#which was actually the main motivation for drawing this lmao

[imorphemi]

Hermitgals but its a PRISM Corps au! Because I haven't stopped thinking about it

if you don't know, PRISM Corps is a magical girl universe created by ActuallyRea/Ginjaninjaowo. I drew Pearl as a prism magical girl a while ago for a daily pearl doodle, and later Gem as well, but now here's all of them!

These are still just sketches and rough ideas of what they'd look like because I'm bad at designing clothes, but I'm pretty happy with most of them :D

Notes about the gals and their weapons under the cut :3

I know that the girls change their hair color when they transform, but for the sake of keeping them more recognizable I did keep their hair colors the same as how I would usually draw them, plus sometimes some colorful streaks. Also their hair colors just happen to go pretty well with their color schemes anyways

Pearl - Weapon: Broom, has the ability to make anything it sweeps over disappear. Objects can be resummoned at a later time and will reappear once the prism is deactivated. She's usually part of the cleanup and damage control crew. Her Prism's name is Robbie!

Gem - Weapon: Still deciding on this one! Originally I put her weapon as twin swords but I'm reconsidering it. I also slightly changed her outfit design. Suggestions are very welcome for what her weapon should be, and feel free to be as creative as possible :D Her Prism's name is Mackenzie!

Stress - Weapon: Pandora's Box. A box that contains...something. We're not sure what it is, but it's some kind of spirit that is able to possess and take control of other people. There might even be multiple spirits. She can also trap other people in the box. Her Prism's name is Mochi!

Cleo - Weapon: Puppet Crossbeams, has the ability to control inanimate objects. Is also pretty decent at wacking people. I'm the least sure about Cleo's current design, I had a lot of trouble with it and would appreciate some suggestions and feedback because I am not a Cleo watcher haha. Her Prism's name is Stheno!

False - Weapon: Feather Blades. She can pluck the feathers off of her skirt to use as blades of any length. The amount of feathers she has is pretty decent and more than enough to get her through a standard fight, but it is limited. She'll have to wait for her prism to recharge again after using all of them. This is probably my favorite concept because it is dramatic as heck. I haven't decided on her Prism's name yet, but it'll probably be some kind of bird.

Storywise, False and Cleo joined the Corps around the same time, Stress some time after, and Pearl and Gem joined together later on. Out of this lineup, False is easily the most powerful, prism-wise and skill-wise, out of all the gals here. Maybe False gets to coach Pearl and Gem or something hehe

Oh! And this isn't all of them. A prism has gone rogue and there seems to be an independent magical girl in the city as well...

#my art #hermitcraft #hermitgals #PRISM Corps #pearlescentmoon #geminitay #stressmonster101 #zombiecleo #falsesymmetry #very proud of all these #like for false specifically #i just imagine that like shes in a really rough battle #and she only has a few feathers left on her skirt #(she has pants underneath dw lmao) #i really love the look of that i think its super cool #the feathers “oxidize” into the coppery green when she plucks them off #also i struggled with stress for a good while as well #mostly because initially i wanted to make a character page for her like pearl and gem #but i couldnt find a way for her to hold the box without it covering her outfit #which was actually the main motivation for drawing this lmao #anyways drop your suggestions ideas comments for the girls! #i need ideas #as someone who only watches pearl and gem adlfkjadfs

[butwhatifidothis]

You know, i've long wondered whether or not Fodlan being left in a miserable state after CF was intentional on IS's part or not; the fact that shit like “Edelgard ordered a historical play to be shut down just because she didn't like how it portrayed her” is pretty clearly meant to be seen as a “cute girl getting embarassed lol” moment instead of the blatant and horrific abuse of power that it is, along with the information that Edelgard installed a secret police and orders her henchmen to spy on her citizens only being revealed in a throwaway line in a random paired ending, with no acknowledgement of how fucked all that is, leads me to think this might have been unintentional.

Ehhh, I wouldn't say it's unintentional - there's a good bit more in 3H to show off how deliberately villainous Edelgard is. Off the top my head and not including what I already said regarding the endings, there's the facts that Edelgard:

is the only person to be readily okay with sacrificing her own citizens (with the only other people who do the same being TWS and a crazed Rhea who is visibly not mentally stable - a state which neither Edelgard nor TWS are ever in when they sacrifice innocents)

has her path be constantly riddled with direct links to the "need" for mass death ("the pool of blood at my feet," "the scarlet path" Hubert prepared for her to walk, "no matter how much blood flows at her feet" - yes, that is a completely different reference from the first link - etc.)

shares much of her motivation (destroying the Church and eradicating the Nabateans) with TWS

has her route be the only one where the story cuts to the other side so that you the player can see the effect your actions have placed onto the antagonists when you kill their close ones (Claude, Rhea, Dimitri)

is the only protagonist to be explicitly and violently racist

initiates extreme and mass violence for the explicit purpose of imperialism

Along with a myriad of other things, one being that she's, uh, literally called a villain by her creators lmao. And imo, 3H would have done a good job of writing her as such... if it weren't for what this other nonnie points out:

Man if you get rid of the uwu cutesy moments, Edelgard really is a sinister villain. The racism, the victim blaming, her desire for genocide, what you mentioned before about taking out anyone who opposes her and spying on her citizens, taking over a religion and remaking it your way i.e cultural erasure, getting rid of two countries' autonomy over revanchist nationalism. Like holy crap, how does anyone not see this and say "yeah that's definitely villainous". Oh right because she wanted to walk with you, isn't it sad ;_;? Seriously though, Intsys kinda dropped the ball here. Like we could've had a sinister villain and in bits and pieces we get that, but a lot of it is obscured by "I wanted to walk with you sensei~", and "I drew a sketch of you. Don't see it uwu." It's like having a cake with a great batter but you put all your effort on the hard frosting instead.

Her villainous behavior, methods, ideologies, etc. are all obfuscated by the ever-present need for her to still be a waifu that's marketable. Yeah, sure, she's realistically speaking a massive piece of shit to put it lightly, but she wants to walk with you :( and draw you :( isn't it cute when she screams at rats :) and she opens up to you that she's scared of rats actually she trusts you so much :) and she asks you if you're sure you wanna fight with her on CF she cares so much about giving you a choice ignore how choosing to NOT fight for her means getting murdered by her instead :) and look at how sad everyone is to fight her :( Doesn't that endear you, the player spending money on this game and its DLC and its gacha spinoff, to her, the cute waifu who's the main face of the game's marketing and who just cares about you the player oh so much?

It's not that her villainy is unintentional, it's that her marketability takes precedence over her character

#ask #anon #anti edelgard #anti-edelgard #edelgard critical #edelgard discourse #just to be safe #like her more uwu tendencies aren't as bad as... certain fans... make them out to be #but they are there and do detract from her character #so while there is very much NO DOUBT that in 3H she is very much a villain who does very clear villainous actions for villainous reasons #it's held back by the unfortunate ''necessity'' to make sure people want to spend money on her #so she can't go all in on the villain thing - she still has to be cute and wovable #since the writers - for one reason or another - clearly don't have faith that a villainous women *would* be marketable

[blueskittlesart]

In defense of the original, while I do agree the episodic vibes were a bit much at times, and it was something I kinda had to work my way through slowly rather than binging all in one...

I do kinda prefer the more gradual approach to laying out the information; getting to know both the setting and who Vash is as a person and the different facets of both, before getting the context that lets it all click into place. Plus the main quartet having ample time to grow together so that later developments have stronger emotional weight.

I will agree that Knives definitely suffered in focus, and I am interested in how Stampede handles him, but admittedly he wasn't really what I watched Trigun for in the first place. ^^;

yeah my gripe is less with the way the setting and characters were handled and more with the way the. actual plot was handled. it honest to god felt to me like they realized about halfway through their run that they didnt have enough episodes left to get the backstory in in a cohesive way so they just shoved it all into one episode and pretended that that explanation didn't create more questions than it answered. you spend 20 episodes teasing your audience like "ooooh what is vash?? clearly hes not human!! clearly there's something going on!!! don't you want to know whats going on?? keep watching and you'll totally understand whats going on!!" and then your big reveal is that. He Is Not Human. which is something that any idiot who has watched the last 20 episodes has already figured out. the question the audience ACTUALLY has at that point in the runtime is what, EXACTLY, is vash, and what the context is behind the conflict he and knives are in. the backstory episode explains that Knives Is Here, and it gives context to the setting and everything, but it pissed me off that it STILL didn't answer the actual mysteries i cared about, i.e. vash's real identity and the thing with the gun and his fucking arm and knives's motivations and everything. maybe that gets answered in the last episode that i neglected to watch but personally I prefer a story where i UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON by the time the final confrontation hits. with trigun it got to a point where vash was going out for the final battle with knives and i STILL didn't know who vash was, who knives was, where they came from, or what the hell their motivations were. that just made that final confrontation seem so wholly uninteresting to me that i didn't even feel like watching it. it was like "hey look vash is fighting a cardboard cutout that he is Afraid Of. Why? lmao idk man. probably has something to do with that weird spaceship that shows up in one whole episode before this point. not going to tell you how tho." I think some writers have this tendency to think that mystery = good writing and that not revealing anything to your audience will consistently draw them in for more, but that only works for so long. after 20 episodes of virtually net 0 information it got to feel like I was being strung along and like my questions were never going to be answered, so I gave up on the show in the final hour. Again, i'm not saying it was BAD necessarily and i understand the context in terms of writing and production that led to the show being produced that way but i think it really noticeably suffers due to the fact that it refuses to give the audience ANYTHING but crumbs of information for about 80% of it's runtime. that being said. i did genuinely like a lot of it. it has its moments. im not trying to discourage anyone from watching it or anything lol i just think stampede is a little more successful in keeping the viewer engaged in the story throughout by constantly feeding you bits of information and actually answering your questions as they become plot-relevant.

#asks #wow hi. trigun essay intermission sorry everyone #this same thing applies to virtually every villain in the show. nick. zazzie. the guy with the blue hair whose name i dont even remember. #you get like. the barest snippets of information about them. you know theyre working for knives somehow #you know that they've been somehow modified? and that their titles identify them as relating to knives #in nick's case you know that his whole thing has something to do with the orphanage and the priesthood #but beyond that you get... nothing. and you're expected to just speculate?? figure it out somehow??? #nick especially pissed me off bc it got to a point where he was DEAD and i still didn't understand what the fuck his deal was #despite him being a supporting character for almost the entirety of the show. he still got only like half an episode dedicated to explainin #his backstory and motivations and EVERYTHING. and then he DIED #and like. to be fair. i think the lack of explanation worked in some places. it worked decently with vash #but it worked with vash BECAUSE vash is pretty much an open book as a character. you can easily tell what he's thinking and feeling #and it's not hard to extrapolate things about him from what you see. his pacifism. the fact that he's not human. his past trauma etc etc #you can get a good portion of that just by watching him throughout the show #but i think that only works BECAUSE he shows so much of himself. for a character like nick who is deliberately closed off #and NEVER shows his true self expecting the audience to be able to understand & empathize with him based solely on what he projects #just doesn't work. because it's made clear to the audience from the getgo that nick is not the person he claims he is #and that he takes steps to never show too much of himself. so when his backstory shows up randomly in one episode #and then he immediately dies. it leaves you kinda like. okay. what the hell was that. who was that guy anyway #you know??? #ok rant over fr

[gtraccoon]

hey i know you’re on a break so don’t answer this right away if you don’t feel like it but I have more characters!!

sorry it’s long again lmao

I debated for a really long time about whether to make Stan or Kyle tiny (cause imo they’re pretty similar), but i eventually decided Kyle. I love overly aggressive and angry tinies and also super tiny Ike was a really cute idea to me.

The bottom of Kyle’s pants is from an old Tegridy shirt that Stan repaired it with when it ripped. In return Kyle and Ike made Stan a necklace and a bracelet respectively. Stan’s style is also a bit different than in the show cause a lot of his main friends are borrowers. So at school he hangs out with some different people, most notably he hangs out with the goth kids more (i love them), and that jacket in the picture specifically is a hand me down from Michael who got tired of seeing him in his old worn down stained brown coat everyday. (i might change it later so he has poorly bleached hair, but i can’t decide rn)

Kyle and Stan have been friends since the Brofloski’s moved to his house, but then Ike met Stan. All was well and good cause Kyle and Stan constantly made sure Ike wouldn’t spill their secret…until enough time had gone past that they kind of slacked off on making sure Ike didn’t slip up. So of course one day he does, and Kyle’s mom figures out that Stan and Kyle not only know each other, but are “super best friends.”

Shelia goes to Gerald and plot twist: Gerald and Randy have been hanging out too. Also Shelly knows Kyle and Ike. And so does the poor kid in the parka that comes over sometimes. Sheila goes to Sharon cause she just at that point assumes that the human mom knows her family but nope: Sharon had no idea there were tiny people in her walls. Both families were just hiding each other from the respective moms. Sheila and Sharon eventually become friends cause they bond over both dealing with an absurd amount of dumbassery, but not until after they give their families a stern talking to.

Anyway, both families live in harmony pretty much. The Brofloski’s don’t like to be fully dependent on the humans, but they all go out from the walls whenever they want to and socialize with each other. Sharon even helped set up Kyle to go to Stan’s school virtually! The whole family basically made up this sob story about how Kyle has like glass skin and paper bones (i don’t have an actual bs story rn) and he can’t come to school in person so the school just set up a computer monitor at an empty desk and Kyle joins school from a zoom call everyday.

This is how he meets Cartman. The two argue just as much this way as they do in the show, and they hate each other. Kyle, however, is actually genuinely terrified of Cartman. Since they hate each other, he’s afraid that if Cartman every learned how small he was, he’d murder him. Sheila doesn’t know about Kyle’s horrific fear of his “friend,” cause Kyle’s afraid that if he told her, she’s want him out of school. Kyle only confines in Stan and Kenny (usually Stan more cause he takes Kyle’s fear more seriously and will just listen to his issues while Kenny’s main defense system is to laugh and distract him, which is nice but doesn’t always work). It doesn’t help that Cartman hangs out at the Marsh house a lot, too.

DUDE I LOVE THIS?

THIS IS SO CREATIVE! might not seem like it, but you’re giving me ideas, and who knows…. next part or maybe a new au soon! (prolly by next week, maybe, depends.) but i’ll totally write/draw more in the meantime, just, i don’t know if i’ll have motivation to write a finished story for it. this is literally so cool, i really like the idea of the parents being friends and i can like actually picture that, like kyle’s like “i’m gonna rock ur shit cartman” and cartman feels all threatened not knowing his enemy is like, 2 inches tall. it’s a really cool trope, and i’d read a fic/comic about that, definitely. thank you so much for putting in the time to send me asks, talented as always.

explination for a little break, news i guess?

i’m still gonna be on break for awhile. some drama stuff with school happened, and, yea, it’s so serious i’m pretty sure i can’t legally talk about it, but yea!!! i also recently got a skateboard, and have been spending a lot of my time on that. BUT, i still do love writing, so send asks if u want, and i will definitely write/draw about them when i’m out of this school drama shit.

honestly this has happened before and idk why it’s always with me, but it’s not like a school wide thing. it’s JUST me and 2 other ppl involved. sometimes i feel targeted. maybe ppl just don’t like me, idk!

tl;dr, drama

#g/t #giant/tiny #south park #south park g/t

[amethystjewel01]

And now to show off my new obsessions

My Ramshackle ocs! Or Ramtrio as I like to call them. I don't have any full sheets for them so the only references I have of them is me trying to see what they would look like in game

Anyway to start of with is my new twstsona!

I'll put info and the other two under the cut

Name- Yuuna (real name- AJ)

Pronouns- They/Them

So this sweet gal is just the typical yuusona, except for them already knowing about the events and characters. Honestly I don't have much to say about them besides they're just me but like actually perfect and pretty LOL.

I'll mostly use them for Ramtrio shenanigans or yumeing everyone because I'm that bitch that gets all the boys Dhwkehfkfh

Some fun facts.

Their eyebrow color is their natural hair color (the dark brown). They regularly have to retouch their hair to make sure it stays its pastel colors.

Sometimes they'll wear a binder depending on if they wanna look more androgynous or not. Or more masculine if they have to cross dress as a guy because they are that friend that will be the pretend boyfriend.

Next is a slight oldie but I never showed outside of friend discords (iirc)

Name: Yuuto (real name- Calix)

Pronouns- He/They

Now here's the slu- I mean, ho- I MEAN- nah actually he's just a straight up slut dhskdhdkf. They'll flirt with everyone basically, no fucks given. The only time he would stop is if someone was seriously uncomfortable, he's respectful enough to take a step back. Usually this nature of theirs causes squabbles with Yuuki, which then causes the two to bicker like children.

Now some fun facts.

He actually was gonna be sorted into Diasomnia, which surprised the other Yuu since they thought he was magicless as well, but he refused to be sorted and asked to be in Ramshackle because "It would be more interesting".

His hair is the only one that's natural, the other two give him weird looks over it but say nothing since he's the one that helps them keep their hair dyed and healthy.

He actually has heterochromia, but he prefers to keep the other color (a bright as fuck ruby red) hidden since it stands out too much.

And now the final

Name- Yuuki (real name-???)

Pronouns- She/They

Now here's the "real Yuu" in the trio, they legit have no idea what's going on nor is she prepared for it. What she does know is she's already done with everything, like legit she will throw a punch at someone annoying her (Ace and Yuuto being the main targets). They're like a spicy kitten, just don't annoy them and they'll soften up....eventually.

Fun facts!

They don't remember their real name, so the other two had to give them the name Yuuki. They didn't mind and just stuck with it.

She actually has albinism, she just hides it by dying her hair and wearing special contacts. She doesn't have a particular reason other then not wanting to stand out nor be seen as weak since if she's not wearing her contact her eyes are sensitive to light.

Something that they always have on hand is some sort of weapon. No joke even if you find one on them and take it away, they'll already have a spare out ready to fuck someone up if pissed off enough.

Now fun facts for all three as a trio!

Only in private do they call each other by their real names. There isn't a specific reason besides for wanting to be consistent.

All three spoil Grim in their own ways, Yuuna gives him lots of affection, Yuuto gives him lots of treats and food, while Yuuki....doesn't act superplex him every second.

And that's about all the info I've thought of/written. I plan to draw them or write their shenanigans more! Hopefully I won't lose motivation lmao

They usually have a day together of just spending time, whether that be shopping or just doing each other's nails (they always match in color).

#twst #twisted wonderland #twstoc #twst oc #twst yuu #yuusona #twst yuusona #ramtrio #thats right we making the tag

[scribz-ag24]

Stupid question but which one re-evolved first, Duskull/Dusknoir or Treecko/Grovyle?

First, don't say it's a stupid question, I would love to share ideas for the au and talk more about it, especially 'cause I personally am not very creative on my own, so interaction helps immensely.

Second, gonna be honest here, I actually have no idea. I haven't really put much thought into actual plot lmao. The AU doesn't even belong to me really, I just took jsab's one and came up with little interactions that I found funny and/or cute (in my defense, i was starving for actaeonshipping content xd). I didn't plan an actual timeline/story, and I feel that way anyone can come up with their own interpretation of it, which is fun. (and also less complicated cause the logistics of a swap au would be,,,,,,,,,,,,complicated i think).

However, since you asked, I am going to list some random ideas I had about how it could happen, which sort of mixes with possible story beats ig. Sorry beforehand for the length and change of subject lol.

tldr: imo it depends on what story you wanna come up with and whatever serves it better (i.e. you want it to happen post game, so you follow the game's plot; you want it to happen during the story, so sth weird happens, etc.)

So in PMD:EOS world, pokémon evolve through the Luminous Spring. The player can't evolve until the spring regains its light once the flow of time is fixed. So either we have Grovyle and Dusknoir re-evolving after Dialga is defeated, respecting canon, or we tweak it a bit to make it more interesting.

A way to alter the spring method would be by stealing a headcanon I saw someplace I can't remember (oops): that pokémon, while they usually rely on the Luminous Spring, on very rare occasions can evolve through high levels of stress to protect themselves. I personally like this theory because it explains why there are evolved pokémon in the future, like Grovyle and Dusknoir themselves. They were born in a paralysed world, with no magic skinnydipping, so what's up with that.

When I say this ties in with story beats is because I feel the choice here can make two different versions of the swap, 1. treecko and duskull literally take the hero and partner role to the very end (plus a face off against darkrai ig??), or 2. respect the game's kind-of-chosen one narrative by having partner keep their relic fragment, and making grovyle and dusknoir's main mission to help hero and partner work together again. The problem with this AU is that, if taken seriously, it would need a DEEP reconsideration of the game's events and characters. When does the swap occur? Why does it happen, is Darkrai involved again? If Hero and Partner are still there, does that mean the story of eos happened beforehand but had a bad ending? How do two characters whose actions are immensely influenced by their knowledge of the future act when stripped of their canon motivations? Do they keep behaviours and reflexes (perhaps theyre a bit more ambivalent with violence/more morally gray than hero and partner) or are they a blank slate? Do they feel compelled to evolve because they have a weird feeling that they're in a body strange to them? This is why I only draw the fun two panel interactions!

Leaving all that aside, here are some scenarios that could happen (...because we are just making shit up so anything can happen):

They evolve through struggle, like I presume they had to do in the future. Maybe Treecko evolves sooner, on account of being more reckless and referencing his status as a starter pokémon that evolves at level 16. Once Duskull evolves he prolly carries the team for a while, tho, since Dusclops was supposed to be a fully evolved pokémon in gen 3, and is iconically stronger than Dusknoir when it carries an eviolite. Then again, Grovyle and Dusknoir in game are way stronger than they would be in a mainline game, so perhaps they maintain some muscle memory that helps them in combat (funny how two amnesiac pokémons, who barely remember their own names, are somehow so accostumed to battle, huh, weird). I'd say the best place for an evolution would be the dark future, maybe they escape from prison without facing the sableye -cause a prison cell isnt that big of a deal for someone who knows dig and someone whose actual pokédex entry is "It can go through walls!"- and evolve in a fight against partner?

The evolution doesn't follow game rules at all, instead it's a physical manifestation of their old memories. Hero never remembers their past (sorry grovyle), but this is pure self indulgence so maybe the other two do, or at least are more encouraged to do so or get more information (celebi for grovyle, and dialga for dusknoir).

Following that last point, Celebi and Dialga, two time travelling pokémon, actively interfere to help them get their memories back/get them up to speed with the situation, each to their own interest. Perhaps this involve a separation arc between Treecko and Duskull, à la Gates to Infinity. This would serve to make them less dependent of each other, and mature on their own for a while, differenciating them from hero and partner.

They don't re-evolve, they save the world/help save the world like hero and partner would do.

My favourite option is Dialga helps them somehow with time magic after the battle is over and time is fixed. The sole point of it is getting Dusknoir and Grovyle -with their memories back- to awkardly leave together on a slow stoneship that shoots rainbow, for the sole reason that it would be hilarious.

#swap au #pmd au #grovyle #dusknoir #might add some to this if anyone is interested which i doubt lmao #not me having to actively avoid thinking in depth about the au bc otherwise it end with THIS #incoherent rants all around #ask #pmd2 #treecko #duskull #any serious consideration of this au is kinda difficult #cause the most interesting part of it is knowing dusknoir's and grovyle's characters beforehand #and wating to see the inevitable fallout of remembering their past #the most appealing aspect to me is the tragic humor found in these two mortal enemies becoming friends #completely oblivious to the fact that once they become active players in the main story #they WILL be enemies again #:( #this is a pretty bad explanation i wish i were better at writing #and literary analysis #but i think i get some of the point across???

[absynthe--minded]

Let me ask, why do you ship Russingon? I never got the appeal of the ship myself, so I am interested in why its so popular

so the thing is that for me, this is very much two questions rather than one. I'm not someone who ships things just because of vibes or because I think the characters are hot together. My interest in romantic subplots that aren't fundamentally integrated into character motivation and plot is basically Zero - I actually have to think that the canon narrative is enhanced by the story of these two people. Either their love explains or enriches their motivations, or the actual plot hinges upon their connection, or both. And this isn't just positive, either - I'm fascinated by gothic romances where the main pair are drawn together but shouldn't be (think Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, The Phantom of the Opera). Russingon isn't one of those romances for me? But the point is that if something is important to the plot I will become invested in it, assuming the plot is well-written.

this leaves us in a space where the two questions are "Why do you think this is canon or canonically compliant?" and "Why do you then actively engage with this plot element as a favorite part of the story?" and I'm really going to be able to only answer one effectively.

the first question, why I think it's canon (not canonically compliant, actually properly canon, with evidence) is an extremely long explanation that touches on narrative recurrence, Tolkien's preferred story beats and inspirations, the folkloric motif of the Homecoming Husband, midcentury British queer literature and how it differed from American queer literature, Tolkien's affiliation with people like Iris Murdoch, W. H. Auden, and Mary Renault, Aragorn's green stone, and a lot of in-depth analysis in the close reading fashion. my very best summation of why I think it's canon is that Tolkien does a lot with the same tropes over and over again, and Fingon's rescue of Maedhros is in tandem with Sam's rescue of Frodo and Lúthien's rescue of Beren as central points upon which the whole Legendarium turns, drawing on the myth of Orpheus alongside the Homecoming Husband. I will happily go into more detail in another post but that's really not the question you asked, so suffice it to say that at this point I think there's more evidence in favor of canon Russingon than in favor of the idea that it's simply fan-preferred.

the second question - why I engage with it - is a lot more straightforward. I like these people, and I like their struggles, I like following their stories. I like the way their lives make more sense when you examine their actions through a lens of love and long-term commitment, and I like the complications in their family that arise out of their bond. I like the way they complement each other (Maedhros's careful planning vs Fingon's ebullient reckless hope, Fingon's determination to succeed vs Maedhros's stoic pessimism) and I like the way they're invested in one another and they work together. Every part of their lives is more interesting and more enhanced by their contact and their interactions, and their stories take on this incredible tragic quality that fascinates me endlessly.

I am trying to keep this brief lmao but uh. the truth is I just really really like them? their story is amazing and I'm glad to spend time chronicling it and talking about it.

#replies #eamonorus-blog #tolkien #RUSSINGON #absynthe's meta #the homecoming husband conspiracy board is REAL

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Archon war anon- No worries about not having answers! I was just curious about that since you do really good worldbuilding! I'm writing this because I decided that Xiao's my blorbo and I'm going the route of him being actually pretty old and getting passed between many gods. With that as a motivating factor in addition to the sense of scale, I needed many gods for him to get passed between.

I ended up getting a map of Liyue and drawing boundary lines and going "Uh, there's another territory that a god holds at the start of the war". I named all of the territories, but honestly haven't gone and named most of the gods. And then I was like "The gods we know from canon are the ones who lasted the longest", so I'm having them acting as the main aggressors, and in my mind they're getting the biggest territories before they get pushed back.

I also decided that Sumeru did have more gods, but because Sumeru was entirely desert at that point they were all with wandering tribes and didn't leave any ruins behind.

I think that Cuijue slope supposedly had different architecture than the rest of Liyue? But honestly, there's so little on what's up with Cuijue slope. The Dunyu ruins supposedly had the fallen star fragment, but also they were apparently underwater until the end of the Archon War?

What you say about a China-split and reunite situation makes a ton of sense though!

One thing that I keep thinking about as I write is that even though Guizhong dies early, her presence is still pretty spread out? Like, she'd got that seat on Mt. Aocang, but she also died 1700 years before the war ended, which I feel like contributes to the split-reunite theory.

Also, yes, I have no idea what's up with Xiao's master in canon, there's just so little information. I don't remember anything about Chenyu's god being Xiao's master, but I might have just missed that?

In all honesty my thinking was that a lot of the ruins we see across Liyue are from Morax's people, but like, mostly after the war, and various things happened that made them leave the ruins? Like, Morax seems to have had control of Nantianmen when Azhdaha awoke there and did a little civilization ruining, and it was apparently Azhdaha's rampage that took out the people in Tianqiu Valley.

On a separate note, I also think that something happened recently that drastically affected the population of Liyue? Mybe the drought in Cloud Retainer's story, but there just seems to be a disproportionate amount of ruined wood houses in Liyue. And given that literally all of the mining sites seem to be closed, including the Chasm, I don't know where the miners are?

Sorry, got a bit off topic because I was having fun.

no worries! this is a wonderful ask

i'll answer under the cut bc the ask is already long by itself,,

xiao being passed around like a hot potato is so interesting actually, and it sounds like such a daunting task to write holy shit it would indeed make sense if the gods we know of lasted the longest, osial sounds like he was a pain in the ass till the very end lmao,,

dunyu ruins were indeed underwater at some point, but it's never explained why or when the water disappeared; idk about the star fragment, i probably just don't remember that tidbit. if it was in one of the books it might even be that we can't be sure if it was real to begin with sadly, though, cuijue slope does not have different architecture. i think the pillars might be what lead people to believe that? but even if you ignore the tomb's inside (which is guili architecture through and through) the little cobblestone ring around the stone slab directly in the center of the slope, outside the tomb, is also of guili design, so.

guizhong's seat in mt. aocang probably predates the war though. like i'm pretty sure there's a good chance a good chunk of the adepti who fought in the war with rex lapis n co all predate the war. either that, or they joined rex lapis halfway through, and the war never made it to mt aocang (even though i'm pretty sure it did make it to huagguang? i'd have to check). also what's funny is that i don't think we have confirmation that guizhong died 1700 yrs before the war ended. like i know we assign her death to that year bc that's the founding year of liyue harbor, but i think the jury's still out for if liyue harbor was founded immediately after she died. i'm pretty sure we have sources in-game that imply it was founded right after she passed, but there's others that imply rex lapis had to like- gather his people? from where they had scattered? after her death?? that could just be that the flood/battle/whatever it was that killed her and likely also ended the assembly (idek if we have confirmation that it was the same event LMAO) made everyone flee for their lives, and so like- rex lapis spent like a couple of weeks or months tracking everyone down to move south. but it also kinda sounds like they had scattered and had started lives already in other places? which would imply they didn't immediately move down to the harbor, and it might've even been generations between the fall of the assembly and the founding of the harbor???????? i don't know, it's all so confusing. what i was trying to get at is that guizhong could've died even earlier than 1700 yrs before the war ended, which is just fucking great. we don't know a damn thing about liyue's history, do we.

on chenyu vale's god being xiao's master- i can't say i remember very well which one is the mission where the dialogue made me think that? it was probably the main world quest with fujin and co, but it could've also been one of the branching sidequests that spawn from that. it was probably the main one though, bc i think it was fujin herself the one with the dialogue that made me go ?????? i remember it being something like- a mention of how chenyu vale's god used nightmares to attack his opponents? maybe? and that fujin and co disapproved and that's why they betrayed him?? i think??? it was something to do with dreams i'm pretty sure, and the only other god we know of that had something to do with dreams was xiao's master, so it just stood out to me as odd. it's also entirely possible that the mention of dream/nightmares wasn't even about chenyu vale's god, but of some other completely different god. idk. i can't remember rn. it could've been about guhua for all i know, wouldn't that be a shock. xiao would be xingqiu's older martial brother under that idea LMAO (p sure it wasn't about guhua tho)

the thing about tianqiu valley is that, to me, that has never looked like a settlement where people lived? like- it looks to me far more like a sort of... temple, or castle, or some big structure that's not necesarily meant for living. it's all on its own and it just doesn't look like houses of any kind? unless you want to argue that ancient liyue had appartment complexes, which- sure. not like there's anything to disprove that LMAO but regardless of if there were people living there and for some reason the village that surrounded the towers was completely wiped from the hollow, we do at least sort of know that azhdaha caused property damage there while fighting zhongli. that he brought the supposed civilization to ruins in the first place, or that he further ruined an already abandoned place – i don't think we know for certain tbh like- the way the tablet says that now those lands will no longer go back to their times of glory or whatever (right?) sounds more to me that... like- they were already not in their times of glory by the time they were destroyed, so now there is no hope for them to go back.

i do think however that all ruins throughout liyue that aren't wood-made have to be from before/during the war. they all hve the guili architecture, and the assembly fell during the war. i don't think any of the stone ruins could possibly from after the war. the way rex lapis moved everyone to the harbor makes it sound like the assembly was the last of the places to come to ruins, when it came to places inhabited by morax and guizhong's people.

you are so right and your brain is so wrinkly for that last part. the amount of mondern ruins/abandoned structures in liyue is honestly a bit shocking – all the houses to the west of mt. tianheng, mingyun village, the village in wuwang hill, the houses along the northern coast jueyun karst, some houses within jueyun karst itself, along the coasts of qiongji bay; they're fucking everywhere. that's not even mentioning the chasm, which we do have some sort of explanation as for its abandonment. i think an incident like if not the drought itself in cloud retainer's story would absolutely be a good explanation as to why liyue seems to have undergone a humanitary crisis fairly recently. wood doesn't take that long to rot and decay – those houses aren't older than a couple of centuries, not in the state most of them are and considering the wildlife of liyue. especially given a good chunk of them have thatched roofs. that shit disappears in no time!!! those are fucking recent!!

#this is such a wonderful ask i had so much fun answering as well #thank you <3 <3 #ily <3 <3 <3

[watanabes-cum-dump]

Tower Of Fantasy: Genshin Killer/Copy?

Tower of Fantasy will get it’s official global release on August 10, and everyone’s pretty exited to see how it will hold up against Genshin Impact. It’s the main thing it’s been compared to and hopes to embody. It is definitely it’s own thing, but just like how Genshin pulled from Breath of the Wild, Tower of Fantasy draws a LOT from Genshin and BOTW. 

I beta tested this game during it’s first global beta, and not everything I say will hold up in the official game. 

So first, yes, Tower of Fantasy is an MMO. Guilds and all. There is pvp, there are rankings. I’m personally not a big fan of MMOs (my first exposure to them was Dragon Raja which was kind of bad so go figure) but since I really love open worlds and I beta tested for this, I may as well see what it’s all about officially.

Which, by the way, is about the same as Genshin. The pity is 80 instead of 90, but it’s still pretty brutal. You won’t accumulate premium currency very fast, and you can’t select which SSR to target. PVP isn’t a very relevant aspect of ToF, it seems like it’s more just for fun and rankings so the whole SSR thing isn’t that bad. But if you do plan to take PVP very seriously SSRs and Echo who is literally the only good SR is your best bet. 

The weapons themselves come with characters. You can swap in between weapons, but not in between characters. The character will be a sort of skin. It’s a cool concept really, if only the characters were actually interesting as character lmao but we’ll get to that later. 

Oh but I should mention that there is a system that allows you to get free SSR weapons via grinding. It wasn’t in the first beta but it’s in the CN official release and the second beta but I don’t know a lot about it. 

As for how the characters are, they’re really fun. The movement and combat is pretty good, you can string in mid air combos and plunges and depending on your movement you moves will be varied. Yes, you get double jumps and it is the best thing ever. You can infinitely climb with it so it’s a nice benefit. The characters themselves don’t exactly have the same depth as Genshin’s. But combat wise they’re all very diverse and offer different experiences. 

I think the one thing that will be a deal breaker for all the Genshin Players who want to play Tower of Fantasy is that the story isn’t exactly the best. It’s quite convoluted and there’s so real focus or development on most of the playable characters, who, yes, some have their own side quests but most of them aren’t relevant to the main story at all. Barring Zeke and Shirley whom you meet in the beginning, there are no reoccurring characters. There aren’t really events where the characters can shine either, since looking at the update the CN version had a while back, Shirley is the only one who follows MC to the new area where the next part of the story takes place. 

It is an MMO so the story is more from your perspective, but even that isn’t exactly done very well. MC is very dry and sort of becomes everyone’s handy man, they don’t really have a motivation aside from “stop the bad guys.” But the story tends to stray from MC a lot, the entire first section of the game surrounds Zeke and Shirley, leaving MC as a mere catalyst for their story. Zeke and Shirely themselves are... eh. The game wants you to care about them but you don’t spend a whole lot of time with them. Probably the only thing driving their story forward is their bond as siblings. 

Which speaking of I think MC has a sibling? Like they were with someone in the opening cutscene before everything went to shit but it’s never really brought up. So uh, Genshin’s story is better, it’s not a masterpiece and it isn’t perfect, but at least they establish their character so uh, yeah. 

The story is okay, it’s nothing special (as of now) and it doesn’t give you that sweet sweet character stuff that will incentivize you to pull for the characters. Like at most the incentive is “they’re hot/cute and meta plz pull for them” Seriously no one gets any characterization (in the current story idk abt the update CN got) which is a problem for a gacha game. It’s not abysmal like say Dragon Raja, it’s at least coherent and establishes the world quite well, but it does suffer from it’s lack of interesting characters which is sort of the biggest factor of a story, so....

The world is very interesting, it’s a sort of sci fi post apocalyptic meets Breath of the Wild with a very small population. The sort of power/magic system is a bit vague but hey, at least you get some kind of exposition. The lore has a lot of potential especially given the many different factions and it translates pretty well into gameplay. A lot of the game’s systems can be explained by the lore and there’s a little bit of shady cult like organization stuff going on with the enemies in the form of the Heirs of Aida. I think the story has gotten better with the new update but only when it comes to global can we truly tell. 

The progression is a little rough, I don’t know what the level cap is and it’s just your standard grinding. You can do some dungeons for extra EXP but it’s super repetitive and boring. 

I’m assuming this is like an MMO thing, but there are quite a few systems you need to manage. Off the top of my head you have your suppressor, leveling your weapons, equipment (like the convoluted substats equipment), your “artifacts” I forgot what they’re called but they’re only obtainable through gacha and are character/weapon specific. On the bright side you can buy them and there’s no RNG involved in the stats. but it’s just something to look out for. 

Cosmetics are by far this game’s biggest strength. The outfits are all really nice, character customization is top fuckin notch, and the obtainable characters are all very pretty and you can unlock alternate skins of them if you get enough dupes. (only for SSRs tho) 

Oh and quickly, there are mounts. I don’t think the speed is that different in between them, but you get a motorcycle at base and you can unlock some others including a really cool robot unicorn. As far as customization of these vehicles go, I think it’s just colors. 

The open world is much like Genshin’s, so there are puzzles and collectibles everywhere and you can obtain premium currency and some skins among other rewards via exploration. For the most part it’s seamless from place to place, but there is one Area, Hykros, that you have to teleport to. I don’t know about the new area in the CN update, I believe it’s an extension of the overworld save for the main city. 

It’s all very well designed, there are interesting land marks and you options of traversal are quite varied. You can climb, glide, I believe you can get grappling hooks later on, and you can cruise around on your mount. You can even surf and the double jump comes in clutch for exploration because as previously stated, it can be abused to infinitely climb. One of the most fun things to do is surf off massive waterfalls and cliffs into water, you can jump on the surfboard which is the coloest thing and it’s your alternative to swimming since you will need to navigate large bodies of water. 

Overall, it’s definitely something to check out especially if you like a good MMO. For people who want to check it out because of Genshin, it’s quite similar but Genshin pulls ahead when looking at ToF’s current content. I can’t speak for the endgame, but it’s definitely fun. It’s not an award winning masterpiece, but it’s good enough.   

#genshin impact #tower of fantasy #genshin

[sally-mun]

sorry i keep putting stuff in here but I thought of an interesting question this morning about the guardians. (and I don't mind if this takes you ages to do it's really fine lmao)

Where would you place your Guardians (to make it easier you can do the more 'younger' half of the family) in a ranking of... morally questionable or worse to actually morally good.

My money is on Locke or Sojo being at the bottom maybe unless we're counting Rex aka Tobor

YOU'RE RIGHT THIS DID TAKE ME "AGES" TO REPLY TO I'M SO SORRY.

Honestly tho this is a very interesting question, which is why I didn't want to answer it too quickly. The thing about the Guardians that's easy to lose sight of (as a whole, including those in BH:O we haven't gotten to address yet) is that, for the most part, most of them aren't exactly bad people, they just tend to have really shitty personalities -- or at a MINIMUM, some shitty character traits. On some level I guess I get it because it's a very isolated group that gets more and more repressed and toxic the longer it goes on, but that said I can appreciate the work someone does without wanting to grab a coffee with them.

Anyway, let me see what I can come up with here. I'll do my best.

MOST VIRTUOUS - LEAST VIRTUOUS

Athair: I think it's kind of funny that I'm putting Athair at the topic when he's largely considered a disgrace among the BH itself. But honestly, I think a lot of them know deep down inside that what Athair didn't isn't actually bad, it's just not something that directly benefited them. This is a guy that gave up EVERYTHING in his life, from a pretty young age even, to help others that were desperately in need. Athair did way more than just give up his duties as a Guardian; he gave up his relationships, his home, his reputation (especially for breaking Nemo out of prison) and even just basic comfort. The life he leads with the Lost Tribe is orders of magnitude harder than the life he has on Angel Island, but he willingly chose it because it was the right thing to do.

Sabre: Okay, I think we can all agree that Sabre can be a real tool, but the main reason he was so obnoxious was because he was so frustrated by the sheer volumes of injustice that he couldn't do anything about. He's the sort of person that doesn't let the little things go because he kind of doesn't see anything as a little thing. His sense of justice is one of his main motivations in life. The main reason why I'm ranking him behind Athair is because, while he does do a lot to enact change and also has to risk/give up things that are important to him for his morals, there's not much he can do that could ever really top the incredible sacrifices that Athair had to make for his cause.

Janelle-Li: I would say that she also has a very strong sense of justice, but that's also kind of a natural side effect when you're directly facing discrimination for most of your life. A lot of people, way more than just the Brotherhood, treated her differently simply because she was a woman, so she had plenty of drive to promote change in her world. Janelle did a ton of good for Echidnaopolis and the Brotherhood, but she took a more subtle approach to do so, mostly in the form of leading by example. There's nothing wrong with that, to be sure, but it also results in changes coming at a much slower pace overall, and sometimes it doesn't always drive home why bad behaviors are bad, so there are going to be people that never learn the lesson. I'd like to think that, had she lived longer, maybe she also would've made some bigger, bolder moves as well.

Thunderhawk: There's probably not much I can say here about Thundy that y'all don't already know, because I'm pretty sure he's almost universally everyone's favorite (living) BH member. He has pretty much the same morals as Janelle, and also shares insights into what discrimination and abuse can look like. The main reason he's ranking below her instead of equal with her is that he DOES have a bad habit of drawing lines in the sand once he's come to the conclusion that someone is bad; we saw this both in how he treated Nemo and how he reacted to Locke's treatment of Elias. All of his kind words and empathy go out the window at that point, and it can take quite a lot for him to change his mind again.

Spectre: In an interesting way, I see Spectre in much the same way I see Janelle, but the key difference between them is that he doesn't have nearly as much courage. Janelle was very vocal about her thoughts and feelings and used that as a persuasive tool when fighting adversity, whereas Spectre learned very early on that it was not safe to speak his mind. As a result, he has a strong sense of morality and why things are right or wrong, but he does very little about it. If it's something he can solve with an action, he will absolutely do so, but if it requires a discussion? Spectre is borderline useless in that situation. Unfortunately, strong morals are almost meaningless if you're unable to put them into action.

Sojourner: We all know Sojo's not a pleasant person to be around, and that he can verge into abusive territories when uninterested in holding back. He IS aware that he shouldn't do things like that, but there are two problems there: 1) He may or may not actually feel bad afterwards, depending on how justified he feels to act out, and 2) even when he doesn't feel justified, he still comes up with excuses for why things are fine and he doesn't need to change. It wasn't that bad, they'll be over it soon, it's just the way I am, life isn't fair... etc etc etc, I'm sure we've all heard these excuses before. I mean yeah, it is good that he DOES occasionally call himself out for being shitty, but if he doesn't then adjust his behavior or outlook to reduce and eliminate that quality, then it's functionally the same as not calling himself out at all.

Locke: Pretty sure you guys don't need me to go into detail here, because we all know all too well how many times Locke has crossed the line without looking back. He unfortunately has the perfect mental recipe of 1) recognizing that the things he does hurts others, but 2) convincing himself that doing so is necessary. I won't even tangle this up with the fact that he feels like his actions will be a net positive in the end, because he is DIRECTLY presented with evidence, OVER AND OVER, from lots of different people, that his information is inaccurate, that there exist far less harmful ways to achieve his goals, and that he lacks the consent of those he's affecting. Even with his belief that he's had a vision, even with the fact that he undoubtedly has mental illnesses affecting how he thinks and behaves, he actively chooses the methods that necessarily and irreparably cause others harm, purely to satisfy himself and his needs. I can't even cut him a break from the fact that his illnesses are tainting how he perceives and processes information, because he DID have that period where he was in the hospital and received some of the help he desperately needed and showed a marked improvement even in that short time -- and then chose to return to methods he knew were harmful purely for his own benefit. And unfortunately, there was no more reaching him after that.

MORITORI: MORAL OR...?

I kinda wanted to address Moritori separately from everyone else, and not necessarily because he's not "really" part of the Brotherhood. An argument could be made that he -functionally- is a part of them and therefore counts, but to me that issue is kind of a red herring. The thing to remember about Moritori is that he's playing a very different game, and on a VERY different scale. He doesn't do the horrible things he does simply for shits and giggles, he does them because he's DEEP under cover in enemy territory and trying to systematically weaken his enemies enough so that his side can be victorious. That's not really uncommon or unexpected for someone in his position; he's basically the equivalent of a CIA operative. If he intends to gain any ground for HIS side of the war between the Brotherhood and the Legion, then yeah, he's going to have to get his hands dirty.

So as far as his morality is concerned, I feel like it's kind of not fair to judge him because we're necessarily looking at him as the bad guy, because our POV is implicitly aligned with the Brotherhood's. From a BH perspective, yeah, it's very easy to say that Moritori is a despicable person that does unconscionable things -- but from the Legion's perspective, this guy has made OUTRAGEOUS sacrifices purely for their benefit. He, like Athair, literally had to give up everything in his life in the hopes of helping a people desperately in need -- and he doesn't even get the benefit of BEING with those people like Athair does. Everything he does is motivated by the idea that the Brotherhood needs to be stopped, that the Legion is relying on him, that his family needs him to do these things. If it was someone on our side doing these same things in a Nazi regime during WWII, would we judge our spy for the individual things they had to do, or would we hail them as a war hero for taking down the enemy and saving our people? And if we were to do that, does that mean that the individual acts they had to commit against the other side are now fine? They're still horrible things, but we forgive them for those things in that context. But they still did them, and people suffered for it -- just not our people, so we don't tend to extend that compassion.

Anyway, this is just a very long way to say that Moritori's morals are complicated. He does a LOT of horrible things that hurt a ton of people, but I also think that context is key, and the fact that he's under cover in the middle of a war adds at least some mud to the water. The Brotherhood would consider him less than scum, but the Legion would hail him as one of the greatest heroes of all time for single-handedly taking on the entire Brotherhood to save them. Who's right and who's wrong depends deeply on your point of view.

#The Brotherhood #charleecat-bat #this was an interesting mental exercise to finally go through #SORRY AGAIN IT TAKES ME SO LONG

[the-bugsnax-journalists]

Alright, little sneak peak!

Although I wanted to finish the piece today, a few things happened that got in the way (hence why I'm posting this, well, this late) That being said though, I have finished the line art of the Journalists as I had promised, and since I wanted to at least post something, I'll post this! Some silhouettes of the characters in question!

Although the first is, well, pretty obvious who it is, I still wanted to make more than just one, and I thought to base them off the colors you can choose yourself while in-game! (Which is why I'm sticking for a reasoning of why the blue is blue and pink lol)

That being said though, under the cut I will write a few things for each of them ahead of time! Thought to make it a week thing where each day I expand a little more on them but that's too long lol, so instead I decided to write little summaries for each of them! Relationships and such will play into them at a later time when I post each one by one with more expanded upon details!

"Buddy" ~~~~ The Main Journalist (They/Them)

The first oc I made for the game, who I've decided to keep nameless since I can't quite stick to one single name lol. That being said, there is so much I haven't been able to really say about them, despite my brain thinking up SO many ways to tell them to you all! Sadly though, life got in the way so I guess we're sticking with text instead!

First and foremost, Buddy is mute. The reason for this is because they speak through signs and recorders. (Think of it like cartoons, were silent characters speak through signs and what have you.) The reason for this is actually because of a movie I saw in my childhood. Idk if any of y'all know about "Tadeo Jones", but one of their movies was the one I had watched through and the bird in it spoke through signs soooo yeah!

Of course, I made it so they naturally defy the laws of gravity as much as they can, to the dismay of the others- but there's more to it and such, I will post the relationship charts and such when the full pictures get released! For details regarding their backstory, I'll focus on those when we get there, but I will say this: Their family is aware of the Triplicate.

"Cleomie Worncloth" ~~~~ The Barista with a part time job (He/Him)

The second OC is part of a duo (the second half being the 4th Journalist) that I made after I had been here for quite a few. Most of you folks may or may not actually have seen their old designs! But I decided to revamp them a little bit, for the sake of my eyes and my MUCH NEEDED redesign era lmao. That being said though, I guess I should go about their usual thing.

Originally they weren't a Journalist OC, but I decided to go ahead and slap them here since in the end they would have ended up in this predicament. But basically, his schtick is rather simple. He likes to blend Bugsnax and turn them into Syrups and use them to make new drinks. Mostly as an experiment effort, of course. They want to expand their horizons of cuisine for the family cafe owned by their folks, and to get a quicker method of going around the world, he took up Journalism! That being said though, he isn't exactly the most social outside of their work, so when they aren't taking interviews and such, they usually spend time in their little corner, awaiting Bugsnax to be sent to them by their friend."

"Cottontail Tinkerlot" ~~~~ The Engineer with a dream (She/Her)

Now this one, THIS one I never really got to draw proper myself. Mostly duo to lack of motivation and such. BUT now that I finally have the time to do so, I get to properly give her a design! Mostly made for a roleplay between friends, she finally comes out of the shadows and into her own spotlight!

Cottontail as an engineer wants to create robots that can assist and support people across the globe with her energetic attitude and outgoing vigor, enough to either revitalize those that see her, or get a migraine. That being said though, why WOULD she be a journalist? Why, to document the discoveries of the scientific world of course! With her reports being mostly on the fields of robotics and such, Cottontail got inspired to take up the wrench herself, and is now on the island to see if any material can be used to create her dreams into reality!

"Ridamin Northshiver" ~~~~ The Geologist who probably broke something again- (Trans FtM - They/Them)

Alright, THIS one was the second duo to the 2nd Journalist. The reason for their design was rather simple actually. Much like how Floofty is missing a leg, I thought it interesting to go about designing a character with a prosthetic leg. (Hence the difference on the leg on the silhouette). Of course, I wanted him to be unique from Floofty, so I decided to go with a unique route with him:

Much like Cleomie, they weren't originally going to be a Journalist, but my mind decided to say "Screw it!" and go with it anyway! That being said though, Ridamin was going to originally be a Geologist. And while Cleomie still kept their previous title technically, with Ridamin it's a bit difficult to mix them together, right? WRONG! ..Probably-

The way I'm going to go about it is rather simple, Ridamin's family (much like Triffany) was full with people who worked in the historic field, but rather than being an Archeologist, they were Geologists! (I know, REAL smart way to differentiate them) That being said though, given a certain incident that caused them to lose their leg, Ridamin was told to not force themselves given their injury, but that only felt like they were being underestimated by their peers because of a single disability. Ridamin wanted to prove them wrong of course, despite their disability they can still shine much like anyone else! And if nobody is shining the light on them, then they'll get their own light another way. So that's why they took Journalism! Sure it isn't the same job, but in a way it kinda fits either way! To get interviews on how places were born, created, along with the rich history to back it up! It may not be picking dirt and... I don't know, eating it with a spoon to tell how old it is via the crunch or whatever their family does. But soon enough they'll transition to Geology, they just have to plant the base to jump high up to their goal!

#bugsnax #bugsnax art #bugsnax journalist #oc art #digital art #I just gotta color them in and they are done for good! After that though #mmmmmmmaybe fanart stuff or expanding upon them further #but for now I did enough! It's already late though so tomorrow I'll continue this

[chellyfishing]

happy september in a few minutes after a long dry spell i read four books in three days so i’m gonna talk about them

the first one was i’m glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy, which i’ve been on the waitlist for for literal months. out of the people who intend to read this book i am probably the last to do it so you’ve heard it all before. it is in fact an amazing and important work. it is compulsively readable but, paradoxically, a difficult read. trigger warnings for basically everything, especially disordered eating because she goes into a lot of detail about that, but if you can handle it you should read it. i hope that this will reshape how we look at child stars, ideally with more protections in place for them. i know they have mandated school time but why not like mandated therapy time?? wild to me honestly.

i picked up a door in the dark by scott reintgen on a whim and despite having arguably the highest body count i think it might have been the lightest read lmao. it’s about a young woman from a working class family who attends a very prestigious magic school as sort of a scholarship student. the society is very stratified by class, with the wealthy wielding immense power and privilege while indulging in ridiculous excess at the expense of the lower classes. (hard to picture, i know, but it is fantasy.) the review i read that made me decide it was worth picking up was a three star whose only complaint aside from a slow beginning was that the main character was unlikable, and i thought, ah well i’ve dealt with most of my internalized misogyny so i should be good. and the story, as it turns out, deals heavily with themes of the destructive nature of vengeance, so it makes sense that she’s not “likable,” because we’re not supposed to think she’s making good life choices. she fucks up pretty badly in fact, and it’s clear from her narration that she’s driven by her own ambitions and agenda above all. i don’t know if i would use the word “likable” for her, no, but she is a character with believable motivations who behaves in ways that are consistent with them. anyway it was a good read, especially for it just being one i saw and went “sure, why not.”

today i was very very tired and didn’t have a chance to try to get stuck into anything till much later than normal so i thought i’d make a reasonable target of something short and read they were here before us by eric larocca. you’ve lost a lot of blood was the last book i read last year and i really liked it so i’ve been looking forward to reading more of his stuff. this one is a novella “in pieces,” aka kind of more like a collection of thematically connected very short stories that you’re left to draw your own meaning and conclusions from. it’s at times rather violent with some disturbing imagery (including some that involves various animals and in one case a small child). i kind of don’t know how else to explain this book without giving you a synopsis of each of its “pieces.” it’s very short so if you like larocca or are intrigued by anything about it you might as well read it. larocca is just a really good writer, like the actual craft itself is very solid. i’ve been trying to get in the habit of highlighting passages in books that hit or that i just like but i didn’t bother highlighting anything in this because i just wanted to highlight the whole thing.

anyway i ended up reading a second very short book later on so, so much for picking a short novella on purpose. after they came by tom kavanagh is a book about paranoid schizophrenia (which i believe the author also has). it doesn’t outright state that in the synopsis but you may gather that fact from it anyway, and if you don’t it’s stated pretty early on that our main character is dealing with this. she somewhat accidentally goes off her meds and as a result spirals pretty badly into some really terrifying places. umm this book was kind of hard to read in places, especially because there’s a bit that takes place in an inpatient facility. reading about a mental health relapse, even one related to an illness i don’t have, can be difficult in general, honestly. but, you can tell that this story meant a lot to the author and i really wanted to hear him tell it. plus there is a lovely sweet dog who never did anything wrong in her life. also, aside from the above, trigger warning for animal death (NOT the dog—i could have not clarified and left the implication hanging as a joke but i won’t do that to you).

all four of these were really good and if any of them sounds like you might enjoy i recommend it.

#deep thoughts #😴

[autistic-shaiapouf]

hello shaiapoufer… thank you for all the nice interactions… id love to be CAA buddies :] i’ve been a CAA fan for 4 years and i’m very passionate about hxh ost specifically the ost 3 album. do you have a favorite ost?

Hello hi hi!! I'm literally so pumped to have CAA mutuals now,, I've been waiting for this moment for at least 3 or so years at this point and I'm so glad me being completely insane for one specific bug guy is yielding real tangible results ✨️ PLEASE feel free to hit me up whenever, I love. ants

And to answer the OST question, I've been meaning to actually sit down and listen to the whole thing for a while now and I think this is the motivation for me kshdkd there's a handful of tracks I can pick out but it's bc they're the only ones I've listened to as standalones U_U New Mutation stands out to me especially bc the main melody is carried by a dulcimer, which imo is an instrument that's pretty rarely used!! The classical/orchestral nods a lot of the soundtrack uses also make me, a person with deep interests in composers and music, makes me go !!!! Using inspiration from holst's Jupiter Bringer of Jollity for the OST makes me INSANE, as does the one piece for the zoldycks that draws from prokofiev's Dance of the Knights; there is so much emotion in this style of music and so much of it goes unnoticed U_U what I will unfortunately mention is that a lot of the nods are more recent than my late classical/early romantic era scope (late 1700s to about the 1850s or so, for reference holst wrote his planets symphony in the 1900s lmao) so I tend to miss some of the ones that other people feel are more obvious (like. Prokofiev U_U). Special shoutout of course to both of Pouf's violin solos drawing from Vivaldi, the only baroque composer I really pay attention to bc the music is too formulaic for my liking :/

Actually thinking of pouf's violin music, I'm so so certain that those particular tracks are being played by an actual performer!! Idk how the ost was made but this stands out to me specifically bc you can hear small squeaks during shifting or string changing, which you'd only get with an actual performer, which, as someone who's played violin on and off for years, that's everything to me 👁👁 also,, those violin pieces are what made me realize I wanted to play music again h a h a I still don't really play often enough to build actual skill but it's still a hobby I enjoy a lot + it's the only reason I know how to actually draw and proportion violins properly lmao

This is a very long and nonspecific answer but I got excited to talk about music kshdkd but yeah!!! I've been meaning to sit down and listen to the entire soundtrack front to back and I'm certain the CAA soundtrack is gonna Do It To Me once I immediately recognize every single track when they're isolated ✨️

#shaiapoufer made me smile kshdkd thank you lmao; I'm so glad to be drawing in caa friends now ☺️💕 #i think it's so funny that yall seem to be meruem blogs as well; the more i see him the funnier he gets to me and also #the closer he gets to making me cry for real #pouf on the other hand has had me absolutely insane from day one and he continues to spiral me into lunacy with each passing day #i saw your tags on your art that was like. the ants activate your autism or smthn and SAMEEEE me being nd is how i got this far 😤 #it's why my art tag becomes nothing but ants after a certain period of time ksjdkf i love ants and that's the entire statement #you could even say. that that's all there is to it #anyways thank you for the ask!! happy to meet you 🙌💕 #asks

[acethedria]

SPOILERS

FOR

EPISODE

10

!!!!!

Okay so some general things to point out

The room

Clearly whoever owns this room is either Eugene or somebody connected to Eugene

The person in black is clearly Eugene, but the thing to analyze here is why there are two separate outfits. Is star outfit current Eugene and purple outfit past Eugene? Are they brothers?

Additionally ofc there’s the question of the cats.

Notice how the cats who are either in purple or are with the person in purple are all orange/yellow, meanwhile all of the motivational posters are red cats.

This implies that there are actually two separate cats. Ofc the question is, what happened to them? Where did they go? I think the fact that the red ones are all on the motivational posters, to me, implies the red one died.

Although interestingly, the fact that the orange cat also… is purple guy in some of the drawings imo also sort of makes it seem like the orange cat is purple guy’s fursona lmao. Idk

Honestly I think the weirdest bit is the drawings of the Drawtectives.

Like why is there a bunch of childlike drawings of the Drawtectives, specifically in their S2 designs (which means it’s a maximum of 2 months old) despite Eugene being much older than a tiny child. The main reason I don’t entirely go along with the idea of it being “Eugene is just bad at drawing” is that the person who drew all this put smiley faces on EVERYTHING. That screams “childlike” a lot more than “inexperienced artist”. Even Flash had more detailed eyes and a nose.

Although admittedly, Flash was coloured in pretty sloppily with markers it seems

So I’m not fully dismissing the idea.

Also ofc we have Train Rules and a drawing of the Harvey Hornswoggle Circus. Clearly I think this means whoever owns this room likely designed the circus or had ideas for it. Who do we know who had a big project underway? Eugene and Terry. Guess who also LOVES the circus: Eugene.

Also now we know there are in fact THREE ticket levels. First Class, Polaris, and 16 Psyche.

Also one last thing before we get into more speculative theorycrafting

The train log says “(Toby’s copy)”. Which… who the hell is Toby?

Theories!

Okay so, the Ticket Taker is definitely a very important player. Don’t forget, he was on the poster with Eugene that Julia posted the day of S2’s first episode.

And ofc a lot of people are speculating on who the hell The Ticket Taker even is.

So I submit three theories to you

The Ticket Taker is Eugene’s brother

Okay so, TTT and Eugene have similar designs in that they have long black cloaks with high collars on. My idea is that black outfit guy is Eugene and purple outfit guy is TTT. There isn’t really much evidence for this but it’s an idea I had.

The Ticket Taker is Eugene’s cat

This one is definitely more popular, and it was one of my first thoughts for some reason after analyzing the room a bit. I don’t really see any reason why other than that base visual connection in design and the fact that there’s cats all over the room, but still it’s a possibility.

The Ticket Taker is Eugene’s son

This one I think makes more sense but is somehow more farfetched than the other two lol. Once again, visually similar designs, but also it would fully explain the childlike drawings in the cabin. If this is TTT’s cabin, then it would make sense for him to draw his dad and his cat doing stuff. It would make sense for him to draw the people his dad was talking about (The Drawtectives). It would also make sense for him to have a set of rules to follow as he would still be a child, and also it would explain who Toby is. Additionally, I think it would make purple outfit be Toby meanwhile Eugene is still black outfit guy.

However it does make me want to know, if any of these are true… why are they a big ticket puncher man? Why can they punch holes in people?

Other theories

Now I have my personal crackpot theory:

The Ticket Taker is actually an ally

I’ve said before I think Harvey is the culprit behind it all and I stand by that.

However I also have the idea that, what if The Ticket Taker was secretly working against Harvey the whole time. What if TTT was the fall guy for if Eugene being the fall guy was found out? If he was the owner of the cabin, it would explain why there are two separate misspellings of Eugene Finch’s name. (Fuck I hit the Tumblr image limit) “Eugine” with the business card (we still don’t even know if Tallon Tscoutt is a real person), and “Fincg” with the contract.

Additionally, all of those pieces of paper with the Draco constellation did lead them to the room where TTT immediately ambushed them. I think the entire time he might have been leading them there so he could talk with them, or at least attempt to communicate.

What if TTT putting people “in holding” is actually him taking them off the train. We haven’t seen a single person who’s felt like they could leave any time they wanted, so it’s kind of clear they’re all trapped. And it is kinda suspicious that the only passenger we’ve met so far who isn’t the Drawtectives, is the person who got hole punched. Don’t know how to interpret that.

Additionally, what if he was carrying Conrad away because he actually just wanted to keep Conrad from making him seem scary.

Idk exactly how everything works out but I am fully convinced (granted I’ve convinced myself) that The Ticket Taker is an ally to the Drawtectives.

#drawtectives #drawtectives theory

[not-poignant]

how does it feel to be done with (the main) fae tales verse as far, as far as writing goes? is mallory and mount going forward or do you have other plans? :o

It still doesn't really feel real honestly! I don't think it will until like we all get to experience the end of the canon together? Right now I kind of feel like I'm in a holding pattern. :D

I felt sort of sad that it was ending a while back, probably a year ago. And then I felt kind of relieved too, because The Ice Plague has had...a lot of teething issues re: dropping popularity and just general engagement (it's still good! But it's just...it will never be like Game Theory or The Court of Five Thrones, and book 3 will never be like book 2 and that wasn't like book 1).

I've been doing Mallory & Mount worldbuilding but I actually haven't written anything yet and I don't think I will for another couple of months, which doesn't bode well for launching M&M straight after Fae Tales. Because I'll need a buffer of chapters for that story. Realistically speaking I'll probably have to maintain the Patreon with a Gary/Efnisien omegaverse AU, while I write buffer chapters.

Some of the lag is just that the worldbuilding is much more complicated (new days of the week, new names for months, new names for currency, new values of currency, inventing an entirely new language, drawing a world map, etc.), and some if it is that I just actually think I need a break from really intense, complicated writing.

Some of it is also just fear that it will do badly. Logistically in 2022 the Patreon does increasingly worse every single month, and it's been that way for 8 months. By the time Fae Tales is finished, I think I'll be looking at a year of downward trending (after 7 years of only upward trending). It's quite a blow, even though there are understandable economic reasons for it, and it has me questioning if this is even sustainable. It can be hard to...motivate yourself to write or commit yourself to a story that will take 4+ years to write properly, or months of really intensive worldbuilding, when it might be 4 years that are better spent elsewhere, y'know?

Like I think the story and characters are good, but are they good enough? I don't know. I won't know until I write it, and I am not motivated or inspired to write it right now. Though I will say certainly part of that is simply that I am still writing big wordcounts. I wrote 38k last month, most of it on FFS, and I've written 19k this month already, most of it on FFS and Smoke in Autumn. FFS is the most word hungry story I've ever written.

Tbh I had to also take a pretty big hiatus (like a year) between Court of Five Thrones and The Ice Plague, so I'm not entirely surprised this is happening. Some of this is certainly burn out, I may actually need a break from that level of writing (I can write 5 chapters of Falling Falling Stars in the time it takes me to write one chapter of The Ice Plague - and FFS is like...3 times as popular lmao). I really enjoy writing complex narratives, characters, and politics, and original worldbuilding, but it is more effort, and Fae Tales has been going for nearly a decade. Maybe I just need some breathing room before launching straight off with another half decade commitment!! aslkfjsdaka :D I'm sure that's a big part of it.

Incidentally my worldbuilding folder for Mallory & Mount currently looks like this:

As you can see, I have been working on it pretty recently! Though I've taken a little break this month. So even if I take a break from it, I'll probably still be thinking about it and working on it in the background. I am almost certainly going to do early release re: Mallory & Mount - i.e. it goes up first on Patreon, and then it goes up on AO3 2 weeks later.

Whatever the case though, I'll still be writing something! I actually wrote 500 words of the Efnisien/Gary fic last night after busting out 4,600 words on the next FFS chapter sdslkajfsa the writing always continues, even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing with it.

As for the end of the Fae Tales canon, I think early August will be...Feelstown lmao. It's so soon!

#asks and answers #fae tales verse #fae tales #the ice plague #game theory #the court of five thrones #mandm #mallory & mount #pia on writing #pia on patreon #i don't want to say income influences my decisions here but it absolutely does #mallory & mount is still appealing because it will be entirely original #which means i can also potentially put it on wattpad and royal road #which *allows* me to advertise my patreon there #it also means i may be able to properly publish / edit #which is such a trial for game theory #so mallory & mount could potentially solve some problems #it just has to be GOOD #and of course #i don't know if it will be #they can't all be winners asdflkafdslak

[lietpolski]

Alright! Asks always make me feel better!

What do you think is the main motivation that gets lithuania through the week?

Any ideas for Lithuania and Latvia just being brotherly

Thoughts on Estonia and Finland's friendship

Any ideas you want an excuse to share?

ty for all the questions!! <333

lithuania is a real serious professional guy!! and he cares about his country a lot, which sounds kinda dumb because obviously they all do!! but especially liet who has had to fight and is constantly fighting to protect his national identity, so i think the guy honestly gets through the week to get his job done lmao. which doesnt help all the stress </3 oh liet...

LITHUANIA AND LATVIA ARE SO CUTE IM VERY SOFT OVER THEM..... lovelovelove to think of them doing brotherly things!! i really like the strip where the 3 baltics are on call together reacting to russia's livestream, i like to think liet and latvia watch movies together on call when there's time, and it's also really easy for them to hop on a bus and get from riga to vilnius to hang out! they just get something to eat and walk around their old towns and it's a really nice way for them to unwind from all their stress :)

ESTONIA AND FINLAND.... ALSO SO IMPORTANT TO ME ACTUALLY FR!!! i don't know if this is a hot take but i also like them for a more brotherly/familial angle!! they've known each other since they were so young, and spent a lot of time together growing up, and we know in modern day estonia sleeps over at finland's sometimes!! so they're super super close and comfortable with each other and i'm rlly glad eduard has someone like that <3 (on the other hand i also like estfin and estsufin so. depends on the day HAH)

drawing a blank on ideas right now but i think i already rambled enough!! :,) tysm council :D

#maia talks #ask