imagine if you took your new boyfriend to meet your dad and your dad greeted him by name but it wasn't his name it was a different name and your dad said your boyfriend was a spy who stole 300 millions of dollars from him and ruined the family arms dealing business and got your dad killed (except he's not dead but shhhhh that is a secret) and you ask your boyfriend with the fake name if this is true and he just looks at you angstily with wet eyes and you know your dad is telling the truth about this and all those romantic arms deals you had planned for the future will never come to pass and you're probably going to have to do some homoerotic murder thing with your now ex boyfriend who has lied to you since day one with his stupid wet eyes and the 280 million dollar-pounds he didn't tell you about because you're only worth 20 million dollaries to him and he's probably got *counts* 14 other guys on the side and each of them know him by a different name damn this bastard how dare he you'd better get him a tissue or something his eyes are wetter than the pacific he's probably got allergies or whatever in fact you should maybe start licking the tears off his face yeah that'd be hot you should do that
Taigen’s love confession NEEDS to come before he finds out Mizu is a woman.
Listen. I have given this a lot of thought and the more I think about it, the more I’m sure. When looking at Mizu and Mikio’s marriage, we can see how Mikio was in to the idea of a strong woman only so far as he was still stronger than her. This is clear when Mikio insists that he wants to “see all of [mizu]” and insists that they spar; Mikio doesn’t unsheath his blade even though Mizu tell him not to hold back. He assumes he is stronger than her and when this is proven false, like the beta bitch he is, he bails.
But with Taigen it’s different. Mizu and Taigen’s relationship has been a power struggle from the start. Taigen wasn’t introduced to Mizu as a woman or a wife. Taigen has always seen Mizu as a swordsman first. And when the hostility between the two starts to cool, it is because of their mutual admiration of the other’s skill. Mizu’s strength and boldness are what win Taigen over in the first place.
We also see a very important juxtapose between when Mizu pins Mikio to the ground and when she pins Taigen to the ground. In the first instance, Mikio pushes Mizu off him and calls her a monster. He feels put off and emasculated by being overpowered. In the Mizu/Taigen scene, however, once Mizu has Taigen pinned, he stares, awestruck, into Mizu’s eyes and gets a raging hard on. Instead of feeling emasculated, Taigen get so aroused that he has a full blown bi awakening.
So we know that Taigen is different to Mikio in that he is attracted to Mizu BECAUSE she can kick his ass, not in spite of it. But Mizu has been burned before. Badly. So if Taigen were to confess his feelings and tell Mizu that her strength is what he adores most about her, she’d be like, “right, sure, heard that one before.” And that’s why Taigen needs to confess his feelings BEFORE he finds out what’s in Mizu’s pants.
In my daydreaming about a Migen love confession, I find myself reminded of this quote. How Mikio was like the exotic bird collector. He only liked the idea of Mizu knowing her way around a sword so long as at the end of the day, he can still put her back into the caged-in roll of the house wife.
Taigen is also guilty of this with Akemi. I sure there is still no small amount of attraction and love between them, but I think Taigen pursues Akemi mostly out of the personal fable he has written about himself; the poor fisherman’s son who raises himself up to be the star of his Dojo and then marries a princess. He might not have wanted to cage Akemi as much as other men would have, but he still sees her as the exotic bird. The prize. And thats why I can’t ship them.
But with Mizu it’s different. Taigen even admits that Mizu is a better fighter than him. He KNOWS he could never cage her and by the end on the first season he strops trying, opting to stand beside her instead of against her (“it’s your fight, so it’s mine” 😭) So when he does confess his feelings, he has to do is as one man to another and make it clear to Mizu that her strength is what he loves most and that he would never want her to be anything less then the superior swordsman she is.
Only then will Mizu have a chance of believing that Taigen wants to be with her, not to subdue her into a wifely role, but to stand beside her in all her greatness. If Taigen’s confession were to come after he finds out she’s a woman, Mizu might just think, “oh, NOW you want to be with me, cause you think just because I’m a woman I’ll eventually submit to you.” Mizu needs to know she is loved AS SHE IS.
Also, I just think it would be HILLARIOUS if Taigen confesses, and Mizu is like, “ well then….. I guess I should let you know…” and then Taigen spends the rest of the episode with his mind fucking BLOWN and complaining that he has spent the last several months coming to terms with the fact that he is attracted to another man only to find out the man he is attracted to is a woman! He goes through a whole bi awakening for nothing!
My favorite thing about this scene, besides the objective fact its cool and sexy when rivals with a promise that only the other is allowed to kill them accidently turning each other on while wresting, is how Taigen specifically reacts.
(Note: To be clear Mizu is referred to as female by the co creators/writers a mixed raced couple who based Mizu on there daughter so She/her is how I will refer to her, no disrespect to others with there own AU/headcanons for her gender)
Anyway, reminder, as this point Taigen still things Mizu is a boy, and his reaction is to be bashfully embarrassed, but not to deny it or try to defend his straightness.
Which means 1 of 3 things.
1. Taigen is Bi and already knows it, so he's more embarrassed by the circumstances then the act.
2. Taigen just realized he is Bi in that moment and had the calmest reaction to that revelation ever.
3. Taigen is Straight, but so secure in his Heterosexuality, that rolling around with someone he thinks is a man and the friction causing a hard on is just a matter of fact thing that happened and he's man enough to just admit it no fuss no muss.
All 3 options are a mix of both funny and really sweet, we stan a self secure fated Rival/Love Interest
Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" 1952
Edward Page Mitchell's "The Clock That Went Backward" 1881
Robert F. Young's "The Dandelion Girl" 1961
🌊 Full Illustrated Pieces
New Cover
Back Cover
Can't you weather the storm you've wrought?
Are we falling...or flying?
Underneath a blue sky, we yearn.
Sinking, Sinking...
Desire or D̴̟͖̙̲̗̮͈̹̞̬͉͎͎̋̚͝ͅẹ̶̖̬̣̎̆̉̐ś̶̛͉͙̜̮̲̯͉͙͎͇͖̪̩̻̩̋̅̅͌̽p̴̧̢̬̳̗̝͕͎͔͍̳͗͛̒̓̄ͅͅa̸̜̮͐̒͐̉̀͆͐͐̒ȋ̷̢͙̬̜͙̹͎̅̅̅̾̅r̸̮͕̠̗͘?
Proof
Fever Stricken
"I'll be Devoted to you for the rest of my life regardless of fate, I'll rewrite the rules of this world to say your name,"
"So stay for an eternity if you want, if you need, the world can go on without us. And when the world eventually ends, only we will remain."
And betwixt the tides of sleep and wake, I will find you, again and again.
🌊Music Playlist
I created a music playlist of songs that inspired some of the panels/artworks or that I listened to on repeat that probably influenced the comic in some way
You can listen to it here on this youtube playlist!
🌊AO3 Version
You can now read the current Dormiveglia pages on AO3!
🌊Where else can I read this?
Instagram (There is no good sorting system on Instagram I am so sorry)
Twitter
Patreon (I have yet to compile all of the public pages yet)
My website
🌊You can buy this comic here:
Digital PDF
Ko-fi
Gumroad
Patreon
Physical (A5)
Mixam
🌊 Additional Information
I'll be sharing early access pages, notes, time-lapses, and the process of creating this manga on my patreon!
You can also find this manga on Twitter where I am more active!
I relied heavily on setting up the values beforehand (and I feel like this is the fastest 'coloring' method) and then used gradient maps and color layer style to integrate the color (I didn't want there to be much color so it's a lot more muted.
Honored to be featured among Reactor Mag’s best articles on fiction, reading, and writing in 2024! Grateful to be in such stellar company. Check it out: https://reactormag.com/some-of-reactors-best-articles-about-fiction-reading-and-writing-in-2024/
We're looking back at some of our favorite non-fiction articles from the past year, highlighting book-centric essays.
this is your periodic reminder that for all the artifacts and errors and "tells" one could possibly list, the only reliable way to actually determine if an image is ai generated is to investigate the source. it is becoming increasingly common for "fake classical paintings" to circulate around curative aesthetic blogs, and everyone should be using this as an opportunity to not only exercise their investigative skills but also appreciate art more in general. you're all checking out the artists you reblog, right? 🫣
so what are some signs to look for? let's use this very good example.
what a lovely late-impressionist piece blended with evocative leyendecker-esque themes! why haven't you ever heard of this artist before? surely tumblr would be all over an artist like this. who is justin brown?
your two options from here are to do a search for the name, or a reverse image search. i prefer reverse image searching, particularly when it comes to a common name like "justin brown". so what does that net?
Immediately, without looking at any text, something is wrong: it barely exists. an actual historical piece would turn up numerous results from websites individually discussing the piece, but no such discussions are taking place. Looking at the text, though, does show the source-- and at least in this case, the creator was honest about their medium.
But let's also look at the "exact matches", in case a source doesn't make itself apparent in the initial sidebar results like this.
This section will often tell you post dates of images, and here it can be seen that the very first iteration of the image was posted 15 days ago. It did not exist online prior to that.
Seeing how long an unsourced image has been floating around is a skill applicable to more than just generative images! See a cool image of an artifact or other intriguing item with a vivid caption? Reverse search it! If all the results are paired with that caption and only go back a few months, you might just have viral facebook spam.
Sometimes generative creators are dishonest about their medium and do not tag it like in the example, so that's when establishing "jpeg provenance" becomes important. While it can be a little trickier to determine if someone is using generative images and not admitting to it if they aren't trying to pass it off as a classic, something to consider is the age of their account and the frequency with which they post. Here are some account red flags:
-Did they only start posting art after 2022, or if they did before, did their style/skill level WILDLY change? Not gradual improvement-- I'm talking amateur graphite portraits straight into complex digital renders. Everyone starts somewhere, newness is not a red flag alone; it's newness combined with existing in a vacuum away from any community.
-Do they post fully-finished paintings several times a week?
-Do many of these paintings seem iterative of a similar theme or subject matter ("three well-dressed young men face each other under shade and dappled sunlight")?
-Does their style change in inconsistent ways? An artist that can swap between painting like Drew Struzan and Hokusai should be pretty well known, right? Why is no one hyping this guy?!
-Do they have social media besides the source instagram? If so, what are they posting about? Are there any WIPs? Doodles? Interactions with other artists? Gallery dates? 3am self-doubt posts? Or is it all self-promo? Crypto? Seemingly nothing art-related at all for someone pushing out 3 weekly paintings?
Basically, if it's important to you to omit this stuff when you curate, please don't just smash reblog if the source doesn't seem to be the OP themselves. Seeking out sources was important even before this became an issue, now it is more than ever.
pixelskylines
dededos
jbbartram-illu
stormborns
janainaart
gummygunk
discoholicmusic
