengdian world studios #spring and autumn tang park #spring and autumn tang garden

[glitchyvoice]

Do you have any blorbos or ideas to share?

floodgates: open

yes!! i have a bunch of aus im working on though im assuming u mean cotl specific (the others are undertale/deltarune and homestuck related if theres any interest)

the main one im working on right now is fates twine, (which ill explain in more detail in a second) but i have two others. a pirate esque essentially dnd campaign au story which ive named tears in a bottle. im still figuring out designs for that one but nari is a critter the size of the lambs hand so thats funny. its called tears in a bottle cuz the lamb and the others in the pirate crew go to raid a lost city, and the statue in the middle of said city (which is of shamura. the bishops are all archfey in this au so theyre cool) is weeping golden tears into a bottle which contains nari. only the lamb can see these god tears and nari.

i also have ideas for a madoka magica x cotl au but i have no designs and not enough ideas to talk about it currently.

but then theres fates twine. fates twine ("fates twine binds the hearts of you and i" is the full name, fates twine is my shorthand) is a prequel au which starts when the old gods are still around, and out of the bishops only shamura has their crown. it explores what would happen if the lamb (who is named mara) found the red crown before nari could, and fought against their ascension. they actually meet nari when hes still a mortal because of this and they become friends. shenanigans ensue. (narinders name as a mortal here is paean. i thought it would be cool to link him to the demon he always becomes in game) i have a bunch planned and have like 4,000 words worth of scenes written for it. but they're all for different parts of the fic so it's not currently postable. the closest image i have for mara around the time they find the crown is this little sketch for a scene i made

they dont typically wear the crown they usually have it as a ring on their finger to hide they have it but for that scene they do.

this is a bit of an older design and artstyle but this is mara when theyre a bit older. this is. the only coloured drawing i have of them rn but im gonna work on more soon.

this is their current design at that age. the other lamb there is omen, their little sister. i have a whole page of doodles of her that im gonna post tomorrow probably. shes one of my favourite fates twine characters i love her sm lolol

and these are sketches of mara post them becoming a cult leader!! so yeah nari does still get the crown and ascend instead of them eventually and they become the last lamb and all that but its about the interesting things that them being the true god of death causes. so yeah. you also get one (1) paragraph draft snippet of the first chapter bc im feeling silly

so yeah!! yap over

#glitchyanswers #glitchyvoices his (dumb) thoughts #cotl #cult of the lamb #cotl au #cotl lamb #my art #cotl fanfic #fatestwine #fatestwine mara #fatestwine omen #fatestwine paean #cotl fanart

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: Three characters resembling younger feminine versions of three different characters deemed “Tumblr Sexymen”, from left to right based on Dr. Habit from Smile For Me, Ingo from Pokemon Black and White/Pokemon Legends Arceus, and Troupe Master Grimm from Hollow Knight.

The first character is a teenage girl loosely resembling Dr. Habit from Smile For Me. She has green skin, long curly red hair in a ponytail, and red eyes with orange sclera. She is wearing a blue coat with turquoise accents and a pink flowery collar, a turquoise belt with a silver buckle, a small dark blue hat, a yellow lily flower in her hair, dark blue tights, and blue high-heeled boots with turquoise accents. She is smiling, revealing a missing tooth. The text on the image is transcribed as a bulleted list after the “keep reading” break, along with a paragraph that is not featured in the image.

The second character is a teenage girl loosely resembling Ingo from both Pokemon Black and White and Pokemon Legends Arceus. She has light skin, short silver hair, and silver eyes. She is wearing a lavender sweater with the circular Pearl Clan insignia on the front, a grey conductor’s hat with a blue and white circular logo on the front, a grey jacket with brown stripes and silver accents resembling train tracks, a brown skirt with silver accents to match the train track design elements of the jacket, lavender leggings, lavender socks, and brown shoes with silver soles. Beside her is a Litwick, a small candle-like ghost Pokemon. It has a white waxy body, a blue flame on top of its head, and green eyes partially hidden by dripping wax resembling “emo” bangs. The text on the image is transcribed as a bulleted list after the “keep reading” break, along with a paragraph that is not featured in the image.

The third character is a teenager resembling a humanoid version of the Grimmchild from Hollow Knight. They have pale grey skin, long red nails, light red eyes with black sclera, and short black hair styled to resemble horns. They are wearing a red sleeveless puffy jacket-style top, a short black cape, a black ribbon accessory that trails down their back, black shorts with black leggings, and black slip-on shoes. On the collar of their cape is a pin resembling the final state of the Grimmchild charm. The text on the image is transcribed as a bulleted list after the “keep reading” break, along with a paragraph that is not featured in the image.

End ID.]

---

okay guys i caved and joined in the sexyman descendants trend despite having never payed attention to the sexyman trend overall, i literally only know that two of the guys these kids are based on were on the poll and grimm has a sexypedia page that i only checked to confirm its mere existence and that + “fashion doll line” was all i was working on, yes i know other people have at least done kids based on habit and grimm but in my defense this has been sitting in my drafts for a while okay i was nervous and also too lazy to write up the text under the readmore for the longest time leave me alone /j

Lilya Habit (she/her), daughter of Dr. Boris Habit

always trying to make people smile

loves flowers and puppets, has a lookalike one called “Miss Habby”

has a passing interest in dentistry from other dad

big sis to Putunia

lost tooth in a model train incident

Of course I had to do one based on the teeth man, even if he apparently didn’t do nearly as well in the tournament as he did in last year’s and losing to someone who shouldn’t be considered a sexy-man at that, Nagito is a minor so if he has to be included it should be as a sexy-boy for the teens to latch onto, but I digress hehe. I realize I coulda gone with a Carla for this, but the joke is kinda to make these kids resemble their sexyman dads, so she’s Lilya instead! Even with a biological daughter in this weird universe I figured Boris and Kamal would still adopt Putunia, and she is the best big sister to the little hero, even if it leads to some punched shins sometimes. ...man, I realized I missed a fun opportunity there in not also drawing Miss Habby XD

Stacey Anville (she/her), daughter of Subway Boss/Warden Ingo

always seems bored

not nearly as loud as her dad and uncle

loves trains just as much tho

loves battling too

feels bad for Lilya’s tooth despite it being an accident

shiny Litwick was bred from Ingo’s Chandelure

Ingo wears black, Emmet wears white, so of course I’d go for grey for Ingo’s kid. Originally I was gonna name her “Donna” as in “downline”, but then I figured “Stacey” would be a better neutral-ish train pun hehe. And of course “Anville” comes from Anville Town, idk what sort of pun that is but iirc that’s one of the places connected to the trains hehe. As for her design, I wanted the outfit to combine both of Ingo’s “homes” so to speak, his original home of Unova and his new home of Hisui. And, of course, the daughter of one of the strongest trainers in both Unova and Hisui is going to have Pokemon of her own, hence the Litwick! I mostly picked Litwick because I like Chandelure most out of Ingo’s team, and because it could cause some silly shenanigans with the third descendent I’m sharing.

Nikki Grimm (they/them), child of Troupe Master Grimm

troublemaker

loves scaring people

sometimes can’t tell when they might be going overboard

tried to eat the flame on Stacey’s Litwick once

very acrobatic

caused Lilya’s “train incident” by sneaking up on Stacey at a bad moment

will hiss at people they don’t like

If you were thinking that this was basically just the Grimmchild (even without reading that image description up there), you’d be right! I figured if anyone was gonna make one of these based on Grimm, that’d be the best direction to go in since he already has a kid of sorts. The fandom generally refers to the Grimmchild as they/them or it/its, right? Someone please, correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t been able to access the meat of the Grimm Troupe dlc yet in my own playthrough due to not having knowing I didn’t have to have the dream nail powered up enough quite yet. I mean, I might, but I haven’t gone back to the Resting Grounds since I got more essence in order to check. (see if you can guess why I named them “Nikki”, you guys are smart so you’ve got a real good shot at piecing my punnage together ;3 )

Soooo...yeah, that’s my offering to this nonsense, idk if it’s even still a Thing but whatever, sometimes an idea grabs you and you take forever to share the results. If I were drawing these three normally and not with the “fashion doll line” idea in mind, they’d prolly have more varied body shapes. I know Lilya would be much taller than the other two and Nikki prolly wouldn’t have anything resembling boob curvature, but I copy-pasted the body structure and posing to give this thing the exact amount of effort it deserved /j

#sexyman descendants #smile for me #smile for me game #pokemon #hollow knight #jess drew a scribbly mess #no i am not putting this in my main art tag #sfw #image description

[twotailednekomata]

@camo-wolf

I explain the concepts behind these sketches under the cut (it got quite long).

The concept for these sketches started off by a factoid about Eevee I remembered. That is the fact that Eevee's DNA is so volatile that it can quickly adapt to any situation.

'Gold- It has the ability to alter the composition of its body to suit its surrounding environment.

Ruby & Sapphire- Eevee has an unstable genetic makeup that suddenly mutates due to the environment in which it lives. Radiation from various stones causes this Pokémon to evolve.

Ultra Moon- Its genes are easily influenced by its surroundings. Even its face starts to look like that of its Trainer.'

-Source: Bulbapedia

Ignoring the face stuff of that last entry, the fact that Eevee can change itself to suit its environment was a major influence for this Umbreon's design.

Something I immediately noticed is the fact that Damian has an Umbreon. Assuming he raised this Pokémon, I inferred that he spend a fair bit of time with his Eevee at night (since Eevee evolves into Umbreon via level up w/ high friendship at night). You know what else Damian does at night? Saving the world from devastation- I mean, protecting Gotham from dangerous criminals. If Damian treated his Eevee more like a regular pet and mostly spent time w/ it during the day, it would most likely be an Espeon or even Sylveon (depends whether or not it has a fairy-type move).

From there, I figured that his Eevee was often involved in his nighttime shenanigans so, due to how its genes worked, adapted accordingly.

First idea tries to go for a more lean look (because of all the acrobats one has to do to swing across Gotham), second one goes for a bulkier silhouette because Damian would often fight skilled criminals so his Eevee would evolved into a sort of bodyguard (believe or not, Umbreon is quite bulky and has been used for stalling in more competitive settings). I even gave him a shorten tail so that people or other Pokémon couldn't easily grab it to incapacitate the Umbreon.

The third idea is the one I ended up exploring a bit more. The thought process was along the lines of:

'This Umbreon needs to look like a loving pet and very adapted to Gotham's environment. Right? A smaller body and leaner proportions would make sense for all the crevices & alleyways alongside make him a bit like a teacup dog. Big rings would both be intimidating to criminals when they see them glow in pitch blackness and look quite cute in normal daylight.'

I even tried to give him the smaller tail from draft 2 (not that you can really tell in these drawings).

Not pictured here but I imaged Umbreon wearing a costume when on patrol for protection and identity preservation (not sure how much armor he needs but he needs to wear something).

I don't have a defined personality personality for him but he has a very close bond with Damian (he has been there for some of his down moments), would absolutely protect Dames if he is in dire trouble and often reflects how Damian is feeling. He is practically Damian's starter Pokémon since his Robin days.

Before I close off, I like to mention that I had the idea that Umbreon got involved in vigilantism by sneaking onto patrols because he was determined to help Damian so he had to teach him how Gotham patrols work so he wouldn't get himself killed (hence that one drawing where he drops some kneepads & fabric on the ground next to Eevee).

Anyways, these are my ideas (for now). Any constructive criticism would be appreciated :3

#gen 2 pokemon #pokemon #damian wayne #dc robin #key's post #key's artwork #art #Can you tell my strengths are in non-human animals?

[clover-creations]

Hi!! these are Poltegoat and Luscangel, the monsters representing the Shadow and Radiant types! They are going to be used by the main character and rival of Ban Mah. I plan to do this format of post for all of the type reps (not sure if im going to do other monsters like this ^^;)

I’ve done an image like the first one for Micelium (here!), and plan to make another post with it’s opposite monster, shiny colorings, and pixel art

Micelium+Powketroo

Dracumulus+Canaroc

Jelvysprite+Cruistacean

Toxifarce+Suncrower

Any feedback would be appreciated :)

More information about them under the cut!

The theme for Poltegoat is that it starts off as a monster that’s very trusting, but goes through a stage of doubt and worry, but eventually becomes someone who learns to trust again while being able to stand up for itself

For Luscangel, I didn’t really have a theme in mind besides “funny snail with angel motifs with a candle on it’s back,” until I also got the idea for it to turn into lava. I did want it to look very friendly, but it’s harder to make it not look friendly. I also thought of making nods to the 9 choirs of angels, but it really didn’t go through except for maybe the last stage (it is very hard to convey human like appearance and clothes in snails).

1st Page: Design Changes

I had originally planned to do a before and after with the designs like I did for Micelium, but I got carried away with it. You can see their first drafts (and the first-first drafts of the first stages here) The general gist is:

POLTEGOAT:

Red coloring got swapped for the blue (Conveys the fact that it is a shadow monster better)

The first stage didn’t have the heart marking

Second stage only had it’s front paws disconnected, and the fur puff is on the paw instead of the leg. The tail was also shorter

The third stage lost it’s back fur tuft (?)  and gets marking on the back, and blue accents on the leg instead.The horn goes around the ear, and the ear sticks up. It also loses it’s goatee (bc I forgot about it..) The snake tail also gets eyes

LUSCANGEL:

First stage gets yellow at the bottom

Second stage gets more detail overall- starts to introduce the concept of it turning into lava, and gets an actual shell (that’s supposed to represent molten rock!) instead of still having a glass shell

Third stage  gets a canon at it’s shell, and is fully obsidian with yellow and red markings - the shell isn’t just made of glass anymore. Also more of the lava motif appears at the end since it’s turning black. The canon rim works as a halo and I thought that the red spots on it would be good at conveying the eyes of higher up angels, as well as the multiple wings

2nd Page: Foils

Since monsters get captured in cards, I thought it’d be fitting to call their alternate coloration “foils”. It’s basically the same concept as Shinies from Pokemon, but I wanted to have multiple because 1) there are shiny hunters that unironically think that shinies being more common lowers their value, and I like that shinies are easier to get, so there being multiple types of foils balences that idea, and 2) because they look cool

Poltegoat: The first foil is its “beta coloring” with the red instead of the blue, the second foil takes the colors of it’s counterpart Luscangel, and the third stage is supposed to represent how its type is “Shadow.” I’m not sure how well that’s conveyed, since I didn’t want it to be all dark colors, but I think the bright purple and blue contrast well with the black and dark blue, and it looks cool, and that’s what matters

Luscangel: The first foil is basically the trans flag. It was suggested by a friend and I liked the idea, and it looks great! I think it’s my favorite. The second is Poltegoat’s coloring, and the third is because of how it’s the “Radiant” type. Radiant is basically light and fire. It’s basically just the color of fire, I think the shell makes a good contrast and makes the other colors look brighter and warmer :)

Pixel Art

The sizes of these are 32x32, 40x40, and 56x56, and then upscaled to where they’re 10 times bigger on both sides, so they’re not super blurry. The sizes of the canvas are based on their sizes:

Poltegoat 1/2/3 : 1′6″ (46cm)* / 3′ (91cm) / 5′2″ (157cm)**

Luscangel 1/2/3 : 0′8″ (20cm) / 2′4″ (71cm)*** / 6′3″ (191 cm)****

*to horn

**to head

***to eyes, not flame

****to top of canon

Poltegoat also has older sprites (~June 2022):

(I’m too lazy to upscale these, sorry :,D)

-

Thank you for reading this far :)

#ban ma #poltewolf #Luscangel #9/7 #plant talk

[how-doth-the-little-crocodile]

References to Other Media in Team 6×111's "Reckless Battery Burns" (Part 3)

Hello! If you're here, you probably already know what this is about. If not, check out the first part here for some more context.

WARNING! A few of these references contain sensitive imagery, such as depictions of blood.

I'm using the video GHOST made as a blueprint for this project, along with some help from a few friends and my own research to provide more info about each reference. With the intro out of the way, let's pick up where we left off!

1:42-1:44 - Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue is a 1997 psychological thriller film about a young actress who begins to suffer psychologically as she becomes a victim of stalking. This scene takes place near the end of the film, when an imposter of the protagonist is chasing her in order to kill her (I hope that's vague enough to prevent spoilers, but I haven't seen the film myself). The pose and expression Tamari holds in this frame of "Reckless Battery Burns" is a clear reference to the film, despite a few small differences.

1:45-1:46 - Alien 9

Alien 9 is a science fiction manga later adapted into a short OVA series. It's notable for its use of heavy gore contrasting its simple art style and monster designs. The scene pictured is from the fourth and final episode of the anime. Though Tamari lacks wings on their head, the resemblance is still undeniable.

1:47-1:48 - Kid Pix

Kid Pix is a bitmap drawing program for kids first released in 1989. The version shown in "Reckless Battery Burns" appears to be Kid Pix Deluxe 3X. A small Tamari is drawn on the computer screen using the program, which I think is cute!

1:48-1:49 - Tumblr (among others)

Kid Pix is closed on the computer to reveal this screen, which I think we all are very familiar with. This is obviously the Tumblr dashboard. However, the content of the post is a reference to the Mishapocalypse, a well-known event on Tumblr that took place on April 1, 2013, in which users would change their blog icons to the same photo of Supernatural actor Misha Collins.

I also noticed that the post count on the sidebar is 6,111, a reference to Team 6×111 themselves! The follower count is 69,420,999 as well which I thought was funny. (I'm unsure if any of the other numbers are significant, so please tell me if you know anything about that!)

After displaying the Tumblr dash for a second, the screen becomes corrupted with popups. This is where we can catch a few more references. In the top right, we can see Tamari doing the same dance as earlier from Serial Experiments Lain BOOTLEG. The text in the popup, "Let's all love Tamari", seems to reference a common phrase related to the anime, "Let's all love Lain".

The popup below that took a bit of figuring out. It's titled, "Dr. Tamari's 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap". This seems to reference Dr. Bronner's soap of the same name, which is real and can be bought at Target for close to $15. The text below that is taken word-for-word from the label on the bottle, which advocated for his religious and philosophical beliefs.

A character from Yume Nikki can be seen on the third popup. This is Uboa, an iconic but hard-to-find character in the game, who can be seen in a chance event in Poniko's house.

The text beside Uboa on the popup may be referencing how the background music of the game changes to an "alarming filtered 'aah' noise" as soon as the Uboa event is triggered (via).

It's been a while! Sorry about that. I got caught up in stuff and then they changed the image limit to 30 as this was sitting in my drafts. I decided not to extend this particular part more, since it had already been so long since I last posted a part, and because this one was a little longer in general. However! I think the next part will be significantly longer. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on this series!

Part 1 - Part 2

#posts by me #team 6x111 #ghost and pals #vane lily #reckless battery burns #tamari #vocaloid #blood tw #here's hoping the next one doesn't take me as long oops

[goldenchocobo]

I think this is my biggest yearly art-dump to date!

A lot of it is personal/friend art, though

I’ve numbered them as usual, so if you want to know what the heck you’re looking at, its all under the Keep Reading;

1. I watched most of the Predator movies with my friends, and during one- I drew these two. the fisher’s hat one for a joke- the other was a meme image we shared from a con.

2. Emojis I made for an Isle server Discord

3. Tried to play a different game of D&D with a different friend, because I’m terrible at improve and at speaking in general, I asked if I ‘could play a druid stuck in wildshape, and his quest is to find someone to unstuck him’. He was a horse that kicked a chicken as a distraction to some guards so my to-be party member to sneak around and knock him out. His name is Kurr.

4. Played Cenozoic Survival with friends, and made two National Park styled posters. We were kelenkens that killed other kelenkens (the Kele-Killers), and a pack of Direwolves that lived in the swamp.

5. Drawing of Vivi from FFIX and a chocobo for the Nyancave

6. A sketch of my favourite Berserk character, Serpico. and the walking meme with Serpico, Guts and Isidro

-You’ve entered the Nyan-zone-

Everything here was posted to r/Nyancave on Reddit.

7. Nyancave’s cats, Nia and Dante drawn when they were both young kittens.

8. Nyancave as Super Paper Mario’s enemy descriptions (original said “These two are Clayba and Nyanba. Two nice Goombas who play games on a thing called ‘Mushtube’. Max HP is 4, Attack is 2, and Defence is 0. Aw, I like these guys, they play good games and have all around great vibes.However, Clayba does have an ability called ‘cheese’, which lets him exploit the game mechanics, so watch out, Mario!”-Goombella)

9. Good Vibe Kitties for when Nyanni wasn’t feeling very well.

10. Nyancave as a CONSOL from Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

11. Nia and Dante playing with B12 from Stray.

12. Clay and Nyanni’s Pokemon Nuzlocke Soul-like teams (at the time)

-Its OC World time-

Everything here is from headword/RP with friends that We’ve been slowly planning out over the course of a year and a bit. Its a mix of final-fantasy-esq magic and dinosaurs.

13. The first redesign of Lupin, my old Keykid OC that was in last year’s art dump as well.

14. The redesign of another keykid, Ember. She has a pet Drornis.

15. The redesign of another keykid, Lilly- she’s now a noble woman.

16. Second (technically third) redesgin of Lupin, made him look fancier and more sharp. the items on his right are his ring and rapier. 

17. The redesign of another keykid, this time Iberis. They haven’t changed much, but I did redesign them before this; their look was hard to get down.

18. Lupin using his rapier to cast some lightning magic. drawn alongside the first redesign.

19.The processes on how a dinosaur becomes magical. it eats a magic gem, and if it survives, it inherits magical propeties.

20. Two ornamental birds that serve as ‘communication’ devices, with the chicken being about the size of a novelty landline, and the robin, the size of a brooch.

21. Caustiopteryx. A Caudiopteryx that has acidic elemental powers and isn’t looking so great anymore.

22. Stryaticosaurus. A Stryacosaurus that has lightning elemental powers.

23. Dryovoidus. A Dryosaurus that has void-like powers that can turn into a puff of smoke at will.

24. Pyrosolophosaurus. A Parasaurolophus that has fire elemental powers.

25. Dinosaur mounts. not exactly domesticated, but tame enough to let a rider on their backs and steer them.

-KH art that didn’t make it-

26. First draft of my Vanitas fan outfit and several designs of Namine’s before landing on the final one I chose.

27. First round of Zootopia Aqua and Terra- before I drew them in their final poses.

28. Chocobo draft of the Dilan and Xaldin chocobo mount design.

29. Lycan/werewolf Pureblood Heartless/Darkling idea.

30. A redraw of that scene at the end of BBS with Xehanort and Braig- only this time Xehanort and Bragi.

31. Redraws of Vanitas’s scenes in KH3 but with his helmet off. I wish it were off, because the whole reveal to Sora could have taken place else where.

-Warrior Cats?-

Friends got me into a Warriorcat clan generator thing witch is kind of like a rouge-lite drama-simulator? its hard to describe.

32. First major clan. absolute drama. Halfheart murdered a lot of cats by using the medicine cat, Laketail, and so did her daughter, Barkkit- only with a more claws-on-approach. 10/10 would recommend reading that book.

33. Current clan. Less drama- more survival. They’re not labelled, but we have; Lilacstar, Boulderheart, Flipleaf, Skyclaw, Blotchpaw, Owlfur and Wormtail.

#Goldenchocobo's Art #2022 Art Dump

[you-are-my-neverland]

[id: a graphic with a series of three images: a girl with her eyes cast in shadow, a statue of a saint dripping gold, and two hands with light between them. the text overlaid reads ‘the metamorphosis of the lost’ / end id]

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE LOST → A ROUND UP

“Kevla is rotten to the core,” June continued. She was as close to impassioned as India thought she would ever visibly be, reminding India of the times June had opened up before, the anger burning like a bright, cold, distant star in her eyes. “You can’t fix Kevla. All you can do is remove some of the damage.”

after roughly fourteen months of writing, i am proud to announce that the first draft of the metamorphosis of the lost is officially done. at the start of the summer last year (2022), i had only 120k words, and the end seemed unreachable. now, i’ve wrapped up the first draft at a rounded up value of 310k. it’s crazy to think that i’ve actually reached this point. i started tracking my writing progress during my summer goal of 200k, and continued to do so during the fall semester, of which i only failed to write one day. in retrospect, all those days where i was too tired to write more than a few sentences, with word counts under 100, and the months where i struggled to hit my goal of 500 a day - all those days piled up to the completion i achieved right on time for 2023 to hit. 

will i definitely do more work on this novel? who knows. i can’t say for certain that i’ll ever go back to it, or that a second draft will occur. but i hope i will. i always planned for tmotl to have a companion piece, for this to be the first part of a duology. do i have nothing but a few scattered ideas tying the two together? yes. i do need to actually tackle the plot of that rumored companion novel soon.

“What did you ever do for me?” she asked bleakly. “I’m dead because of you. If you had cared at all, the Black Saint would have died long before I came back to find him still alive.” If he had been dead then, I might have come back to you, she didn’t say, because it was something that she would never be able to take back if she did.

i’ve posted a lot of (unpolished) excerpts on here before, so in honor of finishing the first draft, i figured i would let myself talk about the writing process and all the little things i haven’t shared yet! if you were ever interested in finding out more about this wip, or read the posts i’ve made and thought ‘idk what this is about but this is cool’ (as i never did post those character profiles or setting notes or anything informative beyond the wip intro...), read on.

(fair warning: it’s long.)

Kevla itself might be larger than life, but India didn’t believe in the city either. She just knew it existed, because she couldn’t ignore its presence in her life. 

Maybe Kevla was God.

we’ll start with the city itself. kevla, a city set somewhere on the coast, estranged from the rest of the world that it can’t really be imagined somewhere on a map. kevla is, at it’s heart, a gritty thing to behold: it is a city that is trying to kill you, and the only thing that will save you. 

there have been many times when i’ve looked at a wip and said, this wip is just going to be normal. there will be no magical realism in this wip.’ this was not the case for tmotl - when i was first visualizing the story, i knew that i wanted the city the vigilantes occupy to be alive in a very magical realism way. therefore, kevla is a sentient being, though it is never explicitly called that. it is only understood by the characters throughout the story, by anele and india and vin and june. it is talked about as something that acts on its own. in this, kevla becomes both the setting and a character. 

kevla itself is neatly divided into districts. i live in the suburbs, and have not lived in any big metropolises, but i have visited nyc, and d.c.  is kevla not exactly designed as a realistic city would be? yes. but i think it fits into the rest of the novel - kevla has to be small for logistical reasons, but it also has to be larger than life. it has to be a peninsula, with a raging coastline, and it has to have a living forest cutting it off from everything else. the people who live in kevla understand the uncanny nature of their city, but it is not unusual to them - it’s just the place they live.

He didn’t say anything. India drew in a shuddering breath and felt his chest expand slightly, in the barest way, ribs rigid through his costume. She could draw a knife right now, stab him fatally, slide it into the spot between the ribs, drive it in through his skin and break through his back. If not that, then a bullet at close range. The possibilities were endless. At this point, she could see the seams in his body armor. Everything and anything could be destroyed at this close.

india, india, india. tmotl definitely doesn’t have a single main character - june and india both share that title, and many other characters have a substantial amount of povs - but tmotl is also very much india’s story, because she’s the girl i wanted to write about first. an angry girl. an outcast. someone who is overflowing with all the wrong emotions. someone who bares her rage on her teeth.

india as indigo is directionless. she’s stuck in place, and she doesn’t know where she’s going. it’s only after she’s killed by the black saint and returns as the red saint that she finally has a purpose - to kill the black saint, and to prove the world (the vigilantes) wrong. to show them. where she had just been following other people’s paths, and rules, now she forges her own. still, even, she’s torn in her heart - does she really want burned bridges? does she want death? apologies? for all that india claims, she doesn’t really know, herself, but it takes her a long time before she can admit that to herself.

india is, at her core, unpredictable. she’s a series of contradictions, which is intended. no matter how much drive you have, it doesn’t amount to anything if you don’t know where you’re going, or why you’re going at all. she’s a treasure trove of trust issues, impulses, and sharp edged defenses. she doesn’t trust anyone, because she was abandoned from birth - there was never anyone in her corner until she met anele and vin. even then, even with a found family, she put up the walls; she wants to be understand, while believing so strongly in the fundamental divide between them all - that they will never understand what it’s like to be her.

india is a mouthpiece for something that often echoed throughout my thoughts, especially when first brainstorming for tmotl. who gets to decide who the good guys are in vigilantism? are you the good guys, india asks, because you didn’t let your trauma affect you? because you dealt with it ‘neatly?’ am i the bad guy for not being able to?

“I didn’t die easily,” June said ferociously. “None of us died easily. People like you didn’t let us die easily. Our death, to you, was nothing but a chance, but for us it was hell, over and over again. Why do you expect compassion from me when you never had any for any of us? You didn’t change anything. You didn’t save anyone. You took a legacy and let it live on.”

She swallowed back her anger and lividity, fingers curling around the knife handle.

“Complacency is a crime.”

june, our other leading lady. summer 2021, when i was first having the beginnings of an idea of what this story would become, june’s description was ‘a revenge driven victim of nonconsensual body modification/experimentation.’ she was always designed to be the perfect experiment, in a way. she’s the timepiece, not a cog, of the weaponization of children.

june’s story is one of agency. of irony. she’s dissociated from her body - it is just a thing she lives in. it was something that was made by other people. she uses that body to kill the people that made her, as if saying, ‘look what the body you made can you do. look what the thing you made is capable of.’ she is the sword that turns on its owner, the weapon that fights back instead of fleeing. where does the weapon end and the girl begin? she doesn’t even know herself.

june is the ice to india’s fire. they complement each other like that. she’s the level headed one, the executioner. india’s all impulsivity and anger, emotions spilling out over the edges as june keeps everything she feels close. she doesn’t even know how much she’s feeling at any time; june keeps everything muted, a further dissociation from the self.

her revenge is not really revenge so much as it is vengeance. it’s the only way she can even begin to reclaim her agency, and while she acknowledges that at some level, outwardly the reason for what she does is simple: so that it never happens to anyone else. not for herself, but for everyone else. or so she tells herself.

“We’re here,” Vail said. “If you ever want to talk more about any of it, we’re here.”

“But you’re not,” Emrys said, hating the way her voice cracked on the last word. “All of you are here, but you’re not there.”

They were alone. She felt terrible and peculiar, as if they were pins on a map, standing in the same city but far away from each other. As if walking in parallel lines, but heading in different directions. When India had been there, things had been different. When Aerin had been there, Emrys had thought she would at least have the comfort of knowing she wasn’t alone, but she was alone. They all were.

emrys wasn’t supposed to be that main of a character, but she ended up badgering her way into the story anyways, snatching up a large percentage of povs. she became very close to my heart, maybe because, out of all of the characters, she was the most like me in her mind (and i spent a lot of time in her mind). kind of like my embodiment of girlhood - she’s in her nebulous coming of age, in the background: confronting hard truths and hard feelings alongside grief, as she steps into new shoes all on her own. she didn’t quite end up following the ideas i had in mind for her, but i’m pretty satisfied with the emrys i have left.

emrys was supposed to be the hope of the group. in every story (at least for me), there must be someone who represents the new when it comes to the old (pain, trauma, tradition, etc). in a twist of irony, emrys herself became aware of this - she herself thinks that she doesn’t want to be hope, or in pandora’s box at all.

for a character that was supposed to be the happy, bright one, the emrys we meet in tmotl is living out an aftermath. that happy, bright girl is who she used to be. the girl she is now is one transforming, becoming a darker shadow to her brighter body. many of the things she does throughout the story would be considered uncharacteristic from those who know her, and even though the readers are not aware of who this girl used to be (and only catch glimpses of her), the reactions of other characters tell us this.

“You know why I saved you,” Catrin said. 

“I do,” Vin agreed. He could never forget the life debt he carried so heavily on his heart, which had stayed his hand a hundred times over. It was the reason he was loyal to her after all; their relationship was built on mutual debt, with which came a degree of shared trust. Vin had always known that one day she might aim him at someone with intent to kill, and he would do it. If only to keep the balance.

onto vin, one of the older members of this vigilante group at 25, but no less important. he is supposed to come off as almost inhuman - flexible beyond measure, moving like a shadow, so quiet that he makes no noise at all, as if he was a ghost. vin is a mystery, and a private person, who is frustratingly hard to understand to his younger counterparts, such as india and emrys, and still an enigma to his older partners, such as anele. he has one of the most thought out characterizations (because i had so much to work out when it came to his character), but you probably learn the least about him throughout the story.

vin bears the brunt of india’s anger and emrys’ frustration in the story, partially because he’s so hard to communicate with (in a way), and partially because he’s the one they want to prove themselves to. he’s aloof and talented; he never messes up, or calls the wrong shot. he was built for the job, it seems. of course, this is what it looks like on the surface - underneath tells a story, the dark side of june’s moon. human experimentation to the point of dehumanization. on the surface, he looks ordinary. inside, who knows what he has become.

vin operates by a strict moral code. he’s brutal, and capable of extreme cruelty, but he never kills. in a fight, he says, the only thing that matters is the people you want to protect. one rule, but it’s the only thing that matters. this is where he and india clash - she wants the black saint dead, but vin will never kill (for reasons relating to backstory info that can’t be shared at this moment lol).

a fun fact, though, which i don’t think i actually mentioned in the first draft even though it’s so clever, is that vin is short for corvin. corvin derives from corvinus, which derives from the latin word corvus in turn. corvus literally means raven, but it also refers to the genus of birds including crows, ravens, etc. his vigilante name is crow btw.

Angry was too close to being a bomb herself, and for all her sermons on understanding bombs, Anele had already died in the face of one. She did not want to become one herself.

When bombs exploded, they left no survivors. Even the ones who lived were not untouched. 

The ones who died, too, even.

anele!! the wisest of the bunch, maybe, if wisdom equals years. she’s not the mother figure, but more like an older sister to many of the vigilantes. someone you would go to for advice. where everyone else came from empty and hard childhoods, anele grew up loved with a single father, in a suburban neighborhood. she has memories she can look back on with fondness, instead of ones tainted by death or grief.

although anele is always moving forwards, she, too, is mired in the past. she grieves for herself. she visits her father as a ghost, leaving him things without ever knocking on the door, because she is afraid she wouldn’t be welcomed back as one of the living. so much of her current life is trapped in the half second before she died the first time. she might not have believed in the system, but she participated in it, until dying. then, she realized it was always going to fail her. despite being straight laced, she believes in the gray line between black and white, the area outside of laws and all that.

anele steps into the role of x-le with ease, but at the heart of the matter, she doesn’t trust catrin, especially since she never asked to be saved, or to be brought back to life with metal in her veins. she doesn’t allow this to color her professional relationships, but on a personal level, she doesn’t hide her scrutiny.

anele and vin have by far one of my most favorite relationships in the novel, mostly because she is, at least, deeply in love with him in a way that can’t even be described as love. it’s subtle, but interwoven in all their interactions. feelings where there shouldn’t be. emotion where it can’t exist. makes me go insane, honestly.

You didn’t have to answer, Diem thought, but couldn’t make herself say it, because a part of her had always been waiting. Ever since her childhood, when she had first heard the whispered rumors about her father, when she had realized that there would always be questions about her birthright and place following her, she had been waiting for a father to claim. For a father to destroy.

Her mother’s hand on her own, helping her slide the knife into skin, wiping the blood spray for her face gently, showing her how to clean the blade. 

diem is, out of all the vigilantes (our heroes and heroines), the most antagonistic one by design. she is one of the characters that was meant to stay the truest to their original designs (of an old wip also called tmotl i half planned back in 2019-2020, of which several characters were taken off the shelf and dusted off for this story). the diem i created then was cutthroat and hard to the bone, the kind of person who used people and threw them away when she was done. here, her personality is a bit toned down, if only because she has to take the back burner - she’s not the leader, but now a ‘lackey.’ a team member. however, although diem might be one with the team, she very much chafes against the idea, an independent contractor.

daughter of the infamous bowman, a criminal overlord, and an unnamed man, diem grew up in a life of elite crime. she might have died since then, but it only made her harder. out of all of them, diem is the one who focuses the most on impartiality, of cutting things off before they drag her down. she cuts her losses before they can cut her. sentimentality has no place in her - she is a brutal machine, always pushing herself forward. the only soft spot she has is for vail, and even then, she’s hard pressed to show it. to diem, all her weaknesses became her strengths, including her death.

to india, diem is someone she wants to destroy. prior to death, they were always at each other’s throats, and after it, it’s no surprise that diem is the main voice preaching that india can’t be saved. their similarities only cause their differences to be more abrasive.

Kevla already had one saint. It didn’t need another. The audacity they had to call themselves Saints when all they did was contribute to the hell so many people were trapped in made Vail vengeful—he didn’t believe in Saints, and even if he did, they wouldn’t be the ones who walked the streets. Saint wasn’t a title one gave themselves; it had to be earned.

vail is the quiet one. where everyone else is brimming with opinion and emotion, vail is in the backdrop, a muted color against all the vivid, dark ones competing for space. he is kind and compassionate in comparison to diem’s hard headed ruthlessness, but he’s also the only one who can meet her head on without getting emotionally involved - maybe that is why he is the only one who can temper her.

vail is a man of family and faith, but he keeps both those things close to his heart. although he is a sentimental person, he is always hiding that part of himself, because it got him hurt, over and over again. family and faith hurt him, killed him, but he doesn’t know how to let it go. can’t. 

all the characters pay homage to some sort of divine presence at least once or twice throughout tmotl, but vail is the only one who believes in a specific god, instead of an entity-that-might-be-a-god, or kevla-as-a-god-or-divine-being. kevla is a city that kills organized religion, but vail’s faith is too great to be killed.

He’d thought that he had gotten over it. That the past had stopped chasing him. That, when the past finally found him, Mika would be ready for it. That he would fight it. That he would kill it. 

How many times had he dreamed of that night? How many times had he dreamed of another dreary Kevlan landscape, where this time he was the victor?

mika, son of the mockingbird. like diem, he believes in absolute strength, not allowing himself any sign of weakness. he’s very independent, and though he seems unwavering, he’s actually insecure in his identity, if only because of the immeasurable shadow his parents - a chemist and famous vigilante, respectively - left behind.

mika’s story is one of legacy. like his mother before him, he traverses the city in the guise of night, as phantom. he’s cynical, the pessimistic voice among those who believe in the best, and deals with everything that bothers him with coldness, putting up high walls. although he seems closed off, inside he carries a bone deep determination to survive, to defeat ‘evil’ and triumph. his thoughts on justice are often unclear, as is his morality, but he approaches the title of vigilante with a ruthless efficiency.

catrin flint, emrys’ aunt, is mika’s guardian, through a series of loosely explained events - often because it is not clear to mika or emrys themselves how catrin knew his mother, and what led her to take him in. mika never wanted another family, and that much is clear to both flints, but he is also the one who ends up being the most in emrys’ corner as she goes through grief and changes. he doesn’t agree with her on most things, but he stays by her side all the same.

mika was originally supposed to have a touch of magical realism to him as well - and he should still, if the necessary revisions are done and hints portrayed. mika was supposed to be someone who walked the shadowy line of the veil, seeing/communicating with the dead, or hand in hand with death (with nebulous connections to his own death or near-death experience). 

Suicidal, Drakov had called him back then, when he had spared him and Jericho had thrown it away in favor of not taking the hint, trailing him because he had seen a lifeline in the other man, one he wanted to grasp, like flailing in the ocean and chancing upon a buoyancy device. It was coming out of a haze, like a dying man who had been living life with the expectation of it ending only to realize that he wanted to live. 

But Jericho wasn’t fifteen. He was Jailbird, had been for years. He’d trained under Drakov, the only person he knew who had had the honor. He’d managed to survive in this shitty city, had gotten out of the trap where thousands of others had died, and had carved out a living without paying penance to anyone but himself.

jericho’s the only vigilante without a team, but he makes up for it by having plenty of connections. he’s india’s friend, before and after. he becomes mika’s and emrys’ connection in the grimy city, and potential ally. he communicates with the dragon, the only person who can reveal information on the assassin on a personal, instead of professional, level (with the exception of a few). 

a vigilante who is more like a mercenary, jericho goes by the pseudonym jailbird, and mostly keeps to himself. he’s shrewd, witty, and plays the game as smart as he can as a kid on his own - and it’s worked; he’s managed to avoid any major trouble. out of all the cast, jericho is one of the few who avoids a near death experience. 

still, he deals with a fair amount of imposter syndrome and guilt, most of which is only alluded to, as he only gets the rare pov. i can’t speak much on him because several big facts about him are technically plot relevant info that gets revealed in the novel itself.

June wondered if that was before or after he had died for the first time, before or after the first time he had tried to kill himself. With Rhys, the first time had never been the last. She thought of what he had said the last time they had talked so closely. I don’t care about life or death, June. I don’t care about the people I kill. I don’t care if it gets me killed. 

She held the blade up to him. The pale light glinted on the edges, showing the smooth, glossy sheen of it all. 

if winter were a person, it would be personified through rhys. aptly enough, his last name is winters, although this never gets mentioned in-text (i don’t believe). surprisingly, rhys doesn’t get a single pov throughout tmotl, even when most of the characters mentioned here get at least one (like mika). still, he has a presence, if only because he is june’s partner in crime. they come from the same history, cut from the same cloth. 

rhys is the apathetic type of person who doesn’t believe in anything. he’s suicidal (to a lesser degree in the present, but this is still an explicit textual fact). he likes to weaponize his discomfort and acidic personality to make other people (namely kit) uncomfortable. human misery on the downlow, though this could also be attributed to the fact that he lives a miserable existence - as if his history wasn’t bad enough, in death he was saved and made alive only through the fact that he is literally toxic, consigning him to a life wearing a gas mask, as his breathe could kill people if it is not filtered.

in tmotl, rhys is in many ways an abettor. does he care for june’s revenge? not really, but he helps her with it anyways, because what he feels for june is complicated, but he would follow her anywhere, if only because she gives him something to do. does he care about kit? does he care about human life? who knows. sometimes he says things just to be contradictory. 

rhys was also from the original wip, and he stays much the same, if a little more fleshed out. so does his and kit’s antagonistic relationship.

Flames were dancing in the fever bright blue of Kit’s eyes, his arm running red as he carelessly studied the tracker, letting it catch the light. She could see the thin displeasure set in Rhys’ mouth, even behind the gas mask, which snaked around his ears, the rebreathers fitted like a glove to the lower half of his face. He passed her a strip of cloth wordlessly, his own arm bound. She in turn took Kit’s hand, nodding at the tracker as she cinched a quick tourniquet. 

“I know,” Kit murmured, and then threw the tracker back towards the warehouse. His skin beneath June’s cool, blood stained fingers was burning. She could feel the thud of his heartbeat beneath the thin skin of his wrist, beating a wild rhythm, but when she looked at him more carefully, he still stood unwavering, which was good enough.

this excerpt is actually from page number one. kit, our final ‘main’ character (besides the villains and adults of the story, which are not quite as interesting, and also don’t have much i can reveal about them without spoiling things), is part of june’s team of three. he doesn’t go out in costume like basically every single other character; he doesn’t even have a code name. he’s the technology behind june’s operation, the one who runs things behind the scenes for her and rhys.

kit is important because he’s who june wants to protect. he’s one of the reasons she keeps moving forward at all. he’s a failure, at least to the organization - they saved him, but they couldn’t make him something better. sometimes, when you fix something broken, it doesn’t turn out as it was. for kit, this means a slow, aching death sentence, fighting the deterioration of his own body.

still, kit tries to stay brave in the face of it all. he’s light hearted, especially in comparison to rhys and june’s dark moods. he’s a light - something june follows, and rhys abhors. much of kit is a mix of appearance and projection; it is as it looks, but it also isn’t. sometimes, you’ve barely scratched the surface, because as much as kit is the open one, he also has a history of lying and conning that mark him as as much of a street kid as india, or june was.

he’s destined for death. the only question - one that is revisited throughout tmotl in scenes - is how long it will take before he gets there.

That last day in the Fold had never stopped being a blade lodged in his sternum. Vin could still feel it, the wound it covered. If he ever pulled the knife free, he would bleed out, but the longer he kept it in, the more damage would be done in the long run. 

He kept the blade in. It was the risk he could take, for now.

that’s it for now. i could go on and on, but i think i’ve written enough for now. if you have any questions about this work on the characters, or just want to know something, please reach out via my ask box or messages! i hope this piqued your interest - that being said, if you would like to be added to this specific taglist, or my general taglist, let me know in some way shape or form!

taglist: @cannivalisms @sunshineomeara @thepixiediaries @muddshadow

#.txt #wip: tmotl #wip: the metamorphosis of the lost #writers on tumblr #my writing #creative writing #wip info #first draft #writeblr #wip #wip excerpt #gratuitous amounts of folly here (me rambling about it) #this is SO long but in my defense this is what i want on my blog. long posts where i just talk about my writing #no more making stuff look pretty. i want it to be what i want. and that is about how much i LOVE what i write ok #anyways. hope this cleared some things up or made them more confusing #i have a whole tag you can peruse if you want to learn more or refresh your memory #10+ characters that i never introduced outside of excerpts...we love to see it #this is so crazy and insane and this took me days to write on top of that #but i'm DONE so please interact if you want #if you have the time <3 #and send me an ask if you want to know more!!!

[lgcxminji]

my little friend

minji graciously greets the line staff as she enters a non-descript meeting room. she's prepared quite a bit for this day, ever since eunsook informed them of the collaboration. taking a seat at the large table, she opens up her notebook full of sketches and written-out ideas, as well as a few photo-copied images of her sketches prepared to begin her pitch.

she begins first by describing the main details of the character. "my representative emoji in the group is a chipmunk! i chose it because chipmunks are small and cute, a lot like the image i have within fabula." minji's not exactly an artist, but she did try her best to draw a chipmunk with a cute face. "i think it would look nice in my representative color, teal, but to also bring in aspects of my bright personality, i think it would be nice to bring in some other colors like yellow or orange as well! perhaps those colors could go on the stripes on the back. "furthermore, i think instead of an acorn or peanut, i think we should have the chipmunk hold a chocolate bar. i'll explain why in a moment."

having finished describing the base of the product, she moves onto the name. "a nickname i know some fans have called me in the past is mini-ji, so i was thinking we could play a bit off that." in her own notebook, she flips to a page of many drafts of names. some crossed out completely, some crossed out, but still visible, and one circled and noted with a pink heart sticker. "i was thinking the name could be michoco. mi, of course, would incorporate minji. choco will have a double-meaning: small and chocolate!" she giggles, and explains, "that's why i wanted her to be holding chocolate. i think it fits my personality well."

finally, she flips a few pages further to the products she had thought of. some have sketches, while some are just notes scribbled around the pages. two particularly are denoted with star stickers, similarly to the name page. "the first thing i thought of is a diary! journaling and diary-keeping is something i've heard has become popular again. so, i was thinking about a plush-cover notebook with michoco's face on it! what i think would be especially cute is if the key to unlock the diary was shaped like a chocolate bar, or had a little chocolate keychain on it."

she flips to the next page, where her second product idea is kept. "the next product idea i have is for a character hat!" she does have a drawing for this one, so she tells the staff its location. "my vision is for it to be like those bunny hats where you can pull the sides so that the ears pop up." she demonstrates with her hands; one acting as the hat, and one as her actual hand pulling the string. "as for the chocolate bars, they can be held by the arms, i think!"

after answering a few questions from the staff, they finally meet a point where line believes they have enough information to begin the design process on their end. "thank you very much!" minji says gleefully, gathering her things as she prepares to exit the office. however, before she leaves, she pulls one last thing out of her bag- mini chocolate bars, more than enough for every staff member in attendance to have two. "i can't wait to see what you design!" she says, before leaving with the manager to head back to the company.

#lgc:fabulamission #[ my little friend ] #[ solo ]

[2023-512kadeyoung]

Week 4 SDL, Working on my Booklet

For week 4's SDL, I continued drafting up how I could like to lay out my type specimen book. Previously, I was using a two-column guide along with a few margins to help lay out my work. However, now I have moved over to a grid-style system to give me more flexibility to lay out my work.

I spoke to David in class about my draft so far and he suggested that I should remove the bars that framed the pages of my work. This helped me realise that I should design with more intention. David pointed out that I could specify the typeface and its size throughout my work, I did so in the example below. He also suggested that I add some colour to my work. My classmates Will and Kaleb seconded this, and I got some ideas on how I can utilise colour from them. Inspired by the colours I used in my poster from last week's class, I used a palette consisting of different shades of green. With colour established I also added in a couple images to strengthen the booklet's connection to place and colour.

I have established the general layout for my work now. The first couple of pages is all about introducing the font and its Designer. Then the booklet moves on to showcasing the font and its capabilities. Then to show the typeface in context I plan to have some text about my pepeha and its places. I also worked on another design element that can be used to better showcase the typeface. Inspired by some of the exemplar-type booklets I made a diagram to showcase the differing families.

So far I am enjoying working with New Kansas, as it can be easily used as a display font, but it is very adaptable and can be applied as a body text just as easily. Moving forward I would like to work more on my front page and add more content in.

[retphienix]

hm. Since the last time I played a DS game tumblr seems to have adjusted how it handles awkward dimensions on images because it's not really letting me format this well AT ALL. It looks alright in my drafts but it's a mess while posting so apologies if it comes out messy.

Oh well. I'll deal.

So! After much deliberation, mental anguish, anxiety, holiday fun, and sleep I've decided on what I'd like the next full playthrough to be for the blog and I think it'll be an interesting one. So here's the pre-game ramble!

Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite game. I've said it before, I'll say it again plenty of times up until that finally changes and based on this and that I kind of assume it simply won't.

Whereas my list of favorite games is a miasma of titles with no clear order; There's no "second" or "fifth" favorite it's all just "favorites"- there IS one game that gets the throne and it's the original Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSX and it's PSP remaster.

I say that purely because I'll take any excuse to bring up FFT.

Oh but also because it plays into the conversation on the series as a whole (nailed it).

While FFT has remained my favorite game since I was a kid, the "series" lost me almost immediately.

I was handed a GBA with FFTA in it while hanging out with my cousin one day and I distinctly remember my take away being "Why in the heck is this tutorial snowball fight so long, I'm bored. Wait? We're in like a fantasy world? That's NOT what Ivalice is! This is stupid."

Overly dismissive, but the point was that my first impression as a kid was disappointment that the sequel was some strange childlike dream while the first one was a serious epic with death and intrigue going on. I didn't appreciate the shift in tone, and so it took me many years to finally come back and give it a shot on this very blog.

It's fine.

I don't like it; I find it's gameplay vastly inferior to the original, the classes far less interesting, and the story is just painfully immature; mostly felt like they tried to write child characters but tripped headfirst into 'unrealistic bratty selfish characters' which, whoops, you messed up :/

That's kind of the point though, FFTA was clearly meant to smooth out the sharp edges of the genre for a younger audience (ignore the fact that age wise I 'was' that audience- FFT already got it's mitts on me)- the things I find to be lesser were made that way by design and for many people that game holds an important part in their mind-palace because it simply Clicked with them.

But the thing is, while I was wrapping up my FFTA playthrough for the blog I was told the sequel was simply "Better".

...

I was also told it was worse~ So lord help me if that's the case.

I wasn't really given context- I sure as hell don't know a single thing about FFTA2, but I'm game.

I am more than willing to give it a shot, give it a real honest try where I judge it by its own merits, and who knows?

Maybe I'll really like it, I mean I do like me a tactical RPG from time to time.

I feel like despite me editing this down like 4 times to make it not about FFTA, it keeps becoming me slipping in my annoyance with FFTA. I do genuinely think FFTA is "fine" it's just not for me.

ANYWHO. Time to finally give FFTA2 a shot, y'know?

Right out the gate I think we're doing the "fall into a fantasy world" thing again which isn't surprising. These are both FFT(A) titles and I already knew that A and A2 had a hell of a lot more in common than either did with the original.

I like getting to pick random things on my summer vacation wish list and having my guy toss in a cocky comment about the homework promise and even cap it off with "That sounds convincing"- that already gives me a pretty fun idea of who Luso is, kind of a trouble maker perhaps? I like this :)

#Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift #FFT #FFTA2 #Final Fantasy Tactics #RetPlays

[lkimball02svad]

Week 5 + 6

I think these past 2 weeks have been my favorite yet. I got the chance to be creative with my own drawings to portray a powerful message to promote voting for your rights and "changing the world." We were each told to chose a quote from a list provided to us and the quote that I went with was: "Somewhere inside of all of us is the power to change the world." -Roald Dahl

We started off by showing our first sketches/thumbnails to get an idea on what we wanted to do for the project. I had a handful of ideas, but eventually decided to go with the contour line drawings idea after we ran through our first critiques.

After deciding which sketch I was going to go through with I took my ideas into Procreate on my IPad and got to work. Here are a few of my first drafts when I was still figuring out the main image of my poster.

After the second critique, I was told there needed to be more. More faces to represent the population. More faces until it is too much, so I added more and played around with more color schemes and text options.

I eventually got the idea to just handwrite my quote to give it that more "authentic" appeal. I went with the last photo with the different blues, but there was still a lot to be done. I was told to add more faces, so I did. Then I adjusted where is wanted the text to be at on the poster and where I thought it would be its strongest, so I moved it up to the middle.

Even after moving the area of the text, I felt the poster wasn't strong enough yet. After playing around with different possibilities, I added some script in the background of the entire poster to portray some subliminal messaging to go out and vote to protect your rights.

Although I am still experimenting with the text, I feel that I am getting closer to what I imagined for this project.

For this week's book review, I really enjoyed Bob Mckinnon's chapter on Socially Impactful Design. I loved how he described a social innovation as a design that can move the world forward. I feel like I was able to relate to that while working on my poster these past couple of weeks because the message that I am trying to portray is that we as a population have it in us to go out and change the world. we just have vote for what we think is right and do impactful things to show our true power inside of us all. A big reason why I kept adding more and more faces to my poster was because if we all came together as one to help the world change for the better, we would be stronger the more people we had with us. More power will help move the world forward which is why Mckinnon's description really stuck out to me in this week's reading.

[snazzi-strawberri-artz]

WIND. YEAH!. WIND TWINS! WOA!!! WIND PRINCES??? GAS{P???THEY ARE BROTHERS YOUR HONOR.

And! and. 1st guy [with the long hair] represents the flowy, gentle, and calming nature of wind while the second guy [with the long ponytail] represents the michievious zaniness, speediness, and strenghth of wind! They both have wind powers, its just how they use it is extremely different.

The design sketches and notes below!

Now here! was my firstest FIRST design of my wind boy [i only thought about the long hair brother in my last stages of design] And Anddd as you can see. I did not like it. But yes this is a tip from me to yall, is to actually put down your notes that you think on your head down next to the design so you can actually articulate what you didnt like and what youd like to change, and the stuff you actually DID like so you can use that element in the next design draft youre going to do! But yeah, this outfit looked a bit too heavy and i really wanted my wind boy to be the type to just zoom and glide around because hes got the power of wind by his side yaknow? So yes, on to the next design draft!

As you can see, references my beloved. I am not original, but like, who is these days? I shant be ashamed that i am hugely inspired by other artists. But yeah this design ended up moreso the final! I was. SO. So unsure what to do with the colors because i didnt wanna use blue! that was my water ladys color already! and i cant use green, that was my nature grandpas color already. and then OH THAT TUMBLR POST ABOUT THAT COLOR THATS PERFECT. So yeah i used that as my prime color! And im happy to see that it worked out well in the end >:]

AND NOW THIS!! okay so this originally started as anothed random design [because i was pretty set on the last design] But i just couldnt help myself from liking this so much that i decided. Why not have BOTH designs!! >B]]] SO YEAH HUZZAH ANOTHER WIND BOY ADDED TO THE PARTY!!!

Okay now as for the hair! i got a bunch of my own drawings that got “wind” vibes to it and some references too, and i managed to make something that i really really like! i super duper love his hair because it just shows his personality well? like messy, sharp, and flowy, like you can tell this guy likes to glide because his hair is all swept to thie side x]

now THIS. Okay so i wanted his hair to be like. like it would look absolutely beautiful and flowy and elegant if the wind gusts in front of him yaknow??? like a shampoo commercial! AHAH but yea i love him, he has more quiet and reserved and elegant vibes and i wanted to show that just through his hair and expression >;] hopefully i did it well!

NOW LASTLY! the p o s e s. god i looked through senshishock and google images so much but theres just no?? specific staff posture and pose i want?? But THANkfully i just thought of combining poses because theres rlly nothing i can do xD cant make the pose myself or i may break an ankle flyin in the air!

So yeah! thats my design process for my wind boys >:] as you can see i use. So. much. references. that they take up. a littttle too much of my space. but hey, they help in lil ways in the final product i suppose xD There really. was So much work going on this but i had fun! all of this took me a LLOONG time and i just SOo wanted to finihs this. but thankfully its so easy to draw during online class <3 thanks online class. Everyone say thank you to online class

But anyways, thats it for now :] thanks for reading to this end if ya did! have a strawberry -->🍓💞 ya earned it!

#berriart #Okay now ive done nature. water. and wind elementals #next up is fire! which im excited to design for because i already have a bit of an idea for it >:] #GOSH AND AND #THESE TWO WERE MADE IN ONE CANVAS #OUGHG MY POOR LAPTOP #THE ORIGNINAL FILE WITH THE BOTH OF THEM WAS SO BIG THAT EVEN TUMBLR CANT HANDLE IT #GEEZ #but yes i call them my wind boys >B] #perhaps one is names galen who knows #But yeah! im quite proud of this. 70% because i did LINEART #which is a rarity in itself #and the designs too! #even if it may be a lil simple i think it has charm and intricate detail that makes your eyes explore every bits #i had a lot of fun making the gold patterns too >:] its just funky #elementals

[nat-20s]

 Part 8 of the wonderful! Au: the boys answer some questions! Up to you to decide if they actually clarify anything!

(also on AO3)

~*~

Martin: Hey everyone! I know what some of you are thinking right now: it's not Tuesday, why is this episode in my feed? I know significantly more of you are thinking: I don't consistently keep up with podcast releases, how much free time do you think I have, buddy? To answer your queries: this is a bonus episode! We're answering listener questions to clear the air and/or have fun. Also, I don't know, around 20 to 40 minutes a week, as that is the average amount of time per episode? Maybe during your commute? My husband's omnipotence has been gone for five years, we just have to guess at that sort of thing now.

Jon: For legal reasons, that last statement was a joke. In fact, to cover all of our bases, we do not guarantee that any of our responses are genuine.

Martin: Just because we say we'll answer things doesn't mean we'll answer truthfully. Though, honestly, I think we might make it more enjoyable if we do tell the truth. Like, I don't necessarily have a fun lie prepared for our first question from konspiracyking97: "What's their fuckin deal anyway?"

Jon: Is this referring to the oblique references  we've made about being from a parallel reality and only ending up here as a consequence of ending one apocalypse and potentially starting another or the general premise of the show?

Martin: Oh, it's gotta be general premise, yeah?

Jon: In that case, I'm Jon, the other voice you're hearing is Martin, we're married, and we talk about things that are..nice? Good? Usually generally but occasionally rather specifically pleasant.

Martin: That pretty much covers it. It's not a complicated show. Uhh, next question comes from Shane: are either or both of you aliens? Nope!

Jon: Well..

Martin: No. We are 100% human people from Earth, we are under no definition extraterrestrial.

Jon: Eh..

Martin: Okay, first off, I know the tone of that 'eh' and "not fully human" is not synonymous with alien, so even if 100% is being a bit generous, we're still from the same planet as our listeners.

Jon:..

Jon: But. We sort of aren't though. Technically speaking.

Martin: No no no no no. I don't care if it's parallel, Earth is Earth is Earth, regardless of whatever nonsense metaphysics might be occurring.

Jon: So what you're saying is that if you got sucked through a portal and landed on an Earth where dinosaurs were still the predominant species, you wouldn't consider yourself to be an alien?

Martin: Nope!

Jon: I'm certain that they would consider you an alien. All of their mammals are probably shrew sized.

Martin: Sounds like a them problem.

Jon: Sounds like a-?! You know what, no, this will be an off the record debate, for now, I suppose I concede that the two Earths and our physiologies are similar enough that we might, maybe, not count as aliens.

Martin: Thank you. Anyway, our next question is from anonymous, and asks, "Is all of this an ARG?"

Jon: A whomst?

Martin: Alternate reality game. It's a method of storytelling that's interactive with audience, and usually has, I dunno, a certain suspension of disbelief to it where it pretends to be something actually happening in the real world until a dramatic reveal. A lot times it was used as a marketing gimmick, but others have done it just for fun. I can show you some examples after the show?

Jon: So it's in essence a more involved creepypasta?

Martin, delighted: Aw, babe, I'm never going to have a handle on what pop culture you are and aren't aware of, huh?

Jon: We were born within a year of each other, and I've told you that I was a deeply morbid teenager, you should probably be able to intuit some of things, love.

Martin: This coming from a man who has yet to see "It's a Wonderful Life", but has seen every film in the "Banjo Cannibals" franchise, including the Easter special. Jesus doesn't exist in the Banjo Cannibals universe, why does it have an Easter special?

Jon: The movies are rather shoddily translated from Russian, so I'm fairly certain the Easter component of that special was invented wholesale in the English version.

Martin: You say that like it answers more questions than it raises.

Jon: Yes, because it does. Oh, and to answer anonymous's question, no, this isn't an ARG. From my understanding of it, if it were, it'd be a poorly constructed one, as there's no real game element to any of this.

Martin: Hmm. Well, sometimes the game component is just trying to figure out what's going on with the story, or if there's any deeper content, and people are definitely doing that with this show.

Jon: That's not by design though. It's more a side effect of us having poor brain to mouth filters, I'd say.

Martin: Harsh, but fair. Oh, this next one is from Zac, no K, who asks, "Are you two actually even married?"

Jon, flat: We are, but it's under false names because this whole thing is an elaborate insurance scam.

Jon, incredulous: Yes, obviously, we're married. What did you hear in this podcast that would make you wonder otherwise, and how do we rectify it?

Martin: Clearly we need to up our quota for how "disgustingly in love" and "horrifically sappy" we are per episode. Which segues nicely into the next question from Gwen, "What's your favourite wonderful thing you've brought so far?" My answer: my husband. He's kind of my favourite in most things, you know?

Jon: Boooooo

Martin: Why, what's your favourite thing?

[Jon reluctantly sighs]

Jon, indulgent: being married.

Martin: A: serves you right for trying to pretend you're the less horrifically sappy and romantic one even though earlier today someone put a love note in the lunch they packed for me-

Jon:- Lies and slander! I have never, in my life, done that, even once.

Martin: Oh, sure, not even once. And you definitely don't reserve the lilac sticky notes specifically for my lunches because you know I like the colour. 

Jon: I..I don't.. you're rather ruining my image here.

[Martin snorts]

Martin: Can't have the audience think that you are, on occasion, an incredibly doting husband-

Jon: -A title I would argue we both share-

Martin: - which is obviously why, even with it being your favourite thing you've brought, being married to me is just a small wonder-

Jon, audibly rolling his eyes: As I already explained-

[A Pause}

Jon: Actually, you're right-

Martin: Wait-

Jon:- I really should have brought it as a larger wonder-

Martin: Wait-

Jon: though I should warn you, I think I'd have far too much material for just one little segment-

Martin: No no no no no-

Jon:- In fact, I think I might have too much material for just one little episode-

Martin: Joo-oon-

Jon: I might have to do a whole series! Where would I even start? I mean I could talk about how every day I get to watch the early morning sun highlight your curls when I get up first, or hear you quietly humming and shuffling around the kitchen when you do, or I could talk about how the lunch notes only started in the first place as retaliation to the notes you would leave on the mirror for me to find, or how every time I get to see you at ease in a way that you aren't with anyone else, it takes my breath away, or I could talk about how cute I find the lines between your eyebrows that you only get when you're thinking something petty, but you know it's petty so you don't want to say anything-

Martin: Okay, okay, Christ, I give !up I surrender, and will cease my teasing on this particular topic.

Jon, probably making the :3 face: You don't have to stop. I mean, I could also discuss how very, very attractive I find your voice when it takes on a teasi-mmph!

[There's a pleased hum, then a pause.]

[The audio quality is slightly changed, as if the recording has been stopped and then started later]

Martin, giddy: Uh, heh, anyway, Eric asked what the least favourite thing we've brought was, and because of Jon's attempt to embarrass me live-

Jon, overlapping: It's definitely not live-

Martin:- on air, I'm gonna say it's my husband.

[Jon scoffs]

Jon : If the past few minutes are any sort of indication, I'm going to go ahead and saying that you are lying.

Martin, sighing contentedly: Maybe a bit, but how was I supposed to resist when your indigance gives you that adorable little nose scrunch? In reality, my least favourite thing was probably, um, mini golf? Which, I still don't think is inherently bad, definitely superior to regular golf, but when it's the only thing a next door two year old wants to do with you, the charm begins to wear off a bit.

Jon: Wow. A rather scathing review of a toddler.

Martin: Not so much a scathing review of a toddler as it's a scathing review of minigolf's inability to keep its appeal after the third time in the same week.

Jon: Mmm, the sound effects rather quickly go from part of the atmosphere to part of the irritation, don't they?

Martin: So what's your least favorite thing we've covered here?

Jon: Oh, love, I'm not going to pretend to have nearly enough memory of what we've covered so far to have a least favorite.

Martin: Really? Nothing that you regret or rescind?

Jon: Well, regret, certainly. It was one of the weeks where you went first, and your second item was mutual aid funds, and what they can do for marginalized communities, and I had to follow it with fucking Slapchop.

Martin, poorly suppressing laughter: In your defence, Slapchop, or whatever offbrand we have, is pretty useful, especially when either your scar or my arthritis is acting up.

Jon: I'm still not convinced you didn't somehow see my notes for the recording and decided you get revenge for the first year that we knew each other.

Martin, no longer suppressing his laughter: Yep, you got me! This marriage wasn't an act of insurance fraud, but it was a near decade long con to humiliate you on a podcast that about twenty people listen to. I'll draft up the divorce papers immediately, and then we can finally go our separate ways. 

Jon: I'm glad you've at last admitted it. Such a weight off of my shoulders. Goodbye forever then.

Martin: Right.

Jon: Right.

[A beat.]

[There's a pfft from one of them, before both dissolve into giggles that lasts a good 30 seconds.]

Martin, slightly out of breath: I can't believe we're the kind of people that talk this much about speciality kitchen gadgets.

Jon: Sorry about that.

Martin: God, don't apologize. I'm, like, deliriously happy with our varying degrees of useful cooking ware filled life. If you had told 25 year old me that one day he'd be debating the merits of getting a tortilla press with his husband, he'd have wept, I tell you.

Jon: Funny, if you told 25 year old me the same thing, he would've said "You don't know the future,piss off" and then quietly have a bit of a panic at 3 am that night.

Martin: I bet you were insufferable in your mid-twenties.

Jon: First of all, who isn't, secondly, I was fresh out of Oxford, and third, I was insufferable in my late twenties, as you can attest to, and I'm insufferable now, as you can further attest to, so extrapolation would indicate that, yes, I was insufferable back then.

Martin: Probably a different kind of insufferable, though.

Jon: There are different kinds?

Martin: Of course! You used to be "prick boss" insufferable and now you're "smug in a way that I can't admit I find hot or it will go straight to your head" insufferable.

Jon, in the aforementioned smug tone: Oh, really?

Martin: See, see! Straight to your head.

Jon: Well straight is probably the wrong descriptor-

Martin: Oof, 4 out of 10 joke, babe.

Jon: That would be a far more convincing rating if you weren't grinning right now.

Martin: It's a genuine review, I'm just well known to be a sucker.

Jon: You and me both, darling.

Martin: Okay, if you're pulling out darling, you're clearly in too giddy of a mood to be focused on recording. Last question, from Jess, "You two mentioned meeting at work, but how did you actually end up together?" That's easy, Jon pulled me out of a hell dimension and then we went on the lam together to Scotland.

Jon: If that's not the way to tell a cute boy you like him, I don't know what is.

Martin: All right, that wraps up this bonus episode, and as the old saying goes, hiding from murderers in a cottage is more conducive to romance than suggesting you gouge out your eyes together.

Jon, cut off: Hey-!

#tma #jonmartin #jon sims #martin blackwood #post canon #wonderful! au #my fic

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Michelangelo’s The Risen Christ: Discovering the sacred in the profane.

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

- Michelangelo Buonarroti

While a visit to Rome’s grand squares like Piazza Navona is at the top of everyone’s list, there is much more to the Eternal City. The Piazza della Minerva, is one of Rome’s more peculiar squares and is a must-see for lovers of Bernini’s work.

As one of the smaller squares in Rome, Piazza della Minerva holds some interesting sites. Built during Roman times, the square derives its name from the Goddess, Minerva, the Roman Goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare. During the 13th Century, the decision was made to build a Christian Church on top of what was once a square dedicated to a pagan Goddess – and so the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva was born, a beautiful example of Gothic architecture and Rome’s only Gothic church.

In fact this is the only Gothic church in Rome. It resembles the famous Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. There are three aisles inside the church. The soaring arches and the ceiling in blue are outstanding. The deep blue colours dominate the structure while the golden touches promote the intricate design. There are paintings of gold stars and saints. The stained glass windows are beautiful too.

In the centre of the Piazza is an elephant with an Egyptian obelisk on its back, one of Bernini’s last sculptures erected by Bernini for Pope Alexander VII and possibly one of the most unusual sculptures in Rome. There are several theories which aim to decipher Bernini’s inspiration for the sculpture, some of which point to Bernini’s study of the first elephant to visit Rome, while others point to a more satirical combination of a pagan stone with a baroque elephant in front of a Christian church.

Tourists flock to see the elephant but more often than not they miss out visiting an almost forgotten marble masterpeiece by Michelangelo himself inside the church. This controversial statue has resided in the Santa Maria sopra Minerva Church in Rome for almost five hundred years. Indeed The Risen Christ by Michelangelo is one of the artist's least admired works. While modern observers frequently have found fault with the statue, it satisfied its patrons enormously and was widely admired by contemporaries. Not least, the sculpture has suffered from the manner in which it is presently displayed and from biased photographic reproduction that emphasises unfavorable and inappropriate views of Christ.

Around 2017 I was fortunate on a visit back to London to see once again Michelangelo’s marble masterpiece, The Risen Christ, which was being displayed in all its naked glory at an exhibition at the National Gallery.

This was another version of this great sculpture that no one has got round to covering up. It has just come to Britain. Michelangelo’s first version has been lent to the National Gallery, in London, for its exhibition Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo in 2017. It came from San Vincenzo Monastery in Bassano Romano, where it languished in obscurity until it was recognised as Michelangelo’s lost work in 1997.

I found it profoundly moving then as I had seen the other partially clothed one on several visits to the church in Rome. It has always perplexed me why this beautiful work of art has been either shunned to the side with hidden shame or embarrassment when it holds up such profound sacred truth for both art lover or a Christian believer (or both as I am).

Michelangelo made a contract in June 1514 AD that he would make a sculpture of a standing, naked figure of Christ holding a cross, and that the sculpture would be completed within four years of the contract. Michelangelo had a problem because the marble he started carving was defective and had a black streak in the area of the face. His patrons, Bernardo Cencio, Mario Scapucci, and Metello Vari de' Pocari, were wondering what happened when they hadn't heard for a while from Michelangelo. Michelangelo had stopped work on The Risen Christ due to the blemish in the marble, and he was working on another project, the San Lorenzo facade. Michelangelo felt grief because this project of The Risen Christ was delayed. Michelangelo ordered a new marble block from Pisa which was to arrive on the first boat. When The Risen Christ was finally finished in March 1521 AD Michelangelo was only 46 years old.

It was transported to Rome and this 80.75 inches tall marble statue was installed at the left pillar of the choir in the church Santa Maria sopra Minerva, by Pietro Urbano, Michelangelo's assistant (Hughes, 1999). It turns out that Urbano did a finish to the feet, hands, nostrils, and beard of Christ, that many friends of Michelangelo described as disastrous). Furthermore, later-on in history, nail-holes were pierced in Christ's hands, and Christ's genitalia were hidden behind a bronze loincloth.

Because people have changed this sculpture over time; many are disappointed with this work of art because it is presently different than the original work that Michelangelo made. The Risen Christ had no title during Michelangelo's lifetime. This sculpture was given the name it has now, because Christ is standing like the traditional resurrected saviour, as seen in other similar works of art.

It was in discussion with an art historian friend of mine currently teaching I was surprised through her to discover the sculpture’s uncomfortably controversial history. There is no doubt Michelangelo’s marvellous marble creation has  raised robust debates about where beauty as an aesthetic sits between the sacred and the profane. And nothing exemplifies that better than the phallus on Michelangelo’s The Risen Christ.

For the majority of its time there, however, the phallus has been carefully draped with a bronze loincloth - incongruous at best, and prudish at worst, but either way a less than subtle display of the historic Church’s discomfort with the full physicality of Christ.

Indeed, it is worth noting that this attitude prevails, at least in some sense, into the twentieth-century: the version of the statue in Rome remains covered to this day, and much of the critical attention the sculpture has received after Michelangelo’s death has been grating. Romain Rolland, an early biographer, described it as ‘the coldest and dullest thing he ever did’, whilst Linda Murray bluntly dubbed the work ‘Michelangelo’s chief and perhaps only total failure’. But Michelangelo himself saw no such mistake. The censored statue seen in Santa Maria sopra Minerva is what we might call his second draft.

It’s interesting to note that when artist was originally commissioned to sculpt a risen Christ in 1514, he had all but completed it before realising that a vein of black marble ran across Jesus’ face, marring the image of classical perfection which he so wished to emulate. It had nothing to do with the phallus. Furious, Michelangelo abandoned this Christ - the one I saw at the National Gallery - and began again. Even given a fresh chance, he chose to retain Christ’s complete nudity.

Why was this of such importance to Michelangelo? Why did he so strongly wish to craft the literal manhood of Christ, as never depicted before? Part of the answer may lie in his historical context: the Renaissance in Italy was driven in the part by the remains of Roman antiquity discovered there; study of the classics became commonplace, and scholars tended to consider the Graeco-Roman world as a cultural ideal, with ancient art in particular being emblematic of a lost Golden Age. Famously, classical sculpture was almost always nude.

In his interview with The Telegraph in 2015, Ian Jenkins, curator of the British Museum exhibition “Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art”, attempted to explain this tradition. ‘The Greeks … didn’t walk down the High Street in Athens naked … But to the Greeks [nudity] was the mark of a hero. It was not about representing the literal world, but a world which was mythologised.’

We see evidence for this trend in Greek literature as well as sculpture: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, considered by some to be the earliest known works of Western literature, were likely written between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, but their setting is in Mycenaean Greece in the 12th century. The Greeks believed that this earlier Bronze Age was an epoch of heroism, wherein gods walked the earth alongside mortals and the human experience was generally more sublime. In setting the texts at this earlier stage in Greece’s history, Homer echoes the belief held within his contemporary society that mankind had been better before (what we might now call nostalgia, or, more colloquially, “The Good Old Days syndrome”). There is a real feeling of delight present in the distance Homer creates between his actual, flawed society, and the idealised past.

Indeed, it calls to mind a line I once read in an introduction to L.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between, by Douglas Brookes-Davies: ‘Memory idealises the past’. Though modernist texts such as The Go-Between problematise this, in antiquity it was not only commonplace but celebrated to look back to a more perfect existence and relive it through art. The very fact that Michelangelo abandoned his sculpture after years of work on account of a barely noticeable flaw in the marble is evidence that he, too, was striving towards the classical ideal of perfection. ‘Unfortunately,’ Hazel Stanier has commented, ‘this has resulted in unintentionally making Christ appear like a pagan god.’

This opens up another question – why does such a rift exist between the way ancient cultures envisaged their divinity and our own conceptions of a Christian God? Why are we not allowed to anthropomorphise the deus of the Bible in the same way that the Roman gods were?

Christ, of course, makes this somewhat confusing, given that he is described in the Bible as ‘the Word made flesh’, a physical and very human incarnation of the spiritual being that we call God. Theology tells us that he is fully human and fully divine, and yet the Church have excluded him from many aspects of life that a majority of us see as typifying a human being. Christ has no apparent sexual desires or romantic relationships, and though not exempt from suffering, he does not play any part in sin (which, as the saying goes, is ‘only human’). I think that the enormous controversy caused by films such as The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which explore the possibility of Jesus having a sex life, is reflective of the possibility that - though in theory the Christian messiah is fully human - we feel significant discomfort at the notion that he may have explored particular aspects of the human experience.

Purists and the prude and liberals rush to opposite sides of the debate. If purists run one way to completely deny Christ had any sexual desires or even inclinations as all humans are want to do, liberals commit the sin of rushing to the other extreme end and presuppose that Jesus did act on sexual impulses simply because it was inevitable of his human nature.

I think the truth lies somewhere between but what that truth might actually be is simply speculation on my part. It doesn’t detract for me the life and saving mission of redemption that Jesus was on - to suffer and die for our sins as well as the Godhead reconciling itself to sacrificing the Son for Man’s sins and just punishment.  

Of course, it is well-known that the classical gods had no qualms about sexual activity. It is difficult to make retrospective judgements about citizens’ opinions on this but, as it was the norm, we might assume that they felt it was rather a non-issue. I can empathise with some critics who reason that the Christian God is not entitled to sexual expression is because of the traditional Christian idea that sex is inherently sinful – that original sin is passed on seminally and so by having sex we continue to spread darkness and provoke further transgression. It is from this early idea that theological issues such as the need for Mary to have been immaculately conceived (she was not created out of a sexual union, much like her son) have stemmed. But here - the immaculate conception - the critics are profoundly wrong in their theological understanding of why God had to enter the world as Immanuel in this miraculous way.

Some Christian critics - and I would agree with them - assert that the vision of a naked Christ might make a powerful theological point in a world where sex still carries these connotations. They rightly point out that clothing - and I might extend this to mean the covering-up of the sexual parts of our body - was only adopted by humankind after the Fall, the nudity of Christ is making a statement about his unfallen nature as the second Adam. In other words, Christ has no shame, because he is sinless and has no need for shame. Perhaps what Michelangelo intended was actually to disentangle nudity from its sexual, sinful associations, instead presenting us with a pre-lapsarian image of purity taking the form of the classical Bronze Age hero.

There is another, less theological explanation for the sculptor’s obvious use of the classical form. It reminds us of a time when gods walked the earth alongside us, when they were fully human – us, only immortal. Maybe he wanted to emphasise that fully human aspect of Christ’s being. Questionable as much of their behaviour was, the classical gods were certainly easy to identify with. For Michelangelo, this may have been his own way of embodying John 1:14 in marble: ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’.

It is here critics may have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick with The Risen Christ when they point out the odd proportions of the figure: that it has a weighty torso, or the broad hips atop a pair of tapered and rather spindly legs, or even a side or rear view of the figure that show Christ’s buttocks.

For a start, this ungainly rear view was not supposed to be seen. The statue was meant to go in a wall niche, so that the back of the statue was hidden. Michelangelo of course knew this, and shaped the statue so that it would appear well proportioned from the front. If we view the sculpture from the front left, perhaps its best side, then Christ is no longer a thickset figure. Rather, his body merges with the cross in a graceful and harmonious composition.

The turn of Christ’s body and his averted face suggest something like the shunning of physical contact that is central to another post-Resurrection subject, the Noli me tangere (“Touch Me Not”). The turned head is a poignant way of making Christ seem inaccessible even as the reality of his living flesh is manifest.

We are encouraged to look at not Christ’s face, but the instruments of his Passion. Our attention is directed to the cross by the effortless cross-body gesture of the left arm and the entwining movement of the right leg. With his powerful but graceful hands, Christ cradles the cross, and the separated index fingers direct us first to the cross and then heavenward. Christ presents us with the symbols of his Passion – the tangible recollection of his earthly suffering. Behind Christ and barely visible between his legs we see the cloth in which Christ was wrapped when he was in the tomb. He has just shed the earthly shroud; it is in the midst of slipping to earth. In this suspended instant, Christ is completely and properly nude.

We must imagine how the figure must have appeared in its original setting, within the darkened confines of an elevated niche. Christ steps forth, as though from the tomb and the shadow of death. Foremost are the symbols of the Passion, which Christ will leave behind when he ascends to heaven.

Why was Michelangelo compelled to portray Christ completely naked in a way that was bound to trouble some Christians? It was not out of a desire to blaspheme. On the contrary, this genius – poet, architect and painter as well as the greatest sculptor who has ever lived – was not only a faithful Christian but someone who thought deeply about theology. You can bet he had good religious reasons to depict Christ in full nudity.

But it would be complacent to think there was no tension in showing Christ nude. The fact that The Risen Christ in Santa Maria still has its covering proves how real those tensions are. The fundamental reason Michelangelo could get away with it was that he was Michelangelo. By the time he created this statue, he had the Sistine Chapel ceiling (with all its male nudes) under his belt and was the most famous artist in the world.

For centuries, the faithful have kissed the advanced foot of Christ, for like Mary Magdalene and doubting Thomas, they wish for some sort of physical contact with the Risen Christ. To carve a life-size marble statue of a naked Christ certainly was audacious, but it is also theologically appropriate. Michelangelo’s contemporaries recognised, more easily than modern viewers, that the Risen Christ was a moving and profoundly beautiful sculpture that was true to the sacred story.

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