the bona dea scandal does a lot for me, as a conspiracy narrative enjoyer. amongst other things.
informally, a sort of follow up to that last thing I posted of crassus and clodius. in the gritty, edgy, overly dramatic, and unrepentantly horny HBO show of the late republic that exists in my head, the bona dea scandal is a crassus conspiracy to undermine caesar a little bit.
this was also prompted by something I was reading, unfortunately my laptop crashed before I could make a note of it (I remember thinking it was a little ridiculous but that the entertainment value was off the CHARTS) alas! someday I'll remember which one of the Many pdfs I had up it was in and revisit this concept for a third time
additionally: bossing=boss. I switched to english at the last second when I was lettering this, but crassus is always called bossing in my heart, even if it's not on the page lmao
bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost
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The art style of Cloud Castle is absolute ass bro why are their eyes so big
Idk man it just looks.... off
I wish they brought back the og art style like Blue Scarab Hunt because that was gorgeous
Well if you’re referring to the book's artstyle as a whole, then calm down buddy the illustrations as a whole are pretty good all things considered (believe me some of the illustrations in the later books are waaaaayyyyy iffier)
But if you are referring to Danilo Barozzi’s illustrations in the book then uhhhhh… yeah I don’t blame you, I didn’t like the big anime irises either, she didn’t cook with this one,,,
The interesting thing is Barozzi also did pieces for Secret of the Snow and those looked fine (she did well enough that I have to squint to determine which ones were done by her). My guess is either she did a lot of the illustrations for the latter half of SotS and we just got used to it, or it’s because the artstyle of special editions 2 and 3 were more… experimental? Books 4 onwards developed a very specific… look for the artstyle that adhered very closely to the main book illustrations of Spanish Dance Mission onwards, thus the illustrators had to follow suit, resulting in whatever looks off to look especially off.
(Even with this set of pictures, I’m only about 70% sure these are Barozzi’s because of how alike yet different the styles are from each other in the book. The first one could be Barozzi’s, but it could also be Giuseppe Facciotto’s, since he also did illustrations for SotS and his stylization means he sometimes puts the eyes really close to each other in a way that’s weird but still makes sense somehow.)
On the contrary, books 2 and 3 (and I would probably even include book 1 there) had a more experimental look to the illustrations, which seems to be based more on (and this is just a theory of mine) Giuseppe Facciotto’s iconic work for the covers of Mouseford Academy books 2-12, 14, 15 and 17 in the English books (he did waaayyy more covers for the Italian Mouseford books— he was basically the cover guy for the Mouseford books for a WHILE) as well as the books from Spanish Dance Mission to Lost Letters. If you’re wondering why those covers go as hard as they do, then now you know why.
(These aren’t all of Facciotto’s works for the covers we know in English but you can see that he popped off <3)
But yeah as you can see with special editions 2 and 3, the art direction seems to be heavily inspired by Facciotto’s artstyle.
However, when Barbara Pellizzari’s works became the aesthetic poster child of the books’ brand, that was reflected in the illustrations and how their aesthetic changed, as seen in the main books and how they look currently, special editions 4-9, and the Treasure Seekers trilogy.
This new profile thing of the girls? This was done by Pellizzari (coloring was done by Flavio Ferron), and thus it became the main reference for how the girls look in the book’s illustrations.
And it’s not just in the general direction to the artists for how to draw the Thea Sisters, but also in the direction given to the colorists. Alessandro Muscillo was the colorist for the special edition books since book 1 and the Treasure Seekers trilogy, and you can see that the direction for the style varied through books 1-3, like maybe direction was experimenting with the mood the illustrations were to convey, beginning with the cartoony and bright colors of book 1, easing into the more grounded and layered palettes of books 2 and 3
Then book 4 was when they transitioned to using digital art /j
I jest, but seriously book 4 was the debut of the coloring style we end up keeping for the rest of the special editions and for all of Treasure Seekers, which is very… bright :D
(I would show more picture examples but I manually took pictures of my physical copies for the Cloud Castle and SotS illustrations and gwuh I’m too lazy to grab my entire collection just to take pictures,,)
Bright as in like… the colors are very defined and saturated. I dunno how to describe it, but when you see it, you get what I mean. It’s very bright and pretty and colorful and it stands out. There are still variations that happen on occasion (Star Fairies in particular uses a good dose of airbrush for the lighting and shadow effects, and Crystal Fairies looks like someone had a bit of fun using sparkle brushes), but other than that, it’s very bright. I don’t hate it, but I do acknowledge that yeah, if I was introduced to the series when it had fully transitioned to the new style, I never would’ve gotten into the series in the first place, because the older books had something that didn’t make it feel specifically catered to girls. The colors were bright, but not too bright. Colorful, but unified. They weren’t that complicated, and they didn’t have to be because the colorists (plural, there were at least 3 per book once upon a time) were popping the hell off with the colors they were given. But y’know, the newer books’ consistent style did give me a good spot to practice drawing mouse furries so I’m not complaining too much about the newer style, haha.
(Tiny baby E’s (it’s literally from 2020 what’re you on about mate) her first mouse Violet drawing using Barbara Pellizzari’s artstyle in Treasure Seekers 1 as an anatomy guide!!)
With that said tho, yeah I miss the old books -m- dunno if it’d fit the aesthetic of the special editions but m a n we could’ve had it and it probably would’ve looked cool
Also the illustrations go way harder in the older books, like Prince's Emerald? I've talked about Prince's Emerald and how it goes hard before, and I still stand by it and say that it does in fact still go hard
Maybe it won't fit the uh splash of color they gave the hardcovers, but imagine they grabbed Giulia Basile's coloring work for the graphic novels and used that as sort've a basis for the coloring style of the hardcovers. Not exactly the same-- would probably still add a touch of whimsical watercolor and/or paint to the very cel-shaded style, but we could've had something pretty dope -m-
Anyway that's my ramble simultaneously defending the hardcovers' artstyle and reminiscing on what could've been haha
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OK, theory time Bois (except its not a real theory it's just a cool idea and I want angst)
So we all basically think those black and green structures are like portals right, or some way to communicate with another dimension?
What if, eventually, each parent has to go into a ring/portal as a trial (like quackity said ooc) and face something- whether this leads to the eggs or not is up yo you to decide
This trial can be anything, but my main ideas for it is it shows them
1. Their past,
2. A possible future (most likely where the eggs are dead/ doomsday or something of the likes),
3. Themselves- something like where they have to fight an exact copy of themselves and try to find a way to beat them (which, BTW, is great for character growth and is anime protagnist as FUCK and sounds cool as shit- can't be done for etoiles tho cuz none of the admins can imitate his pvp skill LOL- but off track)
ANYWAYS, onto the main point, FITMC
Fit motherfucking MC, gets the first option of seeing his past.
2b2t, the place he tried so hard to escape. Oh boy. (It'll only be a replica, he still can't use hacks, there's no one there and there's very minute differences but he's too out of it to realise :] )
When he first enters the portal, it takes him a few seconds to truly realise where he is, but when he does he fucking CRUMBLES. That man's walls break faster than my will to live. He immediately starts panicking, and his panic even overpowers his worry about ramon for a second. Its all just 'I can't be back here, I tried so hard to leave, anywhere but here, please'
I feel like his time at Quesadilla Island softened him, distanced him from his past and made it easier to ignore all the shit he's been through. He became happy, he was safe and he was doing good! Still very emotionally constipated and just not even processing the trauma he's experienced as trauma, but as good as he can be despite that. So when he realises he's back in 2b2t all those decades of shit he's been through comes crashing down all at fucking once. So yeah, he goes through it.
His first instinct is to make one of those tiny, reinforced obsidian and hide. Once he's in he just sits down and... tries to process. Tries.
It takes him a very long while to calm down, but only to think properly. The only thing that gets him to stop panicking about his own situation is trying to find ramon, or any clues, because GOD FORBID ramon is also trapped in here, it's the only thing worse than being there himself.
From there he can think more clearly. He has a goal so he pushes all the other shit back down and locks it up for later- he's got his boy to find. At this point he realises there's none of the usual explosions or noise that's usually very common in 2b2t, he checks and sees his hack client is not working still so yeah, odd. He's still very shaken and more vigilant than usual, but he can actually go out and investigate and think now so he goes and does that.
Does he find Ramon? Idk, I didn't think this far.
Well, I did, but maybe not the way I would want it to go. Imagine he finds Ramon, who's fighting a shit tone of mobs. Fit's just desperate to get him to safety, so he doesn't get much time to actually look over his boy or talk to him or anything. Maybe there's a time limit on how long they can stay in this dimension or something, but the portal back is not too far away and it is slowly getting smaller and smaller.
Fit is leading Ramon to the portal, all the while fending off the barage of mobs. Ramon, thankfully, gets to the portal in time, safely. Everyone's at spawn waiting for them, looking over Ramon and making sure he's OK.
Fit does not make it in time.
He is stuck in 2b2t for the foreseeable future, and he can do nothing but wait, just like he always does. Just waiting. Waiting.
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wip wednesday !!
tagged by @eriquin and @judasofsuburbia <3 thank you !! <3 MWAH !!!
In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.
Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!
After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.
That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!
wips:
nancy x what was i made for?
rebel robin: surviving the upside down
it's just a bunch of hocus pocus!
the pink palace (coraline max)
haunted hawkins
snippet: from haunted hawkins
“It’s not Vecna,” Nancy concedes, “but someone is out there, killing these kids.”
Robin hums in agreement. “Or something.”
Robin smiles. Nancy presses her lips into a thin line. In Robin’s unprofessional supernatural opinion, it looks like someone tried to summon something and that thing was, in fact, summoned. The proto-Ouija board is the most damning evidence of it.
If that’s true, they’d need to find whoever summoned this thing in the first place, and figure out how to send it back, wherever the hell it’s from.
Robin isn’t trained in exorcisms, so she really hopes it won’t come down to that.
no pressure tags as always <3: @gothbat99 @figthefruitfaeth @kkpwnall @cheatghost @fastcardotmp3 @gideoncharov @fragilecapric0rnn @el-fandom-birb @verymuchablog42 @lesbianlotties @eskawrites @fishwear @legitcookie @yournowheregirl @seths-rogens @freezeveganpolice & anyone else who wants to !! 💓
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