My place

Hi aw welcome to tumblr :D

I dont really follow AUs? The only ones i really know of are Elsa Fogen's, so i suppose I like Blinded too. I really enjoyed Incompatable Frequencies as well, for lots of random little artistic as well as story reasons

Actually im going to pull up examples i need visuals

I am suuuch a fan of alastor hiding his face when he feels overwhelmed or vulnerable

And there’s just so much expression work that I adore (compiled a couple but there’s so many more)

And I particularly love this sequence

Too many people have him get startled and nearly drop his smile NO!!!! When he’s scared the smile is the first thing that gets slammed into place it’s his first line of defense!!! he’s not going to be caught without it just because he’s vulnerable!! Especially because he’s vulnerable!!

And the storytelling with the saturation of the colors broke me multiple times over

So yeah I suppose IF is my favorite actually

AND THANK YOU SI MUCH i really love when people pick specific frames and talk about details... Hey actually everyone, post your favorite Alastor expressions from my comics (not only IF) and explain why (yes I'm trying to bait yall into praising me)

YES Alastor's smile is his most basic line of defence!!! It's very natural thing to think that he would've dropped it in a stressful situation, i also used to slip into this mindset, and at first thought that i wouldn't have him smiling in the... The first night. Because my logic would be to drop the smile to not associate it with this horrible experience. But I'm not Alastor. Smile to him isn't what it's to all of us. It's his shield, and in the moment when he's most vulnerable against his will, he'll be holding onto his smile like his life depends on it. Tbh lately I'm catching myself smiling when i really shouldn't...

It's dropped after the second time, because he's been utterly and absolutely broken. Small insight: it's never said out loud but the colors being dimmed are my attempt to show that he's like. Actually depressed from that point. Like, clinically. He's been living in an extra stressful situation for the past few months, he's been through horrible traumatic experience that also gave him ptsd, and the situation isn't going to be better on foreseeable future.

I'm going to touch on that in the follow up comics about Alastor's recovery, but basically, after getting rid of Vox Alastor goes back to his radio tower and trying to "sleep it off" ("It" Being all the feelings and pain), but is suffering from night terrors,and it seems to be only worsening his condition. So he starts taking sleeping pills to sleep without seeing dreams, and, uh. Spiralling from there. Basically he is trying to not exist, but in hell he can't kill himself, so the second "best" thing is just sleeping all the time. Good thing angelic steel isn't a thing during that time. To make it clear, he doesn't want to kill himself, only to stop the feelings. And if there was a way to permanently off himself, he would've at least thought about it.

During present times he's doing better and taking antidepressants, but he had moments (when something would trigger an especially bad ptsd flashback and put him back to the worst moments), when he would be thinking about buying an angelic knife from Carmilla...

Agh, you see what you can do with a good praise?? You can fish out a good chunk of info frome!!!!

And about his internalized aphobia mentioned in the tags. Canon Alastor seemingly doesn't have it (or at least it's not as bad and his ego is big enough to brush all doubst off) (me, lol, i remember sitting near my classmates who were talking about their sexual life and thinking "thank god I'm the normal one", i bet Alastor has this kind of mindset in canon LOL). But in IF his situation is... Well let's be real, the whole situation is as bad because he's ace. Yes ofc rape is bad no matter the orientation, but realistically, if Alastor wasn't ace, and was, for example, bi, to have sex with Vox wouldn't be such a big dea to begin withl. Maybe their deal wouldn't have hapen as all! But he's sex-repulsed ace, he dreads the idea of having sex so much, that he would rather be tortured if it as far from being sexual as possible. And while in canon he doesn't seem to have been through the situation that would make him realize how much he doesn't want it, here his whole life goes to shit because he is so afraid of something, that people usually desire. And the worst part - is that he doesn't even know why he is like that. Doesn't know that there are people like him. He only has two possible explanations: everyone is just lying about sex feeling good, of he is broken. And his depressed brain jumps to the self-blaming conclusion, because there is no evidence for the other explanatio, and Vox, who craves it and really is enjoying it is right there.

(This is why Ace rep is so important, if Alastor at that moment learned about asexuality being a thing, and that there are others like him, it would've helped him a lot, and saved him from a lot of horrible episodes where he's trying to force himself).

Edit to clarify, copied from the comments: I know that rape is rape mo matter the orientation, I'm trying to say thatbhe may not have ended up in this situation if he wasn't ace

Like, if he wasn't ace, he could've been into Vox himself and then it would be entirely different story. If he wasn't ace, he would've known he's not into vox and doesn't want to have sex with him, and wouldn't have agreed to the deal. But being inexperienced and unknowing ace, he thought "it's not a big deal, everyone does it, and i will"

...What year is this?

I was wondering why no one is speaking up about this, but then realised I'll have to be the one.

Alastor in a straitjacket

I love Alastor but the image of Alastor in a straitjacket reinforces the harmful stigma that equates mental illness with being dangerous and evil.

The straitjacket is not even a hannibal lector reference without the mask, its just a straitjacket.

The straitjacket is a very triggering image for many people implying that those with mental illness are 'supposed' to be restrained.

The straitjacket is a negative symbol and icon for mental illness.

A few examples: It was removed from sims 4 as a instability icon

A Gucci straitjacket fashion show was famously protested in 2019.

In the UK and Australia government agencies have previously stepped in and removed straitjacket Halloween costumes from shelves.

This is actually distressful. Will there be a ton of Alastor cosplayers in straitjackets at public conventions, and will Amir the mental health advocate be posing with them??

I tentatively raised this in two discords. One person told me they did not know the historical context of the straitjacket at all until I explained it.

In another discord with 1000+ people, I receive 0 public responses and 7 dm's from distressed people.

They all said the same thing that they are afraid to speak out because the stigma is so strong.

(I have this person's permission to quote them) One of them confided that the straitjacket is very triggering image for them because of their mothers condition, which they keep secret because of the stigma. The stigma stereotype that is being reinforced by images like: a literal devil in a straitjacket.

Another said their 'heart sank when they saw it' 😟

Everyone is afraid of cosplay happening.

Everyone said they were relieved to see someone else say something about it.

The fanart isnt even being tagged as nc (which is where it belongs, niche interest for adults not marketed to teens in a major high street store.)

I'm really disappointed in the HH fanbase, because we've somehow created an environment where people feel they cant speak up about ableism and mental disability and stigma and suffer in silence.

I was excited to hear they changed something about the t-shirt and facepalmed when it was all about the shipping crap.

Our fanbase is one where the fans will launch a thousand ships if Husk has the wrong stripe on his hat but total radiosilence over ableist imagery and enforcing stigmas that hurt the vulnerable and it's starting to embarass me.

Even if there is no call for Hot Topic to change the t-shirt its painful to see no conversations surrounding it, with all the noise has been about the shipping instead of what matters.

Anyway I'm making this post for the upset people who dm'd me, and hoping to create at least one search result for 'straitjacket Alastor' that represents a different viewpoint. If you are also affected by this please reach out too.

It also felt icky for me.

Like, when i realized that this is Alastor's outfit im the "emo" collection i was really disappointed. Like, i saw Vox desidn and i expect something cool for Alastor too.

Not a fuckings straightjacket.

My first thought was that they did him dirty. Everyone got cool outfits. Alastor got stereotypical mental asylum treatment.

(Also, RA implications in the initial description DO NOT make it better. Tf you mean divorced dads and ALASTOR IN A FUCKINGS STRAIGHTJACKET???? IS THIS KINDA RACIST OR AM I GOING NUTS? Like, if we're playing into the divorce bit, Alastor was put into mental asylum because he was inconvenient or smth, and it GIVES ME AN ICK ATOP THE ICK. Historically to get rid of the weaker and inconvenient family member, family would put them into mental facility.... And they would be lucky if they wouldn't be given lobotomy first. I'm not sure, but it feels like it was done more often to the people of color, but i did not do my research, just a gut feeling.) (and RA fans are upset about the description change and playing victims is whole another story, but GUYS. THIS DESCRIPTION WAS NOT DOING YOUR SHIP A FAVOUR. JUST SAYING.) (Though it's the most realistic scenario 🤣 but i don't even wanna think about it).

Plus the harmful stereotype. Like, racism came first to my mind, because it's a common topic around Alastor, but the demonization of mental illnesses was also floating somewhere in the back. I just needed to hear someone actually saying it to bring it up to the front.

And also, Al is ace, so, we can shove aphobia to the mix as well. As a result we get a shit cake of controversy with RA implications frosting in a shape of a t-shirt

"It's not hurting anyone" until it is, y'know

@justarandommistake

*SIGH*

i'm calm, i'm calm...

no.

even from the start i didn't like the idea of even anything platonic going on. Now the shippers soured even the concept of those two being in one fucking room, that i can't even look at anything with them, because i'm always expecting that it somehow is going to turn into a ship

anyway, even if i didn't hate it, i would say no anyway, because like. they were genetically ingeneered to HATE each other. AT BEST they can learn to maintain cold peace for Charlie's sake and troll each other occasionally, but they will NEVER even be drinking buddies. Since "breaking up" with Vox alastor doesn't even drink when isn't alone, he'll never be drinking around mr. L And mr. L showed his disdain for alcohol pretty clearly.

so, no, i can't accept this thing as even platonic

On unrelated note just learned that some dumbahh RA shipper(s?) is/are trying to cancel me. that was the funniest shit i've read in the last month. by them, it's ok to harass me, but when i finally snap and start biting off heads, i'm the bad guy and act "childish". ok bro. i tried to be nice about it, but you guys can't understand "no" when it said calmly. So i'm going Alastor-rejecting-Vox mode to make it CLEAR that i don't want to do ANYTHING with the ship. if i could help it, i would want to avoid this ship like a plague and keep it out of my blog. if i could i just would never mention it and ignore that it exists, but alas. some people think that the world revolves around them and their ship. They scream "it's canon" to the point when even Viv herself has to say that "yall need to chill, ships are just ships". They keep saying how it's better and trying to instert it in every hole (the amount of times i've seen that "alastor should go to l*cifer for help" in the comments for both Blinded and IF is fucking infuriating). At this point i'm no longer nice, i'm telling people like this to get the fuck off.

i can't respect fandom etiquette, they say. so now you can't just hate something in your little corner, It's "rude". But you can just go and pester people about your ship, trying to insert it in a story where it has not even a sliver of chance to be, edit people's art to make it about your ship (and it happened MORE THAN ONCE BTW) (there is a whole TIKTOK ACCOUNT THAT DOES IT), and this is somehow fine with "fandom etiquette". If i go under a r***le comic and start commenting like "cool, but Alastor is better with Rosie/Vox/Charlie/Mimzy/Carmilla/Suzan/whatever", i know for a fact i'll get hate and death threats. Ah, do, do you smell it?? My favorite ✨double standarts✨

ship and let ship, they say, yet only doing the first part of that this rule

I don't hate ALL r***le shippers. I don't even hate people screaming that it's canon, i'll just be annoyed and scroll, because i'm tired of wasting my energy on fighting the windmills, season 3 will sort everything out. But if you do anything listed above - then yeah, go fuck yourself.