#cripes it's hard for me to do work like this that doesn't go 'all out'

[mariana-oconnor]

The Illustrious Client pt 2

Last time we were dealing with a hypnotist, it seemed, who was doing everything short of tying women to railway tracks and twirling his moustaches to show Holmes how evil he is.

Honestly, it's probably a little surprising that it's taken this long for hypnotism to show up in these stories, as it seems right up ACD's alley

And we're about to meet an old friend of Holmes' who has simply never come up before.

...a huge, coarse, red-faced, scorbutic man, with a pair of vivid black eyes which were the only external sign of the very cunning mind within.

"Scorbutic" apparently means affected by scurvy, which I had never come across before. Does that mean his gums are bleeding? The NHS tells me it might also mean red or blue spots on the skin.

Mr Johnson, may I introduce you to the joys of... fruit and veg.

Please stop your gums from bleeding. Please.

...a slim, flame-like young woman with a pale, intense face, youthful, and yet so worn with sin and sorrow that one read the terrible years which had left their leprous mark upon her.

From scurvy to leprosy, once again being particularly flattering in your descriptions, Watson. Though I do love the 'flame-like' here. That's very evocative.

“Hell, London, gets me every time. Same address for Porky Shinwell. We're old mates, Porky, you and I. But, by cripes! there is another who ought to be down in a lower hell than we if there was any justice in the world!"

I like Kitty. I hope she doesn't die. She feels like a parody of a Victorian cockney character. It's beautiful.

There was an intensity of hatred in her white, set face and her blazing eyes such as woman seldom and man never can attain.

I guess women are just better at hating things?

Does it though? Idek, such a weird thing to divide by gender.

"He would speak of someone in his velvet way and then look at me with a steady eye and say: ‘He died within a month.’"

This guy really needs to stop telling people about the crimes he's committed. I get that you're an arrogant dickhead, but surely there must be some room for brains in your head beside all that hubris. Maybe think before you speak? And don't just think 'oh how awesome and evil I am tee hee hee'.

I'm sorry, I just get annoyed when I see bad guys making such obvious, preventable mistakes. At least be good at being evil, if you're going to do it. Do it properly.

"It's a book he has—a brown leather book with a lock, and his arms in gold on the outside. I think he was a bit drunk that night, or he would not have shown it to me.”

Oh for- Do you write it all down? Tell me you don't have a very secret evil diary of all your very secret evil deeds. Please... Please don't be that guy.

I get that this is realistic, because serial killers and horrible people do take trophies. But still...

Also, Adelbert is a name I've heard of before but never actually seen used.

“No good,” said Shinwell Johnson with the decided voice of the expert. “No fence wants stuff of that sort that you can neither melt nor sell.”

Shinwell Johnson here reminding us not only that he exists and that he is a criminal, but also possibly the most competent criminal in this story. Good for him.

“I am not out for money. Let me see this man in the mud, and I've got all I've worked for—in the mud with my foot on his cursed face. That's my price."

Vengeance!!!

Yes. I like Kitty a lot.

"If your head is inclined to swell, my dear Watson, take a course of Miss Violet de Merville."

S-tier line. This is just perfection. I love it.

"I pictured to her the awful position of the woman who only wakes to a man's character after she is his wife—a woman who has to submit to be caressed by bloody hands and lecherous lips. I spared her nothing—the shame, the fear, the agony, the hopelessness of it all."

Holmes going hard. I feel disgusted and I'm just getting the description of the description. This story has a lot of excellent turns of phrase in it. This section is particularly repellent.

"'...you needn't look at me like that, my fine lady, for you may be lower than I am before you are through with it.’"

Kitty is the best and I want her to be in every story from now on. You tell her. Go for the throat. I know it's not going to work, but yes!

"And it did. Their blow fell—or his blow rather, for never could I believe that the lady was privy to it."

So women are capable of more hatred than men, but they aren't capable of things like this. You have a very confused and tangled view of gender, Watson. Who hurt you?

But they eloped, didn't they? But then she'd definitely be privy to that.

"There, black upon yellow, was the terrible news-sheet: Murderous Attack Upon Sherlock Holmes"

Well, I suppose in a way that's better... because clearly he's not dead. And also that means that Holmes will have some sort of evidence against him.

Adelbert really needs to learn not to overplay his hand. If you're so sure that nothing can go wrong, just... wait it out. She'll marry you and everything will be fine. Patience.

#Letters from Watson #The Illustrious Client #Sherlock Holmes #long post

[threshasketch]

Wow, so apparently today is the 8th anniversary of me starting this art blog. I started Threshasketch in the September of 2015, and my main blog the year before in June.

In that time, I've gone through drawing OCs, fanart for numerous fandoms, traditional style line work and pencil sketches, digital line work and coloring, painting photo-real style, and so, so many chibi art pieces. Art has been my rock through some really hard times in my life. Posting cute chibis to brighten somebody else's day helped brighten mine.

Since 2015, my country has gone through three different presidencies, the world has gone through (and is still quietly going through) a global pandemic, and I've gone through years of struggling. Most of that struggling has been in the past 5 years, but boy does 5 years sound like a lot of time to be struggling for basic living things like heat and food.

Things were really bad just a few years ago. At one point I only had electricity four hours per day, because I couldn't afford gas for the generator. I uploaded digital art because "scanning" (taking pics of on my phone) traditional line art was hard when the place I was living was so dark. Patreon and art commissions were the only reason I had money for food on many occasions.

I've had to move three different times in the past four years. I got rid of or lost a lot of my belongings to live in a small space. Had to deal with rats in my living space twice in as many years. Had to take my 23-year-old cat to the vet to pass peacefully AND help my parents take their little dog with heart failure to the vet to pass peacefully in the same year.

Did I mention I had major abdominal surgery this summer with months of recovery time? Yeah. That actually went really smoothly. I didn't realize how bad my health was getting for the past few years because it was a gradual problem, but I was exhausted all the time, unable to do much physical activity, and super anemic. Just passed the two month mark since surgery, and am feeling so much better it's shocking remembering how bad off I was before. Cripes, I should have done this years ago.

So why, if art has been a coping method for me, has this blog had barely any updates for years? Well, I overextended myself on art commissions, which made my art escapism into a pressure thing. It's nobody's fault but my own, but several of those commissions did not get finished, and that made art into a guilty thing, so I sort of...shut myself down on Tumblr, because drawing for fun seemed wrong when somebody was waiting on me to finish their art piece. So I stopped drawing at all for a long while. That helped nobody—it just made it so that I wasn't warmed up enough to draw the commissions, either.

I'm just now getting to where I'm financially able to reach out to the people who paid me for commissions and refund them. I've refunded several already. If you are one of my art commission customers, you'll be hearing from me, I promise. I haven't forgotten you, I have every commission I ever took in a list saved on my computer.

Speaking of financially able, I'm no longer supporting myself with art and Patreon alone. For most of The Pandemic Years I've been pouring all of my creative energy into becoming a full-time indie erotica author. I write my own stories, I paint my own covers, I do everything myself. It's the most fun job I've ever had, honestly, and it's paying my bills. ♥

I've managed to build it up into a monthly income somehow, and this winter is looking a lot less terrible than last winter. In general, my living situation is now stable, the roof doesn't leak, the lights all work, hell I even have a functioning shower and the ability to have running hot water.

Anyway, yeah. It's been a rough go of it, and this art blog has been around through it all. I got a new art tablet for my birthday, and drawing feels like being carefree again. Here's to many more years of art. ���

#8 year tumblrversary #tumblr milestone #art blog birthday #threshasketch #threshie #I wrote this out on the actual anniversary on the 8th and then put it in the drafts because I feared it was a vent post #but on re-reading it's just me being honest about how lousy things have been LOL #I think most people have had a rough go of things so I'm certainly not alone #anyway yaaaay happy belated art blog anniversary to me #coming back to Tumblr was a great decision #I have a lot of nostalgia attached to it ♥

[ladylochan]

Did anyone want to see Elain and Azriel napping with their adopted little Illyrian? Because here it is. 

--

I have a deadline to meet tomorrow and yet all I can think about is these two :’). And the fandom has been going through so much that I hope this will provide a little warmth. Enjoy!

(I do have a fresh instagram @ladyliv.art if anyone is interested in that 👀)

#elriel #elain archeron #azriel #azriel x elain #elain x azriel #acotar 5 #acosf #acowar #acomaf #a court of silver flames #a court of thorns and roses #acotar fanart #pro elain #pro azriel #pro elriel #my art #cripes it's hard for me to do work like this that doesn't go 'all out' #and there are so many things i'd like to fix but oh well

[critical-thinking-is-mandatory]

Sorry I'm being very spammy to miraculous salt blogs cause I saw this one ML sugar post that made me start think: do you think miraculous is overall a well written show or a badly written show?

oh it's definitely the latter (in my opinion). like, I feel like ML is trying too hard to be too many things and failing at it, and then all its other problems come from there.

is it an episodic kids/pre-teen show with no overarching plot but recurring themes of friendship?

yes but it's also got an overarching plot and covers themes of abuse and death and sickness which is more suited to older kids/young-mid teens.

AND it's also high art with deep themes aimed at older teens but if you think about those themes you're *wrong* actually because it's just a kid's show! it's not that deep! stupid SJW!! >:(

it's like the creators couldn't just pick *one thing* and work with it. they couldn't pick *one* age bracket to aim it at, they couldn't pick whether they wanted a long-running episodic serial or if they wanted a story with a bigger plot. they can't just pick one, and that's given us our issues with the status quo, our issues with a dull and repetitive plot, the juvenile, slapstick humour, tackling Adrien's abuse with all the delicacy and precision of a jack-hammer, professing deep themes of Importance For Adults/Older Teens and in the next breath treating the audience like toddlers.

And I'm not saying you can't create a kids show that handles hard themes but still resonates with a wide audience, I think Avatar has shown us that that is well and truly possible, but the success of Avatar is largely because it picked an audience and a theme and a story-telling method, and. Stuck. With. It.

Of course there's also a number of other things that go into a well-written story, and with a cast as large as ML, characters, interesting characterisation, relationships and character arcs are VITAL.

ML has a huge cast of recurring characters. In Season 1 alone we get: Marinette, Tikki, Adrien, Plagg, Hawkmoth/Gabriel, the whole Miracuclass (like 8? kids), Ms Bustier, Sabrina's Dad, Nathalie, Sabine, Tom, Mayor Bourgeois, Jagged, Master Fu, Manon, and Nadja Chamack.

That's not even including one-off characters who never show up again OR the likes of Mr Ramier/Pigeon who come back later on more and more often.

That is a huge cast. And when you have a cast that big you need a way to make your main cast stand out other than giving them tonnes of screen time *cough* adrien *cough*. ML utterly fails at this. S1 Adrien feels like a puppet and later on like a wet cardboard cut out. Felix has more arc and personality and bite than one of our main characters for cripe's sake.

S1 Marinette was, by far, probably the most explored of all her iterations. She was doing stuff, going places, having personality beyond just awooga adrien!!

But that is where they peaked. In S1. Like 6 or 8 years ago. A messy plot and world can be...overlooked if the characters are compelling enough. But ML hasn't got either. It doesn't give us Plot or Characters, or nice animation or a fun world or much of anything really.

Its only real value is to put something brightly coloured on TV to distract a small child. And like? It is so, so clear that the crew work hard on the show, but it's really not paid off. Like, at all. Other than, of course, the profits from the cheap merch being bought to please and pacify little kids, but I think we all know no one in anything less than an executive position will see any of that money.

So TL;DR: the story has no clear goal, no clear audience, the characters are forgettable and dull, the themes have no teeth. Overall, a badly written show. The time, energy and money could've easily gone to something better.

#asks #anonymous #ml salt #ml creators salt #ml writers salt

[tombeane-blog]

It's Never Too Late To Change

The Internet thinks I'm a Transvestite. Or maybe it thinks I'm a young single career women looking to attract a mate... In today's multigendered world, maybe the Omniverse has come to the conclusion that I need to begin identifying as a young, healthy, girluptiously attractive female trapped in a slightly paunchy, somewhat baldy, middle-aged man's body. (78 is the new 45.) Perhaps I should step back and explain. Some time in the past few weeks I must have clicked on a link to a link or something. Maybe I was closing out one of those ads that pop-up over and over on every site you visit these days and while attempting to close it, I mis-clicked my mouse and I opened the ad instead. Happens to the best of us. Whatever the cause, now it doesn't matter what I'm browsing for or what links I go to, my screen is constantly filled with pop-up ads for Sexy Frilly Women's Unmentionables! At first I was like, "That's cute." but soon it changed to, "What the?" I hoped after a few weeks the Metaverse's attention would be diverted by something else I clicked on - lawnmower ads or specials on ammo. I even clicked on a Youtube video of John Wayne more than once. But no dice. The Digital Universe stays insistent on identifying me in its own way. I cannot seem to convince the Internet that I'm still that same macho, manly, grizzled male I've always been.

"C'mon Man! I joined the Navy for Cripes sake! Life on the line - stuff like that. I was even at that big alcohol fueled brawl at the NATO club in Naples in 1963. Been there, got the T-shirt. I proudly own an 80 lb working dog instead of one of those pansy purse puppies that women like." "I check all the boxes!" I shout into the void, "Plug these facts into your "Tom Knowledge Base 78.11.21" and give me back my dignity you virtual bozo! The void responds with silence.

Could I be the one in the wrong here? How much does the Internet know about me and how accurate is it? Answering these two questions requires some serious look seeing. Let's give this some hard core scientific analysis. Let's give it a real fact based once over. Forget clicked on sites. Let's do a deep, detailed dive into personality specifics that no one but we know about. The things we can't hide from, the things we can't fake. The kind of identables that no one admits to themselves even when all alone, at home, in the dark.

That's right, we are going to research what the Planets and Stars know about our core identities, our selfs, our I. Seems like the logical thing to do. After all, the Planets and Stars were aligned there the day we were born and have known us all our lives. Let's get started shall we? According to one horoscopical site - I am a, "Visionary, progressive soul who loves to spend time thinking about how things can be better. Quick to engage with many friends...making the world better collaboratively." Hmmm. Encouragingly accurate. But I need a second opinion from another site....."Original. Brilliant. Witty. Cuddly. Creative and Unique. Slightly Odd." Now that is dead on except for that "Odd" bit. No way that's true - but now I'm a little less skeptical. Maybe there's some sound science behind this Planet Alignment stuff after all. For the real acid test, I decided to ask the Planets and Stars about you. According to the all the ones and zeros in the Digitized Cosmos, you are, "Adaptable. Intelligent. Kind. Direct and honest. Somewhat materialistic and likes the good things in life. Reliable, patient and loyal to friends." Wow! Do we need any more proof? Turns out the Artificial Intelligence Algorithms on the Internet really do know us down to a T - probably better than even our friends and family know us. But in my case, I don't think it could have gotten information this accurate from a few browses and clicks. I'm suspecting that Alexa has been snooping on me as well. "Alexa, have you been snooping on me?" "Alexa?......Alexa?......Alexa!" Alexa may think she can ignore me but it's not over between the two of us.

Regardless, the fact of the matter is - now I'm really confused. If the Electromagnetic Whereververse knows me better than I know myself.....well.... who or what am I? My scientific research seems to strongly suggest that the Internet is right and I am wrong. So what should I do about it? Only one way to find out. Finish the research. That's the only way I'll ever really know for sure.

"Hello, Amazon?" I'll start with something basic - maybe in black - not too sexy - and then see where it goes.