#they are like. not consistent in the way i handled the proportions and shading but its fiiiiine

[mochasucculent]

Titan Luz my beloved

#the owl house #toh #titan luz #luz noceda #titan!luz #watching and dreaming #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #fanart #i looked at pictures of skateboarders for all of these poses lol #they are like. not consistent in the way i handled the proportions and shading but its fiiiiine

[pdalicedraws]

[opens tumblr briefly to make this post and then fucks off again to avoid TOH finale spoilers]

So I’m at the con right now. I’m in the Artists’ Alley, where I spend most of my time at cons because I love looking at people’s artwork and getting a few new posters for my wall every year. (Well, it used to be every year; this is the first in-person con I’ve been to since 2019 and I’ve missed it a lot. I’m very glad people  are being conscientious about masking, and I watched someone get turned away at the door for not having their booster shot, so I’m not really feeling in any more danger than I am on campus. Which is to say I’m still a little nervous but also aware that so long as I’m careful I will probably be fine, knock wood.)

It’s weird. I’m so out of the loop on a lot of things. There’s so many anime that have a strong presence at the con (both in cosplays and on people’s art tables) that I’ve just never heard of. I would have thought there would be a ton of Owl House, given how popular it is right now, but I’ve only found a very few things, only one of which appealed to me enough to purchase. I might go back for that cute keychain of Eda holding King, it’s just a bit long so I’m not sure how I’d use it. 

I also expected a decent amount of Infinity Train, given how popular it is, how beloved and highly rated, but I haven’t seen any. I really wanted some posters for my wall! There’s nothing! A few people have recognized my Amelia Hughes cosplay, and a few more have just pointed at me and gone “Oh, Infinity Train!” or in one case “Conductor!” but still. It’s odd. 

The reason this ramble is going on my art blog, though, is that I keep looking at the artists who have booths here and feeling so conflicted. They’re so damn good. The vast majority of them are so damn good. 

(Not entirely relevant, but I could swear there’s a higher proportion of boobyass-artists this year than there usually is. No shade to the boobyass, nothing wrong with being horny, but bc I don’t want that kind of thing on my wall it means I keep looking at booths like “oh those colours are nice— woah that’s a lot of titty, woah she sure is bending over away from the camera in skimpy skivvies, oh dear”)

But the point here is that I don’t know how to take it, I don’t know how to handle it. I’m never going to be good enough of an artist to sell prints even online, much less as good as these folks, and I’m usually fine with that, you know? I draw to have fun, myself, and to get my dumb jokes out, and to illustrate my song associations, and to sometimes make something I find fairly pretty. I’m usually fine with that. It’s not my career path, I’m a writer, that’s the way I’m going, that’s the thing I’m actually good at. But at the same time I see these people and I think “what if I could, what if I did, what if I did a ton of TOH and IT and Utena and fairytale and SU posters, I could even have a Cain Saga one off to the corner for old goth nerds like me, what if I was actually good at this?”

But I’m not going to be good at it— I’ve been drawing consistently as long as I can remember, and I’m nearly thirty, and if I chose to make it a full time job I could probably get decently competent but I can’t, I’m in college and I’m a writer and I’m exhausted. 

So it’s giving me this very weird kind of inspiration, where on the one hand I’m having all these ideas of things to draw, the Posters I Would Make, but on the other hand I’m aware enough of my lack of skill that it’s immobilizing. 

I’ll get over it. It’s just weird right now. 

#pd alice talks #not art #spacer tag #spacety space #spaaaaacer #spacer taggity #fanimecon

[masonuf]

Post for 1/29

"Goodbye" by Tatsumi was short but extremely unsettling to read. Nothing could have prepared me for the incest at the end of the story. I'm unsure of the true reason why the author decided to write this story, but if I had to guess, it would probably be because he wanted to express contempt for how the Japanese people seemed subservient to American soldiers after the war.

"Onward to our Noble Deaths" by Mizuki was undoubtedly a manga that is geared toward adults who can handle a little bit of crude humor against the dark backdrop of war. Although most of the story was quite depressing because it focused on the grim realities associated with forcibly sending soldiers to die for their country to maintain their honor, I did appreciate the comedic elements sprinkled throughout the story, even if they were there as coping mechanisms. The vulgar language and cursing employed by the soldiers felt fitting and suited their demeanor. The almost caricature-resembling artstyle that depicted the soldiers with exaggerated body proportions and unusual facial geometry gave the story some irony when juxtaposed with their cruel circumstances. Of course, the slapstick comedy that arose whenever the general slapped his troops for disrespecting his authority also contributed to the occasional lightheartedness of the story. But aside from that, perhaps the part that stood out the most to me was the scene at the very end, when the soldiers all died on the battlefield and finally realized the ultimate pointlessness of their actions. I didn't expect for the author to seamlessly transition from drawing cartoonish characters to anatomically accurate corpses. The mutilated bodies of the soldiers against the heavy shading of the background really presented the gravity of the situation in a (strangely) visually appealing way. I had the impression that the author wanted to incorporate at least some elements of gore into the story when, at an earlier point in the story, one of the soldier's eyeballs drooped out of his face like mozzarella cheese, but the ending took it to another level. Overall, I think the author managed to capture the fears and doubts of the soldiers in a realistic manner and consistently demonstrated their collectively misguided devotion to upholding the honor code at all costs, whether they truly wanted to or not.

Image of soldiers' body parts being sent flying from an explosion in "Onward to our Noble Deaths."

[waveypedia]

This is why we can’t have nice things- Chat Noir and Ladybug

It’s You, My Dear

Ladybug sighs and slaps her hand against her head. “This is why we can’t have nice things, Chat.”

Chat flashes his famous Cheshire grin, wide and proud, and locks his hands behind his back, rocking on his heels to burn excess energy. “This is just an expression of my artistic genius.”

“There’s flour all over my kitchen,” Ladybug deadpans. “The kitchen that took me an hour to set up so we could cook together.”

“And now I’ve helped you decorate!” Chat replies, grinning,  “Don’t crap on my creativity, M’Lady!”

“I would never crap on actual creativity,” Ladybug sighs. “This is just a mess.”

“But it’s our mess,” Chat gives Ladybug his best winning smile.

Ladybug boops Chat on the nose, causing his mouth to open in a small, perfect ‘o’. “No, it’s yours.”

Chat chuckles softly and brushes some flour off of his suit. They float to the ground like tiny snowflakes, revealing the darkness of his suit underneath. “All right, My Lady. I concede. You’re by far the better cook out of both of us. I’ll clean up, and you cook up a purr-fect feast.”

Ladybug snorts and gently slaps a layer of flour off Chat’s shoulder. “I spend a lot of time baking, Kitty, don’t be discouraged.”

Chat Noir simply laughs and brushes more flour off of him. It coats the floor. “I don’t mind if my cookies aren’t perfect. It’s fun to make them. A good friend taught me how!”

Ladybug smiles wistfully. Her train of thought arrives at the familiar Adrien station, like always, and she remembers the day a couple years ago when she taught Adrien how to bake chocolate chip cookies. But, of course, the two instances are completely unrelated.

She pushes away the nostalgia of that sweet summer day and consciously focuses on the here and now. She could make these cookies in her sleep (and she has), but right now, Chat deserves her attention.

He’s gotten most of the flour off of him now, so he looks much more like himself than Chat Blanc (although, whenever those heartbreaking memories surface when Ladybug looks at flour-covered Chat, all she has to do is look into his eyes. His beautiful, un-akumatized, green eyes. That’s her kitty.) and is sweeping up the flour on the makeshift kitchen floor - which is really a rooftop. Flour soars off the roof and into the streets below, causing passing Parisians to look up, point, and shout with excitement. Ladybug waves at them, and they eagerly wave back. She smiles at the phones with cameras pointed at her and imagines Alya’s future blog post.

But that doesn’t matter right now. She and Chat step away from the roof, and after a little while, the novelty wears off. The consistent subtle murmur of passerbys’ chatter from the streets fades into the background, and Ladybug turns back to her cookies.

“Almost done, Chat,” she calls over her shoulder.

“Wonderful, M’Lady,” he replies, spreading out the checkered picnic blanket. It’s her parent’s, soft and worn from use, and she takes it out on picnics with her friends all the time. Granted, they’re usually in a park rather than on a rooftop. “I think my friend has a picnic blanket like this. She likes to throw picnics.”

Ladybug hums in response as she takes the first batch of cookies out of the oven. “Oh, really? This is my parents’. I think it used to be popular.”

“My friend’s picnic blanket is her parents’, too,” he replies absently. “It must be.”

Ladybug piles the cookies on a plate and sets them next to the picnic basket on the blanket. Chat Noir is seated already, with his legs dangling off the rooftop, gazing at the horizon in the distance. His expression is soft and thoughtful, and his eyes are filled with a million thoughts she can not discern. It’s endearing.

Ladybug sits down next to him. “Are you ready, Kitty?”

His smile is back in full force as he snaps his head over to meet her gaze. “Of course, Bugaboo!”

Ladybug rolls her eyes, but busies herself with setting out plates for each of them. He statches a piece of cheese for his kwami for later. 

She savors the way his eyes light up with delight.

They sit in comfortable silence for a little while as they enjoy the food. Parisians stroll along the streets below, mostly unaware of the heroes perched above them, save for a few sharp-eyed denizens who are rewarded with waves and winks for their efforts. After a while, Chat leans his head against Ladybug’s shoulder, letting out a soft sigh.

Ladybug snorts and pushes him, but gently. “You’re too tall for this, Chat.”

His only response is to hum contentedly and snuggle in closer, causing her to giggle despite herself. His neck is twisted almost sideways to fit on her shoulder, but he doesn’t look uncomfortable in the slightest.

She shoves him a little harder. “Chat, c’mon. You’re going to get a kink in your neck.”

“I sleep in class all the time, My Lady. I don’t mind it.” But he obliges, rubbing his neck. 

Ladybug sighs good-naturedly. “That’s not good, Chat.” She’s aware that she’s a hypocrite, but only sometimes. She tries not to be. It’s hard enough to keep her grades up with all her… extracurricular activities.

Chat shrugs nonchalantly. “Sometimes I have to get up really early for pho- for my job,” he explains. “And of course the midnight akumas. I swear, does Hawk Moth ever sleep?”

Ladybug laughs at that. Tension she didn’t even realize was there fades away, floating into the wind as Ladybug’s giggles tinkle like bells and Chat grins wide at the validation. “His sleep schedule must be so messed up. Maybe that’s why he’s like that.”

“A lack of sleep does make me quite a grumpy cat,” Chat muses. “But I can say with certainty that I’ve never gone on a homicidal violence spree and tried to steal jewelry because of it.”

Ladybug giggles again. “Good job on beating Hawk Moth, then.”

Chat smirks and sighs contentedly, picking up a cookie. He sighs with pure delight as his teeth sink into it.

Ladybug watches him, smirking, ignoring the growing valley of joy in her chest at the validation. Chat’s initial reaction whenever he eats sweets is always the same - pure bliss, over the top, but always genuine. It never fails to make her smile.

She’s noticed before that Adrien reacts similarly whenever she brings in baked goods, and she knows full well he’s on a very strict diet (one that always seems to leave him tired and drained, no matter how much she tries to hide it). Chat’s home situation is probably similar, especially based on the little details he’s let slip out, which makes her blood boil. So she’s made it her mission to fill both boys up with all the treats they can handle.

It’s the little things.

“These are wonderful, M’Lady,” Chat says softly. He won’t meet her eyes.

Ladybug fights the smile growing on her face and shoves him playfully. Her feelings, and the mood, are threatening to take a turn down a road she’s terrified to explore.

Adrien. Adrien. Adrien. Remember Adrien. Do not fall for Chat Noir. Don’t ruin what you have.

“You’re just saying that,” she teases, even though she knows he’s not. The guilt stings in her stomach, settling with the homemade food she’s eating.

“Why, M’Lady, I meant what I said! These cookies are simply purr-fect.”

Ladybug placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. “You got flour all over my makeshift kitchen.”

“These cookies are all the better because you made them, My Lady,” Chat smiled back, unfazed in the face of Ladybug’s annoyance, but with a touch of genuinity. 

Ladybug huffed in response and spread out the picnic blanket. “Sit down already. You’re going to fill yourself up on cookies.”

Chat put the cookie he was about to bite into down and cast a longing look at the cookie platter, but sat down without complaint. “You’re a wonderful cook, My Lady!”

Ladybug smiles softly. “Thank you, Kitty.”

They lean against each other, foreheads touching, and watch the sunset. Oranges and pinks flush Paris  in auroric flames. Ladybug’s hand tingles from where it’s brushing Chat’s and the cookies. 

“You know,” Chat says softly, so softly Ladybug isn’t sure if she’s imagining his voice or not, “You say we can’t have nice things, but this seems pretty nice to me.”

A grin slowly worms its way up Ladybug’s face. “Yeah,” she replies, equally as soft. Chat’s ears twitch. “I think so too.” In more ways than one.

Their hands brush closer and closer until their fingers close around each other. Somehow, inexplicably, she knows Chat hears her unsaid words.

“Pretty nice,” she echoes, half to herself, as they sit on the rooftops of their city and watch the world go by. All they have is each other. All they need is each other.

The sun sets, and the world turns to shades of gray, and still they sit. Ladybug pulls out the hot chocolate, kept warm in the thermoses her family swears up and down by. They stay long after color bleeds out of the world, shoulders touching, hands entwined, heads leaning against each other despite the height difference. 

It’s nearing midnight when Ladybug shifts her asleep foot and breaks the proverbial blanket over the two of them. A pang of regret resonates in her heart, but as she shakes life into her cold limbs, she knows it’s for the best. Parting is never easy, even if it’s just for the night.

With her kitty, she’d rather always be with him. Every goodbye hurts.

Chat stands up and stretches, curling up his back and tail just like a real cat. Ladybug’s mouth quirks into a teasing smile, and she reaches out to give him a quick scratch under the chin, relishing in the way his eyes close in pure safety and contentment. She presses her fingers slightly closer to feel the purr that rumbles through his body, steady and sure.

They divvy up the remaining snacks (Ladybug sneaks him half her share - he needs it more than she does. Even if all of her conceptions of his home life are mistaken, blown out of proportion, based on what she knows of Adrien’s, she does live above a bakery. But she’s fairly certain she’s not wrong on this one, despite how much she hopes she is.) and part ways for the night. Chat gives her a tight hug, and he’s so warm, just like a real cat. Ladybug melts in his embrace, and wishes they could stay there forever, frozen, untouched by the world moving around them. She knows he’s thinking the same thing.

Alas, it does have to end, and they part ways with a wave and a few nonsensical words shouted to the wind with the adrenaline from movement and the cold air kicking into their tired bodies. Ladybug begins the trek home, her limbs moving mechanically through the familiar movements as she soars over Paris in a way most people could only dream to.

When she’s safe in bed, with her diminished share of snacks tucked safely away in the cupboard, Marinette clutches her cat pillow to her and bundles up in her blankets. She thinks about how they don’t quite compare to Chat’s warmth.

Tikki, curling up on Marinette’s pillow, smiles knowingly.

~

these guys are really fun to write fluff for 

title is from my dear from red velvet! lyrics from this song actually inspired me to make a doc filled with title ideas (mostly song lyrics, which is what i’ve been drawing a lot from lately) and i’ve been saving this one since june 😳 i think it fits here

#wavey writes #my asks #miraculous ladybug #ml #mlb #ladybug #chat noir #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #miraculous ladybug fic #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #cat noir #ladynoir #love square #adrienette #tikki

[darkwebsite]

Dark web Sites

Recollecting the 1970s, "darknet" was obviously not a premonition term: it essentially construed networks that were disengaged from the norm of ARPANET for security purposes. Regardless, as ARPANET changed into the web and some time later ate up basically the wide degree of different PC networks out there, the word came to see zones that were associated with the web regardless not actually of it, difficult to find if you didn't have a guide.

The recommended dark web, a catch-all articulation covering the bits of the web not coordinated through web records, is the stuff of dreadful legend. Regardless, as most legends, the truth is really more common. Saying this doesn't suggest that that astonishing stuff isn't open on dark web websites, regardless a hint of the mumbled alarming stories you might've heard don't make up an enormous bit of the trades there.

Related investigating:

The state of the dark web site Insights from the underground

What is the dark web? The best procedure to get to it and what you'll find

Is your data being sold on the dark web?

Dark web takedowns stand isolated as really newsworthy, do little for security

Yield the dark web for threat understanding

We watched out for some security virtuosos who offered to give us truly a guided visit through the web's lower zones. Preferably it will demystify things a piece.

Here are ten things you most likely will not consider the dark web.

New dark web sites spring up reliably...

A 2015 white paper from threat information firm Recorded Future dismantles the linkages between the Web you know and the darknet. The manners in which all around beginning on sites like Pastebin, from the start expected as a reasonable spot to move long code tests or other substance however at this point consistently where interfaces with the dark Tor network are saved a couple of days or hours for contributed people.

While searching for dark web sites isn't just likely as essential as using Google—the truth is to be genuinely secretive, considering—there are ways to deal with oversee find what's there. The screen get under was given by Radware security expert Daniel Smith, and he says it's the inevitable result of "revamp substance that go out there and find new URLs, new onions, constantly, and a short period of time later show them. It resembles Geocities, yet 2018"— a vibe that is helped along by pages with names like "My Deepweb Site," which you can see on the screen get.

new onions

Daniel Smith

...additionally, many are totally authentic

Matt Wilson, chief information security oversee at BTB Security, says that "there is a delightful/fragile side to the dark web that would no doubt stun a colossal number individuals. You can exchange some cooking plans—with video!— send email, or read a book. People use the dark web for these liberal things for a strategy of reasons: an impression of neighborhood, a basic parcel from insight or following of web propensities, or just to achieve something in a substitute way."

Proposed WHITEPAPERS

Steady Delivery of Business Value with DataOps

Customer Operations for Dummies, ServiceNow Special Edition

Ransomware Data Challenges in Digital and Analytics-Driven Organizations

It legitimizes recalling that what blossoms with darknet is material that has been denied elsewhere on the web. For example, in 2015, in the wake of the Chinese government halting any silliness about VPN relationship through the predefined "mind blowing firewall," Chinese-language discussions finished jumping up on the darknet — for the most part flooding with people who fundamentally expected to visit with each other in arrangement.

Radware's Smith raises that there are a get-together of media sources on the dark web, going from the news website from the hacking pack Anonymous to the New York Times, showed up in the screen arrive, all obliging people in countries that control the open web.

nytimes

Daniel Smith

A few spaces are by welcome in a manner of speaking

Clearly, not everything is so impeccable, or you wouldn't try to research this article. Regardless, "you can't just firing up your Tor program and arrangements 10,000 Mastercard records, or passwords to your neighbor's webcam," says Mukul Kumar, CISO and VP of Cyber Practice at Cavirin. "By far most of the demanded 'fragile' data is essentially available to those that have been checked or welcome to communicate social gatherings."

How could you secure a greeting into such dark web sites? "They should see history of horrible lead," says Radware's Smith. "Essentially doubtlessly a mafia trust test. They need you to show that you're not a readied capable and you're not law fundamental. Essentially, a tremendous stack of those tests will be something that a subject expert or law support legally can't do."

There is horrible stuff, and crackdowns prescribes it's harder to trust

In actuality as a year back, various dark web business networks for drugs and hacking affiliations included corporate-level customer help and customer reviews, making investigating less awkward however rather more secure for youngsters. Regardless, since law execution has begun to make a move against such sites, the experience is more wrecked and more unsafe.

"The whole viewed as this darknet business focus, where you have an associate review, where people can overview quiets that they're buying from carriers and get up on a conversation and say, 'In reality, this is genuine' or 'No, this truly hurt me'— that has been lessened since dark business places have been taken separated," says Radware's Smith. "You're seeing aloof carriers open up their own shops, which are essentially hard to vet yourself over the long haul. There will not be any assessments, there's not a huge stack of escrow affiliations. Additionally, thus, by these takedowns, they've really started up a business opportunity for additional stunts to jump up."

Reviews can not be correct, things sold under movements—and a ton is on the line

There are still sites where drugs are investigated, says Radware's Smith, yet recollect that they should be taken with a colossal grain of salt. A reporter may get a high from something they bought on the web, yet not handle what the cure was that given it.

One clarification such blunders are made? Distinctive dark web drug makers will in like manner purchase pill presses and shadings, which retail a few hundred dollars and can make hazardous clone drugs. "One of the later alerts that I could recommend would be Red Devil Xanax," he said. "These were sold as some super Xanax bars, as a last resort, they were essentially shocking prescriptions expected to hurt you."

The dark web gives markdown things to extraordinary neighborhood retailers...

Smith says that some customary medicine cartels use the dark web networks for dispersing—"it takes out the middle individual and licenses the cartels to send from their own stockrooms and course it if they need to"— yet unassuming heads can in like way give the individual touch at the close by level coming to fruition to buying drug planned substances markdown from China or elsewhere from sites like the one in the screen arrive. "You know how there are stores of neighborhood IPA microbreweries?" he says. "We in like manner have an enormous pile of close by scaled down labs. In every city, there's reasonable in any occasion one juvenile that is gotten sharp and perceives how to design drugs on the darknet, and make an unassuming proportion of remedies to offer to his close by association."

xanax

Daniel Smith

...who use the gig economy

Smith portrays how the darknet gets together with the unregulated and scattered universe of the gig economy to help stream stash. "We should expect I need to have something purchased from the darknet dispatched to me," he says. "I'm not going uncover my affirmed zone, isn't that so? I would have something along those lines dispatched to an AirBnB—a region that can be disposed of, a burner. The case gives off an impression of being the day they rent it, by then they put the thing in a Uber and send it to another area. It ends up being amazingly hard for law need to follow, especially in the event that you're going across different districts."

Not everything is available to be bought on the dark web

We've contributed a tremendous stack of energy breaking down medications here which is as it ought to be. Smith calls sedatives "the confirmed establishment" of the dark web; "cybercrime—selling endeavors and lacks, web application attacks—that is the mechanized establishment. Generally, I'd say a greater piece of the darknet is in all honesty drugs and kids examining little infringement on gatherings."

A part of the really terrifying sounding stuff you find a few solutions concerning being accessible to be bought routinely winds up being all around gossipy treats. Take weapons, for instance: as Smith puts it, "it would be less flighty for a criminal to purchase a gun, considering, versus the web. Going to the darknet is adding an extra improvement that isn't basic all the while. Absolutely when you're directing certified punks, they will remember someone that is selling a weapon."

Unequivocal strengths are in

Regardless, there are some obvious darknet solid point propels out there, whether or not they don't have the very impression that sedatives does. One that Smith made me notice was the universe of skimmers, contraptions that fit into the openings of guaranteed credit and ATM card perusers and get your record data.

Besides, giving another outline of how the darknet marries genuine articles open to be bought with data accessible to be bought, relative sites comp

[mysticsparklewings]

Ziggy Crossing

Still not quite sure I'm 100% back into the swing of things (posting regularly and being more present) yet, but time will tell. For now I'm testing the waters. Anyway. In the time I've been away, I ended up talking to some friends about (to the surprise of absolutely no one) Animal Crossing, and in that conversation, the idea of drawing my cat, Ziggy, as an Animal Crossing villager came up. I'd toyed with it before after seeing some other people draw their pets as villagers, and that conversation more or less sealed the deal for me to at least try it, even if my attempt didn't pan out and see the light of day. Obviously, things went pretty well because here I am posting this. The first step, as it is 90% of the time for me, was to come up with a sketch and go from there. I primarily used Olivia and Lolly [pre-existing Animal Crossing cat villagers] as my references--Olivia for the pose and eyes, Lolly for the stripes and some details regarding the ears and face--but I also checked certain things across the various cat villager models so that details could be consistent where they needed to be. I think if I missed the mark anywhere, it's probably in the proportions. Namely the size of the head and length of the body. But I think it's close enough that unless you compare it directly to Olivia's model that I referenced for the pose, the proportions aren't so off that it's distracting or off-putting. I did originally have trouble figuring out what pattern to put on her shirt though because the real Ziggy doesn't really have anything I could pull a pattern from. These days she does wear a white and silver collar, but that's not a whole lot to work with. So I left that alone while I pondered how I wanted to go about coloring the whole thing. My plan at the beginning was to use this sketch as a test piece for some acrylic paint markers I recently acquired (which you will be seeing me talk about in the future), but once the sketch was finished and I went back to check the colors I had (you know me; gotta have a swatch chart for everything), it was pretty obvious that if I want this to be my dear Ziggy and not just a random tabby cat, I needed to figure out a different coloring method. I could have just done regular acrylic paint, but that sounded like a chore and thus I was not interested. Same with gouache. Colored pencils were on the table, but the main problem I have with those is that they can be pretty slow and personally I think their texture really lends them better to replicating the 3DS/Animal Crossing: New Leaf style, as opposed to the look of New Horizons, and that's not what I was going for here. That left me with two main options: Watercolor, which was a hard pass for this kind of art (at least for Ziggy herself), and alcohol markers, which I did use quite a bit on the last Animal Crossing artwork I made, and they had worked out fairly well. Alcohol markers it was! Of course, even after that decision was made, there was the issue of how to handle the lines of the drawing. When I was planning on using the paint pens/acrylic markers/whatever, that seemed a lot simpler because, in theory, I could just use the same pen I wanted to color with to do the outlines and then fill them in. And because that would be using mostly opaque paint, if I needed to I could just cover up any overlap with relative ease. Alcohol markers don't play by the same rules though, so I had to re-think all that. In the end, I pulled out a pale warm gray Polychromos pencil close to the main color of alcohol marker that I had picked out that I figured would also be light enough to blend in everywhere else. That way I could have the defining lines that I needed without having to worry too much about them being visible in the final product. [For clarification: I picked a Polychromos because once sharpened they tend to hold a point longer and better than the other colored pencils at my disposal and I really needed to keep a sharp point as long as possible to do the lines here.] In retrospect, I do think it might have been to my benefit to pick out a pink for doing the inner ear lines, but the end result there isn't so awful that it single-handedly (paw-ed-ly?) ruins the drawing for me. It's just something to take note of for next time if there is a "next time." Once I had my lines (including doing the eyelashes and mouth with one of my usual black fineliners), the next challenge was the actual coloring. Mostly because I had to be very careful around the edges so that the marker ink didn't feather out too far (as alcohol markers do on any paper that isn't marketed as "bleed proof" because that's what bleed proof in paper actually means--not that it won't bleed through to the other side, though that is less common with that kind of paper, but that it won't "bleed" across the page), and I also had to be a little careful and choosy about how I did any blending or shading. Again, my blending and shading plan was going to be different had I used the acrylic markers. The main thing I ended up doing here was trying to find areas that needed to be layered so that the one-color shading could act as a line/barrier between sections. Best example: Where the ears meet the head, I shaded the bottom portion of the ears. You can also see this a little bit where Ziggy's tail meets her body and where the legs intersect at a few different points. By no means did this turn out perfectly, considering that I really wanted to stick to use as few colors as possible (which means pretty much all the shading is just layers of one color to darken it) which means there isn't as much distinction or variation as there could be. And I feel it necessary to note here that I was worried when I first finished the lines that the eyes looked wonky, but after coloring pretty much everything else in that concern dissolved because 1. It's harder to tell and 2. Even if they aren't exactly the same, it makes visual sense because it looks like her head is slightly turned, meaning the eyes wouldn't be identical anyway. Never underestimate the power of coloring your work in! Speaking of which, you might be wondering about her shirt by now. Well, after toying around with some ideas I got it in my head that a good way to tackle that problem might be with washi tape, as I've used it in this manner before and worked out pretty nicely. Even though it wasn't a lot to work with, I did like the idea of the base color for her top being white like the real Ziggy's collar, and that narrowed down my tape options considerably. Of the options I had that I thought would be suitable, I ended up having a choice between one with small rainbow-colored polka dots and the decidedly less vibrant small triangles that you see here. The polka dots seemed a little too peppy for Ziggy, so I went with the triangles. And this, I must say, is one of those artistic decisions that I feel even better about the longer that I see the end product.   The main issue I have with using washi tape, and thus why I don't use it in this way that often, is because cutting the washi tape to fit a specific shape is a process that doesn't get much easier even with practice.  And even if it did, that wouldn't eliminate the very real possibility of cutting or indenting the paper underneath while you're cutting the tape. Of which, I have not yet figured out how to totally avoid short of forming the washi tape on a separate piece of paper, cutting it there, and then moving it to the final piece. But that method comes with its own problems too, so... Still, I made the decision to go through with it here and just accept the rough edges/lack of precision and all that. Before I put the tape down though, I did do a little shading with some light gray markers that I was counting on showing through the tape to give it a little more dimension. Seeing it now, I do think I could've stood to go a little darker, but again this isn't something that totally ruins the end result for me. Just something worth noting. After all of the above, I was left with one lingering problem: The background. Which I've noticed seems to normally be a "problem" area for me in that I don't always have a solid idea for what to do with it. I did consider what exactly I wanted to do earlier on in the process, before I started on Ziggy on the final paper, even. Briefly, I thought I might cut her out and put her on a separate background as is sort of a go-to background method for me. Something just didn't feel right about doing that here though and it feels like I've done that a lot lately (you know, when I've not been drowning in mandalas for NaPoWriMo...). So it was at this early stage that I locked in the idea of adding in the background in later, probably doing something kind of loose to give a general idea that hopefully wouldn't take too much time or effort. We've already established that I wasn't super keen on the idea of using acrylic paints or gouache for this drawing, and that remained true for the background too. Although, I don't really like using alcohol markers for backgrounds either because it can be tricky to keep things smooth and consistent. That left me with colored pencils and watercolor. Colored pencils are usually hard pass for backgrounds for me for a number of reasons. So! Watercolor, hmm... I drew Ziggy here on my darling Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper because I love how it handles markers and it has enough weight and texture to it that it handles a lot of my other go-to options with little fuss. Watercolor is really the only thing I have trouble using on it, the main problem being that sometimes (not always) the paint doesn't like to blend out super smoothly and certain watercolor techniques don't work the same on it. This doesn't mean it's useless for watercolor (at least not for me), that just means I have to be more careful about how I choose to work with watercolor on it. In this case, the blending issues lined up with the idea I had of letting the background have more texture since Ziggy came out a lot smoother by the very nature of alcohol markers. Somewhere in all this, the idea struck me to use my Gelatos to leave behind some crayon-like texture. That idea seemed fitting to me since Animal Crossing is a fairly light-hearted and child-friendly game, themes that crayons go along with. The gelatos are water-soluble but not every color dissolves completely when activated with water. This should be pretty evident here because I didn't try to hide it. I wanted quick and easy, and without a doubt just letting the texture do whatever it wants is the quick n' easiest method to use with the gelatos. Once I'd done a bit of back and forth with two greens and two blues to give me the solid suggestions of a sky and ground, it still felt like it was missing something. Ultimately, it seemed like a good idea to me to try and mimic the triangle pattern/texture that New Horizons features. (In past games you could get squares or circles for a grass pattern at random.) And while I as per usual I had to think on how to go about this, in the end, the best solution I could come up with turned out to be drawing the triangles in with alcohol markers. Truly, I'm surprised to be reporting this because I fully expected the creamy nature of the gelatos to make using alcohol markers on top feel disguising and unproductive. But not so! At least not with the limited gelato use here. The creamier areas do soften the color of the marker, but I think that worked to my advantage. Although, I did end up using a little bit of my yellow Moonlight gel pen because I felt like I needed some yellow triangles for balance and I knew transparent yellow markers wouldn't do what I wanted. But that brings us to the final product. I'm happy with it. And I do really like how the grass ties in with Ziggy's green eyes. It's just a nice little touch of visual cohesion in my book. As I always say, I'm sure it's not perfect and there are some missteps here and there or things that could be improved. Nevertheless, it was a fun experiment and serves as good encouragement for me to continue playing with the lineless look, among other things. I do have to note though that it feels super weird to just leave the eyes like this with no indication of shine on them! I made the choice not to since it's not a common trait with the official character models (at least not for eyes in this same style) but part of me still feels like it's incomplete. As I've said before recently and I'll probably say again, I can't promise I'll be getting back to a regular upload schedule now, but it's on my mind. I want to get to that point soon. I do have the acrylic markers I mentioned to talk about and another supply in the mail, and some other art in my backlog. So if you can be patient with me a while longer, there will be more from me to look forward to. In the meantime, please be kind to yourself and others. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram 

#animalcrossing

[nanasses]

I had this in my drafts for weeks apparently? I guess I didn’t really find the confidence to post it but to hell with all that now. Very angsty MH, and all.

WARNING: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH

They’re four, sitting in a playground, under a red sky.

“Haru-chan, have you learned how to swim yet?” Makoto asked, picking at the teddy bear bandage on his knee. The paint of the slide is flaking off of the poles, scattered in the sand in shades of red, yellow, and blue. Haruka kneels in front of the slide, waiting for a hesitating Makoto to slide down. The roll of waves is peaceful.

“Mn. Only freestyle, though,” Haruka replied shortly.

“Really?! That’s so cool! You should teach me!” Makoto beams, gripping the sides of the slide as he leans forward to show his enthusiasm.

“It’s not that cool,” Haruka muttered, looking away. “And I won’t teach you. It’s too much effort. Have a teacher.”

“Aw, really?” Makoto whined, lip sticking out in a pout. “It’s no fun if Haru-chan doesn’t teach me! I bet you’ll be way better than a teacher!”

Haruka stares at his best friend incredulously. He searches for any sign of reluctance, but the boy is firm with his words, knuckles paling to white from gripping the slide too hard. He admired it in a way. Makoto is passionate. Haruka doesn’t think a feeling like that is something he’ll experience for a long time. It’s compelling.

“...Fine, but only once. If you don’t get it then, I won’t teach you anymore,” Haruka grumbled, staring at the sand gathering in his sandals. Makoto lights up, eyes shimmering with excitement and joy, then he purses his lips into a straight line, nodding seriously.

“Right,” Makoto responded. His steely facade fades in an instant, and the vigorous, friendly boy he was returns. “Thanks a lot, Haru-chan!”

Haruka sighs, arms wrapping around Makoto once he slides down to stop him from tumbling. He pulls him up, but doesn’t release his grip, and they walk home.

***

They’re twelve, walking under the row of cherry blossoms to Iwatobi Middle School.

“Wow, they look so beautiful today!” Makoto voices out his thoughts, skipping under the pink beds of sakura. Haruka trails behind him, walking slowly, though he doesn’t underestimate the beauty of the spring trees.

Haruka reaches under his collar, pulling at the buttons irritating his skin. The sun pours brightness between the holes in the branches, illuminating the dirt pathway. Makoto’s fingers brush the tree trunks with an innocent sort of curiousness in his eyes.

He looks elementary again, Haruka thinks.

“I hope we’re in the same class again,” Makoto muses, looking backwards to give Haruka a sweet smile. There’s a flutter in his heart. It’s confusing. Maybe it was jealousy for his best friend’s optimism. Haruka doesn’t know, but he does know it’s weird.

“Y-yeah,” he responded, flinching at the pound of his heart thrumming in his ears. Maybe Makoto feels it as well, and he doesn’t have to worry. Maybe all best friends have it. Haruka comes to that conclusion.

Makoto smiles again, and it intensifies. He doesn’t know if it’s a relieving or dangerous feeling. Either way, he gets used to it. It feels quite nice after some time.

They don’t hold hands to school anymore. A student pointed it out, and they’ve been conscious about it ever since.

***

They’re fifteen, walking home from their first week of high school.

“Wow, the ocean looks nice today,” Makoto muses, staring at a pile of sand drifting into the sea. Amidst the expanse of the water’s glittering surface, the sun dips down in the horizon, painting the landscape summery hues of orange.

It’s been two years since Haruka has quit competitive swimming, and yet, Makoto was a consistent anchor in his life. It was a shock finding out Makoto has quit himself, but the weak, assuring smile that spread on his face had said more than words, and it made Haruka’s heart swell into ungodly proportions.

“Makoto, I...” Haruka trails off, gaze far off into the steady, wispy clouds.

There’s that smile again, eyes crinkled at the sides, left dimple deeply etched into his skin, eyebrows raised to his hairline, and it’s breathtaking. Haruka cannot think straight. His mouth hangs open, words pushing desperately to be said, but doubt pounds on his head like a persistent hammer, screaming at him to not do it, you’re going to ruin it, he doesn’t feel the same, there’s nothing you can do—

“What is it, Haru?” Makoto asks softly, and for a fleeting moment, Haruka’s eyes flicker to his pouty lips, waiting for a pair to press themselves to it, to revel in the taste, to gasp, sigh, and wince. Maddening.

“It’s...nothing,” Haruka muttered, distancing himself from the empowering warmth radiating from his best friend.

“Oh? Okay,” Makoto replied, and there’s disappointment in his voice. Haruka doesn’t blame him.

Perhaps it could wait. It was a declaration too powerful for Haruka to handle. Another day, he’ll say it. And he’ll be prepared for Makoto’s response, eyelids fluttering, cheeks red and flushed, smile curling.

I love you.

***

They’re sixteen, under the bullets of rain pounding on their back, crash of waves deafening.

Haruka trembles, shaking the unconscious body of his best friend, eyes closed, lips parted, skin pale. There’s no response. Haruka’s desperate.

He tilts Makoto’s head up, pinching his nose. Haruka keeps himself from hyperventilating as he inches closer, refraining the shaking of his arms.

Their lips connect, and he puffs air into Makoto’s mouth. There’s no response. He pushes on his chest, whispering pleads more to himself than to Makoto. There’s no response. He repeats both procedures, keeping his tears at bay. There’s no response.

“Makoto, Makoto,” he repeats, shouting over the crashing of water drumming in his ears. Makoto’s pulse slows, and now Haruka screams out of desperation. It can’t...he can’t.

It stops.

“Haru-chan, Mako-chan, are you okay?!” Nagisa shouts over the rain. Haruka trembles violently, turning slowly while he masks his tears streaming down over the beat of water.

***

He’s sixteen, curled up in bed, with his phone pressed to his ear.

“Hi there! I’m really sorry, but it seems like I can’t make it to the phone right now. Leave me a message, and I’ll try to get to you as soon as I can!” Makoto’s fuzzy voice wavers through the phone.

Haruka chokes and wraps the blankets tight until he’s suffocating, swallowing thickly.

“Makoto,” he whispers, throat tight with tears, “I love you.”

Haruka sobs into his pillow.

#writibles #makoharu #free! #last time i edited this was september....... #this + 1 souharu fluff fic and ill be answering requests again #also did not proofread it before posting lmao #i like making haruka feel things

[thetreehousesystem]

The Challenges of Ethnic Ambiguity

While this isn’t a post about DID, it is about another important part of my identity; my ethnicity.

My father was born and raised in Syria with Syrian (and possibly some Turkish) descent. My mother was born in Australia to Egyptian parents, with a tiny bit of Turkish in her mix. I was born in Australia, moved to the U.A.E. when I was 7-8 yo , then returned to Australia when I was 13-14 yo. For those who don’t know, all three of these countries I’m descended from, but especially Egypt, are very ethnically diverse, which in turn means my physical appearance is very ethnically “different” and “confusing”. So when people see me, they feel the need to either force me into some guessing game about my ethnicity, make assumptions and treat me accordingly, or, in rare cases, actually ask me and get a mildly accurate answer. While in an ideal world, I wish people would just treat me as another human being, I don’t get that liberty with the way I look and the experiences I’ve had.

Just the other day, I was in an Uber with an Irish friend and we were chatting with the driver who turned out to be Afghani. We were talking about how the driver and I were both lactose intolerant, whereas my Irish friend was not, when I made the comment “only white people are not lactose intolerant”. The driver’s response was “But you’re white!” Right about now, y’all are probably thinking I’m crazy for getting annoyed about passing and being mistook for a white person, but the problem with passing means all your experiences with racism and otherness due to your ethnicity are completely disregarded as if they never happened, which is really damn offensive and hurtful.

That was one of the more innocent times I’ve been mistook for being white. There have been several occasions on which I’ve been blatantly told to my face that there’s no way I’ve ever experienced racism, because my skin is light. When in fact, the entire reason my family and I moved to the U.A.E. was because we were terrified of the backlash against Arabs and Muslims post-9/11. That’s right, I had to leave the country I was born in and grew up in because we felt so threatened. So, I guess I can’t really call Australia home, right?

So what about the U.A.E.? Well I certainly wasn’t welcomed there with open arms. Speaking the Syrian dialect of Arabic meant I was ridiculed every time I would speak Arabic in front of my peers, and having an Australian accent speaking English in a country full of people with American accents meant I was also ridiculed when speaking English, until I adopted the American accent.  Not to mention the times I was cornered by classmates to be called things like “foreigner” and “egg-head”, and sometimes even physically hurt and purposely left out of games and activities my classmates would engage in during our lunch breaks. So no, the U.A.E. certainly isn’t home.

Syria? I remember trying to get a haircut when visiting Syria once. My sister, who has very straight hair compared to mine, was given premium service; a perfect haircut, a blow dry afterwards, a cheap rate, and it was not a rush job. When the hairdressers got to my nappy ass hair, they didn’t quite know what to do, so they gave me a rush job with a shitty haircut and my uncle had to argue with them and pay them extra so they would actually finish the job. And buying clothes for me there was a nightmare because I’ve got the African bottom-heavy body shape. Plus, Arabs are very racist towards each other so the fact I was obviously not 100% Syrian meant I was treated as less than everywhere I went. So I don’t fit in in Syria either. And if I ever end up in Turkey, it’ll be more or less the same.

And then as for Egypt, I can’t speak the dialect, in fact I find it quite difficult to even understand, and my skin colour is far too light for me to appear Egyptian and fit into their society. And Egypt is a pretty dangerous place for foreigners right now. So where do I fit in? Where do ethnically ‘different’ looking people fit in this world? I feel like a god damn Chameleon at this point, constantly changing how I present depending on the ethnicity of the people around me. I’ll speak Arabic, keep my distance from men, and feign what Arabs like to call ‘modesty’ if I’m surrounded by Arabs to prove my Arabness. I’ll shade white people when I’m with my indigenous or black friends to prove my non-whiteness (although I’m also non-stop dissing white people in my head too). And I step up my whiteness, vocabulary, Aussie slang, and enthusiasm for ‘intellectual conversation and debates’ around white folks so I come across as educated, intelligent, and sophisticated enough to live amongst them in their white country. In all honesty, I love having intellectual debates and enjoy giving my Arabic a spin on the rare occasion that I can, but I can only handle so much debating with white people about shit they don’t know and speaking a language I barely remember. I actually feel the least like a fish out of water when I’m spending time with my African Australian and/or my Indigenous Australian friends, but even then I don’t feel truly 100% accepted. I actually kind of feel like an impostor.

I know this is going to be read by a bunch of people who do fit neatly into a certain ethnicity or race and be told that I’m being too sensitive or that there are so many people who are worse off or something else completely dismissive, but therein lies the issue. I am very aware that people of other minority races experience things I will never have to, but that doesn’t make any of my experiences any less valid. Also, the examples I’ve used here are very PG compared to most of the racist encounters I’ve had. I’ve had a group of white boys drive past me and scream out the window “what the fuck is that?” at me. I’ve had neo-nazis try to get me fired from the first club I worked at because they had decided I was Jewish because I’ve got a big nose (which actually looks a lot more African than Jewish tbh). I had to be escorted out of the club by security early that night because those same boys began bordering on violent and their bullshit kept escalating (and no, I wasn’t recompensed for the rest of the shift). I’ve been consistently mocked about my body shape, called all sorts of fat slurs, even starved with the intention of making me lose weight, by the Syrian side of my family ever since I started going through puberty. All because I don’t fit into their idea of an attractive body because I have curves, a fat ass, and thick thighs. And by the way, that has lead to some serious body dysmorphia because even when I do lose weight, my body shape/ proportions stay the same and I’ve been programmed to see that as fat. I was strip searched at the airport when I was 13 coming back to Australia from Dubai, and I’ve never been to an airport since and not been screened for explosives (random my fat ass). But all that considered, the hardest part of all these experiences is that no matter where I am or where I go, I’m literally always having to fight for a place in this world and the reality is that I just don’t neatly fit anywhere. And that leaves a person feeling extremely disenfranchised, discouraged, left out, alone, unaccepted, misunderstood, misplaced, and perpetually lost, a big part of why I tend to seclude and isolate myself from even my closest friends. So I suppose the take away from this is if any of y’all have ethnically ambiguous friends, do not assume their ethnicity. Ask, then accept. And be mindful that because we’ve never had a strong sense of belonging, we’ll likely try to assimilate into whatever your culture is and that’s a very uncomfortable process. So try to be conscious of at least the basics of their culture, whatever parts they’ve chosen to hold onto, and be inclusive with that knowledge in mind. I also want to say, before someone kicks up a shitstorm, that I don’t HATE white people. I just find a very large number of them to be annoying, naive, willingly ignorant, obnoxious, privileged, and superficial. And if you get defensive over that statement, you are one of those white people I just described.

#h #lee #racism #colourism #colorism #ethnic identity #ethnicity #ethnic ambiguity

[sol1056]

tbh season 5 kind of made me rescind any prior sympathies i had for lance's insecurities since at this point it seems like he's just going to behave the exact same way towards any man he perceives as more 'successful' than him in any way. first keith, now lotor. i felt s3 was him growing past it but now it seems more like that was *just* him putting it aside for the functionality of the team not actually him getting over his fragile ego. & his ego only marginally improved via Getting Sword.

Good point about Lance latching onto quasi-opponents. That said… if I put my writing hat on, the characterization doesn’t actually make a lot of sense. 

In a story with multiple protagonists, it makes for a more interesting story if not everyone agrees on the methods; if they do agree on the methods, then let them conflict on the goal. Tension becomes conflict when the disagreement lies not in methods nor goals but in simple dislike. Yes, characters – like people – will not always like each other. But the ultimate test is: how does this interaction push the story forward? 

In real life, shit happens. In fiction, shit must have a reason. 

A caveat: I rarely dislike characters, so long as they serve a purpose in the story. I can be disinterested, but that’s not the same thing. I prefer to put any blame where it belongs, on the creators who believed this kind of character is worth my time. Because the way Lance is written, he’s not. 

So. How could we make Lance dislike Keith and Lotor, and it not seem like it’s a figment of Lance’s delicate ego?

Well, for starters, have Lance actually have a reason for his dislike, and have that reason turn out to be valid. 

Say Lance doesn’t see Keith as a rival pilot, but someone unreliable. Someone you can’t really trust, because he’ll flake out at the first spot of trouble. He quit school, after all, left his previous team in the lurch, etc. When Keith’s revealed as Galra, the implication is that Lance had been onto something – that Keith isn’t fully human – but by having Lance come around to believing he and Keith make a good team, the ‘maybe Lance was right’ gets set aside. 

Then here comes Lotor, and Lance is again on-guard. But have him call it out (the self-awareness showing his development), and now we have a great internal tension: he was proven wrong before, after all. And this time, have Lotor do exactly as Lance has talked himself out of suspecting. 

That would be pushing the story forward, via Lance’s development. And then you’d have a genuine story-reason for the dislike, with Keith as a red herring to mislead the audience (and Lance) into ignoring his gut reaction. Plus, the message would become, Lance has a good sense of when people aren’t really who they say they are – instead of, Lance is a spoiled asshat who can’t handle anyone else getting all the attention.

In S1, Lance is jealous of someone whose competency far outranks his, making Lance look petty and egotistical. It also undermines the argument that Lance has his finger on the team’s pulse; his unrealistic self-assessment is the sole reason he misjudges and dislikes someone else. 

Then we get S3′s wild flips from outright attack to so-supportive – followed by S4′s complete void. Like, not a mention from Lance about the character who got the focus of his attention for so long. Then Lotor shows up, and Lance gets territorial (this time over Allura, instead of piloting), but… what’s the point, here? Nothing ever really comes of Lance’s behavior, so why does it get such a proportionately large amount of screentime? 

All it does is make him look like an asshat… and maybe that’s the point.

Okay, this is a bit of a stretch, but bear with me on this. I get these hunches now, after so many years of paying attention to the nuances enough to deconstruct and analyze. And here’s what I can’t seem to shake: I think Lance is written this way for a reason, and that it has little to do with the story. 

A few things we do know: Lance has consistently been the most popular character. Second, Lance is also Dos Santos’ favorite character; third, for some reason Lance was given Hedrick’s birthday, instead. And lastly, the writers are willing to put snark in a character’s mouth (”we’ll never get rid of you, Shiro, you’re the most popular character”). 

In S3, Lance had glimmers of what might’ve been the start of his character growth: he drops the rivalry with Keith, stops flirting with Allura, and so on. In S4, Keith falls completely off Lance’s radar (as he does for everyone), and Lance’s friendship with Allura grows. I’d bet that was Lance’s original arc, growing out of being, as Hedrick put it, “an egomaniac and pseudo ladies man.” 

Then we hit S5. While Lance is territorial over Allura, he doesn’t flirt with her at all. There’s also only one scene where the two really talk, one-on-one – and it has strong shades of the development we saw in S3/S4. 

Take Allura out of the equation, and look at what Lance actually does. 

While Lotor and Allura are having a serious conversation, Lance’s focus is on what it means to him. He’s a kid interrupting while the adults are talking. 

Lance has numerous snide comments, but none of his distrust seems to bear fruit; Lotor is written as (at least for now) genuine, if a little dangerous. Lance’s immediate dislike feels out-of-proportion, an immature jealousy of someone else’s competence. 

When Lotor and Allura go off alone: Lance’s reaction is of someone who hates to be left out. He’s got to be in the middle of everything, even though he has nothing to contribute.

Keep in mind, too, you could deconstruct that entire episode as characterizing who the adults are. None of them are the Garrison trio, who proceed to basically act like destructive children left without adult supervision.  

And most tellingly, to me, is that scene where everyone is working to save the castle. Again look at what Lance is doing: nothing but noise. He’s getting in everyone’s way, focused on his own overreacting while everyone else is getting shit done.

Most of these, Lance shows to some degree in S1/S2, which is why it feels like he’s sliding backwards, characterization-wise. But S1/S2 laid the groundwork for future development by showing that Lance did fill a valuable role, despite his own blindness to it. S5 undid all of that, by removing his contributions but keeping his ego. 

In short, S5 Lance is obsessed with ‘his’ role despite contributing next to nothing, sulks when he’s not included, talks himself up like he’s a crucial part of things, hates sharing attention, and consistently gets in the way of everyone else trying to just do their damn jobs. He’s a textbook inept yet conceited boss.

When you consider S5 is only a half-season, it’s so over-the-top that I can’t shake the sense that Lance is actually a proxy. It’s more roundabout than the jokes about keeping Shiro, but it’s so extreme – and so divorced from any impact on the story’s progress – that it’s hard to not see S5-Lance as the writers mocking someone on the creative team.   

#meta #voltron legendary defender #vld #voltron

[timespakistan]

I know why the caged bird sings | Art & Culture Nightingale With Lock. A young unkempt boy, paper in hand, utters an incomprehensible word, and weavers pick a certain shade of wool, and start adding it to the half-woven rugs on their looms. Different sounds – rather commands, make them replace colours, tie more knots, modify design, till an entire piece of the tapestry is complete. Anyone who has ever visited such a place is intrigued by this form of communication – a secret dialect shared by workers at carpet-weaving units across the Punjab, if not the entire country. Besides this mundane but practical and professional language, there is another language attached to carpets. Floral patterns and geometric motifs are actually codes for complex meanings and refer to faith, spirituality and sublimity. What we step on could be a garden, even Eden; and what we hang on the wall could be the Tree of Life. In both cases, extremely stylised, and with a rich chromatic scheme possible due to indigenous dyes. A number of artists have been inspired by the tradition of carpet making, but Parviz Tanavoli’s interest in this conventional method/imagery is more than cursory. Belonging to a society known for manufacturing rugs of high aesthetics, he collected carpets, and wrote several books on this practice including Kings, Heroes and Lovers; Lion Rugs and Persian Flatweaves. Tanavoli has also created works based on the vocabulary of carpet, screen prints from 1974, shown recently at Grosvenor Gallery London. A person familiar with Parviz Tanavoli’s art is aware that his inquiry into the Persian carpet is not a surface infatuation. Tanavoli’s entire corpus of work is rooted in the cultural expression of this region. He is known internationally for his sculptural work and referred to as the Father of Modern Iranian Sculpture. He has also produced paintings and scholarly works. One of his most celebrated sculptures consists of Persian word heech, which means ‘nothing’. He says, “the shape of this work, which is composed of three letters, fascinated me so much that for four or five years I worked on it, making many, many heeches.” At the Grosvenor Gallery, Tanavoli’s screen prints, intended as layouts for rugs and tapestries woven in Iran, were on display from April 26 to May 8. Though all these prints are almost 47 years old, they do not appear outdated just as traditional carpets do not date easily and sometimes acquire more meaning, significance and worth with the passage of time – not as antique pieces, but as part of everyday existence. A carpet by its essence, is not to be used as a museum exhibit, but handled as an essential possession of the household – to sit, step, recline and sleep on. It is only for outsiders that these rugs are exotic pieces, purchased and preserved like precious items; because to a traveller, a cultural tourist, a European connoisseur – who is unable to crouch, or comfortably sit cross-legged, and eat and hold conversation – these rugs have more decorative importance than any practical value. On the other hand, Parviz Tanavoli, born in 1937 in Tehran, investigates the practice from an insider’s position. With this privilege, he is able to deviate from the standard sensibility of a carpet. His prints recall the language of pop art, since these rugs, in a sense, are ‘popular art’ of the Near East and Central Asia. Tanavoli, admirably, has not followed the typical colour scheme, traditional motifs and conventional content. Employing a chromatic order that ranges from bright blues, greens, scarlet, yellows, vibrant turquoises, pinks, peaches and greys to stark black, has assembled a new narrative. Eventually, they were fabricated by tribal weavers, all interpreting original design differently and supplying their unique responses. Talking about this and his travel in the region from early ’60s to early ’70s, Tanavoli recalls: “I noticed that they weave their rugs by looking at another rug, and do not use cartoons like city weavers. This is how I decided to make my own rugs”. Purely because of this observation, preliminarily ideas of rugs – his screen prints, are open to manipulation, alteration and addition. In any case, when an image (or for that matter a text) is translated into another diction/medium, it is bound to change its contours – and context. Parviz Tanavoli’s pieces had potential for elaborations; and the exhibition catalogue documents how one print, Farhad and I, (originally a painting of the same title from 1973) was modified separately by Qashqa and Lori weavers. Probably the greatest contribution of Tanavoli is not continuing with a rich heritage, but bringing artisans into the realm of contemporary art, and recognising their aesthetic choices and respecting their pictorial solutions. In a sense, the intervention Tanavoli accepted in his work, is what he has done to the tradition of rug making. Tanavoli travels between intervention and invention in his art, particularly his 1974 prints. Proportions of these screen prints conform to the conventional rectangle of rugs; but it is the imagery that determines how an artist converses with tradition, and morphs it. His visuals are ingrained in the cultural history of Persia, but his approach is that of a modern, fearless, yet reverent painter. Akin to traditional mode of weaving stories in patterns, he also infuses a narrative in his art, a narrative that deals with language, love, and freedom. An important – and readable ‘picture’ in his ‘carpet-prints’ (or car-prints) is of the nightingale. Either caged in a block of buildings, or with a locked beak. This state of the bird signifies restrictions (one recognises the prophetic power of Parviz Tanavoli here. He was envisaging a scenario of repression and curbs on speech five years before it was witnessed after/with the 1979 Revolution in Iran. The nightingale also announces the presence of love, because in historic Persian (and Urdu) poetry, it is associated with passion, love songs and longing. Besides drawing the bird in profile, Tanavoli writes its Farsi name, bulbul. In another print, a poet – stylised to an unbelievable height – is holding the fowl. Another work, Oh, Nightingale, is filled with a composite figure, partly a human form with feet and legs, and partially modulated head of the bird, with windows and locks. Farhad Squeezing Lemon. For Tanavoli, the poet and the bird are companions, as witnessed in Poet & Bird, with its variation of human-type figurine holding a simplified version of birds. The artist recounts: “The poet… was the freest of all humankind. I consider him to be like birds in the sky, belonging everywhere”. His Last Poet of Iran looks like a document, of poet’s multiple variations, without names/identities. A print from the same series, Disciples of Sheikh San’an, with its architectural structures – and the caged bird – refers to a story from The Conference of Birds, the poem penned by Faridoddin Attar in the twelfth century. Regardless of the detail of his subject, characters, references, it is his way of transforming a living being and objects in delightful patterns that connects him to the tradition of carpet weaving – as well as to the convention of modern art. Mostly evident in his lion series (Lion and Sword, 2008; and Lion and Sun 2010), in which the ferocious animal (a symbol of political power, the king) is rendered like a simplified toy. In their colour, shapes and arrangement, Tanavoli’s people, birds, things, are at once traditional and modern. Created by an individual, who taught sculpture in Tehran and Minneapolis, and lived in Iran and Canada, the imagery is one of the most convincing proposal for a marriage between the past and the present. Because both the historic Persian rugs and Parviz Tanavoli’s prints made in 1974 are works of art that in the words of DH Lawrence, “will be for ever new”. The writer is an art critic based in Lahore. https://timespakistan.com/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings-art-culture/18742/

[wi-fu]

Hi wifu! I’ve been following your blog for a while and I really love your work! How did you get so popular?

This is…a very wide topic to discuss!

I feel like it’s really easy to forget that having ‘appealing’ art and being a very skilled artist are two different things. Why did that sketch by that popular artist get thousand of notes but my full illustration with background only got 5 notes? That’s very discouraging. Does that mean my drawing was worse? Not really, at least not in terms of execution.

It’s a little harsh to put it this way, but think of it as if we were on Tinder. It only takes two second to swipe left if your artwork doesn’t catch the viewer’s attention.

There’s a huge difference between being skilled and knowing how to present your art, and blaming others for not getting notes is a detrimental way of thinking that will only slow you down!

This is not just some anti-negativity bullshit. It’s practical. It’s not the average viewer’s fault if he ignored or “just liked” your piece without reblogging. Blaming external causes for your own lack of popularity just makes it so you keep doing what you do blindly, holding yourself back from improving.

I recommend checking this post by tamberella out for a much better understanding (and more insightful tips) on the topic of appealing art.

It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for popularity (after all, especially if art’s gonna be your job, it’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t, in a field in which communication is key), but make sure you do it with understanding instead of blaming others or guilt tripping them into reblogging your art. (I made a comic about this a while ago)

Back to your question…there’s not a specific way to become popular.  I can only offer a few tips on attitude / blog management / drawing:

Practicing by drawing a lot is important but practicing by observing a lot is the key to improvement! Being exclusively self-referential leads to stagnation.

Observe what other people do, understand why certain things work more than others do. This doesn’t mean you should copy specific pieces. Just take the overall vibe of something and rework it. See what people like!

Find popular artists who do something you feel is similiar to what you do. Understand what is it that makes their art so appealing.

Artstyles work as a the sum of their parts. There are so many parameters when ‘rating’ a drawing. Anatomy, lineart, coloring, composition, style, perspective, posing etc. are just a few of them, and just because you have an understanding of some it doesn’t mean you got it all figured out. For example, realistic shading might not be the best choice with very cartoony proportions, but might work in some cases. Analyze single pieces instead of a whole gallery!

Make separate folders for the art you like solely for its content (as in fandom/character depicted), and the art you like for how it’s made. Name the folders accordingly, such as concept, composition, coloring, poses, etc. You’ll need these more than you realize.

Tag your drawings in the right way. The first 5 tags are the only ones showing up in the tumblr /tagged/ (and the first 20 tags are ones showing up in /search/), so use them carefully instead of filling them up with #this sucks i know im sorry, #i did this very quickly, #im so tired, and so on.

Be consistent! You won’t get much of a following if you post a sketch once every six months.

It’s ok to reblog your own art once or twice but filling your followers’ dash with the same drawing over and over again won’t make it suddenly go viral, so finding a good balance might be useful

Negativity can be very heavy to handle sometimes, and people who don’t know you just wanna have a good time looking at your art, without the angry/sad stuff. Getting an art-only blog might be a good idea - this is especially true if you’re not ranting about your personal life, but about the lack of attention your art gets. Be nice to your followers, blaming them for not reblogging your art is counterproductive!

Give it time! Regardless of your skill, it’s gonna take a while to gain an audience.

On a final note, I would like to clarify that at the end of the day you’re free to draw whatever you want, these are just tips for a better understanding of how visual impact affects the amount of visibility you get. As long as you’re having fun, keep drawing whatever it is that you’re drawing!

I hope this was somewhat helpful. Take care!

#asks #this is literally the post i made a year ago but with better wording and more stuff

[careerzonestudyabroad]

Top 10 Study Abroad Destinations

There's likely a valid justification (or, rather, a ton of them) that the greater part of the world is keen on investing their investigation abroad energy in one of the accompanying ten nations. Regardless of whether it is a brilliant price:service proportion, the character of local people, widely acclaimed training guidelines, or a unique scene you can't discover elsewhere on the planet (Cappadocia, anyone?!), these are the nations to concentrate abroad in case you're prepared for a decent time with your schooling interests. From gelatos to mochis, we have you covered.

1. Italy

With its astounding food, attractive language, delightful workmanship, and dynamic history, Italy is the most sought-after objective for hopeful examination abroad understudies. Study abroad projects in Italy have an interesting mix of Italian social examinations and courses in an assortment of majors from business to expressive arts.

Professionals: Most projects expect almost no Italian language study, making Italy available to understudies. Likewise, there's the realistic scenes, notable recorded locales in each corner, and gelatos in shadings you didn't know existed.

Cons: Not learning the public language makes incorporating into the neighborhood culture troublesome and this is one culture you would prefer not to pass up. And keeping in mind that eating all that gelato isn't really your midriff line's closest companion, it does some amazing things for the spirit.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Lorenzo de' Medici

Performing Arts Abroad

Sant'Anna Institute

2. Spain

Spain flaunts noteworthy celebrations, breaks, and flamenco artists. What's more, significantly something beyond the cliché stuff; there's additionally incredible climbs everywhere on the country, astonishing sea shores for all sea shore assortment types, and an unending assortment of jamón serrano. Every year a huge number of understudies excursion to Spain to learn Spanish (duh!) and to take classes in worldwide business, European examinations, and that's just the beginning.

Stars: The variety of study abroad projects in Spain ensures lodging and homeroom conditions straight up your own rear entryway. The segment of study abroad understudies will be different, however on the off chance that you just wanna kick back with local people over a glass of sangria, no concerns. Individuals of this nation love just to talk, share food, and absorb the sun.

Cons: Spain is a particularly mainstream concentrate abroad objective among American understudies that it can now and again be difficult to drench in the neighborhood culture. Global understudies should be purposeful about going off in an unexpected direction and investigating outside their usual ranges of familiarity; go for certain tapas with local people, require roadtrips to little towns, and become more acquainted with your local area.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

CEA Study Abroad

Scholarly Programs International (API)

Alba Study Abroad

3. Britain

Not certain if it's England's authentic binds with such countless pieces of the world… or David Beckham's profile… or the peculiar language… or Harry Potter's stronghold… however for reasons unknown, understudies simply love concentrating abroad in England.

Geniuses: Ideal for understudies who've never been out of the country, England offers a more unpretentious invasion into the universe of social contrasts. English is spoken all over the place (regardless of whether there are nearby tongues you can get in case you're up for the test!) and finding your number one brands from back home likely will not be an issue here.

Cons: It may be a tad excessively "simple" for understudies looking for a drastically changed social experience. Likewise, the UK is costly; there's no way to avoid that. Whenever cost is a worry, understudies should search for programs outside of London for more moderate alternatives.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

College London

Shower Spa University

College of Roehampton

4. France

From the amazing city lights and sights of Paris to the seaside sun and fun of the French Riviera, understudies love the sentimentalism of France. That is not in any event, getting into the style explanations or culinary experiences. La compete en rose.

Masters: Programs are accessible in such different areas as cosmopolitan Paris or archaic Avignon, with choices in one or the other French or English. You can decide for yourself how testing the following semester will be. We previously referenced the extravagant food sources and lyricism of the language, isn't that so?

Cons: Even in the event that you decided to join up with an investigation abroad program in France instructed in English, some earlier French language study is enthusiastically suggested, particularly in the event that you are living outside of the principle habitats. Know that intermittent association fights can close the nation down. In any case, hello, it's all essential for the experience.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Esmod Paris

Scholastic Studies Abroad

CEA Study Abroad

5. Germany

Perhaps in light of the fact that Germany is home to the world well known Oktoberfest and the Neuschwanstein Castle (Disney's motivation), yet there's no rejecting that understudies are attracted to the numerous delights of German culture and its top notch training.

Stars: This is an incredible spot to examine business, hard sciences, and German (natürlich). It's additionally an extraordinary spot for scholarly entry level positions, with base camp of a portion of the world's greatest organizations and devotion to advancement. Inside and outside of the study hall, productivity is high, so there's no compelling reason to sit around idly with administrative burdens.

Cons: Some earlier German investigation is suggested, however numerous projects offer a blend of German language and courses instructed in English. The most amazing aspect the two universes!

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Worldwide Studies Abroad (ISA)

European Study Center (ESC)

IES Abroad

6. Australia

From swimming in the Great Barrier Reef to climbing in the Outback and investigating metropolitan Sydney, a huge number of understudies fly south to visit the land down under: Australia. Also, feel like they're large and in charge.

Experts: Australia is home to the absolute best colleges on the planet. Here, understudies can concentrate essentially every major, except star points incorporate business, humanities, and the entirety of the science fields. In your leisure time, get a tan, pursue some wild critters, and hit those Bondi Blue waters.

Cons: Being in the southern half of the globe, Australia's scholastic schedule is inverse to that of North America/Europe. This can be a bummer for understudies with occasional responsibilities back home, (for example, sports and summer temporary jobs). Simultaneously, this offers the chance of a year-long summer, so it's not all awful.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Pacific Discovery

CAPA International Education 

CIEE

7. Japan

With lovely zen-like engineering, a portion of the world's most innovative contraptions, and sushi, Japan offers understudies a magnificently rich culture to investigate. Take a spin under the cherry bloom trees and become familiar with the exquisite draw of this little archipelago.

Geniuses: Japan has the ideal crossing point of present day comforts (look at the shinkansen, Japan's insane quick train) and chronicled environmental factors (practically every city has an antiquated Buddhist sanctuary), so whether you're an advanced manga fan or an old samurai hero, there's an only thing for you.

Cons: Japan can be really costly, regardless of whether you're not pigging out on extravagant sushi consistently. Draft up a spending plan, and attempt to learn probably a portion of the fundamentals of the Japanese language prior to intersection the lake.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Place for Study Abroad (CSA)

KCP International Japanese Language School

8. China

Understudies run to concentrate in urban communities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong for the upper hand it will bring to their resumes. Outside of the homeroom, there's end of the week mass movements to renowned locales like the Great Wall or Terracotta Warriors.

Aces: Being the biggest arising economy on the planet, language capacity in Mandarin or Cantonese gives understudies a serious edge in the work market. You'll likewise have the option to see direct how unpredictably China is associated with the worldwide market (and to eat the entirety of the delectable treats).

Cons: Some understudies can encounter some culture stun because of significantly unique language and social viewpoints. Which, thinking back, can likewise be simply the feature of the encounters, so let yourself make a plunge profound. Remember to heft around an extra face veil in case you're living in a greater city.

Especially Awesome Programs:

Travel to another country China Ltd.

Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University

College Studies Abroad Consortium

9. Argentina

Argentina is a stunning encounter from start to finish; learning tango in metropolitan Buenos Aires, investigating the wine nation of Mendoza, climbing Patagonia, and review quite possibly the most sweeping cascades on the planet, Iguazu Falls.

Geniuses: If you like eating on fine steak and tasting striking wine each night, you won't be baffled. In the event that you get anxious in the study hall, simply toss on a couple of climbing boots and point your finger at the following geographic miracle you'd prefer to handle.

Cons: The broad scene can be a test for anybody needing to see each piece of this lovely nation; center in around explicit regions (or simply stay longer!). With solid Italian impacts, expect some assortment from that secondary school Spanish you're carrying with you.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Sol Education Abroad

American Institute For Foreign Study

Mente Argentina

10. Costa Rica

Costa Rica's equilibrium of rough outside experience and social metropolitan energy is the ideal objective for a genuinely one of a kind report abroad insight. Furthermore, whenever you've broken the South American boundary, utilize this country as a base for different nations that are somewhat more under-the-radar. In the event that you will actually want to pull yourself away from the pura vida, that is.

Experts: With an equilibrium of Latin American culture and American the travel industry, the simplicity of (modest!) travel is extraordinary. On the off chance that you need to learn Spanish, this is the spot.

Cons: A bounty of unfamiliar traffic costs in a portion of the touristic places. Get familiar with the going pace of essential things, figure out how to wrangle (it's about the social drenching, 'yo!), and don't allow yourself to get tricked into shams.

Especially Awesome Study Abroad Programs:

Maximo Nivel

CISabroad

Sol Education Abroad

#studyabroad #studygram #freestudy #abroad #abroadeducation #education #university #college #higher education #abroadstudy

[rebellingstagnationblog]

“Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (Day 4 of 31)

For @historian-in-pearls, who asked for Drake cutting down his Christmas tree.

Drake took a deep breath before exhaling mightily. “Ahhh. Do you smell that, Gos? The crisp winter air, the slight damp of the coming snow, the tang of pine…”

“You can smell snow coming?” Gosalyn interrupted, studying her father out of the corner of her eye as she tugged her coat more securely around her.

“All true outdoorsman can!” Drake insisted, puffing out his chest and tossing up his head proudly.

Gosalyn smirked. “Well, tell me when one decides to show up.”

Drake raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think I’m a true—”

“There’s not even a cloud in the sky,” Gosalyn pointed out. “But you can smell the coming snow?”

“Gosalyn, Gosalyn, Gosalyn,” Drake lamented, shaking his head. “I know the snow is coming the same way I know how to choose the best Christmas tree: years of experience, an intuitive connection with everything around me, and good old fashioned knowhow.”

“He’s right, Gos,” Launchpad said. “Snow’s supposed to start falling around seven.”

Gosalyn cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Drake. “That’s awfully specific.” She looked over to Launchpad. “How do you know it’s gonna snow?”

“We saw it on the news before we left.”

“We?” Gosalyn asked.

Drake laughed nervously, gripping his axe in his gloved hands. “Look at all those trees all the way over there. I better, um, go pick the best one so we can get home before the snow hits.”

“Oh, we got plenty of time, DW! There’s four hours until its supposed to start snowing—”

“Yes, thank you, Launchpad,” Drake ground out, stomping down the hill towards the copse of trees he’d spotted.

It didn’t matter how he came by the information. It was enough just to know a storm was coming. Really, the news had only confirmed his outdoorsman instincts that told him about the coming snow. It’s not like the news was right all the time, anyway. Just look at how they handled the coverage on his crime fighting; namely, there wasn't any. Which, when it came down to it, was the real crime. Think of all the people he could inspire and how many more citizens would sleep better knowing that the daring Darkwing Duck defended the downtown district from dangerous desperados.

But no. They just confirmed a coming snow storm that Drake absolutely totally knew was coming before he watched the forecast.

Approaching the trees, Drake studied them carefully, taking into account height, width, the shade of green, and the shape of the trunk. No one said the life of an outdoorsman was glamorous, but Drake was willing to live the unglamorous life. The outdoor lifestyle was worth it.

Circling around a perfectly proportioned pine, its crisp scent bringing a smile to Drake’s beak, he carefully eyed it for any flaws. And when he didn’t find any that alerted his keen sharpened outdoorsman instincts, he arranged his hands along the handle of the axe, balancing its weight evenly.

“As any true outdoorsman will tell you,” he said to Gosalyn and Launchpad, who had followed him to the trees, “using an axe to cut down a tree is always the preferred method. It’s better for the bark and offers more consistency than a motorized tool.”

“That’s not even close to being true,” Gosalyn said.

Drake scowled. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand, not being a true outdoorsman yourself.”

“I’m not outdoor anything,” Gosalyn said, stuffing her hands into her coat pockets. “There’s a reason man invented homes; so he wouldn’t have to go outside. Can you please just get on with this cutting down the tree thing?”

“You can’t rush nature, Gos.” Drake swung the axe back over his shoulder. “And in order to become a true outdoorsman,” he swung it down, the blade biting into the wood with a solid thunk, “you have to become one with nature.” He swung it back. “Learn from her.” He hit the tree with a thunk. “Become apart of the surroundings.” Swing. “Absorb everything it has to teach you.” Thunk. “Why, just from sitting atop a hill or even in a park,” swing, “you’re already learning about nature.” Thunk. “The valuable lesson of the circle of life.” Swing. “How you should only take what you need, not what you want.” Thunk. “And most importantly,” swing, “patience.” Thunk.

“Whew!” Drake pulled the axe free and studied the trunk of the tree. “Thought I’d be farther along by now.” It had looked so easy in the online instructional videos. He’d recently become obsessed with cutting down their own Christmas tree and decided this would be the year.

But no one mentioned how much work went into it.

That didn’t matter, though. Nothing worth having was easily won.

“You know,” Gosalyn said. “Negaduck carries a chainsaw with him.”

“Oh, really? I had no idea,” Drake grumbled, glancing back at his daughter. “Now, if you please, I need to concentrate.” Gripping the axe tighter, Drake began cutting the tree down with renewed strength.

In between his steady rhythm of swing, thunk, he heard Launchpad say, “A chainsaw would be helpful right now.”

“Right?” Gosalyn said. “He never listens to me.”

Embedding the axe deep into the trunk, Drake turned around to face the two, hands on his hips. “You are breaking my concentration! Unless you plan on helping, go stand over there where I can’t hear you.”

With a glance to Launchpad, Gosalyn walked away, heading for the area her father had pointed towards.

Drake glanced at Launchpad, who shrugged in response. He pointed at the pilot’s chest and asked, “You gonna keep your bill shut?”

“If it helps.”

“Good.” Drake turned back around and yanked the axe free. “Because I need silence to focus on my bonding time.” Swing. “It takes the departure from civilization,” thunk, “and the silence of the woods around you,” swing, “to really bond with nature.” Thunk. “Once I fully connect to my surroundings,” swing, “I can become one with this tree.” Thunk. “Understand it,” swing, “down to its roots.” Thunk. “See the impact,” swing, “I am making,” thunk, “by removing it,” swing, “from it’s woodsy home.” Thunk. “Show my,” swing, “appreciation,” thunk, “for the sacrifice,” swing, “that’s being made.”

When he started the downswing, the axe slipped from Drake’s hands and went flying. The momentum pulling him forward, Drake fell flat on his beak in a bank of snow. Launchpad yelped and ducked out of the way of the rogue axe.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Drake spat out a beak-full of snow and glared at Launchpad. “Not a word,” he growled.

Launchpad disappeared into the trees after the axe, smothering his laughter.

“You okay, Dad?” Gosalyn asked, jogging back over to him.

“Never better!” Drake exclaimed, leaping to his feet before Gosalyn made it over. “All apart of the process of becoming one with our Christmas tree.”

“Sorry, DW,” Launchpad said as he emerged from the trees. “No sign of your axe anywhere.”

“The outdoors giveth and the outdoors taketh away,” Drake said forlornly.

He wondered where he might be able to find another axe. Maybe there was a hardware store nearby. Or maybe he could fashion something out of his surroundings….

“Well, let’s taketh this tree away,” Gosalyn said, pulling out a small chainsaw from behind her back. “I’m freezing.”

“Gosalyn!” Drake said, a hand coming up to rest over his heart, appalled. “A true outdoorsman would never stoop so low as to use a—”

“I’ll tell everyone you chopped the dumb tree down yourself,” Gosalyn promised.

Drake grabbed the chainsaw. “And after only a few swings.”

“Like the great outdoorsmen of old.” Gosalyn smirked.

Drake smiled in return as he yanked the chainsaw to life.

If a tree fell in the woods, and no one except his family was around to see it, did it really matter how it was cut down?

#darkwing duck #Drake Mallard #launchpad mcquack #Goslayn Mallard #31 days of christmas #rocking around the christmas tree #geronimo #writing #fanfiction