i think the reason that a lot of people don’t recognize how fucked up sokka is is due to the fact that sokka himself refuses to acknowledge it. he is extremely repressed and operating on so many layers of cognitive dissonance that he doesn’t even realize that he is not in fact “normal” or “mentally stable” or “healthy.” part of sokka being extremely fucked up is also refusing to acknowledge or confront that he is remotely fucked up. so he generally presents like a well-functioning person who, despite being incredibly cerebral, doesn’t have a particularly rich inner life. but that’s only because he’s walled off every single aspect of his existence that causes him (real) pain or sadness or grief, put it in a vault and then buried it. and confronting any of it, even a little bit (like admitting that he felt abandoned by his father leaving, or that he misses his mother, or any other normal expression of pain that katara has no problem communicating) would mean confronting all the harmful logic he has internalized regarding his identity and denial of his own inherent humanity. so even though he seems like he has no filter and loves to complain, he is actually performing pretty much constantly. for the sake of those to whom he feels obligated, but mostly for himself.
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Cute when you win
Written for the prompt ‘pool’ for @steddiemicrofic
442 words / Rated G or T / established relationship
“Red three, corner right pocket.”
“My right or your right?” Eddie grins across the table at Steve.
A haze of cigarette smoke hangs in the air, lending a dreamlike feeling to the nearly empty bar. It’s late, almost closing time, and Eddie and Steve have been playing pool for hours. Steve rolls his eyes but otherwise ignores Eddie’s remark.
“Corner right pocket,” Steve repeats. The light above the pool table haloes Steve as he leans over, the muscles in his forearm flexing as he lines up his cue and takes the shot, sinking the ball with ease. He straightens, brows raised, spreading his hands. “Told you.”
“You know you don’t have to try to impress me right?” Eddie says, hands wrapped around his cue, smiling fondly. “I’ll let you in on a secret, Steve: I’m already impressed.”
“Who said I’m trying to impress you?” Steve slips the cue behind his back, hip grazing the edge of the table. “Eight ball, left side.” He winks, takes the shot, and wins the game.
Eddie tips his head back with a groan. “Fuck. I don’t know if I think it’s annoying you beat me at four games in a row, or if I think it’s hot.”
“You know what I think?” Steve moves around the table to stand by Eddie.
“No, what do you think?”
“I think you think it’s hot.” Steve leans against the pool table, crossing his arms. “That’s why you let me win twice.”
“Me? I’d never do that just to see that cute little smile you get when you win.”
“Uh-huh.” Steve shrugs. “I mean, I am pretty cute, so… I guess I can let it slide this time.”
“And if you weren’t going to let it slide,” Eddie says, leaning closer, “what would you do?”
The only answer he gets is a grin and a twinkle in Steve’s eyes that makes his heart beat hard. “Hey, wanna play again?”
Eddie shakes his head. “You know what I think?”
Steve’s lips twitch. “No, what do you think?”
“I think we should go home.”
“That”— Steve pushes away from the table —“is my kind of thought.” He takes their cues over to the rack, then gestures with his head. “Giddy up, time’s a-wastin’.”
“So bossy,” Eddie says, but he follows Steve through the bar and into the balmy night air. “Hey, wanna come back again tomorrow night? Shoot some more pool?”
Their hands brush between them as they walk, tantalizing and teasing. “Yeah,” Steve says, “but don’t let me win. I wanna beat you for real.”
Eddie snorts but he says, “Deal,” and, street deserted, takes a chance and holds Steve’s hand.
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"Non paeniteo potitus."
+ details & process
And, process !!
The jump btwn the second to last and last always surprise me whenever I make one of these because I always forget to take snapshots after I start painting. It's always like: oh yeah heres the lineart with some colors- BOOM fully finished✨️
What he's holding are the Austrian imperial scepter and orb, seen below:
I was going to draw the crown too but decided I don't hate myself that much(maybe some other day), and gave him a golden laurel crown, bcs I'm obsessed with that as a motif, and also its very remincient of the boy king statue that started this whole thing!
There's some symbolism of this, both intentionally but also just historically. I love that the orb represents that the monarch is holding the world in their hand, basically every old monarchy has one of those, and I think it's very cool for symbolism. But also bcs of that, I was forced to basically draw catholic fanart so, you win some you lose some. The star halo above him head is both to reference those religious statues with star crowns(I saw them a lot in Europe and they imprinted onto my brain), as well as: his four championships of course!
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