#i love looking at aesthetics especially if its very specific to one person

[snapper-remastered]

anyone with an aesthetic tag is feeding me personally because i WILL dive into it and eat the images with my eyes

#i love looking at aesthetics especially if its very specific to one person #love love love seeing the way my buds construct their own image of themselves #i think ur identity is malleable and you can present urself however u want as long as u arent doin it maliciously somehow #anyways ya moots i am in ur aes tags lol chomp chomp

[lafemmemacabre]

Goth 101

🦇 tl;dr version for those who prefer that format

Goth is a music-based subculture that started out in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s and spread internationally from there. It spawned from the UK Punk scene, keeping the DIY ethics but turning the music more melancholic, introspective and experimental.

The music genres that the subculture was built around are (dark) Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Darkwave, Ethereal Wave and a few other smaller subgenres.

While the fashion and other non-musical aesthetics are very prominent and beloved by goths, they're non-essential to the subculture. What defines a goth is the music we listen to.

Our "big 4" bands are The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and the Banshees. However, 3 out of 4 of those bands are Post-Punk acts (Sisters of Mercy being the exception Gothic Rock band), and while very influential to the rest of the goth music scene, they by no means are the end-all, be-all of what goth music sounds like. The genre has evolved through its over 40 years of existence, creating diverse sounds. Anyone darkly inclined can find something to love, even if it takes a bit of research.

The Dark & Gothic playlist on Spotify is a pretty decent way to get started into goth music. In my old blog I had entire tags dedicated to goth music as a whole, and separately to Post-Punk, Gothic Rock, Darkwave and Ethereal Wave too. I had a few playlists based on popular goth aesthetics here.

The longer description of goth music will include playlists for each bigger goth subgenre, but please keep in mind they're made by me in a way that appeals to my personal tastes for each subgenre. I don't know every band that exists and my personal taste is biased towards the 90s.

Now, to a more detailed introduction to the goth subculture...

🦇 Dark alternative vs Goth

What a lot of people need clarified is that the goth subculture doesn't have a monopoly on the dark alternative world, nor are we the home for everyone sad, spooky and weird who doesn't fit in and might listen to any sort of sad, spooky or weird alternative music.

There are SO many dark alternative music scenes that have nothing or very little to do with the goth subculture. We've influenced a lot of them fashion-wise, but just because they copied us we look alike doesn't mean we're interchangeable.

There's no scale that goes from Prep to Goth and measures how Valid™ your inner darkness is, in which if you're anything below goth then you're a poser and lame. It's perfectly fine and cool to be dark alternative without being a goth. Goth isn't a badge of legitimacy or honor, it's just one specific flavor of dark alternative among so many.

Goth is a very small and obscure subculture despite our superficial hypervisbility (our looks and infamy are hypervisible, what we're actually about is extremely buried underground), and most dark alternative people aren't goths.

🦇 What does it take to be a goth?

There's one rule, and one rule only: LISTEN TO THE MUSIC. You wouldn't call yourself a metalhead without being a fan of Metal music, would you? The same principle applies to goth.

There are many types of alternative subcultures; some examples are fashion-based subcultures, another are lifestyle-based subcultures. A third type of subculture that's very prominent (especially in the West) are music-based subcultures.

Goth is a music-based subculture, just like the metalhead, punk, emo, rivethead/Industrial, hip-hop, rave, K-Pop and grunge subcultures are.

This means that, while the music isn't THE ONLY aspect the subculture has, in order to be a goth you have to listen to goth music, and we have a specific set of music genres that our subculture was built around, so not just anything dark and melancholy will do, as we don't have a monopoly on that, but we do have something closer to a monopoly on a specific sound and musical legacy.

You don't have to listen to goth music EXCLUSIVELY to be a goth, that'd be insane. You don't even have to limit yourself to dark alternative music either. You just have to listen to goth music to a relevant degree and be passionate about it and you're in, the rest is up to you.

This means too that the way you dress has no impact on your validity as a goth, whether you don't have the gothic wardrobe of your dreams yet or you just don't want to dress goth at all. I'm TikTok mutuals with a girl who dresses exclusively in pink-white sweet lolita coords, but who's passionate about goth music. She's a goth, no questions about it. On the other hand, a lot of the influencers you'll see online who look like a lost Addams cousin aren't goths at all, and no house decor or outfit will make them gothier if they don't listen to the music.

🦇 What music counts as goth?

From the previous points I made you probably gathered that Industrial and Metal ⁠– both genres that outsiders usually associate with the goth subculture ⁠– aren't actually part of the goth genre. So, what is goth music?

Goth music developed initially in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s off of dark Post-Punk. Post-Punk itself developed from UK 70s Punk Rock, being also influenced by Glam Rock, experimental electronic music, and many other influences more specific to each band that took part in this musical development (Bauhaus were very influenced by Reggae!).

What characterizes the goth sound are elements such as; being bass-driven rather than guitar-driven (in almost every case), guitars playing more of a decorative or atmospheric role instead of being the main focus (which contrasts starkly against genres such as Metal), preference for voices with a lower vocal range (altos, this is your genre to shine in!), optional use of synthesizers, recurrent replacing of human drummers with drum machines, and common use of lots of reverb and delay effects everywhere for an extra sensation that you're listening to music recorded in a catacomb.

Dark Post-Punk was the starting point of the goth subculture, and from it, all other goth music subgenres developed. Depending on who you ask there's a billion goth micro-genres. In my opinion a lot of those subgenres are rather meaningless (a lot of them are just specific flavors of Post-Punk or Darkwave) but the main 4 subgenres of goth music are:

(Dark) Post-Punk

Gothic Rock

Darkwave

Ethereal Wave

POST-PUNK:

Post-Punk took the standard sound of Punk Rock and its DIY ethics and made the sound more melancholic, romantic, experimental, less angry, and more introspective. Dark Post-Punk in particular was influenced by gothic literature and old horror movies (including their soundtracks, the Banshees created their characteristic guitar sound after the violins in the Psycho soundtrack).

Besides the 3 Post-Punk bands I listed as part of the goth "big 4", there's bands such as Skeletal Family, Twin Tribes, Specimen, She Wants Revenge, Sex Gang Children, Xmal Deutschland, Lebanon Hanover, Cruex Lies, The Secret French Postcards and The Birthday Party.

GOTHIC ROCK:

When goth became slightly more established in sound, Gothic Rock is what happened. Less experimental than Post-Punk, a bit more Rock-based, more decidedly dark and miserable than Post-Punk necessarily is, and finally severed from goth's punk roots. Sisters of Mercy is THE most popular and influential Gothic Rock band; they popularized the use of extremely low baritone vocals and drum machines. Despite existing since the 80s, its popularity peak was in the 90s.

Goth as a whole has its "big 4", but the subgenre of Gothic Rock has its own "big 3", which are Sisters of Mercy, The Mission (UK), and Fields of the Nephilim. Other Gothic Rock bands are Rosetta Stone, Corpus Delicti, Inkubus Sukkubus, Mephisto Walz, Angels of Liberty, Two Witches, Nosferatu, Wisborg and Soror Dolorosa.

DARKWAVE:

Goth going electronic! There's basically two types of Darkwave; the one that's more a combination of Post-Punk + Synthpop (very popular in the past decade), and the one that's more a combination of Gothic Rock + electronic music in general (most popular in the 90s). EXTREMELY danceable, but then again goths can dance to literally anything. This genre has existed at the very least since the second half of the 80s and has never stopped being relevant in the goth scene, save maybe during the Deathrock revival phase.

Clan of Xymox might be the single most influential Darkwave band. There's also The Frozen Autumn, The Crüxshadows, Switchblade Symphony, Collide, Dark, Ghosting, London After Midnight, She Past Away, Drab Majesty and Boy Harsher.

ETHEREAL WAVE:

This genre is heavily linked to Dream Pop, Neoclassical Darkwave and Shoegaze. Like with Darkwave there's basically a few styles of Ethereal Wave, I can pinpoint three; the one that's like, regular Goth Rock/Post-Punk but with a lot of extra delay and reverb and other stylistic choices that make it sound, well, Ethereal, dream-like. There's the type that has lots of Folk influences (be it Medieval/Rennaisance-ish type of Folk or "ethnic" type of Folk), and there's one that's synth-based but, unlike Darkwave, sounds like what ketamine must feel like. This genre has existed since the mid 80s but its peak in popularity and relevancy in the scene was in the 90s.

Dead Can Dance is THE most influential Ethereal Wave band, but there's others such as Cocteau Twins (started as Post-Punk, ended up as Dream Pop and Ethereal Wave), Miranda Sex Garden, Faith and the Muse, Lycia, Claire Voyant, Hamsas XIII, Love is Colder than Death, SRSQ, Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Mors Syphilitica.

What about Deathrock, Gothic Metal and Industrial?

Deathrock is goth's American twin, basically. While in the early 80s in the UK morose ex-punks were playing Post-Punk, in the early 80s in the LA Punk scene morbid and brooding punk kids were playing Deathrock; it's closer to Punk Rock in sound than Post-Punk, being more about being spooky and brooding than about being eerie and romantic. Goth is to vampires and witches what Deathrock is to zombies and werewolves.

To summarize the consensus on Deathrock and its place within the goth subculture; it's rare to find a goth who's not also into at least some Deathrock, and even rarer to find a deathrocker who's not into goth. Personally, I think Deathrock is its own separate though very similar thing, but I don't mind Deathrock being lumped in with goth music.

I made a whole TikTok video on why Gothic Metal isn't a goth subgenre, but in summary; Gothic Metal is a Metal subgenre that was somewhat influenced by goth music in its earliest stage of development, but is for the most part a cross between Doom Metal and Death Metal with lyrics inspired by gothic literature. By adhering to a Metal sound it doesn't fit the type of sound goth music has. The goth influences in Gothic Metal were mostly only present in the earliest bands and a majority of the newer acts are completely disconnected from the goth scene.

As for goth's ties to the rivethead subculture (and thus, Industrial music): We've been sibling subcultures since at least the early 90s. Both very, very small and underground scenes that despite being different, had enough similarities in music, idiosyncrasy and aesthetic sensibilities to comfortably band together for the sake of scene viability. That's why you might hear people talking about the "gothic-industrial scene".

Keep in mind too that 80s and 90s Industrial music sounded very different from how it does now (compare your average Grendel or Combichrist song to your average Skinny Puppy or Die Form song). There was a lot less influence of raver music in the rivethead scene back then, and a lot more influence from 80s dark alternative music and New Wave, which are key influences for the goth scene as well.

As told by goth YouTuber Angela Benedict (goth since 1995), every goth back then listened to at least some Industrial, every rivethead listened to at least some goth music, and they all loved 80s New Wave, so DJs at shared club nights had a very easy time entertaining both audiences simultaneously.

🦇 Trivia & other things to know

The term "gothic Rock" was being used in music journalism as early as to describe releases by The Doors and The Velvet Underground, but the word "gothic" there wasn't so much used to point to a specific type of sound at that stage, it was used to imply the mood of the music and that's not where the subculture gets its name.

We don't know for sure why this subculture began to be referred to as "goth", initially the music was called either New Wave (just a darker and more underground variety of it) or Positive Punk. However, one of the potential roots of this name for our subculture is that it comes from an inside joke from members of Southern Death Cult/The Cult about Andi Sexgang (Sex Gang Children) about how he was a creepy little guy obsessed with the macabre and dark romanticism living at the Visigoth Towers, so they called him a "goth goblin" and if he was a goth, then his fans were goths too.

From the comments that the goth bloggers/vloggers I follow get, apparently it's common for baby bats and people interested in the subculture to think that they HAVE to find a goth "type" to lock themselves into, like "trad goth" or "romantic goth" or whatever else, and if they don't, they're a poser. This isn't true at all. Most goths wax and wane between fashion styles and goth music subgenres. These terms are far more useful to describe aesthetics rather than people or music.

If you ever hear people talk about "1st/2nd/3rd wave goth/Gothic Rock"; that's an (in my opinion) outdated and not too functional terminology to differentiate between "eras" of goth music, 1st wave being between 1975-1985, 2nd between 1985-1995, and 3rd between 1995-? That terminology was used widely when I was a baby bat but not so much anymore.

"Baby bat" is what a lot of more established goths call newbies! It's NOT meant as an insult nor to be condescending. It's a loving cutesy term and while of course most baby bats are very young, it's perfectly plausible to be a very grown adult and a baby bat if they just got into goth instead of getting into the subculture as a teen.

Most goth bands are easily found on Spotify except for more underground ones that haven't been active for a while (I have so many beloved bands and songs that just don't exist on Spotify), but the real goth jackpot is at Bandcamp.

Facebook is still useful for one (1) thing and it's for finding goth events; that's where I've found out about gothic fairs, goth nights and gigs; from the largely popular ones in my local scene to the very underground ones.

The song most of the subculture agrees is THE first official goth song is Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, which was recorded as a singular take. It was the first track the band recorded together, too.

The Batcave is infamous nowadays as a huge goth night club in Soho (London) during the early 80s, owned by the band Specimen, BUT as told by the very people who used to frequent the nightclub, the whole thing has been a little overblown and its current reputation is more legend than fact. YouTuber Gothcast has a great video on the subject that was praised by members of Specimen itself!

Most of the most iconic pioneer goth musicians HATE being referred to as goths or to have their music referred to as such. When the term "goth" was first starting to be used to describe our music and scene it was a pejorative used by outsiders and/or mostly associated with the campier and more "low brow" bands (Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend come to mind). Andrew Eldritch from Sisters of Mercy especially hates it, to the point he refuses to even say the word and refers to it as "the G word". Which is hilarious since he sounded the most stereotypically gothy out of the big 4 and looked like this at the time he started to be a piss baby about it:

Goth isn't really a "youth" subculture anymore if you ask people within the scene. Unlike people from many other subcultures, goths have a tendency to stay goth far into adulthood (even if covertly). When you go to any events, besides teens and people in their early 20s, you're gonna see plenty of goths in their 40s and older, a few of them will bring their kids along if the event is family friendly.

Besides the obvious chance of many goths being professional creatives (musicians, writers, artists, etc), for some reason A LOT of goths work in tech and healthcare!

Metalheads headbang, they and punks also mosh. What do goths do to vibe to our music together? We dance! We don't dance the same as non-goths but we LOVE to dance to our music, together or solo. There's no established dance styles to adhere to; it's just letting your body flow to the music. Some goth dancing is very intricate, some of it is very simple, it depends on the goth in question. Just in case, this is NOT like the dance gifs of cybergoths/rivetheads under that damned bridge. Think less that and more Wednesday Addams dancing to The Cramps, or the girl from the Night of the Demons movie. Here's some videos about how goths dance:

We fucking love 80s New Wave. No, Depeche Mode isn't a goth band; yes, you'll have to dig deep to find a goth who doesn't ADORE them. The only one I've come across who disliked Depeche Mode liked Soft Cell instead.

Goth IS international! Not just in the sense that there's fans of goth music basically everywhere, but that there's local goth scenes with their own local goth bands everywhere. Outside of the US + Europe + Canada, there's huge goth scenes all over Latin América (our Deathrock and Post-Punk are at times even popular among 1st world goths), and there's also smaller but still present goth scenes in Africa, Asia and Oceania. She Past Away is very much one of THE most popular goth bands in recent years and they're from Turkey.

The goth scene has always been in friendly terms with the LGBT community. Not only are many of our biggest icons LGBT themselves (the whole band Specimen, AVC from Sopor Aeternus, both members of Diavol Strâin, the vocalist from Male Tears, Cinnamon Hadley, and many more) but plenty of cishet goths (especially the men) embrace gender non-conformity and/or androgyny. In most local scenes, goth club nights are held at gay bars/nightclubs, as they don't tend to have privately owned venues. And either way, at any goth night there'll be tons of gay and gender non-conforming goths no matter where they're held. To varying degrees depending on the locality of the scene, gay and bi people are completely normalized in the goth subculture, and gender non-conformity and androgyny aren't just encouraged, but praised and coveted.

There's goths of any religion you can think of, but Neo Pagans are somewhat over-represented in our community compared to the rest of larger society (for better or worse). Funnily enough, very few goths are actually Satanists of any sort. I'd say the numbers go more or less similar to our local non-goth peers. In the West and westernized countries I'd say it goes; majority culturally-Christian atheist or agnostic goths (usually not militant about it), a few practicing Christians of whichever denomination (usually whichever is dominant in the country they inhabit), the rare but entirely plausible Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist goth, and a bunch of Neo-Pagans. Probably one (1) or two (2) actual Satanist goths per state/province/etc, tops.

World Goth Day is celebrated every year on May 22nd.

"Mallgoth" isn't a type of goth in either a musical or fashion sense. I made another TikTok about it, but in summary; it was originally hurled as an insult towards a very specific type of poser; the American kids in the late 90s and early 00s who imitated how goths dressed and called themselves goths while only listening to Nu Metal and maybe the most mainstream Industrial Metal. They tended to congregate at malls and behave particularly obnoxious to everyone there, further ruining our already delicate image (especially at that time).

Cybergoths aren't really goths either. Their music scene is centered around EBM, which is basically slightly darker and slightly more aggressive raver music that may or may not have Industrial influences. And to be honest they behaved like a rapacious invasive species in goth club nights to the point that they almost decimated the actual goth scene and it took us a while to recover from that.

Goths are sometimes perceived as too self-serious but honestly? We love making fun of ourselves and we tend to have a very silly or dry sense of humor. We're just tired of the same cheap and inaccurate jokes made by people who don't know anything about us. The best jokes about goths will often come from goths ourselves; you can only properly make fun of something you understand well! The few times outsiders get it right though? (Sad to confirm that the South Park goth kids are hilarious and I wish they were in a better show) You'll see goths sharing the SHIT out of it, such as me being obsessed with the goths from Ridonculous Race, or the clip below:

#goth music #music #goth #gothic #gothgoth #goth subculture #trad goth #gothic rock #post punk #darkwave #ethereal wave #Spotify #goth 101

[genericpuff]

I was reading your essay on "fat" rep in LO and as woman who is overweight, maybe not but definitely chubby/pudgy and often getting shit for it by my family... Do we ever see Persephone with a not-flat stomach? Even just a little protruding, not necessarily round. Or a double chin? I know fat looks different on different people, but... To me that seems like a pretty obvious way for an artist to show their character is meant as fat rep. If Rachel actually wanted that, I mean.

There are definitely times Rachel tries to draw her "fat" but it feels so tone deaf because it's still just like... as I've mentioned in my essay about it, it's "Hollywood fat", i.e. the kind of belly pouch fat that many women have that's often painted as ugly even though it's very commonplace to have (because no person is entirely flat! we're humans, not planks of wood!) The problem is if you try to quantify as little amount of fat as possible as "fat representation", you can't really call it fat representation because it only represents people on the lower end of the spectrum of fat. Here's an example of what I mean when I tried to find that one specific image example I was thinking of that I had seen ages ago lmao (this isn't the one I was thinking of but it gets the same point across):

Yes, cartoon stylization is a thing, but watch out for the folks who say they can't draw fat people because "it wouldn't suit my style", it falls into the same type of excuse camp as Tim Burton saying black people wouldn't suit the "aesthetic" of his films. They actually could draw fat characters in their style, it's more likely they just don't want to (but don't want to admit to that).

And honestly, if someone just wants to stick to drawing characters of a specific race, body type, etc. that they're familiar with, that's not a crime in and of itself IMO, but don't claim that your work is representation for a group when it's really only carrying the bare minimum or if you're just forcing it for the sake of seeming progressive. That's pretty much where LO falls, its "fat representation" only represents the bare minimum of fat that doesn't apply to the people who are looking for legitimate fat rep in media. Sure, there will be people who will still connect with that body type, especially for people who have stretch marks or belly pouches, but can it really be called 'fat rep' on the whole when it's not going to connect with the people who are genuinely fat? I'm someone who's gone through weight gain and struggled with body image, while I can totally relate to the type of body Persephone has where she (sometimes) has a muffin top and cellulite on her legs, that doesn't make her "fat representation" as a whole because she doesn't represent the women who are genuinely fat beyond chubbiness or being "not flat".

All that aside, the only indications of Persephone being 'fat' are the odd panel where Rachel gives her a belly or "stretch marks" (tbh they look less like stretch marks and more like scars from a bear attack lol):

But then she'll also draw Persephone with a straight up bodybuilder torso and have her say outloud that she's "small-medium":

It all feels very tone deaf because it's Rachel trying to have her cake and eat it too - she wants to draw Persephone as her usual small cinnamon roll self who can be infantilized and fetishized by the men around her (which Rachel loves to write and draw btw) BUT she also wants to try and take credit for Persephone being "fat rep" so whenever she remembers to do so, she'll throw in her laziest attempts at making Persephone seem "fat" but really she's just the Hollywood version of "fat" by having a belly pouch and stretch marks that many women of varying sizes have regardless of weight changes. We can't even assume that she may have been fat at one point and lost the weight (leading to the stretch marks) because we've seen Persephone in basically all stages of her life from childhood to adulthood. She's always been itty bitty and her entire personality and relationship with Hades is written around that.

#ama #ask me anything #anon ama #anon ask me anything #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus

[tornioduva]

Gerudo Redesign (coming at some point)

ok, so, i discovered that i like being active here, it kind of motivates me uhuh. so, while i have energy, i want to give breath to some other ideas and discussion i have and want to make.

So, long story short: i'd like to propose a new look for the Gerudo women from the Zelda series. But this will require some research on my part first. But you can join in it too!

So, while this is a fun exercise on its own, it's been motivated by a specific thing, that being a series of threads on orientalism i read, plus articles and discussion.

One of the things i always praised about the Tears of the wild duology, is the way they built the world, made it feel alive and how grounded and thought of a lot of things were, especially regarding the various people living. and especially regarding the Gerudo, the citadel blew my mind at the time.

At the same time, something always felt off about how they looked, despite being extremely varied and interesting. Like, them showing so much skin in the scorching sun and freezing nights; I appreciate the sight, and i'd love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life being pressed against the midriff of these beautiful women, but it feels like their outfit is designed more for appeal than for...using it. You could say is part of their genetics in being a different race altogether to not suffer extreme temperature, but it does not convince me honestly, at least not while they look so human. At the very least, i think we can convey it better than just "they can", something along the line of the dwarves in dungeon meshi.

Plus they all wear heels and run on the sand.

In addition to my personal gripes, then all this discourse on orientalism added on, all the various borrwed aesthetics in their clothes borrowed from a century of stereotypes, and so on.

All this to say that i very much think a better design, far less rooted in orientalism and fetishitazation. also racism, because yes, having one race of people, amidst other more fantastical ones, being defined different than the regular "human" ones just by being taller, browner, genetically and culturally more violent and living in the desert,

But it requires a good amount of research on a lot of things i don't know, like how people live there, what kind of different actual cultures might be appropriate to represent and maybe some changes in their physical appeareance.

Am i stroking my ego a little in announcing it instead of just making it? maybe.

Mainly though this was to motivate others in joining the discussion if they liked the idea. i'm going to do this research on my own anyway (very slowly though, uhuh), but if anyone reading want to contribute, share ideas, culture, attires, or just their own opinion, feel free too and i'll try to consider them all!

Thanks in advance if that will be the case! otherwise, till we meet again with some actual ideas put to paper uhuh.

#tornio #tornioduva #torniod #fantasy #fantasy art #gerudo #zelda #legend of zelda #the legend of zelda #tears of the wild #zelda tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #botw #loz totk #zelda totk #totk #loz botw #gerudo redesign

[adobe-outdesign]

Skrelp line review please!

Seadragons are vastly underrated animals, considering how insane looking they are—I actually think this line might be one of the few instances of a Pokemon being more subdued that its real-life counterpart.

The line also has a neat little concept wherein they specifically mimic rotting kelp (which can be poisonous), so the line is part poison-type. It's nothing crazy, but the haggard look of these guys is pretty unique and not an aesthetic Pokemon often touches upon.

Skrelp, in particular, has a delightfully gloomy expression ala Murkrow—a single visible eye partially covered by the fins on its head and no visible mouth, just a proboscis-like structure. The black around the eye and the red color helps draw attention to the face, while the body has this jagged look to it that I really like.

The only thing I don't really like here are the colors. The purple works well for a poison-type and goes well with the brown, giving it a subdued and murky appearance. However, the blue fins are a bit distracting and feel brighter than everything else; a simple white might've worked better. Another option would've been to rock a simple monotone brown palette on the body, something Pokemon seems to rarely do after Gen 1:

Regardless, this is a very distinctive little guy with a great personality.

I gotta say, I really love the direction they went with Dragalge. They kept the haggard appearance and amplified it by adding more leafy seadragon-esq fins and dropping the blue from the palette, and gave it a really unique body shape that I can't get enough of. The end result is both beautiful but eerie, flowing but dull at the same time. The only loss is that a bit of the personality of Skrelp was lost, but that's an acceptable sacrifice, especially because the eye still looks fairly similar.

My sole nitpick is once again the colors; there's now three colors in a palette that needed two at max. The green on the head could've been brown to simplify things, or you could once again go for a monotone brown on the body to draw attention to the head (though I like the purples, as they do help convey the poison-typing). It's a minor thing, but the amount of color combined with it trying to be muted and subtle always throws me just a little. That's it, though; everything else is beautiful.

Anyway, overall: Skrelp has a fun personality and a lot of charm to it, and looks distinctive but connected to its evo. Dragalge is properly eerie, and has a wonderful body shape and leaf accents that are absolutely gorgeous. The poison-typing and rotting kelp theme are also clear. Aside from a few minor quibbles about the colors, this is a near-perfect line for me.

#skrelp #dragalge #pokemon #pokemon reviews #outdesign attempts to edit

[soullessjack]

good morning everypony here is my overly long caffeinated autistic analysis of the end scene from 14x19 ^_^

so for starters,

Jack’s glowy-archangel-eye color is canonically **gold.** not yellow like the princes of hell or shifters, but **gold.** Very shimmery, very sunshiny and starry and warm. yellow and gold are also the colors/aesthetics associated with jack most often in the fandom because of this so it’s his Thing™️ . however, in the smoky fiery background, they appear to be glowing so intently that they start to become a little…red …like Lucifer’s eyes so poignantly glow. the background is also extremely red (courtesy of the bunker going into lockdown, effectively *caging* them in), of course with some orangish yellows from the fire, but it’s very … “Lucifer in the background of Jack.”

secondly, jack is almost completely obscured by all of the smoke and backdrop fire/lockdown alarm lighting. if you zoom in close enough you can just barely see the white stripes on his cuffs, but otherwise he has absolutely no discernible features besides his glowing-out-of-skull eyes. he’s unrecognizable, vaguely human, but the prominent and most visible trait is the one he inherited from his nonhuman father, Lucifer, whose shadow he was pretty much born in and fought to get out of.

He feels nothing here but “icy hatred” and “fury,” and later on after he leaves he visits his grandparents specifically because “it’s clear—rejected by sam and dean—Jack’s looking for some kind of connection. Some kind of family.”

Lastly, of course, the utter destruction surrounding him; the twisted scrap metal remaining of his coffin, the numerous tiny fires that sprung from its’ demolition, the smoke that fills the entire dungeon so much that it engulfs and obscures Jack’s very being; it’s a very small scale of destruction compared to the “universe devouring” he was hyped up to deliver, but destruction nonetheless—and destruction in its own furious vengeful right, born from a deep sense of grief and pain of rejection and, like Fenrir, lashing out at being treated like a monster by those who you believe loved you; coming full circle into becoming that very monster in the process.

At his core, Jack’s base desires have almost always been to belong and have a family and be loved, especially for who he is, but he is also deeply afraid that ‘who he is’ is something evil and unlovable, something that can only ever destroy and ruin and take away; something that should die for the greater good of the world. he builds up a very specific well-mannered and optimistic hero/protector persona, not just to appear normal, but to be someone he thinks is “good” and useful and therefore worth loving, and the core fear of his “true nature” manifests as an avoidance of anything being ‘wrong’ with him in any capacity.

he lashes out at Mary over this direct fear, because she says something is wrong with him, and he can’t even cope with that with a soul. he tries to reassure Mary that “[he’s] not any different, that [he’s] still [himself]” and becomes defensive when she says otherwise; “the jack she knows would never have done that,” which, in his state of mind and rooted insecurity, would very easily translate into “you are not the person I know,” and likely goes even further to “you are not the person I know and love.” Mary insists on helping him, but Jack “shuts down; knows there’s nothing anyone can do.” He tells her that she can’t [help him] and just wants to be left alone as he begins spiraling, and we of course know the rest.

But afterwards, throughout Jack’s psychosis, Hallucifer basically tells him that he’s useless to the winchesters now, and useless = unlovable = not worth saving to them. He calls Jack their “pet monster,” “muscle to take out their enemies,” and just “pet,” diminishing Jack’s place in the family as their surrogate son (and likewise, them as his surrogate fathers), and reinforcing that he’s still a monster to them, and one that’s only valued or “loved” for his power. vocalizing his subconscious fear. He also taunts Jack’s obsessive motivation to resurrect Mary and, presumably earn forgiveness/regain his place in the family, as pathetic; not just a pointless effort to fix the unfixable, but something he shouldn’t even care about or want anymore, because he doesn’t really belong there anyways. The grief he feels for Mary is “just a reflex” from having a soul, not a genuine emotion or motivation that Jack still has; it’s not really about her, it’s about him being loved again. all of which Jack responds to with increasingly agitated “Shut ups.” And remember, that these are literally Jack’s own thoughts; his intrusive thoughts and long-held insecurities.

much like when Michael said he’d become more powerful and less human as he got older, and Jack “didn’t want to admit it was possible,” — he’s afraid to admit the possibility that he’s doing this selfishly; that he’ll never be loved again, that he was never really loved to begin with; that this is it. This is his true nature, the evil and destructive and pathetic unlovable pet monster that’s only good for being shown an enemy and told “sic-’em, boy.” he’s afraid that he might be doing this selfishly and is adamant that it’s because he really loves Mary. he really wants her back, too. he also goes and does those biblical atrocity murders with the same motivation, so much so that it actually irritates Duma to see he still cares lmao.

it’s a horrible culmination of grief and fear from the same root place, a horrible desire to be loved. to desire is to suffer and such. and that specific obsessive grief-stricken desire to be loved is intimately what twists jack into that unrecognizable rage-filled shadow.

jack’s desire to be loved and his fear of becoming/always being an unlovable monster is ultimately what drove him to becoming that monster.

@dakrapatops @dragonsareattackinghogwarts @aurorasleepsin @shallowseeker @honeyedwhiskey @jvnkless @ / anyone else I forgot lol

#feast your eyes mateys 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ #spn #supernatural #spn meta #supernatural meta #spn analysis #character analysis #jack kline #jack spn #tfw2.0 #spn season 14 #spn 14x19 #jack in the box #mary winchester #jack and mary

[elizabethrobertajones]

Rating All Radiant's Gear By How Cute The Little Dragons Are:

Paladin: 9/10 The sword little guy is one of the stylised dragons who has been squished flat, and drags down the set for being a lil boring in execution, but the shield is ADORABLE, look at that baby all curled around it!! The pose, the style, the ELEGANCE. One of the largest dragons of the whole set.

Long post under the cut :)

Warrior: 10/10 FOUR dragons, all with a cool pose, in one weapon? Lookit them! They're little spiky babies judging you from their perch and I love them.

Dark Knight: 8/10 Cool pose but their faces are sort of weird. The babies have 2 eyes on each side I think? But the face doesn't have enough definition to make them look like faces, and then you could mistake the 2 eyes for being front-facing and then they're goofy. More effort put into being edgy than maximising Dragon Cuteness, but they are still pretty neat, so I can't be that mean to them.

Gunbreaker: 0/10 NO DRAGONS??? Just the aesthetic? What are we DOING here? I think this secretly says something about the state of the trade deal between the Bozjans and Rats-at-Hand so I volunteer as a diplomat to improve things so they honour the traditional Gunblade with a more befitting dragon next time. I will rebuild Bozja myself brick by brick if I have to get trade flowing.

Dragoon: 11/10 The little guys from the axe are back and they have a EXTRA WINGS to make the spear more aerodynamic, which is very important for aerial combat. Bonus points for making a leetle heart :)

Reaper: 100/10 this is just Vrtra. Look at that snoot. Someone had SEEN him when they made this. Is this a post-EW design that their craftsmen added to the range after seeing that the Warrior of Light was a reaper and wanted to sell them specifically the perfect weapon? Or is this a secret design a past satrap had sketched and had made to secretly carry Vrtra with them which ended up in the stable of weapon types the Radiant Host use, in which case I want to know everything about the Reaper Satrap.

Monk: 9/10 Look at this guy... Another goofy face, but a great pose. Deducting points more because you don't punch someone directly with a dragon and instead they're hiding behind the blades looking cute. I want to punch someone with a dragon.

Samurai: 12/10 Two extra points for the weird dragon face with six eyes on the blade itself. I don't think the person designing most of these had ever seen a dragon but I love the imagination going into it. The lil guy on the sheath is fucking majestic. Flying at your side and adorable to boot.

Ninja: 0/10 again... Yeah yeah dragons have scales and claws. Disappointing.

Bard: 7/10 disappointingly flat little guy. Considering how MANY bows there are shaped like creechurs, the fact that this isn't another Vrtra-shaped full-body monstrosity of a thing is especially painful. Definitely an old staple of their armoury from times long ago when they weren't even sure the great dragon was real. Scraped a point for the arrow fletching being little wings.

Machinist: 8/10 another lil guy with a funny face. Loses their body definition to wrap around the butt of the gun, and playing a protective role over your hands once again like with Monk, rather than getting out there and doing the shooting, which would have been funny, but perhaps crass for a beloved protector.

Dancer: 9/10 SO LONG. Just curled up and having a good time vibing. Sadly hard to see unless it's being actively thrown at someone, since that distortion in its length is so you can hold it there. Deducting a point just because the art of combat dancing does come from Thavnair so they COULD have gone a bit more all out on this particular weapon.

Black Mage: 7/10 ARE YOU OKAY THERE? The squished ones make me sad. Could have been much more 3D and leaping out at you. The wings are amazing though. The overall vibe looks more like one of those flying voidsent thingies with the big flappy wings (you know the ones) so it is suitable BLM wear but not overall the best dragon nor particularly cute or cuddly.

Summoner/Scholar (same dragons but one's lighter): 5/10 This is the same dragon as the Black Mage staff but even more compressed and the wings are tiny and weak. There could have been SO MUCH MORE dragon on these books. :(

Red Mage: 6/10 Great pose but the other wing designs are doing most of the heavy work to make it dragonny. I think it's sweet that it's snuggling down close to your hand but it's definitely a secret little dragon and not a flex that it's your new bestie in channelling terrifying amounts of mana. Bonus point for the slight bat-like aesthetic in its pose and the metal wings, and I always approve of when anything Red Mage also has vampiric hints in the aesthetic, and the lil baby dragon is playing along.

White Mage: 10/10 "Oh this one just has the wings?" WRONG LOOK AT THIS LITTLE WHITE MAGE BABY WHITE DRAGON SNOOZING IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR STAFF, AWAY FROM THE DYABLE SECTIONS. The white sheep of the family is here to help and they're doing so well. Deducted bonus points because its eyes don't glow, so you can't dye it blue and have a blue eyes white dragon :(

Astrologian: 8/10 Double dragon! I stared for so long trying to work out if the dongle on top is also a dragon face but I think it just glows. The dragons are pretty subtle here but I think it may be kinder than putting them on any part where they'd be rotated wildly because then they might get dizzy and we can't have that. Anyway the existing dragons are cute but also just far enough down that stylised line that they look really goofy again so I think I am once again appreciating them in a silly way not a "awww baby" way.

Sage: 1000/10 FUCKING BABY DRAGONS. FOUR OF THEM.

AND THEY FLY.

Start your own family, dye them bright pink as the colour of your new brood... You're one of Middy's kids now, you are totally legally allowed to do that by Dragon Rules, trust me.

I am obsessed.

#ffxiv #endwalker spoilers #this post brought to you by me once again having a ton of nuts saved up to buy the base weapons #is it weird to run Aglaia over and over so I can augment and dye them #anyway I've been previewing them all morning and trying to decide which ones to buy. #I've had the sage ones since week 1 that they were affordable #and slooooowly working my way through the rest and now I'm coming up against Decisions.

[thethiefandtheairbender]

just a disclaimer: i’m queer and nonbinary (afab) as can be, so all of this is from a personally queer perspective? i also know that i don’t tend to really jive with ND stevenson’s work (she-ra didn’t quite work for me) either and if you loved the movie, great. i just gotta drop thoughts somewhere because well

they’re less than positive

like “nimona” wants to be a Queer movie so badly, but the entire humourous basis of the character herself is that she is 1) young looking (despite being immortal) and 2) appears to be AFAB and isn’t it funnily jarring when little girls want to be violent instead of cute and sweet? 

She doesn’t want to be a monster, but clearly genuinely enjoys destroying things (again: basis of the bulk of her character humour, and one of most defining character traits) with no regards to anyone who gets hurt or could get hurt in the process. 

also this is Entirely Personal preference but while the animation was stunning, the contrast in the medieval aesthetic and modern day technology just continually brought me out of the movie. which is too bad, because treasure planet and it’s 70/30 rule and aesthetic blend of old timey and big technology is one of my favourite things ever, but i think Nimona being 50/50 just... didn’t work for me. was also slightly disappointed that i figured out who the actual bad guy was before the queen’s death (and yet another movie with a black queen who Dies Instantly / a movie with literally queer men of colour being technical side characters to a white, allegorically queer main ‘female’ character). 

Ballister is a great protagonist, but due to his opposition of everything Nimona is personality and scheme wise, it feels like they’re almost running around in two separate stories. As well as like - he wanted to enjoy the Elite, Privileged, fighting force? An elite, privileged, entirely based on birthright system ruled by a Black queen before it was called into question, when it’s also a pretty clear allegory for the Police? The fact that this isn’t resolved - what’s going to happen to the Institute, is it going to be reformed or even better yet, disbanded (‘defunded’), is entirely left hanging as a plot thread, which doesn’t happen matters.

Halfway through the movie (specifically Nimona’s “or that sometimes I want to let them [kill me]”) is when I finally started to feel emotionally invested, but like two scenes later when Ambrosius’ stabbing was over dramatic rather than just letting the tone hold, I looked into the camera just... so incredibly unimpressed. The monopoly and shark dancing didn’t help.  

“She’s my friend.” “Aren’t I more than that?” so there were no aspec people in making this film. Got it. And Ballister’s heel face turn into calling Nimona a monster is also very quick, especially when his whole arc this movie is being unfairly demonized himself by the very same thing/people that are demonizing Nimona as well. The sheer harshness and length of the scene is also much longer and given time than him saving her, leaving that feeling kinda lopsided as well.

And Nimona’s issues I think are very evident in the fact the movie lets us see all the damage she’s causing at the end when she loses control, which is sad and tragic for her... but does not excuse or remove the real harm she’s bringing hundreds of other people. This is mitigated when she sacrifices herself to save the city, but given that her problem wasn’t necessarily selfishness so much as recklessness, and given that Ballister had literally just talked her down from suicide, it’s... Muddled to say the least.

And all of this ties back into the murky gender allegory of the movie. At its best, it’s very effective and very emotionally resonant (Nimona’s actual flashbacks and a couple of her conversations with Ballister. I can definitely see why people like it - hell, even I like it. “This monster is a threat to our entire way of life!” “What if we’re wrong?” kinda perfectly encapsulates were it falls flat to me, because queerness Is a threat to our current systems - capitalism, racism, cisheteropatriarchy founded on white gender essentialism. Queerness, particularly of gender, disrupts and should disrupt all those things; it’s a political identity just as much as personal one, both by choice and by societal circumstance.

TLDR; found the second half of the movie, overall, much stronger than the first, but with some bigger structural pitfalls. Animation was gorgeous, sense of humour didn’t overall work for me but that’s a personal thing, queer allegory was good but I would’ve liked some of the implications to be taken farther. I appreciate the movie for what it says about freedom of expression vs demonization by the upper class(es), and I think it’ll really resonant and be important to queer youth in their teens (a stage I am long past) figuring themselves and their place in an increasingly anti-trans political climate out, so I’m very glad it exists. It just wasn’t particularly groundbreaking, and wasn’t particularly up my alley. Which is kind of what I expected, but I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more as a nonbinary person who loves story deconstructions, fantasy, and animation

#nimona critical #nimona spoilers

[poohsources]

HELLO EVERYONE! as the year is slowly but surely coming to its end, and i'm now home for the holidays, i thought it was finally time to make another one of these. partially to give a little update on what's been going on in my life and partially as some sort of retrospect for this past year and a look into my plans for next year.

looking back, it's been quite an eventful year — especially when compared to the weird covid years we had to deal with previously. the biggest change was probably my dropping out of college to start a dual studies program in law. i did like my college program just fine ( until i didn't anymore ) but i really feel like law is my thing. and apparently everyone else in my circle of family and friends thinks so as well because i seem a hell of a lot happier than i did before. kinda unfortunate it took me seven years since quitting high school to figure that bit out, but hey, at least i got there in the end. it's been quite time-consuming, and i feel like in those past five months, i've already learned more than i did in all my years of college, but it's fun. i also finally got some new friends my age again. it's also strange to think back that just one year ago i was still struggling financially and just generally dealing with some bad mental health stuff.

i'm actually happy now.

in terms of tumblr and roleplaying, i gotta be honest that i have been sidelining it a lot over the last months. sure, i'm still around but it's not my primary focus, and i'm learning that it's okay not to be online all the time. it's okay to take breaks and focus on other things because as much as i love this blog, the community and tumblr, there are some more important things now. still, i am and always will be eternally grateful to every single person who supports me - whether it is by liking or reblogging posts, sending asks or messages, following me or using any of my stuff. it means so freaking much to me, and i always feel so proud whenever i randomly see my own stuff pop up on my dash because mutuals use it. thank you all so very much! in a similar vein, i honestly still cannot fathom that i almost managed to double the follower count this past year. i'm probably not gonna reach the goal i've kinda been looking at until the end of the year but that's okay. i am so incredibly grateful for everyone here anyway. no matter what.

as for next year - i'm not too sure what i'm gonna do. of course. i'm gonna keep posting memes, and templates and whatever other stuff i feel like doing, but i think my activity is gonna keep on being spotty. i'm also still tempted to do commissions one day ( and we're totally gonna ignore that i've been saying this for over a year now, okay? ) but with the amount of time i don't have, i'm not sure i'm gonna be able to deliver on that. if i do finally build the courage and self-esteem to do that, it will be like an occasional thing that might take some time. however, one thing i do wanna do more of is gifs. i'm not sure what kind of gifs, but i enjoy making them and it's been way too long since i did them so i'm gonna see how i'm gonna incorporate that. or if anyone has any specific gifs they want, always feel free to shoot me an ask or a message. maybe also some aesthetic-y stuff? after all do love making pinterest boards for characters.

maybe i'll also do a blog reveal once i finally set up my multi that i've been planning to work on for months now. since i'm gonna scrap my current main blog ( which i haven't really been active on in a while now anyway ) i'm kinda thinking of coming back to writing and who knows, maybe i'm gonna reveal it here in case anyone would like to write with me.

anyway, this was a lot of rambling, and if you've made it this far, i once again wanna thank you. i know i do this a lot but i really do appreciate you all being here so much, and even after two years of having this silly little blog, it still feels unreal to me that so many people here enjoy what i do.

much love and happy holidays, pooh 🧡

#pooh speaks. #pooh's (ir)regular updates. #long post tw

[dwn024]

hii i was wondering if you have any good resources or tips for y2k styled background patterns/elements? i wanted to look at stuff for some inspo but i've got a lot of trouble figuring out the right search terms and stuff to find specifically what i'm looking for... you're The Y2K Mutual in my head so i was hoping you might be able to help out? XP

YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT MAN MY DEAR FRIEND

first off, in general when it comes to Y2K design research [and really any any historical aesthetic design from 1960s-present] i always love to point people towards the consumer aesthetics research institute

it is the most useful research on this subject you will probably ever find because it is VERY well organized, well researched, they're the ones that coin basically all the aesthetic names that the aesthetic fandom wiki uses, and at some point since the last time i checked the site they added a new search feature that lets you filter by relevant decade!

now for Y2K type shit you might be tempted to search for resources from "the 2000s", but the Y2K futurism aesthetic was actually already on its way out by 2003 [the decline officially started post-9/11] and many 2000s aesthetics are wayyyy more different than the Y2K futurism type visuals i specialize in. it's better to seek out things from the 90s, especially late 90s [1996-2000 is the general Peak Era for Y2K style design], but don't limit yourself to JUST the 90s! it's also extremely helpful to look at the decades that Inspired Y2K futurism, because the late 90s was nostalgic for the 60s and 70s, so a lot of design styles from those eras are useful to research too! i mean just look at space channel it is EXTREMELY 70s revival

Y2K futurism itself is its own distinct aesthetic style, but it's very connected in a web of other visual styles from the same era. plus, the term "Y2K" has been corrupted by bad SEO and people who don't know what they're talking about conflating it with mcbling, so just searching "Y2K" won't really net you anything very helpful. "Y2K futurism" or "cyber Y2K" are good search terms to start with!

besides just the classic Y2K style, here are some other similar/related styles that will help you branch out your research even further

disco deco [60s] *art deco revival combined with disco aesthetics. you can very clearly see its influence on Y2K when you look at a lot of the fonts; case in point bauhaus 93 AKA the homestar runner font

supergraphic ultramodern [60s] *very very influential on Y2K design trends especially with all the organic flowing shapes

corporate gen-X cyber [90s]

gen X soft club [90s]

metalheart [90s]

vectorheart [90s] ***my personal favorite and probably what you think of when you think of flat Y2K graphics and UI

ultramodern revival [90s] *revival of supergraphic ultramodern with Y2K flair

frutiger aero [00s] *USE AS INSP WITH CAUTION. this style sprung into being AFTER the Y2K style had already waned, but since history is more like a gradient than a checkerboard, very very early examples of frutiger aero overlap with Y2K and contain similar design elements. still, if you're going to look into it, try to stick to the earliest possible examples, especially since Later frutiger aero starts to look very apple minimalist in a way i can't stand

mcbling [00s] *same as above, WITH MORE ANGRY PASSION THIS TIME!!!! Y2K futurist fashion is WAY different from mcbling, but more casual everyday fashion styles from 1998-2003 are fairly similar/precursors to mcbling, but mcbling and Y2K are NOT the same and should NOT be conflated. mcbling's real popularity began After the death of Y2K, so they weren't exactly The Big Thing at the exact same time

^all of the above can be found on the CARI website with plenty of example pictures. thank you for coming to me with this question if you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask i would be happy to help^_^

#y2k

[orions-belt-buckle]

Owlscop

The Owl House X Petscop AU

Sprites design

I redesigned the characters' in-game Petscop sprites to fit the AU. This was very fun and I'm pretty proud of what I came up with !

Players' sprites

Golden Guardian (Guardian redesign) : This redesign follows the classic shape of the Petscop Guardian, but makes it look like the Golden Guard. It's wearing the golden Guard outfit, so does every sprite. Instead of the classic head of the Guardian, this is the Golden Gard's mask, but following the normal head shape. All the colors were color-picked from Petscop sprites to match its aesthetic. The Golden Guardian of course still doesn't have hands

There are 4 sprites for the players is Petscop. The basic one, the Guardian, is the one that represents you when you are playing the game, always. When you encounter another player though their sprite will be a Guardian with a different head. That head is something that symbolizes a specific player. This is called the Multiple Player Theory (MPT for short).

Hunter MPT Guardian : This is Hunter-Paul's avatar. Originally, Paul's avatar is called pyramid-head since its head is the red pyramid that symbolizes Care's dance. I thought : what would symbolize Hunter best ? And especially a happier Hunter ? Of course that would be Flapjack, Hunter's best friend and Palisman. Which is perfect because Flapjack is red, much like the original pyramid. It's also not a human face in both cases. To fit better the aesthetic and to symbolize the older Hunter, I decided to go with the Flapjack tattoo design as seen in Watching and Dreaming.

Belos MPT Guardian : This is Belos' avatar. It's based on Marvin's, which is originally a green mask that is quite scary in its deformity. What represents Belos needed to be green and monstrous too, which could only be his Palisman-monster face and its inhumane smile. Both Marvin's and Belos' faces are the closest to a humans face between the three MPT avatars. For this design too I tried to keep it simple with the shapes and no shading.

Amity MPT Guardian : This is Amity's avatar. It's inspired by Belle's, which is in Petscop a circle, specifically a drawing of a girl's face that we assume is Tiara aka who she thinks she is/wants to be. So for Amity, I went with the Blight Industries' logo. It represents Amity very well because it is an Abomination (what she loves most) as well as a symbol of her parents' company (who she thinks she is/should want to be, the perfect daughter, witch and heiress) and it's purple like her. It also replaces Belle's drawing perfectly since it is also a circle with a face in it.

Hunter A, B and NLM

In Petscop, we encounter care A, B and NLM in different locations. Her face in the 3 states is also drawn on a piece of paper at the beginning. She has her own sprites different from any Guardian. Since Hunter is Care in Owlscop, I changed these to look like him. Because this is Hunter-Cqre and not Hunter-Paul, the redesign looks like him back when he was the Golden Guard, especially for his outfit.

Children that went through a Rebirthing have 3 different states: A, B and NLM (Nobody Loves Me). A is for when the child is ok, B not so much and NLM is a mentally broken person.

All the colors have been color-picked from Petscop (Care and Guardian sprites).

Hunter A : This is Hunter before the abuse, as a freshly made Grimwalker. For that reason, he is a Hunter we have never seen in TOH. I removed his scar, damaged ear and characteristic dark circles. Indeed, these are all consequences of Belos' abuse. His hair though is close to what it is the first time we see him.

Hunter B : This one is close to the actual Hunter we see on TOH except more disheveled to match the evolution of Care's sprites.

Hunter NLM : This is the same design as Hunter B, but in Care NLM's pose.

#owlscop #owlscop au #petscop #toh #the owl house #toh au #the owl house au #hunter toh #hunter deamonne #long post #petscop guardian #i had a lot of fun drawing these #golden guardian is a catchy name idk #i absolutely love analyzing everything in detail #even my own work #i just really like sharing all the small reasons why something is the way it is

[ms-scarletwings]

I am sorry to bother you but I have to say, I feel Dib got treated too harshly most of the time. It's the point of the story yes but at times it just feels flat out sadistic for no reason.

It's why the Gargantis Array comic storyline sucks to me, it was just two issues of buildup to make Dib a gross fat joke and humiliate him across space. Jhonen just really seems to love torturing Dib more than anyone and it's rarely even deserved.

Oh, this is the opposite of a bother, friendo!

I actually have a lot of reading to still do on the topic of the comics. I’m woefully only really up to good knowledge about issues 46-49 and a lot of bits of pieces otherwise. If what you’re saying rings true, that is sad to hear, but pretty interesting still. I’ve always in the back of my head been a little afraid that Dib’s karma could be flanderized to the point of making him a butt monkey. Especially when we all know that’s supposed to be Skoodge’s job! (waka waka)

As for the show, honestly? I think they managed the balance just fine. It’s not so much that the show was specifically cruel to him, but that sadism broadly was one of its central themes and there were no efforts made to exclude Dib from that. And why should they have? He’s not an innocent woobie, and in fact is actually in the seat of a very ambitious antagonist against the real main character’s goals. Arbitrary events of misfortune and pain were the bread and butter of the series back then, and almost no one was spared. Jhonen (who cameoed himself in the show just to choke on a fish and die for a joke) also from what I hear injected a lot of his own qualities into Dib, so I imagine it probably IS very entertaining to him to give the boy the works.

From what I have seen of the comics, that looks like a much finer line to tow. And this more of an off the cuff ramble, but you know what I think??? I think they made Dib a touch way too sympathetic actually. There’s so much more focus on just him and Zim’s side antics, and the more time you take Dib off world and away from the rest of the Earth side characters, the fewer reminders they give you about how many of his problems are majorly self inflicted and how much of a disturbance he can be to society. And, for better or worse, a less dark overall tone in the comics means that the moments of overtly black comedy are going to stand out a little more against the modernized background by contrast.

And there’s another elephant in the room that kind of gets to me, personally. As well as I can put it well, the art style change kind of really affects the lens he can be viewed through. Maybe more than most people want to admit. And I’m not dissing the rounded down, brightened up change, it’s not a better or worse direction from the show… but it is a different one with different strengths and weaknesses.

Like, look at Dib’s early season model sheets for a base of reference.

Now compare him alongside the comic and Florpus interpretation of Dib Membrane. OBVS I am simplifying a ton here, there’s a ton of room for more range than these examples.

I’m not here to say he’s a better or worse Dib visually, he’s still Dib to me! But is notable how comic Dib actually breaks a ton of the “rules” of what kind of character they wanted Dib to be. To put it one way, they sanded down some of his edges and he’s not as apparently “skrungly” as he used to be.

What I like about the change is that it actually gives the better impression of him actually being the lil dorkass kid he’s always been. He’s got a slight aesthetic shift that shows off his unique interests and it definitely sets him apart from Zim, who actually retained most of his own show design. He’s still got some funny lookin’ qualities and he’s so much more endearing

One of the downsides of all that, however, is probably that he’s so damn endearing and as a default.

I dunno if you ever watched Little Shop of Horrors, amazing musical btw, but, it’s supposed to have this whole tragic ending where the main character’s, Seymour’s, long chain of mistakes catch up with him and he meets his demise. In the movie, they casted Rick Moranis for the character, and he played such a puppy-eyed, adorkable Seymour that it made audiences suddenly too bummed out to even appreciate the dark ending. They hated it so much that the crew actually just changed the ending completely so that Seymour gets a consequence-free happy ending with everything he ever wanted. Even though he’s literally a serial murderer of sorts. You were always supposed to feel for him, but not to the point where watching him fail just makes you feel horrible.

I think Dib works kinda like that on a meta level.

If there’s any ruling on what goes over that invisible line when it comes to handling his character, I think Florpus Gaz nailed it right on the head. Dib is never supposed to just utterly break under the weight of his world. Can he sometimes crack? Yeah totally, especially in the “brink of madness” sense. Or if it’s funny. The golden rule is not to give him more than he can handle, and Dib CAN handle a lot of bullshit. He may be a frustrated lil squirt but he’s been at this for a very long time, and it’s hype af watching how he’s not slowing down even in the face of that. Dib and Zim’s biggest POSITIVE shared trait is the strength of their spirits against a world that is ultimately callous and cruel at every turn to them.

Every second you write Dib where he’s wallowing in despair or feeling sorry for himself is a second you come closer to that line and it’s what you need to dish out in wary moderation.

So I guess the TL:DR of what i think I’m getting at here is… it’s all about perspective.

But I really should read more of the comics.

#invader zim #iz #dib membrane #iz dib #iz analysis #answering asks #woah I finally have asks?!? #🥹 #scarlet talks about things

[hotcat37]

JO Pokémon teams

Thank u @chezgender for giving me the idea to make teams for Joker Out as well!! <3

Bojan: Togetic (it's a Pokémon that only the pure of heart can own and I'm 100% sure Bojan would be cocky about having one lmao) Dachsbun (it's based on a Daschund dog which Bojan has irl 💖💖) Roserade (I was gonna put Boltund here for the dogboy status Bojan has but a Roserade fits him sooo well and B is already associated with roses anyways) Altaria (Jigglypuff could work too since I went with a Pokémon known for its melodic voice but aesthetically Altaria fits better I think) Sylveon (an elegant cute looking Pokémon that is actually very powerful, the theme of Bojan's team is looking deceptive and to contradict Jere's more rough looking team) Quaxly (a Pokémon that puts a lot of effort into its appearance, specifically its hair haha)

Nace: Ursaluna (Nace is a teddy bear so he needs a bear Pokémon and aesthetic wise I think Ursaluna works the best for him) Forretress (it's a lame reason but this Pokémon on his team is supposed to represent how Nace eventually breaks out of his shell and becomes more confident within the band haha) Sentret (a Pokémon that's always looking out for danger, which Nace does by being attentive to his bandmates and their mental health) Cutiefly (a lill bug Pokémon that hovers around him at all times, he thinks it's cute so he caught it :3) Dondozo (a very large powerful Pokémon but who is mostly useful when paired with Tatsugiri👀) Turtwig (turtle Pokémon for Nace <3)

Jan: Metagross (crazy intelligent Pokémon, it's funny to imagine Jan with an absolute tank of a beast and being casual about it lol) Tatsugiri (another intelligent Pokémon that especially thrives when paired with Dondozo, Jance matching Pokémon moment teehee) Glimmora (why is this beeven sparklative??) Thievul (mischievous fox Mon, Jan vibes all over) Dhelmise (I think he'd be sooo fascinated with weird ghost type Pokémon, he needs one on his team) Omanyte (Jan somehow managed to revive a fossil Pokémon...Jan=BOG ☠)

Kris: Cinccino (a tidy Mon that likes things to be clean and in order :3) Mudsbray (absolute tank and hard working horse Pokémon) Espeon (an Eeveelution to match Bojan's, I think aesthetically Espeon is the best for Kris) Gallade (an elegant Pokémon to match an elegant man 🔥) Bunneary (Bojan gave it to him out of spite because this Mon is extremely hard to evolve, you need to have a very high friendship level with it. Kris is insistent on raising it) Feebas (for a while he was obsessed with evolving it into a Milotic but he's grown to appreciate it for what it is)

Jure: Sunflora (it looks like him) Rillaboom (drummer Mon!!) Skitty (obligatory cat Pokémon on the team) Littleo (baby lion Mon that I think fits his personality :3) Snorlax (evolution friendship, Pokémon that loves to eat and Jure loves to cook so the evolution went very fast) Stunfisk (I just knowww Jure loves pathetic little Pokémon that serve no purpose to his team whatsoever, he's their biggest fan lmao)

#Pokemon #Joker Out #I love making silly teams for silly men #bojan cvjetićanin #kris gustin #jure maček #nace jordan #jan peteh

[kurisus]

So you love noragami we all love it any reading recs of things like it? Or that you just like?

YES!!!!!

So I have to preface this by saying there's nothing quite like Noragami. And there is nothing wrong with rereading Noragami over and over. But I still have a lot of recs that give Vibes or in general make me Feel Emotions, so here's a non-exhaustive list.

Anime/Manga:

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. I've been saying for years that Fruits Basket is Noragami if it was a shoujo. It deals with the same cycles of abuse and an outsider who tries to break them with pure compassion that Noragami does, although it's much more of a drama than a fantasy. Just watch it and think of Yato as the Zodiac cat. I rest my case.

Fullmetal Alchemist (Fullmetal Alchemist) by Hiromu Arakawa. Chances are you've read or seen this already but it's objectively a masterpiece by any standard you care to use. Whether you like shounen fights, deeply emotional interpersonal relationships, political dramas about war and revolution, fantasy based on Greek myth, or anything else, FMA balances them all perfectly (another thing it has in common with Noragami). I love it so much.

Code Geass. This may seem like a wildcard pick but I rewatched Code Geass a few years ago and realized there are a lot of shared elements (like, Suzaku and Kazuma are the same guy). I may be delusional but it's hands down one of the most insane anime I've ever seen, in a good way. Like how FMA and Noragami balance a bunch of genres, Code Geass is a mecha action anime, a school slice of life, a political drama, and a Shakespearean tragedy all at the same time.

Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Again this may be one you're familiar with, but after I caught up on Part 1 of the manga I was so deeply wounded I had to start thinking about Noragami again (which is a worse idea). Chainsaw Man is much more of a Shounen™ than Noragami is, and I still maintain that the saddest parts of Chainsaw Man are like happier Noragami chapters, but it's a very good story and one that also has a lonely, cast-out protagonist who craves human affection but has no idea how to get it (and when he does, it's ripped away from him).

Durarara by Ryohgo Narita. In the anime adaptation, pretty much the entire voice cast is shared between it and Noragami (in the Japanese dub). It is a very weird story about a lot of weird people who are competing to be The Most Normal Person In Ikebukuro, a task which they all fail at spectacularly. It doesn't have much in common with Noragami aside from the voice cast but I love it so I recommend giving it a watch (or reading the light novels if you're feeling adventurous).

Link Click. This is a donghua (Chinese anime) about time travel and it steadily drives me more insane the longer I think about it. The three main characters have such lovely relationships with each other and the emotions go OUCH every time. It's a little harder to pinpoint the connection with Noragami here, but it is a story about the things people will do for love. The writing is crazy good especially considering it's not based on a novel or comic; I haven't seen an anime-original with writing this good since Code Geass.

Not a specific anime but the other week I thought about, what if Yuki Kajiura had been the composer for Noragami? Her style suits its aesthetic so well so now whenever I watch something she wrote for, I yearn.

Books:

The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir. If you've looked at my blog at all in the last 2 years you'll know I am very sane over this book series. I actually made a Venn diagram comparing it to Noragami a while back, but the gist of it is that they deal with a lot of similar themes such as love, death, and the curse of immortality. It also has soooo many messy and complicated relationships and twists that leave your jaw on the floor. You can also use the worldbuilding to put your blorbos into and it's very fun for giving yourself Thoughts. For example I've done it both ways by putting the Noragami characters into the TLT universe and the TLT characters into the Noragami universe. Both are very painful.

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by Sing-shong. I'm not done reading this yet (about 2/3 through), but the further I get the more I realize it's about all kinds of love, the same way Noragami is. The narrator forms a "party" of people in the apocalypse, and they go through life-or-death scenarios together, and the way they grow to love and care for each other is so natural and feels so earned whenever it pays off. If you want romantic relationships, queerplatonic relationships, parent/child relationships, or any other type of relationship, ORV has it. There is also a webtoon adaptation but I'm reading the novel because it's completed; the webtoon will take many more years to get there.

Miscellaneous:

The Adventure Zone: Balance. This is a DND real-play podcast and it doesn't really have anything in common with Noragami but, like Noragami, it made me feel every possible human emotion, so I recommend it. It has a slow start but it grows into something so beautiful and creative and by the end of it I was sobbing in my car. Listen to it if you can, or at least listen to the music (it gets music later on and all of it is soooo good).

Okami. This is a video game heavily inspired by Legend of Zelda and much like Noragami it's a retelling of Japanese mythology, so the storyline will def have some familiar elements. I recommend playing it for yourself (it's available on Steam for PC and pretty much every other platform you can name), but a playthrough would be good too. It's nearly 20 years old and has withstood the test of time because the creators decided to make it look like a classic Japanese painting come to life, and the gameplay involves drawing, so it's very artsy and fun (although the controls are really weird).

Thanks for the ask! Hopefully you found something new, and I'll be sure to share if I find anything new to add to this list because I am always on the prowl for Noragami-adjacent things ❤

#simplysslytherin #ask

[vexxandra]

intuitive messages from your person (really specific so probably not gonna resonate lol)

first time doing this! a bit of practice, since im not good with listening to my intuition. but were trying new things this new year. lool lets get started :D

m tellin u its like super SUPER specific ;D

pile one:

things that could have significance : genshin, but more specifically, wishing, debate clubs, when you wish upon a star, steven universe end credits (love like you), lavender or mint, milk, the name sofia?, sweaters or oversized clothes,  telephone (the song or the object), dial/tone, closet

hello dear. have i been away for too long? apologies, work is very hard nowadays and i find that ive been losing myself more and more. but ive been thinking about you quite a lot. especially at night. dreaming of you. ive been irresponsable, not answering your calls quickly enough and leaving things to pile up between the two of us. but please know that im working very hard and trying the best i can. you must be furious with me, and i can understand that. give me more time, and i promise i wont let you down. id never let you down. i love you too much to ever be able to do that. ive been losing sleep, and thats tiring because i get to see you when i sleep so i find that ive been taking meds more often to help with that. thats stupid, and id know you tell me the same. god, i wish you were next to me right now. then id fall asleep quicker than a light flicks off. music. ill speak to you through our favorite songs, and ill listen for things you say to me in yours as well. its time for me to say good bye though. know that nothing has changed between us, and i care for you as much as ever before.

signed, yours.

pile two:

things that could have significance: grocery stores at night, denki kaminari vibes honestly!!, mixtapes (like old cassette ones), guitar, dog or pets, crescent, artic monkeys, blasting music super loud, summertime, you get me so high - the neighbourhood, electric (or electric love)

gee, its really been a while since we’ve talked last. you’re my best friend, ill love you forever, yknow that? you’re super cool. cooler than popsicles on a summer day. cooler than penguins in the north pole. wait-- penguins live in the south pole? no one told me that?! hey! its not my fault, i never knew that. jeez... still teasing as ever, huh? sometimes i wonder how it would have been if i hadn’t moved away/transferred schools. we’d be tightknit! and we already are. there are so many stupid pictures of us in my camera roll that i jsut scroll through them when i feel like i miss you. nahh im just playing! i always miss you! we should totally hang out sometime soon! lets race grocery carts!

see ya! - your best friend

pile three:

things that could have significance: notebooks, preppy or academia aesthetic, fandom or into dnd, pearls or pearly whites, ‘shade’ colors (white, grey, black-- but emphasis on grey), 505 by artic monkeys, classroom, bunch of school imagery

dear you

why do you have to be so perfect? ive always been top of my class, such an overachiever, but with you, its like all of my accomplishments are suddenly fade away. you’re awesome like that, you know. stop letting your parents control your life. you’re a super smart person, dont let anyone EVER tell you otherwise. oh, and you can let your hair down too. im not gonna judge you, and plus, i think you look nice without your hair all tight like that. meet me at our spot. the spot that’s only ours. a place where we can just be ourselves. what? stop playing around, trying to get me to tell you again. what if someone sees this letter?! its just something between you and me, and i know i can trust you. id trust you with my life, pile three. im serious. stay the way you are. dont become a product of society. you’re absolutely perfect the way you are.

from, yours

pile four TW: Harsh truth! Please don’t read unless you’re ready and willing

things that could have significance: floating, or sinking(into a mattress, or in water), bath/bathing, milky way or space in general, being loved by a ghost, anxiety/confusion, salt or minerals. lots of comparisons here, so that could be something too. also francis forever - mitski and last words of a shooting star -mitski

this person didn’t have a letter to write to you. they were very blocky and choppy and took long pauses in between of answering. also, these are just sentences, so everytime there’s a period, its a sentence ending, and a new idea beginning

i dont need you. i have everything i need. so why are you here? what am i missing? what do i not understand? stop getting into my head. ive been thinking of you. you look nice. (dont) call me. please trust me, i can keep my promises. that, i can swear. bandaids cant heal my scars. sometimes i just want to fall asleep for a long time, and you cant stop or save me. they mean more to me than you. forever. i still care about you. they lied. im getting bored. you used to be the sun. what dont you understand? i still loved you. goodbye. (bonus message: they wont last)

#pac #intuitive messages #pick a pile #tarot #tarot messages #psychic messages #i really dont know if this will resonate #hopefully it does! #have a lovely day #or night #either way #dont lose ur light <3

[wh00pwh00p]

@glupiypryanik THIS IS FOR YOU (n also a great excuse to info dump about my babies)

so i have technically 5 OC worlds (minus dnd characters), i say technically 5 because i post like 4 of them here??? the other one is mainly written so i dont have a lot of art of them. but i also have ideas for how id love to present these worlds in the future..... like making some into shows or comics (i probably wont ever do that bc time but one can dream)

im ganna cover them one world at a time from least to most info??? i think?? its a long one.... much longer than i thought.... (i might just keep adding as characters get more info n stuff)

Nova & Circus (doesn't have an actual name yet) :

Nova and circus are roommates n live in a world which is like a near future with lots of built up places heavily based on cities like Tokyo, Seoul, New York and LA in there too. very entertainment industry heavy. Nova is an Idol (i specifically draw from the aesthetics of J-pop idols and a little from K-pop idols) she is very busy all the time which leads to her being very tired when shes not doing work. she also very much enjoys her work and is relatively popular. Circus is a streamer but does like live radio type streams, he used to be a DJ and producer before he started his own thing and now he also helps produce some of Novas music. hes much better at doing his own thing and he doesnt work well with like strict schedules and such. do they have to live together? no, they both make more than enough to live separately and be pretty well off. are they living together because they are dating? maybe but dating is taken very seriously within the Idol scene and it could cause problems for both of them if they were dating, which they are definitely not doing (/s)

Heavens Finest :

oh Delilah. Heaven in this universe isn't somewhere for the dead but more so a place for angels, these angels have a normal working society where everyone is delegated jobs. Delilah was delegated the job of a guardian angel, guardian angels in this universe are the beings that give you a sense of safety, they are the beings that give you the impulse to look before crossing the road or to watch your step. Delilah is horrifically bad at this (partially on purpose). everyone Delilah is sent to keep safe dies within 2-3 business days because she's either gotten to work late or was far too preoccupied doing literally anything else than her job. however shes also the queen of weaponised incompetence, every time her boss threatens to move her to another sector she happily reminds them that she will screw up anything, anywhere, anytime and out of pure fear theyve had to keep her on. as Delilahs story continues her boss gives her an ultimatum: If the next person she guards dies within a week they will let her go. Delilah happily accepts however what she doesnt realise is that shes been assigned the stupidest yet seemingly invincible guy who just. wont. die. her story evolves from her passively letting people die to her straight up trying to kill this guy within a week.

Bp&I :

this universe is a pretty normal modern world filled with halloween monsters. Skeletons, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, think of any classic scary monster n they are here. the main groups (the biggest groups) are: werewolves, vampires, skeletons, witches, zombies, demons, ghosts, sirens and ogres. sometimes (like a 1/1000 chance) a monster can have a seconds supernatural ability, these can be anything from turning invisible to being able to speak to cats. this universe exists alongside our own, for some this is their afterlife and for others our universe is a source of food (especially for vampires and sirens). another big part of this universe are the Fighting Tournaments. every month has a tournament on the last week of the month. these tournaments consist of one race (eg: an entire vampire tournament, an entire ghost tournament so on so on) this is primarily to do with the fact that some races are less or more effected by other races (eg: ghosts cant really be touched by non ghosts unless the ghost puts energy into being a physical thing and this also effects them using objects and such or vampires are more vulnerable to things like fire but demons are immune). these tornaments give non ranked fighters the ability to enter the ranked places. once a year their is a 'Ranked only' tournament which takes place over most of the month where the top 10 from each race compete to take each others rank. Rank 0s are the highest ranks and essentially run the world. Bloodpact is a vampire who also has the supernatural ability of a necromancer, shes able to bring back people she has drank from to act as undead slaves. Bp holds the 3rd spot within the vampire ranks, shes known for having an energetic and deeply chaotic personality and fighting style. her main weapon is a harley quin-esque hammer. Ink could not be further from Bp if they tried. Bp essentially picked Ink of the street to be their mentor. Ink is a ghost with the ability to shapeshift and has always wanted to be a high rank fighter after waking up here after dying. Ink is extremely chill n mildly worried about Bps caffeine addiction.

tbt the best way i can describe these two is 'Autism n ADHD solidarity' Bp may be Inks mentor but i think ink is objectively more responsible. Bp does also have a manager to keep her (and now Ink) on track in their activities.

The Bastards :

the name sounds mean but trust me they deserve it.

this story takes place on a planet which is made up of a single planet which is mainly desert but has some very large interconnected cities and towns within large bubble like structures which create almost fake environments. they can produce different types of weather and grow crops within them. however people do live outside of these bubbles, in the desert areas. this is a modern fantasy-esque space setting (a lot ik) think like Coruscant from star wars mixed with the envoriment in the Darling in the Franxx enviroment. large pockets of perfect land and infrastructure held within localised stationary domes the capability to mimic different enviroments and weather.

this is a rough idea of what its probably laid out like:

the agriculture domes are the least populated, dominated by fields and farms. these farms are able to produce most types of vegetation and can produce enough food for the vast majority of the planet.

main cities and sub cities have very high population densities (like i said think coruscant) minor cities are like the usual cities we have (think new york and london) the towns are less dense more like large sub urbs.

the smallest domes are either villages or business quarters.

the small red cubes/rectangles are settlements outside of the domes, these houses may seem to be of lower quality than the ones in the dome but theyre just much older and built for the desert conditions.

there is one main intergalactic ship dock far from the main urban areas however some of the outer dome settlements have their own landing zones for their own ships or to get deliveries

talon lives outside of the domes, he and his dad run a ranch with a focus in raising and breeding the older more traditional native breeds.

Heartstopper lives in the main city in a relatively nice penthouse gifted to her by her parents before they disowned her

cat scratch lives in the main city in a dingy basement apartment in the....not so nice parts of the main city Cat Scratch, Talon and Heartstopper all despise each other.

(arrows pointing to someone is why they hate the person its pointing to, it was just far easier to put into a diagram.)

all three of them have become bounty hunters due to life circumstances and had a pretty bad kill on sight mentality towards each other however one day they are essentially arrested and given the choice to either go to jail for the rest of their lives or become a unit to fight more dangerous crime groups. as much as they all hate each other they all hated the idea of prison more.

now these characters are supposed to be bad people however i wanted to build them in a way that gave them stories which are just bad life circumstances or events and essentially what would happen if people neglect the fact that they are deeply effected by these things and continue to bottle it up and ignore it instead of... yk.... going to therapy. just keep this in mind as i explain them.

Cat Scratch was orphaned at a very young age, never stayed in one place for long and was always bouncing homes or families. all this contributed to them harbouring a pretty strong hatred towards the world, they blamed other people their entire life, never trusted anyone and became just very violent as an outcome. as previously mentioned they were bullied during school pretty heavily by talon n his group of goons TM which onl;y made this worse as she then had to physically fight these people. as they grew up they met new people, they met heartstopper (though she wasnt heartstopper then) and a guy who they both fell for. cat scratch believed they should have him and they did get him eventually even if it did destroy their friendship with heartstopper and required a few extra steps. this didnt last long however and eventually Cat Scratch had to make it by themselves... again. they turned to bounty hunting as it was profitable enough to keep them off the streets and... a good way to get some anger out...even if it was pretty violent.

Heartstopper had a pretty good upbringing, her family was upper class and were relatively wealthy and yes maybe she had to fight for attention sometimes between her and her multiple siblings but it was never bad. she always had a knack for lying though, just little white lies here and there and pocketing a couple small things here and there (only a stick of gum or a lipstick here and there). she grew up got a good education, great grades and eventually a good job with even better money and met new people. she met cat scratch and a guy they both fell for. heartstopper knew they both had the same feeling but he obviously chose her and she hoped that cat scratch understood that. a little bit later and they were engaged and happy. only what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life became the beginning of the end. he never turned up. not only did he never turn up but no less than a week later sensitive private images, videos, messages were suddenly not so private. the emails to her work, the lies within these emails lined with sensitive content were the final straw. her family had turned their backs on her, her job had let her go and frankly she had nothing else. these things were her life. she had no money, no life and no aspirations so she said fuck it and became a bounty hunter... a much less violent one but a snake in long grass type. if lies were so easily spread about her, then why not everyone else.

Talon would tell you he had a normal upbringing, he didnt. hid mother left when he was very young and has only ever lived with his dad on their ranch. talons dad isnt exactly a good person, pretty horrible honestly, a notorious bigot but talon didnt see that at the end of the day he was his dad and that was all he had. par a few animals and his bird, rogue, obviously. talon knew he was different. not really because of his physical appearance, horns n tails were rather common at his school but inwardly he was conscious about something. it annoyed him when he saw people who were seemingly comfortable in their skin and cat scratch was one of them. it annoyed him that they would walk around as if they had nothing to lose, how theyd look at others with disgust as if they felt like they were above others. one day he and his friends, admittedly, got a little too rough. turned out this cat has much sharper claws than they thought. the next thing talon was aware of was lightning like pain stemming from his spine and the fact that it ceased as soon as he screamed in pain as if they realised he was awake and stopped. after the pain he realised he couldnt notice anything else, he couldnt see anything else. later hed be told his eyesight was unrecoverable and that his previously tan complexion and brunette hair were now stark white and his horns and spines a silver colour. as shit as it is to loose your eyes you get used to it, you find other means of navigating, for talon it was rogue. like a guide bird if you will. she even helped with using firearms, some things were off the table but if he could set up a place to camp out rogue helped with aiming and guiding him on where to shoot through sound or touch. as talon grew up he learned to ignore the feeling that he was different, as his dad grew old he took on more responsibilities around the ranch and just didnt have time to think about it anymore. money got tight a couple times and talon decided he needed to pick up a side hustle... a bounty hunter would probably make just enough.

as the story of the bastards develops they learn to trust and understand each other. they learn that at the end of the day theres not much they can do except to strive to be better.

key story moments include cat scratch almost dying due to their own reckless behaviour and having to trust the other members to not let them die and thank them for helping when they could have let them die on the mission, heartstopper fully breaking down on a mission and admits that she barely knows who she is anymore after the others confront her on her lying and manipulation of other people leading to her having to revaluate her life and open up to those around her and talon finally finds out why hes always felt different after meeting cyrus and falling pretty horrifically in love with him over the course of a short stay during a mission and having to recon with the fact that this could destroy everything hes ever known and being backed by the others in accepting himself and what he wants.

these guys are little shits but they get better n i love them, they are definitely the most in depth characters i have along with being the most depressing but i enjoy playing with the nature vs nurture aspect of terrible people yk and how some of them can get better if they only had good friends and/or therapy (dont worry i will send these idiots to therapy once theyve finished their main stories)

if you got this far heres a pic of one of my cats :3

#my silly lil guys #original character #oc #my ocs