My Gosh, These Are Beautiful. The Color And The Lighting Are So Delicate And The Water Is Just Glowing.

I just remembered that I submitted things to this page years ago, long before I had a tumblr, and a couple of them got published. Now that I do have a tumblr I thought I might as well share a thing to which I contributed :) 

I should note that I did write this one back before I saw the 50th anniversary special, though that was still not quite aaaall the epic Time War drama I was hoping for. Also, someone in the notes has pointed out that the Big Finish audios go more into it, and I have really been wanting to get into those more for a while. I should put them on my Christmas list. 

Actually, now I’d say it’s not specifically that I want more about the Time War anymore. I just want more Gallifrey in general. Like, I know the Doctor left because he found it stuffy and boring and whatnot (or because he was afraid, according to 12, but I imagine it was some combination thereof), but I want more backstory on his childhood and his school days, and more emotional drama with his family (who are apparently no longer disapparated from existence, so he should have to deal with them) and old friends (especially the Master, but other ones, too). There’s just so much emotional tension for the Doctor to deal with on Gallifrey! 

I should really go back to those Doctor’s childhood fics I was writing. I even came up with my own longform version of the Doctor’s original Gallifreyan name--his real one, not his school nickname. Remind me to tell you about it some time; I was starting to write it here but then I realized this post was long enough and my naming of the Doctor is going to take a whole long post of its own to explain. 

My gosh, the quality of fanart never ceases to amaze me! His eyes are so pretty and the lighting is beautifully done, and beyond that, it does a great job of capturing Klaus’s emotions; the whole thing just aches. 

I’m really glad Netflix recommended Umbrella Academy to us. I’d never heard of it before, but it was definitely an interesting story and it’s always fun to happen on to something good right as it becomes popular! I mean, I love a good niche interest, too, but like, it’s just more convenient when a bunch of people are interested in the same thing at the same time. Fandom will also help with the all-too-long wait for season 2...

‘Klaus’ from The Umbrella Academy Just finished the season and so far he’s my favourite.

Oh I have a youtube notification wonder what it could be--

Oh My Chemical Romance -- they -- um -- oh -- new music. New music happened.

Um... It's good... It's really good... I'm...

*Explodes*

I’m happy I can find Atlantis appreciation here! I always loved it. I’m pretty sure I still have my Kida and Milo barbies somewhere around here...

And, I know not everyone is crazy about the current trend of live-action Disney remakes, but can you imagine how epic a live-action Atlantis would be?! Just putting that out there...

i don’t understand why atlantis isn’t more popular of a movie

i mean

amazing and unique art style 

spot-on humor

strong, badass female and/or POC characters

awkward but incredibly intelligent lead that isn’t conventionally attractive

COOKIE

history jokes that you won’t catch as a kid

MOTHER

FUCKING

WILHELMINA BERTHA PACKARD

did i mention

BADASS AF FEMALE CHARACTERS

AND MULTIPLE POC CHARACTERS

WHO BREAK STEREOTYPES LEFT AND RIGHT

i just have a lot of feelings about atlantis and i think it needs more love than it gets

Heck yes I am... Okay, so who's gonna write the Nygmobblepot viking AU now? Just let me know when you do so I can read it! ;) 

It has occurred to me that Gerard Way and Rivers Cuomo both play D&D and I've begun assembling my dream rock star D&D party in my mind... What other rockers play D&D?

And also like... they played My Name is Jonas together that one time. They know each other, at least kind of. Do you think they *have* played D&D together?

Imagine if they did a D&D stream together. That's something I'd pay to see.

I do love these deep, emotional connections between characters on the dark side and on the light side. I love the idea that after an epic battle, even if they were on opposite sides of the fight, they’d still take care of each other. 

Nygmobblepot is my Gotham OTP, but Gobblepot is a definite BrOTP for me (along with Foxma). Hero/villain friendships--or nemesisships--are the best.

“still fighting, James?”

“…always”

It’s a weird time for me fandom-wise. Normally, the way I cycle through obsessions, I’d be fading out on Gotham in favor of A Series of Unfortunate Events, because that’s kind of just how I process things, cycling from one fandom into another, and then back around again after taking a break for a while. But now Gotham is coming back, and both because I’m on tumblr now and because it’s exciting and rare for me to be current on a show I’ll want to keep up with it, especially since this is the final season, even though I was getting a little burned out on my obsession with it. But also, I’m in rehearsals for a play right now (which I need to leave for soon) and so I’ll be missing it live tonight (and for all of January) and I’ll have to stay off tumblr tonight until I can see it on hulu tomorrow--probably not until after rehearsal again, actually. Also I was going to try to put out a season 3 inspired Nygmobblepot fanmix before Gotham came back but that’s not getting done in the next 5 minutes so I suppose it’ll just have to come out this weekend amidst the rush on season 5 premiere stuff. Also I got a Doctor Who audio drama for Christmas and I’ve been listening to that in the car on the way to and from work, so it’s like I’m actively consuming things from 3 of my fandoms all at once, which is probably not that strange for most people, but which is rather strange for me given the way in which I obsess over things. 

tl;dr--I’m going to try and put up a Nygmobblepot fanmix I’ve been working on this weekend, but because of play rehearsal I won’t be able to watch Gotham live on TV this month so I’ll be watching a day behind on hulu and avoiding tumblr in the space inbetween. 

So I decided to give myself a sharpie tattoo tonight :) I’ve been vaguely imagining having a “God is Love” (1 John 4:8) tattoo for quite a long time, but I’m afraid of both needles and decisions and thus have not done so as yet. 

But I’ve been seeing these pictures of Gerard Way with sharpie tattoos and I was just like “there is no reason I should not give myself a sharpie tattoo right now” and so... I did. 

See beneath the cut for step by step pictures and general rambling :)

I put it in the spot where I would get a real tattoo if I ever get around to getting one; I have a big weird scar about halfway up the outside of my left calf and I figure if I were to get a proper tattoo, that’s kind of an ideal spot for a tattoo anyways and I might as well cover my scar with one. 

As with any good scar, there’s a long story to it, but (gross-out warning, mild medical violence warning) basically I had a spider bite that got infected and it swelled up into this big nasty boil-ish, welt-ish thing that lasted for an uncomfortably long time. When I went to the doctor with it, they pretty much just stabbed it twice to get it to drain and it left me with this. It’s hard to get it to show up very well but it’s basically two deep divots in a patch of pale, off-texture skin, a bit bigger around than a quarter. 

So I knelt on my bed with my leg at an awkward angle, whipped out my treasured 30 pack of rainbow sharpies (minus like 3, because sharpies like to run away), and went to work. It was kind of a weird angle to draw at not only because of how I had to bend my knee but also because everything I was drawing was sideways, but the heart turned out fairly nicely, if a bit lopsided. 

I didn’t make the heart quite big enough to fit “God is Love” inside of it so I wound up with the love bit underneath. I’m fairly pleased with how it looks, although you can definitely tell from the “e” that I was working sideways. 

I liked it well enough, but I wanted more color, and so I decided to add a butterfly wing to the left--or perhaps a flower. I have a tendency to draw those rather similarly so it’s basically both. One flower lead to another, then another, plus a couple of vines; I have progress pictures with each individual piece I added, but to prevent this post from going on for too long, I’ll just jump back to the final design. 

Also, side note, my knee was stiff as all heck after sitting like that for all the time I was drawing, and I had to limp around the house a bit to get my leg to straighten back out. In hindsight I would advise taking more breaks during the drawing process when sitting with one’s leg at such a weird angle.

The main picture at the top is from that stage as well, but then I went and googled “sharpie tattoo” because I remembered something about there being a way to make them last longer. I found this, which said to cover it in baby powder and spray it with hairspray. I don’t really use hair spray regularly, but I was pretty sure I had some around somewhere; the first stuff I found actually turned out to be a spray can of hair mousse, though, so I just patted it around on top of the baby powder. I didn’t quite get the whole thing covered because I was worried about smudging it if I rubbed it around. 

I was fairly certain I had some actual hairspray somewhere; eventually it occured to me to look in my old dance bag, because the last time I used hair spray was probably my 9th grade dance recital. I was correct, and upon locating said dance bag, I found both hairspray and an abundance of nostalgia. I reapplied baby powder and sprayed it on. Having not been used in nearly a decade, the hairspray came out in a confused trickle rather than a spray, and the whole area became very wet as I tried to pour out enough spray to cover the design in its entirety. The ink started to bleed and, while pretty, I was worried that rather than preserving my sharpie tattoo I was going to rinse it off prematurely in a flood of aged hairspray. 

I quickly dabbed at the flow with a bit of toilet paper, and in doing so accidentally made a rather lovely watercolor on the paper. 

So, this is where things are at now. The baby powder did leave quite a bit of texture on my leg. I imagine it will rinse off, but I think for tonight I’ll let things ‘set’ before I try and rinse it. Perhaps it would’ve been better if I’d left the initial design without putting any of this on it, but hopefully this will help it last longer. It’s just fun to have something bright, colorful, and meaningful on my leg. 

I’ve been really digging Killjoy aesthetics lately and I love the whole culture of being bright and colorful and unique that they have, and as I’ve been conceptualizing my Killjoy OC (cosplay to come, if I ever get around to it), I’ve found myself thinking about how I’d want to ideally design... well, myself, and so I guess this sharpie tattoo was really born from that. 

Along those same lines, I’ve also been revisiting the idea of dyeing my hair. It’s something I’ve contemplated since middle school but never done, but now I really think I would like to. Again I’m at least partly inspired by Gerard Way, both in the sense of the bold hair colors of the Killjoy universe and from seeing how many great hair styles and colors Gerard’s had over the years. I’m not fond of the idea of cutting my hair, but I like the thought of mixing it up by dyeing it. 

The wrench in my plans right now, though, is the way that everything is just on hold at the moment. Specifically, I’ve been in rehearsals for a play, but with this whole pandemic business, our rehearsals are suspended and our play is postponed for an unknown period of time. The play is the Crucible, and unfortunately, neon red violet hair would not fly in puritan Salem. My plan initially was to dye my hair as soon as the play was over in early April, but now, well... who knows how long it’ll be until the show happens and I’m in the clear to mess with my hair. So, stay tuned for that I guess. I don’t know if I’ll wait to do my Killjoy cosplay until I’m able to dye my hair; I would like to have both this sharpie tattoo and dyed hair at the time of said cosplay, but I’m not certain whether those time frames we’ll overlap. We’ll see. 

Anyways, if anyone’s still reading this, thanks for sticking with me through my rambling! I hope you have enjoyed this episode of Violet’s adventures in sharpie tattoos.