A Moodboard For My Killjoy OC Fruit Snack! She Is Half African American And Half Hopi; I'm Still Working

This will never stop being the perfect mix of adorable, adventurous, and mystical--truly the winner of all Halloween comics :) 

It's also the inspiration for the title of one of my all-time favorite youtube miniseries, The Guards Themselves!

It's a fun little "the superheroes are being used by the rich to further their agendas and the anarchist supervillains have a point actually, though they're not exactly the most skilled supers ever tbh" type adventure with lots of fun memorable characters. It was basically the creator's film school senior project and I think it's pretty well done as low-budget youtube movies go.

But yeah, in this case, the guards are variously the superheroes, the private security force employed by Meyer (the primary rich guy in question), and the anarchists, and there's plenty of exploration of the guarding of the guards themselves!

Also Kyle (the main creator)'s best friend Ian actually teaches Latin--he plays Big Fist in this--and I'm pretty sure he had a hand in the title.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0u5ZHidq4X4QhFAX9FzSiYJLRen74sLF&si=cd6os_w0rL3OFYs-

(General warning for some pretty gratuitous gun violence, but not too much in the way of blood)

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?

"Who will guard the guards themselves?" / "Who will watch the watchmen ?"

It was found in Juvenal's Satires but it may have been added by someone else

Nowadays, it's sually used in relation to tyrannic governments or corrupted law enforcers but it was originally about the moral behavior of wives and eunuchs.

"Who watches the Watchmen ?" is a phrase used several times in Watchmen

In Terry Pratchett's Watch series (Discworld universe), it's super important and is an acab phrase of sorts used by Commander Vimes, the cop main character to keep himself in check in a pre-acab world when these books were published

*Note : the Discworld propaganda isn't mine. I had actually cut parts of my original list of phrases before letting you make picks and this one hadn't made the cut. However, one of you had asked about this specific phrase and I elected to add it to the form

If you want to submit a new form to vote for it, go for it. Same thing if you've changed your mind about other phrases, but please try to remember which ones you have already voted for

Hey, so, is it just me, or does that actually look like Selena disguising herself as Ecco/Harley? Her hair looks curly and like it’s shaped more like Selena’s than Ecco’s is in the other scenes in the new trailer. And I’m not actually the best with faces, but I’m pretty sure the nose looks more like Selena’s than Ecco’s--the latter’s nose is sharper and narrower. 

Theory: Camren said at NY Comic Con that Selena would be coming after Jeremiah for shooting and paralyzing her. Perhaps she disguises herself as Ecco in order to get close to him? It would be easy if Ecco takes to wearing that mask; in that case, Selena’s getting discovered and her plan is going very much awry in this scene. 

Alternate theory: as Jeremiah slips further into madness, he gets paranoid. He know Selena’s coming after him, and so he starts seeing her face everywhere--even in place of Ecco’s. This could also be why he’s strangling Ecco in that other scene in the trailer. 

It’s possible I’m wrong, but that looks like Selena to me. 

So, I’ve been reading the Buffy Season 8 comics, and I have a question. Well, several questions actually, but these are all about one particular panel. 

[Image ID: A screencap from the Buffy Season 8 comics which shows Dracula walking away from Renée and Xander, cape swooshing behind him, left hand raised in a dramatic flourish as he speaks. His speaking text reads “It’s not possible, manservant. These powers you speak of--they’re part of the ancient magics.  I risked my very soul to attain them. I am their worldly guardian.” The word ‘soul’ is italicized in his speech. End ID]

Does... does this mean that Dracula has a soul?? 

And if so, how long has he had one? Did he have it when he faced Buffy at the beginning of Season 5? Did he get it between then and now in the comics, and if so, how and why, or else how and why did he get it in the first place? Was he cursed like Angel, or did he fight for it like Spike, or is there some other way to get a soul in the Buffyverse? Why would he want one if he did get it willingly?

Is this otherwise unmentioned soul the reason why he’s willing to fight against other vampires by Buffy’s side in this arc of the comics, or is he another example of a soulless vampire acting for the common good for probably at least partly selfish reasons like Spike circa season 5 (although it’s worth noting that Dracula is doing it without a chip)? Is it because he really likes Xander (as a friend or as a crush), or just a personal grudge against the Japanese vampire group that, in his eyes, “stole” his powers?

Perhaps more significantly, does this make Dracula a third eligible party besides Angel and Spike who might be the subject of the Shanshu prophecy, seeing as he is also a vampire with a soul?? (And how mad would Angel and Spike be if that turned out to have never been about either of them this entire time?)

Or, am I jumping on the soul thing a bit too much? Could he maybe speaking... metaphorically for some reason? Does he mean something different by “soul”, like say, the poetic essence of who he is as a vampire or his honor or some such, rather than his human conscience as it is to Spike and Angel? 

Or is he aware of his soul outside of himself somehow, like how when vampires don’t have their souls they’re apparently just out in the nether somewhere, available to be summoned when called upon? If it can be put at risk but isn’t inside of him, then is Dracula’s human soul in some sort of Heaven somehow while his vampiric self is causing mischief on earth, and yet somehow vampire!Dracula is aware of his human soul elsewhere and is aware that his earthly actions may somehow put it in jeopardy? But Spike and Angel seem convinced that they’re fated for hell for being vampires (which irks me, but is a rant for another day), so why would Dracula be an exception? Could he have somehow sold his soul for these powers when he didn’t even have access to it? Does he just mean that he risked his soul back when he initially became a vampire specifically to attain access to these powers? But wouldn’t the specific use of the term “risked” and not “lost” imply that, while there was peril to his soul, the peril ultimately did not persist, hence his soul was neither lost nor damaged, only at temporary risk of being in some sort of harmed state? 

Why would the comic writers put emphasis on the world “soul” in a throwaway line that isn’t revisited at any point in Dracula’s stint in the comics so far (I’m just through with the Fray crossover arc now and no one has said another word about this that I can recall) when vampire soul lore is such a complicated and contentious aspect of the Buffyverse? Did they just... forget the significance of the whole soul thing? What could this line possibly mean other than that Dracula has had a soul this whole time without mentioning it to anyone, and yet he casually let it slip while talking about his secret transforming powers? 

To put it more briefly, I’ll quote Xander in “Something Blue”: What? How? What?

Okay, so it turns out I have many questions. Well, some of that was more like my own speculations and theories posed as questions since I was on a roll, but anyone can feel free to respond to any of the many questions I put here, honestly. It’s such a small moment but I saw the word “soul” there and it just sent me reeling because... well, it raises all of my above questions and then some. Anyways, I’d love to hear the fandom’s thoughts on this and the possibility of Dracula being a third vampire with a soul(tm). 

Edited to put an actual TL;DR: Dracula implies in this panel of the comics that he has a soul!? Thoughts??

Twinsies! ;)

I spent the weekend in the UK and it was fantastic. Thanks to @mjkeysz, Seth, Faith and the whole #wbukcrew. Until next time!

(This was also a reply to my question about what all the common rooms’ Halloween decorations looked like.) 

Thanks again, everybody :) All of them are so cozy!

Heh, got to see the gryffindor common room during halloween. 😁😁 thanks fred and george!

DOCTOR WHO The Time Monster

I love reading all the stories here; I’ve been up and down the notes and I have several versions saved to my drafts, one of which I’ve begun writing out my own Fae story on. However, this post has actually had an influence on how I interpret the play I’m currently in, so it seems only appropriate to reblog a version of it on the eve of our play opening as well. 

The play is called Almost, Maine, and it’s a subtly surrealist series of small town romances. The blurb on the back of the script describes it as “a midwinter night’s dream”. Basically, weird, seemingly mystical things are happening in the lives of people in this town as they fall in and out of love, and at the end of the night, everyone sees the northern lights. You could read it just abstractly as ‘the northern lights make weird (or should I say wyrd) things happen’, or you could even rationalize most of the things away, but I’ve decided that it makes sense that Almost (that’s the name of the town) just has a very heavy Fae presence and the Fae--likely excited by the northern lights--are meddling in everyone’s affairs--much like in Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

I even decided that one of the characters I play, Ginette, actually is a Fae who left the Fae realm because she’s in love with a human, Pete. That explains, for me, how she *SPOILERS* walks all the way around the Earth in about 10 minutes for him--it’s done with the Fae magic she has, but in my interpretation, she has literally travelled all that distance for him. Then, when the northern lights appear at the end, it’s even deeper for me, because I’ve decided that for Ginette that’s a sign that the Fae have finally approved of her romance with Pete. 

Pete would be incredibly overwhelmed by all this. He freaks out when she says “I love you” for the first time. It’s best he doesn’t know all this. 

Anyways, I know this is a digression from the main subject matter of this post, but I just wanted to share how considering the Fae has been useful to me in deepening my acting and my character backstories. Thanks for all the great stories!

Irish people; The faeries aren’t real

Irish people; No fucking way will I go in that faerie ring

So I’ve been reading/playing Stay? by E. Jade Lomax of @ink-splotch and I wanted to try and capture the enchanting valley of Elaia (and its surrounding areas) as I’ve been picturing them in a moodboard. 

Featuring our beloved guardian lion statue, pre-vandalization, the Phoenix Gem, the Fiore Dam, Myka’s house (hers was the one with the olive tree, right? She was my first wife and I can’t even remember which house was hers for sure. I’m sorry Myka!), and the alleyway I picture the graduation parade going down. 

Image sources:  x  x  x ;  x  x  x ;  x ,  x + x ,  x

Ooo I love this idea!

Although I could also see Ghoul really enjoying a kick wheel too, because there's just something so delightfully tactile about giving big leg-flopping kicks against a large metal disk to make your pottery spin... I always found it more satisfying than the electric wheels so maybe I'm just projecting, but I feel like Ghoul would also vibe with the sensation of using kick wheels.

Ooh, and also, if they couldn't make it out to the kiln sometimes, they could always try a pit firing! It would be a good excuse for a nice big bonfire with the crew, and then the pottery would have a cool, smokey look to it, even unglazed (I think?)--like this:

(Image source) [Image ID: a short stout clay pot with an almost watercolor-esque swirling and speckled pattern of rust, dark silver, smokey grey, and maroon splotches on its surface resulting from a pit firing. End ID]

Of course, the bonfire might risk drawing the attention of Dracs, but then again we know they do canonically have fires at night sometimes... Ooh I just decided my new headcanon for the campfire scene in Na Na Na is now that they were doing a pit firing! (Or you could always just pit fire during the day when it would be less obvious, but I’m just enjoying the thought of this.)

Anyways. Fun Ghoul does pottery. There’s a wheel in the diner, and they got it to operate off battery power, and they drag Kobra out on clay-finding missions, since he’s got such a skill for finding water. They make all their own tools for it, and stuff is mostly unglazed. There’s a working kiln at a studio in Zone Two, and every other month they load up the Am with one of the others and drive out to it.

They’ll make functional pieces whenever someone breaks a few too many plates by mistake, or clay shells for certain kinds of bombs, but mostly they make abstract, rarely-useful pieces, all warped and twisting, halfway between sculpture and dream. Sometimes they handbuild pieces on after throwing it on the wheel.