Let’s just say I have a lot on my plate at the moment but I’m so grateful for all the support you guys have shown me through these past busy months. Thank you as always for your patience with my slow updates and maybe I’ll find some time to sketch something for the TMNT AU Competition later on @tmntaucompetition Hopefully some of these projects will be finally wrapped up in the next few months and I can return to Replica 100%

Also fun fact about me. Sometimes I get a little carried away with world building. Normally my friends and collaborators keep me on a tight leash, but now I’m completely unsupervised and reaping what I’ve deeply sewn. For better or for worse.

NOTE: Don't be scared, my question shouldn't have much impact on the actual story of Replica... I just like to know all the little details.

Instruction on Courtship

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realized i never posted donnie's updated ref, which is a crime

- his arm is integrated into his nervous system and cannot be removed without causing extreme pain. this is necessary so he can have dexterity when handling delicate electronics, or to make sure what he's touching isn't hot enough to damage it, etc.

- his leg prosthetic is not integrated, it can be removed and is collapsible.

- he recieved the scar on his plastron while trying to defend raph in the raid on their lair. this is what inspires his casual armor.

- donnie's full mech suit is v1.5, since his prototype armor didn't pan out. it was more iron man-esque, covering him head to toe in metal. it was too slow, and that cost him his arm.

- he's perpetually split between multiple fields of science (botany, engineering, robotics, biology) and handles much of the designs for weapons, airships, armor, as well as updating the resistance base. he has a separate team to handle manufacturing and maintenance, but he is incredibly busy at all times, never slowing down.

- the apocalypse makes him strangely calm. with the worst already come to pass, he is fully in solution mode. as long as what he's doing keeps everyone alive, helps people survive, brings them any amount of security, he clings to that as a reason to do (to give) as much as he does.

once again screaming crying throwing up about the fact that infinity train was prematurely cancelled despite being contracted for 5 seasons.

Ooohh for the warmup doodles, maybe Tale of Teo Towns? :] Or Island of Happiness/Sunshine Islands!

thank you so much for the suggestion, reese!!

georgia and mikhail are definitely my favorite marriage candidates from tott. and i actually haven't played ioh or si yet, but basing off their events, i think denny and sabrina would be right up my alley!

wouldn’t it be fucked up if I wrote something abt being one of the women toji stays w/ after the death of his wife except… he brings little megumi and little tsumiki with him to stay with you? Wouldn’t that be so painful and I absolutely shouldnt do it?

Something rubbed against his leg beneath the table. Jon saw red eyes staring up at him. “Hungry again?” he asked. There was still half a honeyed chicken in the center of the table. Jon reached out to tear off a leg, then had a better idea. He knifed the bird whole and let the carcass slide to the floor between his legs. Ghost ripped into it in savage silence. His brothers and sisters had not been permitted to bring their wolves to the banquet, but there were more curs than Jon could count at this end of the hall, and no one had said a word about his pup. He told himself he was fortunate in that too. His eyes stung. Jon rubbed at them savagely, cursing the smoke. He swallowed another gulp of wine and watched his direwolf devour the chicken. Dogs moved between the tables, trailing after the serving girls. One of them, a black mongrel bitch with long yellow eyes, caught a scent of the chicken. She stopped and edged under the bench to get a share. Jon watched the confrontation. The bitch growled low in her throat and moved closer. Ghost looked up, silent, and fixed the dog with those hot red eyes. The bitch snapped an angry challenge. She was three times the size of the direwolf pup. Ghost did not move. He stood over his prize and opened his mouth, baring his fangs. The bitch tensed, barked again, then thought better of this fight. She turned and slunk away, with one last defiant snap to save her pride. Ghost went back to his meal. Jon grinned and reached under the table to ruffle the shaggy white fur. The direwolf looked up at him, nipped gently at his hand, then went back to eating.

Jon I, AGOT

It's interesting that GRRM would dedicate several paragraphs to a seemingly unimportant exchange between a boy, his wolf, and an unfriendly third party. But there's just something about this passage that has continued to nag at me for years since I first read it because, considering how heavy handed GRRM was with the foreshadowing in AGOT, this feels important.

Jon is sitting at table full of squires - aka would be knights. We don't really know who they are or what families they belong to, but it's safe to assume that they come from a certain level of privilege; this is considering the fact that it cannot be financially easy to be a squire. And these boys already have a slew of tales detailing all their previous knightly exploits regarding "battle and bedding and the hunt" which suggests that they have some capital. So you have boys who will soon be men. And they will, presumably, become men of some power.

These lads eat their fill of the chicken until only half remains, which Jon then gives to Ghost. The direwolf's name is not so important here but what he represents is. Throughout the series, we're told that Ghost is reminiscent of the weirwood trees (because of his red eyes and white fur). He's stated to be of and from the Old Gods and since he's a personification of the weirwoods, he might as well be one of them. It's almost as if Jon is presenting whatever is left on the table to the Old Gods (Ghost). He lets them devour his offerings while he silently watches. And the motif of watching is so interesting here because it's kind of like Jon takes on a stewardship role - to watch over land/people/etc. He oversees Ghost eating the chicken, so he's overseeing whatever has been given to the Old Gods. This is not new imagery to his arc. As a brother of the Night's Watch and eventually its leader, we have several instances where he leads people to adopting the Old Gods in some fashion. In ADWD, several recruits swear their vows to the Old Gods while he watches on as their Lord Commander. The Old Gods are also primarily of the North and we're told that Jon has more of the north in him than his brothers; interesting that this also includes Bran. So perhaps whatever is being offered to the Old Gods relates to the North.

We must also note that Jon initially thinks to give only a small portion, a leg, before pivoting and providing the entire thing. It feels to me a bit like the process of carving up a kingdom or something similar. The lords (represented by the squires) take what they want and leave aside what they don't; or perhaps they have eaten to their fill and can take no more. Then when his time comes, Jon first considers a small piece of land/group of people before eventually absorbing all of whatever is left behind. The concept of carving up a kingdom rings harder considering that we have several callbacks to the ideals of kingship in this chapter. Robert, Jaime, Tyrion, and even Mance though we don't know it yet, all play into this. And then there's the aspect of Jon letting the chicken slip between his legs which evokes birth/fatherhood, a very curious choice when GRRM could've just had Jon place the chicken on the floor. So land/people are carved up and Jon then uses whatever is left to birth his own type of kingdom. And this kingdom is one for the Old Gods.

This also touches on something that has been quite prevalent throughout Jon's arc. It's the concept of accepting the "others" or "those left over" who live apart from the accepted social norms. Arya (a tomboy), Sam (a gender non-confirming boy), the Night's Watch (criminals, extra sons, and men who have no future left or place to go), and even the wildlings are all examples of this. And Jon takes on a leadership/paternal role to every single one of them. He looks after them as a leader would/should. Sometimes, in the case of Arya and the wildlings, he's equated to a king. He's a steward/shepherd/king. There's messianic undertones to this:

Come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30).

If you're familiar with Judeo-Christian tradition, you'll know that Jesus is often personified as one who spent the majority his time among the outcasts. The idea is that he came to save them too and that anew kingdom (or new earth depending on your translation) would spring up after the end of the world where he would forever rule as king; which presents the idea of a final king after the earthly ones are done away with. Now GRRM isn't so heavy handed with Christian allusions as other authors out there, but he does have a Catholic background and Jon is so overtly a Jesus figure. And in Revelation, Jesus is king and god at the very end....

One last thing: the mention of the mongrel who challenges Jon has always been rather interesting but confusing to me. A mongrel doesn't really relate to one specific type of dog. But it's interesting that Jon notes several roaming about where he is. They follow the serving girls who carry the food to be offered. Mongrels are used to describe antagonist/villainous groups in ASOIAF. Sometimes, they're used to describe slavers in Essos. But what's interesting is that most of the time, they're used to describe Euron's Ironborn especially in Victorian's POV. So I don't think the mongrel who challenges Ghost is a supernatural threat of death (i.e., the Others) but rather a human one. They represent those who are called to the scene once the lords have finished playing their games. It almost feels like a feast for (carrion) crows....

But it doesn't really matter because this mongrel isn't much of a challenge for Ghost. Though the mongrel is much larger, the direwolf is able to fend her off very effortlessly. Given that "mongrel" is used to describe Ironborn raiders, could this exchange between Ghost and the mongrel point to reavers or sea raiders who rise and fail challenge Jon kingdom? There is a historical King Jon Stark who did this....

When sea raiders landed in the east, Jon drove them out and built a castle, the Wolf's Den, at the mouth of the White Knife, so as to be able to defend the mouth of the river.[1][2] His son, Rickard, followed him on the throne and annexed the Neck to the north.

ref.

So this might shed some light not only on Jon's already published arc, but also on what we can expect in the future. We have some foreshadowing through Jon's ADWD dream that he will not only rise with the dawn (thereby live through the Long Night), but will be in a position to lead people (wildings in that chapter) to a new peace after a hard fought war. Also remember that the wildlings, rather enthusiastically, swear oaths to him as if swearing oaths to their king. In this instance, the supernatural (a dream of the war for the dawn) is followed by the natural/human. So perhaps this particular passage (and Jon's dream) can be used to predict that Jon comes out on top, and quite effortlessly too, as a leader. And he becomes a leader who rules by association with the Old Gods; or rules a kingdom for them.

To end, I think it's of note that this passage immediately precedes Jon's conversation with Benjen where he voices his desire to go out on his own - the hero's call to action. This is the adventure that's going to kickstart his growth as a man, warrior and most importantly, a leader. So it looks like before we even began, GRRM telegraphed how it would all end in just three short paragraphs.

waiting for the bad boy comic to upend all of my silver underground world building and make me second-guess my whole story 😅

the secret ninjago truth is that lloyd isn’t actually an anime protagonist, kai was the traditional anime protagonist and got usurped by lloyd, a comic book protagonist

infinites 141-149. the end of an era

part 1 part 10 part 11 part 12 part 13 part 14

This image appeared to me in a dream. It is correct, and could not possible require any elaboration.

But honestly. Why would Nomura choose to start the paopu sharing scene with Sora focused on Riku. Why would Nomura choose to have Sora frowning and reluctant to share paopu with Kairi until Kairi clarifies it doesn’t mean they’re a couple. Why would Nomura not tell the voice actors this scene is romantic if it’s meant to be romantic. Why would Nomura consider not having Sora and Kairi share paopu at all. Why would Nomura choose to have Sora start questioning what romantic love and true love are in KH3. Why would Nomura have Sora notice the parallels between himself & Riku and Anna & Elsa just to begin wondering what he and Riku are (according to the novel, Sora doesn’t feel like ‘siblings’ is the right answer). Why would Nomura directly parallel Riku’s feelings for Sora with Hercules’ romantic feelings for Megara. Why would Nomura choose to not show Sora acting ‘romantic’ (in the eyes of the general audience) with Kairi until after Sora forgets Riku’s true love sacrifice (and arguably other things about Riku) and associates Kairi with his savior — a situation that parallels another romantic Disney tale, The Little Mermaid, and is not unlike Sora associating Namine (and then Kairi) with the person most precious to him in CoM when it’s actually Riku that Namine has replaced in Sora’s most precious memory, the meteor shower promise… another memory that Sora may have forgotten. Why would Nomura choose to show Riku’s true love sacrifice multiple times, emphasizing how important it is, if that moment/memory is not going to be vital later. Why would Nomura choose to visually parallel Riku’s true love sacrifice with the meteor shower promise. Why would Nomura specifically shut down the possibility of Riku/Namine when he’s usually pretty indifferent to shipping. Why would Nomura choose to not have Kairi’s memories hold an important connection to Sora beyond the knowledge that unreality exists, and then in the same breath, give Riku an important, personal connection to Sora through his dreams. Why would Nomura choose to make Riku the only one who can go after Sora, who has the power to save him? Why would Nomura choose to parallel Riku with Cinderella and Aurora whose “dreams lead her to her true love”? Why would Nomura do any of this if Sora/Riku’s not happening.

click for better quality!

i dont draw my own characters unless its for a special occasion so drawing noah and cedric is a bit of a treat :]

Hey. Hey, Phil.

Hey, Phil, can you please not hurt me tomorrow? Can you-can you just-can you not with the lore-

Sir, please. Please. I beg. My chest actually hurts because of today. My anxiety is so bad. Fit’s stream is going to destroy me. Forever has already destroyed me. I just-can we have a chill day?

Let’s just have a super chill building stream with Chayanne and Tallulah where everything is fine and nothing hurts. Please. I’m so tired. I just need peace.

coming up with such cool worldbuilding ideas that the reader/player will never get to know about. currently trying to figure out how to hide a planet

I think my new pet peeve are Astarion fix it fics