Read it and weep

Okay, I decided to make a short sketch about the Collector and the Archivist

Wittober Day 7: cracked (nose)

It’s not Moon’s fault he’s like this. But his life is going to be very lonely if he stays trapped in this cycle forever.

Hey! Thanks so much for sending this ask and sorry it took a hot minute to reply. Things have been busy this Spring but I’ve really wanted to circle back to this!

I’m no psychologist and I can’t pretend to know all there is to know about various conditions and disorders, but ’d say that it’s entirely possible that Moon has something akin to one of the “Cluster B disorders.” They’re certainly stigmatized conditions but I don’t think they villainize Moon at all. If that’s the case, it’s just part of their personality. We live in a world that really tries to dehumanize anyone with narcissistic symptoms, rather than see them as actual people.

That being said, a few years back, I remember listening to a psychologist talk about how some people would sometimes experience Cluster B symptoms while being surrounded by toxic people, only to have those symptoms resolve once they were in a better situation and around more supportive people. So I could see this applying to Moon as well, since they’ve spent most of their existence around some truly horrible, manipulative individuals. And after all that, things wouldn’t immediately resolve, as Moon has had a lot to work through.

So I’m not in any position to diagnose the character one way or another, but I really like discussing the possibilities.

I’ve always low-key written Moon as autistic, and adding that to them being intellectually a child and also a being a god-like creature with very little comprehension of mortality or how things affect those around them. So that combination makes things pretty tough for them as well, as far as existing socially in the world. I don’t think it conflicts with them potentially having another personality disorder, or symptoms of such in addition though. In fact, with all the overlap, the different conditions might just blend together in a way that makes it near-impossible to separate into anything neat or specific.

You're it!! :D

(If you like my art + wanna support a good cause, please consider donating to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund which is helping immigrants in Minnesota)

Rumi, checking her emails: Bills, fanmail, bills, stupid ad deals, something that probably should have gone to Bobby, fanmail... oh huh. Someone is asking if they can make a parody of one or more of our songs.

Mira: People already do that, don't they? We encourage it.

Rumi: Yeah, but this guy's asking anyway.

Mira: Huh. That's considerate of them. Who is it?

Rumi: Some parody artist named Alfred Yankovic.

Mira: Oh, I think I've heard of him, isn't he kind of a big deal in the states-

Zoey, kicking open the door: YES YES YES TELL HIM YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES A MILLION TIMES YES LET HIM DO WHATEVER HE WANTS WITH OUR MUSIC

Mira: Definitely a big deal.

Zoey: ASK HIM IF HE'S DOING A POLKA MEDLEY PLEASE I NEED TO HEAR GOLDEN ON THE ACCORDION THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE OH MY GOSH DO YOU THINK HE'LL LET ME CAMEO IN THE MUSIC VIDEO-

Rumi: So... we tell him yes?

Mira: We tell him yes.

Interviewer: Well, we definitely saw her there.

Al: And of course, when one of the male dancers showed up and was six foot five, we had to pair them. I'll never say no to an easy visual gag.

Interviewer: So is that when you had the idea for the throw?

Al: Absolutely not. We just told the dancers to do some basic spins and end it with a dip during the climax, but apparently she got inspired. We did not tell Zoey to lead him during the dance, and I certainly didn't plan for her to throw him in the air and catch him in a dip. Fans say they can see the wires, I guarantee you we did not provide wires during that day of shooting.

Interviewer: But surely she didn't actually throw him?

So many dog owners are practically allergic to doing anything to alleviate human anxiety around their dog, even things that would greatly benefit the dog like keeping it leashed and not bringing it into high stress environments* without cause. If a friend told me they were afraid of cats, I’d tell them it is best we meet outside of my home because that is a completely reasonable accommodation. There are so many horror stories about someone being told another person is afraid of dogs and repeatedly putting them in situations where they have to be in close proximity to a dog without that person’s consent because they think it’s funny or because ‘My dog is such a good dog. It’ll definitely change their mind about dogs. This is like impromptu exposure therapy.’ and it makes everything worse.

Someone being frightened and on the verge of a panic attack at your little Shih Tzu mix may seem like an amusing overreaction to you but those bitches (pun absolutely intended) do bite and the safest thing to do for that person and your dog is to keep them separated. You don’t know what life they’ve lead.

This is not cruelty, this is not unfair to the dog, if they dont like muzzles and leashes its your job to teach them. your dog may be beautifully trained but other dogs may not! other animals, other people, they are not trained on your dog like you are. you cannot predict how your dog will react in every situation, because you cannot predict every situation it will be in.

And the thing that makes me craziest - if your dog bites somebody who's willing to get mad about it (or a kid with parents who are), animal control will kill it. if your dog injures someone from your negligence they will kill your dog. they will kill. your dog.

so, ways to get around this:

turn off AI results. they're literally nonsense to us

don't use pinterest because the sources/provenance is often hard to trace

a standard internet search can be okay, but museum collections are the top tier (list of collections below this list)

instead of broad terms like victorian, regency, tudor, renaissance etc. try using the decade you're looking for. if you're not sure of what decade it is but have a vague image in your head, look on the fashion history timeline and just jump around until you find it. but even changing to e.g. 19th century will give better results than victorian

including terms like womenswear/menswear, daywear, formal wear, evening wear, court dress should increase the value of your search too

including "fashion plates" in your search can give you a nice impression of the intended silhouettes of the era. some of these might be a little stylised but will show you what was considered in vogue

for pre-fashion plate eras or things like makeup and styling, you'll have to look at portraiture or manuscripts. these are harder to actually find what you're looking for, but searching museum collections and limiting results to specific date ranges will be your friend

when looking at art, do bear in mind sometimes artists would paint fabric extra flow-y to show off their skills. it might not have been exactly like that in terms of fabric weight or drape. so, a pinch of salt required!

if you find something on image search where the provenance is dubious, reverse image search and you might find a source! i've been able to trace random pinterest images to real sources, but this does take a lot of time and effort and is often not worth the headache

some online resources and museum collections:

fashion history timeline is an invaluable resource if you're trying to get a feel for everything and should be your first port of call. it'll also link to good examples

the met has a vast number of extant examples of clothing, as well as fashion plates

costume institute fashion plates is a subcollection of the met for fashion plates (1800s-1922)

v&a also has many extant garments, fashion plates, and incredible articles on clothing and aesthetics. read the details of the objects because they'll often reveal a lot about the piece

lacma is good for C19th-20th pieces

nypl digital collection for photographs

national portrait gallery or similar for portraiture, or literally any museum in your country that has historical art

national museums scotland can be useful situationally but might be oddly specific

stout style history is a great collection for finding image references for fat people wearing historical clothes. survival bias of a lot of museum pieces tends towards smaller clothing that couldn't be repurposed, but this aims to counter that. it's not sortable, but is still a really nice resource

wikimedia commons is surprisingly handy! and the images, if you should need to link/repost them, are public domain

auction websites sound like a funny one to recommend. some won't have mannequins and some will. just look up historical garment auctions and you'll find some!