#compare vs my way of drawing wings?

[sanchoyoscribbles]

magical girl misa misa: emissary of love & death! 🖤

I said I was going to hit more characters with the magical girl beam this year and I didn't get drawing misa out of my system with the last drawing, SO. More of her :)

[mysteriouslyjovialcolor]

Qatar 2024

-YESSSS!

-Safety Car?? Franco?? Oh god, Williams

-“George Russel gets away well… second phase: here comes Max Verstappen”

-“Sergio Perez gets away well” Oh how we love to hear it

-Oh god Kevin- Shit that was Nico; that tire gamble didn’t pay off

-“Got hit by Stroll. I know he would do it. I could tell” Yeah the Williams is so cursed

-How is Lewis p9?

-Yuki p10! (I don’t remember where he placed in qualifying)

-Oh god another safety car? Who was that? Yuki?? Oh Liam

-“Speed on the straight is worrying” :(

-I love that there seems to be a fire lit under the Red Bull but can Max chill for a second? That car might still give up half way

-Woah Kevin! (That Haas/Vcarb/Alpine battle is so fun to follow)

-Max please, think about the tireeess

-“blistering pace” If they jinx him istg

-“Tsunoda-San” Love Jenson and Yuki’s relationship

-“The Frenchman has got his man”

-“It’s surprising how difficult the top 8 is finding it to overtake when the rest of the field seem to be doing it just fine”

-Yo? Zhou?! Omg!

-Max and Lando battling for fastest lap

-“How slow are we compared to others?” Hate that Merc so much

-No way both Saubers just over took Yuki. What’s wrong with his car?

-“The threat from the undercut disappears as each revolution of the tires go by” Idk why that sounded so poetic

-Okay Mercedes, starting off the pit stops

-Oh- that wasn’t very good

-“Is the car broken?” Back to back L’s

-Magnussen, Gasly, Alonso, threatening everyone’s pit stops

-Jenson’s voice is so soothing

-Okay halfway through

-“Speak louder please”

-…

Did Alex lose a mirror?

-“Max has got his wing mirrors” Vengeful, petty Max is my favorite (obviously it’s aimed at the FIA, don’t draw other conclusions)

-That yellow flag was so clear. Why didn’t he lift? Was there a problem?

-What the actual hell! There’s a whole mirror on track! Why is no one doing anything?? Are we waiting for someone to go over it and cause more damage???

-Ohmygodd! They are! They were fricking waiting!

-Now??? Now??? Now you want to call a Safety Car???

-Can’t even enjoy the pit stop games with this bs

-This is such incompetence. The hell is wrong with them?

-I need Zhou to get a point. I really do

-Safety car restarts make so nervous

-NO CHECO!!

-Nico too??

-I wanna cry

-Didn’t get to appreciate Max vs Lando in all that chaos; that was very cool

-Plus Charles! On Oscar!

-Charles, Charles, Charles, Charles, come on mate

-All of the cars are so close now

-“Albon just rammed me”

-Oh shit a 10s penalty

-“That seems unbelievably extreme” Why are we surprised about this? It’s the FIA

-Oh shit that’s- oh god

-Lewis penalty too?

-Zhou!!!!!

-Lewis retiring?

-Are they really saying he won’t race in Abu Dhabi?

-Can Bottas overtake Albon so that Sauber can celebrate like crazy??

-“F***k off” “Go for it Kev” Hahaha

-Cheering so hard for Sauber right now

-Okay I knew that wouldn’t last long but Zhou! Zhou! Zhou!

-“Denied pole but not denied victory!” Wohooo

-“Karma is a wonderful thing. Yes! We did not drive unnecessarily slowly today!” Tell them GP!

-Max, Charles, Oscar podium!! Let’s go, Let’s go, Let’s go!!!

(Also congratulations to Alex Albon for finally finishing a race)

[namu-the-orca]

Oh my god- you are active here!? I've been following you since deviant art days, I've basically grown up with your work and it has helped me tremendously. The second I saw you shared that its totally ok to be like " omg your blog is odd can we have a philosophical discussion " I was like omg we are on TUMBLR it's the wild fucking west ! Time to talk oddities!

Ive always wanted to tell artists that draw ceartain animals as a specialty if they know that to therians, which are individuals who identify as nonhuman in a spiritual or physical ( like in a transspecies way) or any other integral way. you guys are literally our gold mines.

For one, i often have phantom shifts, (similar to phantom limbs) that are often inexplicable or some weird ass morph rarely seen and I've relied soooo much on your refrences to sort out what species I see myself as, age, and habitat ect. and yeah, I'm not even sure you even know what therians are, even though tumblr has the greatest population of them, including cetaceans and birds.

I wonder if you have ever visited the therian side of tumblr? I'm not sure if you are therian yourself, but you are welcome anytime as an ally if anything! There are a few cetaceans here, the waters fine xD

Also, being a therian actually had me thinking twice about cetaceans in human care and ur posts about it. cetacean therians on here often discuss high levels of dysphoria and often wish to be their true form and talk about hypothetical and philosophical conversations about such a scenario. Some liken the situation being in human care as preferred because we feel acclimated and attached to humans already. Obviously a cetacean therian is kind of an atypical cetacean so it isnt a 1:1 comparative to typical cetaceans, but a similar, sorta sci fi scenario because transition for therians are currently impossible. but even those discussions got me thinking about the arguments people make about animal welfare and treating animals in human care, especially born under human care as if they're not individuals. A lot of cetacean therians I meet would feel intimidated by the ocean in such a hypothetical transition scenario, and wouldn't mind interacting with humans. as hypothetical as it is it got me thinking about the gray areas (ok, pun intended) of cetacean care and enrichment that some activists seem to miss.

Anyways, you are always invited to the therian side of tumblr, your art is greatly appreciated! ✨️

Hi!!! Your message made me so happy. DA feels a bit dead these days but it remains one of the ancient internet hangouts where art people got to know each other and i love love love that so may of us survive and meet again on ye olde tumblr lol. and heck yes while fb is my official business page, tumblr is like my living room where everyone is welcome and i'm more than happy to receive messages!! I must admit I didn't know about therians until rather recently when I visited the blogs of some of my followers and saw they were therians. And i think thats dope!! I don't think I am one? But I'd be honored to be your ally ♥ And I so love love love that my art, and that of others, can be helpful. How beautiful, scientific art normally used to identify the other now used to identify thyself. How wonderful can art be! I don't think I am a therian, though I have had vivid dreams where I could turn into animals (usually birds) and actually had the feeling of what it was like to fly, how my muscles felt and the wind stroked my wings. I always loved those dreams. And it's lovely to hear that the ceta welfare and captivity discussions are appreciated too. Honestly, if I were to become a bottlenose dolphin, I think I'd prefer to live in certain facilities vs the open ocean too. Depending on the place and the people of course. But there's definitely a lot of grey area and dolphins are sooo different as individuals. I've only had real personal experience with the animals in Curacao but there was such a bouquet of personalities on display, especially when it came to the open water programme. Shy dolphins who were easily frightened by new situations and thus never went outside, bold males who didn't have to care about anyone else but themselves and so were daring, mothers who didn't want their child to go outside because a previous child had a mishap. They're not all one and the same dolphin! Anyway, thank YOU for the lovely message, and I'm so so glad my illustrations are also loved for such a personal reason by some ♥ Rock on all y'all!!

[qoldenskies]

Thank you for the pain it was delicious, 10/10 will order again

I have so many feelings about it HHHH I feel like I accidentally dug myself into a situation (or you did it on purpose you mad lad) that made everything hit harder.

When I first started reading Caged Lungs, like the first third or even quarter I was convinced it was a bad dream. Or like a bad trip from the mushrooms on the pizza. That oh, everyone's gonna just wake up and it'll be fine, there's gonna be reassurances and comfort. But then... It's kind of like a dawning horror situation when I realized more and more that hey, this is real. It's taking chunks out of their lives, they're still doing day to day things but it's getting worse. I didn't even catch it during the fight with Hypno, I just shrugged and went huh, that's weird.

But as it mentions the time crawling and they keep getting worse and Donnies mental health plummeting...

I hit the end and panicked because hey? Wtf? (/pos)

But seeing everything slowly go back to "normal" in Clipped Wings adds to this. Because it's the realization of no, this is real... Or is it? This all happened... Right? Everything should be the way it is but now they're STILL gaslighting him but accidentally this time.

Their denial can only work for so long until it damages both parties. And I feel like it's already there.

This fic has a choke hold on me and I squeal every time I see a new update, unreliable narrator is one of my favorite tropes and you do it SO WELL

:D :D :D YEAASSSS very glad i pulled off the kind of dreamlike quality to caged lungs that i was going for!!! (in some scenes more than others i really tried to accentuate it, like the second-to-last scene with the post-shredder flashback. i mostly used it to draw the most painful contrast i could between how its all ended up vs how it USED to be. very fun to compare the earliest scenes to the final ones though, especially when it comes to donnie's behavior, because it is so painful and jarring) nothing is ever truly MADE UP in donnie's narration, but his grip on reality slips further and further, and with it a lot of the details are twisted (he misinterprets april a lot especially, and also dissociates quite a bit and has memory issues. there's an entire BEATDOWN that you only see the tail-end of because he doesn't remember it, which is probably a good thing considering its one of the most traumatic events from when they were under the curse, probably third behind the murder attempt and the closet. i mean he doesn't remember NOW but..... they do.)

and i hesitate to call their behavior now gaslighting, since gaslighting is an intentional act of abuse intended to make the victim feel like they cant trust themselves and their own memory, etc etc. them covering up the evidence is PLAYING INTO what they did, but they're not denying it (they're doing the opposite, in fact, with how much they're ruminating on it and trying to fix their mistakes, although covering up the evidence is them trying to run away from it to abate their guilt lmao). less lying more omitting the truth, but its still hurting just as much because donnie has conditioned himself to think his memory is unreliable and he "makes things up" because of his "victim complex". even though he's dissociative and is currently struggling with memory issues because of that, he instinctively panics when he gets confused on the details, and they have also conditioned him to be afraid to ASK now, because they would get mad at him for doing it.... its a whole mess. donnie doesn't even know how to communicate his needs anymore, and they dont know they need to ask.

thank you for the ask!!! microwaving this in my brain mmm yumm

[hawkland]

Art Masterpost: Solitudes

Story by: ilovehowyouletmefall (@angelinthefire) Art by: sidewidner (@hawkland)

It's October and that means it's @deancasbigbang season once again! This year makes for my third time around for the event, although this year I only managed to participate as an artist (I'm still in a bit of writer's burnout since the summer). But, that meant I could put all of my focus and time into doing these four pieces for @angelinthefire's wonderful story "Solitudes." I'm gonna talk a little bit about my ideas and process and share some progress pictures behind the cut in a way that might be kind of spoilery, so if you want, just go read the story now! And then you come back here later to find out more if you wish. All works were completed in watercolor with some digital effects and filtering after completion.

I was really drawn to the imagery of the architectural elements of where the story takes place (an abandoned brutalist mansion) vs. nature and decay...plus the way light and shadow seemed to play such important roles in the visual descriptions. Dean and Cas spend so much of the story separated by supernatural forces even when they are in the same room I wanted to focus on that as well: being so near yet so far apart, not quite connecting or even able to look at each other without barriers.

I started on the banner art right away, thinking of Dean in despair (for reasons in the story) and Cas yearning/wishing he could reach him. Behind them both is the concrete wall covered in mold and moss (which was a LOT of fun to paint). The actual final watercolor painting came out as so:

(This is one of my favorite Deans that I've painted. His face can be SO hard to get right!)

Working with angelinthefire's suggestions I ran some different digital filters on the photo to desaturate/emphasize the light and dark for the final banner, and then with that in mind tried to keep the other pieces in a similar color scheme and tonal range.

The atrium painting was the biggest challenge. I knew I wanted to do a piece to capture the feeling of the house, the light coming in from an open skylight falling on brambles growing out of an old fountain spot. I was thinking of the Roman villa ruins I've visited combined with some actual Brutalist/modern homes I looked up. My original drawing plan was a bit more complicated and simplifying/taking out some elements definitely makes it more creepy/mysterious looking and less like a funky modern home.

You can see the vanishing/perspective point is right where Dean is looking at Cas.

The light falling down from above was partially painted with some interference/shimmer watercolors, but I amplified it (along with the shadows) with some digital effects at the end. This was before doing any digital magic:

Dean reaching for Cas: I made myself so sad working on that piece! It was also quite the challenge to get the likeness right at that angle and do the lighting the way I wanted, so again I used some digital effects at the end to really intensify it. Painting before filters:

I think my favorite part of that one is how I dry-brushed the ash wings in one shot and they came out just how I wanted! My main reference was, heh, that old classic shot of unconscious Cas being poked with a stick. I used my own hand for Dean's reaching out to what he sees through the harsh angled light.

The final piece is a direct companion to the one above it, and one I'd been thinking about for weeks, trying to map it out mentally before tackling it. Dean's face can be so much more challenging for me to try to capture well compared to Cas's and I really wanted to get his shock and horror in that moment while also being able to show (the real) Cas in the background/shadows...this was the third drawing pass before I finally started painting it. There's only a light bit of filtering over the final piece to push Cas back in the shadows (I didn't want to do with the paints for fear of muddying the colors...plus I was already painting Cas so small any wrong brush stroke could shift his likeness/expression.)

Overall I really like how unified these pieces all ended up feeling and I hope they manage to complement the story in a way that it deserves!

[oh-shtars]

Hey Saph! @wings-of-sapphire/ @signed-sapphire

Stupid tumblr tends to glitch and not let me edit my drafts for some damn reason so sorry for the inconvenience and that it took so long. I have to screenshot your ask and my response down. 😭😭😭

- Interestingly enough, Mag’s main motive is not really to gain more power. (It’s still one of the benefits though, so sure. He’ll take power. Yayyy.) But most of the evil actions he does is out of vengeance. Losing his village took its toll on him. The universe turned its back on him so he feels like he’s justified to take something back for himself.

So now, he finds pleasure in putting others under distress in the same way he used to be.

- So as I said in my previous point, Magnifico loves toying/playing with his victims. Giving them that fake sense of hope and security just to see their look when they realise they’ve been fooled. (But this hypocrite hates being the laughing end of that stick lmaooo)

- He can be superficially charming and manipulative to get what he wants. But it is relatively easy to break down his facade compared to Amaya because of his anger issues.

- He would project his own insecurities/issues towards other people to lower their own self-esteem. An “I’m down, so other people are coming down with me” mentality.

- Just like Star, and being a parallel of Star, Magnifico assumes that people only really like him for what he could offer them. So he could be already suspicious and assuming the worst whenever you ask him for a favour. It’s a contradicting feeling. One, he loves the attention. But on the other hand, he’s so pissy on how ungrateful people are and always expect something from him no matter how much he tries.

(Especially with his belief that his father only valued him as a potential heir and never really saw him as a son. This isn’t true. Oliver is just horrible at communication)

- I imagine Magnifico’s relationship with King Oliver is similar to Shen and his parents from KFP2. How both believed their parents “hated them” for never reaching what was expected of them.

- Magnifico is highly likely to underestimate things and can be impulsive. Amaya usually helps with giving him some second-thoughts and opinions before he could go and do something stupid.

- Mag smiles at the smallest compliments and gets a tiny bashful at certain flirts.

- Magnifico does get symptoms of PTSD from time to time. He can be set off just with the look of uncontrolled fire and he overthinks and gets stressed when things are beyond his control in the kingdom.

(I am just now remembering Aled’s drawing of the Starboys burning the kitchen down. Hmmmmm……)

…….

And tbh, that’s really all I could think of right now. Idk, he makes more sense in my head and I think it will click when I actually start to get into writing his scenes. I’ve made him quite complex that even I couldn’t put it into proper words. 😅

But if you really want to get to know his vibe, I think these songs might help give you an idea. The first one is like, my go-to song when I think of RFTS!Mag’s character though:

………

Also, @signed-sapphire, I read through your TFS!Au and if I understood it correctly, our Magnifico’s are basically:

“I’ve suffered through so much, so I’ll do anything I could to keep our people safe and not let it happen again.”

Vs.

“I’ve suffered through so much, so the ungrateful btches of this kingdom will feel my wrath because I say so-“

Saph.

Look me in the eyes. Are you sure our AUs aren’t made to be this hilarious Swap!version of the other or something? This is getting freaky-

[cigarettesandinevitablebetrayal]

gravedigger here. 🔥\o/🔥 1-4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 29, 37, 40 👀, 44, 46, 47, 54-58, 60, 65, 71-74, 75-78 (dealers choice on fics but if you can't think of a fic to pic, go for Violent Means)

Alright! Let's see if I can unbury myself lol

The Remaining Questions Can Be Found Here

1. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

In general, I prefer multi-chapter fics because they allow me to slowly develop themes over time as well as set up foreshadowing and red herrings more effectively. It also teaches me a bit more discipline in outlining/plotting what each chapter will be and do.

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

The mind says I should plan ahead, but the heart often wins out on winging it. I've learned to do loose outlines that more emphasize what major scenes I want to hit and what major themes I want to get across in each chapter, that way I can leave room to play around if I go in a wildly different direction. Most of my first chapters are written before my outlines, just as proof of concept.

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic.

One-Shots/Shortfics: brainstorm a topic/theme I'd like to play with OR be cursed by inspiration -> decide place in timeline and setting to help determine how the characters will interact -> write up a little outline of plot beats -> any research I might need -> freewrite -> research anything else I added along the way -> first edit, mostly for legibility and stupid spelling mistakes or continuity shit -> second edit, for tone and emphasis, usually involves pushing emotion -> speak your dialogue aloud because it will help -> as many rounds of edits until you're satisfied with the state of it

Longfics: brainstorm a concept or collection of themes I'd like to explore -> freewrite a scene, usually the first chapter, to prove that it actually interests me enough to actually write it -> outline at minimum the beginning, six major plot beats, the climax, the resolution, and at least 5 chapters -> research time -> take a break from research to actually write it -> edit the chapter as many times as needed -> post and move on to next chapter -> procrastinate -> try to do more outlining -> more writing -> repeat the next 5 steps until either done or in desperate need of a break

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Honestly? I usually get inspiration from other works of art. Either from drawings/paintings, music, movies/shows, or other books. I usually have two different kinds of inspiration: aspirational and spiteful. Aspirational inspiration usually comes from works I enjoy and want to emulate or want to write similarly to. Spiteful inspiration comes from something that has good bones but is executed so poorly that I bring out my metaphorical toolkit.

6. Do you have your work beta'd? How important is this to your process?

I used to. For a very long time, I would hire or ask for a volunteer beta. Sometimes I would just toss things at a friend within the fandom and ask how it read. As I got older and one of my partners (who is also a writer) expressed interest in my work, we had a deal where they would edit my work and I would edit theirs in turn. But with their health declining, I've been editing my own work more aggressively. It takes more time and a more discerning eye, but I'd rather do that than have no editing.

You can tell the quality of my work changes between edited vs non-edited just by comparing The End to All These Violent Means to near any other fic I've written.

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

This is actually a really boring answer, but I almost always write from third person limited. On occasion, I'll play around with second person, but I don't prefer to write in it. I use third person because I want the readers to identify with but not necessarily project onto the perspective character and limited perspective because 1) I find it difficult to balance between two many character perspectives and 2) because I love unreliable narrators.

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

Write for yourself, not for your readers. Like, yes, it is good to know your audience and who you're primarily writing for, but you should also be primarily writing for you and, by extension, people with similar tastes to you. If you always chase the opinions of your readers, you will inevitably wind up with a disjointed and thematically dissonant piece that you either hate or have a distinct distaste for. Always write what you would want to read.

14. How do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

Oh, this is a really tricky question. I do draw a lot on my own personal experiences for emotional scenes and, often, I let myself get into the heads of my characters deep enough to feel some semblance of what they're feeling. If I'm really struggling with an emotional scene, I'll throw together scene-curated playlist, find an isolated space, throw my headphones on, and just immerse myself in the scene.

How I write emotional scenes is a harder thing to pick out because, in general, I don't have too hard of a time writing emotions. I mostly write about things I've experienced, filtered through the degrees of separation provided by fiction.

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

Wail. Lament. Curse the muses.

But, seriously? I take a break. I play a video game or I read or watch something that I've been meaning to. I cannot stress enough how much taking a break helps to refocus yourself later.

19. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Survey says it's Pining/Mutual Pining. Which tracks, since my favorite fanfic tag is slowburn. Can't have the one without the other!

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

As mentioned above, I love a slowburn and most of the relationships I write are between two disparate people who grow to love each other. I also tend to write a lot about grief for things you were never allowed, familial troubles, abuse and neglect, and learning to live with trauma.

If you've been reading my work for a while, you might notice that my first characters in fic for media where I can create my own character tends to be strong, longsuffering types who are very internal and choose to be kind despite what they've been through.

They also tend to be queer and autistic. This is a bug I've embraced as a feature.

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

Read/watch things with a critical eye. Like, a narratively critical eye. Dissect the themes and the choices made. Speculate. Consider why an author chose to write a detail or why a director had a scene filmed a specific way. It helps you learn how each tool of storytelling is used. The curtains are rarely ever just blue for funsies. And, yeah, it usually is actually that deep.

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

None of it has been inherently bad advice so much as poorly applied and misunderstood advice. Things like I've mentioned above (write knowing your audience, just simply read/watch/listen to/consume a lot of art, etc).

Show, don't tell -> know when to show (trust your readers to pick up subtlety) and when to tell (wield the obvious like a hammer for effect)

Write what you know -> make sure to either write from the heart or from the research and sometimes the research trumps the heart

Avoid frilly words and purple prose -> know when and why to use specific words and descriptive language

29. What’s your revision or editing process like?

I struggle to describe it beyond, I read and alter it until it's finished. I suppose it helps that I treat each edit as focusing on different aspects. Sometimes I edit for basic spelling and grammar or coherency or mood.

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter?

Vibes.

Okay, so technically the answer is whenever I've reached a thematic conclusion and the resolution after. I tend to treat all chapters like small books within a book. Leave a few strings untied for later but makes sure the step I needed to conclude in each chapter has been reasonably concluded. I try not to do a lot of cliff hangers because they grow stale quickly.

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

I'm going to be real, it's only within the last two years that people have drawn anything from my writing. Any art made based on or inspired by my work is the highest flattery. But, also, art is a conversation between artist, art, and viewer. It feels wrong to go "have a conversation with this specific topic, regardless of your interest in it". If someone makes art in response to my art, I hope it's a part that spoke to them.

44. What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times your beta corrects you?

Comma hell. I've said it once, I'll say it again: commas are an invasive species in writing and need to be culled to properly maintain grammatical balance.

Also, I have a tendency to pick up and put down writing a lot, which means sometimes I end up with repeating portions or word salad. My editor always just turns the screen and goes, "Read this sentence for me, please" and it becomes very obvious very quickly.

46. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

I'm going to say I tend to write character driven work with the caveat that I think it's a fool's errand to try to divide character driven work from emotion driven work. People are emotional creatures - put them into situations and they behave emotionally.

47. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

At minimum: three times. The most I've revised anything was.......eight times, I think, including when I scrapped the chapter and rewrote it entirely before running it through new edits.

54. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Is getting comments considered part of the process?

It's difficult to describe what my favorite part of the writing process is because I don't think I'm ever happier than when I'm creating something. It's hard to pick it apart because I love so much of it, even if I bemoan the planning and editing stages. There's joy in the daydreaming about the concepts, in the planning of beats and reveals, in finding the words to put it on the page, in carving away and adding pieces until it's the right shape. I just love the whole process.

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

When it comes to canon characters, I don't know that I have a favorite character to write for so much as a favorite type of character to write for and that's any character who has more going on under the hood than initially expected.

As far as OCs, Remus is probably my favorite Step to write. He's such a fun and seemingly carefree character and because he's so distractible and wrapped up in his own world, he's an egregiously unreliable narrator. And then Raine is my favorite dectective to write, mostly because him being so much older gives him a little more levelheadedness and wisdom, even if he rarely uses them.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

That I can finally read it back and actually enjoy it months after I wrote it. My own fics used to age like milk in the sun to my mind. Now they've got a shelf life of about two years. Maybe more. I guess we'll find out.

57. Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished?

After I've finished each chapter, preferably, and then (for longfic) one big continuity edit at the end. If I edited as I went, not only would I never finish a fic, but I wouldn't edit well without the perspective of having stepped away from it for a bit.

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

This is essentially the same question as 54. Writing fanfiction is not hugely different from writing fiction - at least, it isn't for me. Some of the framework is different, for example: in most fanfiction, you can rely on the reader to fill in the blanks on canon with the understanding that readers are familiar with the source material, cutting down on expository information. I try not to do that too much, however, because I do write original fiction and I don't want to fall out of habit of remembering how to write exposition without it being clunky.

60. Have you had a writer you admire comment on your fic? What was that like?

Not until recently, if I'm being honest. I'm usually a bit of a solitary fandom creature, and I tend to read fanfic in short bursts before going several months without reading any. But I made a concerted effort to be more open in the FHR fandom and, in doing so, found other authors I admire. It's nice. It's particularly nice to exchange comments with other writers because we know the medium well.

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

There are a couple scenes in Think Not With My Heart that I'm jonesing to write, especially the Rashad/Wei arc because two traumatized and stoic characters slowly learning to trust and open themselves up is right up my alley.

I ache to have already finished the Mortum/Marianna-Mateo collection that I want to write because I know the reveal scene is going to sing to me.

And also, in my Dragon Age Inquistion fix it By Blood & Lyrium, I've got a late game scene that I want to write so badly because it's a major change to the lore that I think will turn a lot of things on their head. But for now, that's in editing hell.

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Note taking. Tons and tons and tons of notes. Write that shit down. Colorcode it, if you must. Whatever you need to be able to keep track of anything.

Personally, I have documents filled with all the questions I get here for my characters, files on details on their backstories, and I just mentally keep track of their desired character development routes because each of my characters has a distinct personality that's tailored to their drives and motivations.

72. What order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

I try to write in chronological order, but the heart and muse is fickle. I will often just ahead to places I'm excited to write. Inevitably, I'll have to rewrite those bits when I do finally get to them because something will have changed along the way.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

Gods, this is a question that demands a bit of presumption, isn't it? Uh.......I'd like to think I have strong and consistent character writing. Even if I'm not writing a character from the strictest canon version, I keep them on the track I've built for them.

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

I would assume my narrative voice, which I do feel is pretty distinct at this point. Might be my use (or misuse) of semicolons and em dashes, though.

75. What scene in [Stand Tall to the Beast] took the longest to write? What was difficult about it?

The bulk of the fighting from Charge's chapter. I've gotten better at writing action, but it's still hard to gauge what would take too long or too short of a time. Most fights only last a few minutes, but it has to feel longer to readers. It took a lot of writing and rewriting to get it where I wanted. To make it feel like a natural progression while also keeping it in the low stakes of the first step of an ever escalating cycle of violence.

76. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of [Scarlet Welly Boots]?

The details of what happened to Eoin. Chapter 6 was supposed to detail what actually happened to him, but every time I tried to write it, it felt cheap. The story isn't about him, anyway, and his accident not a plot point but a plot device. What happened to him isn't important. What's important was how the shadow of his accident acted as a catalyst for a breaking in the relationship between Ciaran and Rebecca. So I cut the scene and wrote the aftermath.

77. Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Scarlet Welly Boots] story/chapter? 

Chapter 4, without a doubt. It's this fragile moment when the cracks are starting to show in their snowglobe of a world. It's one of the last kind moments at the tipping point of Ciaran's life and, despite the gentleness of the chapter, I feel like you can feel the tension bubbling beneath the surface. And it has so much good dialogue in it. It's also jam packed with foreshadowing. Just oodles of it.

78. There is no question 78.

So you get to come up with a free question to ask me.

[referrix]

In case anyone was wondering, at all, when I said in my last post I was having some maths fails...

The problem with my brief foray into "measuring things in Stellas" back in January, is that for the most part, the exterior shots of Alfea are (or seem to be*) CG. It's done in a way that matches the visuals and vibes of the cartoon portion of the show, but as far as I'm aware, the majority of outside shots are done with characters drawn on top of the CG environment.

This leads to some... interesting discrepancies in the comparative sizes between characters and environmental objects like the main entrance to Alfea.

(* when I say 'seems to be,' there are some discrepancies like moving window placement and missing grass patches in some episodes which suggests they aren't simply doing tracking shots over a single, base model.)

Using some guesstimations to calculate the width of the double doors of the two side buildings and the area around them, I came to a width of 4.5 meters, and this matters because the central pathway of the courtyard that runs between them seems to be roughly the same width. Using that measurement an the most overhead close up I could find from my collection, I've estimated the width of the central path running from the gate to the central building to be roughly 5.62 meters.

The edge of the pathway looks like it matches up with the outer edge of the gate's arch, where the two curves (archway and wall) kiss into the dirt. (These points are marked with green dots in the top picture, and the one below.)

From there, working on the assumption that that length was 5.62 m in total, I used my line and stamp method (where I draw a line and use the paint program's stamp feature to copy the line exactly and move it and stamp it repeatedly to see how many time's one length fits against another) to figure out what fraction of the gate is gate and how much was archway.

The arch's width didn't quite measure the same as the gate's opening at ground level, but some checking of the difference revealed the arch was ¾ of the gate, and thus, the gate was ⁴∕₇ of the total width.

5.62 = ⁷∕₇ ∴ 5.62/7 = ¹∕₇ = 0.802857 = .802 meters

the arch total width ³∕₇ = 0.802 * 3 = 2.408 m ∴ 1 arch width = 2.408 / 2 = 1.204 m

the gate at ground level ⁴∕₇ = 0.802 * 4 = 3.211 m ∴ from arch to gate center (one wing at ground level) = 3.211 / 2 = 1.605 m

using the base line measures at ground level, the stamp method and the flip by 90° function, I roughly calculated the gate opening at the widest point to be just shy of 2.4 m from the center, or just shy of 4.8 meters across and sitting at about 1.86 m from the ground.

given my door based height guesstimate of Stella's height (and thereby the average height of the Winx) at roughly 1.75 m, this puts the max width just above their heads.

looking into some architecture based person dimensions to see how the various shots of people and the gate stack up, I used the average shoulder width of (405mm or) .405 m.

I first checked if the five girls could stand shoulder to shoulder in the gateway and found they could. Then I checked if they would have room between them, assuming half a person width on either side (between each other and the arch) for 3 more people widths.

.405 * 5 = 2.025 m .405 * 8 = 3.24 m

Looking at this shot, the point of max width in the gate is sitting at just above their heads, right about where I'd expect given the height assumption.

This shot is therefore what I'd consider to be the most realistic in terms of person vs environment sizing.

More importantly, or equally importantly? The School busses.

Doing some digging, I discovered that the most types of busses have a width of 2.55m (thought the height can range from 2.67 to 3.81m) which means I feel pretty confidant that the Alfea school busses could clear the gate if my calculations are correct.

Along the font fence-line, on the outside stretches (as marked by the two front towers) there are two more gates, both 'one-winged' single gates. A quick measure suggests that the single gates + arches are roughly the same width as the double gates at ground level, which if the arches are the same width as the doubles and the single wings are the same as the individual wings on the main entrance:

arches = 1.2m * 2 = 2.4m total + single gate wing 1.6m = 4m at the outside of the arch at ground level

although given the lack of curve on the inside of the two archways could make them slightly slimmer, 4 m does seem to fit with the path beyond them in comparison to the central path in the courtyard.

I need you all to understand that as convoluted as calculating the gate width is, it is still less nonsensical than the windows in the Winx Dorms.

[goldenfox3]

I can't find my old post about game Falcon and Stewart's Pokemon teams but I've thought about some new teams for Andy and Robert this time ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Andy:

Braviary (shiny): well we have to give him his blue not-a-Falcon right. It's noted to be able to carry cars. Falcon Flier (literal bird)

Salamence: bc of Andy's "creatures with wings"/"don't be afraid to grow up" quote and how Bagon dreams of having wings and then finally gets them when it grows up.

Boltund: from his Galaxy Police days. Fast, enduring, loyal, and electric type ties into the way I associate Andy with electricity more than fire bc of the possible cyborg + what I see as electric effects in his Falcon Punch (vs Doug being associated mostly with fire but minorly with electricity).

Floette (red flower): red salvia…I also just wanted to give him some small cute Pokemon to contrast the big dramatic ones.

Quaquaval: blue bird martial artist. I also think Andy would enjoy its flamboyance lol he acts mild and unassuming but he is really such a showman. I had Roserade on his team initially because of the whole masked gallant thing and I think it could also fit.

Minun: another electric type, one that cheers for and supports others. But also I really wanted him to be twinsies with Rob so I gave him the blue one bc Blue Falcon lol.

Robert:

Ninetales: he's gotta have the golden fox Pokemon is that even a question. I know there are more fox Pokemon but I feel like anime Rob doesn't go as hard on the fox association as game Rob with his fox hair and eyes lmao. Thus I limited it to Ninetales this time.

Audino: and of course he needs to have his doctorly Pokemon with the ability to assess feelings and physical condition along with heal others

Indeedee: a serving Pokemon that dislikes conflict and can sense emotions. I'm really drawing on the differences between game and anime Rob here—obviously game Rob is also a doctor and well-liked, but anime Rob is a vice commander and actively still in medical service as well as more of the supporter and peacemaker of the team compared to game Rob's more confident and bombastic personality.

Comfey: can soothe others and help with treatment with its scent, but I also picked this because the idea of Rob giving it the salvias Andy gave him to preserve them after his death (his fake death or his real one) is 🫠

Iron Hands: the odd one in this team, but I wanted to have a Pokemon related to Rob's cybernetics work and a Pokemon that’s potentially a cyborg itself? Yeah. It is a Paradox Pokemon though so like for a Pokemon that would be normally easier to access I would probably put Electabuzz (electricity generation) or Alakazam (psychic powers, intellect) or something to be an assistant in Rob's robotics work.

Plusle: this one is self indulgent again yeah but I really do think a cheering and supporting Pokemon who does better in a team suits him. Electric type is a bonus though I don't think it can generate electricity on the degree of Electabuzz or Electivire lol. Rob has the red one bc red scarf.

[gubsgames]

Tavuary Day 13 - Vows

It was the thirteenth day of #Tavuary! There are two ways to participate by either following the Week-by-Week Prompts (Week Two is "Amour") or by using the Day-by-Day prompts found in this post! Fic Title: Thatch-Roofed Cottages Pairing: Astarion x Dandy (my Halfling Bard Tav) Warnings: None, just fluff. Summary: (Post-Game) They're going to the chapel, and they're going to get married.

Sprawled in bed with parchment scattered everywhere, Astarion and Dandy polished off their second bottle of wine and were about to start on a third. The pair cuddled beneath several blankets with Dandy’s head on Astarion’s shoulder as they poured over their copious note-taking.  “What about ‘I crossed oceans of time to find you?’” Astarion motioned wistfully with an outstretched hand.  “It sounds very pretty, but I thought you wanted to veer away from any sentiments that sound like love-is-worth-the-suffering?” He crossed out the line with a sigh. “This is hard. I used to be good at this, you know.” They were trying to craft the vows they would recite at their upcoming nuptials. They already held a “handfasting” ceremony, and Astarion still was not certain why they had to have a second wedding. He did, however, receive wagon from Dandy’s parents at the handfasting, but he was clueless as to whether the wagon was just a gift or some sort of dowry.  “Why don’t you just say what you said when we visited the graveyard? That was lovely.” “I don’t think your parents would appreciate me saying that I didn’t like you when we first met.” “I didn’t like you either.” “Little liar, you are incapable of disliking anyone,” Astarion laughed, “at least, until they have fully acted an ass.” “You certainly did.” Astarion snuck a glance at Dandy’s much more robust collection of notes in her swirling unreadable script and compared it to the few scattered scribbles on his own. His only accomplishment out of an evening’s worth of work was a ridiculous drawing of a dragon that amounted to little more than two S-shapes, stick legs, and a not insignificant amount of consummate Vs. He was just about to add some thatch-roofed cottages for the dragon to attack when Dandy doodled a blobby vaguely-rabbit-shaped orb with wings that likely could not support its weight on his paper. “I gave the dragon a friend,” she noted before adding little hearts and stars to her design. 

For a while, they just added to each other’s drawings until the entire surface of the parchment was full of delightful nonsense, including a mermaid taming a majestic winged phallus. “You can say whatever you’re comfortable with for your vows. You can be over-the-top romantic or plainspoken, and it won’t bother me either way. I know how you really feel, and that’s enough for me.” “I appreciate that, darling.” Astarion kissed the top of Dandy's head, enjoying a little nuzzle into chestnut brown waves. “Just no entendres — double, triple, or otherwise.” “I make no promises.”

[random-thought-depository]

I agree with you on general principles, but I think it's also worth pointing out here that the brewing potential liberal moral panic about "gen Z radicalization" is really not supported by the exit polls I've seen.

In 2024, the 18-29 year old vote went 54% to Harris, 43% to Trump. That made 18-29 year olds the most Harris-voting and least Trump-voting age group. The Trumpiest age group was 45-64; 54% of them voted for Trump and 44% of them voted for Harris. This does conceal a concerning gender polarization among 18-29 year olds; Harris won 18-29 year old women in a landslide, while Trump narrowly won 18-29 year old men. As I said, that is concerning ... but 18-29 year old men were the least Trump-voting men in the electorate in 2024. The most Trump-voting men were 45-64 year old men, 60% of whom voted for Trump and 38% of whom voted for Harris.

This does contrast alarmingly with Biden winning a 60% to 36% landslide among 18-29 year olds in 2020. It's more in-line with 18-29 year old voting patterns in 2016 though; Harris actually performed almost as well with 18-29 year olds as Hillary Clinton did (did worse than Clinton by one percentage part) ... but Trump did do substantially better with 18-29 year olds in 2024 than in 2016 (43% vs. 36%).

Basically:

2024 does not actually buck the "Democrats do best with young people and non-white people, Republicans do best with older white people" normal; the big shock and red flag is that this effect has weakened (whether this is a permanent shift or happened because of 2024-specific factors and will reverse in the next election remains to be seen).

Even in 2024 18-29 year olds voted left of the rest of the electorate (and yes, that still holds if you compare 18-29 year old men to older men).

Yeah, 18-29 year olds apparently moved right in 2024, but so did more-or-less the whole fucking country (including women, despite all the talk about gender polarization), Gen Z voters weren't special. Latino/as moved right too in the same way (a normally Dem-favoring demographic who favored the Dems less in 2024) but I don't see anybody implying they're now an especially reactionary demographic.

Gen Z voting patterns in 2024 aren't even a shocking huge outlier compared to voting patterns for 18-29 year olds in 2020 and 2016.

Also:

Based on the popular vote count so far, I think Trump's win in 2024 looks more like a result of a collapse of liberal enthusiasm than a result of a surge of support for right-wing politics. At this point, Trump has slightly topped his 2020 vote total, while Harris is still about 10 million votes below Biden's 2020 total (I think the USA still has a growing population, so the 2024 electorate is more people). The votes haven't all been counted yet, so it's premature to draw firm conclusions from this ... but it looks like most of the still uncounted votes are in California, Oregon, and Washington (especially California, which Harrris won quite heftily), so my guess is Trump's vote total isn't going to go up a lot.

In that context ... if there's any age demographic in the US electorate where I think "I'm soured on the Dems cause Biden wasn't as leftist as I'd hoped and Harris looks likely to be more of the same and/or I can't vote for a candidate who looks likely to continue the policies that gave Genocide Joe that nickname" might have caused a huge collapse of liberal enthusiasm, it's 18-29 year olds. How much of the apparent rightward shift of Gen Z in 2024 is actually rightward and how much is politically progressive young people staying home because they were turned off by a perception that Harris was a candidate of the status quo and continued genocide? If I'm reading these right, it looks like 18-29 year olds were 17% of voters in 2020 and 14% in 2024, which is consistent with the hypothesis that a lot of leftist and liberal young people just stayed home in 2024.

Going by these exit polls, if there's a modal face of Trumpist reaction in 2024, it's a middle-aged man. But, of course, a middle-aged husband and father who owns a house and has a job that pays more than $60,000 per year has more social capital than a 19 year old college student and his 17 year old brother who watch YouTube videos about how to be an "alpha male," and he probably has a form of reactionary politics that's more socially normalized, so the latter two people are easier targets.

Every age group old enough to have opinions about politics has political diversity; individuals should be judged as individuals.

remember when millennials said we weren't going to be as weird and stupid about gen z as boomers were about us? lol that didn't last long huh

[gronzen]

I've been thinking about my "dragons are salmon" post and I desperately wish I could draw, because I want to make my dumb "bred by humans vs. raised in wild" comparison picture, like how people compare modern pugs versus old timey pugs.

-A wild stokebelly that looks pudgy from its gas sac and squat as it should versus a tame stokebelly used as a furnace, bred to have way-too-short legs, the pudge becomes an outright beer-gut, scales duller because it's stuck inside with soot and charcoal all day.

-A black wisher in the wild is this catfish-sized darting dragon that's a sign of good luck of the people of the bayou, but you go to a fair and there's these dull, almost-grey black wishers that have too-tiny wings/fin-claws from being cooped inside little shitty decorative cages. Definitely not receiving the proper amount of swamp water or crayfish in their diet.

-Quarrykips that turn old, abandoned quarries into nesting grounds, or dig nests into active quarries to steal food from the miners, versus miner-raised quarrykips that have way-too-long snouts/beaks to better detect dangerous gasses and bred to be brighter color to spot if one escaped into the caves.

[hybbart]

Do all avians have raptor hands or is it a non avian jimmy only mannerism that everyone who doesn’t know any better assumes is a bird person thing because of how weird it is but it’s just Jimmy being Jimmy

I haven't even decided if Jimmy will have them yet, I'm still not sure if I like it. I feel like his body language has been more delicate and passive than I would like

I think I like it on Pearl, her outfits a bit better for it and it fits her sleepiness. Grian I picture doing a variant with his fingers laced but also just tucking his arms away in any way so they are absorbed into his sweater.

The thing with drawing the avians the way I do is that their avian features, especially their feet with the extra joint, heavily dictates and alters their posture and body language. And I give them sharp, small hands, which you can see how much that does to Jimmy's body language just by comparing the sheriff to his avian design, since the sheriff wears heavy gloves and boots. I'm the problem, I made a design thats designed to come off delicate and cute and now I'm complaining about it being too delicate... it's also his most femme leaning form in general with his outfit and features, its also super casual... but it also fits his tendency to shrink back out of the way when he's not in the spotlight... but I want to convey his aggressiveness and jerkiness better in my pictures, but it's done the opposite...

I'm kinda just rambling to myself at this point, sorry, I'm still trying to figure Jimmy out and how I want to portray him vs my bad habit of defaulting to cutesy body language

As for if it would be common, I think it would be just because I think it flows naturally with their posture and the general instinct to fold in their limbs. They do it with their wings and legs, why not also their arms? I also imagine they reach out and grab/hold things instinctively their hands and talons.

[strawberryamanita]

Alright, it was a bad idea to go into the neurosparkly tag. People are chill in the neurospicy tag, but it's just hatepost after hatepost after hatepost in the neurosparkly tag.

I was gonna keep my mouth shut, but now I'm pissed. Y'all really know how to make a person's skin crawl.

Rant below.

Listen, this reeks of one person pulling "neurosparkly" and "neurospicy" out of a very obscure conversation and going "hmm, this gives me the willies, so it looks like an acceptable target to me!", and I'm already sick of it. This gives me the exact same vibes as that one famous post about transmeds vs transtrenders -- this idea of pinning one form of self-expression against another, in the name of dunking on fellow marginalized people that are giving your demographic "a bad name". To that end, I'd like to remind y'all that the original artist of that post admitted they weren't acting right about trans people that aren't like them, and so I'm hoping we get over this and get over it soon.

Because we cannot keep doing this.

Every. Summer. Every fucking Summer, this website has to put a spotlight on a new group to punch down on. First it was just about every LGBTQIA+ group outside of cis gay men you could imagine -- lesbians, bis/pans, trans people, ace people, non-binary people, people who identify as queer (we're literally all queer, but that's another convo all together), you name it. It literally never stops, you people have to be taught over and over again that, no, this one group isn't okay to target either, that's your family too, you're not better than them for being a different flavor of weird.

Now we're doing this to neurodivergent people? Neurodivergent people. The overwhelming majority of this website. You're gonna try and clown on other neurodivergent people for, what is it, being cringe? After we just agreed that embracing cringe is a huge step towards self-acceptance and self-love? tumblr is THE cringe website. We don't do optics here, we don't clean our metaphorical rooms when guests are over.

Like what, we have to take every moment of our neurodivergent lives seriously? It's ridiculous enough that we have a "normal" model for how a brain should be, compared to all the different ways a person can develop. Are we such tragic figures that we can't take the smallest delight in calling ourself a fun little nickname? It's not self-censoring, it's not like "handicapable vs disabled", let's not treat this thing like a gust of wind on the house of cards that is our (quite necessary) camaraderie.

Are we gonna start zeroing in on specific neurodivergent conditions next? How long are we gonna play this stupid game of Who Is It Okay To Bully on this website? If you wanna look like a mature and poised and respectable lot, you can't be doing something so petty, whether it's for fun or "for the cause".

Y'know what? I support neurosparkly. I support neurospicy. My neurotype is glow-in-the-dark. It's glittery, it's color-changing, it's metallic and covered in rhinestones and smells like artificial fruits. My neurotype is crayon drawings and old kids' meal toys and bubble machines and getting bleary-eyed over Muppet songs. My brain is covered in holographic stickers and playing 8bit videogame music on loop. I am Cringemeister General. You could only wish to be as cringe as me.

Now cringe. Cringe and cope and seethe and mald. Dig up everything you can about me to attempt to punish me for disagreeing with you, and let your confirmation bias run wild. Post me on r/cringe, make a YouTube or TikTok video about me, pick me apart on a livestream, make me the poster-boy of your disgust, print out a screenshot of my blog and throw darts at it. Dance the dance of self-hatred, and then wait in the wings until you get to dance it again.

Eugh.

I'm gonna close this rant using every argument that I've seen effectively shut down these yearly attempts at putting eachother in the pillories, because I don't know if I can take another Summer of this:

If you start picking on people for using "neurosparkly" or "neurospicy", I'm assuming you're a fed. Infighting only helps the oppressors, and if we spend our energy trying to police eachother we're not going to get anything done. Kill the cringe cop in your head. There's as many ways for a person to live as are, have been, and will be people on this planet; there's a good chance you're gonna hear about some people who give you the ick, but you're gonna have to swallow that ick and respect them anyhow.

Every ounce of energy you spend rolling your eyes at people you consider beneath you can be spent chipping away at a person in power. Every minute you choose to spend tsking or turning up your nose at "weird" kids can be spent advocating for that weirdness and normalizing being fucking nice to people. You punch down or punch across because it gives you quicker, more visible results; if we're all punching up, they'll have no other option than to listen to us.

There is enough room for everybody. Even the neurospicies, even the neurosparklies.

PS: Any attempts to make fun of me or the people I talked about in this post are just straight-up gonna be ignored. I don't see why you'd want to convince me to think less of others, so trying to sway me is gonna be difficult on your part. I'm not debating anyone's rights, and I'm not gonna conserve spoons to argue with a stranger. I have Anons turned off already, so if you wanna get up in my virtual face you won't have a disguise to protect you.

Thank you for your time.

[stick-named-figure]

hang on im watching s2 and im throwing up and crying about lucky blocks. like i haven't given s2 my real attention because i kinda hated how long long lucky blocks is but there's actually a lot of things i really like about it. there's no specific conclusions in here, just kinda a list of things i noticed and like about the episode.

like just whatever the hell the lucky blocks uhh... sprite actually is. it's in the minecraft mysteries book and it's also apparently... imprisonment in the lucky block dimension. whatever that is.

red and blue fighting over the gold just Cause [1].

and whatever this is, where orange is laying... like that while watching blue go ham with the netherwart stick. and crafting a bow and arrow. what did they mean by that btw.

the more... world implications (?) related thoughts I have about this start here. yellow's cell very much is reminiscent of eyes. it implies a lot of things about how the lucky block traps entities, and how the sticks are connected to each other [2].

the strange ambiance, the scan lines and the fact that yellow is viewing the whole desktop like a screen is... really fucking interesting but i don't have any solid conclusions i'm drawing about it right now.

it's also interesting to me that the lucky block is not only trying to possess the other sticks, it wants to kinda... torment them at the same time! like this is sadistic. entirely.

(also blue's glance back at orange while they're smacking yellow with the netherwart stick is everything. like "i mean i guess it's working! do i just keep doing this??")

the lucky block also learns from the sticks' behavior. it uses orange's terraria-ass sword after destroying it, and it copies red's wings. it definitely adapts to the body it's given as well, seeing that when the lucky block is fighting red, it gives green a trident and blue summons skeletons and the fire charge weapon.

something else i noticed[4] is that this episode directly contrasts with the end of the original animation vs minecraft, since red is on their own fighting off their friends who are possessed. in diamond armor, which is the last time we see full armor for the sticks.

this also made me notice that red is REALLY fast at reacting. some people have already made various posts on red and how they react to things, but this really emphasizes to me that red is very fast at thinking [5]. like there is a LOT of things they had to process very quickly.

there's also this, where the mobs spawned go after their respective bodies. which is just kinda cute to me ngl.

idk if there was any one "point" i wanted to make here, i just don't think about lucky blocks very often but there's definitely a lot to notice and see in here. they call me the noticer.

---

red and blue punch each other a lot in this season. for example, red punches blue in redstone academy, for which blue trips them in return.

we don't ever see how the cells change when red is possessed, since a pig is immediately decked out as soon as red is in the lucky block, but it certainly says something about how the stick's, say, brains[3] are connected to each other.

i don't think that the sticks have brains in a way that's comparable to humans btw. it's something i need to think more about exactly how i interpret their lives.

it's totally possible i've seen a post on this before. i don't recall seeing one but if you know of one then let me know, because it might've settled in my brain because of that.

it's also rule of cool of course. bullet time