The Cats Are On Cara!

For some reason I haven't been able to draw any cats lately. Catch me lurking around the house like a cryptid cosplaying a person.

I can't be bothered to update my meet the artist but I cut my own hair again and I can see my scalp for the first time. Yippee.

Message in a bottle.

I wanted to get this in writing and throw it into the void. It's either this or try to have a Victor Frankenstein-esque breakdown, which will take too much time and effort. So. This is my monologue about my melancholia and spite. Into the void it goes.

One of my professors was talking about how they think dropping courses shouldn't be an option and went on to tell a long tale of their own perseverance, how you must do things you don't like to achieve in life, why giving up means you're not trying.

And I was sitting there thinking that if I don't make Great Achievements in the future, my story would be told as a lesson. 'She was a bright student, but she couldn't take pressure and dropped out. All that potential, wasted. So stick to the path we've given you and go through with it no matter how much we stack the odds against you and how much you hate it.'

The most ridiculous part? If I do achieve their idea of success, they'll be saying how great it is to be yourself and how their wonderful, inclusive, tolerant system gives you the resources to follow your dreams.

Sometimes, I wish I'm not too weak of mind to take the chances I've been given. I wonder if I'm not struggling, just too soft and too vain to to proper hard work.

Then I try to remember that that's not me talking. That's the voice of people who don't know me and don't try to, talking in my head. The times I've been squashed down, the times I had to make myself small to fit in - all that is real, and it hurt me. None of the people who tell me I'm doing well saw when I was breaking down right under their noses. It's time to go.

It's not easy to choose according to your own judgement, especially when that judgement goes against the values of the people around you. There will be people who support you, if you're lucky, but you will have nobody to follow. And that's frightening. I hope I'll have the strength to say, I'll have it no other way.

Thank you, Tumblr, for showing me ads I absolutely don't want to see. I mean it in the most unironic way possible.

Maybe I'm a paranoid mediaeval minion, but I get absolutely horrified whenever an Internet platforms shows me ads featuring something I searched for just once, seconds ago, on another platform. It makes me feel stalked.

(Unimpressed cat is Daniel Meowlloy from my Interview with the Vampurr "Disregard!" comic)

Erik.

(More Woolly Erik here)

I love you in every universe? No such luck for Joseph Buquet.

Moment of appreciation for the chibis.

Who is the silliest chibi? Most voted chibi gets a Treat.

More POTO cats here!

@blackforrestpunk asked @vladimirsangel for a Dracula pinup. Who am I if not a provider of cursed things?

Don't let Aurik see this, please, I have no intention of horrifying him. Unless he wants it for his collection.

Monster pinups are a thing now. Oh yes, I still owe Vlad a Gossamer pinup. (Why is this my life now?) Grinch pinup here.

Today on the Goober Cat Advent. It's them! It's the gang! They've summoned Santa. For very reasonable reasons, I'm sure, lads...? (The gang's guide to Santa summoning here)

L-R @blackforrestpunk 's Punk Erik, @vladimirsangel 's Aurik and my Pierce.

Phantom of the Opera (2004), we have beef!

(I'm sorry, Gerald Butler's Phantom, you're still very cool. See the original drawing without beef here.)

I'm not saying that the film is entirely bad. It's only that I tend to be extra critical about plot and portrayal. Phans of the film, feel tree to sit this one out. Now, the beef.

🥩 1. They cut out one of the most powerful scenes

Before I fell (or rather, was pushed) into the Phandom, I saw a clip of Sierra Buggess and Ramin Karimloo performing the 'SING!!!' part of The Phantom of the Opera, and even then, it struck me. Watching film, I was waiting to see it again... But they just kept rowing the boat. I find this direction choice rather symbolic of the angle of the entire film: they lowered the prominence of Christine's thrall to the Phantom's music and instead focused on their dubious romantic attraction.

🥩2. The Phantom's origin story

Perhaps they felt the need to explain his past more, but this is a case of the more you explain, the worse it gets. Why on earth would you feel the need to explain that the Phantom has been visiting Christine since she was a child? That is not only terrifying but also creates unnecessary confusion. If he's been teaching her for so long, I find it dubious that nobody has noticed her behaving strangely before the Hannibal performance.

🥩3. They gave Mme. Giry too many hats to wear

In the film Mme. Giry essentially took on the role of three characters: her own, the Persian's, and Mama Valeris' (Christine's surrogate mother in the book). Initially, I liked that they gave Mme. Giry a more active role in the Phantom's past, but then it gets very weird because she's essentially matchmaking her surrogate daughter with a man her own age whom she has witnessed killing someone. I mean, it's not implausible to give a character two conflicting roles, but the film gave no viable explanation for it.

🥩4. The graveyard duel

Why were they using rapiers in 1870? The Phantom dueling I can get behind, being the theatre kid he is, but Raoul? Get a pistol, monsieur le vicomte. Anachronism aside, this addition doesn't add more to the scene. It's meant to show how the Phantom tried to lure Christine again and Raoul comes to disillusion her, but with the duel added in, it's just a question of who wins the duel, who gets to leave with Christine. And I keep wondering how the heck the Phantom lost the fight in spite of his Magnificent Cloak advantage. (Cloaks were used as shields back in the day of rapier duels.)

🥩5. Carlotta

I adore Wendy Ferguson's Carlotta. I understand that the film wanted to make a contrast between Christine and Carlotta, but making her something out of Mean Girls was uncalled for. You got the wrong musical, mate.

I talk about other POTO adaptations here!

Remember Woolly Erik? His debut has been delayed due to a sad wardrobe mishap. Let's just say the seat of his trousers isn't... seated.

I'm making him some cheeky untucked shirttails to make up for it.

More of my needle felting shenanigans. Lots of monsters. Well, all monsters.

*Pulls my vampire out of the blender* He's up for it!

Compassion: 10/10

Bitterness: 1/10

Happiness: 8/10

Politeness: 7/10 (points off for being a saucy coquette)

Chivalry: 9/10

Pride: 2/10 (vanity 10/10)

Honesty: 5/10 (Heart-on-sleeve oversharer, but lies to himself unconsciously so don't believe him)

Bravery: 9/10 (because dumb)

Recklessness: 10/10 (because dumb)

Ambition: 1/10

Loyalty: 7/10 (dead loyal in friendship, not so in romance)

Love: 10/10

Sense of Family: 6/10 (he has a History)

Attractiveness: 10/10

Agility: 10/10 (pole-dancing, wall-climbing ballerina)

Sex Drive: 10/10

And Aurik is 10/10 adorable, I won't take anything other rating.

Rate Your Traits (OC) - Aurik Gespenst

Beautiful Aurik art by @ohheyitsgray

Compassion: 9/10

Bitterness: 7/10

Happiness: 3/10

Politeness: 8/10

Chivalry: 7/10

Pride: 1/10

Honesty: 8/10

Bravery: 2/10

Recklessness: 5/10

Ambition: 2/10

Loyalty: 9/10

Love: 9/10

Sense of Family: 9/10

Attractiveness: 1/10

Agility: 5/10

Sex Drive: 4/10

Tagging: anyone who hasn't done this yet but wants to!