Tw: Blood

Tw: Blood

So, there’s a story behind this sketch. I don’t know why, but when I try to draw something with a plan in mind, it doesn’t turn out how I want it to, and this started as just a simple, dramatic little sketch in the corner of the canvas, hence the bad resolution again. It’s actually minuscule. And—I ended up adding more details to the sketch since I was starting to like it. Then I thought: hmm, what could make this better? BLOOD. Definitely blood. And that’s it.

Have one more minimalistic version without all the text also:

Got any book recs? Not a specific genre or anything, just some of your favorites.

Most of these are YA and middle grade fiction. I probably suffer from nostalgia and recency bias in some cases.

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In no particular order:

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by Eugene Yelchin and M.T. Anderson

The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla

Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

The Penderwicks series Jeanne Birdsall

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer

A Tale of Magic prequels by Chris Colfer

Dead Wednesday by Jerry Spinelli

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

The Line Tender by Kate Allen

The Siren by Kiera Cass

Divergent series by Veronica Roth

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Valkyrie by Kate O'Hearn

Texting the Underworld by Ellen Booraem

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel by Megan Morrison

The Princess Tales series by Gail Carson Levine

The Thirteenth Goldfish duology by Jennifer L. Holm

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

The Don Tillman trilogy by Graeme Simsion

The World Ends in April by Stacy McAnulty

The Next-Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin

Counting by 7’s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

Any classic fairy tales

Anything written by Roald Dahl

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Quiet by Susan Cain

Rafal's flight required blood magic to work, and it's never been confirmed if that spell requires the user's own blood or another's.

WHAT IF RHIAN'S FIRST USE OF BLOOD MAGIC AFTER HE STOLE RAFAL'S FACE CAME FROM HIS BROTHER'S BLOOD?

Maybe there was some pragmatism to stabbing Rafal (aside from it being a quick, easy-to-execute death), consequently drawing his blood when the Pen was removed after a delay...

The accent color on your page is green. So I’m Wondering if that’s a TLEA green or Rafal’s Eyes green?

TLEA green. I believe I must've been thinking about the fairy lights of the cover. Also, I liked the color before I started to associate it with Fall Rafal's eyes—it just happened to be yet another thing that went to him because, er, symbolism purposes? (For instance, with birds, I always loved them when I was younger, my interest waned for some stretch of time, and then, I started to observe them in the context of The Bird Motif, and that jump-started, nay resurrected, some resurgence of my old interest in them again. His fault. No longer surprised. I'm likely becoming predictably transparent, even to other people, if not myself, ofc.)

When’s your birthday?

Sorry. Not telling the internet that. I will say it's in May.

What's your fashion sense and style like? How do you do your hair? How do you like to dress?

I'm really fond of classic styles, often with features like high collars, smooth textures, sharp structured forms, flouncy sleeves, tight shirt cuffs, and ribbing, sometimes. I own multiple pairs of dark, short and tall boots, most of them black. Also, I prefer earrings and rings over necklaces or bracelets. I like "static" jewelry over what I call "motion" jewelry, which dangles and clinks noisily—it doesn't stay put, and thus, can distract me.

I'm drawn toward the dark academia aesthetic, but I don't like beige or any browns in most cases, so I tend to wear colder black, white, greys, and blues, and some other colors. I'm not the most well-versed in fashion, but I've done a little research and apparently, I love "jewel tones."

And because I feel like I have to specify at this point: no, those decisions were (mostly) not because of Rafal. There is another, equally silly or improbable reason.

Blue was already my favorite color at some point, but that sort of cemented when, probably, in the seventh grade or so, I read the Divergent series. I will fully admit that I am a coward, so I related more to the Erudite, partly-corrupt academics that wore blue, than the Dauntless, daredevils in black, very similar archetype as the Nevers in SGE, but even more rollicking and hedonistic. There's even a trope that could be dangerous, if it were misinterpreted by audiences and carried over into their real life belief systems.

The main bone I have to pick with that series, even if I love(d) it, is why do the "smart ones" always have to be the villains? I'm thankful for byronic heroes and the modern anti-hero—thank you commercial fiction! It's given people who identify with archetypes like those a more variegated landscape of morally-grey characters to relate to. Regardless, I did a search and the answer to the villainy question is American anti-intellectualism. Which, to save us time, no comment... for now.

Back to the point—I looked up the "blue enhances intellectual performance" message in the trilogy and apparently, it was founded on real-world studies around test performance! And it turned out that red has the opposite effect on the mind. It is not calming, can raise your heart rate, and could make you more avoidant of easy questions while taking a test, and that's why I have very little red in my wardrobe. And I'm not particularly superstitious, and have largely grown out of it, but I did have a phase during which I refused to wear red if I had a test at school.

During everyday life, I dress much more casually, in regular, often solid-colored shirts, sweaters, or jackets with high collars. I tend to like leggings and slacks more than jeans. Though, I got a black trench coat because detective fashion inspired me, and someday, I want to get a Shakespearean era top, like an actual doublet or jerkin, and dress up on Halloween or World Poetry Day, if I ever get the appropriate opportunity.

My current favorite shirt is probably this solid, brocade/damask-patterned, long-sleeved shirt in deep royal and midnight blues, and I've yet to find others like it. It was a gift from my music teacher because a friend gave it to her, and I guess she didn't like it that much, and decided to give it to me because I once complimented it. Very nice of her.

I don't usually have the occasion to dress up. Yet, in my opinion, the coolest shirt I've bought to date is a black, not-quite-a-poet's-shirt shirt with translucent sleeves. The sleeves are frilled and drape a little down at the cuffs. So far, I've only gotten the chance to wear it once, when I went on a humanities field trip to the opera. That made me feel so cool.

Furthermore, while I like crisp, elegant, muted, sleek, angular things usually, the inverse is also true: I don't like anything that screams "modernity," bulbous or platform shoes, or baggy silhouettes, at least, not on myself. I'm not a fan of sweatshirts, probably because of the modernity and because I don't like drawstrings or pullovers in general. So, most of my sweaters have zippers, buttons, or other closures—like, how inefficient (or really just bothersome, to me, as I can find a reason to complain about anything being inconvenient or not ideal) is it to have to pull off an article of clothing and have it end up inside-out?

I've wanted to learn to do my own makeup, but I haven't had the time lately, and generally speaking, I believe I'd have time for more deliberate fashion aside from just having ideas, only if I gave up something else, and that's not happening. Or, if I were able to plug into the wall and charge, instead of going through the motions of sleeping or eating—alas, the human species lacks that ability. It would be less work and thought, not having to eat but being able to choose when to. Though, I usually almost never sense hunger or dehydration, so that already "helps."

Oh right, since we're still on the topic of fashion, that reminds me: I never mentioned that the Rafal-has-duplicate-pairs-of socks-for-efficiency headcanon I wrote the other day was inspired by how I shop, haha.

What's left to answer? Well, my hair is one of the "problems" I have. I have long hair because I don't really like short haircuts, and it's straight and insanely oily. I should wash it possibly everyday or every other day, but literally, I don't have the time or the will to do so, and mostly tie it into a ponytail. Very infrequently, I curl it, but I don't have time for that either.

This was an entertaining one. Thanks for the ask.