#hard to tell cuz ya know. . . concept art

[lilyminer]

Some silly concept art for a project I may or may not pursue further. It was nice drawing my updated c!Techno design anyhow.

[emilydorp]

Heyyy🩷 I’m a new GTOP shipper and there’s something I can’t stop thinking about, was GD always this obsessed with Tabi????

Because lately, he’s been copying literally everything Tabi used to do. It’s like he spends his nights watching old Tabi videos just to copy him the next day.

And the crazy part? He’s not even trying to hide it, he’s liking posts on Insta that totally prove it. Honestly, it feels like GD’s so thirsty for Tabi, and Tabi? He knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s got the skills to make GD, fall for him.

Also, today he posted the song High High on his story and it’s exactly like he’s trying every possible way to get Seunghyun’s attention and make him notice him, and honestly, that’s so cute.🫠

Hiii anony :))

Jiyong has always been kinda obsessed with Tabi, it’s honestly clear once you accept GTOP. So like, dw :)) I call him a lover boy, ya know? The way you wouldn’t catch anyone calling ASAP Rocky obsessed with Rihanna cuz they're dating, you know, it’s just being affectionate :D. And the obsession he had pre dating was.. just him having a childhood crush, we’re all kinda obsessed with our childhood crushes lmfao. They've also always had some form of couple wear (I think Ji is one of those people that really values matching with the people he loves because that connects them and displays their bond in his eyes :D; it's also a cultural thing). Idk if I'm the best blog to show this 'obsession'? I have a lot of moments but it's just stuff I like, not really clear documentation? But feel free to look through my blog :)) And honestly, the obsession seemed very mutual when they were both public figures..

I don’t really think he watches old videos, it’s just that he remembers it all too well. There is a concrete instance of when Tabi explained the difference between soft and hard persimmons to Ji using a metaphor and Ji remembered it YEARS later and used it in "Crayon". I am looking for that post cuz I have reblogged it, but GOSH am I horrible at tags :”)) It's somewhere here... hihi...! It's not like he googled that clip of Tabi using those words to write his song, he just remembers Tabi saying that and it stuck with him.

He just.. really pays a lot of attention to Tabi.. and remembers a lot of things about him.. and since they worked together on basically everything, it’s concepts and aesthetics that they came up with TOGETHER, so he remembers a lot of the symbolism they used together :)) And a lot of the hints are “iconic GTOP moments”, and he liked sooo many GTOP clips right before and during his album dropping, he probably was reminded of all the cute things they did in public and of all the symbols they used to represent each other, which he then used during his concert to make references. Like this one:

About the Instagram likes: GD has been publicly interacting with GTOP content through Instagram likes since about 2012-2013, and has used "symbols" that reference Tabi in his art, it's just that more people have paid attention to this lately and he has been more "in your face" because he is confirming our suspicions. Honestly, I wonder if this is his way of setting up a glass closet for when they drop GD&TOP volume 2? Cuz he knows that the Volume 1 era was the source of so many dating rumours? Or is it just him playing a 'Reference your husband in everything you do' game in his head? It's genuinely confusing to me, the end goal.. And yes, Tabi knows what he did, I am TELLING y'all he referenced BB and GD in Squid Game 2 and blocked people for calling him out on his BS /lh TTOTT

And umm, GD alwaysssss was super thirsty for Tabi’s attention, even when they were just in different places for a while. I low key just call their Instagram activity a “lovestagram” for fun sometimes, it was crazy to say the least. And honestly, I think they’re on good terms again, cuz Ji seems to KNOW that Tabi will see Palomi’s posts, you feel me? And I’ve heard (can’t confirm since I don’t follow Seunghyun’s Insta activity the way I follow Ji's) that he stopped blocking people that tag him in BB content? So yeah, idk, a lot happening behind the scenes.

And it's SO cute of him, posting that picture and the song, especially cuz those scooters (or whatever lulz forgot the term) are an ICONIC part of GD&TOP performances.

[drdeathly]

Random old unikitty oc showcase???!! (how unexpected)

Here’s doodles of my old unikitty oc when I was still in the fandom. Her name was somewhere in the lines of “Lunette” or something, probably based off of the name “Stellaluna”.

She’s a half-bat/half-alligator almost-completely-blind, nocturnal, ingenious, mad scientist/martial artist with a sharp tongue and a sweet tooth.

(Here’s a very early drawing of her)

In this concept art she seems kind and wondering, but don’t be fooled. Ever since a certain incident - she’s changed for the worst.

I made her alongside a few other oc’s but after the creator confirmed a certain something and I blotted the two out of existence out of anger and shame. But we don’t talk about that. I’ve grown up.

Her origins went through a lot but i’ve settled on this thing (it’s a lot but this is the awfully condensed version):

Basically Dr.Fox and Eaglator broke up prior to the show cuz he’s an asshat but then years later Dr.Fox is like “ok i’ll give you one last chance” and like an hour later Eaglator fucks it all up again and she’s like “ok i’m leaving you forever” and he’s like “nooo” but then she’s all like “fuck you”

Blah blah blah, Dr.Fox gets with Hawkodile after some time and she comes out about her crazy ex (who Hawkodile is enemies with) but a few weeks later *gasp*, she has an egg?! (it’s fiction, I can do crazy shit an say the universe is telling a joke) Hawkodile says, “I’ll be her dad :3” even though he knows he isn’t and lalalala, spare me the fluff and angst please, the child is born.

(very old sparkle matter doodle)

She’s not an “eagle-alligator-fox” because I wanted to make a flying fox joke. It’s mostly a play on words, it doesn’t have to make any sense. Many of the things I do are based off of stupid jokes. Plus, A unicorn had a child with a cat, have mercy on my dammit. And - I could just say that Dr.Fox does have bat genes from a great grandfather or something to make it *slightly* more accurate.

She’s a biological powerhouse who’s not even at the prime of her power, the only tradeoff being her AWFUL eyesight, having to wear goggles when in sunlight due to them hurting her eyes.

She can breathe underwater for extremely long periods of time, she can fly, she’s really damn strong (carrying around a giant tail all the time does stuff to ya), her hearing is impeccable (though it’s a big weakness at the same time), from the bottom half of her torso and below her natural armor is great, plus more i’m probably missing.

She gains a lot of bat and alligator perks at the same time. One big thing though is her personality:

As mentioned earlier, Lunette is ingenious and is capable of causing an entire planet to fall into anarchy if it means her $5 latte with a comically large amount of sugar goes down a dollar (this got her #0 on santa’s noddy list) (fun fact - she got so mad at this she orchestrated propaganda around the world saying Santa wasn’t real almost killing both Santa and Christmas)

She’s capable of creating bizarre machinery and creations like her does mother but is considered much more off the rails with what she creates (and does), often sending disasters in varying forms to the unikingdom or even her own home. She prefers to fight with mind and mech, but when a push becomes a shove she’ll use her body.

She overthinks, constantly thinking everyone thinks less of her. Her clairvoyance doesn’t help, having hearing so good if she focuses hard enough she can hear people’s thoughts. Lunette constantly feels like she needs to prove herself to someone, even if that someone is entirely made up, and these feelings make her so overwhelmed her mind goes feral. Pray you never get into a competition with her!

Impulsive, stubborn, vengeance seeking, and generally kind of a jerk, though her similarities to Dr.Fox is clear with her intelligence Lunette takes A LOT more from her father.

However, these similarities to her biological father is one of the main sources of her self-hatred, pity, and other negative feelings

[kabaltakahashi99]

Another day in LPs afterlife: A Crazy Spookventure Quest part 1

Nova is now a 16 yr old teen who is a passionate technician of elements of culinary arts. She was just quite almost done with her school project who can have the best tech of future generations of food industry.

Nova: Siiigghh now I’m out of the bananas for my lunch collection, time to go to the store again! But first I neeed to find my trusty relative and I know who.

Suddenly she calls her aunt Gail

Gail: Hi sweetie! How’s my niece doing today??

Nova: Yeah it’s great, look I’m kinda in a-

Gail: Honey, I already told you we don’t have access to the information of the ancestors-

Nova: Umm not even into that remember?..

Gail: Oh sorry, it’s been kinda stressful to ya know.

Nova: I was wondering if you can help me build any tech that can detect any fruits and vegetables? I’m trying to win a school project fair. And it’s kinda hard to keep them fresh till it starts but no luck that I find that last so long it ripes too fast.

Gail: Honestly nova, I’m just a model. Sorry…

Nova: well it’s worth a shot. Idk who else to know about tech.

Gail: why don’t you ask your parents if they know anyone who is a technician. Any friends you know who’s a tech?

Nova: wellll.. I’ll try. Thanks for telling me.

Gail: no problem nova btw tell your mom that I need to borrow some make up from her if you can I need to attend some special errands.

Nova: I’ll see if so, bye. *hangs up* welp now what? *gets a incoming call from Her best friend* oh! It’s you! *picks up the call*

Emily: Hey Nova!

Nova: Emily!! Forgot we had each others #’s, hey listen your dads a tech besides a plumber right?

Emily: why id say so if im not mistaken about tech. But I just wanted to see if you and your family wants to come to our house well, I mean to come with us at a Halloween store tomorrow cuz I want to plan a Halloween party this year and u need ur help to make it perfect for us.

Nova: I’ll ask if they want to, but I need tech for my school project win.

Emily: I’ll ask my dad for the parts if y’all can come help us it’s only 3 days left till Halloween promise.

Nova: I hope so..

Pepper suddenly comes in novas room with her wife Zoe to see if she’s ready for the project fair.

Pepper: Nova, is your project ready to go before tomorrow’s fair?

Nova: I was about to go find a technician for some bananas little more to finish it off but Emily is now on call with me if she can have us help her plan a Halloween party at her place, we were just about to make a deal..

Zoe: Well I need to visit their place anyway to see if Tari has some fabrics for me to use for my costume. Since vinnie, Sunil both are at a trip for that holiday, Minka, Russell, and penny are with Blythe and her friends to do some thing for a weeks trip to another country for business? But we’d be more than happy to help you guys plan a Halloween party and together Emily.

Pepper: not to mention you and meggy are new rivals of fashion contest -_- first madam Poe now Mario’s wife.. and idk how that man is so ok with the chaos everytime they see each other.

Zoe: it’s an obvious reason I’m a beauty queen! How is meggy more beautiful or should I say wins every costume contest?!

Nova: Mom, can we please focus now on my project?

Zoe: sorry sweetheart, I was talking about that too.

Emily: so how do we do this? If you can bring the project at our place my dad can finish it for you while we both get the rest of the decorations and we’d be back to start till it’s ready you’d win the fair for sure by his power ups. What do you say? Sounds like a deal?

Nova: your right, sounds good. let’s do this.

TO BE CONTINUED…..

Plz I’m just doing concept of LPs future x smg4 universe x mortal kombat

I’m just busy with work everyday whew I couldn’t have time but I’m working on it.

[inahallucination]

no thought just actor neil and teacher todd

zoom teacher au 

where neil perry is a famous actor

beloved by the masses and mr. anderson’s 6th period class

and like, mr. anderson is a very quiet and soft spoken teacher but he’s hella nice and friendly

so students feel like they can talk to him about anything and he’ll listen (because he understands the feeling of being all alone knowing that no one is going to take a second to just hear you out. not your teachers, not your classmates, not your brother, not your parents) (but anyway)

and though some people like to talk to him about their problems or rant to him, he has just as many students who just like tot talk to him

and tell him about pop culture and shit and a very popular topic of conversation is mr. neil perry

because he’s nice, humble, talented, and handsome

during zoom, conversations like that are a bit hard, so mr. anderson reserves 15 minutes every class for everyone to turn on their mics and socialize and during that time period this happens

“mr. anderson, are you a fan of Neil Perry?”

“huh? the actor?”

“yes! he played puck in the modern version of shakespeare’s a midsummer nights dream.”

“yes i love him! and that movie” 

“REALLY?” the class is filled with excited voices, cuz how often is it that a teacher has good taste in movie stars

“i knew u weren’t straight.”

“... wait is everyone who likes neil not straight? cuz i like him and im a girl and im not straight”

“you guys do know i can hear you, right?”

“sorry mr. anderson.” but mr. anderson just laughs.

“i think u may have some truth to that statement though” 

then mr. anderson does something on his computer and shares his screen and onscreen is a picture of a highschooler wearing a costume

“this is my husband in high school, playing puck. that’s one of the reasons i love midsummer so much,” he grins like he’s keeping a secret, and not like he just technically came out 

“YOU KNEW UR HUSBAND IN HIGHSCHOOOL??? WHY DON’T I HAVE A HUSBAND YET”

mr. anderson laughed again, “class is over, but maybe next time we can discuss this”

it isn’t until a week later when the class in their respective homes, in between homework and other commitments, are watching a new Neil Perry interview that they realize

“yeah, i was really excited for this role, it feels like coming home, ya know?”

“oh yes, ive heard about that, your first gig was Puck too, right?”

“Yes, I played puck at a neighboring school in my junior year. god that play was the best thing to ever happen to me”

“wow, because it helped you discover your love for acting?”

“Well, yeah. I always knew i wanted to try it out but while performing it for the first time in front of an audience, i realized that there wasn’t anything  else i could do. but also because i finally got courage after the performance and i finally kissed my best friend. We’re married now”

“awww ! that’s so sweet!” the interviewers voice is drowned out by the thundering of the audience at this revelation

“so what does your best friend do now?”

“oh he’s an english teacher !”

and suddenly it made sense why that picture mr. anderson had looked kind of familiar. 

or

same concept but  

“ mr. anderson, are you a fan of Neil Perry?”

“huh? the actor?”

“Yes!!! are you a fan? don’t you think he’s pretty? talented and pretty and humble he’s like perfect!!! right??? mr??? anderson???

“haha yeah yeah ! “ mr anderson face lights up making him look even younger “i can assure you that no one thinks Neil Perry is pretty, talented, humble, and just perfect as much as I do”

before the class can object to him claiming the title of neil’s no 1 fan they hear a familiar voice

“AWWW THANKS BABEE! I THINK YOU’RE PRETTY, TALENTED, HUMBLE, AND PERFECT TOO!! HURRY UP END THE CLASS SO I CAN SHOW YOU!!!”

the class gets out five minutes earlier.

or

same concept but during a lesson, mr. anderson means to show his class some pieces of classic art that corresponds with literature, but instead accidently opens up his wedding photos folder

and the class is greeted with a picture of Neil Perry with his arms wrapped around Mr. Anderson’s waist, both of them dressed up in suits and surrounded by a bunch of other boys and someone who looks older, kissing each other full on the lips and it’s cute and perfect and what the hell mr. andERSON YOUR MARRIED TO THE NEIL PERRY???

oh u didn’t know

orrrrrrr

neil mentions him in an interview but i feel like that could be a whole post by itself so toodles 

.

.

@poetofthedyingstars @aedan-mills @maisietheweltoncow @theluminoussunflower

[simptasia]

Cats 2019 😌

Oh, thank you, I’m gonna gush about this movie without even a DROP of that “i knoooow it’s bad” stuff, y’all know that I know. Okay maybe a few drops sneak in, in a back handed way, but MOSTLY this is me gushing and fawning

For context, since i’m putting this in the tag, the prompt was this was somebody gives me a topic and I respond with what i like about it. Like, the opposite of that “send me a thing and i’ll tell you what i hate about it” one

sometimes, like half the time, the CGI actually slaps. like, the close ups are amazing. proper look at some of these cats and it’s like, wow

mr. mistoffelees is precious. he’s my favourite and he’s adorable and his song makes me cry! specifically the bit where old deut is back and it cuts to his happy “oh my gosh i did it” face. triumphant! heck, i just like that whole song, as like the character thing that it is. and yeah anyways, misto is a cutie pie, he’s so shy and awkward and nervous, i wuv him uwuwu

misto is my fave but munkustrap is actually the best character in this movie. i cannot gush enough about robbie fairchild’s acting, singing and dancing in this. he is the backbone of this movie and i adore him! there’s a reason i’ve reblogged a bagillion gifsets of him being so expressionate, he’s so good! you can tell robbie loves being a part of this. and like, very often munku will absolutely be the best aspect of a scene

plus he’s beautiful too. munku, misto, victoria. beautiful kitties

now that i’ve adjusted to the art style, i find these kitties adorable. i love the ears and tails, they make me happy. i like how misto’s tail curls and the movement of everybody’s ears

i really like the music, shoulda mentioned that first. like, when its good, its really good. memory is of course a powerhouse. skimbleshanks is the movie’s highlight, so fucking good. i like mr. misto’s song, fight me. jellicle cats is a fucking bop. rumpleteazer & mungojerrie, I Just Like It. robbie’s performance in... well the whole movie... but also in old deuteronomy is beautiful and soothing. i’ve actually gotten every song in this stuck in my head.... SKIIIIIMBLEEEESHAAAANKS THE RAAAAILWAAAY CAT

legit, making that number include tap dancing was an actual stroke of genius and i cannot praise steven mcrae enough. whomst is also australian, im so proud. i also like skimble’s pants

OH ALSO regarding the music, another thing i love about this movie is that it introduced me to the concept of this musical. i never had any exposure to cats the musical before this movie happened. all i knew before was a couple of references i saw and i had heard memory. but i didn’t know that memory was from cats. and like, think of all the great songs i wouldn’t be aware of if this movie never happened. i’ve also, by extension, become enamoured with the 1998 version of cats too. because of this! i wouldn’t have had a reason to care before! i had no interest! so besides the fact that i actually do like this movie, there’s that

this is true of the stage musical thing, but a lot of cute and fun character moments are gleaned from like background stuff and facial expressions, that sorta thing and i find it really fun to notice stuff (or see somebody else point stuff out). like it’s all very simple but still with some depth, ya know?

the dancing in this is so good. so so good. especially munku because his actor is a magnificent dancer. it’s also funny and cute how misto clearly isn’t as good a dancer as everybody else, so they have him doing clumsy doofy stuff in the background. but im not insulting laurie davidson’s dancing, he’s actually good considering he had to learn for this movie. i just have to praise the dancing in this movie because i’ve seen people say that “the dancing isn’t impressive in this movie because it’s CGI” and i WILL EAT YOU WHOLE. no n no no people HAVE to know that the actors are actually doing that. robbie and francesca are professional ballet dancers, most of the people in this are. the movements are real, they just painstakingly overlayed CGI cat stuff over it. the stuff that isn’t real is like, stuff humans can’t do, like the big fuck off leaps, they used wires for that

Rumpleteazer’s Lesbian Energy Is Palpable

Munkustrap’s Chemistry With Everybody Is Stunning

victoria, misto and munku are OT3 and they’re bicons in my heart

oh i already mentioned the music but i just wanna say i think beautiful ghosts is a lovely song/motif/character thing. i haven’t mentioned victoria much, i think she’s rather sweet in a like endearingly dumb way. and her singing and dancing is, of course, lovely

the sets are practical, they built that! bruh

i have to give my respect to the poor overworked effects artists who worked on this movie. they were pushed so hard and for so long and i think they did a great job and they don’t deserve even a drop of the scorn they have received

i love misto’s jacket, it’s so good. and the pencil as a wand is clever!

the last scene is refered to as a living hell by a lot of people but i love it because just. watch munku’s face the whole time. so good. just watch munkustrap, he makes everything better

ooh on that note, i like how they made it so munk lives in a flat thats literally right by the junkyard. i find that a nice touch and fitting

i like the nuzzles <3 (furthermore i love how misto is so much taller than victoria so he has to bend down so far for a couple of those nuzzles)

i dunno, you can tell most of the people doing this were like really into it, like really loved doing this movie. like these performances are good, y’all! and like, these cats come across as so happy to hanging out and dancing and being together (for the most part, there is bickering and... cattiness too) that it’s like infectious. it makes me smile!

and there’s like a bagillion little things here and there that i like, like my list could go on even more. for example, shout out to that one cat that kept smiling when skimble was spinning upwards into the air (due to being kidnapped) probably under the assumption that skimble can just fucking do that djksakjdsa

so yeah i can’t exactly call this a Good Movie but i can genuinely call it a movie i enjoy, that i adore even, because i’ve never liked anything ironically in my life! also im autistic and this has become my special interest, so choo choo, this trains a chugging. i’m having a lot of fun, and i think that’s good enough

and i feel like it’s already on it’s way to becoming the world’s most expensive cult classic. like, friends getting together and watching it and having a good time, for one reason or another. and i like that. i hope in like 5 to 10 years time, people are gonna be endeared and nostalgic for cats 2019, cuz that’d be neat

[world-of-socks]

Chapter one: Spies are Forever (sorry I had to…*)

*If you don’t know what Spies Are Forever is please look it up. The full thing is on Youtube, you won’t regret it!!

(Got the idea from @steven-universe-au-prompts. I’m still working on concept art and stuff I’ll post that later. Anyways this was super fun to write and I hope you all enjoy this first look into hopefully will be a series that I’ll complete for once lol)

...

“Soldiers!” A pearl roared to the oncoming sea of quartzes and other miscellaneous gems and fusions.

Nobody was paying her any mind, the camp was full of excitement, everyone was talking to each other and conversing about the next move and where they were stationed. The air was so abuzz with different conversations that Yellow Tourmaline heard none of them. Nor did she care. She was here for one purpose and one purpose alone, and that right now, was to hear that renegade pearl speak.

“SOLDIERS!” she roared again.

A few looked up and then went back to chatting.

The pearl looked towards everyone’s leader, the rose quartz, who was speaking with a fusion, and then turned towards the crowd once more, “SHUT! UP!!”

Everyone turned to face her, and ceased their conversations. Yellow watched the pearl sigh, and then continue,

“We all appreciate you being here, your service is greatly needed in our fight to win back this wonderful planet. Though, we will need to have some form of organization in our camps, you will now hear a word from my general and yours: ROSE QUARTZ!”

The crowd erupted into applause and roars and cheers. These gems loved this Quartz, loved her more than any gem Yellow Tourmaline had ever seen. The Rose Quartz dismissed the applause, humbly, and then began to speak.

“You wonderful gems, you’ve worked so hard your entire life to please someone who doesn’t care about you, or your well-being. You’ve slaved away for the whims of a dictator who thinks you are a pile of sediment, unworthy. Those days are over. When you are under my command you are free to be whoever you want, and to fuse with whoever you want!”

There was another planet shaking roar of applause, Yellow just stood there, dumbfounded, she didn’t understand. The Rose quartz held up her hand to silence them once more.

“Though I would like to make one thing clear. There will still have to be a level of organization in my camps! You will be organized by your station, you won’t be shattered if you don’t listen, but if we want to do this properly, it would be preferred if you would do as I tell you. Though, all ideas are welcome! Pearl will continue from here.”

She then stepped away and resumed talking to the fusion, her pearl then started commanding everyone on where to go.

“The front lines will be stationed in the first two barracks, the blacksmiths will be stationed…..” her voice seemed to fade away.

After the meeting, Yellow knew exactly where she was to go, she was a general on the front lines (she had perfected the basic general appointment test) and would be staying with other generals in the barracks. She hadn’t met any of them yet, and wasn’t thrilled about staying a week with everyone else, but she knew she had to.

She pushed back the fabric of the tent and stepped in timidly, inside was a table with chairs and a few gems gathered around it, a few cots (she only recently learned what those were), and a weapons rack. As she walked in a few of the gems looked up at her, a few looked a little wary, but the others appeared friendly.

“Heya, we got a new one ‘ere!” exclaimed an Ametrine.

She got up from her table where the rest of the generals were huddled over a map, and approached her. Yellow backed up slightly, she wasn’t used to being interacted with in such a way.

“Ey, I’m not gonna ‘urt ya.” Ametrine gave her a pat on the shoulder, “I’m Ametrine, by the way, but you can call me Ame, everyone does.”

Ame looked her up and down to take her in, Yellow watched the evaluation process go on in her head, “Let’s see ‘ere, a newby most likely from, what, Yellow’s court?”

Yellow stiffened up, not used to the informal addressing of the name, “Yes.”

“Ah! rough, mate. I was too. She’s a bit cold, ain't she? Kinda emotionless, yeah?” Ame shook her head, hands in her pockets,“Yeah, I’m real glad I left when I did. I started feelin’ real low, always scared of gettin’ shattered, y’know? I’m feelin’ much betta’ under Rose’s command, though, no need to worry ‘bout little ol’ me.”

Yellow just gave a weak laugh.

“Ya don’t talk much do ya?” Ame remarked, “What’s ya name anyway?”

She straightened up, “I’m Yellow Tourmaline.”

“Do ya go by anythin’ shorter?”

“No.” she retorted simply.

“Well that’ll have to change.” Ame thought for a moment, “I’m sure durin’ trainin’ tomorrow a betta’ name will reveal itself.”

There was an awkward silence yet again, Yellow wasn’t very good at interacting like this.

“Lemme’ introduce ya to the team!” Ame said with fake or real enthusiasm, Yellow couldn’t tell.

“This is Black Opal, but we call her Bo. She don’t say much either, but she’s a great archer and an even betta’ general. Her surprise attacks are some of the best and smartest in the biz!” Ame pointed to a tall and darkly colored gem towards the left of the table, she looked up and simply nodded in greeting.

“Over there’s Emerald, but we just call her Bear. She got the name cuz’ we went on a scoutin’ mission, and ran across an earth creature, Rose said it's called a bear, and she got chased by that thing for hours! Once she got fed up though she stopped in her tracks and screamed in its face and scared it off into the woods! She’s more a bear than it was!” The Emerald rolled her eyes, she must’ve been used to the anecdote.

“There’s old Peach Sapphire over there, Bismuth, and oh that there’s Cat’s Eye, don’t mess with them, they’re a tricky one. I could tell ya a million stories about all these guys.” Ame laughed, but quickly stopped when she saw the unamused look on Yellow’s face, “Ah, but, I won’t… I won’t.”

Yellow strode across the room to the map on the table, and looked at it for a moment.

“Judging our strategies, are you?” Peach Sapphire retorted to Yellow’s glance at the map.

“Wha-... no.” Yellow lied.

“Ah well you were going to.” she mused.

“I thought only Blue Sapphire’s could predict the future.”she grumbled, realizing she had been caught.

“Hm, yes, and that’s where you're wrong. Blue Sapphires can predict the future more accurately than I, but no, they aren’t the only ones.” She sighed, “And if you’re worried that we won’t succeed without good incite on the future we have a rare Blue Sapphire on our team. She’s fused with Ruby, they go by Garnet by the way, she’s Rose’s lefthand gem.”

Yellow cringed slightly at the mention of fusion, “The Pearl is the right hand?” she clarified.

“Yes.” Peach sighed and looked back at the map, “Newcomers aren’t permitted to be strategists until they go through a week of training. Our apologies, but this war has been long and hard, I’ve lost friends, loved ones, excuse me if I don’t trust you right away.”

“I… see.” the room was silent, a distant grief hung in the air.

“I assume you aren’t one to sleep are you?” Emerald asked, breaking the emptiness, “The newbys usually aren’t.”

“No, I don’t sleep.” she replied.

“That’ll change!” Ame called from where she lay on her cot, her cap over her eyes.

A few of the other generals snickered.

“Well even if you don’t sleep I recommend resting on the cots until morning.” Emerald added kindly.

“Is there really nothing else I can assist with?” she asked, desperate, not loving the idea of being left alone with her thoughts, surrounded by strange gems.

“Not until we get a chore list, a training schedule, or a command.” Emerald replied.

“Or until Jasper comes in here and breaks something.” Peach muttered.

Ame laughed from her cot, even Black Opal snickered slightly.

Yellow sat in the cot the second closest to the tent opening. She lay down on her back stiffly, and closed her eyes, but when nothing changed she sat up and looked around. She hated the feeling of not being in charge, but she knew it was only going to have to be for a week.

After an hour or so of sifting through the pamphlets for newcomers, she was startled by a loud sound. The tent ripped open and a giant Jasper burst through with a terrified look on its face. Yellow jumped to her feet.

The Jasper ran over to where Ame lay presumably asleep and shook her violently.

“Ame! Ame!!” she cried, “You gotta wake up! Please wake up!”

“Wha-... Jazz what’s,” she yawned, “What’s goin’ on ya loon.”

“I was just-...I was just!” she panted and stuttered, “I was just-... practicing my acting! Free acting lessons with Jazz as soon as the sun goes down!”

“Nobody needs ya classes Jazz, not in this war. Besides no non-sleepin newby would ever join.” Ame muttered readjusting her cap.

Jasper stamped her foot, “Yeah, but MORALE! Ya know?” she turned excitedly to Yellow who felt more uncomfortable than ever before, “Hey, would you wanna join?”

“Uh… no.” She answered, Jazz frowned, “Uh I mean- no, not really.” she stuttered.

“Dang,” Jazz mused, “This one IS new. Welp, they're always open if ya ever change your mind.”

Jazz crashed onto an empty spot on the floor which had blankets, that were probably chipped in from the other generals, for her to lay on. Yellow hadn’t noticed the broken cot pieces before.

Yellow resumed her sitting position at the end of the makeshift bed and continued looking through the pamphlet, more to look busy, she had already read the entire thing. After an hour or so the other generals retired, save for Cat’s eye who, without a word, glided to the tent entrance and stood guard.

Once she determined it wouldn’t be awkward to stop reading, she layed back down, this time on her side. She stared at the dirty tent fabric.

It would just be for a week, then she could transform back into her usual form, get into her ship, and drive home with whatever plans she could find. Nobody would know, not even the others on homeworld. She could finally end this fight once and for all.

[alukaforyou]

I know you've mentioned this before but you're not close with your parents. I just had an awful experience with my mom where I realized that she has a very low opinion of me and doesn't actually care about me as her child. How do you cope with you parents, if you don't mind me asking?

ya in my case i dont doubt they love me and have made lots of sacrifices for me, but ultimately, you are the arbiter of the love people give you, and i reject on some fundamental level the love my parents have for me - its not real love b.c they dont love ME, they love the idea they have of me. my parents rly kno jack shit abt me and i never rly talk to them abt anything meaningful to myself cuz i dont trust them - i hear the hurtful things they say abt other people which is 1. disturbing and 2. jokes on them cuz little do they kno they are insulting me too (like every time they shit on lgbt ppl or mentally ill ppl like bruh... i am that... lmfao..) and not just the whole fundamentally rejecting parts of me / my experience (aka... gaslighting... getting mad at me that One time i tried to open up abt depression / being suicidal and telling me "stfu no u arent, dont even say that shit" lmfao thx), they rly just dont listen to me Constantly, like Every time i try to educate them on race matters and whatnot theyre like loool silly girl u dont kno wat ur talking abt, actualy :3c and its so irritating not being taken seriously, ever so basically yea, im super done w. this "fam" and while i am grateful that they raised me p well and didnt do sketchy behavior like check my phone / comp, etc or physically abuse me.... like.... am i rly supposed to be grateful for that LMFAO if anything the fam gives me the lower most, maybe the lower 2 levels of the maslow's hierachy of needs (all the emotional support & unconditional love, i get from my friends, aka my found / real family) so i am super estranged from them & i dont rly seek their approval or w.e. in my case, my parents provide me / has provided for me housing and some degree of financial support (like... free housing.. free food... etc..) so thats p much the extent of how i see our relationship. like.. open ur purse ig? LOOOOOL and when i move out, im totally prepared to slowly drift out of their life like... y would i wanna spend time w. racists and terfs when... i could be seeing friends??? its a lil weird cuz on some level i am... attached to them cuz the whole ~family! blood relations~ concept but tbh in the very real future possibility that my fam disowns me / never sees me again for some dumbass reason, ig i wont miss them much. like nothing irritates me more than the expectation of having unconditional love / respect for ur family / elders (esp in asian / collectivist culture) because family is gacha and toxic people r toxic whether or not they happen to be ur relatives or w.e. ik its hard cuz ~its my mom!~ and ya sure maybe u have some good memories with her, or shes not toxic / hurtful / whatever *all* of the time, but none of us have to be begging for scraps. im sorry you didnt get the love & support & understanding we all deserve from our parents but.... family is gacha lol. id say, try to accept the good times and the shitty times and kno u dont rly have any obligation to stay in their lives as their child, and any reconciliation plans or the degree of "presence" you will have in their life is toootally up to you. also try to communicate first if you u r comfy with that, like really clearly let them know how they hurt you and see if you can salvage the relationship if you so desire. see my parents wont ever freakin listen to me so all avenues for communication are closed. i cite irreconciliable differences and choose to just shut them out of my personal life lol.

if you have the means at all to move out... that would b good.... but if not, just try ro hang in there and make ur home experience the most bearable as possible. see, my job is to have the most peaceful existance i can. so while i wanna fight w my parents and whatever, i just dont to save my own energy like im not here to educate or change ppl that wont listen. so i try to minimize my interaction w them and stay in my room most of the time. i also focus on my own hobbies like art or exercise or watch films or play / talk w my sister instead. having great friends that lov & support & uplift u is key. surround urself w ppl that appreciate you and value you b.c we are all precious and important and ofc. we'll make our own mistakes so we all rly need ppl who bring out the best in us! online friends are super valid as well, if u need more friends def try to join some online communities around ur own interests and meet wonderful ppl! hope that helped a lil.... sry for wat happened again.. i hope things get better for u!!

[mammonspeanut]

Movie night with Mammon (Mammonx Reader fic)

It was 10:30 pm, you were eagerly awaiting Mammon as you sat in your room with a hairband in your hair, wearing sweatpants and a hoody Mammon hat purchased for you reading “Mammon’s first” in big bold letters. Earlier that day he had burst into your room demanding you’d have a movie night together. 

“You, are going to have a movie night with The great Mammon one last time before..! “ he trailed off “...before what?” you asked confused knowing that he wasn’t going to disappear suddenly because not even Diavolo himself could keep you two apart. Which you knew for a fact because they had tried it more than once before and he would still stomp down your door after a few hours.”.. before... before I-I don’t know.. I just wanted it to sound dramatic.” he tried to play it off waving his hand as if it wasn’t important. 

Worried you picked up your D.D.D, no message, maybe if you’d text him to see where he was, after all, he was an hour late. 

- Hey Mamoney boi where art thou- 

 the second you pressed send Mammon bust through your door arms full of junk food and a bag full of movies. You knew by now you shouldn't be impressed anymore yet, you were still deeply impressed; about how solid the door was and the hinges and your entire room for a fact. “Hey, sweet-cheeks can ya get my D.D.D out of my back pocket someone texted me.”, he said turning around. “I already know what it says.”, you rolled your eyes “Well, if you are so smart what does it say?”, he teased. You repeated your text as you pulled out his phone and opened the message showing it to him. “Whaaaaaaaa.. H-How do ya know that? “, he shouted dropping the bags at the sight of the text “Look at who texted you, dummy.” you laughed as you watched his face blush in shame “Well...Well..”, he stuttered looking for a comeback “At least ya were missin’ The great Mammon, I mean who wouldn’t miss this face.” he said folding his hands under his chin a batting his eyelashes. Now looking at the mountain of junk food you asked: “Who is supposed to eat all of this, I’m already fat are you trying to make me even bigger?” It was true you were the furthest from an average girl but the comment seemed to have hurt Mammon more than yourself. Shocked by what you said he looked at you “Yer perfect, so soft, especially your squishy thighs.”, he swooned, realizing what he just said he quickly added “I-I mean yer okay.. I guess.. I-I don’t mind at all, I guess.” Sometimes he was just too sweet.

“Mammoooonnnnn.”, you cried holding your arms up like a child wanting to be picked up as you pouted. After literally training him like a puppy he knew exactly what it meant and jumped on you hugging you tightly forcing you to giggle as he laid on top of you. “That will cost you, ya know damn well my hugs aren’t for free.” he mumbled, teasingly you positioned your mouth next to his ear and moaned:” I’ll give you anything you want.” You knew it was mean but that meant he’d bury his face even more into your shoulder so you couldn’t see how red he was getting as he incoherently mumbled something into your neck. You noticed, that he was wearing a different aftershave, one that you knew was only available in the human world. Did he?  

After setting everything up and Mammon changing into sweatpants he stood in the middle of the room “Phones?”, he asked “Off! DOOR?! ” you replied ecstatically “Locked!”, he replied while shaking the door handle “Lights?!”, he yelled “OFF!”, you yelled back as he flipped the switches “Movies, Movies, Movies.”, both of you chanted as he made his way to your bed and sat on the other side. It didn’t take long for Mammon to wander from his place over to where you were and after the second movie, his head was on your lap as you absentmindedly ran your fingers through his hair. Looking down you felt your heart warm, his soft white hair was all messy by now as you had been playing with his for a while so you carefully began to untangle this mess you had made. Watching him closely you couldn’t help but notice the way his brows would furrow when something happened in the movie or the way the corners of his mouth would curl upward when your fingers would touch an especially ticklish place sometimes licking over his pinkish full lips. You’d notice the way he’d clench and unclench his jaw when scenes got exciting and the way his eyes would widen when something unexpected would happen. You slowly let your fingertips glide over his freshly shaven face the softness reminding you of a delicate flower, his eyes slowly closed as you caressed his face enjoying how gentle you were with him. Even illuminated by the artificial light you couldn’t do anything but be in awe of his beautiful tan skin with warm golden undertones, which went wonderfully with the golden jewelry he loved to wear, and his ice-blue to deep yellow gradient eyes with which he pierced you at times, robbing you from the air you breathed. You remember the first time meeting him, the excitement in seeing someone else with the same skin tone and the way his face lit up as he noticed how similar your skin was to his. 

“Do you even like this?”, you asked “What?” he replied watching the movie as you looked down to him “Me running my fingers through your hair and scratching your head. “ even in the light of your laptop, you could see him suddenly turn red “Well... I..” he trailed off as he mumbled something you couldn’t understand “Since you don’t like it I guess I have to stop.” you teased as you put your hand onto his shoulder “No.”, he replied grumpily as he took your hand and put it back onto his head.  “Keep doing that.”, he said more begging than anything else. Suddenly he turned so he was laying on his back and looking at you, without looking down you began to smile “What’s wrong?” “Uhm.. Can I stay over tonight? Not that I need yer permission I’d do it anyways but ya know. I wanna give the human a chance to say som’in’. “, he asked while taking your hand and holding it against his cheek. “Well, if you are asking like that....”, you softly began and smiled 

“No.” “Excuse me what?”, he jumped up yelling “I-I’m still stayin’ you can’t kick me out the door is locked!” “Give me one good reason why you topless nerd should stay in my room.”, you teased “Well..”, he began looking around and then spotting the monster on your laptop.”I don’t want to be the reason ya can’t sleep after seein’ all these monsters and since yer one scared human I will show mercy and bless ya with the great Mammmon’s presence so ya can feel safe.” he proudly explained as you tried not to burst out laughing “No, laughing at the great Mammon!”, he laughed as he jumped on you though you aren’t really ticklish you acted as if him tickling you is actually doing something. The fun was cut short when you accidentally swung your head back a bit too hard and hit it against the wall shocking Mammon. 

“Oh no, did ya hurt yourself.”, he asks concerned “It’s okay it’s my own fault.” you said rubbing the back of your head until you felt his hand touch the spot “I’m so sorry. I didn’t.. I”, he tried to apologize. Trying to lighten the moment you laugh it off “It wasn't your fault, you know I always hurt myself.” you explain  “Maybe it is time for us to sleep.”, you quickly add after looking up at him for a minute too long while as he softly rubbed the back of your head “Yer know it's gonna leave a huge bump. Ya humans are so delicate.”, he said, concern swinging in his voice.  “Well at least my GIGANTIC brain has more place now.”, you joke as he shakes his head at the comment. 

After finally laying down and turning on some music, lowering the sound to barely audible, Mammon continued to ask if you were really okay and if it was his fault. Rolling over you lay your head onto his chest, “If you are so worried you can rub my bump and wish for something.”, you whisper. As he softly rubs the back of your head you gently make circles on his bare chest, listening to his heart thumping slowly. ”So what did you wish for?”. you whisper once again, his heart suddenly speeding up “N-Nothin.” “Liar!” you call out pinching him in his ribs. “Okay okay, no need to be so mean to me.” he fake cries making you laugh “So ya want to know what ya boi Mammon wished for.”, he repeated. You can feel him sit up in the dark right before he softly cups your face and pulls you closer, the heat radiating from his face as well as his warm breath on your lips make you slightly shiver in anticipation. He hesitates for a second, possibly rethinking what he is about to do. Suddenly he leans in pressing his lips against yours. His fingers clumsily finding their way over your skin to the nape of your neck, pulling you in even more. You let your fingers slowly stumble over his bare chest until you reach his jawline, your tongues play with each other almost as if they were dancing, each twirl a silent confession of love. 

His strong hands holding you firmly yet ever so gentle as to not to break something fragile he had just won. You can feel the rush of adrenalin from him pour over to you, forcing your heart to beat even faster, threatening to burst out of your chest into his hands. He breaks away for not more than a second only to have your lips crash against each other once more, continuing this exchange of raw emotions. The world has disappeared around the both of you and time is nothing more than a concept as you continue kissing each other. As the initial rush slowly dies down you breathlessly break away from each other. Almost missing it you hear him barely audible whisper: “I love you.”  “I love you too.”, you whisper back afraid that anything louder could bring misfortune over the both of you. 

“Well I guess yer bump really has magical powers ‘cuz I wished that you’d tell me that ya love me too.” he chuckled right before you softly hit him in the dark. As both of you lay back down he wraps his arms tightly around you and kisses your shoulder. “I’m so lucky.” you awe at his comment since it sounded simply too sweet. “No, I mean I’m so lucky that I didn’t eat anything weird before kissin’ ya.” after a moment of silence you both burst out laughing. 

[koiandjelly]

So Fila’s actual past isn’t very detailed, because she’s not a main OC, and I haven’t spent a ton of time actually thinking about her as a character lol. 98% of my Creativity goes to my original content characters, cuz someday when I finish actually crafting my worlds, I’m gonna write a book. I’m aiming for the lofty goals of making a full, fleshed out, intricate— just fuckin’... a whole ass Multiverse system comparable to the Lore content of Tolkien’s works, or The Elder Scrolls— gah fuck y’know what, I’m changing this post from being about my Fantasy Life OC to being about my creation baby, the effort of about 6 years (I am 20 years old, and although I didn’t know it at the time I started, I was 14 when I made the shitty Fire Emblem Manakete rip-off race that I’m gonna actually now talk about, because holy fuck this ain’t gonna fit in a parenthesis “btw have some info” bubble)

A’ight so I have a hard time keeping track of time, especially in a large scale across years. Apparently it’s related to being severely depressed without medication (communication error on my part, my parents are very lovely and helped me ASAP when I spilled the beans) while also having moderate to severe ADD. So, ya know, keep in mind that I was yet another terribly depressed 8th grader when I talk about my creation’s early days. I wouldn’t experience that time of my life for any sort of payment ever. It was goddamn miserable, because when I was midway through the age of 14, not only did the aforementioned depression spring up, but I also realized I was bisexual (And I live in the infamous state of Alabama, for reference. Don’t fear for me though, I was too unnoticeable to be bullied if anyone did know, and my wonderful mother, whom I love and cherish with all of my heart, is one of the few Christians that actually... like... do what their own God tells em to. That is, Jesus. I’m an atheist and have a general discomfort about the idea of super powerful entities actually existing irl, but I do agree with the stuff I’ve heard and remember from a decade ago in Church about Jesus. Good guy. But yeah my mom not only accepted me and reassured me when I came out, but she’s gone even further and is of the opinion/fact that lgbt folks are, really, good and normal and that God created them, so she really genuinely just... loves and accepts me. There’s no “I love you despite of this” in the equation and I am so grateful. But again. I digress)

Pause after that sidetrack, to recap, all of my medical issues began to emerge about 6 months before I turned 15. Including what I hate most, the emergence of my Fibromyalgia and Sjogren’s Syndrome, and for an added kick to the flesh, an undifferentiated connective tissue disorder. Meaning, as what I understand it to be, a nameless chimaera of many symptoms in a way that the disorder either is it’s own thing, or just can’t easily be recognized as any one disorder. And I had anxiety. If I recall correctly on *that*, forgive me cuz it’s been a while since it’s been diagnosed/brought up in a significant way, I have or had either general anxiety *and* social anxiety, or just lightweight versions of both, or something, but at the time I was horribly shy and I couldn’t even talk to the teacher after class about schoolwork, even though I tried rationalizing it to hell and back that I shouldn’t be scared— as you’ll guess, shit didn’t work out til I got medicine for it, because no amount of logic and rational thought will change the fact that I was struggling because of a literal disorder, an error of the brain, and as with that walking with two shattered femurs ain’t gonna work, trying to talk when the talk machine broke... ain’t going to goddamn work.

God. I am rambling a lot. But anyway, shit fucking sucked as a teen for me, because I got that wombo combo, prepare for trouble, make it double, precision strike at my existence as a person during fucking already difficult puberty— I am rambling. It’s 4:55am as of this sentence lmao. I had a nasty cocktail of both mental illness and physical disorders pop up once puberty hit me, so I, through many events starting from loving to draw as a toddler, to play pretend stories of heartbreak, betrayal, and death as best an 8 year old could understand via playing with Polly Pockets, and all the creative power I inherited from my Dad, plus the motivation borne through a need to escape, I started making my own characters.

So, to return to the present state of my creations, which will now be referred to as Bounding Beyond the Stars, or BBtS, I’m gonna get some things out of the way. Just to clarify, yeah? I have created my worlds in a way that is specifically meant to stand apart from the irl universe as we know it. I’m certainly not a knowledgeable researcher with any level of comprehension on Spacial law and quantum physics and shit like that. So hey, if something ever seems... like, off, or wrong? Unless it’s pretty obviously wrong in the “hey you just googled how a thing works, and misunderstood it, and made a detail based on a failure to understand stuff and that’s dumb in a catastrophic way that even a high school level viewer would notice...” kind of mistake, then hey, shoot me a message. But if some sort of universal rule seems fucky in the way that it doesn’t make sense, but isn’t a catastrophic structural error... well, Imma use that sentence to start a better one. For an example of a catastrophic error, perhaps... this: “This planet has no seasons cuz of its shape and axis! And it is also like twice as big as Earth!” That would be catastrophic alone because anyone with a grasp on planetary gravity or something, may go and think “if it’s that big, gravity’s gonna be way more intense”. And you’d be right! Which is why I usually account for those things with... *Magic*.

Before I split this post for Length reasons, and I’m sorry the majority of this was me rambling about how my general experience with life sucked from ages 14-17, I’mma state something very important about all my creations.

Magic, which will be explained in depth at a later point, is a fundamental, essential, and omnipresent force of not just any one universe in my Multiversal Trio. It is a key piece of Reality itself, as magic is the flow of many multiples of millions of unique and mysterious energies, concepts, and laws existing anywhere that Is.

To end this post, I’m going to put a quick summary and explanation why I’m rambling about any of this: The rant about my age and circumstances at the start are relevant because it’s necessary context for the tone and type of writing my creations are built upon. The foundations of BBtS are borne from a sometimes angsty, sometimes genuinely upset 14 year old who found escape in the art of Creation. There have been many, many, many heavy edits, rewrites, scrapped info and ideas, and even more info built upon it. It used to be pretty pointlessly edgy in a lot of ways, and redundant in grimdark, morphing into *grimderp* plot devices and character traits. The way it’s written today, I like to think the lore of my many high fantasy-alien societies, and all its denizens and creators and whatever else, are still written to be dark, be dangerous, even angsty... but more skillfully so, with the sort of nuance a 14 year old wouldn’t really even begin to understand. Cuz I still like high stakes stories with real consequences and character deaths when appropriate. And I enjoy characters who have tragic pasts, but now that I’m older and I’ve seen and read about and done so much more— I can write that stuff *better*. And more over, what I’m most satisfied with, is that I’m more in touch with myself as a person, and I’ve evolved many of my personal beliefs and ideals and all the things of the world I can have opinions on. But most of all, I’ve reached a point where I have consumed enough content from others to where I have figured out how to write something that should be interesting, and maybe a bit new, because I put a looot of Damn focus on identifying, and understanding, writing structure, cliches, plot holes to avoid, character traits to handle differently, and just generally making something that’ll appeal to both me, and my audience, should I get that far.

[jerkdouglas]

Why did you take an I formative post and fucking add a incest molestation joke to it? What the fuck is wrong with you

I thought it was a pretty flawless segue, actually, but you sound interested... So here’s exactly what went through my head: So I saw this was a pleasant discussion on the nature of proper form and timing and stuff, and was like whoa this is good advice yo. And then Abby said it’s kinda like art, and I sorta agree but actually I can’t really plan things out or slow down to save my life, I mean I’m working on it, which is kinda the point of the thread... But normally I really gotta smash into a project and build a concept as I go, ya know? (it’s just how my brain works I dunno man) anyways that gave me a good idea, but simply saying that I have a hard time thinking slow isn’t particularly interesting by itself, and it’s certainly not up to my standard for responses. (I’m trying to reblog less things for discussion so I don’t sound like some self-important cunt trying to get himself quoted, also I find that I get more creative drawing/comic work done if I don’t waste all my creative energy blabbering on in internet discussions at length.)

...but THEN I was like oh shit if I’m reblogging Abby, maybe I’ll see if I can crack her up, even though I’m not exactly as well acquainted with her as I’d like, but she seems like she’d understand where I’m coming from with it, since we at least seem to be well versed in each other’s bodies of work. Or at least that’s what I assume, I’m not gonna pretend anyone gives a shit if I tell a joke, (jokes work on their own merit.) But at any rate, she seems pretty easygoing in general, so like I got a good shot fifty-fifty of this going over well I bet. But also I wouldn’t have had the idea if I didn’t see her name on the post, cuz she represents a comfortable and accessible point of entry for me really being able to stretch my legs and joke-off ya know? Which is actually kinda hard to do on this site, since a lot of people are like you... and well...!... So I said fuck it lets do this, and then the joke was me being some idiot who immediately contradicts her for a stupid and entirely too personal reason.

 Ideally the dispersal pattern for reactions was that some people would laugh at the absurdism of it, and she’d think it was at least amusing if she even bothered to see it, and then a bunch of other people who don’t know me would be left feeling like it was sorta serious and maybe suck the air out of the room for them, (little bit of an Andy Kaufman thing I know) and then you are at the bottom of the pattern, and you’re a constant, and people keep telling jokes knowing full-well you’re standing there waiting to not get it, or not like it, or complain. I’m sorry you have to be there.

[clickairadio]

CAIR 29: Interview Blake Nubar - Get A GRIP on Your Business Numbers

One simple hack to increase your revenue. In this episode we discuss how to increase your revenue through your business numbers.

Grant Hi everybody this is Grant Welcome to another episode of ClickAI Radio. In this episode, I have the opportunity to discuss with the infamous Blake nubar on how to get a grip on your business numbers.

Everybody, welcome to another episode of click AI radio. This is Grant Larsen, I cannot tell you how excited I am today to have a visitor here with me someone that I've been dying to interview for a long time. I have really admired this man and what he's done. Blake nubar.

Blake I appreciate you having me here, man. It's a pleasure. I'm ready to have some fun and and thanks for having me on the podcast.

Grant Thanks for taking the time to do this. You know, I've chased you for some time, right? Just keep trying to track you down wherever you are on the planet, right? Trying to get a moment of your time. But thanks so much for doing that. In fact, I was remembering the first time that I met you. I happen to actually be sitting right next to you, right. And it was at a funnel hacking live. And I think it might have been the first one that I ever went to. And I'm sitting next to you. And we're just chatting for a minute. And then you were so humble all sudden, they're like, Blake nubar, please come up to the front. They call yell, I'm like what the heck, you had won this award for everything you've done to the business. How cool is that?

Blake Yeah, it was wild, I would award the growth on that thing was insane. Actually, that was on the product. And that was really cool. And yeah, I remember sitting next to you specifically. And I was like, Wait, are you Steve's Dad?

And you're like, yeah, I'm Steve's dad. I'm like, man, he talks about you all the time. Like in such an awesome way. It's fine. Nice to meet you. So, ya know, collecting the first is my first time walking across stage getting the the two comma club award. And that was done with an online business that it was called the b2b formula. I was working with a guy named Brian page on that. We kind of started that thing from ground zero type thing. Brian had a he had a course out really. But you know, wasn't making sales didn't know what a funnel was. All that good stuff. And we kind of like teamed up, you know, and we found each other through this thing. We started building this thing out. And you know, next thing you know, by implementing funnels and getting the right traffic sources in place. We did a million dollars in 43 days with that offer. And we were there at that funnel hacking live collecting that award that was actually here in Orlando, Florida, I believe, which is funny enough, because it's back here again, this year in 2021. Which should be exciting. So yeah, that that was a it was an exhilarating experience. A lot of crazy stuff happened. But on all Yeah, crazy to like help grow a business like that.

Grant I think about how you got started, I've heard a little bit of your origin story. But could you just take a moment to talk about how did you get started into this? Yeah, so

Blake Um, that my whole online journey and my funnel journey is different. My funnel journey is probably more applicable for this. So I was working in the nine to five, I was working in a fitness company. And we were working on building out this certification program for people that want to become personal trainers. If you want to become a personal trainer, you had to pass this exam. It's just like a standardized thing that you have to do. I don't know if it varies from state to state, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But we're building out the certification. And we want to like really go all in on this thing. So we spent we like really transformed how a training program should be. And we like we finished this thing. Like, it was crazy worth like nine months on this thing. It was a ton of time, but it was it was awesome. I had like a mobile app. It was this book. It was an online program and like all 360 views and amazing product. And we go and I hand it over to the marketing department and I'm like, Hey guys, like we're ready to rock and roll and start selling this thing and I almost like hand over the torch and they just couldn't sell it. Like nothing was moving and I just remember getting frustrated cuz I'm like, hey, like, Why is this not working? Like I thought that's your job. You're supposed to like market this stuff now and they're like driving traffic to like a website just like nothing was working. And I remember go I went home one night. And I was like frustrated Of course and I'm sitting there it's like three in the morning. I'm staring at my ceiling fan. And on my laptop on my on my bed. So I just remember pulling it open and looking through it. And I see this ad Come up. And I just remember the ad it just said weird marketing experiments to increase traffic conversions and sales online. I'll never forget the saint of it. And it's this crazy guy on it. His name is Russell Brunson. I had no idea who he was. And he was just like, full of energy. So I clicked on this ad. And next thing I know, I went in in a sales funnel. I didn't know I was in a phone, I thought I was on a website. But lo and behold, I was in a sales funnel.

And it's basically Russell just being like, you want to grow a business online, you want to start a business, you need a funnel, you need a funnel, and he's like, going through all these different types of funnels. And I remember I was like, so intrigued by it. I was like, a 90 minute presentation, and I was so captivated. I remember, I watched it. Again, I watched it twice. So I watched this thing twice. It's like six in the morning, I go straight into the office, I started sketching out a funnel on the board, and the marketing department like, what are you doing, man? I'm like, I know how we're gonna sell this. We're gonna use a sales funnel, like, what's the sales funnel? And I'm like, I don't really know yet. But this guy Russell talks about it. And I think I think this is how we can sell this thing. So I start sketching this thing out. I call up one of our celebrity trainers, who is like the poster child of this brand new certification. I'm like, hey, so and so we need a webinar. Like I bought the perfect webinar stuff. I sent it over to him, he like records this webinar, he sends it back like a week later, I build my first funnel out ever inside of clickfunnels. I put this thing in, and I go to the marketing department say, Hey, guys, instead of like what you were doing, just drive traffic, I do what you do, but just send them to this thing here. And they're like, Alright, so they send people there. And people start often. And people start watching this thing, right? When we go deliver the offer. No one buys like not a single person purchase this thing. webinar ends, we're done. I go outside. I'm like, I'm like Kirsten to myself. I'm like, Oh, another fail What idea. And I remember how like one more last, like lackluster hope of trying to get this thing to work. And I walked back inside. And I just went to my computer and I clicked on the refresh button. And we made our first sale for like, it was like 797 bucks like $800. And I went nuts. And it's like I this Russell stuff works right funnels work. And I walked in the next day and I quit. And I set out on this journey for the for the next year of trying to understand how you know, basically the science of selling stuff online, like funnels and offers and messaging and all that good stuff. And the rest is history.

Grant One sale. That's amazing. That's it.

Blake There's no I think that's one thing I think a lot of us will relate to. And if you if you haven't relate to yet, you know, some people are watching and listening, they have it. The one thing I think a lot of people will tell you is that when you make your first ever sale online, whether it's $5 or 500, there's this feeling that happens where you just like there's no turning back, I want more of this experience again and again and again. Yeah,

Grant Yeah. I love that, that so so your secret sauce as a business owner, it sounds like it's a combination of things. One, you stuck with this clearly right? And it took lots of tries to do. But I've watched you build from that, because I've seen some of the things you've created since then, which is just incredible. I think you've really been perfecting the art of the launch the product launch. He talked about that for a moment. Yeah.

Blake So anytime you have a really creative idea, right? I'm never an advocate anymore. I used to be right of building it out first and then launch it. And I've kind of flipped that on its head. Now it's more like launch it first and then build it out. Because a lot of things that prohibit entrepreneurs from moving forward that stopped them in their tracks as they think they have to go build out these products and services first. And it's really difficult, right? There's a lot of friction in that. And almost it's like a recipe to fail and quit and give up and not want to do it again. So I'm more of a fan of See if you can go sell the idea that you have first and then go spend the time building it out. So anytime we have an idea, what we like to do is really go really hard in the paint, when it comes to launching because launching is definitely it's the way to prove your concept. It's the way that it gives you the short term capital to inject into building the process and fulfilling on it. And even putting more even gives you the capital you need to put into evergreen strategies like paid media and things like that. So we're just like what we do really well here my business partner and I is that we when it comes to a new idea, we really like to watch hard and aggressively like we like, we don't just like to send an email. We don't like to just make a Facebook post or a couple ads. Let's say we like to be the loudest people in the room where by the end of it, I'm hoping people look at me and like man, that Blake nubar dude, he's super annoying, because then I knew we did a good enough job because you couldn't escape us during that launch. So launching is one of those things where it's like, it's you got to become a master of it. Like you have to know how to do it. But you never want to stay in it. It's like learn how to launch and then learn how to move that stuff to the Evergreen model where it just keeps producing for your business day in and day out. So watching is it's it's something you have wasted you have to learn it you have to become really good at it and There's so many different types of launches you could do honestly, it's like, fall one of the frameworks and put your idea into that framework and then just see how it does and see if the markets willing to judge and pull out their credit cards to pay for it.

Grant Are there certain social media platforms that you tend to focus on for your launches? Yes, so we, I'm a fan of Facebook.

Blake I like have this love/hate relationship with Facebook, because it's like, as much as as great of a place it is, it's like you have very little control as an advertiser. So Facebook's a really good spot we enjoy. I think the all our biggest launch we've ever done was only by utilizing Facebook, which is crazy, right? It's just because Facebook to me is the hub. Like if you're on social media, you're on you have Facebook, on your phone, or you use Facebook, you might have the other ones too, you might have like tik tok and Instagram and all the other ones. But Facebook is definitely the core. So I'm like, Okay, let's focus on Facebook, which a reason behind that was a we didn't want to get overwhelmed. I didn't want to like every additional platform, you have to like fake have to. It's just more stuff you have to create. It's different type of content you have to create because the platforms have different ways of posting and stuff. So we're just like, let's do Facebook. That's our favorite. But now as we've expanded the business, and we've grown, we really focus on Facebook and Instagram, those are kind of the the two big honey holes, I would say when it comes to it. We do email marketing and things like that. But it's really Facebook and Instagram, because like I said, that's where every I mean, everyone's on Facebook, I mean, and you take it literal ticket, figuratively, the world's on Facebook. So what better platform to use, and the one where everyone's kind of congregating.

Grant Okay, that's awesome. So you know where you're going to find your people. So you grew this business and you become expert at launches and launches. And you got to a certain point in your business, there was some time or place or condition you got into Lake where it led you to reach out and try to track down someone like myself, what were those conditions?

Blake Yeah, so I remember, you know, the business was growing, we were doing really big revenue numbers. And I remember when I was working with Brian, right, previously, I remember, he had a consultant that was really advocate about understanding your data. And I didn't get it at first, I'm just like, What does any of this stuff mean? And as you really start to see, when your business grows, if you don't have a grip on the numbers, you're kind of in trouble. And I remember we were getting to a point where our revenues were, you know, high six figures every month. And I'm just over here. And I remember I think I reached out to I don't know, if I reached out to Steve, or Steve reached out to me. But I remember one instance happened in regards to conversations like, you need to talk to my dad. And I'm like, he knows this stuff. And he's, it seems like it's what he does. And I'm like, Okay, done deal. And the reason I reached out to you is because I realized that in order for your business to have a grip on it to have a pulse on what it's doing to scale it right with predictability. You're you have to understand these numbers, and especially having understanding numbers in a way where you can make really educated decisions based on that data. See, most entrepreneurs, when you're first getting started, you let your intuition guide your decisions. That's great. Like you have a gut reaction. Oh, this is a cool idea. Let's go watch it. But as that thing works, you need to use less intuition and more data to kind of guide where you want to go. Now, if you want to develop new products sure where your intuition run wild, right. But when you want to make really educated decisions on growing your company and what different verticals to go after what different traffic sources, it should no longer be this game of guessing right, which a lot of entrepreneurs start making the mistake of it's like I touched one thing it turned to gold, we think we can touch some more turns to gold. And it usually always backfires. It has to be the data. So I started thinking, Okay, I don't want to make that same mistake where it's like you think you're the end all be all, and everything you're gonna do is going to be magical. It's not, who can I contact that knows data because I'm staring at this stuff. And I it's like a foreign language. I'm like, looking at like, I don't even know, but I'm just staring at these. And I'm like, this is this way too much data here. And like, no one had a really easy way of organizing it so led me to contacting you. And that's kind of where things began.

Grant That freaked me out at first and I'm like, Oh, yeah, we're gonna do some AI on this. That just sound weird to you.

Blake Yeah, I was just like, you know, I've heard of AI before. And like my geeky brain can like understand it to an extent. But I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Grant, just do your magic because this sounds crazy to me still.

Grant Alright, so it's important to you to understand your business numbers, like you said, so that you can figure out some predictability. It helps you what influenced some of your planning or your next like, if you don't know your numbers in your business, right?

Blake You can skate, you can look you can get to you can just run a start a successful business and grow it to an extent flying blind. Like you can do that. You could you know, you can get a little lucky. You can have something that's pretty stable. But if you really want to grow your business and you're wondering why you're capping out and everything, your tribes not working, there's a good chance you have no idea what your numbers are, right? So if you really there's I don't know another Way to scale a company then by really understanding your data, because when you understand your data, you know, what's converting what's working, what's not. And you can focus more energy on the things that are working and put more money behind those, hence, scaling those. And like kind of divesting out of things that aren't working so well. And the only way to do that is to really have a grip over the data inside of your business, which honestly, is probably the last thing entrepreneurs do, right? Because it's just so overwhelming. You just like the one thing you want to avoid. But I can't express at least in the last few months, how much I like realized how important it really is, to having a grip on it and what it can do for your business. It's the difference maker in your business.

Grant Okay, that's, that's awesome. So when you got started working with us, how much did you have to know about AI? That, were we shoving it down your throat? We're like, hey, learn logistic regression. Come on Blake.

Blake Great, I had no idea of anything you you you had, like, I knew nothing going into it. And I still didn't have to know that much. Because working with you, you're able to articulate the data in a way my brain my, you know, kindergarten brain could understand with pictures and awesome things like that. So going into it. No, I knew absolutely nothing. I didn't have to know anything, which was great. Because you knew exactly how that data worked. You knew how to show me and you basically just were withdrawal. You're like, this is what this means. I'm like, I understand that instead of me trying to figure out what to do. Or the guess is it literally taught you told me what, on this day or this time or after a holiday or before holiday or during this season? Or during this quarter? This is what you should do? and not do. I was like, I can understand that. So it was simple.

Grant So let me ask you about that in terms of ways to make something like this easier for a business owner. Now that you've gone through this experience, what would be some some tips that you would share with others to help them in their journey going through this?

Blake Yeah, just look, data is one of those things. Again, I can't stress it enough anymore. And I don't think many people geek out on it. Like, the thing is, always have a grip on your business when it comes to the numbers, because then you can have the ability to have someone like grant come in and help and help you and show you on what to do with those numbers. Right. Having those numbers is great. You might tell me all day, I know my conversions in my business. And I know, I know my opt in rate. And I know this grants the person that can tell you what that really means and what to do with it. And that's the difference. Because it's one thing, knowing about the numbers, the next is being able to take action on what that data means. And if you look at most things, right? There's every software on this planet will tell you numbers, right, here's your conversion rate, here's your OPT in rate, here's what won the split test. But there's another layer after that. And that was like that was what I was really impressed working with you is that you were the second layer, you were the the team that came in, I was like, Hey, this is what this means. That's great. But this is what it means to do with it. So I would advise anyone, that's whether you're just getting going or you're looking to grow your business, start to get a little grip on your numbers, because then you're able to, you know, work with someone as amazing as grant to help you really scale those numbers by making those decisions.

Grant Blake, you've been more than generous with your time with us today. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for doing this. Any final tips or comments to people who are starting to grow their business? Yeah, so starting to grow your business, always make sure a I'll start from the beginning, you're gonna solve a big problem, right?

Blake Find a big problem, if you find out that you're capping a lot, right? There could be a lot of reasons, like I said, data could be one of them. But just remember, like, solve really big problems, right? Because then it's gonna give you room to grow. And as you start growing, get a real grip on those numbers. Because seriously, there's no other way to scale. You can't scale a business without that predictability. And having that predictability is going to give you the chance to grow your business on a whole new level. Again, understanding what those is and work yourself like grant or some this AI technology. That's absolutely amazing, right? It tells you exactly what to do in order to make those decisions. So no longer do you have to guess anymore. I mean, we've been guessing our whole lives as marketers with split testing and things like that. It's amazing to know that you can go into situations right where the data is, this is kind of how this is how it works. And these are the these are the ways you need to react based on that on on all that information. So that's my final words. I know it's more like this is the geek mind going but solve big problems, get a grip on your numbers and then find a way to take that those numbers and use them to make those decisions to grow your business on a whole new level.

Grant Hey, thanks again, Blake for joining us. And thanks everyone for listening in. Until next time, get a grip on your numbers.

Thank you for joining grant on ClickAI Radio. Don't forget to subscribe and leave feedback. And remember to download your FREE eBook visit ClickAIRadio.com now.

Check out this episode!

[blackthornass]

Do you have any art tips?

Uhhhhhh Funk im not The Greatest Artist ™ but I’ll try to bestow some Wisdom on you. Keep in mind Art is Subjective and I’m no expert and all that so take everything with a grain of salt but that being said I’ll try to give u Tips and Tricks

-listen so if you have a boring class at school just draw in it. School is great because you have 1. Access to paper at all times 2. Incredibly boring lectures. If you have a study hall that’s the Drawing JACKPOT. Basically what I’m saying is practice all the time when you have energy but like that’s such boring art advice. It’s important but “practice! uwu” is like what people with Natural Art Talent say when they didn’t have to figure everything out from the ground up so it’s kind of aggravating

-There’s gonna be people better than you. Chances are you have a friend who’s better than you because this is Tumblr we all draw. Try Not To Compare Yourself ™ which idk how to do but it’s bad don’t do it

-unless you find a terrible person with worse art than you in which case FUCK DUDE COMPARE YOURSELF TO THEM! THEYRE HORRIBLE AND THEY CANT DRAW FOR SHIT LOOK WHOS LAUGHING NOW!

-“work until your idols become your rivals” is absolute bullshit because your idols are working at it at the same time you are. You fool. You imbecile. I feel like this works better for writing when your idols can become irrelevant or straight up die between you being an aspiring author 8 year old and a tired 30 year old who just wrote The Great American Novel ™ or just kind of. Leave the fandom if you’re writing fanfic. Anyway

-ok that’s all the preachy shit, time for Real Art Advice ™. Keep in mind I do digital cartoony shit with Strong Lineart and cel shading for the most part and I pretty much only draw people so my knowledge is limited to that. if you wanna be a professional artist maybe do other things and Expand your Abilities ™

-Ok first off if you’re using Gimp or Photoshop please love yourself and download Firealpaca or illegally torrent Paint Tool Sai or something. I swear by Firealpaca it cured my depression but like. Photoshop is Trash for drawing. Get Firealpaca it has Line Correction ™

-Keep Line Correction ™ at like. A 5 when you’re sketching and at a 19 (the maximum) when you’re lining, coloring, shading, highlighting, doing literally anything that isn’t sketching

-Sketching digitally can be hard if you’re used to sketching on paper and I find it easier to do a sketch on paper, take a picture of it on my phone or scan it, and line/color it digitally. You do you and figure out what works best

-speaking of which I refused to use sketchbooks until I was Worthy ™ of not drawing on notebook paper and uhhhhhh that’s dumb just get a sketchbook they cost a little more than a notebook at Target it’s not super expensive. Although if you’re not financially in the position to buy a sketchbook anyway, just hoard notebooks from school that you didn’t use much. Bam, that’s your new sketchbook

-the Head Circle Cross Thing and the Spheres For Shoulder, Elbow, and Wrist Thing are good and important and will save you

-hands are hard so use references but bullshit your way through it. eventually they’ll look good (I haven’t gotten there yet)

-HAVE FUN WITH NOSES OH MY GOD. Noses are super fun and cool because there’s, like, infinite variety with them, they can be as long or short, thin or thick, rounded or pointy as you want, you can make them be, like, triangles or circles or more squareish or diamond-shaped, the base of the nose can be about as high or as low on the face as you want, you can make the nostrils prominent or not really there at all, they can add another Layer to a character’s design, oh my goodness noses are so fun. They’re like, severely underrated and oh my god I could gush about how fucking fun noses are

-same with facial expressions. Where you put the pupils and how big they are, how much of the eye is covered by eyelids, the way the eyebrows are, the mouth, tons of other shit. There’s loads of variety and so much you can do and honestly having fun with the facial expression is The Best Part. There’s tons of Face Art Chart Memes floating around, you know the ones, save it to your phone/computer and practice those on your own time it’s fun

-if you don’t know how to do something, avoiding it won’t help you. Just kind of draw around with it in your sketchbook or in a “I’m not posting this” file until you feel confident enough to do it in your Real Projects ™.

-Ok for lining did you know..… it isn’t illegal to erase parts of the lineart to clean it up.… just be careful and draw it back in to the best of your abilities if you erase too far and use a smaller eraser brush/lining brush for this… I know it’s tedious nobody likes lining it’s okay you can do this put on some good music

-use mcfucking references

-eyedrop character’s official colors but adjust said colors based on the color of your background to make them look less funky is my general rule for clothing, I usually pick the hair/skin by myself or from something I’ve already drawn though

-for flats, make sure your lineart is all closed off and there aren’t any “holes” cuz that’ll mess up your coloring

-so how I do flats is I use the magic wand tool to select whatever I want to color, expand selection 3 pixels (in firealpaca you can set it to do this automatically), pick the color I need, turn up the brush to as big as possible, and color it in. It saves the time you’d spend with cleaning up where the color gets outside the lines

-you can do the flats on one layer, but I personally like to do every Object on a different layer so when I do shading, I know what goes on top of what

-if a color is darker than the lineart it looks ugly so pick your line color with caution (or just use black! Unlike shading black lineart tends to go with pretty much everything)

-SHADE YOUR GODDAMN ART. Like, what makes people go “wow holy shit that’s good!” is the shading + highlights, don’t be lazy ya fuck.

-I’d take a break before shading to Refresh Your Eyes ™ but also I constantly forget this is a good idea

-don’t shade with black oh my god. Unless you’re doing Strong Punchy Dramatic Stuff or monochrome black and white stuff, don’t shade with black, and if you’re doing that it’ll probably be drawn into the lineart. Don’t shade with black please we can tell you’re doing it and it looks bad

-highlighting with white isn’t too bad though, especially with the eyes, but it might look too strong in some places

-As a general rule, shading is darker and more saturated, highlighting is lighter and less saturated. Whether it gets warmer or cooler depends a lot on what color or thing you’re shading or what you want the feel of the picture to be and I’m not 100% sure how to do it myself so uh. Trust your gut and change the color if it looks wrong I guess.

-where exactly the shadows or highlights fall depends on lots of things, just kind of. Look at how things work irl maybe? This is the kind of thing that you just have to practice, and it’ll look like shit until suddenly it doesn’t sorry I’m not sure what to say

-One Medium Sized White Dot on a layer above the lineart where the pupil borders the Iris (or the whites of the eyes if you’re like me and you make the pupil and Iris one thing) works for a glint in the eye that makes a person look less dead and more cute. How big you’re gonna make it depends on how adorable you want the person to be

-SMOOTH BORDERS FOR THE SHADING ARE REALLY IMPORTANT IF YOURE DOING CEL SHADING which is why firealpaca is my best friend thanks line smoothing. If you’re doing like. Soft shading or painterly shit or other kinds of shading it’s less Super Important but like. Still be sort of neat. Unless being really messy and sketchy is what you’re going for but even then you still need to be sort of careful

-for simple backgrounds, it’s like. Easy to make it interesting. Add polka dots to the background or a big old square or a gradient or a cloud filter or something the possibilities are endless. Another option is to straight up make it transparent and write a secret message in white on the side. But uhh never do a blank white background at the very least fill it with a solid color

-ok style is kind of hard because I never had to struggle to find my style? I just “drew in my handwriting” so to speak and then if along the way I realized something looked shitty I just changed how I drew it slightly? I guess a thing you could do if you’re in tune enough is look at the styles of things you do like and things you don’t and figure out why you do and don’t like it. “I like how *2010s cartoon* does Eyes!” great take that general concept. “I hate how this shitty yaoi has enormous hands!” great then don’t do that. It’s all Personal Preference my dude style is Your Own Thing

-notes aren’t everything but fuck do they feel nice. Self reblogs are fine but don’t overdo it, I’d say reblog it Twice to account for time zones and tag it as self reblog so as to not be a dick

This got long whoops. That’s all I can think of but I hope this helps it’s All I Know

[simptasia]

let's have you talk about dr daniel faraday for the ask game!! 4, 7, 13, 15, 21, 26 and 27!!!

thank you, lisa!! thats exactly the person i wanted to receive!!

Favorite movie

dan’s connection to the world of fiction has been tenuous. but char is gonna introduce him to some good stuff, including the back to the future trilogy. not picking just cuz time travel, i mean, they’re really good movies

fun characters, great music and the romantic beats between lorraine and george and later doc and clara are d’aww worthy so there's that. yeah he’d like them. there’s more Proper Hard Science Sci-fi out there but who doesn’t love back to the future? anyways char and miles grew up way more into pop culture then dan did so they’re gonna drip feed their faves into him

Favorite pizza toppings

give him a regular vegetarian pizza or a pineapple pizza and he’s good. or mix ‘em. like, pineapple, mushrooms, capsicum, that sorta thing

i hc that he’s a vegetarian and he likes pineapple on pizza (miles thinks this is fucking gross and compares it to like, putting grapes on pizza)

Puppies or kittens

kittens, tho both concepts are INCREDIBLY adorable. daniel faraday, with his delicate gentle hands, holding a widdle puppy or kitten. awww. another concept? you seen dan holding a rat? dan holding itsy bitsy BABY RATS

but yeah i chose kittens because in my headcanons, dan gets more experience with cats due to char having a cat (jean-luc). besides that, despite dan not growing up with animals, he likes them and they like him. mayhaps because he’s very nonthreatening and he likes to pet things. Funny How That Works

First impression of this chara

oh man, before i saw him in the show, i kept seeing him get mentioned and also fan-art so i gathered he was popular. so when i met him in the show, my first thought i was “ohh i heard of you” all happy like. and yeah. i wuv him

odd nerdy neurodivergent type who’s gentle and sad? perfect

Dream vacation

i’ve never thought about this because like i tend to keep characters in certain locations, like dan’s place (later dan, char and miles’ place), or the museum, concert hall, etc. this is reflective of how i have no desire to travel

maybe dan has no desire to travel too buuuut he’s dating char so that’s absolutely happening. yeah i feel like he’d go to places that make char happy

so cheesy yeah, but dream vacation is “spending time with those he loves in places that make them happy”. plus dan is hella rich so he can provide monz

If they had one month to live

so i’ve talked about how reckless dan is and how he has little regard for his safety. and he’s fucking irradiated his fucking brain. but survival instinct is still a thing so its another story if he KNEW he had a month to live. he must be used to hospitals and having ppl care for him after his accident (i hc that he was in that pre-island severely brain damaged state for 3 years) so he’s no stranger to that

he’d be strangely accepting that he’s gonna die. no freak outs, barely any tears. he’d enter into some sort of weird calm. a numbness. depression, basically

and reflect on how his life had never really been his own

How they’re mischaracterized

LOST fanfic is barely there and fic with dan way less so. so people really don’t have a chance to mischaracterize him. so what i’m saying is based on the tiny portions of meta i’ve seen AND some stuff from The Old LOST Fandom. and basically the subtextual attitude i’ve gleaned from how ppl talk about daniel

from what i’ve seen, i think some people think of him as 100% naive and humourless. like yeah he’s a little sheltered and he’s inexperienced. he doesn’t have street smarts, he’s book smart. but he def has a subtle sense of humour and i don’t think he’s all the way naive. i also personally don’t think he’s a virgin but that's not so much mischaracterization as it is a diff in headcanons

he’s also not a total walkover/doormat or a picture of innocence. what i’m saying is based on canon: dan can lie, dan can be bitter, dan can be passive aggressive, dan can NOT do what people tell him to do (even his mother, like he got a gf in college, for dan that’s an act of rebellion), dan can go to extreme measures to achieve what he wants (do i need to mention the hydrogen bomb again?), and a couple of times dan expresses a sense of humour (either making some little jokes or sarcastic remarks himself or being amused by other people)

YES he’s a good boy, YES he’s sweet, YES he’s polite. daniel is lovely, daniel is babby. but it’s not just that, ya know. he’s more complex than ppl think

p.s one fic i read had dan find char’s accent to be novel (and he was thinking “some sort of accent, english?”), which is... what. his mum his english. he went to oxford university. dan ADORES char’s voice but he’s not finding her accent to be this brand new, novel, foreign thing. yeah, he’s american, but he’s grown up with a decent amount of english culture. so a funsies reminder for anybody who wants to write lost fic, if char used english slang, dan wouldn’t be phased at all and miles (california boi) would be the one like ??????what

[movementsaremadeupofindividuals]

Transcription of Margaret Ramsey’s Interview

I am a white woman, a white cis gendered woman of average built. Which despite my better leanings sometimes annoys me. I am a white woman from new England, you know, I grew up in a town that was predominantly white but at the same time had a lot of diversity around it. I grew up in Belmont Massachusetts which is right next to Cambridge where Harvard is, and also Boston where there are a million universities. So there’s an international community in the Boston Area. There’s also quite a diverse community in the Boston area based on people coming to school and people being professors. There are tons of different races, ethnicities, languages, foods, all these different kinds of things present my whole life. Also present in my life was the awareness that Boston has some serious racial historical baggage. That because my family has lived there for 3 generations there’s different versions of understanding what that meant and how that felt and what that looked like. I was always aware of race and I’ve told you guys this in class, but the best thing my family ever did was, there is absolutely no space to think that you are better than anybody else. Your unkindness, your lack of generosity is the problem and the real ignorance. My family, I mean, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents, every single person, just like constant reminder of that person is a person and who are you to not help or who are you to judge them right away. So that was something I'm grateful for, and I do think there's a level of like Boston Catholic. My family is successful in a sort of economic way because they sort of inherited and then grew an insurance company. So definitely financially stable but they didn't come from that like that wasn't, that was only a couple generations has that been a feasible thing. My grandfather started working for an insurance company, and then basically inherited it from the owner. You know, a lot of hard work mixed with a lot of luck, but, ya, so like race, economic stuff, like we were always just really aware of it, but aware of it from a space of like you're not that special. Which I know sounds condemning but is actually really important.

Yes, I think I'm part of-I think as a teacher you have to believe that social injustice exists and that it is a changeable thing, if that makes sense, so I see social injustice in our human condition. I don't know if it will ever be eradicated, but I definitely think that there's room to do better. And so that's a driving force behind my teaching practice or like what I think it's worth spending my life bothering to do. I don't personally feel like I can make a dent in the future, as a marketing agent, for instance. Maybe, maybe if I did something like law, right, I would feel like "oh, I can maybe go fight for this", but where I kind of see my ability to help people do better is by trying to encourage the tools of communication and understanding which is in large part why I am an english teacher. So ya I mean I think teacher- well for me being a teacher means that I see social injustice. It also means that I deeply believe that people can do better if they have the right toolsets. And what better looks like is not necessarily Margaret Ramsey's version of what justice might be cuz I don't know what I don't know, right, like I mean I'm not, I don't know everything. I don't know what I don't know. I don't know what, it doesn't occur to me to think, like I don't have access to for instance all the math understanding I might need to know how one change might ripple and cause problems I didn't even foresee. But I do think that with education and access and like the ability to have discourse and make decisions, we're gonna get closer to that goal with our powers combined. Um, so I think I'm part of the movement because I'm trying to just constantly get people to see that people can do better by each other. I mean like I go to marches, I try to support, I read all the time, but ya, I think my main activism is just trying to teach kids to listen, to read, to try, to contribute. Hopefully it will pay off. Counting on you. So what are you gonna do about it?

I just don't know that I would speak in such generalizations like I don't actually know if I think that's true. You know, SF and boston are not in some ways terribly different, you know, I mean like, and I say that because, you go find sort of a never left boston towny and they're gonna like be like "San francisco, that's a bunch of fruits and nuts, like you know, what the heck is going on over there, like they're all gay." Right, I mean like truly they're gonna be like why are you going to SF, are you gay? well no. no. but, but, that said, the profiles of the two cities in a lot of ways are kind of similar in so far as, there's a lot of academics, there's a lot of people who- institutions that kind of are of the mind, so be that out here maybe with more of the sort of innovative companies, etc. and like back there mostly colleges, um, there's a lot of culture, there's a lot of art in both places, there's a high level of town pride, like town entity, city entity, so it's like we are boston, we are SF. There's this sense of there's a culture specific to that city, that people take a lot of pride in, and so there's like that community like regardless of your race, creed, if you believe in boston, there's like a level of like "OK", you go to the red sox game, all walks of life, but for that moment, red sox fans, like it's great, we're united, you know, and I feel like the same thing happens in SF, but what's interesting to me is, massachusetts was one of the first to legalize gay marriage. And that's great and that's awesome. I've always understood it, just kind of my own personal take on it is that I feel like the rationale is not so much like understanding gay people or being totally comfortable with the concept of gay people as much as it’s a ferocious "you're not allowed to tell me what to do" feeling and therefore I can't tell you what to do, whereas out in SF it's more, I would say like a little bit of a soft- or it feels like let people be people, this is human rights, it's like dah dah dah, and like that's fine, the end game is the same in both places, but sort of how did we get there I've always kind of personally felt kind of comes from an adorably different tone, you know i mean, the most aggressive license plate is for me new hampshire, do you know it? the new hampshire license plate says live free or die. And i mean i've always been like "god that is so extreme" but I feel like there's a level of human rights in boston that comes from that similar sort of "democracy started here we have to protect 'live free or die'" that sort of patriotism that's aggressive and not always great, but like it works, it's open minded, so I don't know. I don't know if the politics are necessarily all that different, I don't perceive them to be so, but how people articulate themselves, uh, what they focus on is perhaps a little different.

It's a tough one and frankly I don't know. I don't know. I don't really know that- something I wonder about is how do we get to a place of just being people. I mean i've talked a bunch to you guys, like I'm a feminist until I can just be a humanist, is sort of how I perceive my life. And there's a level of like exhaustion that comes with that from time to time, like I'm just so sick of it all, that like can we all just look at like what would create human thriving. Clearly there are groups of people in deep pain. The narrative is out there, we hear it, right? Black lives matter, Black people are- the Black community is in pain. it is real, it's a loud narrative. we should listen. people should listen. And not just we white people, like, this project of the united states should listen to the Black- like this is a big group of people and they are articulating pain. We should listen. Everybody who's not Black should listen. period. And white people you should listen especially cuz like yo there's a lot of you in those positions right now. Standing rock. "Hey, hey everybody? like listen to those people." like the water crisis in flint michigan, like hey everybody can we listen? or like I personally- something that's deeply felt for me is like- senior citizens in elder care. Super marginalized group and regardless of your race you're going to get there. right? there's not enough structure or care or even a plan for caring caretaking, long term care taking for people with alzheimer's. going gang busters. and it's deeply felt for me because my father has it and so like my mother is his caretaker, but like that takes a lot of work. That's a full time job, really. So thank god they've made enough money that she doesn't have to work, but if not for that, what exactly would be happening. do you see what i'm getting at? "hey everybody we should listen" like senior citizens, people suffering from these long term diseases, and their caretakers should be listened to, like I consider that a movement just because there's a critical mass, like it's really an actual problem. So where do I land in terms of my activism in those ways? like frankly I just feel like I don't- i try not to- I've found it not helpful nor really does it get me anywhere when I consider, like, as a white woman, showing up at Black lives matter, like fuck that, that makes it about me. and like that's not interesting. as a person who has a level of financial stability, i have some leeway. I feel safe, I am employed by people of a like minded like I know that I have some boundaries, like I can't just go crazy as a teacher, but I have a lot of room to play, and I have a lot of trust and I have job security in a way. So how do i use those tactics in my space as somebody who is there, versus what I look like. How can I use those positions, cuz those are the positions that I can actually think "ok what does this manifest as?" like yes. I'm walking around in a white body in those places, but I can bring different things to the table for kids, I can choose what I'm teaching in a way that supports their own exploration of these things, like that might give them an exposure point to something they don't know. so those are- so I don't know, to your question of how do I conceive of myself as a white woman in social justice or social activism in movements? I don't. like I consider myself primarily from the angles of what - where am I in this social hierarchy and like what can i speak to. And I think we've talked about this before. Why am i at a private school not a public school? why am i at a private school not only a private school but a private school in a place where there is no shortage of- like they could hire another english teacher who is probably also great. We've hired many before, like I am not unique here. Or I am easily replaceable, like, I believe. So why am I not teaching in rural ohio? don't those kids technically need me more? like maybe, maybe they do. But I for instance have a lot of problems with like, a teach for america, not the people who do it cuz they're doing the best they can, but like the concept like- I don't know. I don't know if it does that much good work, to support a person going into an environment and a community that is not their own. like how do we support people within communities to do the same work? like I don't wanna be coming from outside whereas I am from this background. I am from private schools. I went to one. I went to public school too, but I went to a private school and then I went to a private college, like, I can code shift if you will within this space, better than some, and better than I could in an urban environment. So should I use my range here to do better? is it more effective? I kind of think it is. I don't know. We'll see. See what happens.