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gsstories · 1 month

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First Kunoichi: Origins

Alright, it is 5 am where I am, I cannot sleep and seeing my moot @fernnshxj draw Joan so beautifully with their oc Miori gave me inspiration to tell Joan’s origins, let’s begin! (Btw, I took some liberties and added some stuff of another fandom cause it was pretty interesting-)

Okay, starting off, Joan is not originally from Japan. She is actually from Sweden!

As I stated before, she was the middle of three sisters and they all practiced witchcraft, which wasn’t uncommon in Sweden (and is still practiced nowadays, just not as much I think) All three specialized in in different magical aspects: the eldest, spirits and souls; the middle, magical artifacts and weapons; and the youngest, potions and spells. The eldest was the brains of the group, the leader, the one to come up with a plan against enemies, the mastermind basically. The youngest was the heart, the healer, the one who would help anyone out if they needed it, the sweetest of the three. And lastly Joan, the middle child, she was the body of the trio, the tank, the shield, the most physically strongest one compared to her sisters. They all really loved each other despite their differences in personalities.

They all created the Kunoichi mask and Codex so that each of them could use each other’s abilities without any hindrances and to document every creature they came across. Unfortunately, not soon after creating them, they had been ambushed by those who called themselves ‘The Bishops of the Apocalypse’. War, Pestilence, Famine, Chaos, Death, they all attacked the sisters, who had little to no weapons to defend themselves at the moment aside from the mask. The battle was brutal and long but the sisters won… well, Joan won. The youngest died at the hands of Chaos after taking out Pestilence and Famine, the scene making Joan cry out to her and attack Chaos, who was the one responsible in leaving that nasty scar on her face. After dealing with it, she saw her eldest sister fighting War and then… gods, she wishes she didn’t see. She saw how her sister summoned a weapon, a large sword that soon penetrated through her own heart and War’s, ichor and blood oozing from their wounds. Horrified, now it was Joan against Death, the most dangerous and sadistic of the Bishops. Joan knew she couldn’t win against them like that… so she put on the Kunoichi mask. Without holding back, she slashed, stabbed and ripped Death apart, tears of rage in her eyes after the demise of her sisters. Ichor stained her sharp heels once Death has fallen, a wide grin on their face before inevitably dying. Panting, Joan- First Kunoichi- fell to her knees and started crying, screaming her heart out. Days passed, and she made graves for her dearest sisters, grieving them for weeks, months even after taking sail across the land, scattering the Bishops’ crowns so they could never be found again.

From three to two then to one in less than a second. How awful is that, to lose the only family you have to the worst villains you have ever faced? Truly, this was the tragic beginning for the First Kunoichi.

Before meeting the Ninja, Funo (First Kunoichi) took it upon herself to become a traveling warrior, taking out any beast she came across that she deemed a threat. She never took off her mask, for it was the only thing that brought her comfort, the last thing made by her and her sisters. She was afraid to put her guard down so she became cold, snappy and paranoid at everything and everyone. Except the children. Never the children…

She often reminisced at the idea of a family. Her family. Her sisters had wanted to find love, to have children of their own, they spoke quite a bit about it. Joan thought, that was not the life for her. She never understood love or saw the greatness of having a child but still, she had supported her sisters til the very end. Now she does her best to not scare any of the children, for they remind her of the future her sisters had wanted but would never get.

Funo traveled far and wide, slaying beasts of old across the lands. She never gave much thought to it until she came across a beast… one who was just a child. She was conflicted, she had sworn to kill any beast she encountered but also promised to never harm a child. The child beast was already dying, she realized, and they asked one thing: to help her see the ‘shower of lights’. Funo was… confused but regardless helped the child. Getting to a cliff with a nice view in the middle of the night, she put the child beast there, who sat next to her as the show started. A meteor shower. The child was in total awe at the sight as Funo stared. This child was a beast and yet it was so innocent… Just how many did she slay that were truly innocent? Just how many did she brought to their demise when they only wanted to live a peaceful life?

Her train of thought was interrupted when the child hugged her, sobbing softly before saying:

“Thank you…”

The child passed away in her arms…

…

Since that day, Funo did more traveling than slaying. Meeting people from other cultures while fighting the occasional bandit and such. She learned a lot and so she wrote everything in the Codex, for some of that information came in handy at times. When traveling, she met the one who became her new nemesis: the Sorceress.

For a long time, these two were at each other’s throats, looking to tear each other apart until that one fateful day they met their respective soulmates. The Sorceress met the Sorcerer, who brought chaos and destruction as she did. Frankly, now more of a pain in the ass for Funo but she had to deal with them. That is when she met him. The First Ninja. A skilled, intelligent yet kind of stubborn man who banished the Sorceress to the Realm of Shadows. Their actual first meeting was her having a knife to his throat because he got a tad bit too close to her. Reflexes by now.

The two didn’t exactly like each other, at all! They argued, fought, and treated each other like a nuisance than an actual danger. It took a while but Finja saw her around and she was never, and I mean NEVER without her mask and so he asked about it once. Funo stated “The last time I let my guard down, those I love died and I couldn’t do anything. I’m not letting it happen again.” She was afraid that if anyone she got close to got hurt, she would have failed her mission. She didn’t want that, she wanted them safe. So far though, she never stayed long enough to make meaningful bonds with people so there was really no one close to protect. Aside from Finja but does he really count? (Yes girl)

It took quite a few months, but Finja was able to break the walls Funo had built over the years to protect herself. The first time she took off her mask, she felt very vulnerable and was always on edge, even around Finja- Or, well, Yoshi without the mask (Yes, we called him Yoshi lol-). She still had some trust issues, she slept with a knife. Over time though, she started trusting Yoshi, little by little, and eventually she started feeling SOMETHING towards him. She was confused when her heart started racing when she saw him or how her face turned red when she saw him train.

Like “Dammit heart, what is your deal?!” kind of thing.

Yoshi was experiencing a similar situation but he was probably dealing with it in a more calm fashion. The two sparred together often, either with weapons, using magic or hand to hand combat. In less battle centered settings, they were pretty calm towards each other now, friendly even.

You see what I am going for, they fell in love! It was Yoshi who confessed his love for Joan first and she, well, she blue screened at that before becoming a mess of stutters and trying to come up with words and when they didn’t come out, she punched a wall. Her hand had to be healed.

At the beginning of the relationship, it was pretty much the same as before the relationship. The two… did not know how a couple was supposed to act. PDA was not a big yes for them, they liked to keep that private, a bit of hand holding at times but other than that, nothing more. Yoshi ended up learning more from Joan once a bit of time passed. She told him about her origins, her sisters, their goal, the Bishops… everything. She broke down as she told Yoshi, who brought her into his arms and cried in his chest. This was the most vulnerable Joan has been in years. She cried so hard, she got a headache. Her started calling her ‘Moonflower’ when once stating she liked them and it just stuck.

After a near death experience with one of the Sorcerer’s monsters, Finja did the one thing Funo thought would never happen: he proposed to her. He said “If I am to leave this world soon, I wish it happens knowing I had someone worth it all in the end.” Funo was a blushing mess as she chuckled and said “You’re a fool…”. She accepted and so the term of endearment ‘my fool’ became a thing.

…

After the Sorcerer’s defeat, Joan started feeling ill. She couldn’t fight for as long as she used to, her head hurt, her body burned, just everything started going wrong. Yoshi wanted to do something to help her out but Joan didn’t want him to leave. Every day, she kept getting worse and worse and Yoshi feared for the worst. Joan had accepted it and only wished for Yoshi to hold her when she took her last breath. He did as she wished. He cried and cried as he felt her heart beat no more.

Her grave was made near their home once upon a time, Yoshi visiting it often even after learning The Ultimate Lesson. He doesn’t remember how he met this woman but he knew she meant a lot to him. His dear, his beloved, the ying to his yang…

And most importantly, his Moonflower…

#oc #au #randy cunningham 9th grade ninja #rc9gn first kuno #rc9gn finja #rc9gn first ninja #rc9gn au #my art

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bylertruther · 1 year

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not to say something super obvious like grass is green and water will get you wet, but ummmm . even outside of dnd, mike and will would 100% roleplay together. they're both creatives with similar tastes, so i can see them coming up with all of their different little worlds and original characters to fill them up. some of them are fantasy, others are more adventurous, and some of them are their own superhero universes similar to marvel n dc but better because it's theirs. will draws their ocs and pivotal scenes and mike tells him they'll totally make a movie together about this one day obviously.

will isn't as confident in his writing, but mike tells him to shut up because of course you're good!!! you're great even!!! and you can draw, too, like talk about being a double threat, will!!! i won't stand for this slander of my best friend! will of course Loves mike's writing and all of the ideas and plots he can come up with at the drop of a hat. he lets and encourages mike to infodump about his characters' backgrounds, the world building, and all of the interpersonal subplots he was thinking they could do, and when mike suddenly peters out bc he's been talking nonstop for a couple minutes straight, embarrassed bc Dear God I'm Talking Too Much And Being Annoying Aren't I, will jus tilts his head and goes "why did you stop? :(" which makes mike pause n bashfully do The Will Smile bc ofc will is listening ofc he actually wants to know and cares abt wht i'm saying of course he does!! (insert butterflies in his tummy here) and so he keeps on going and tells him all about everything he was thinking abt during their super boring history class.

will is a little nervous the first time he shares that one of his characters is gay actually and mike is a little shocked NOT bc of the gay thing but bc will says it so quietly n nervously tht mike is just like ?!?!?!? u thought this would be a problem?! u thought i'd have a problem with this?!?!??! what?! and then before u kno it so many of their characters are lgbt tht they're eventually like ok .... i hate to say it, but i think we need some straight characters too just for diversity points here, which becomes a little inside joke of theirs.

and if one of their favorite ships just so happens to be a knight and a mage that were childhood companions turned lovers then tbh thts Their business and clearly they both really like this ship bc who doesn't love the fantasy element okAY it doesn't Mean anything, lucas, plEAse stop looking at me like tht or i will never share anything with u ever again thank u!!!!!! (said while snatching away will's colored pencil drawing of them n putting it back in his binder [in a plastic sleeve n everything btw] with the reddest face anyone has ever seen in all of human history heheh)

#in my head this is modern au bc thats jus my favorite n easier on my heart but like . yes #byler hc #mine #had 2 get this out of my head before i forgot it ok goodbye assignmence time 🫡#i will Be Here later when my coffee has actually kicked in n my head doesnt feel like it's gonna explode <3 #will is the first to mention a gay character yes but after tht mike is like ohhhh ok cool (blasts all of his ocs with the lgbt laser beam)#OKAY NOW I GO FR BYE FRIENDS

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thundersongfury · 11 months

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Your blog is really cool🌸

Your art is amazing ✨✨

I am glad that you drawing pocs' content💔🤧

Also i dnk if it ok but i want to share a story about those films.

When i was a child i thought that Beckett and Norrington were the same person. But when i had watched the third movie i was really confused, because there were two Norrington (on my mind) and i was like wtf x)

After a while I stopped question things there and was like "ok, fine", because i remembered dead men, sea goddess etc. But i still thought, that Beckett is cooler version of Norrington :D (the reason was wig and death scene) (Norrington and cooler Norrington (who is Beckett) meme)

(on my mind they were alternative demention's versions or something like that, i don't remember this clearly)

(After rewatching films in adult age i think Beckett is my favourite character and i am really glad to see you drawing him💜🤧)

Sorry for rant

(THERES FANART BTW BUT PROBS CUT OFF)

tysm for the validation mate i really needed that after my wacky week and OMG LET ME TELL U A STORY

back in my days, i sucked at recognising faces (and still do, i have no idea why), so i tended to remember people by first their hair colour, then their clothes. Unfortunately: British Guys.

to tell this tale, i first have to reveal my favourite character from POTC. contrary to popular belief, it's Norrington, the guy i have like 3 drawings of, and not Beckett, who i have an entire sketchbook dedicated to, who i draw on foggy windows and have entire albums full of reference pics, the guy whose actor i stalked across movies (he's a close second favourite and i'm thinking of giving mate a promotion).

anyways, the first movie i was like, "that british seems pretty niceoMG HE HAS A BOW TIE. i'm following him throughout the movie now. he's the one w the white wig and blue coat, right?"

second movie rolls around and "oh look :DDD the Nice British is back! he looks smaller? and strangely happy?"

"the main gang got themselves a scruffy new pirate friend!

good for them and scruffy new pirate friend :)"

beckett changing outfits every scene didn't help.

when i learnt they were actually two separate britishes, i hated beckett because i kept confusing him with norrington (surprisingly left Groves and Gillette alone).

then my obsession with the movies grew and i began to notice the differences between them. my theory concerning my lack of art of norrington is probably bc i liked him too much and didn't want to mess him up, so i turned to a look-alike alternative, but then the ">:3" grew on me.

and there's my 6 page villain origin story. sorry to anyone who decided to actually read that. if u guys have any similar experiences, or just want to talk, feel free to share :)

#potc #potc fanart #andrew gillette #cutler beckett #james norrington #theodore groves #pirates of the caribbean

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fluffydancer618 · 1 year

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So yeah about that post, here it is

Close-ups and rumbles about the plot under cut

1 - So as I said in the other post this is based on No One Lives Forever by Oingo Boingo animatic I had in my head. And, according to plot of it, c!Fluffy having a stress dream due to selling their soul to c!Adam (by "dream version" of which the song is sang in that nightmare btw. Like a way of mocking Fluffy's mortality), facing all their fears related to that situation, with the main fear being the fear of death.

2 - Cause yes, despite being all "I don't care about death" and stuff, deep inside c!Fluffy: a) do realize they do not want to die in a young age and going to hell; and b) can't stop pondering Adam's line about the ones who sold their souls and how they don't tend to live for too long after that.

3 - One of the main things c!Fluffy hates the most - aka secretly scared of - is not being in control of something they believe should be fully controlled by them. And, by selling their soul, they pretty much give major control over their life - and, if you think about it, death - to c!Adam. Like, sure, the soul still in their body, but it's really easy to fix. Unnervingly easy to fix.

Also yeah, it's the pose similar to the one c!Fluffy did on their first appearance on the board post, aka "Everything is under my control" pose, because cinematic parallels my beloved

4 - Because the assignment was just to draw 9 frames, I had to choose what pictures in my head are more important and easy to draw cause friendly reminder I was speedrunning it at night so not all scenes made an appearance here, obviously. But for your information, after this moment with c!Fluffy's soul being captured by c!Adam, a few golden chains attempts to seize them, but Fluffy dodges them (barely) and runs away.

5 - As they run from Adam, dozens of knives flying towards them.

This one is here mostly because of the "Cuts cuts cuts but he can't get me" line and hehe throwing knives at the knife-thrower I am funny

6 - So, originally it should've been mirrors that popped from the ground and show different variations of c!Fluffy's possible deaths (choking, falling from a big height, cutting their own throat, etc etc) instead of their actual reflection, but 🙄for some reasons🙄 we're not allowed to depict brutal deaths in our college's works so here it's just regular mirrors (which.. would also work if not the context actually, cause c!Fluffy does afraid of their own self in some extent because of rᒷᔑsoリs). Just imagine something traumatizing on them.

Either way, Fluffy sees this all, starts backing up, stumble on the mirror behind them, slowly turns and sees themself as a demon (according to the plot it's still dream version of c!Adam messing with them, so Demon c!Fluffy is just Fluffy with Adam's eyes in official clothes). Because that's another their inner fear: What if, when they die and go to hell, Lucifer will in fact break them making join his army?

7 - On "No one lives forever!" line Demon c!Fluffy (aka c!Adam in disguise) breaks the mirror and pushes Fluffy making them fall. But instead of landing on the floor, they fly down to the dark void.

Fun fact: While eavesdropping on what the teachers say about my works, I definitely heard how one of them referred to this frame as "two eyes looking at the fly" which is hilarious but also pretty poetic and fitting cause like. the character who's often being compered to a spider is currently experiencing the role of the fly trapped in a web and- You get it

Suddenly, they start falling through a bunch of golden chains, entangling in them in the process until they hit the ground. They try to stand up, but they're exhausted and the golden chains are heavy. But then, they notice a person that stands in front of them. Not any person, their friend. Fluffy, covered and seizes in chains, look at them with the hope in their eyes, silently begging for help. Only to face their final inner fear...

8 - What if it wasn't even worth it? What if the person they lost their soul for, agreeing on an endless suffering, gonna leave them behind and doesn't actually care about them as much as Fluffy thought? Was it really a friendship or just an attempt to ruin them? Why do you trust them? Why did you make this decision? W̷̳̩͘ḩ̶̟̗̽̕͠a̸̻̟̖͆̅t̷̞̠̏ ̴̖̉̇̑͜t̸̼̟́ẖ̴̂é̷͇̂ ̵̰̈́͊f̵͎̣͕̍́͘u̷̝̯̓̓c̵̲̓͑̊k̷̺͙̩̑͆ ̷̙̩̪̋h̷̛̟̜̜̀̍a̴̖͓͂̃v̵͈̭͛̒ȩ̵̙̾̈́͝ͅ ̸̼̿ỳ̶̳̫̑o̴̲͛̌u̵̠͛̍̂ ̷̫̖̈̎d̸̪̊͜o̸̘͐ņ̵͍̫̏ě̴̼͝,̸̻͕̄ ̸̦̼̟̃̅͑F̸̹͎́̚͝ľ̴͉͆̍͜u̵̙͛f̸̡̌̀̊f̸̛̺̗͖̈́͝y̸̻͍͑̿̊͜?̴̧̅̔͘

9 - And then they wake up in a cold sweat at The Lair. The End <3

Canonically they don't have a bed - or any furniture in general - in there and obviously should wear the hat but it would be too much to explain + it was 5am I literally did not care that much at this point

So yup that's it, thank you for reading my insane rambles I appreciate that

#do i hate it? nah it's pretty nice for something I speedrunned at the very last moment. do i like it? uh. it's ok #rtumblr #my art #c!adam #c!copper

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fluffykitteninabox · 2 years

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The MHA anime is animated weirdly:

ok i just watched the new episode and i have come to a realisation

most of the "ugly" shots of characters are from the front, but the characters look perfectly fine from the side

no no don't leave, hear me out...

ugly

pretty

ugly

pretty

except these 2 shots that are the exact same angle so i don't know wtf happened here:

ugly

pretty

rambling under the cut

WARNING: SPOILERS, NITPICKING & EXCESSIVE USE OF ITALICS

Now this is very interesting to me because most artists (me included) struggle drawing characters from the side and find the front view easier.

And the specific angle that Tenko is shown from here is (for me at least) one of the hardest in general, because you have to show the way the body turns without making it look weird.

In the baby Tenko screenshot the way his shoulders are positioned and how his neck is turned is unclear and a bit confusing. Or at least I can't see it.

In the adult Tomura screenshot these parts are a lot clearer.

It's not just his face that looks weird, it's the entire thing. The face problem mostly has to do with the hair. They made it less... fluffy!

If you look at the original panel too his ear is supposed to be visible and his mouth is supposed to be bigger

but in the very next shot he looks amazing:

look at the details, you can even see how his little teeth are crooked!

Bones really half asses specific parts of episodes and puts extra effort in others..

and that's usually normal for an anime,

but there's no real logic to what scenes get the premium treatment and which don't.

Or, to be more accurate, which characters get the premium treatment and which ones don't.

Take for example this scene from the beginning of the episode:

So I'm ok with how they handled this scene for the most part. Zooming in on his lips with no sound.

cool cool cool..

You can literally read them btw, even though my gif is kind of bad. But it looks like he introduced himself using his first name first and then his last name. (waiting for someone good at analysing shit like this to find what the order is implying 👀)

Hawks' reaction was a bit disappointing however. I was expecting the eye widening to be more dramatic and..

you know... faster

Usually when you're shocked at something your eyes widen at a pace that's definitely faster than this.

I won't pretend I'm an animation expert but i think this has to do with the amount of frames they used.

I usually make gifs from screenshots instead of screen recording, because most screen recorders make my phone really slow. So I have to repeatedly start and pause the video to do that.

Obviously the amount of screenshots i manage to take depends on how fast my fingers are each time, so i might not get every single frame.

But even then the difference in number here seems odd

I managed to get 12 screenshots of Dabi moving his lips, and 17 of Hawks' reaction. And I also miss clicked once and lost about a second of Hawks so there would have been more.

The number might not sound like much, but it's weird when you look at it. Go look at the actual episode if you need to, it's more noticeable there.

Why do we need so many frames for Hawks to react to this??

This sounds like extreme nitpicking but I genuinely think it would have looked better with less frames. Yeah it's cool that it looks smooth but smooth is not always what you want.

He's shocked, this is supposed to look abrupt. It's especially odd when you look at how detailed his face is in that shot.

Why would they choose this part to get the smooth premium animation when that actively hindered the scene

and didn't choose something like... I don't know.. Dabi silently name dropping himself while we see an extreme close up of his lips???

YES I'M FUCKING BIASED BUT I AM OBJECTIVELY CORRECT IN THIS!!

Wouldn't it have been cooler if they had made him enunciate his name and we got to see that in hyper detail?

Because that's the actual important part of this scene. We should be focusing on Dabi, not Hawks' reaction to Dabi.

This is kind of similar to the issues in the Shirakumo reveal scene in season 5. We should have been focusing more on Shirakumo/Kurogiri but because Bones were cowards and didn't animate the Vigilantes flashback chapters, we had to focus on Aizawa instead because that's who the viewers were more emotionally attached to so we needed him as an audience stand in to tell us what we should feel!

I swear if they decide to focus on Endeavor's stupid as fuck reaction during Dabi's reveal instead of him I will lose my shit!!

Also I just realised why the close up shot of Dabi's mouth looks wrong. Scroll back up and look at the gif..

His teeth are too straight!

Apparently someone forgot that humans also have canines!! I mean sure, some people's are less prominent, but his teeth look like they've been drawn with a ruler!

Tumblr posting my drafts again so everything under this point is me editing the post really hastily:

not much else to say

just kind of a conclusion thing i guess

basically i think bones is focusing on the wrong parts of some scenes or focusing on the wrong scenes during an episode in general.

Like Dabi's anger at the beginning of the episode and the dream sequence in Tomura's mind should have been the focal points. That's where the premium animation treatment should have gone.

I appreciate the extra dramatic animation when Tomura wakes up, but that wasn't as important as the entirety of the dream.

Everything looked so static. Yes they had some debris floating around, but if you pay attention to the floating parts of buildings where the characters were standing, all the debris around that wasn't moving at all. It was like it was still attached to the building with invisible strings when it should have probably been moving away.

This is the same issue I had with Twice's clones in the previous episode. He's supposed to be replicating them while Hawks is getting rid of them, but all we see is a static image of a bunch of clones.

Anyway that's enough ranting I think

congratulations if you've read this far, and thank you for tolerating my annoying rambling..

#mha #mha spoilers #mha season 6 #mha dabi #shigaraki tomura

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not-xpr-art · 2 years

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But it ain’t no lie, baby BI BI BI (ballpoint pen drawing) ~

(06/2022)

I’ve been wanting to do a visual representation of my bisexuality for a while, so here’s a piece to reflect my feelings regarding attraction and gender!

I’m gonna go a little bit more into the meaning of this piece here, as well as a little bit of my creative process!

so my mum recently brought back some purple and pink ball point pens that the school she works at were throwing out (despite the fact they still work perfectly well smh...) & I figured they’d be perfect for me doing some kind of bi pride themed artwork!

below was my initial sketch btw! I knew I wanted 3 heads each in one of the 3 colours of the bi flag, and I knew I wanted them to sort of blend into one another, although I think I originally was planning to have them be more in the order of the flag (but I like my final piece and how it looks like the purple figure is coming out of the pink and blue figures!)

after this I went to my tumblr likes (since that’s where I keep a whole load of inspirational stuff in a disorganised pile lol...) to see if I could find some useful references of faces, cos although I didn’t really want the faces to be of anyone, I still wanted to have a base so they at least felt some what realistic lol

I settled on these three (photoshoot of luca marinelli by tony zecchinelli, kai isaiah jamal for CAP 74024 new romantic obsessions and promo shots of zhu zanjin for the c-drama mystic nine) since I felt all of them had a strong sense of genderfluidity which I wanted for this piece!

I followed the meaning of the bi flag colours (blue for different gender attraction, pink for same/similar gender and purple for attraction regardless of gender).

the blue section is both a reflection of my own sense of masculinity and my attraction to men/masc people! harsh lines, angles and logic are usually associated with masculinity, so I wanted to include that but with the idea that it isn’t always neat lines or angles, showing the many forms that masculinity can take!

also did this for the pink section, which is a reflection of my femininity and attraction to women/fem people, which is usually connected to curved shapes, which I made more ‘me’ by amping up the chaos lol... also made them kinda look like cells and wheels, suggesting a kind of fluidity and movement that comes with my feelings of femininity.

the pink with blue question marks in the blue figure’s eye was me expressing that feeling of confusion that comes with growing up bisexual, and having to come to terms with your attraction to both the opposite and same genders (it’s also to reflect how a lot of people claim that bisexual people are ‘confused’, or even the phrase ‘bi curious’, as if the very existence of bisexuality is something that should be questioned and critiqued... I think it’s honestly this attitude that meant it took me a long time to truly realise and appreciate my sexuality, since I kept believing I had to somehow explain myself again and again... something I still feel the need to do, which was partly why I wanted to make this piece, as a sort of signal to others AND myself that this is who I am and I’m PROUD of that!)

the purple section is more about my concept of genderfluidity, which I represented with a character from chinese opera called a ‘dan’, which was a female character that traditionally was performed by male performers dressed in what is essentially drag (xiran jay zhao did an awesome video where they recreated one of the looks and discussed the history of the character which is really interesting!) drag is something that intrigues me, especially in the way it emulates a purposeful performance of gender, which as a nb person feels particularly interesting to me!

(also, a lot of my childhood and teenage yrs had a lot of instances with me experiencing ‘drag’ like things in places such as pantomimes, music videos and films (shout out to borstal boy for dressing danny dyer as a woman in that one scene that did SO much for me as a young queer kid ngl lol), so it’s something that I intrinsically link to my sense of identity even if I’ve never actually tried doing drag myself lol)

I used triangles as the motif for the purple section because triangles just feel really genderfluid to me idk I can’t explain it lol (maybe it’s because I used to think love triangles were when three characters had feelings for each other pfft...)

although this is of course a very personal piece, I hope anyone who sees it and is bi feels some of the meaning I poured into it! everyone’s experiences with their gender and sexuality are individual, but there’s a feeling of joy and pride that I think is something we all feel once we’ve finally allowed ourselves to be comfortable with who we are <3

happy pride everyone, especially to all my fellow bisexual and nb peeps, and thank you for anyone who’s read this far lol <3

#artists on tumblr #bi pride #bisexual #pride month #ball point pen drawing #pen drawing #drawing #traditional art #bi #lgbtq art #queer art #pride #art #artist #only click read more if u wanna hear me talking about the meaning and process of this piece btw lol

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caprica99 · 3 years

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Shadow and Bone rant, because I need it

Shadow and Bone has some incredible potential, both the books and the show, but neither actually lives up to it.

Alina could have been interesting. Cartographer is a rare profession for fictional characters, but in the books/show she's just a beginner (at 17/20 it's understandable). Make her at least 25 with 9 years of experience in the army, give her a promotion with subordinates she's responsible for and you would get a more interesting character who saw some serious shit in the army, acts like a soldier, and knows responsibility. (And maybe wants to stop the war at all cost, utilizing the Fold maybe.*wink, wink*)

It bothered me that we never saw her using cartography this profession that makes her unique for reaching her goals. In the show, she has dreams about the stag. It would have been interesting to see HER figuring out the whereabouts of the stag by using the stag's surroundings like mountains, specific types of trees, topography, etc. Work smarter, not harder.

Diana Bishop suffers from the same passiveness in the first book of the All Souls trilogy, but she actively uses her science historian background and those passages are the most interesting parts of her POV. Alina's interest in drawing and geography would give her a unique personality, and made her relatable to many (see ADoW and history nerds). Many YA heroines have a specific and useful skillset: Katniss-archery, Clary Fray-drawing, etc. Sadly, her entire personality is running away with Mal.

Mal's character feels pointless to me. The story depicts an oppressed minority group with special powers, and their struggles in the world, the heroine and the antagonist are both part of the said minority group, and he's constantly shown to be a bigot against the Grisha, so what makes him so important to the plot? His tracking skills? Give the job to a no-name tracker and I wouldn't miss him.

At least the show made him more likable, but Archie and Jessie still lack romantic chemistry. However his chemistry with his friends Mikhail and Dubrov was spot on, I really liked it. They showed life as a simple otkazat'sya soldier on the front, and their death was painful to watch. I thought that his friend's death would make a bigger impact on Mal, him wanting to get revenge on the fjerdans and end the war at all cost, and saying that maybe Kirigan's plan actually makes sense would make an interesting narrative. (They are at war dammit, there's no black and white only grey.)

Mal and Alina don't act like soldiers in a war-torn country, they act like American teenagers, and it's annoying. The General and Ivan are the only ones who act as soldiers in a 3 front war. When the villain shows the most responsibility in your story you should rewrite your heroes completely, or make the villain your hero.

The show is better than the books. It's a rare phenomenon but it is something everyone agrees upon. To me, the first book reads like a draft the author forgot to expand. The worldbuilding, the Grisha, and the characters were a perfect base to an original fantasy universe, but it all falls flat. The show made it richer by introducing multiple POVs and giving the actors more leeway (Ben Barnes ladies and gentlemen). But in the end, they had to stick to the books.

This is incredibly confusing to me because we have numerous fanfictions about Alina staying at the Little Palace, embracing her Grisha side, helping the Darkling because his plan makes sense, or changing his plan by coming up with a better one, or having dark!Alina etc... Clearly, this is what book fans wanted: giving Alina agency, make her realize that she had to work with the Darkling because she's Grisha too and they have the same goals but have different methods, let her be Professor X to Alexander's Magneto, ending the corrupt and incompetent Lantsov line, anything would have been better than taking Baghra's words at face value and running off.

Change I like: the whole West-Ravka storyline, it made the General decision understandable. Zlatan sold Grisha to the fjerdans, wanted to kill Alina and his actions could have led to a civil war, Kirigan only acted as a general of his time (not 21 century guys, we are talking about the unforgiving 19 century) and besides we only see the destruction of Zlatans army (BTW they were ready to kill everyone on the skiff) and not the whole city.

Change I don't like: making Alina half Shu. I'm not completely against it, but it was poorly executed. The racism Alina faces overshadows the Grisha-hate, rather than complementing it. Alina acts like being half Shu is somehow worse than being Grisha, eventough there are literal Holocausts going on against Grisha in two neighbouring countries, slavery in another, and the show never addresses it. This is the biggest problem with her character, she never embraces being Grisha, sides with the muggles, and makes her mission to kill the only person who stands between Grisha and persecution.

Would have been good: the show could have made little 5 minute scenes depicting the plight of Grisha in other countries. Either at the beginning or the end of every episode.

Episode 2: the Ice Court

Episode 3: the Shu concentration camps with the experimenting

Episode 4: slavery in Kerch

Episode 5: the Wandering Isle with consuming grisha blood

Episode 6: the Demon in the Woods storyline

Episode 7: Luda+Aleksander

And now... The Darkling/ Aleksander Morozov/ General Kirigan: the most interesting character in the entire series.

In the first half of SaB he was depicted as every soldier's dream general. Sitting and eating with his men, fighting side by side with them, constantly checking on his troops while other generals prefer to attend court. But in the second half, he transforms into a Mustache Twirling Villain TM and makes rather OOC decisions throughout the trilogy. He could have been a generic villain from the start, but why make him then a compelling character with understandable motivations?

In the books, I understood his motivations, but in the show, he was completely right. His backstory shows that he tried peaceful tactics but those never worked out. The only thing that worked against his enemies was power and violence. The price of hesitance was Luda's life (I'm willing to bet they were married). The Fold was actually a mistake born from desperation. He spent centuries in hiding, seeing his people persecuted. Even with the Little Palace and the Second Army Grisha are considered second-class citizens, they can't hold properties. He has to walk the fine line between usefulness and being a threat. He has to bow to incompetent Kings who don't give a shit about the state of the country. If Alina had to go through so much how would she end up? Because it's a miracle that Aleksander still has it in him to fight for the Grisha.

Many bring up Nikolai Lantsov as the Darklings foil ( or Diet Darkling as @ambitious-witch calls him) to show there is an alternative to Aleksander, but it's wrong. Because Nikolai was never part of an oppressed minority group, never had to fear centuries of persecution, he's an actual prince, it's easy to not be radicalized with his background.

Bonus: If Bardugo wanted to create a fictional world with tsarist Russia as a base, the least she could have done is to open a Wikipedia page or a dictionary for the correct names and terms. Starkov is a man's name: Alina Starkova is the correct form. Ilya Morozov, Aleksander Morozov, and Baghra Morozova would be the correct forms.

EDIT: They could have shown the building of the Little Palace and the start of the Second Army. I wanted to see the normal life at the Little Palace before Alina came along, little Grisha enjoying their powers, their reaction if the Darkling comes to see their training (I headcanon he visits the lessons at least once a year), the other teachers, and their reaction to Alina. Alina in canon is good with kids, maybe if she had spent time with little Grisha, she could have embraced her powers sooner. Having met with foreigners (Fjerdan, or Shu) and hearing their gruesome accounts of the foreign treatment of the Grisha would made her willing to fight for their future.

#shadow and bone #sab netflix #sab spoilers #grishaverse #anti leigh bardugo #the darkling #alexander kirigan #aleksander kirigan #aleksander morozova #alexander morozova #alina starkov #shadow and bone cast #shadow and bone netflix #darklina #alina x darkling #malyen oretsev

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sabugabr · 3 years

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Why the Clone problem in Star Wars animated media is also a Mandalorian problem, and why we have to talk about it (PART 2)

Hi! I finally finished wrapping this up, so here’s part 2 of what has already become a mini article (you can find Part 1 here, if you like!)

And for this part, it won’t be as much as a critic as part 1 was, but instead I’d like to focus more on what I consider to be a wasted potential regarding the representation of the Clones in the Star Wars animated media, from the first season of The Clone Wars till now, and why I believe it to be an extension of the Mandalorian problem I discussed in part 1 — the good old colonialism.

Sources used, as always, will be linked at the end of this post!

PART 2: THE CLONES

Cody will never know peace

So I’d like to state that I won’t focus as much on the blatantly whitewashing aspect, for I believe it to be very clear by now. If you aren’t familiar with it, I highly recommend you search around tumblr and the internet, there are a lot of interesting articles and posts about it that explain things very didactically and in detail. The only thing you need to know to get this started is that even at the first seasons of Clone Wars (when the troopers still had this somewhat darker skin complexion and all) they were still a whitewashed version of Temuera Morrison (Jango’s actor). And from then, as we all know, they only got whiter and whiter till we get where we are now, in rage.

Look at this very ambiguously non-white but still westernized men fiercely guarding their pin-up space poster

Now look at this still westernized but slightly (sarcasm) whiter men who for some reason now have different tanning levels among them (See how Rex now has a lighter skin tone? WHEN THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN KKKKKKK) Anyway you got the idea. So without further ado...

2.1 THE FANTASY METAPHOR

As I mentioned before in Part 1, one thing that has to be very clear if you want to follow my train of thought is that it’s impossible to consume something without attributing cultural meanings to it, or without making cultural associations. This things will naturally happen and it often can improve our connection to certain narratives, especially fantastic ones. Even if a story takes place in a fantastic/sci fi universe, with all fictional species and people and worlds and cultures, they never come from nowhere, and almost always they have some or a lot of basing in real people and cultures. And when done properly, this can help making these stories resonate in a very beautifull, meaningfull way. I actually believe this intrisic cultural associations are the things that make these stories work at all. As the brilliant american speculative/science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin says in the introduction (added in 1976) of her novel The Left Hand of Darkness, and that I was not able to chopp much because it’s absolutely genious and i’ll be leaving the link to the full text right here,

“The purpose of a thought-experiment, as the term was used by Schrodinger and other physicists, is not to predict the future — indeed Schrodinger's most famous thought-experiment goes to show that the ‘future,’ on the quantum level, cannot be predicted — but to describe reality, the present world.

Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive.”

[...] “Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That's the truth!

They may use all kinds of facts to support their tissue of lies. They may describe the Marshalsea Prison, which was a real place, or the battle of Borodino, which really was fought, or the process of cloning, which really takes place in laboratories, or the deterioration of a personality, which is described in real textbooks of psychology; and so on. This weight of verifiable place-event-phenomenon-behavior makes the reader forget that he is reading a pure invention, a history that never took place anywhere but in that unlocalisable region, the author's mind. In fact, while we read a novel, we are insane —bonkers. We believe in the existence of people who aren't there, we hear their voices, we watch the battle of Borodino with them, we may even become Napoleon. Sanity returns (in most cases) when the book is closed.”

[...] “ In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find — if it's a good novel — that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words.

The artist whose medium is fiction does this within words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Words can be used thus paradoxically because they have, along with a semiotic usage, a symbolic or metaphoric usage. [...] All fiction is metaphor. Science fiction is metaphor. What sets it apart from older forms of fiction seems to be its use of new metaphors, drawn from certain great dominants of our contemporary life — science, all the sciences, and technology, and the relativistic and the historical outlook, among them. Space travel is one of these metaphors; so is an alternative society, an alternative biology; the future is another. The future, in fiction, is a metaphor.

A metaphor for what?” [1]

A metaphor for what indeed. I won’t be going into what Star Wars as a whole is a metaphor for, because I am certain that it varies from person to person, and everyone can and has the total right to take whatever they want from this story, and understand it as they see fit. That’s why it’s called the modern myth. And therefore, all I’ll be saying here is playinly my take not only on what I understand the Clones to be, but what I believe they could have meant.

2.2 SO, BOBA IS A CLONE

I don’t want to get too repetitive, but I wanted to adress it because even though I by no means intend to put Boba and the Clones in the same bag, there is one aspect about them that I find very similar and interesting, that is the persue of individuality. While the Clones have this very intrinsically connected to their narratives, in Boba’s case this appears more in his concept design. As I mentioned in Part 1, one of the things the CW staff had in mind while designing the mandalorians is that they wanted to make Boba seem unique and distinguishable from them, and honestly even in the original trilogy he stands out a lot. He is unique and memorable and that’s one of the things that draws us to him.

And as we all know, both Boba and Jango and the Clones are played by Temuera Morrison — and occasionally by the wonderful Bodie Taylor and Daniel Logan. And Temuera Morrison comes from the Maori people. And differently from the mandalorian case, where we were talking about a whole planet, in this situation we’re talking about portraying one single person, so there’s nowhere to go around his appearance and phenotypes, right? I mean, you are literally representing an actual individual, so there’s no way you could alter their looks, right?

(hahahaha wrong)

And besides that, I think that is in situations like that (when we are talking about individuals) that the actor’s perspective could really have a place to shine (just the same as how Lea was mostly written by Carrie Fisher). In this very heart-warming interview for The New York Times (which you can read full signing up for their 5-free-articles-per-month policy), Temuera Morrison talks a little bit about how he incorporated his cultural background to Boba Fett in The Mandalorian:

“I come from the Maori nation of New Zealand, the Indigenous people — we’re the Down Under Polynesians — and I wanted to bring that kind of spirit and energy, which we call wairua. I’ve been trained in my cultural dance, which we call the haka. I’ve also been trained in some of our weapons, so that’s how I was able to manipulate some of the weapons in my fight scenes and work with the gaffi stick, which my character has.” [2]

The Gaffi stick (or Gaderffii), btw, is the weapon used by the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine, and according to oceanic art expert Bruno Claessens it’s design was inspired by wooden Fijian war clubs called totokia. [3]

And I think is very clear how this background can influence one’s performance and approach to a character, and majorly how much more alive this character will feel like. Beyond that, having an actor from your culture to play and add elements to a character will higly improve your sense of connection with them (besides all the impact of seeying yourself on screen, and seeying yourself portrayed with respect). It would only make sense if the cultural elements that the actor brought when giving life to a fictional individual would’ve been kept and even deepened while expanding this role. And if you’re familiar with Star Wars Legends you’ll probably rememeber that in Legends Jango would train and raise all Clone troopers in the Mandalorian culture, so that the Clones would sing traditional war chants before battles, be fluent in Mando’a (Mandalore’s language) and some would proudly take mandalorian names for themselves. So why didn’t Filoni Inc. take that into account when they went to delve into the clones in The Clone Wars?

2.3 THE WHITE MINORITY

First of all I’d like to state that all this is 100% me conjecturing, and by no means at all I’m saying that this is what really happened. But while I was re-watching CW before The Bad Batch premiere, something came to my mind regarding the whitewashing of the Clones, and I’d like to leave that on the table.

So, you know this kind of recent movies and series that depicted like, fairies in this fictional world where fairies were very opressed, but there would be a lot of fairies played by white actors? Just like Bright and Carnival Row. If you’ve watched some of these and have some racial conscience, you’ll probably know where I’m going here. And the issue with it is that often this medias will portray real situations of racism and opression and prejudice, but all applied to white people. Like in Carnival Row, when going to work as a maid in a rich human house, our girl Cara Delevingne had to fight not to have her braids (which held a lot of significance in her culture) cut by her intolerant human mistress, because the braids were not “appropriate”. Got it? hahahaha what a joy

Look at her ethnic braids!!!

One of the reasons this happens might be to relieve a white audience of the burden of watching these stories and feeling what I like to call “white guilt”. Because, as we all know, white people were never very oppressed. Historically speaking, white people have always been in privileged social positions, and in an exploitative relationship between two ethnic groups, white people very usually would be the exploiters — the opressors. So while watching situations (that every minority would know to be very real) of opression in fiction, if these situations were lived by a white actor, there would be no real-life associations, because we have no historical parameter to associate this situation with anything in real life — if you are white. Thus, there is less chance that, when consuming one of these narratives, whoever is watching will question the "truthfulness" of these situations (because it's not "real racism", see, "they're just fairies"). It's easier for a person to watch without having to step out of their comfort zone, or confront the reality of real people who actually go through things like that. There's even a chance that this might diminish empathy for these people.

Once again, not saying this is specifically the case of the Clones, majorly because one of the main feelings you have when watching CW is exactly empathy for the troopers (at least for me, honestly, the galaxy could explode, I just wanted those poor men to be happy for God’s sake). But I’ll talk more about it later.

The thing is, the whole thing with the Clones, if you think about it, it’s not pretty. If you step on little tiny bit outside the bubble of “fictional fantasy”, the concept is very outrageous. They are kept in conditions analogous to slavery, to say the least. To say the more, they were literally made in an on-demand lab to serve a purpose they are personally not a part of, for which they will neither receive any reward nor share any part of the gains. On the contrary, as we saw in The Bad Batch, as soon as the war was over and the clones were no longer useful as cannonballs, they were discarded. In the (wonderful) episode 6 of the third season of (the almost flawless) Rebels, “The Last Battle”, we're even personally introduced to the analogy that there really wasn't much difference in value between clones and droids, something that was pretty clear in Clone Wars but hadn't been said explicitly yet.

In fact, technically the Separatists can be considered to be more human than the Republic. But that's just my opinion.

So, you had this whole army of pretty much slaves. I know this is a heavy term, but these were people who were originally stripped of any sense of humanity or individuality, made literally to go to war and die in it, doing so purely in exchange for food and lodging, under the false pretense that they belonged to a glorious purpose (yes, Loki me taught that term, that was the only thing I absorbed from this series). Doing all this under extremely precarious conditions from which they had no chance of getting out, actually, getting out was tantamount to the death penalty. They were slaves. In milder terms, an oppressed minority. And again, I don't know if that was the case, but I can understand why Filoni Inc would be apprehensive about representing phenotically indigenous people in this situation. Especially since we in theory should see Anakin and Obi-Wan as the good guys.

(and here I’d like to leave a little disclaimer that I believe the whole Anakin-was-a-slave-once plot was HUGELY misused (and honestly just badly done) both in the prequels and in the animeted series — maybe for the best, since he was, you know, white and all that, and I don’t know how the writers would have handled it, but ANYWAY — I believe this could have been further explored, particularly regarding his relationship with the Clones, and how it could have influenced his revolt against the Jedi, and manipulated to add to his anger and all that. I mean, we already HAD the fact that Anakin shared a deeper conection with his troopers than usual)

Yes, Rex, you have common trauma experiences to share. But anyway, backing to my track

As I was saying, we are to see them as good guys, and maybe that could’ve been tricky if we saw them hooping up on slavery practices. Like, idk, a “nice” sugar plantation owner? (I don’t know the correct word for it in english, but in portuguese they were called senhores de engenho) Like this guy from 12 Years a Slave?

You know, the slave owner who was “nice”. IDK, anyway

No one will ever watch Clone Wars and make this association (I believe not, at least), of course not. But if we were to see how CW deepened the clone arcs, and see them as phenotypically indigenous, subjected to certain situations that occur in CW (yes, like Umbara), maybe some kind of association would’ve been easier to make.

I mean, come onnnn I can’t be the only one seeing it

You see, maybe not the whole 12 Years a Slave association one, but I don’t think it’s hard to see there was something there. And maybe this could’ve been even more evident if they looked non-white. Because historically, both black peoples and indigenous peoples went through processes of slavery, from which we as a society are still impacted today. And to slave a people, the first thing you have to do is strip them from their humanity. So it might be easier to see this situation and apply it to real life. And maybe that could lead to a whole lot of other questions regarding the Clones, the Republic, the Jedi, and even how chill Obi-Wan was about all this. We might come out of it, as lady Ursula Le Guin stated in the fragment above, a bit different from what we were before we watch it.

Maybe even unconsciously, Filoni Inc thought we would be more confortable watching if they just looked white (and because of colonialism and all that, but I’m adding thoughts here).

And of course I don’t like the idea of, idk, looking at Obi-Wan and thinking about Benedict Cumberbatch in 12 Years a Slave or something like that. Of course that, if the Clones were to play the same role as they did in the prequels, to obediently serve the Jedi and quietly die for them, that would have been bad, and hurtfull, and pejorative if added to all that I said here. But the thing is that Clone Wars, consciously or not, already solved that. At least to my point of view, they already managed to approach this situation in an incredible competent way, that is giving them agency.

2.4 AGENCY AND INDIVIDUALITY

So, one of the things I love most in Clone Wars is how it really feels like it’s about the Clones. Like, we have the bigger scene of Palpatine taking over, Ahsoka’s growth arc, Anakin’s turn to The Dark Side, the dawn of the Jedi and rise of the Empire and all that, but it also has this idk, vibe, of there’s actually something going on that no one in scene is talking about? And this something is the Clones. We have these episodes spread throughout the seasons, even out of chronological order, which when watched together tell a parallel story to the war, to everything I mentioned. Which is a story about individuals. Clone Wars manages to, in a (at least to me) very touching way, make the Clones be the heros.

Can you really look me in the eye and say that Five’s story didn’t CRASH you like a full-speed train???? He may not have the same amount of screen-time as the protagonists, but his story is just as important as theirs (and to me, it might be the most meaningful one). Because he is the first to break free from the opression cicle all the Clones were trapped into.

His story can be divided into 6 phases.

1 - First, the construction of his individuality, in other words, the reclaiming of his humanity.

2 - Then the assimilation of understanding yourself as an individual of value, and then extending this to all his brothers, not as a unit, but as a set of individuals collectively having this same newly discovered value.

3 - This makes him realize that in the situation they find themselves in, they are not being recognized as such. This makes him question the reality of their situation.

4 - Freed from the illusion of his state, he seeks the truth about it.

5 - This then leads him to seek liberation not just for himself, but for all the Clones (it's basically Plato's Cave, and I'm not exaggerating here).

6 - And finally, precisely because he has assimilated his individuality and sought freedom for himself and his brothers, he is punished for it.

His story is all about agency. Agency, according to the Wikipedia page that is the first to appear if you type “agency” on Google, is that agency is “the abstract principle that autonomous beings, agents, are capable of acting by themselves” [4], and this abstract principle can be dissected in 7 segments:

Law - a person acting on behalf of another person

Religious - "the privilege of choice... introduced by God"

Moral - capacity for making moral judgments

Philosophical - the capacity of an autonomous agent to act, relating to action theory in philosophy

Psychological - the ability to recognize or attribute agency in humans and non-human animals

Sociological - the ability of social actors to make independent choices, relating to action theory in sociology

Structural - ability of an individual to organize future situations and resource distribution

All of them apply here. And this is just the story of one Clone. We know there are many others throughout the series.

Agency is what can make the world of a difference when you are telling a story about an opressed minority. Because opressed minorities do exist, and opression exists, and if you are insecure about consuming a fictional media about opressed minorities, see if they have agency might be a good place to start. So that’s why I think that everything I said before in 2.3 falls short. Because the solution already existed, and was indeed done. Honestly, making the non-agency representation of the Clones (the one we see in the prequels) to be the one played by Temuera Morrison, and then giving them agency in the version where they appear to be white, just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

And honestly, if they were to make the Clones look like Temuera Morrison, and by that mean, take more inspiration in the Māori culture, maybe they wouldn’t even have to change much of their representation besides their facial features. As I said in part 1, I am not by any means an expert in polynesian cultures, but there was something that really got me while I was researching about it. And is the facial tattoos. More precisely, the tā moko.

2.5 TĀ MOKO

Once again I’ll be using the Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand as source, and you can find the articles used linked at the end of this post.

Etymologically speaking,

“The term moko traditionally applied to male facial tattooing, while kauae referred to moko on the chins of women. There were other specific terms for tattooing on other parts of the body. Eventually ‘moko’ came to be used for Māori tattooing in general.” [5]

So moko is the correct name for the characteristic tattoos we often see when we look for Māori culture.

These ones ^. Please also look this book up, it’s beautiful. It’s written by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, a New Zealand academic specialising in Māori cultural issues and a lesbian activist. She’s wonderful.

According to the Tourism NewZealand website,

“In Māori culture, it [moko] reflects the individual's whakapapa (ancestry) and personal history. In earlier times it was an important signifier of social rank, knowledge, skill and eligibility to marry.”

“Traditionally men received moko on their faces, buttocks and thighs. Māori face tattoos are the ultimate expression of Māori identity. Māori believe the head is the most sacred part of the body, so facial tattoos have special significance.”

[...] “The main lines in a Māori tattoo are called manawa, which is the Māori word for heart.” [6]

Therefore, in the Māori culture, there’s this incredibly deep meaning attributed to the (specific of their culture) tattooing of the face. The act of tattooing the body, any part of the body, is incredibly powerful in many cultures around the globe. The adornment of the body can have different meanings for these different cultures, but all of which I've come into contact with do mean a lot. It’s one of the oldest and most beautiful human expressions of individuality and identity.

And in the Star Wars universe, the Clones are the group that has the deeper connection to, and the best narrative regarding, tattoos. In fact, besides Hera’s father, Cham Syndulla, the Clones are the only individuals to have tattooed skin, at least that I can recall of. And they do share a deep connection to it.

For the Clones, the tattoos (added to hairstyles) are the most meaningful way in which they can express themselves. Is what makes them distinguishable from each other to other people. Tattoos are one of the things that represent them as individuals.

And I’m not BY ANY MEANS sayin that the Clones facial tattoos = Moko. That’s not my point. But that’s one of the things I meant when I said earlier about the wasted potential of the representation of the Clones (in my point of view). Because maybe if it were their intention to base the culture of the clones after the polynesian culture, maybe if it were their intention to make the Clones actually look like Temuera Morrison, this could have meant a whole deal. More than it’d appear looking to it from outside this culture. Maybe if there were actual polynesian people in the team that designed the Clones and wrote them (or at least indigenous people, something), who knows what we could’ve had.

Even in Hunter’s design, I noticed that if you take for example this frame of Temuera from the movie River Queen (2005), where we can have a closer look at the design of his tā moko

Speaking purely plastically (because I don’t want to get into the movie itself, just using it as example because then I can use Temuera himself as a comparison), see the lines around the contours of his mouth? Now look at Hunter’s.

I find it interesting that they choose to design this lines coming from around his nose like that. But at this point I am stretching A LOT into plastic and semiotics, so this comparison is just a little thing that got my attention. I know that his tattoo is a skull and etc etc, I’m just poiting this out. And it even makes me a little frustrated, because they could have taken so many interesting paths in the Bad Batch designs. But instead they choose to pay homage to Rambo. And I mean, I like Rambo, I think he’s cool and all that.

Look at him doing Filipino martial arts

But then, as we say in Brasil, they had the knife and the cheese in their hands (all they had to do was cut the cheese, but they didn’t). Istead, it seems like in order to make Hunter look like Rambo, they made him even whiter???

2.6 SO...

Look, I love The Clone Wars. I’m crazy about it. I love the Clones, I love their stories and plots. They are great characters and one of the greatest addings ever made in the Star Wars universe. They even have, in my opinion, the best soundtrack piece to feature in a Star Wars media since John Williams’ wonderful score. It just feels to me as if their narrative core is full of bagage, and meanings, and associations that were just wiped under the carpet when they suddenly became white. It just feels to me as if, once again, they were trying to erase the person behing the trooper mask, and the people they were to represent, and the history they should evoke.

I don’t know why they were whitewashed. Maybe it was just the old due racism and colonialism. Maybe it was meant for us to not question the Jedi, or our good guys, or the real morality of this fictional universe where we were immersed. But then, was it meant for what?

The Clones were a metaphor for what?

(spoiler: the answer still contains colonialism)

Thank you so much for reading !!!! (and congratulations for getting this far, you are a true hero)

SOURCES USED IN THIS:

[1] Ursulla K. Le Guin, 'The Left Hand of Darkness', 14th ACE print run of June, 1977

[2] Dave Itzkoff, 'Being Boba Fett: Temuera Morrison Discusses ‘The Mandalorian’', The New York Times, published Dec. 7, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/arts/television/the-mandalorian-boba-fett-temuera-morrison.html (accessed 15 September 2021)

[3] Bruno Claessens, 'George Lucas' "Star Wars" and Oceanic art' , Archived from the original on December 5, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20201205114353/http://brunoclaessens.com/2015/07/george-lucas-star-wars-and-oceanic-art/#.YEiJ-p37RhF (accessed 15 September 2021)

[4] Wikipedia contributors, "Agency," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agency&oldid=1037924611 (accessed September 17, 2021)

[5] Rawinia Higgins, 'Tā moko – Māori tattooing - Origins of tā moko', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/ta-moko-maori-tattooing/page-1 (accessed 17 September 2021)

[6] Tourism New Zealand, ‘The meaning of tā moko, traditional Māori tattoos’, The Tourism New Zealand website, https://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/ta-moko-maori-tattoo/ (accessed 17 September 2021)

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julday4 · 3 years

Text

YAHOO! OC TIME!

I also attempted at shading- I'm not the best at it and rarely do it so you're allowed to give critism lmao.

So! This is one of my oc's Skipper! Who's species is actually my own original species, Deyos! (Or Deyo) I might make it an open species if people want to, but for now it's closed and just for myself.

If you'd like to know more about the species and the world they live in, go on keep reading! For now, here's a bit about Skipper:

His a huge manipulater, gossiper and really smug. His really well known in his world for how good he is at manipulating and for basically knowing about everyone's secrets. (And how many eyes he steals, but you'd have to read about the species on keep reading in order to know more about that). Deyos like to nickname him "The true assistant of the Lord", who was the person that created the species. His eyes are Diamond-shaped and his storing item is his neck warmer. He has angel like wings with thin black pointy spikes on the tips and a black line design. He also has a younger brother called Jasper, that I might draw of aswell if people want that or like the species.

anyways, that's everything I can think of for Skipper. Might edit this post if I come up with more, but i'mma stop here.

Reblogs are appreciated!! I spent a long time on this! :'D

Info about the species and the world (IT'S REALLY LONG BTW!):

The species The Deyos (Or 'Deyo' if it's just one of them), is a species made entirely out of negativity. Their entire body is made of a goo-y negative substance, to the point that even their blood is made out of It. (Yes, they have black blood). And have a negative, black type of venom in their fangs or well, teeth, that they use for a specific reason we'll get to in a bit. Appearances All Deyos are different and unique on their appearances. All Deyos take a form of a different type of dog each to look more 'Innocent' and 'trustworthy' (which we'll get to why in a bit). So some Deyos are tall and some are small, but their always bigger then an average human being. Deyos have different type of wings and eyes with a special shape somewhere on their body. (For example: A Deyo with owl-like wings and a square shaped eye on their forehead). While some only just have their og-seeing-eyes, only just wings, or only just those eyes on their body, it's hard to explain without so many examples but basically not all Deyos are the same, some have wings, some don't. Some have the special shaped eyes on their body, some don't. Some have their og-seeing eyes (also what every human has), some don't even have eyes at all. And, because they have black blood, all of their ears, paws, noses, blush, ect, are fully black. Even their eyes are black, to the point it's very rare for a Deyo to have a different eye color besides black. Character

Deyos are usually very agressive and hostile towards eachother, so fights happen pretty much daily. They always steal from eachother, betray eachother, lie, bully, anything you can think of that's rude or agressive. But not all of them are like that of course. Some are more chill and calm, some are more thoughtful and kind, it really depends on the Deyo. Thou, with the way they act, Deyos are VERY intelligent. They have alot of advanced technology, know ALOT of languages, know pretty much everything about history, can do any math problem, ect, ect. Their so intelligent, that they learned how to make technogly on the second day they were created, built villages, to communicate with eachother- BASICALLY, they have way more iq then an average human, like, even the stupidest Deyo is smarter then a human.

Oh and, Deyo's are AMAZING manipulaters. Of course, some are terrible at it, some are decent and some are really good at it, but most of them have experience in manipulation.

Survivablity

So, the way Deyos survive is kinda.. Interesting. They basically steal people's eyes from other worlds in order to survive. The Deyo goes to a different world, find their victim, and after earning their trust (with the help of the Deyo's appearance and their amazing manipulation ability), the Deyo bites into the victim and releases the venom in their teeth/fangs in the victim, making the victim's eyes fade away and appear on the Deyo's storing item, leaving behind a more shadowy feature on the victim's face plus a of negatvity in the victim, making the victim very negative and basically the complete opposite of who they are. The more eyes the Deyos steal and store into their storing item, the longer they live. Of course, not all Deyos take their time to earn the victim's trust. Some just go right for it. Even thou it's common for Deyos to go to other worlds to steal eyes, some just steal eyes from the animals in their world. Of course it doesn't give the same survivability as one from a person, but it really depends on the size of the animal. Either way, their alright. Mainly Deyos without wings do this, or the more chill ones.

Storing Items

Storing Items is a specific special item that's very close and important to the Deyo and stores the eyes they steal, aka, their only way to survive. Storing Items can be any kind of item, from a ring to a goddamm door or something. Of course, it's mainly reccomended to use accessories or something you can actually bring with you at all times. But you probably wonder: "How do they make the eyes they steal, appear on that Storing Item?" Here's how! (A bit of a TW for cutting and blood).

First, they pick out one of their most cherished item. Second, they use any sharp object and cut a bit of their skin open until blood starts coming out. Third, they take their blood and draw a special sign on the cherished item with their blood. Fouth, then a lil scene of negative magic starts surrounding the cherished item, giving the item a more bland and darker version of it's original colors and well, inserts negative magic inside of it. And Fifth, bam! A Storing item to store your tiny stolen whatever-shaped eyes. :) Storing item's are also pretty hard and tough to destroy, even if their really soft like Skipper's neck warmer. You'll have to use specific magic (Like positivity or something) in order to reduce the negativity inside it and turn it back to normal. (And maybe even release the stolen eyes? I'mma have to think more into this!)

The World

This is a huge world where the only season is Winter and snow is everywhere. It has a bunch of winter animals like Polar-bears, lynx's, foxes, rabbits, any you can think of! However, the Deyos only live in one part of the world that has a bunch of snowy mountains, forests and icey rivers. There are mainly two villages in this part! The snowy mountains and the snowy forests. The mountains are where most Deyos with wings live in. The mountains has a bunch of caves that the Deyos use as home, use for training or can use as workshops! There's also a pathway to some of the mountains so wingless Deyos CAN live in the mountains, but it will get tiring most of the time.. Soo.. Forest it is! In the big snowy forest is a village where most wingless Deyos live in! The village has alot of cozy homes, shops, a townsquare, ect! And well, mainly the more chill Deyos live in the village cause it's in a forest, which means it nearer to the animals that they hunt down instead. Plus, they can train on the animals instead of just a dummy in the training caves. And well, that's really it about their world. There's also some rivers around the area, really icey ones so there's like, alot of ice slabs on it. So sometimes Deyos go there to just chill on the big ice slabs. And now.. You're probably wondering. "How do the Deyos go to other worlds exactly?" Well, they use their most cherished thing of all, the portal!

The Portal

This huge portal is located on the very top of the highest mountain. It is held onto by a bunch of big boulders and is made of negative magic. This portal was given to the Deyos by the creator as a lil 'Gift' or something, so the Deyos cherish it alot. This Portal is the main reason the Deyos are able to go to worlds and steal eyes. But how do they get back to their world? Well, Deyos can also summon a mini version of the portal that's about their size. However, they can also use this ability outside their world. So if they try to do it at their world, it'll just start to spark and zap the Deyo. No cheating you lil fool!

Annd holy shit that's pretty much everything I can say about Deyos. If you have read this far, thank you so much because I took WAYYY to long to write this, so thank you! :D And if you have any questions, please do ask! Cause i'm not the very best at explaining things, hehehe.. Either way, thank you for spending your time on this! :)

#Alec's art #Alec's ocs #Original species #Deyos #Deyo #Skipper #AAAAAA #I really hope ya'll like this!!#And uh again #Warning #alot of info #Either way #i'm kinda proud of the species so!#yeah!! :D #tysm to the person who told me to keep going with the drawing btw-#Ily :)

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hoebii · 3 years

Text

Like me better

Pairing : Park Jimin x Reader

Genre : Fluff, Highschool!Au, e2l, rivals

Rating : PG13

Warning : ‘Curse’ words are mentioned (is ‘shit’ even a curse word fhgjv), OC wanting to choke Jimin and not in the kinky way, brief mention of Jimin being a playboy thot, hating on mint chocolate because it’s the worst flavour to exist you can fight me on this

Wc : 4k

A/N : Alright, this was originally supposed to be a birthday drabble but it got a little out of hand as you can see. We had a whole lot planned for this fic but it got too long oops- so we decided to cut it short and keep the ending open huhu. Happiest birthday to our precious maknae @heejinnien from @xiaokoo (who also made this AMAZING banner btw) and I. Hope you like your present baby! We love you so so so much~<3 Also this isn’t as edited as I’d like it to be but I got impatient okay don’t @ me :<

----------------

The bustling crowd of students bumped into you repeatedly as you weaved through them to get to class. You kept a strong grip on your books so as to not drop them. People squeezed passed as you tried not to trip and fall flat on your face. You had slept through your alarms and were currently rushing to your class, cursing at yourself for this blunder in your head.

“Sorry, excuse me, oh shit!” You catch yourself as you tumbled to the ground. Your books splay across the floor as you winced at the sore feeling. Hopefully, no one would step on you or your books - you had paid good money for them!-. As for tripping over, you looked over your shoulder, glaring when you caught sight of a group of boys laughing.

“Aw is little princess hurt?~” You heard one of them call out, the others snickering in the background. You ignored them and started gathering all your books, telling yourself they weren’t worth the trouble. You were almost done picking up all the books on the ground when one was suddenly snatched from your grasp. Looking up at the culprit you see Park Jimin, the bane of your existence, holding it up.

“Are you sure you even need books?” He snickers, flicking through it. “You’re not even smart, why bother studying if it doesn’t do you any good?”

You feel your blood boil. How dare he?! You were smarter than him in every possible way. He had no right to mock you, sure he was smart but you always placed second. If there was one thing you hated, it was being second best to Park Jimin.

“You’ll just come second like always.”

That comment hit you hard. You tried to keep your cool, resisting the urge to punch him in the face. Sure, Jimin was annoying but there was no way you were going to create a scene because of it. Not again. Instead, you rolled your eyes, choosing to ignore him and walked away. There would be no reason to argue with a dumbass. Why waste your time?

Jimin watched as you walked away. He smirked to himself. Despite acting calm, he’d known you long enough to know that you were fuming inside. There were buttons he knew how to push to get the reaction he wanted and he thoroughly enjoyed provoking you.

--------

You stumbled into the classroom, panting from the light jog. “Damn I need to get back in shape, Jesus Christ.” you whispered to yourself.

“Miss Y/L/N, care to explain why you’re five minutes late to the class?” Your professor’s voice boomed in the small classroom. You look at him, giving him a sheepish smile as you rub your neck.

“I… got lost…?”

What was that?! You wanted to smack yourself at your own words. So much for your perfect attendance.

“You got lost?”

“Y...es…”

Your professor took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Just, just go to your seat.”

You scurried to your seat, setting down your books and sitting down. You heard snickering from beside you and you turned your head slightly towards the sound to see none other than Park Jimin laughing at you. Feeling your face flush in embarrassment, you turned towards your professor and started jotting down notes. You were not going to get riled up by Jimin during a class.

-----------

It’s official. Life hates you. You must have been some sort of a witch in your last life who thrived by torturing others. That had to be it. Why else would you ever get partnered with Park freaking Jimin for your science project?! Apparently, the professor had said it was because you two were ‘top students that will compliment each other well’. But you’re certain it was actually because she hated you and you must have tortured her or something in your past life and this was her way of getting revenge. You’re pretty sure you came up with at least 7 ways to end Park Jimin in the time he took to move his seat closer to you for ‘discussing details about the project.’

“So you’re gonna draw the diagram and write everything,” Jimin started as soon as he sat down. He dumped his bags to one corner taking out the necessities. “I will be supervising you as I’m clearly the better one here.”

Oh how much you craved to just lean forward and wrap your fingers around his neck and choke him. How can a person be this insufferable? You could just shove a damn pen up his-

“Alright class dismissed! Remember, the deadline is on Monday next week! Have a nice weekend.” Your professor announced, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then, don’t screw up the project.”

With that Jimin left you sitting there fuming at him. You let out a tired sigh and begin packing up to leave too, mind running wild. Why couldn’t Jimin just be a good person for once?

-------------

The weekend seemed to go by in a flash, just you working on the project with Jimin, who had surprisingly been quite helpful. Just when you thought he had a heart, he had said it was ‘so you don’t ruin my grades.’ Yeah nevermind he still sucks.

What you didn’t know was Jimin being nice - well as nice as a jerk can get anyway - was because he had a bet to win. One of the boys had proposed a bet after class when he caught Jimin bickering with you yet again. The bet was simple really, ask you out and date you for a while before leaving you. Jimin had refused at first but then everyone started taunting him. Who liked getting mocked? No one. It was plain simple anyways, no one would actually get hurt, wasn’t like you liked him. So he accepted.

It wasn’t easy to catch your attention, given the fact the both of you were mortal enemies, it was near impossible. He did everything in his power so you would look at him but all tactics had somehow managed to flop. There was only one other way of actually getting you to notice him and that was annoying you. However, that would ruin the whole point of the bet.

“Y/n, Y/n, Y/n.” Jimin chanted as he poked you on the cheek incessantly. “Y/n pay attention to meeee.” He continued to whine.

You felt your right eye twitch. Why was this dumbass bothering you?! There was no reason for him to even be five feet close to you.

“What is it Jimin?” You turn to him, a sickly sweet smile on your face. “What is so important that you’re trying to talk to me?”

Jimin grinned, his eyes turning into crescents as he poked his cheek and gave a wink. “Hi~ How are you doing?”

Is he for real right now? Did he think he was cute? You felt like throwing up. “Park what are you up to? You never act,” you started, eyes squinting in suspicion, “like whatever you’re doing right now.”

Jimin gasped and placed a hand on his chest as if in pain before exclaiming, “What?! Me? Up to something? Impossible, I’m as innocent as an angel.”

An angel? More like a devil. There was no way he was telling the truth. You’d known him long enough and not once in your life had he treated you with such...whatever that emotion was.

“Right. An angel. Okay.” You nodded.

“Do you not believe me? You can ask anyone on this campus and they would tell you how amazing I am.” He gestured his hands wildly.

You scoffed at that, of course they would, he had slept with the majority and had the remaining wrapped around his tiny fingers. Plus, no one wanted to cross Park Jimin. He ruled the campus and everyone knew it.

“Listen, just get to the point. I don’t have time for this nonsense.” You said, rolling your eyes and huffing. You had to get to your next class in about five minutes. There was no way you were going to be late because some idiot was bothering you.

“Go on a date with me.”

You choked on air at that, did you hear that right? “E-excuse me what?!”

Jimin shrugged and crossed his hands, flexing slightly, “You heard me, go on a date with me this weekend. Heard there's a new ice cream shop here, we could go there.”

“You want to take me on a date?” You look at him skeptically. Was this a test? Were you being filmed? “You’re joking.”

“No.” He fixed you with a stare. “I’m serious. One date, if you don’t enjoy that one date, I promise I won't bother you ever again.”

You stood there staring at him, alarm bells ringing in your head. This can’t be real. He’s lying. “You? Never bothering me ever again? That’s like saying you don’t sleep with everyone you meet.”

“I didn’t sleep with you.”

“That’s different!” You exclaimed, face flushing. “You hate me!”

Jimin tilted his head, his nose scrunching up. “I never said I hate you.” You open your mouth ready to retaliate. “You simply assumed I did, my actions don’t mean anything unless I say something.”

You stood speechless. There had to be one occasion where he had stated he hated you. One. You searched your brain. Sure enough there was no such memory.

Not wanting to lose to Jimin nonetheless you stomped your feet and said, “Yeah well that makes no sense! Haven’t you heard ‘actions speak louder than words’? I thought you were smart” You tsked, shaking your head as if you were disappointed.

“But I’m standing here asking you out, I’m sure that counters all the things I’ve done to you.” He gives you a sly smirk, one you’re all too familiar with. “There’s really two options Y/n. One’s yes and the other is...yes. Which one do you choose?”

If you could you would have burned him to a crisp with your glare. Unfortunately, you hadn’t been gifted with laser vision like superman. It would have been quite a gift if you had. Imagine how peaceful life would be without Park Jimin judging your every move. Then again, you would miss him. Wait what?! You shook your head to clear your mind before looking at Jimin.

“No.”

Jimin’s eyes widened as he spluttered. “W-what do you mean no?!”

“N-O. No. Don’t tell me you forgot basic english.”

Jimin clicked his tongue in annoyance, glaring at you. No one had ever turned him down. Whatever Park Jimin wants he gets. Right now he wants you.

“Why not?”

You gave him a look. “Well, it isn’t exactly a secret that you sleep with anything that has two legs. I don't even know why you’re asking me out, you never go on dates.”

“That's because you’re different.”

You scoff. “Listen Park, this isn’t some shitty rom com that you can charm your way to my heart, this is reality and I’m smart enough to realise how much of a jerk you actually are.”

Words seemed to die in Jimin’s throat. A jerk?! Sure, he annoyed you but he didn't think he deserved the title of a jerk. If it wasn’t for that stupid bet he wouldn’t even be asking you out. There was no reason why you couldn’t go on just one date with him. It wasn’t as if he was asking you to juggle swords and then swallow them. Besides, Jimin was a very attractive person and he knew it too. What’s so bad about going out with him? You should feel blessed he was even asking you out in the first place!

“Just say yes already woman. One date won’t kill you,” Jimin groaned out, throwing his head back in frustration.

“One date with you will.”

You stared at each other, no one making a single move. The silence stretched on for a moment before Jimin sighed loudly and ran a hand through this hair.

“Come on!”

“No”

“...Please?” Jimin couldn’t believe he had to beg. He never begs! The things he does for a stupid bet.

Rolling your eyes at Jimin, you sigh, “Fine. We can go there this Saturday.”

“I begged, why won’t you just accep--” Jimin started before cutting himself off, “Oh you said yes. Um, well, yeah ok.” He mumbled, trying to fix his composure. “Yeah see you there or something. Bye,” and with that he walked away, leaving you both amused and confused… and also late for class! Damn Park Jimin.

-----------

You stood in front of the ice cream shop waiting for Jimin to show up. He was late, but then again what were you expecting anyway? You rolled your eyes as you looked around, “If he doesn’t show up in the next minute, I’m leaving.” you mumbled to yourself, checking your watch for what felt like the umpteenth time.

“Y/n!” A voice shouted from behind causing you to turn around. Jimin ran towards you, panting slightly. “Sorry, I had to run all the way here.”

“Did you forget about the date or were you just being a jerk and were late intentionally?”

His face flushed pink, avoiding your gaze. “I might have forgotten but that wasn’t completely my fault, I just lost track of time.”

“Yeah whatever.”

Jimin went to hold open the door for you but you beat him to it, opening it for yourself and slamming it in his face. He held back the urge to leave right there. A bet needed to be completed. He followed you inside trying to strike a conversation with you, trying to get just a crack of a smile.

“So Y/n, how’s your day?” Jimin asked, giving you a sweet smile that would have anyone swooning but it had no effect on you.

“It would be good if the one who asked me out on a date came on time.” You didn’t look at him, instead you were staring intently at the menu.

Jimin bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something he would regret, giving you a tight lipped smile. “I’m sure your date regrets being late.” ‘And asking you out in the first place’ Jimin thought the last part but didn’t say out loud.

“Doubt it.” You shrugged.

Jimin knew what you were doing. You were specifically trying to provoke him, there was no way that he would ask you out on a date voluntarily. You were trying to gouge out any secrets he was hiding. His job, obviously, was to try and not let you find out those secrets. There was no way you were going to cooperate if he told you about the bet.

The two of you knew each other since you were both babies, your mothers knew each other and would always coo at ‘how cute these two will look together.’ Unfortunately for them though, since you were both young the two of you had some sort of competition going on. Didn't matter if it was who was smarter, who was faster or who could fit the most grapes in their mouth, the both of you were always competing.

As you both grew older the bickering turned into bullying on his part. In truth, you actually didn't know what started this long feud, all you remembered was one day when you were five an annoying boy yanked your hair so hard that a few strands had come out. Annoying boy turned out to be Park Jimin and the two of you haven’t stopped arguing since.

“What flavour are you getting?” Jimin peered over your shoulder. He looked at you expectedly. “I’ve already chosen mine, so it’s just up to you and I’ll pay.” He holds his wallet out.

“Vanilla.” You said plainly.

“What?!”

You turn to face Jimin, frowning. “What’s wrong with vanilla?”

He makes a face. “Y/n, it’s so boring, like you no doubt.” The last part had slipped out accidentally and he regretted it as soon as it left his mouth. That was it. You were going to scream at him and he would lose the bet.

Instead, you ignored his comment fixing your gaze back onto the menu. “What do you think I should get then? I’ll give you the choice, assuming you don’t pick a disgusting flavour like mint chocolate chip, I’ll be fine.”

Sure, it was a stupid decision giving Jimin the power to pick what you were going to eat, but what could go wrong? Worst case scenario, you didn't like the flavour and he would be forced to go get a new one, which would cost him more money. It’s a win win.

“You’re giving me the freedom to pick what flavour you’re having?” Jimin asked, making sure he didn't misunderstand your statement. You simply nodded, shrugging nonchalantly.

“Yep” you replied when he stared at you for a while longer, popping the p.

Jimin smirked. “I’ll get you the best flavour to ever exist then.”

You raised an eyebrow at his statement, “Oh?”

“Yeah, mint chocolate~”

You stared at him in disgust, scowling as you said, “Dude I just said that flavour is disgusting. Made by the devil himself.”

Jimin tapped his chin, as if he had no clue about you were saying, “Did you really? Can’t recall anything like that. Hmm.”

“Park Jimin, I swear to god if you get me that flavour I will rip your eyeballs out and shove them up your ass.”

“So you wanna touch my ass now?” He grinned smugly. You felt your cheeks heat up as you spluttered, desperately searching for a comeback.

“Just- just get me whatever you’re having. Unless it’s chocolate mint, then get out of my sight right now.”

“Don't worry, I hate the flavour as much as you do. So, two birthday cakes coming right up.” You try to find ‘birthday cake’ on the menu.

“Dude, the thing looks like a unicorn just threw up on it.”

Jimin shoots you a glare. “Don’t disrespect the superior flavour bestowed upon us by the ice cream Gods.” You gape at him open-mouthed. Ice cream Gods?! The guy was insane. You were on a date with a guy who was insane. Rest in pepperoni to you.

“You’re insane,” You shake your head. “I’ll be waiting over there. Be quick.” You point to a table in the corner.

“Yes ma’am” Jimin saluted before going to order at the counter. You shake your head. You’d known Jimin of most of your life and he’d always been silly and annoying.

Some reason you knew a lot about him. You blamed it on your parents making you spend too much time with each other when you were younger. Also you needed to know every little thing about your mortal enemy, wasn’t that what mortal enemies did? You had to be prepared for anything and keep track of them at all times!

“Got your ice cream.” Jimin placed the cup in front of you as you stared at it with distaste. You’d never really had ice cream often but when you did you always went for the plain vanilla. It was simple, no need for toppings or colourful flavours. You weren’t one to take risks.

“What monstrosity did you get for me, Park?”

“Oh stop being a baby, it’s just strawberry with some syrup on it.” Jimin answered while he rolled his eyes, lips tugged up into a small smile. Eyes twinkling with adoration as he looked at you.

“I’m not eating it.”

“Oh yes you are. Here comes the airplane!” Jimin started, taking a spoonful of the ice cream and moving it towards your face as if talking to a child.

“I’m not a kid. I’m not ha-” Jimin shoves the spoon inside your mouth when you open it to retaliate, his lips lifted into a sly smile. You snatch the spoon off him while glaring at him and start feeding yourself. “Don’t patronise me, you jerk.” You grumbled.

Jimin almost cooed out loud at your pout but he barely controlled himself. Since when were you this cute? He watched as you ate.

“Is it good?”

“...yes” You reluctantly answered, still pouting.

Jimin smiled, leaning back on his chair as he pat himself on his shoulder. “Another job done well by yours truly.”

You rolled your eyes. Then you noticed that Jimin’s ice cream looked slightly different to yours. It wouldn’t hurt to ask for a bite. Would it?

“What’s on yours?” Jimin looked up, the tiny spoon still in his mouth. “What’s on your ice cream?”

“Just extra sprinkles and chocolate sauce, nothing too special.” He shrugged, continuing to devour his dessert. You stare at your cup and then at his. Something must have been possessing you because before you knew it you were leaning over and digging your spoon into his cup.

“Hey, you can’t just do that!”

“Pretty sure I just did.” You popped the spoon into your mouth, savouring the taste. “You know you really weren’t kidding when you said this was good. For once, you did something right, congrats dude.”

Jimin would have made a snarky comment but the look of pure ecstasy on your face stopped him. Even though he knew you for most of his life, there were parts you kept hidden. He knew you didn’t get out much, constantly studying was the only thing you seemed to do. A nice feeling bubbled inside of him. It was nice to know you were enjoying yourself, made him feel happy for some reason.

You giggled, shoving more of the sweet dessert into your mouth. Too busy to notice that Jimin was staring at you. When you did, you gave him a look of confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

“You got a little something here.” He pointed to the left side of his face, holding in the urge to laugh at your cute expression. “No here, no.” He leaned over brushing his thumb over the corner of your lips. He stared at you, had your eyes always been so pretty? You felt yourself grow red at the close proximity between you two, not knowing what to do. Jimin leaned away, - why did your heart sink at that? - and licked his thumb. “Love this flavour.”

You avert your eyes quickly, blush getting brighter. You should not have found that as hot as you did. Get yourself together Y/N! Park Jimin, enemy number one! Nothing he does is mildly attractive. Nothing. He is the devil reincarnated!

Suddenly your phone started ringing, shattering whatever moment you two had going on. You picked up the device and checked the caller ID. Why was Jungkook calling now? You gave Jimin a sheepish look.

“Hello? I’m out. No. What? How did you- Alright alright.” Jimin watched as you spoke on your phone.

You sighed in annoyance, hanging up after a while and giving Jimin a sheepish smile, “I need to go. Jungkook somehow made the microwave catch on fire.”

Jimin raised his eyebrows in shock, looking at you as if you had grown two more heads. “What? How is that even possible?”

“Not a clue but I gotta dip. Thank you for inviting me here today. I still think you’re up to something though but whatever.” You spoke, getting up from your seat and grabbing your small messenger bag that you brought along.

Jimin stood up alongside you, the both of you walking out of the shop and stopping on the sidewalk. “Yeah… Thank you for coming here with me.”

You two stood there staring at each other, not wanting to leave just yet.

“Well then! I’ll see you on Monday. Bye Jimin,” You announced after a while, quickly pressing a small kiss on his cheek before dashing away.

Jimin stood there in shock, hands raising to touch where you kissed him. Why was his heart racing so fast and why did he feel so warm inside?

“Huh.. maybe you’re not so bad Y/L/N” Jimin spoke up to himself before he too started his walk back home, mind filled with thoughts of you.

#thebtswritersclub #bangtaninn #blackswannet #castlebangtan #pjm #bts pjm #park jimin x reader #bts park jimin #bts jimin #jimin fluff #bts fluff #highschool!au #bts fanfic

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shittopi · 3 years

Note

how come you didnt like utena movie? just curious because i'm wondering if i should watch it :D feel free to spoil btw, also thanks for answering!

this will be a bit long i'll try not to spoil too much

i went and rewatched it and have warmed up to it somewhat.. i think it was mainly my fault for going into it expecting utena 2 when really its best approached as like a love letter to the fans/recap/rearrangement of the original show. basically like 90% of the time you're watching it you're constantly going to be thinking 'oh i recognize this line/story beat/relationship dynamic etc etc' but all of those elements will be in very different contexts, some of which can feel a bit..jarring or even unearned (?). like for example anthy starts calling utena 'utena' (without the -sama) on only their second meeting and the way it happens almost makes it feel like a throwaway line, whereas in the original show it was like. you know the literal final line that sticks with you forever kinda thing. i think it's fine if you're able to just interpret these moments as simple fanservice/ references to the show and nothing more, but if you're trying to seriously analyze them they might not necessarily hold up as well because you're constantly pitting them against the original which had a lot more runtime to flesh out everything around those moments properly if that makes sense. i think it could be interesting to hear from someone who watched the movie but not the show and see what conclusions/analyses they're able to come up with it but. that's another story. there are 2 things that definitely still bugged me even after rewatching though, the first being that anthy/akio have...significantly lighter skin tones compared to the show. i know some people argue that the whole movie's color palette is brighter in general but i dont really buy it lol. for their skin to be that much lighter utena should have like mikage level hair to match but she doesn't. it's just normal utena pink. all the other duelists more or less have their original hair colors as well and if anything their redesigned clothes are darker compared to the show. anyway it's just another reason why i don't really recommend analyzing the movie too deeply because if you read the whitewashing as deliberate on ikuhara/Be-Papas' part it can have...icky implications with the changes made to anthy/akio's personalities. the 2nd thing might honestly be more of a nitpick than anything but i can't help but feel like there were certain scenes in the movie that were like. at least a little..gratuitous in their execution ? utena's "gender reveal" during the saionji duel was...a bit weird. the camera angles in the pool scene were...somewhat questionable. miki and kozue bathing together...happened. anthy drawing naked utena with utena panting in a clearly sexual manner was... a choice. the final car scene... i was actually ok with because it's all so very over-the-top and kinda silly that it loops back into being heartwarming but maybe that's just me lol. i have heard that the original show did face a lot of like broadcast censorship issues so i guess the movie could kinda be a way to go all out in response or something? idk it's all certainly more explicit than the show for better or worse. at the very least i think it wouldn't hurt to watch the movie for yourself and come to your own conclusions about it. it's definitely very well made, the music is as good as ever, etc etc

#asks #if anyone else has input feel free to leave in the notes/send asks wtahever #also please dont reblog this lolll its embarassing #also dont take my advice on anything ever

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cecelianonymous22 · 3 years

Text

Creep | Expensive Headphones Full Comic + commentary

Just click on the panels if you don’t wanna see all the commentary.

This was actually the first time I did a perspective like this. I found a reference for hoodies and used a back-facing one similar to the panel

First time I’ve done this pose. I got the reference from here. Also look at that crushing man!

I honestly don’t know where I was going with the angel wings. Like- I thought I was gonna add more visuals like that but I kinda..didn’t?

Kinda don’t like this bc it looks wonky. But yeah, point is, bullies succ

I have a thing where like- my side profiles are inconsistent to my normal style?? Idk, its fuckin stupid sometimes but im working on it.

Also I kept forgetting Michael’s headphones hA-

This one was kind of a pain in the ass tbh. Bc I didn’t copy and past anything like I should’ve. And also because I had an inefficient way of using the bucket tool so i had to fill in all the edges

This wasn’t an original idea but I can’t find the original post. All I know is that it’s somewhere on Tumblr

ASHLEEEY! SQUIP MOOOOM!

Sorry, I love her lmao. My friend Evan created this specific design for Rich’s mom/Squip and I kinda took it as gospel because it just Makes sense

ft. me remembering that Rich has tattoos

(btw! the undercut and the natural hair are slightly different colors. fun trivia for ya)

Lmao I hated the hand in the last frame so I just kinda..cut it out..

Also I had drawn the spark thing as green for some reason. The reason it’s a slightly different blue than Ashley is bc i was too lazy to go back over it so i just changed the hue

I know this looks like ass but I never really draw with perspective like this

Like, the podium looks good

But RIch? Eh...

(Btw, i used a thing call 3D viewer on my laptop to figure out the podium)

I would just like to note that there’s a little scene transition between this panel and the next one.

I just

Didn’t realize how it would look together

ft. me remembering Michael’s headphones

Funky silhouettes

Funky backgrounds

This looked way worse than I originally had planned

But hey, look at that hand! The expressions are garbage but that hand!

ft. my art cooperating with me for once (minus Michael’s hand smh)

Btw, this whole scene is after Michael’s breakdown, which is why he’s trying to get out in the last panel

In this panel, Rich is pretty much just trying to persuade Michael

now kith

the arm sucks but yeah thats a lighter

also i probably mentioned this in the part i posted it in but

i highkey kinda hc that they hooked up in this time frame

and thats how Rich stole Michael’s lighter

but im not fucking drawing that so

just know ig

ew inconsistent side perspectives

ew inconsistent door

ft. hickeys ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The most detailed panel of the entire comic

CINNABUN

CINNAB-

yo look at that

a side perspective thats not ASS

fun fact

Jeremy and Michael’s hair are both messed up for the same reason ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Except in Jeremy’s situation it wasnt exactly consensual but..go off ig..

lowkey dont like this but yk

it works

back at it again with the bad side views

btw i almost forgot his burns!

or well

i did forget and then went back to edit them in

the

bisexual epiphany

ft. Michael overhearing and getting flustered bc Halloween

Alright that’s all the boyfs content yall are getting, sorry /lh, g

Oh but this was a first too! For hugs n shit. Here’s the reference I used

ft. me getting better with expressions!!

this little scene is honestly just, Michael cracking a joke or some kinda comment and Rich being all :)) about it

happy bois

starting to catch a little bit of feels

and the get well soon bear :))

But there you have it! There’s my comic

I’m really happy that I was able to finish it! Especially considering I started it in August, I think

Normally I lose motivation for that kinda shit but nope! Not this time! :))

Also I just think we need to overthrow the Boyfs supremacy so

I’m trying to do that with Expensive Headphones content

But yeah! Thanks to everyone who enjoys this comic! You all make my day!

#bmc #expensive headphones #creep comic #creep #radiohead #michael mell #rich goranski #rich x michael #michael x rich #jeremy heere #jake dillinger #brooke lohst #jenna rolan #christine canigula #cinnabun #christine x jenna #jenna x christine #platonic boyf riends #platonic richjake

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hectabdr · 3 years

Text

Dragon Raja IV - Chapters 11 & 12 (Abridged)

Hi everyone!

Today's chapters are a little slower than the previous ones, but they have a lot of insight on Nono, Luminous and the nature of their relationship. I also kept more of the original dialog for the same reason.

BTW, this is the point where the illustrations suddenly stopped for some reason so... No more drawings :P

Previous chapters.

Chapter 11

A girl waited in the top lobby of the Black Prince International Financial Center. At 21 years old, Tu Xiaojiao was already known as the "Sophie Marceau of China". She was in that building to meet the legendary "Master Shao", the inheritor of this powerful organization. If anyone else in the world made Miss Tu wait for more than half an hour, she would leave the place immediately, but Mr. Shao was different, he could offer her the role of her life, so she decided to stay in the waiting room.

When the receptionist finally allowed her to enter Shao's office, she found him next to the window, reading a poem out loud. She had to wait for him to finish for fifteen minutes, her high heels started making her feet feel numb, wondering if he was mocking her, Shao didn't even notice her presence. To her dismay, once he finally saw her in his office, it didn't make much of a difference, since Shao only had one topic in his mind, his adored senior was back.

Miss Tu tried to be polite, and asked to know more about this "senior" girl. When Shao was younger, he had a girlfriend, she was actually one year younger than him, but she demanded to be referred as his senior and he obsessed over her for the rest of his life. He even showed miss Xiaojiao a picture of himself and his senior back when they were a couple. Tu Xiaojiao was confused, in the tiny photograph, there were two children, one looked like Shao and by his side, there was a girl who seemed completely indifferent towards him. This was cut from a kindergarten group photo, and he carried it in his wallet ever since.

Shao had everything at his disposal since he was born, his focus in the entertainment industry was nothing but a hobby. He could visit any place that he wanted, he could buy any piece of clothing and of course, he could date some of the most beautiful women in the world. But he didn't want any of them as his wife. The woman of his life had to be someone who would make him beg for her affection, someone who would make him kneel in her presence. The only woman who could make that to him, was Chen Motong.

Every time that Miss Chen came back to the country, he felt like a five year old all over again, but getting her heart wouldn't be an easy task. She acted cold and demanding, when she arrived he asked her out for dinner but she just wanted to borrow a car from him and left. He heard about an Italian man, apparently her boyfriend and he couldn't learn anything else about him, it was driving him crazy, but he received some information that brought some hope back into his eyes. Miss Chen had a friend in town, and he was in the hospital. Shao left his office with Miss Tu in it, on his way to meet Mr Luminous.

Young Lu was also disheartened because of Nono, although, his reasons were different. His 91st attempt to save her also ended in failure. When he realized that they were once again going to die, Nono desperately tried to make him react, but he lazily waited in the car seat for the whole scenario to restart, frustrated and annoyed, as the gravity of the situation slowly became less palpable. He looked to his side and saw Nono's face looking at him. Her expression was as ruthless as ever but in her eyes he saw deep sadness, he almost felt like hugging her before they died but the simulation ended. To him, death meant that he would have to start all over again, but for Nono, every single time it meant a genuine end.

To interrupt his depression, a young, short, overweight man entered his room. He called himself a friend of Miss Chen and Luminous thought for a second that she sent him there to get him out of the hospital, but Shao was there to speak.

He started making questions, in particular, who was this Italian scumbag that he heard about? Tragically for him, Luminous spoke highly of Caesar's fortune, personality and actions, and to make matters worse, he wasn't only Chen's boyfriend, but her fiancé.

A depressed Shao proceeded to tell an anecdote from his childhood. When he was studying in the United Kingdom, Shao felt belittled next to ehe aristocratic children that studied with him, so he started bragging about his own family's wealth and promising other kids money for listening to him, when he tried to show off in front of Nono, she beat him up and told him to call her "Senior Sister".

The school's Rugby matches also got violent, Shao played aggressively, so the other kids retaliated against his attitude by deliberately kicking him in the face and hitting him with the ball. His front teeth got broken as there was no coach present to stop them. He sat down on the grass, defeated, when Nono took his place in the match, she fearlessly rushed into a defense of fifteen boys while Shao swore to his heart that one day he would marry that girl, even if he had to kneel and crawl in front of her.

Shao compared himself to the protagonist form "The Great Gatsby", who desperately needed to be with his love interest, Miss Daisy.

-Why should a girl be with a man who needs her?

She should be with a man she needs. My senior sister doesn't need me, I am the one who needs her.

Before Shao left, Luminous reminded him of a scene in "Journey to the West" where Tang Sanzang found a silly monkey who lived behind a waterfall. The cowardly monkey recognized Tang's strength and left his hidden home to follow him around the world. There are two types of monkeys in the world, the smart ones that can survive out there on their own, and the silly ones, who need a master they look up to.

Shao understood his metaphor and he felt encouraged. Realizing he could trust the strange mental patient enough to untie one of his hands, Shao gave Luminous a can of beer and they toasted. When Shao left, Luminous took a syringe from the side table and injected himself with more sedatives. This was his 92nd attempt.

Shao returned to his office, motivated and lively.

-I met a new brother today!

He encouraged me to come back here, he's a philosopher and his words are very touching!

People living in mental hospitals are all experts in this kind of stuff.

He realized that he left without saying goodbye to Miss Tu, but his apology wasn't answered, because the girl in his office was Nono. She was drinking, looking tired, she didn't wear any makeup and silently stared at the window.

Shao was determined to win her over, but Nono answered most of his questions briefly and coldly. She didn't want to speak with him, she was just there to return the car keys and now she wanted to leave.

Shao's pitiful voice tone softened her attitude a little so she asked him for some gin with ice. Nono drank the whole glass in one sip and asked for a refill. She had another glass, and another.

- Senior sister, is someone bullying you?

- Who could possibly bully me?

- Usually no one, but aren't you engaged now?

- Caesar wouldn't do that, don't worry about it, just take care of yourself.

- Are you really going to marry an Italian? Those guys spend their money so recklessly!

- Could you give me a better reason not to marry him? Who are you to say those things? Stop messing around and just confess your intentions.

- I'm your boyfriend from kindergarten! If you gave me a chance instead I could be endlessly more confident and...

- You? "Endless"? Nono was so angry that she laughed.

Shao Kneeled and asked Nono to be his girlfriend instead. He kneeled in one knee, so she asked him to kneel on both like he used to, and he did, but not for begging, he used to do so as punishment. Nono didn't like his subservient attitude.

- We were just classmates, I was wrong to treat you so hardly, but you don't have to hold on to me, I am engaged and you could marry just anyone.

Shao kept begging, Nono deflected every single one of his arguments until he recited Luminous's "Journey to the west" reference. His delivery was incredible, but she had no reaction to it, she looked at her glass with tired eyes. She got up on her feet and entered the elevator.

After she left, Shao was avidly celebrating, he interpreted her reaction as progress and showed off in front of his employees.

Nono stopped at a small ramen restaurant to warm up her rain-soaked body. Chu Tianjiao was her last clue and she lost it. If Luminous was actually sick, why didn't she give up on him yet?

Why did she feel the need to insist on his case? This wasn't only about her, every moment she spent in the middle of nowhere, escaping from the secret party, she got Caesar in trouble. How was she supposed to explain this to them?

She had to admit that she cared too much about Luminous's well-being. She wouldn't doubt to give him her diving suit, she immediately called him last year when she and Caesar were overwhelmed by Scythe ferrets to warn him of the impending danger and now that the whole world was against him, she kept insisting on proving his sanity. Regarding his feelings for her, she comforted herself with positive thoughts. Who didn't have a crush on a senior girl at some point in his life?

Zero was great for him, so was Isabelle, if she had known Erii in person, Nono would have considered them to be "such a fucking perfect match".

Over the last few years, this petty boy had grown up, he became more energetic, better dressed and gained so much experience, yet he kept holding on to her. She left Shao's office without saying a word because she recognized those words belonged to Luminous. They were about Luminous.

- Chen motong, you're such a fool, you messed everything up.

Chapter 12

An exhausted Su Xiaoyao leaned back on her office chair, she had spent a long day on work meetings and in the middle of the night her phone kept ringing. This was her life ever since she had to leave school to take over her father's business. She had gained some weight ever since but no one really cared, she was still one of the top bachelorettes in the city and she had just accepted a blind date, excited to take a break.

During the student reunion, seeing Luminous made her cry a little. It wasn't because she used to have a crush on him during their high school years, she just realized that those carefree days would never repeat themselves. Back in the day, she and the other girls used to sit on the basketball courts to see Luminous play basketball. Even the air felt different.

Su took her high heels off and put her feet on her desk to take a quick nap, but her phone interrupted her attempt to display an urgent text message. It was Liu Miaomiao, her old rival in love.

- Su Xiaoyao, find a way to get here, quick! They put our senior brother in a mental hospital!

Game level: Gungir light, 101st load.

- So, where did you get that rocket launcher again?

- I found it under the seat...

The whole fight seemed extremely rehearsed by now, Luminous always knew exactly where to shoot, it almost looked like he could predict the future.

- Did you learn that in your special training? I want to take that special training too!

Nono slowly became the most problematic element in the simulations, she didn't retain her memories after every attempt like he did. This was probably the first time Luminous felt something other than absolute admiration towards her, she became a little annoying, but he couldn't really blame her. They got in the car and tried to escape, but one of the tires was damaged.

- Are you hungry? I just found some nuts in this car!

He knew Nono was trying to calm him but he was still a little anxious, he repeated the steps to replace the tire in his mind but the car-wheel escaped his hands and rolled over the highway.

His tantrum surprised Nono, who dropped her snacks all over the floor. Ming·Z paused time and got out of the car.

He noticed that Luminous asked to reset his last six attempts instead of waiting for his death, he seemed far more tired than usual after his conversation with Shao, it made him reflect about his feelings for Nono to the point of getting distracted in battle.

- First of all, I'm not the only monkey that she brought out from the waterfall, second, I am the one who needs her, she doesn't need me.

- Brother, I expected you to regret going to Cassell College, you wouldn't be so sad otherwise.

- I don't regret it, if I hadn't gone to Cassell College, I wouldn't know my senior brother nor my senior sister or the boss, nor would I know Finger, the Japanese "Lonesome George" brothers... And Erii.

Luminous ignored Ming·Z's snarky remarks and got a better hold of his feelings.

- I always ran after my senior sister, I like her so much that it makes me very sad that I can't be with her. Caesar was born with everything, he could have married any girl he liked but he picked the only one I cared about.

Suddenly I realized that I'm wrong, that was just wishful thinking on my part.

There are more people for me out there, Erii liked me, but Nono was the only one I had eyes for. Nono doesn't need me, I'm the one who feels at ease when I follow her, like she'll feel relieved when she marries the boss. She wouldn't feel like that if she were with me and to pursue her is to act on my most selfish side, why did my senior brother support me?

- Your senior brother wasn't that upright, don't you think?

- Finally, are you willing to admit that he's real?

- Okay okay, Johann Chu really does exist, but there is something wrong with him and you need to get him back"

- Then I'm relieved.

Ming·Z confirmed more things, the city was closed on all exits due to the weather conditions and the Nibelungen was invading their reality on a large scale.

- Thank you, Ming·Z·Lu. Why do you call yourself Ming·Z? You deliberately used my cousin's name"

- No, my name is Ming·Z·Lu, there has always been a Ming·Z·Lu in your life and that's me, not the fat boy in your uncle's house.

Luminous went back to the car, picked the dozens of floating snacks and put them back in Nono's palm one by one.

- Sister, don't worry, you will be fine, I will definitely find a way, I changed my mind, I will attend your wedding, I'll see you in your white dress holding orange flowers, walking on a red carpet full of happiness... Maybe you should throw the bouquet in my direction.

Three girls were sobbing next to his bed when he woke up, Chen Wenwen was the first face he recognized, followed by Su Xiaoyao and Liu Miaomiao. Su was one of the most influential persons in town, so she demanded that her old classmate got released from the hospital.

They took him out on a car and decided to stop on a luxurious bar. They all felt a little insecure about what they were wearing, so Su Xiaoyao asked her driver to bring them their old school uniforms.

Sitting at the bar, after multiple drinks, the girls kept reminiscing of their old days in high school, Luminous past in this reality was the same as Johann's, including his Saxophone recitals at the cultural festivals. He used to envy Johann so much back then...

He stood up and told everyone that he was going to the bathroom, but he changed back to his normal clothes and got out of the bar. A man with a motorized tricycle was waiting for potential passengers outside and Luminous gave him his expensive watch as insurance for borrowing his small vehicle.

He drove all the way to the Number 10 highway and entered the Nibelungen again. Odin was waiting for him far away, he didn't say a word but he slowly raised his lance. Luminous turned around and left the god's prison.

Back in his old apartment, Finger had befriended Luminous's aunt and kept doing shores for her. Nono came back to the place and they argued about their course of action.

- If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have rescued him from that theater.

- Feels like you stepped in bubble gum and you can't take it off.

Finger suddenly left the room and came back with the news, Luminous had left the hospital with three old classmates. Nono grabbed an umbrella and ran out. She knew the bar and she knew about Su Xiaoyao, they weren't going to be hard to find.

By the time she arrived, the three girls were arguing after Luminous left. They actually tried to blame each other, the way they admired him was surprising to Nono. Suddenly, Luminous came back and justified his absence by saying that he went to a convenience store to get something to eat.

Nono watched them from the dark, feeling really stupid, there was a strange obsession that she couldn't let go of. In fact, she should have driven away the silly monkey that pestered her long ago, the more she helped him, the more he would rely on her. This wasn't good for any of them, but she couldn't bear to refuse.

She was afraid that he would end up crying alone in the wilderness, where no one could listen to him. She hoped that one day he could become one of those smart monkeys who run around happily, but maybe this silly monkey was smart from the beginning and she was pitying someone who didn't really need her.

She strolled under the heavy rain, her clothes were soaking and stuck to her body, it was a long way back to the uncle's house but she wanted to walk alone. She felt colder and colder and for the first time in her life she missed the Golden Iris Academy. She felt like going to a ramen stand again but there were no businesses in sight, however, there was a phone booth.

One call, that's all she needed to give away her location, Caesar made her memorize an emergency number long ago, it was the right thing to do, the person she should trust the most in this situation was not Finger or Luminous, but Caesar. Dialing felt like betraying her old classmates, but she started pressing the numbers.

"No, no, no, no, no, don't be like this, don't be like this"

Subconsciously, she looked aside and saw a small boy in the rain, looking at her from the other side of the glass. What was such a young boy doing out there on his own?

He was delicate and beautiful, like a porcelain doll.

- Are you looking for me? She asked.

The expressionless face of the boy slowly got horrifyingly distorted by the raindrops on the glass. She couldn't breathe due to an overwhelming sadness, so she opened the door but the boy was not there anymore. She took the calling card out of the booth and hanged up the phone.

Rome, Italy.

Caesar was waiting in front of a phone, he was under a lot of pressure, but the moment he received Nono's call, all of his problems would be over, yet the phone was silent.

The family elders felt like Luminous had stolen something that belonged to their heir, so they suggested that he cancelled his marriage.

- No, there are only two people in this world who can dissolve that engagement, Nono and me.

To avoid being put under heavy suspicion, he had to act calm and decisive, like he did a few days ago, when he released the monsters from the ice cellar to find the fugitives. Parsi entered the room and informed Caesar about the worsening weather conditions in Beijing, this type of climate phenomenons usually signaled the awakening of powerful dragons.

Luminous, the never-existing Johann Chu, the grim reaper, it was all starting to make sense. Caesar instructed Parsi to prepare his private jet and his desert eagles, he also dissuaded Parsi from going with him. At the lionheart club, president Babru informed the former president and dragon slayer Abdullah Abbas that Caesar wanted to team up with him to hunt the dragon down.

Intrigued, Abdullah accepted and instructed everyone to get ready.

To be continued, final update on Monday.

#Dragon Raja #dragon raja novel #luminous #ming z lu #nono #caesar gattuso #johann chu

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thegalleonsnest · 3 years

Text

Wiggle’s Muse - Short Excerpt turned into a FanFic

Yo, so, I wanted to share a small snippet of a future project I’m working on (while also delaying my current art projects). What I’ve written out here in this post was originally in a format not meant for professional writing purposes, but I said “eh, why the hell not,” and written it out in sort of a short fanfic format for you guys to read. This project btw, is not a fanfic (had to make that clear). What I am working on is a very large scale project for myself and is still in the blocking out/rough draft phases. This right here is probably my most fleshed out scene I’ve written out, and feels pretty complete as it’s own thing. Honestly, I’d appreciate the feedback if any of ya’ll found this interesting!

Also I’m putting this in a tumblr post because I don’t have an AO3 or fanfiction account, and this is already too short for it anyway. Read the excerpt below

In front of the camera lenses, multiple grumpuses walk back and forth discussing a matter of topics but most importantly, where was Wiggle?

"Has anyone gotten ahold of Wiggle yet? She was supposed to be here hours ago,” a gruff voice coming from out of frame says. “We’ve tried calling her for over an hour, but we got nothing,” says another off camera, “do you think we should reschedule-” before they could finish, the studio doors bust open with a loud thud echoing the studio room. A tall, short armed grumpus with a boa stumbles along the room carrying an oddly shaped banjo.

“There she is,” said the gruff voiced grump, “Wiggle, whatever you got going on, you better do it now cause we got a meeting with investors in half an hour!” From the blurry view of a slightly out of frame Wiggle, she barely registered what the grump said. In a stumble, she walks to the center of the camera’s view & shakes her head, almost slurring her words, “Doooon’t worry, Darling, we’ll get you a new vest later.” “What, no, wait, that’s not what I-” before another word could be said, Wiggle readies her banjo and strikes a quick pose before strumming the strings like her life depended on it.

It didn’t take longer than a few seconds before the crew sprung into action, setting the proper lightning, mics and cameras around her. Her rhythm and measures became a lot more stable, catchy even, and then she broke into song. The next set of lyrics would become an instant, regrettable classic.

It’s not long before the VHS tape stutters and stops, showing mostly static. A magenta furred Grumpus with some hair covering a part of eye, hits the eject button, takes out the tape and turns off the tv. “Girl, you were a right mess there!” She said with a giggle. “Tell me about it, Vrittany...” Wiggle said frustratingly, pinching the bridge of her nose. “And you’re telling me you can’t come up with anything better than that? Come on now!” “I wish I was lying, but I’m not. No matter what I come up with, nothing is topping whatever the heck my walking coma came up with instead!” Wiggle grabs her mug of coffee and takes a longing sip.

The two sit across from one another at the coffee bar. The aroma of that day’s set of cocoa beans waft through the cafe as most of the outside lamps fill out the darker spots inside. The place is nearly empty besides them, and a single muted green furred occupant sitting at a booth at the opposite end of the cafe, drawing away in his sketchpad.

“So, whatcha gonna do?” Vrittany asked sarcastically, “Stay awake for another week? Get inspired again? Hehe.” Wiggle sets her mug down, and answers, “I did try that again, but in style I fell asleep comfortably on a couch in the lobby”. Vrittany looked a bit stunned. “You’re kidding?! You’re crazy!” “Not crazy, Vrittany,” she takes another sip of her coffee before striking a pose in her high stool seat, bellowing out her voice. “Just creatiiiivly driveeeen~” “Whatever you say, darling,” Vrittany says before turning around to her bar’s sink. She cleans several mugs and glasses with gusto while preparing one last pot of coffee, enough for a single cup for later.

Vrittany takes off her apron and hangs it on the wayside of the counter as she walks around to take a seat next to Wiggle. After situating herself, she puts a paw on Wiggle’s shoulder. “Listen, pretty sure this is just a rut you’re stuck in right now,” she says. “Doesn’t every artist go through that every now and then?” Wiggle turns her head toward Vrittany, “Well..yeah, but this is different,” she desperately says. “I can’t let a song I made in my sleep be the best thing I’ve ever made! I know I can make something that’ll shake the world more than whatever ‘Do The Wiggle’ was.”

Vrittany pulls back her paw from Wiggle to put on her best thinking cap. As deeply in thought as she was, her face immediately relaxes into a deadpan expression, “Have ya tried singing from the heart?” Wiggle cracks a smile, “HA, if only that’s how it works! It takes a musical genius to write a hit song in show biz, not just some field day with my feelings.” “Eh, worth a shot. Got any other plans?” “I’m still trying to figure that out. I need some kind of inspiration...almost like a-”

Before she could finish her thought, they both caught a glance at the muted green furred grump who walked up to them. He mustered up the words and said, “E-excuse me, you’re Miss Wiggle, right?” Wiggle turned in her seat to get a better look at the young Grumpus. She could tell he was nervous, clutching his sketchbook in his arms rather tightly. She quickly put on a more relaxed front to help calm things down, while also still showing off a bit of her excited side. “Why yes I am, Darling,” she said enthusiastically. “And I can tell you must be a fan of mine.” “Y-yeah...!” The green grump looked a little more relaxed, but still stiff in the shoulders. “Hey now, no need to be so nervous. I always got time for my fans.” “Thank you, Miss Wiggle. Um…” “No need to finish that thought, Darling, I know what you’re about to ask and I’m happy to oblige!”

Before the young man could stop to say something, Wiggle pulls out one of her many professional hand out photos that she has, and quickly signs with her autograph before handing it to him. “O-Oh, thank you, Miss, but that’s not what I was going to s-say.” he sheepishly says. “Really? Not an autograph,” Wiggle says surprisingly. “It’s usually the first thing fans ask of me.” “Sorry, I just...I wanted to show you this sketch I made…”

The nervous grumpus slowly turns his sketchbook around to reveal a fully sketched art piece depicting a stylized Wiggle singing her heart out at the bar with Vrittany hanging out in the background cheering her on. He hands it to Wiggle to give them a closer look. It was still somewhat messy, showing a few guidelines and early roughed out shapes, but for what it was, it was still impressive to the two girls.

“Woah, that’s pretty rad!” Vrittany yelled out, leaning out from her seat trying to get a closer look. Wiggle was pretty stun, gasping at the sight of such a piece of artwork. “Darling, you drew this?! Just now,” Wiggle asked in awe. “Yeah! I was listening to some of your music and then you came in and sat down. It made me wanna draw you as fast as I could,” the green grumps says excitedly before rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry if it’s still a little messy looking though…” “Don’t be, because it is beeeaautifuuul~” “T-thank you so much, Miss Wiggle! T-that means a lot to m-me!” the grumpus says while his face lights up red from the praise. “You’re like an inspiration to me.” “Really now? Like a muse? All I do is sing the night away, Darling. You draw little masterpieces like this from me?”

As Wiggle continues to be enthralled by the young man and his work, Vrittany notices the coffee pot had finished brewing. She gets up from her seat and go back behind the counter to finish her last cup for the night. Wiggle and the green grump continue their conversation.

“W-well kind of,” says the grump, “it’s a bunch of music that inspires me when I draw. A lot of your stuff is so upbeat and fun, it gives me lots of different ideas to pump out!” Wiggle looks back, almost flabbergasted. “I’m...honestly a bit stunned that I had that kind of impact on you, Darling,” she says, almost with a melancholy tone, “...heh, kind of forget sometimes I do make some kind of impression on grumps like you.” She looks back down at the sketchbook, entranced by the creativity that sparked in the moment. That dazzling moment where it all clicked...where could she find that, when someone else can find it in her?

After an awkward minute of silence, the young grump spoke up and said, “If you like, you can keep the sketch page, Miss Wiggle?” Wiggle snapped her head back up from the sketchbook to the green fuzzball. “W-wait really? Are you sure you wanna give up this piece of art?” said Wiggle worryingly. “It’s no problem at all,” said the green grump proudly. “I already took a picture of it to save for later. I’m gonna make a painted version of it online later! Besides, it’ll make me happy if you kept it, since I was going to give it to you anyway.” “Oh Darling, you’re nothing more than a sweet one now, aren’t you? I’ll gladly keep it!” “Thank you so much, Miss Wiggle!”

Wiggle hands the sketchbook back to the green grumpus and he tears out the sketch. “No, Darling, thank you,” Wiggle says ecstatically. Vrittany returns from behind the bar with a to-go cup in hand, saying “Here’s your order, kid.” “Oh, thank you, Vrittany. How much was it again,” the green grump asked. “Eh, don’t worry about it. Don’t feel like counting change. It’s on the house.” “O-oh you sure?” “You wanna change my mind?” “Don’t think I can, so thank you!” The green grump turns back to Wiggle and says “It was so nice meeting you in person, Miss Wiggle!”

“The pleasure is all mine, Dar-,” Wiggle catches herself before she realizes something. “Actually, what was your name?” “It’s Grite, Grite Tillsland!” Wiggle lets a genuine soft smile grow on her face. She felt a lot more at ease and happier knowing her new friend was much more relax and happy overall. She reached out her paw for a handshake, and Grite reciprocated.

“The pleasure’s mine, Grite, Darling.”

#Bugsnax #Wiggle Wigglebottom #TheGalleonsNest Writing #Fic #wip excerpt #Bugsnax Fanfic #Hope you guys enjoy a taste of what's to come #even when there's very little context #I've got multiple large scale projects lined up #this is just one of them #I hope to officially start it this year #but there is still a lot of backend work to be done #and also I got tons of art to make too before then

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