Loki's Madhouse

Jon+Daisy cuddles ft. Separation anxiety of one traumatized hunter and an equally traumatized and understanding archivist getting in a light snack

That’ll be our Gerard!

ive decided to entirely forgo any consistency in my tma designs. compared to the other 2 ive previously drawn, shes a lot closer to my first draft that i never posted because it was bad(during the time i broke my apple pencil) with more wasplike features. the two swoops of hair to mimic antennae, large eyes and triangular face, thin waist and limbs

so once upon a time in 2024, when i had just started listening to tma. i did not care much for bugs. insects. spiders. generic arachnophobia, freak out when its on my bedroom wall. creepy crawlies. but this past year i have fallen head over heels in love with these little critters, with a special sort of fondness for....... PARASITIC WASPS!!! GOD i love parasitic wasps so so so much. and so here comes season 1 of the magnus archives talking about "wasps nests" and "worms" well... think about what happened with timothy hodges uhhh.. forgot her name. the worm sex girl you know the one that like exploded into a pile of writhing worm goo? forget about the eusocial wasps! parasitism is where its at! the ones that burrow and eat the body inside out, the ones that paralyze their victims to feed their young, the parasites of the parasites, the teeny eeny ones, the ones with the snatched waists, the ones hiding inside a caterpillar until it pupates and instead of a sparkly butterfly out comes this shiny other thing

With the exception of Amblyteles armatorius, all the other wasps are ones I have seen myself and taken photos of, which were used as reference. As a result they are also all found in North America, and I am very unsure of their status in the birthplace of tma: london. I realized this when i wanted one extra wasp to add and waiiit a minute none of these are actually found in london. so i go on inaturalist and find the toothed tiger ichneumon to add!

In my AP Art class, there was a girl who was just starting to experiment with mixed media. At this point she was still playing around, trying to decide what direction she wanted to go with her portfolio. So one critique day, she brought in an abstract canvas with some rhinestone highlights and painted and real peacock feathers. She loved sparkles and peacock feathers so she thought she’d try introducing them a *little*. And after everyone had given some input, the teacher gave her his advice, VERY roughly paraphrased here:

“So here’s the thing… I do not like this style. These are just elements that do not speak to me personally, but I see that you like them, and you’re doing interesting things with them.

“My biggest critique is, I only merely *dislike* this piece. I want you to make me HATE it. Go crazy with the things that you like. Don’t hold back trying to make it palatable to people like me. Because I am NEVER going to like it. And if the audience does not like it, it should drive them crazy seeing how much YOU love it.”

Her portfolio was chock full of neon colors and glitter and rhinestones and splashes of peacock feathers and it was a delight. Our teacher despised every piece lol, but she got great marks and I think even won some awards. And more importantly, she was happy and proud of the results. Because she didn’t limit herself by trying to appeal to people who were never going to enjoy what she enjoyed.