Welcome To The Machine

I’m like if someone smart chose to be an idiot. Out of free will

What makes an outfit practical or impractical to fight in? Would an acrobat's outfit with some decent shoes be okay to fight in? Any suggestions on how to make an outfit frilly/girly without sacrificing (too much) practicality? (Trying to come up with practical[ish] Magical Girl outfits - know it's not your genre probably - there are certain expectations for frilliness even for tomboyish characters)

You’re, basically, looking for three things: How well canyou move in it, does it give potential foes anything to grab, and does it offerany protection?

If you can’t move freely in your clothes, you can’t fight inthem. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about them being tight enough torestrict movement, or if they make it difficult to walk around. Tight skirts,high heels, tailored suits; it doesn’t matter; they’ll all limit your abilityto fight.

With footwear, you’re looking primarily at how well you canstand and move in it. Shoes and boots designed to grip the floor are (usually)the best options here. So, things like sneakers or work boots are good options.Rubberized soles will help you keep your footing far better when you’restanding in someone’s blood than a dress shoe or high heels.

Things like long coats, ties, free flowing skirts, scarves, hoodies,or of course capes, won’t usually limit your mobility, but they can give anopponent something to grab. Once that happens, that article of clothing willlimit your mobility (some). This is also a factor that’s difficult tocompletely eliminate. Practiced martial artists can, and do, go for collar orlapel grabs on clothing you might think would pass. That said, there are somespecial cases here.

If the article of clothing will tear away freely, it’s (kindof) a wash. You’re still talking about losing clothes, which isn’t usuallysomething you want, but it means you’re not getting dragged out of position byan attacker.

If the combatant is ready for it, it’s possible to usesomething like this as a firing point to retaliate. If you know, roughly, wheretheir hand is, it’s much easier to extrapolate where the rest of them is inrelation to you. This still doesn’t make fighting in long flowing garments a goodidea.

The final factor, almost by definition, doesn’t really applywith magical girls as a genre, and can get a little weird when you’re talking aboutany superhuman characters.

Ideally, if you’re planning to get into a fight, you’ll wantdurable clothing that will take a few hits, and hopefully shield you from harm.Materials like leather and denim hold up much better than lighter fabrics.Insulation in a jacket will take some kinetic force from a strike (not a lot,but still), so it’s better than just jeans and a tee, or even a denim jacket.This also gets into a discussion we’ve had before. Protection is often about makingtradeoffs.

An insulated leather jacket will (slightly) reduce yourmobility. It will give an opponent something they can grab. But, it will alsooffer protection from stray hits and while parrying incoming strikes. It won’tprotect against gunshots, or against a sword, and if that’s what your characterwas likely to face, they’d need armor to deal with those threats instead.

Somewhat obviously, exposed skin isn’t offered anyprotection. Technically, skin itself is protection for your body, and it doesfunction as your first line of defense against infection, but that’s mostlyacademic in this context.

This is also where, magical girls, and most superherosubgenres, deliberately start straying from reality, without actually being unrealistic (in theliterary sense). What matters is if your character has some kind of protectionfrom the threats they’re facing. It doesn’t matter if that’s an ancient alienartifact, a mystical gemstone, or the weaponized power of friendship. That is what protects your character,not her denim vest. You’re also talking about characters where the threats theyface are, effectively, impossible to mitigate through mundane means. Again, aleather jacket, no matter how snazzy, won’t do much against a death beam fromsome snarling murderbeast, or blows from a sword with an enchantment thatdrains the soul from anyone who touches it. As I’ve said before, you selectyour armor to deal with the threats you’re likely to face, and when it comes tomagical girls, those threats are (almost always) going to be far beyondanything you could physically protect against.

Normally, you wouldn’t want to fight off an arisen god ofwar in a school girl uniform, but it’s not like a flak vest would offer anymore protection against a threat like that.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. If you enjoy our content, please consider becoming a Patron. Every contribution helps keep us online, and writing. If you already are a Patron, thank you.

you disagreed w me in an intellectually honest way. we're friends now.

has anyone else noticed that being alive is like. not the most dignified experience ever

commission work

Look I know the toxicity and the tension is like the main appeal of Burned Bridges and it’s utterly delicious but

Have you considered. An alternative. That exists in my head.

Them representing the part of themselves that they actively suppresses to each other. One suppresses his emotions behind a mask of a lack of emotion(Smitten(overwhelming emotion) to Cold), while the other suppresses the part of himself that feels alone and empty, covering it up with all of the other emotions that he intensely feels(Cold(the emptiness and yearning) to Smitten). Masks of overwhelming positive emotion and no emotion to hide the depths of their emotions. Their vulnerability. They are each other’s tormentors.

Cold pushing Smitten’s buttons at first out of his own amusement. Smitten retorts back at Cold every time he provokes him and dislikes the realisation of how easy it is for Cold to push his buttons. And then. Emotional torment. Them showing the depths of their hearts to each other. Whether by complete accident or an action made by Smitten that had unraveled them both. Their vulnerability and the parts of themselves were shown to each other. Cold hits a realisation. Smitten sits in stunned shock. They realise there is more to the other than they originally thought.

Smitten being Smitten denies it at first. He denies how similar they are to each other and retorts with uncertain anger in a vain attempt to cover up the parts of his heart that he tries so desperately to hide. But how can he deny it anymore? When now the question swims within his head on the possibility that he may be wrong, and now everything that he has done within the construct is coming back at him at full force? When what he’s done in HEA and him being the reason why his beloved and the Decider are unhappy? Is he a good person? He must be a good person! He is passionate and full of emotion! But is he really? The heart yearns for companionship, and yet he cannot get it through the Princess anymore. She is gone.

Cold acknowledges their similarities. And yet he remains unchanged. Outwardly at least. His heart has been shown to Smitten. The depths of his buried emotion and passion, the feelings of betrayal from the Narrator. They find their way back bubbling onto the surface. His heart rages a storm. He continues to deny the emotions within the dam that he kept locked up. Another drop in a glass that is already spilling.

Their existence forces each other to look into themselves. Their existence forces each other to start their journey to grow and to face the parts of themselves that they try so desperately to suppress and hide. A seed of doubt planted into their hearts, and it will only grow further. And one day, they will be a devotion no longer blind, and a longing satisfied. It will be a long and difficult journey, but with guidance, one day they will be able to look at each other in acceptance and learn to love the parts they feared and despised.

I'm not a prayin' man, but the night I found out my at-the-time-fiancé had been sending sex horny nasty horny sex asks to my friend on THIS VERY WEBSITE, I sat in the car in the parking lot of an abandoned church and watched a family of deer play in the snow, and it didn't quite feel like a sign because that part of Pennsylvania was mostly deer and abandoned buildings and snow, but it felt nice, and once the tears stopped, I looked down at my phone and my other friend had sent me a text that said, "HE'S TRYING TO CHEAT ON YOU ON THE ONE DIRECTION IMAGINES WEBSITE?" and I realized that life is all about your curated experience. A real choose-your-own-adventure deal. I have never seen someone post about One Direction on here in my life.

Some frames from second chapter of my comics - “Jaikarn”

“Jaikarn” is a fantasy story about royal families, ancient relics and creepy creatures :)

i collect images with powerful ot3/third wheel energies so you don’t have to. i am releasing them to you, the public, so you may share in my bounty