the worms in my brain won today, here's a sukume sketch based on this reference photo
Zolu sketch inspired by the song Candlelight By Sunset Rollercoaster 落日飛車
*a poem of love from someone who has never been close to it*
You love with the same fervernece Of a starved man who has been Gifted with the promise of food Sitting mere feet away.
You are all bite an snarl, You push and shove To the finish line; Your eyes trained on the flesh In front of you.
I too was hungry. You were not the only one Who was withheld lifes simple Pleasures.
I too was left to chew At the inside of my cheek To slow the decay of my skin.
I know what it feels like To cut away pieces of your body Just to feel whole.
Yet you keep taking from me; Living under the assumption That leaving my skin bitten, broken And bruised, used up from your ventures, Is an act of love, and not one Shaped from your depravity.
When I laid my body bare for you That night while the world screamed Beyond the four walls of your quiet, Cluttered room, I thought you saw how our Eyes where blurred red from the same travasties.
Naivety has always been my downfall.
It was my undoing believing you knew that We were scarred from the same knife--rather, It was careless of me to assume you would hold it in consideration before serrading me once more.
But,
With my body cut open, My blood seeping into your sheets, claiming ownership in the one place you called home, I think the hunger that had been gnawing At my insides, long before you knew me, began to subside.
There is a power in knowing You come to me to feel worthy Of being human again. That it is my body, my being That is the foundation of your Sense of self.
So I will stay quiet while your feast, I will not cry while you dismember me. I will wait, watching red stain creme cotton In a halo around us and build myself From the remnants you left, and hold you While you struggle to understand the fullness.
For this is how I love.
Arcane has had me thinking about this dynamic of what I'd call "found siblings" or something like that.
The trope of "like brothers" or "like sisters" I feel is often translated wrong, or ends up becoming more romantic than inteneded is what I think is the neglect of the tie that makes siblings, siblings.
siblings are tied together by a large, fundamental simualrity that forever will tie them together, regardless of what life brigns them. Sharing the same parents intertwines two indivudals, as well as growing up in the same home, regardless of if you are related or not. This tie is a shared expeircne that shapes a persons deveolpmental years.
Also, what always makes me laugh a bit when I hear the line "they're like my brother/sister" or "We're like siblings" is the fact that most of the time, they NEVER act like siblings.
If you want to have to characters have this "found sibling" relationship, they need to be able to express anger, frustration, and a childish annoyance at the other. Siblings know that regarldess of how much they can be angry and hold a form of hatred for the other, at the end of the day, that person has been in their life so long that there are some things that that person will only understand. It's being close because this person knows too much about you, it's sometimes a resigned love. It's not talking to this person for weeks or months but still knowing every intimate and embarassing detail about how this person's tween years.
Now, I'm speaking from a biased standpoint, I'm not close with my sibling in the way in which we talk with one another every day and are best pals or something. But, they're someone I can call at the end of the day when I need help. We won't talk for a month but if I'm stuck in the ER again because of my chronic health condtion, they'll hang out with me the entire time just so i don't feel lonely.
To write characters that percive one another as siblings, they need to be characters that will always help the other out at the end of the day. They can hate one another, but still come when called. They argue, maybe they don't see each other for months because life just got in the way, but when they see one another, they go back to bickering like six year olds. Sibling dynamics are held together by the fact that they know far too much about each other to stop being friends without it being a liability.
Overall, I feel like what creates a great sibling dynamic is the resigned love both characters hold for eachother. It's an eyeroll and a sigh while reaching out a helping hand. It's disagreeing with all of their choices, but reluctantly saying yes to helping them anyway because at the end of the day, you know them too well, you've seen them at their worst and walking away just isn't an option.
Zoro does care about Luffy and his newly acquired form, but in the way he's been caring since his captain started with his gears. he cares because he has to know the side effects and how they affect Luffy. Luffy is a God, but that isn't news for Zoro, not when he's been holy from the very start. if Zoro fought for Luffy, if he left light kisses on his cheeks and hugged him as tightly as possible whenever they have to separate and will bite him and let him wear his shirts to sleep, and if he prays by helping him whenever he wants to do something stupid, and if he prays when he lets Luffy drag him everywhere like he's a ragdoll, and if he prays every single time he wakes up next to him. if Zoro believes so strongly in him, it's because he's holy in the way he's human, in the way he's strong all the while he is able to bleed, how he's able to laugh and cry, the way he gets angry on behalf of his friends when you hurt them, a man who frees and helps and yet hates when they call him a hero, he's reckless and makes mistakes, he's greedy and possessive, and he learns, he gets better, he's not the same person he was two years ago and he won't the same as he is now two years into the future. Luffy is a God, Zoro cares about this fact, in the way he's been caring for a long time now because it's not new for him, in the way he will care while he makes sure his captain can get what he wants
I cannot relate to people who dislike female characters for “being manipulative.” She’s literally creative problem solving before your eyes. She’s literally just using her words. Maybe the other blorbos should be less pawn-like for her beautiful hands hmm
This is my pink pony club
I want this tattooed on my brain NOW
“Those two things can exist at the same time. Like you said, it's all—it's all tangled up together, you and me.”
double page spread for one of my favorite luzo fics of all time, poly philtatos (the most beloved by far) by my good friend - @swordsmans!
I knew I wanted to do a double page spread the second I finished this fic and I drafted abt a dozen ideas before landing on what would ultimately become this. There were so many snippets and moments I wanted to illustrate but I ended up doing more of an abstracted version of the fic as opposed to 1:1 drawings of scenes
funnily enough while the fic itself is told in zoros pov this spread is framed mostly through luffy’s eyes - his tears literally frame comp for their reunion, the moment he loses zoro, and the centerpiece of the first page which is this weird abstraction of him on the beach seeing zoros corpse-not-a-corpse in the waves just beyond his reach.
gyro put the crane wives’ never love an anchor on the playlist for this fic which i heavily used as inspiration in picking ornamental things for the spread (the anchor, the fleet of ships by luffy, and the nautical rope splitting the second page). also just like. overall really heartbreaking lyrics guys
there are smaller elements throughout the spread that are 1:1 references though (all i will say for these is if you know, you know hehe) i wish i had more time to do a lengthier piece for fanart for this fic bc it's one of the few luzo fics that have been rattling around in my brain forever now - once again please please please read poly philtatos if you haven't. gyro is a masterful writer and they deserve all the love! ok byeee
As a butch4butch lesbian, Rio Romeo releasing Butch4Butch brought back my faith in humanity and revived my search for a quirky little butch partner who I can go on silly little adventures with
sometimes i wonder what my cat named me
Sometimes I lose my mind over the plot of Naruto bc 3/4 of it is just Naruto being like
“I NEED SASUKE HES MY HOME, THE OTHER HALF OF MY BEING. ”
Naruto went on record with full sincerity “give me your pain, I can bare it” to Sasuke like that isn’t the most loving, romantic gestures ANYONE could EVER do
And I’m supposed to just sit there and be like “oh cool, yeah, best pals”
THOSE BITCHES YEARNED, FAWNED, TORE THEIR SOULS APART FOR ONE ANOTHER AND IM SUPPOSED TO THINK THEYRE “best friends, like brothers”?????
….no.
No. They’re gay.