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fen-the-space-dragon · 10 months
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Mk uhhhh Middlepaw backstory time? I think it’s time for that (as in I wish to share the magic words that cause maximum emotional damage to my little child here so that YOU TOO can cause them emotional damage if you so wish. Cuz I enjoy making my ocs miserable and I swear I’m not a psychopath… also I feel like I should prob just explain their backstory along with those magic words)
There’s also a tldr at the end cuz this is really long
Mk, starting at the begining:
Middlepaw was born outside the clan to two rogue parents. They also had two siblings named Eldest and Youngest (you can tell their parents loved them very much naming them after their birth order /j). They didn’t really stay in any one spot long and tended to travel around a bunch, eventually wandering near Mommyclan. They figured it might be nice to live in a larger group where everyone kinda helps take care of everyone. Plus Youngest was sick and none of them knew much about healing, so they kinda needed Mommyclan’s help anyway
They wound up joining the clan and while the parents refused to take warrior names, they did change their kit’s names to fit in with the clan (Eldestkit, Middlekit, and Youngestkit). The parents would constantly fuss over Youngestkit and didn’t really give much attention to their other kits. Eldestkit was pretty much only given attention when being told to watch their siblings or see if the elders or anyone needed anything. They were pretty much just given chores and responsibilities
Middlekit on the other paw, was pretty much just ignored. Whenever they tried to get their parent’s attention, they were just told to go away, or that their parents were busy, or to go play with some other kits or something. At first they would directly try to get attention (mostly from their parents, but also sometimes from other cats), but slowly stopped doing that as it didn’t work with their parents who also didn’t like their kit pestering other clan members. “Stop annoying our clanmates. You don’t want us to get kicked out because of you, do you? Youngest kit would die if we got kicked out, you know that right?”
They stopped pretty quickly after that and instead tried to get attention other ways. They practiced “catching prey” (pouncing on rocks and moss and stuff), climbing, running, etc. They became a bit of a tryhard and wanted to be the best at like everything, that way maybe someone would acknowledge them for being good at something. They got frustrated a lot though, seeing as you can’t really just flip a switch and instantly be good at everything. They’d get upset when other kits beat them in a race or play fight or were just better than them at anything. Eldestkit would try to comfort them when this happened, but it didn’t work much. Middlekit wound up deciding that they just aren’t good at anything and are useless. They stopped really doing things and just kinda sat in the nursery and watched other cats. (This was towards the end of them being a kit. They were almost 6 moons old at this point. Youngestkit also got better at some point near the end of “tryhard Middlekit” and the begining of “sad Middlekit”)
Middlekit and their siblings were apprenticed (this reminds me Middlepaw needs a mentor lol) and lots of pressure was put on Eldestpaw by their parents to pretty much be perfect. “You need to do better. If we’re not useful, do you think they’re gonna keep us around? You need to be better than the apprentices who were born here or what reason will they have not to throw us out?” Youngestpaw was babied and given a lot of slack by their parents who used their former illness as an excuse to treat them better than their siblings (it was really just favoritism). Aaaand Middlepaw… who is Middlepaw? Yea, they basically never interacted with Middlepaw at this point and honestly kinda forgot that they were their kid unless someone metioned it and then they were like, “Oh, yeah! Middlepaw! Of course! We love Middlepaw! They’re so uh… good. They’re a good kid… yea :)” and then prob changed the topic to one of their other children
About a moon after being apprenticed, Eldestpaw, Youngestpaw, and their parents went on a “family walk” (without Middlepaw ofc cuz who’s Middlepaw? Eldestpaw mentioned that Middlepaw wasn’t there actually, but the parents were just like, “Eh. We don’t want them here. You two are the better children. Besides, they barely talk to us. They’re basically not even in the family anymore,” blaming Middlepaw for the distance between them and their family) and uh… they just never came back from the “walk”
When Middlepaw realized they weren’t coming back and had gone on a “walk,” they shut down even more than they had before. If anyone showed concern for what had happened to their family, Middlepaw would just tell them that their family is fine. “It’s just what they do,” is prob about the most explanation they’d give, but they seem to know what happened
For about a moon, they just kinda moped around. They would do things they were told to do, but only about the bare minimum before going to find a nice corner to be sad in. They didn’t really put much effort into anything and especially didn’t talk to or interact with anyone who didn’t start the interaction first. Even then, they’d try to end the interaction as quickly as possible
During the “sad Middlekit” bit, they also started talking to objects a bit, but it was only a little bit here and there and not nearly as much as they do now. They began a lot of their odd habits once their family left as kind of a way to cope with feeling so lonely and they started talking to things that weren’t cats a lot more than they previously did
More recently, they’ve slowly stopped moping so much and don’t try to end social interactions. They still usually don’t start them, but they will try to keep them going once someone else starts them. They’re also much less of a “sad quiet” now and more of just a “doesn’t have friends” kind of quiet. Also, they kinda tried to hide things like talking to themselves and objects before, but now they don’t kinda in hopes of someone noticing that they exist because of it
Also, their parents would try to kinda hide how they treated Middlepaw and Eldestpaw from others and if anyone ever said anything about that to them, they’d just try to brush it off like, “oh, it was a one time thing,” “tough love, you know?” “sometimes you just gotta be a little hard on them. It doesn’t phase them though”
Aaand uh yea. Btw, those magic words I was talking about in the begining are just anything along the lines of “go away,” “stop being annoying,” “I’m busy right now,” etc. Pretty much anything that resembles an excuse their parents would use to get them to go away
Tldr: Middlepaw had crappy parents who ended up abandoning them and leaving them emotionally fucked up and that’s why they have all their weird habits and don’t really start social interactions much :)
Why do I do this?
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tofixtheshadows · 1 month
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I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.
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Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.
Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.
Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.
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I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.
He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).
First, we get this:
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Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.
They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.
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It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.
We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.
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What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?
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He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.
In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.
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Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!
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...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.
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Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.
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And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.
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I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.
And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.
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Meals are the privilege of the living.
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cookinguptales · 1 year
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So I’ve been enjoying the Disney vs. DeSantis memes as much as anyone, but like. I do feel like a lot of people who had normal childhoods are missing some context to all this.
I was raised in the Bible Belt in a fairly fundie environment. My parents were reasonably cool about some things, compared to the rest of my family, but they certainly had their issues. But they did let me watch Disney movies, which turned out to be a point of major contention between them and my other relatives.
See, I think some people think this weird fight between Disney and fundies is new. It is very not new. I know that Disney’s attempts at inclusion in their media have been the source of a lot of mockery, but what a lot of people don’t understand is that as far as actual company policy goes, Disney has actually been an industry leader for queer rights. They’ve had policies assuring equal healthcare and partner benefits for queer employees since the early 90s.
I’m not sure how many people reading this right now remember the early 90s, but that was very much not industry standard. It was a big deal when Disney announced that non-married queer partners would be getting the same benefits as the married heterosexual ones.
Like — it went further than just saying that any unmarried partners would be eligible for spousal benefits. It straight-up said that non-same-sex partners would still need to be married to receive spousal benefits, but because same-sex partners couldn’t do that, proof that they lived together as an established couple would be enough.
In other words, it put long-term same-sex partners on a higher level than opposite-sex partners who just weren’t married yet. It put them on the exact same level as heterosexual married partners.
They weren’t the first company ever to do this, but they were super early. And they were certainly the first mainstream “family-friendly” company to do it.
Conservatives lost their damn minds.
Protests, boycotts, sermons, the whole nine yards. I can’t tell you how many books about the evils of Disney my grandmother tried to get my parents to read when I was a kid.
When we later moved to Florida, I realized just how many queer people work at Disney — because historically speaking, it’s been a company that has guaranteed them safety, non-discrimination, and equal rights. That’s when I became aware of their unofficial “Gay Days” and how Christians would show up from all over the country to protest them every year. Apparently my grandmother had been upset about these days for years, but my parents had just kind of ignored her.
Out of curiosity, I ended up reading one of the books my grandmother kept leaving at our house. And friends — it’s amazing how similar that (terrible, poorly written) rhetoric was to what people are saying these days. Disney hires gay pedophiles who want to abuse your children. Disney is trying to normalize Satanism in our beautiful, Christian America. 
Just tons of conspiracy theories in there that ranged from “a few bad things happened that weren’t actually Disney’s fault, but they did happen” to “Pocahontas is an evil movie, not because it distorts history and misrepresents indigenous life, but because it might teach children respect for nature. Which, as we all know, would cause them all to become Wiccans who believe in climate change.”
Like — please, take it from someone who knows. This weird fight between fundies and Disney is not new. This is not Disney’s first (gay) rodeo. These people have always believed that Disney is full of evil gays who are trying to groom and sexually abuse children.
The main difference now is that these beliefs are becoming mainstream. It’s not just conservative pastors who are talking about this. It’s not just church groups showing up to boycott Gay Day. Disney is starting to (reluctantly) say the quiet part out loud, and so are the Republicans. Disney is publicly supporting queer rights and announcing company-supported queer events and the Republican Party is publicly calling them pedophiles and enacting politically driven revenge.
This is important, because while this fight has always been important in the history of queer rights, it is now being magnified. The precedent that a fight like this could set is staggering. For better or for worse, we live in a corporation-driven country. I don’t like it any more than you do, and I’m not about to defend most of Disney’s business practices. But we do live in a nation where rights are largely tied to corporate approval, and the fact that we might be entering an age where even the most powerful corporations in the country are being banned from speaking out in favor of rights for marginalized people… that’s genuinely scary.
Like… I’ll just ask you this. Where do you think we’d be now, in 2023, if Disney had been prevented from promising its employees equal benefits in 1994? That was almost thirty years ago, and look how far things have come. When I looked up news articles for this post from that era, even then journalists, activists, and fundie church leaders were all talking about how a company of Disney’s prominence throwing their weight behind this movement could lead to the normalization of equal protections in this country.
The idea of it scared and thrilled people in equal parts even then. It still scares and thrills them now.
I keep seeing people say “I need them both to lose!” and I get it, I do. Disney has for sure done a lot of shit over the years. But I am begging you as a queer exvangelical to understand that no. You need Disney to win. You need Disney to wipe the fucking floor with these people.
Right now, this isn’t just a fight between a giant corporation and Ron DeSantis. This is a fight about the right of corporations to support marginalized groups. It’s a fight that ensures that companies like Disney still can offer benefits that a discriminatory government does not provide. It ensures that businesses much smaller than Disney can support activism.
Hell, it ensures that you can support activism.
The fight between weird Christian conspiracy theorists and Disney is not new, because the fight to prevent any tiny victory for marginalized groups is not new. The fight against the normalization of othered groups is not new.
That’s what they’re most afraid of. That each incremental victory will start to make marginalized groups feel safer, that each incremental victory will start to turn the tide of public opinion, that each incremental victory will eventually lead to sweeping law reform.
They’re afraid that they won’t be able to legally discriminate against us anymore.
So guys! Please. This fight, while hilarious, is also so fucking important. I am begging you to understand how old this fight is. These people always play the long game. They did it with Roe and they’re doing it with Disney.
We have! To keep! Pushing back!
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mag200 · 11 months
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(me on a first date) and what do you think of the inherent intimacy of surgery? have you considered the love someone must have to put their hands under your skin and hold the most grotesque parts of you and put them back together nicely? is anyone really closer to you than that? we all get uh a little enamored on the surgery table don't we haha. wait come back
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socialistexan · 3 months
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There is no more quiet part, they are just fully saying out loud that they think trans people even existing in public is a harm to children akin to sexual violence.
I'm so tired of liberals telling me over and over and over again that I need to just reach out and talk to these people. They see my very existence as a sex crime, they think I need to be exterminated out of public life and then exterminated for real. These are fucking fascists. I'm so tired of being a rhetorical chip used to shame others, I'm sure you'll feel smug satisfaction over your conservative uncle that you were right while he's carting us off.
I'm sorry, there is no bridge to bring us to a middle ground between "I think I have the right to exist" and "I think your very existence is a crime" that doesn't end poorly for me.
There is no hand I can reach out without getting pulled by that hand straight down 6 feet under to my grave.
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arcphone352945 · 9 months
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frillish - whats scariest thing u ever did see
hmmm
probably my mom really mad one time when i barely got a C on a test
sorry arceus ur not scary enough to make the cut
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bamsara · 7 months
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some scenes in my head for my fic. emotional support lamb.
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wearysaer · 10 months
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▲ swish ▽
(rotoscoping of Reigen's twirl in op3 of Mob Psycho 100)
Finally done!!!! It took me way too long and a lot of it is still pretty rough TTvTT
Here are the static twirls:
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And now some process gifs for anyone interested (I exported lines, flats, and shadows separately, then added some effects in video editing):
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half-a-life-left · 5 months
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helmetless gabriel but with the gay color theme this time
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one-time-i-dreamt · 4 months
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I logged onto Ao3 and there was a new content warning tag just called “werewolf” (the devs supposedly had a newfound fear of them).
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u3pxx · 4 months
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thinking about my gavin parents earlier. specifically, karsten gavin and the way he loves klavier.
HI SORRY. and sorry for any mistakes on the german, google translate can only take me so far DFGHDJFDGHD this was my original thought earlier that i typed into my pc during class DSFGHD
Karsten shows affection the only way he knows how (buying expensive lavish gifts) Karsten, being an absent father in many ways, doesn't pay much attention to his children's interests. Klavier becomes interested in music and wants a guitar for Christmas, he mentions this several times to Karsten as he works, over dinner, every moment he can get, really. Karsten and Karen have a fight 2 weeks before Christmas that leaves them very cold towards each other, Karin throws herself into social events/parties while Karsten flies to another place to focus on his work. The fight and their absence affect Klavier deeply, more than Kristoph who is growing more used to this. Karsten gifts Klavier an expensive piano, Klavier is disappointed and his face starts to show it. Karsten grows frustrated at this and starts to ramble “Music, right, liebchen? Didn’t you say you wanted to play?” “Well, ja, but… I wanted a…” Karsten starts frowning. “Klavier, do you have any idea how expensive this is? You don’t like it? Fine then, fine. Do you want me to throw my gift away for you, is that it?” “Of course not, papa. Klavier, what do we say?” Kristoph chimes in and nudges Klavier, whose eyes are starting to water. “[Thank you, father.]” “Oh there he is. Come, come.”
i just. thinking about piece of shit extraordinaire karsten gavin who only knows how to make problems go away with material things
i love drawing bc it compensates for the fact that i can't write DFGHDJ
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shepscapades · 7 months
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[Part 1] [Part 2] [PART 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7]
Finally! Part 3 is here!! yippee!!! As a refresher, this takes place at the beginning of season 9, when Doc and Xisuma try to boot Etho back up after he shuts down pre-Season 8 Finale, set to the vibes of Joywave’s Destruction from DBHC Etho’s playlist! Ouguguh I’ve been looking forward to posting this part so much; it has some of my favorite shots so far… something about the grey-fade of Doc going into shock, something about the last two pages with xisuma and doc’s expressions… idk!! i really loved working on these :] Hope you’re enjoying the horrific, horrific ride!! =w=
As a partially insignificant but Special-To-Me note: Xisuma has always referred to dbhc doc as “Docm”— this is actually the first time X ever calls him “Doc.”
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hrokkall · 7 months
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DIVINE AUTOPSY
Text from a post by @bedrock-to-buildheight about angel anatomy and the physical manifestations of regret that can only be purged in a bloody vivisection.
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hotpotghosts · 1 month
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needle-noggins · 1 year
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(CW for SA, suicidal ideation) Here we go. My favorite and simultaneously least favorite panel of Vash and Knives.
I've seen a few interpretations of this scene and before we dive into the one that really struck me, let's start with the more... chill one. We're finally introduced to the third gun of Trigun, Vash's angel arm. And the way we're introduced to it involves Knives forcing him to pull the trigger. Of course, since no one knows anything about Knives, the people of Noman's Land blame Vash for Fifth Moon, and Vash likewise blames himself (this is kinda a spoiler but if you've been paying attention, it's just par for the course). However, he's not the one who pulled the trigger, Knives is. It brings up an interesting moral question of blame - do we blame the gun (and Vash, who is being used/objectified as a weapon here), or the person who wanted it to happen? Guns don't kill people, genocidal twins do!
Now for the awful interpretation, the one that makes me cry and wish Vash was real so I could hug him and pay for his therapy. And really highlights how awful Knives is and how far he'd go for his brother in his own, fucked-up way. I touched on this in a previous post about Legato and the Murder Cafe, and the whole time I was thinking about Fifth Moon but didn't want to say anything for the sake of spoilers.
So. Pay attention to the way Vash and Knives are standing. Knives, when he first grabbed Vash's head, was standing in front of him. He moves behind him to better control him and yeah, he's still controlling him via hand on head, and now he's got his other hand gripping Vash's chest, where feathers/wings are manifesting. Knives is assaulting him. If you wanna get crazy with it and say that the angel arm is kinda phallic, you could say... yeah. This is rape. I heard that specific interpretation once and while I accepted it I also don't know if that would be generally accepted or if I'd be called out for it, so I'm trying to tread lightly here.
It also doesn't escape me that of course the angel arm has feminine features like the plants - the plants that, again, humans are exploiting for their ability to create. There's a lot of feminist commentary to be made here but many people have said it better than me. Specifically I'm thinking of this one post I saw about gender fuckery and Tristamp Vash. Anyway.
Also, the atomic bomb/black hole/sun/whatever that is in the middle... It's just so powerful. It's terrifying. The eldritch body horror here is a punch to the gut. What the fuck, Trigun? I thought this was a funky space western!!!
Oh, and here's more commentary on the following few panels:
Vashussy shot, Knives is still right behind him. Yeah, I wasn't kidding about how bad this pose is for them. Knives, you sick fuck.
Vash shoots himself in the leg (a key difference from '98 trigun, lol), because of course he does, but it doesn't free him from the arm.
The arm's getting darker/the light inside is getting lighter! Stampede did an awesome job with their interpretation of the angel arm and I don't think I would have understood it without that. Also, on my first read I didn't notice that Vash is literally levitating, which is cool, but also terrifying because ?? he's not in control of that either??
Finally. A super painful, minimalist, double-page spread. Nightow loves 'em. Vash thinks he's dying (maybe?) and he wishes he had never existed. It's not suicidal ideation per se, but he wishes he didn't exist at all because he's already caused enough suffering. This is a low for him, because he believes so strongly in the concept of the Blank Ticket. (Come on, soupy brain bitch boy, get it together!) He's a monster, it's just how he was born, and he's not in control. Very specifically too, he says "we", and then changes it to "I"... he doesn't blame Knives at all, and that's very him. I want to shake him! Stop playing the martyr, Vash!
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vyrion · 3 months
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in this moment, you were loved: on siffrin and looping
espeonkin // ishhbowl, how do you survive the apocalypse? // navysealt4t, "names" // puremode // james hall & richard siken, "the poetry of hostile witness: an interview with richard siken" // in stars and time // lovecrumbs, all mentions of love and death in romeo & juliet // amal el-mohtar, "this is how you lose the time war" // natalie wee, "yes & no" // mavigator, "anglerfish" // in stars and time // evelyn berry, grief slut // ovid, orpheus and eurydice // moodylilac
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