Foolish: It looked like perfect English, I just didn't understand what was said [Laughs].
[Intense ominous music suddenly starts playing, startling Cellbit]
Cellbit: What is that?
Foolish: ...What? That isn't you?
Cellbit: Do you hear that?
Foolish: That- THAT'S NOT YOU???
Cellbit: No! Wtf is this?!
Foolish: What- wtf- that's not me! Is there like a final boss approaching???
Cellbit: WHAT IS GOING ON?!
[ Transcript continued ↓ ]
-
Foolish: I don't know! I- I- swear like, I don't think- I don't think anyone else has been near here! Uh... Richarlyson, maybe put your armor on?
Cellbit: Yeah, please! Richarlyson- [repeats himself in Portuguese, telling Richarlyson to put his armor on]
Foolish: I don't know- this is so cool! This is just the vibe we were looking for!
Cellbit: Yeah, but what-
Foolish: It's haunted now! >:D
Cellbit: ...Where is this coming from?
Foolish: I don't know! Is it- so is it like, one of those mobs that have like, a backpack maybe? But I feel like I've never heard this sound before. Or like a mob with like, a-
Cellbit: It's like- it's like a final boss music, wtf is going on???
[ID: An edited 4-panel Lilo and Stitch meme. In the first picture Atsushi is sitting on the floor with his back turned to the viewer. He says: "I need someone to be my ally...". In the second picture he looks to the side with a worried expression. He says: "Send me anyone." One the left side Fukuchi is staring at the viewer with a frown. On the third picture Atsushi has his back turned to the viewer again. He says: "Anyone will do." Fukuchi is still staring at the viewer, but his mouth is slightly opened. His expression is a mixture of confusion and disappointment. In the last picture disguised Akutagawa is staring into the background with binoculars. The caption in square brackets reads: "Coughing". End ID]
Mark had taken Louise on another little adventure, the details ultimately unimportant. They were having fun, though, some sort of carnival, lots of rides, disgusting food, cheap prizes.
Mark had lagged behind at some point, she lost track of him for a moment, before he rejoined her.
He offered to win her a large plush at one of the games, and actually managed to succeed. Before he handed it over, Louise wished to take a picture. Taking out her camera, she lined up the shot and snapped one.
Shaking the photo, she watched it develop, her smile fading as she finds Mark doesn't look quite right...
His eyes are dark, and his skin looks almost grey.
"Something wrong, Louise? Did it come out blurry? We can take it again." He offered.
~CW: SMOKING~
Guess who's back!
Sorry for dipping out of the blue, I've been having both art and sleeping struggles + some commissions keeping me occupied.
But I have returned with my latest spicy commission done for a friend, I put a lot of time into it and I have a full version I'll be posting elsewhere-
Hopefully this can satiate ya'll, I'll be getting back to doing more fanart very soon and thank you to those who stuck around, seriously ♥ ♥ ♥
Full Censored Version below the cut :^)))
Don't smite me please-
hi okay so I've been mulling this one over for the past day or two and I think I have the answer. not to be using hamburger to explain anything to an american but you're my detco mutual so I'm going to try and explain it in detco terms
There's a post going around recently about how if you've read detco and only detco, the first time hakuba shows up you're going to be totally flummoxed, because damn this guy is clearly important, he gets to be even cooler than Shinichi, he's got a half-page shot of him (in such a panel-dense series such as Detective Conan, no less!!) and he's got a fucking hawk. he's CLEARLY important. everything about the narrative is indicating that you need to PAY ATTENTION to hakuba and that he's the coolest guy and he's important!!!! and then he dies in the case lol (not for real. but still.)!! and you're like huh??? what was that. why did aoyama do that.
But with the context of magic kaito this totally makes sense. He's a beloved character that people have been waiting decades to see again. Of course Aoyama is going to hype him up!! It's his big moment after years of being locked in the backrooms!!!
Anyways reading birdmen for me was kind of like that. The author's previous series, Kekkaishi, was pretty one-dimensional at the beginning, and even after the main plot started picking up at around volume 6, it still felt quite understandable. I knew what she was trying to get at, and the spectacular job she did with the anthropocene and climate change metaphor towards the end of that series really made me interested in the rest of her works. That and the way she writes familial relationships is absolutely DEVASTATING. (I mean this with the highest of praise)
But when I read BIRDMEN for the first time, I was probably in... middle school, maybe? And I read it, sure, but I didn't get it. I could see what was literally happening on the page but the narrative choices were absolutely baffling at times. Why skip over the entire part of the plot where they figure out who the birdman that saved them was? She blatantly doesn't care about that. What does she care about then?? I knew I didn't get it, I knew there were parts of it that were important and I couldn't figure out why and THAT'S how it dug its pretty little claws into me. Even after I finished catching up it nagged at me a little bit, not often at all, but enough that every once in a while I go, huh, right, that was a thing, let me go read it again.
For the record this type of story haunting has happened to me twice. First time was the Heart of Thomas, second time was BIRDMEN. I think the thing is that these are both stories which are not what other people say they are and I think I came into both of these stories with a misconception, trying to look too hard for things that weren't important and therefore missing the things that were.
Because sure, BIRDMEN is about mental illness. Yeah, it's about an evil scientific organization growing mutants in a lab. Yeah, it's about what it means to leave your humanity behind. That's all technically correct, on a surface level, and the fandom at large likely agrees with these takes for the most part, but in my opinion none of that really delves into what the thematic messaging of the story is about.
There are cryptic conversations about authority and human extinction and peculiar outfit and ability choices. You can tell these choices weren't made to serve the purpose of "writing exciting shonen manga" because that was what she did for the most part in Kekkaishi and you can tell she wasn't putting her whole pussy into doing that here. So what was she doing? What's like. All of this. Waves my hands at this.
The short answer is that it's really about the interplay between capitalism (represented by humanity) and communism (represented by birdmen), and explores the role institutional white supremacy (EDEN) plays in enforcing capitalism. It is ALSO about queer liberation and the importance of community, but hey, that double-stacks conveniently with the communism metaphor.
But also take this opinion of mine with a grain of salt. As far as I know I'm the only one who really truly deeply believes that it is not only AN interpretation of the work, but one that was fully intended by the author.
So basically, I like it, because I think it says something true and beautiful that I also believe in, even if I didn't have the words for it the first time I read it. But I don't really think that's what people really look for in a media recommendation.
Do I like it? Yes, I love it. Will I recommend it to others? Yeah, sure. But do I think it's deeply flawed? Yeah, absolutely. It's flawed in the same ways as The Witch from Mercury— a rushed ending, too many threads that were opened and never tied together. The pacing and characterization is perfect in the beginning, and too rushed at the end. There are prerequisites you basically HAVE to read in order to understand the story (tempest for G-Witch and the communist manifesto for birdmen). I think a truly good story wouldn't have any of these things so if people don't like it I never blame them.
It's my personal experiences that make birdmen so profound to me. If you are not queer I just don't think Eishi coming out as a birdman to his mom will hit the same, just as an example. Sorry that I wasn't the kid you wanted me to be. I know you love me and you just want the best for me and that's why you're so controlling, because you think I can be saved by conforming to societal expectations. But I can't live like that. I can't be like that. And that's why I must go. etc.
Aesthetically I do love birdmen a lot. If I had to describe it in a few words it would probably be "chilling", "beautiful", and "powerful", which nicely coincides with the type of things I personally like to draw. It's also silly to a small degree but it's so serious and I know Tanabe can be way way way funnier (read kekkaishi for this. kekkaishi and hanazakari no kimitachi he were foundational to my sense of sequential art humor) so that's not really the standout trait of this series.
I can't let it go because I'm chewing this series like a bone. And it's taking me years but I am getting that sweet sweet marrow. By god. We are on year 3 of this shit and I am GOING to understand this series. and I'm going to make 3 video essays about it
lunch comes around, Kylar is waiting in the canteen. it's already 3 minutes past the latest time Ayesha usually gets there, and he hasn't seen her, so he tries texting her. it probably won't work, she takes hours to respond at the best of times, but he needs to try.
low and behold, almost instantly there's a response. location and nothing else.
so, he goes to the rear courtyard. and, sure enough, there's Ayesha, hiding out in the very corner, in a blindspot, smoking.
maybe this is the first time he's seen her smoke? like, she always smells like cigarettes and heavy lilac perfume (<- lore drop), but Kylar is Kylar and can easily convince himself it's someone else smoking around her.
anyways, he runs up to her and hugs onto her arm. she doesn't really react, just kinda glances at him. usually she'd ruffle his hair or greet him or something, but she's just kinda staring off into space.
he tries talking to her a few different times, saying he misses her, he thought he wouldn't see her, he was worried, asking her how her day was and such.
no response.
he asks if he can try her cigarette (how can he NOT ask, btw? its been in her mouth. he needs it in his mouth. he'd probably suck on the butt after she puts it out and leaves if she says no).
she finally responds. laughs a lil and says she doesn't want him getting addicted, but still holds it out to him.
he takes it, sucks the smoke in, and...
chokes.
chokes badly. coughing like crazy.
it hurts, and he doesn't like the taste, and he's got tears in his eyes,
but Ayesha is laughing and patting his back.
she takes the cigarette away when he tries to do it again
my co-teacher isn’t coming back for the rest of the year. 🙃🙃🙃 guess who has to take on all of her responsibilities including writing 3 ieps which are these long ass LEGAL documents outlining the goals, progress, modifications etc. of children receiving special education services. they’re also supposed to be based on data and i don’t think her bum ass has been taking any soooo
pray for me yall 🙏
and then she has the NERVE to ask if she can video call and say bye to the kids. like no bitch i hate your guts
... Okay, now there are two missing Iconoclast scenes in my fic WIP binder and a small side fic from El's POV, following what she was doing in the background. So like. Naturally. Of course.
(Still not writing them just yet. But they are multiplying.)
we are winning at levels never before thought possible it seems, after making the wrong choice of becoming an ada wong fan & having to subsist off the crumbs of characterization given to me in in-game files, supplemental material & scant lines of dialog it seems capcom is truly going to give me everything i have ever wanted :
probably giving ada the best DLC in the franchise, a meaningful relationship with a character that isn't leon that seems to take precedent in her story over her few chance encounters with leon in RE4R ( i have a feeling her & luis' history gives their dynamic far more meaning than his little rollercoaster ride with leon ), cool sci-fi contacts replacing the glasses she never really used in the original, integrating her grapple hook in her combat when it was sadly only ever used for traversal, actual content specifically designed for her campaign & not just reused arenas from the main game ( some of these are from the original carried over to ada but i think her performing the coolest thing leon does in the original, dodging the lasers, is sick ), finally positioning wesker as an antagonist in ada's story directly rather than him hanging over her like a school headmaster trying to play mindgames .
it's honestly so personally rewarding to see capcom go to such lengths for a character they have otherwise neglected, even in a game like re6 where she carries the emotional core of the story ( in specific her developing relationship with carla as she learns she is more than just some lab-made doppelganger, which was sadly undercooked - like most of the game, despite the explosions )
Okay, genuine question for the batman 2022 fandom, when did we all decide that dano! Riddler smokes, cuz I've seen some killer fanart with this hc and I legit can't remember if anything in cannon referred to it...
You ever just randomly get hit with a traumatic memory and you're like wtf (pls don't read this if you're sensitive and stuff this is kinda...heavy???)
I was thinking about a few years ago when I went to drop my brother off to school, I was super sleep deprived cos of uni and it was very early and I walked into the road without looking, about half a second from being hit with a car before they slammed the breaks. And I was so so tired it took me a second to realize what had happened and I looked up and the person at the wheel was My dad..and it dawned on me in that second that had he not been a good driver, and had I been a second too late or even early, he'd have hit me with the car. And the worst tbing was, for some reason I wasn't thinking about how i would have died, I was thinking of how he could have killed me and it would have destroyed him to such an extent that it would have killed everyone else too. I would have ruined my family and it would have been my fault despite not being here to see it happen. And I felt sick and full of dread despite being fine in the end.
Sometimes I think of how my dad has nearly killed me on more than one occasion, and even though things are very much calmer now, and we have a semi decent relationship that isn't as bad as it was back then, I would have changed the trajectory of EVERYONE'S life had I not experienced some miracle. I wouldn't even be here, I wouldn't have ever even seen my sister (or watched her grow up along with my brothers)
And the thing is I don't blame him either, that was actually my fault. It was early and I should have been looking. Sometimes it really Dawn's on me that I must have been saved in some way, even if I don't think of how that often.