#meanwhile I make tutorial videos

[crowsintheforest]

working for a public library in rural red state midwest usa is a roulette between horror, chaos, despair, and the most deep-hearted love for community and the work. just this week, it's been:

microsoft: nah we don't need to help fund your patron PC access to our service, gl with that

patron's baby smiles for the first time upon receiving library plushie

the libby hold counts are dropping but it will affect like 10 people across the whole system, don't worry

what even are our archivists doing

unknown patron unscrewed parts in the makerspace for reasons no one in IT can figure out

reminders about when and how to call our congresspeople at state and federal levels because everyone at this point has our awful awful senators contacts stored in our phones

during program, patron talks about parent's love of horse training and the stack of photos of parent's wins they're excited to learn how to digitize in our memory labs, allowing them to share their long-dead parent with their friends and extended family.

state library council fires about a dozen people due to budget cuts

I love my job, but I'm so tired.

[tiny-tokunaga]

What is with the youtube algorithm? It saw that I went on a spree of watching videos of Kson reacting to herself in the LAD games and her interactions with Kuroda and it somehow got from that that what I'm interested in is.... Vtubers. LMAO?????

[miyasmagnolias]

𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ⋆˙⟡

a/n: we have a lot of new readers here after my last post! thank you so much for supporting my work — i'm grateful to have you here. ♡ and while I would much rather be writing my next fic than doing the administrative work of running a blog, it must be done! (ง'̀-'́)ง

so without further ado, here's a masterlist of all my current works!

𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

in close quarters | miya atsumu

when college athlete and former frat boy miya atsumu moves into your apartment senior year, your only goal is to make him as comfortable as possible. what ensues is an unlikely friendship — and feelings neither of you expected.

what to expect: athlete x literature girly, hurt/comfort, lots of fluff, friends-to-lovers, roommates-to-lovers, slow burn, atsumu's healing arc, language, suggestive/mature themes, any 18+ nsfw content will be tagged!

(you can read each installment as a one-shot, but there's an ongoing story that unfolds if you read it as a whole!)

1. first impressions

➢ all you wanted was a roommate who enjoyed watching the bachelor just as much as you did. so when a disgruntled frat boy becomes your subtenant for the year, you decide to work with what you've got.

2. writer's block

➢ your menstrual period just so happens to arrive the week of your first big writing deadline. meanwhile, atsumu discovers new sides to you.

3. you deserved better

➢ you always considered atsumu to be a fairly guarded person — that is, until you hear him crying in the bathroom after a particularly abysmal day.

4. limited edition

➢ when atsumu spills coffee all over your new book, he goes to the ends of the earth to make sure you never notice.

5. gnarly

➢ atsumu catches you dancing in your bedroom to a certain viral song.

6. first date

➢ you go on a date with a guy in your major. meanwhile, atsumu finds himself increasingly upset about it.

7. bar crawl

➢ atsumu misses the annual fraternity bar crawl, so you spontaneously decide to plan one for him.

8. she makes ya better

➢ atsumu apologizes to his brother for a years-old argument — only to get ambushed about his feelings for you.

9. give 'em hell

➢ you get to know osamu and suna more at atsumu's first game of the season. meanwhile, atsumu subjects you to a very public display of affection.

10. i missed you

➢ atsumu's out of town for an away game. you're stuck at home, finishing your degree. somewhere in the silence, your feelings for him finally rise to the surface.

11. heels showcase

➢ you invite atsumu and the boys to your spring dance showcase to raise money for a good cause — and maybe get even after the viral video incident. atsumu, on the other hand? he just wants to ask you out and, if he's lucky, kiss you properly this time around.

12. night market

➢ atsumu takes you on a date to the university night market. everything is perfect — until you run into the last two people he ever wanted you to meet.

13. private study room (nsfw)

➢ atsumu drops off dinner for you at the campus library, where he helps demonstrate a steamy scene for your creative writing thesis. for research purposes, of course.

14. job rejection

➢ when you get rejected from your dream job, you do everything in your power not to tell atsumu right away. too bad he can read you like an open book.

𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬

pregnancy test | akaashi keiji

➢ you and your boyfriend are no strangers to overthinking — so when your period doesn't arrive on time, you take turns calming each other down.

halloween party | kuroo tetsurō

➢ you never considered yourself a jealous person — that is, until you realize that your cute Bumble date is the life of the party.

blemished skin | yamaguchi tadashi

➢ when the lighting in your hotel bathroom leaves you defeated over your blemished skin, your long-term boyfriend is quick to hold you amidst your insecurities.

job interview | kozume kenma

➢ editing video tutorials for a urinalysis company wasn't exactly your dream job. luckily, your former coworker has a solution involving a certain youtube sensation.

grand opening | miya osamu

➢ long-time friend and soon-to-be restaurant owner miya osamu asks you to be the event planner for the single-most important evening of his career. no pressure.

[xiaberryy]

“i look like i got beat up, Caleb.” she deadpanned as she looked at her reflection.

adolescence comes with the joyful but difficult journey of self-discovery. they observe, learn, and mimic their surroundings. she wasn’t an exception from her peers who are obsessing over their looks, wanting to enhance their beauty with make up products.

however, she still lacks skill in that department and who else she’d go to if not the jack of all trades?

“i just followed the tutorial, Pip-squeak..”

however, it seemed like the jack hasn’t mastered this trade yet. after all, her soft cheek was dabbed too thickly with an awful shade of red and her eyelids were painted with poorly blended pink eyeshadow.

both teens sighed in unison. in the background, the youtube video continued to play but none of them wanted to pay attention to this woman who they deemed terrible at giving tutorials.

“don’t worry, i’ll figure this out somehow, okay?” Caleb smiled reassuringly while patting the younger girl’s head.

he never once let her down. so, with eyes glimmering with trust and hope, she nodded, “okay!”

the next day rolled around and he’s ready to tackle this top mission. he spent yesterday noon to night, surfing the internet for makeup tutorials, best makeup type for different face shapes, etc.

“you seem confident,” she smiled at him as she sat down.

Caleb took a hair tie and grabbed a handful of her hair, “well, confidence comes from skill,”

“oooh, are you a professional makeup artist now?” a cheeky grin was plastered on her face as she stared at his reflection in the mirror.

after he tied her hair with the right amount of tightness, he grabbed hair clips to make sure no hair covered her pretty face in the process, “i’m pretty sure i got the basics down but you can be the judge of it later, Pip-squeak,”

the first thing Caleb did was gently prep her skin. as he did, he couldn’t help but notice how incredibly soft her skin was and how delicate her facial features were.

it didn’t take long for it to dry. he began dabbing cushion foundation over her skin. seeing her face in such close proximity, his heart began to race.

she’s already so perfect, does she really need this? a frown appeared on his face without him noticing.

the girl stared at him through her long eyelashes before letting out a stifled giggle. he huffed softly while smiling, “what got you all giggly, hm?”

she teasingly poked his lower lip, “you’re frowning,”

her touch made his movements halt. he raised his eyebrows and pulled the corner of his lips into a lopsided smile. the chair creaked lightly as he rested his hands on the armrests and leaned closer.

“can’t promise i’ll stay professional if you keep poking me like that, dear client,”

she giggled while backing away, “oh no, that’s unacceptable. please continue with the service,”

a soft amused huff left him. he grabbed a brow pencil and twirled it around his slender fingers, “close your eyes for me,”

she tilted her head, “why? you’re doing my brows, not my eyes,”

his hand caressed the side of her face. it was an instinct of hers to press her cheek closer to feel the warmth better. “can’t focus with those pretty eyes lookin’ at me, y’know,” he chuckled.

a knowing smile spread on her face before she complied, “okay, then,”

Caleb filled in her eyebrows while admiring the sight of her face. he was glad she had her eyes closed, otherwise she’d see the lovestruck expression he had.

“what are we doing after my brows? my lips perhaps?” she playfully pursed those plump lips of hers.

it was an innocent question, but she had no idea how he almost leaned down and gave her a big fat smooch.

how could anyone blame him? she had her eyes closed and lips pursed, his sweet girl needed to be kissed!

when she felt the lack of movement on her face, she took it as a sign to open her eyes. the sight which greeted her was his back facing her.

she blinked in confusion, “Caleb? are we done?”

meanwhile, Caleb was pressing his palm over his heated face, trying to calm his racing heart which was ready to burst.

he dragged his hand across his face and sighed deeply, “i..need to go to the bathroom. hold on.”

without waiting for her response, he bolted to the bathroom with a speed that got her scratching her head in wonder if he really needed to pee that badly.

unknown to her, Caleb was literally dumping his head into a bucket full of water to cool down. it seems like there’s another victim of adolescence hardships aside from her.

[fox-guardian]

hii i hope this is ok to ask but i love how fucking HUGE you make curly look, do you have any advice on how to draw muscular frames? :o

thankies!! i love drawing him Robust-Looking <3

as far as advice goes, when it comes to anatomy i always recommend the channel proko on youtube, they have all kinds of videos about how to draw anatomy with each area of the body broken down. basically, if you're trying for anatomical accuracy with muscles and stuff, their vids are a great way to grasp how muscles work!

as far as general shapes and vibes though, i have a couple quick tips of my own <3

the biggest part, if you can imagine, is proportions. typically tutorials will tell you the average shoulder width for a person is about 2-3 heads wide, so if you're making someone Bigger and Beefier, you'll wanna go past that a bit. (and making a character's head smaller is gonna make their body look bigger by comparison, so if you wanna go crazy, shrank that thang)

For example, Daisuke (who i draw as lean, but still with some muscle, especially in his arms) is 4 heads wide at his shoulders, while beefcake curly over here is 5 (sometimes more depending on the drawing lol). something as simple as broadening the shoulders already gives a character a beefier-looking silhouette.

[ID: Simple rough sketches of Daisuke and Curly from Mouthwashing with colored circles showing how many heads wide their shoulder width is. Daisuke is four, Curly is five. end ID]

~~~~

"but what if i don't know how to draw the muscles and am not going for realism/don't feel confident enough in that yet? how do i give a muscular vibe without as much detail?" FEAR NOT it's super easy. here we use the power of SHAPES!!

i draw jimmy and curly with the same "skeleton" or base frame, so i think they're a good example of this next bit. despite having the same bones, i broaden the fleshy parts on curly's limbs (focusing on his shoulders cuz he has big ass shoulders) and keep his upper arms wide before tapering down into his hands (muscles tend to be largest at the base of the limb and get smaller up to the hands/feet but there's plenty of design exceptions). i carry that shape language down into his legs (which i emphasize with his fitted calf-height boots). meanwhile jimmy stays fairly squared, especially when fully clothed

[ID: Simple sketches of Jimmy and Curly from Mouthwashing with notes describing their shapes. Jimmy has a rectangle over his body and is noted as being "relatively rectangular" and the shapes of his limbs are mostly straight. Curly has a trapezoid over his body and has a "top heavy shape" with limb shapes that taper down and in. end ID]

~~~~

and honestly, a good hack to make a character read as more muscular or robust is to give them a buddy that contrasts that. once again, jimmy will assist.

even in a simple drawing like this, giving jimmy the opposite tapering to his limbs just emphasizes curly's hugelargeness by comparison. it also shows that you don't need a lot of detail or realism to convey Beefiness

[ID: Another, more simplified doodle of Jimmy and Curly, pointing out that Jim's limbs taper outwards while Curly's taper in. end ID]

~~~~

another final quick tip i have is: the neck makes a difference!

people with more muscle tend to have thicker necks (it's because of the muscles there, if you can believe it) and it's kinda become one of my fav bits of drawing curly lol. idk why <3 necks fun to draw <3 for him, i draw his neck starting at the very edges of his face and widening out at the bottom to match the shape of his head and to flow a bit more into his trap muscles, but you could go Even Further Beyond if you so Choose. i've found this is a surprisingly good way to convey Beefy Person Beefy even if you don't have as much anatomical knowledge.

[ID: Four bust sketches of Daisuke and Curly comparing their necks. The first two show them both facing forwards. Daisuke's neck is slimmer and straight, while Curly's neck meets the edges of his jaw and has a wider base with higher trap muscles. The second two shows them in profile, with the back of Daisuke's cranium sticking out past his neck, while Curly's is even with his neck, showing how thick is is from the side. end ID]

~~~~

in review we got:

widen shoulders relative to the head to convey a Broad silhouette

taper limbs inwards from base to extremities to emphasize the shape/size of the muscles

give em a less muscular buddy for contrast

thick necks help a lot in conveying a muscular build

and of course, i know i only used men in these examples, but these tips will work just fine regardless of a character's gender. please draw more beefy women ily <3

i hope this made sense and helps you and whoever else might see this uwu

if anyone has any questions about it i will. Try. to answer them. making these posts is oddly difficult lol

[vibewithma]

Club opening

Sinners Modern!Au

Preacher boy/Sammie x Black Church Girl!Reader

You’re sprawled across your bed in your fluffy pajama shorts and a big T-shirt, hair tied up in a pineapple, phone in hand, vibing to a soft gospel track just trying to soothe your overthinking mind. The weekend’s been heavy on your heart church this morning, then silence from Sammie all day.

You’re about to settle deeper into your pillow when your door bursts open without so much as a knock.

Dawn stands there with hands on her hips, striking as ever in a tiny leopard print corset dress that hugs every curve, paired with knee-high black boots. Behind her is Chris, decked out in a flashy leopard print polo, baggy jeans and fresh Timbs. He looks like he stepped out of a 90s rap video, proudly grinning.

“Oh no. Absolutely not.” You pull your blanket over your head.

“Girl, get up!” Dawn laughs, yanking the blanket right back. “We’re going out. New club opening. Chris got us on the guestlist ‘cause he knows the bouncer.”

Chris does a little spin, popping the collar of his shirt. “Cornbread owes me from that time I hooked him up with my cousin, his wife. We’re VIP tonight, baby!”

“I am not going anywhere,” you groan, grabbing a pillow to hide your face. “I wanna sleep.”

“Y/N.” Dawn sighs dramatically. “We are not doing this. You’ve been moping around since church. Sammie who? Outside is calling your name!”

Chris hops onto the bed, nearly bouncing you off. “Yeah, girl. Come on. You can’t let a man have you holed up like Rapunzel. Besides, look at me. I’m too fine for you to waste it.”

You lift the pillow just enough to peek at his exaggerated pout. “I really don’t feel like it, Chris.”

“That’s why you gotta go,” Dawn insists. “Nothing like a little music, some dancing… maybe a free drink or three. Shake that mood off.”

It turns into a full debate, Dawn pacing like a lawyer, Chris chiming in with “periods” and “she right, bestie,” while you stay stubborn. But somehow, after ten minutes of relentless tag team persuasion and Chris guilt-tripping you about “leaving your brother hanging,” you finally give in.

“Fine. FINE! But I’m not wearing anything crazy.”

Dawn’s eyes light up. “Say less!” She rifles through her bag and flings a leopard print halter top and a tiny black mini skirt onto your lap. “Put this on.”

You gape at it. “Girl, this is a napkin and a belt. I am not wearing this outside.”

Dawn smirks. “Funny, wasn’t too much when you were grinding on Preacher Boy in your lil shorts, was it?”

Chris’s eyes nearly pop out of his head. “EXCUSE ME?! Y/N, YOU WAS OUT HERE DOING WHAT ON SAMMIE?!”

You groan, pressing your hands over your face. “I hate both of you.”

Chris is now dramatically fanning himself. “The church girl was outside? Ouuu, Sammie got you acting bad, huh?”

“Mind your business, Chris,” you mutter.

“Never!” he chirps back, giggling.

By the time you finally pull on the outfit, complete with some delicate kitten heels that Dawn practically forced on your feet you’re already rolling your eyes at yourself in the mirror. Dawn is hyping you up, telling you to turn around so she can make sure your skirt isn’t tucked anywhere it shouldn’t be.

Meanwhile Chris stands behind you, gathering your curls into a half-up half-down style with a tiny scrunchie he found in your bathroom. His fingers are surprisingly gentle.

“Gotta get my girl right for the streets,” he teases, sticking his tongue out in concentration.

“So our innocent girl Y/N,” Dawn jumps in, voice high with excitement, “was moving her hips on a certain preach boy. Girl, you was putting my tutorials to work or what?”

Chris clutches his imaginary pearls. “My sweet, innocent Y/N. Who knew you were a little freak?”

“Okay, y’all are done.” You swat them both away, cheeks hot, but a reluctant grin breaks through.

You glance at yourself one more time in the mirror bold print, legs out, hair cute. Maybe this was exactly what you needed.

Dawn links arms with you, Chris wraps an arm around your shoulders and together y’all march out the door like the damn powerpuff girls, ready to cause a little chaos.

The club was alive lights swirling, music bumping, bodies moving like waves in a storm. You, Dawn and Chris were in the thick of it, laughter spilling over the beats, your worries momentarily washed away in the rhythm. Sammie, Stack and Smoke were tucked away upstairs in the office, eyes glued to the bank of security monitors that flickered with every corner of the club.

Stack, leaning in with a casual grin, was the first to spot it.

“Yo, hold up look at that.” He pointed to the screen, where a swirl of curls and familiar moves caught his eye. “That’s gotta be Y/N.”

Smoke chuckled, zooming in on the screen. “Church girl, huh? Lookin’ like she out here wildin’ in that skirt. Ain’t exactly Sunday service attire.”

Sammie’s jaw tightened. “Don’t call her that. Only I get to call her that.”

Smoke laughed harder. “Man, come on she’s out here with that dude I told you about. The one from dinner, right?”

Stack nodded, eyes still glued to the monitor. “Yeah, that’s him. And ain’t that Dawn with her too? I see Y/N whining on Chris and Dawn ain’t having none of it.”

Sammie’s fist clenched, breath shallow. “Y’all better stop.”

Smoke, grinning devilishly, nudged Sammie with an elbow. “You look like you about to pop a vein, little cousin. Church girl in a hoe skirt, huh? Maybe she ain’t as holy as you think.”

Sammie swung his arm up fast, but Stack stepped between them, holding his cousin back.

“Yo, chill, man. You ain’t gonna solve nothing with your fists. But look, look again.”

The screen caught a close up of Y/N, her head tilted back, laughing, eyes bright and then Dawn teasing Chris, who was trying to keep up with their playful energy.

Sammie’s breath hitched, eyes flicking between the screen and his cousins. “She’s… she’s not—”

Smoke smirked. “She’s living her life, man. You can’t cage her.”

Stack shook his head, half amused, half sympathetic. “You know, if she wants to be with you, she’ll come back. But don’t lose your cool over this. Just… don’t be the jealous fool.”

Sammie’s fists unclenched slowly, but his eyes stayed fixed on the screen, heart torn between pride, protectiveness, and a flicker of doubt.

Smoke leaned back, grinning wider. “Church girl got a whole nightlife, huh? Maybe you gotta keep up if you wanna keep her.”

Sammie let out a low breath. “Man, this ain’t a game.”

Stack clapped a hand on Sammie’s shoulder. “No, it’s not. But sometimes you gotta watch and wait. Let her show you what she’s made of.”

Smoke threw a sly grin Sammie’s way. “Or get ready to lose her to some dude who ain’t scared to dance in the dark.”

The three of them stayed glued to the screens a little longer, the distant thrum of the club below a stark reminder that outside the office, the night was still young and so was the game they all had to play. Down on the dance floor, the world was a blur of lights and sweat and bass. You had your back turned, still giggling with Dawn, swaying your hips in playful challenge while Chris hyped you up. Dawn was the first to spot it, her eyes went wide, her hand shot out and gripped your arm tight.

“Y/N… don’t freak, but Sammie, Stack and Smoke they comin’ this way.”

Chris twisted around, brows shooting up. “Yo, what? Why’s your man lookin’ like he tryna murder somebody?”

You didn’t turn right away, stubbornness biting hard. “I don’t care. He ain’t texted me since the other night. Whatever.”

But then you felt it the shift in the air, the sudden weight of attention. The music might as well have cut off because the look on Sammie’s face stole all the sound. His eyes weren’t playful, weren’t soft. They were dark, blazing with something raw.

Chris lifted a hand, trying to be cool. “Yo, preacher boy, what’s up, bro?”

But before another word could spill out, Sammie’s fist connected with Chris’s jaw. Chris stumbled back, grabbing his face.

“Samuel!” you shrieked, hands flying up, but he didn’t give you a second to react. He grabbed your wrist, pulling you through the crowd.

“Let go of me!” you snapped, digging your heels into the floor, but he was too strong, too focused.

Stack and Smoke trailed close behind, muttering curses. “Man, calm your ass down this ain’t it!” Stack called, but Sammie wasn’t listening.

He finally found an empty side room small, dim, lined with old bottles and a couch nobody wanted to sit on. He slammed the door shut behind you and pinned you against it, his hands gripping your waist like he needed to remind himself you were real.

“Who the fuck is that dude, Y/N?” he rasped, breathing hard, eyes wild.

“You don’t get to ask me that!” you fired back, shoving at his chest. “You ain’t texted me since you had your hands all over me. What was I supposed to think? That you was done with me after you got your little make out in?”

His jaw clenched. “That’s not, nah, don’t twist it. You think I’d just drop you like that? You think I don’t care about you?”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it!”

He pressed closer, crowding you into the wall, his breath hot on your cheek. “You were dancing on him, Y/N. Laughing with him. Wearing this little ass skirt—” his hands squeezed your waist, hard enough to make your breath catch. “You know how that makes me feel?”

“Not my fault you decided to disappear!” you screamed, shoving him again. “You can’t claim me and then ghost me, Samuel. I’m not some girl you can put on a shelf until you’re ready to play again.”

His hands slipped up, cupping your face, voice cracking. “I’m not playing. I swear to God—”

“Don’t. Don’t bring Him into this when you’re out here acting crazy!”

That shut him up for half a second, just long enough for your own tears to pool. You pushed him again, harder this time, breaking free from the cage of his arms.

“You need to figure out what you want, Samuel. And how to treat someone when you want them.”

You yanked the door open, ignoring the way he called after you, voice low and broken. Your heart hammered in your chest as you stormed back into the pounding bass of the club, searching for Dawn and Chris. Your body was still buzzing with his touch angry, electric, desperate.

And for the first time, you wondered if loving Samuel Moore might hurt worse than it could ever feel good.

Taglist:

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[defuse-myheart]

COOKING NIGHT-DREW STARKEY

𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕪 Drew and Y/N try to cook together, but it turns into a hilarious mess.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈

It was supposed to be a simple, romantic evening.

Drew Starkey had the brilliant idea of skipping takeout for once and cooking dinner together with Y/N. She had jokingly complained the week before about their excessive reliance on Uber Eats, so Drew decided it was time to prove they could do something more domestic.

“Think about it,” he said that morning as they lay in bed. “Good food, great wine, and the satisfaction of making something with our own hands. It’ll be fun!”

Y/N eyed him skeptically. “Do you even know where the pots and pans are?”

“Of course I do!” he retorted, feigning offense. “They are somewhere in the kitchen.”

By late afternoon, they were in the kitchen armed with ingredients for a homemade pasta recipe Drew had found online. He had watched half a cooking tutorial on YouTube earlier and felt ready to tackle the task. Y/N, ever the realist, had a backup plan: frozen pizza in the freezer, just in case.

The first sign of trouble came early.

“Do we really need this much flour?” Y/N asked, frowning as Drew poured what looked like half the bag onto the counter.

“That’s what it said in the video!” Drew replied confidently, rolling up his sleeves.

Y/N glanced at his phone, where the recipe was still open. “Drew, it says two cups of flour. You just dumped, like, five.”

Drew paused, his hands coated in the white powder. “...Well, it’s too late now. We’ll just make extra pasta. More is better, right?”

Y/N shook her head, laughing, but didn’t argue.

Things quickly escalated.

Drew was tasked with kneading the dough, but his enthusiasm for the task sent small clouds of flour into the air. Y/N stood back, arms crossed, watching as he wrestled with the sticky, uneven lump on the counter.

“Is it supposed to look like that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Totally,” Drew said, though the dough clung to his fingers like glue. “This is exactly how Gordon Ramsay does it.”

She couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Sure it is.”

By the time they had something resembling pasta dough, the kitchen looked like a tornado had swept through. There was flour on the counters, on the floor, and somehow on Drew’s forehead.

“Okay,” Y/N said, clapping her hands together. “You handle the pasta; I’ll work on the sauce. How hard can it be?”

Turns out, making sauce wasn’t as straightforward as she thought.

Y/N chopped onions with more enthusiasm than precision, the knife slipping dangerously close to her fingers. Drew hovered nervously beside her.

“Careful! You’re not supposed to hold the knife like that.”

“Oh, and you’re the expert now?” she shot back, throwing a handful of onions into the pan.

The oil in the pan hissed and popped violently, and both of them jumped back.

“Is it supposed to do that?” Drew asked, grabbing a spatula like it was a weapon.

“I think so,” Y/N replied, though her tone was far from confident.

Meanwhile, Drew’s attempt to roll out the pasta was going poorly. The dough clung to the rolling pin, tearing apart no matter how much flour he added.

“This stupid thing won’t cooperate!” he grumbled, shaking the sticky mess.

Y/N turned just in time to see a piece of dough fly through the air and land on the kitchen light fixture.

“Oh my god, Drew!” she exclaimed, doubling over with laughter.

“It’s not funny!” he protested, though he couldn’t help but laugh along with her. “Okay, maybe it’s a little funny.”

By the time they finally dropped the misshapen noodles into boiling water, the sauce was bubbling ominously on the stove, and the kitchen looked like a crime scene.

When they sat down to eat, the table was set with mismatched plates and the slightly burnt garlic bread Drew had insisted on adding at the last minute.

The pasta...well, it wasn’t perfect. The noodles were uneven, some parts were overcooked, and the sauce was a little too salty. But they were laughing too hard to care.

“This might be the worst pasta I’ve ever had,” Y/N said, giggling as she twirled a lumpy noodle onto her fork.

“Hey! It’s...rustic,” Drew said defensively, though he couldn’t keep a straight face.

“Rustic is a nice way of saying terrible.”

They clinked their glasses of wine together, grinning. “To our first and possibly last attempt at cooking together,” Y/N said.

“To frozen pizza as a backup plan,” Drew added, pulling the box out of the freezer with a flourish.

As they sat on the couch later, eating perfectly crisp pizza and watching a movie, Drew glanced over at Y/N.

“Okay, maybe we’re not gourmet chefs,” he admitted. “But it wasn’t all bad, right?”

She smiled, leaning her head on his shoulder. “Not bad at all. Definitely the most fun I’ve had ruining dinner.”

Drew chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Next time, we’ll just stick to sandwiches.”

And despite the mess, the chaos, and the slightly singed garlic bread, it was a night they’d both remember for years to come.

[elderwisp]

Hi wisp, I was wondering if you have any beginning editing tips. I am unable to get shaders but would love crispy cool sims. Thanks. Hope that makes sense.

Hi! Yeah! I'll make this into a master list and kinda go through the process starting from programs, your game settings to editing in a photo editor and any little details. I want to try and make it as accessible as well, normally I use photoshop. However, for this tutorial, I'll be trying out Photopea!

Programs and Optimizing your game:

☆ Here I have a list of free editing programs!

☆ This posts links a majority of my editing tuts but this one in particular has a texture pack which I'll be using in this tut

☆ Here I go over SWRE settings. Pictureamoebae goes into depth about the program/links it here. It isn't necessary but it does help maintain the quality of a photo without needing to crop it. I won't be using it in this tut but it could be something you try out in the future!

☆ I do run my game with custom settings, here's a picture of that! Edge smoothing is off for reshade purposes but for this tut, it's on high as well

Angles and Lighting:

☆ For this tut, we'll be working with Rowan! The composition of a picture is always an enjoyable part for me, I'd be lying if I didn't say I spent at least 25% of the whole process setting up a photo. The first photo shows the environment more and almost makes Rowan look smaller in a bigger world. Meanwhile the second, it feels like we're at Rowan's level and seeing the world through his eye. Both are good, it's just what do you want to communicate? I was actually gonna go with the first but I sorta like the second now and that's because of the sky

☆ Which leads me to the next part, the lighting. Lighting sets a mood for everything and I could yap about color theory for days but for now, I like the color of the evening sky. The purples look nice against the orange and greens! Lighting indoor is trickier but you can still manage with the placement of lighting fixtures. I don't like to use overhead lights in game because it just gives my sims weird shadows with reshade but it could be different for you. Also here is this neon light set I love using in case you want to use color indoors! They're a lot more vibrant that just the regular old ea lights

Editing:

☆ I felt like the easiest way to go about this is a video! I tried to keep it to the basics but as time goes on you can add different skills like drawing in hair, going in depth with color grading, etc. I did forget to include the curves layer because in photoshop that's grouped into Camera Raw Filter but honestly, for this tut I think that's okay. Curves layer just allows you to get really precise with how much highlight/shadows/whites/blacks are pulling in the photo as well as a brief intro to color grading. Anyways here is that video backed by the beautiful soundtrack of SKYRIM-

Original and Edited (without field blur/with field blur):

[juju-rps]

aot diaries

☆part two: the smoke signal

intro | part one

the faint smell of dust and the empty apartment was now replaced by the scent of freshly watered plants. it's been a few days since you moved in with jean, and while you were still surrounded by the unpacking mess, the apartment was starting to feel like home. you were lying on the couch, scrolling through your phone, when jean came from the kitchen, with a determined look on his face.

"alright, (name)" he announced, hands on his hips. "time for a proper housewarming. no more sad takeout. i'm cooking."

you blinked, "you're... cooking? jean, the last time i saw you cook, you almost set off the fire alarm trying to make toast."

he scoffed. "that was one time! and it was the toaster' fault. besides, i've been watching those cooking videos online. it's all about technique, and i have it. tonight, we feast. i'm thinking... chicken with a lemon butter sauce, and some roasted broccoli." he flexed his arms, "gourmet, baby."

you raised an eyebrow, "wow ambitious. what could possibly go wrong?"

famous last words.

an hour later, the apartment was starting to fill with a not so pleasant smell that was definitely not lemon butter. you walked into the kitchen to find jean, fanning a smoking pan with a towel. the smoke detector, thank god, had yet to join the party, but it felt like a matter of minutes.

"jean! what the hell happened?!" you choked, waving a hand in front of your face.

"i don't know!" he said, sounding like he was about to cry, "the recipe said 'sear until golden brown,' but then it just... started smoking!"

just then, your phone buzzed with a message. it was eren.

jean, meanwhile, was wrestling with the smoke detector, muttering curses under his breath. "this is fine. we can fix this. just needs... more butter?"

"no jean. we need to throw it in the trash and air out the kitchen before armin knows and calls the fire department." you say sternly.

as you opened the window, a loud, insistent beeping finally pierced the air. that goddamn fire detector.

"OH COME ON!" jean threw his hands up in frustration.

the pizza arrived like a ray of hope, its aroma quickly overpowering the scent of burnt food. mikasa had shown up not just with the hot boxes, but also with a portable fan and a can of air freshener. armin, walking behind her, looked concerned but amused. eren, of course, was already there, sprawled on your sofa, having already let himself in (you probably gave him a spare key at some point, or he just knew how to pick the lock, who knows?)

"honestly, jean," mikasa said, "i'm starting to think you're safer just eating takeout forever."

jean, still red faced from embarrassment, mumbled, "it was an experiment! you can't make an omelette without breaking some... chicken..?"

eren snorted from the living room. "more like breaking the smoke detector."

you almost tossed a pizza slice at him. "you were just waiting for drama, admit it."

as everyone settled around the coffee table (the one you'd managed to assemble only after three hours of arguments with jean and a youtube tutorial) the atmosphere lightened.

armin, ever the helpful one, offered to send over some genuinely simple recipes for beginners. eren, naturally, documented the post-disaster pizza feast for his instagram story.

later that night, after everyone had gone home, you and jean collapsed onto your respective beds.

"so," you said, muffled into your pillow, "lesson learned?"

a sigh came from across the room. "yeah. stick to instant ramen, apparently. and uh.. thanks for... not letting me burn the place down."

you smiled. "anytime, roommate. any time."

your phone buzzed, illuminating the dark room. it was your groupchat with the gang.

[sapphicrot]

i need to know how you learned to do textures in fabric. the way you draw it has so much depth & looks so natural my mind almost skims over it because it looks so right. you do it very masterfully and i was wondering if you learned it from any specific resources, and if you did can you perhaps please share them? obv i know it takes practice too but i think you're a good person to ask. if its ok anyway ^^'

thank you!! it’s mostly a combo of references + brushes! one of the ways i learned to draw was also by watching speedpaints, so that could help too! i’m gonna put more in depth stuff about my process below the cut but honestly this tutorial is one of the ones that has always stuck with me ever since seeing it:

also, i use the procreate default 6B pencil and default ink bleed brushes for nearly everything, but don’t be afraid to use other brushes as needed! i also use the smudge tool to blend.

one of the things i try to focus on is the light source of the image, which really helps me figure out how the light is gonna bounce off the cloth.

pebbles is illuminated only by the light of the pearl, so i find the points where his coat bunches to highlight. his coat is very structured, like a starched type fabric, so the lighting isn’t smudged or anything to make it look more “harsh”. if it was like, silk or satin, i’d have smudged/blurred it.

the thickness of fabric is also really important:

wind’s robes are a satin material, which reflects light in a sorta blurry way, so i just straight up used gaussian blur on it lol. satin/silk also tends to reflect white, rather than the color of the fabric. meanwhile, sliver’s robes are a thicker material so i used the good ol 6B pencil brush (as well as the smudge tool with the same brush) to keep a little bit of the pencil’s “grain” on it, to make the fabric look matte and therefore thicker.

also line work really can help sell the illusion of texture. adding lots of lines n shit at “pinch points” (where there’s a bend) will often make the fabric look thinner than if there’s less lines. sig’s lab coat is clearly a lot thinner than the stiff fabric of piper’s sweater.

variation can help a lot too! moon’s main cloak is a stiffer, matte material while the ribbon and sleeves are more silky and reflective, and the difference between the two can bring attention to the textures.

but yeah. i hope this helped a little bit at least, im not super great at explaining this kinda stuff! i added a sped up video of me doing sig’s lab coat if that’ll help too!

[self-loving-vampire]

That medium post is highlighting just how fucked people get when they treat gender norms like a Serious Thing you must abide by. Like, what?

1- "A weak thing really wanting to be strong is pathetic" is the kind of thing that is like... who is even saying that?

The virtue of wanting to become stronger (be it for altruistic reasons or even just to master your art) no matter how pitiful your starting position is seems to be something that repeatedly comes up in fiction.

It's not just shonen training arcs to help you overcome someone who outclasses you in every way but also things the RPG journey of starting out at level 1 barely knowing your left from your right and becoming strong enough to kill god at the end.

In fact, this is what makes games like Gothic and Dark Souls so appealing. You start out so weak that everything obliterates you in one or two hits and you're pretty much just another doomed soul in a horrible situation, but if you persevere you can overcome anything.

Maybe stop thinking of strength or weakness as something inherent to gender rather than something you need to cultivate through training and experience? Sure there's geniuses like me who get a huge experience multiplier but that's not gendered either.

2- Boys 100% do cry. They often get beat up for it because they're not supposed to cry, but they still do it regardless of how things are "supposed" to be. Because humans are humans and extremely few people naturally fit the platonic ideal of what their gender is supposed to be at all times. Crying is not exclusively a "girl" thing, and it has nothing to do with weakness, bravery, or intelligence.

See, the thing is that the people who actually get good at video games are usually people who enjoy playing video games and do it on their own rather than just when they pick up something they have never done before in an effort to get validation while being anxious the whole time because they arbitrarily decided that video games are "boy things".

You're not just missing out on the confidence buff but also jumping into a mid-game area before finishing the tutorial. What did you think was going to happen?

"Fantasy story where a woman is doing cool stuff" is like... not even abnormal if you ever engage with anything outside the absolute most mainstream of media. Maybe it won't feel so shameful if you realize it has been done extremely well countless times before.

Also gendering romance seems like a mistake as well. Like, from the exact same story as the above image:

Yeah, it turns out stories can have both romance and women doing cool things and mature, non-sexist men will not necessarily hate either of those aspects.

I'm one of those people who got physical abuse to transition to mainly just threats by fighting back, and you know what that was actually like?

I never was even remotely as strong as big as my father was. I'm 170 cm and grew up malnourished (about 100-110 lbs before I left). I eventually also developed a major disability. Meanwhile he was huge and has literally killed people before. Most of those teens who fought back against their abusive dads? They probably were still physically weaker than said dads too.

But none of that matters, because you don't need to actually win, you just need to show your will to fight. You need to make it clear that there's going to be serious costs if they are violent towards you, and even children who haven't gone through puberty at all are capable of doing that if they give zero fucks.

Even an unarmed 10-year-old who was truly willing to do so is capable of causing lasting harm to an adult. I don't blame anyone for not trying something like that themselves since most people don't want to harm their parents and are averse to pain, but it's definitely dumb to make it into a gender thing that is just impossible without a specific type of puberty.

Also I should note that in a lot of cases this doesn't make the abuse stop entirely. It didn't in my case.

This is literally just applying that one comic to yourself.

Hope you're sitting down for the next bit:

Playing cool video games is the modern day equivalent of fighting war??? How does that even occur to you? Video games are literally entertainment. More like reading books or playing sports than killing people for real.

Also like, war still exists? That's kind of a big thing that is going on right now. War exists and people are fighting it. If this person grew up in the US then their country has been at war in some capacity for the vast majority of its existence. The modern day equivalent of war is war, and war is not actually cool or respectable like gaming is.

Putting up a bright billboard that reads "You know you don't have to be like that just because of your gender, right?"

Like, who cares if the other women you know personally only improve their skills for the sake of dress-up and horses? Do you not have things you want to do? I don't know what to say other than that this reads like NPC behavior.

Tip: You can be a man if you want, but also that probably won't give you instant competence or respect like you think it will. You're still going to have to Get Good at whatever it is you want to do.

So the kind of person who tries to fake an interest in "boy things" in a completely half-assed and insecure way actually exists and has terminal gender essentialist brain. I see.

I do think that's kind of shameful not just for the essentialist garbage but also in the sense that it reads like someone who is too invested in trying to insincerely impress others at the cost of their own individuality and pursuits.

If you're going to be taking right-wing types seriously then maybe you should at least notice that they also don't seem to respect tradwife types at all. They want to own them, sure, but they don't respect them. Attraction is not respect. Those people just don't respect women by default for reasons that are patently bullshit.

This is, from multiple angles, a personal problem. Some of us actually do like video games rather than using them as a way to get respect.

In fact, I'd hate it if people made a big deal out of the fact that I'm a woman who likes video games. That is and should be just a normal, unremarkable thing.

You know, maybe that whole thing where you see yourself as an eternal, inherent weakling not just physically but technically is unhealthy and holding you back from even considering that you could ever be good at anything besides child-rearing and clothes.

Good thing that she rarely feels like this anymore as an adult who is (according to the comments) no longer in a religious cult but this is like... putting my sexist father's thoughts in a self-loathing woman, basically?

[imminent-danger-came]

Something that I think is really funny (even though I don’t know if there is any deeper meaning behind it beyond being a funny contrast) is how MK is only ever catty to Macaque. Meanwhile, as of the season 3 specials, Macaque is at his best/kindest when with MK.

I don‘t think I‘ve ever seen you talk in depth about these two? So I was wondering what your thoughts on them were (generally speaking).

I think overall, it really highlights MK's negative character arc vs Macaque's positive one. Macaque has his issues, of course, but he's also improved somewhat (being willing to help SWK in 4x11 being the prime example of that). MK on the other hand just keeps steadily going down.

And I also think that like...in a way, MK is for Macaque who Tang Sanzang was for Wukong:

"Wukong was on a path of self-destruction, we all were. But when he met the Monk, it sent him down a different path." (4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

Which I think is very reminiscent of Macaque's arc in seasons 1-3. Macaque, who was very bent on revenge and wallowing in his own suffering, learns to see Wukong in a different light and the value of helping others.

"Alright Misery Kid, you were supposed to realize by now that the choices the game's giving you aren't the only choices you've got. Life isn't some pre-written thing like a video game where you ahve to do what the tutorial says. [...] Whatever point is, it's time to start making your own choices—something I wish I would have learned a lot sooner than I did." (4x10 The Jade Emperor)

And a big part of that was MK giving him a chance in 3x13, along with MK's choice to not abandon Mei in 3x10.

So yeah! I think Macaque and MK have a pretty interesting dynamic. I also am kinda hoping that MK loses his shit on Macaque next season lol, and then from there they can both build a more sincere and honest relationship!

[xoxo-stellea]

𐙚⋆°｡‪‪❤︎‬ ⋆ 𝒞𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒟𝒶𝓉𝑒𐙚 ⋆°｡‪‪✮ ⋆

Warnings//none just some fluff ☘︎

｡ ₊°༺❤︎༻°₊ ｡

The kitchen was filled with the sounds of pots clanging, knives slicing, and the occasional giggle as you and Chris worked side by side. It had started as a simple idea—Chris had asked if you’d like to cook dinner together—but as soon as you agreed, he had thrown himself into the task with the same enthusiasm he put into everything. The recipe was simple—just spaghetti and homemade meatballs—but the process, the laughter, and the small moments of connection made it something far more special than it ever would have been if you’d cooked it alone.

Chris stood at the stove, stirring the marinara sauce, his brow furrowed in concentration. You were chopping garlic and onions at the counter, the scent filling the air as you finely diced each piece. The kitchen was small, but cozy, and the warm light from the overhead lamps added to the homely feeling of the space.

“You sure you know how to cook?” you teased, glancing over at him as you cut another clove of garlic. “You’ve been at that sauce for a while now.”

Chris gave you a playful side-eye, a teasing smile playing at the corners of his lips. “Excuse me, I’ve got this under control. I’m just making sure it’s perfect.” His voice was laced with mock indignation, but there was a definite twinkle in his eyes that made it clear he was enjoying every second of this.

You couldn’t help but laugh, setting the knife down and walking over to him. “Let me guess, you’ve been watching some YouTube videos, huh?”

Chris shrugged dramatically. “Maybe I watched a couple tutorials,” he admitted with a grin. “But it’s all about the little details.” He leaned in close to the pot, taking a deep breath. “Smell that? Perfect balance of herbs.”

You stood next to him, leaning in to smell the sauce. The rich aroma of tomatoes, garlic, and basil hit your nose, making your stomach rumble. “Okay, I’ll give you that. It does smell good.”

He winked at you, clearly pleased with himself. “Told you. Just wait until the meatballs are done.”

You stepped back, grabbing the ground beef and herbs you’d set out earlier, your hands working quickly to form small meatballs, rolling them between your palms until they were perfectly round. Chris, meanwhile, was still at the stove, stirring the sauce with an intensity that made it clear he was really focused. You had to admit, there was something oddly endearing about how seriously he took it, especially since you knew this was probably his first time making spaghetti from scratch.

The kitchen filled with the sizzle of meatballs as you dropped them into the pan, a smile spreading across your face as they began to brown. “There. That should get them nice and crispy,” you said, carefully flipping them over.

Chris watched you with admiration, his lips curling into a smile. “I knew I was right to ask you to cook with me. You’re a pro.”

You shrugged nonchalantly, flipping another meatball. “Well, I’ve made this a few times, so I guess I know what I’m doing.” You paused, glancing over at him, catching his gaze. “But, you know, it’s fun to do it with you.”

Chris’s expression softened, his smile turning more genuine. “Yeah, I’m glad we’re doing this together.” He stirred the sauce again, his voice quieter now. “I think this is what makes everything better—the little moments, you know?”

You looked at him, a flutter of warmth spreading in your chest. There was something so intimate about this—standing together in the kitchen, sharing the task, sharing the space. It wasn’t about making the perfect meal; it was about being together, being present in the moment.

“Yeah,” you said softly, a small smile tugging at your lips. “I get it. I feel that too.”

The atmosphere shifted then, becoming more peaceful and relaxed as the two of you worked in tandem. You focused on the meatballs while Chris kept stirring the sauce, making sure everything was just right. Every so often, he’d glance over at you with a look of quiet admiration, or make a playful comment to break the silence. It was easy to be with him like this—no pressure, no distractions. Just the two of you, creating something together.

You finished the meatballs and added them to the simmering sauce, watching as the rich red sauce absorbed the flavors, melding with the herbs and spices. Chris adjusted the heat, his brow furrowing slightly in concentration. “Do you think it’s ready to be served?” he asked, glancing at you for confirmation.

You took a small taste of the sauce from the spoon, savoring the mix of tangy tomatoes, basil, and the savory meat from the meatballs. “It’s perfect,” you said with a smile. “I think it’s ready.”

Chris grinned, clearly pleased. “I think we make a pretty good team.”

“I’ll say,” you agreed, reaching for the plates. “Dinner is served.”

You set the table together, arranging the plates, adding a sprinkle of Parmesan on top of the pasta and meatballs. Chris was already setting out glasses of wine, his movements graceful as he poured a generous amount into each glass.

When everything was ready, the two of you sat down at the small kitchen table, the room glowing softly in the evening light. You both took your first bites, the taste of the homemade meal filling your senses. There was something about sharing food you’d both worked hard to make together that made it even more satisfying.

“This is really good,” Chris said between bites, his mouth full. “Okay, I might’ve overdone it with the seasoning just a bit, but overall, it’s… it’s pretty amazing.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “Overdo it? This is perfect, Chris. You really came through.” You smiled, watching as he reached for his wine glass. “I think you’ve earned the title of ‘Chef Sturniolo’.”

Chris laughed, leaning back in his chair. “I like that. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” His gaze softened as he looked at you, and for a moment, the playful banter faded into something more meaningful. “But honestly, I’m just happy we did this together. It’s been… really nice.”

You met his gaze, the warmth of the evening settling over both of you. There was no need for words; the contentment in the room, in the simple act of sharing this meal, said everything you both needed to hear.

After dinner, the two of you moved to the living room, where you collapsed onto the couch together, tired but happy. Chris stretched out, propping his feet up on the coffee table, while you snuggled into the cushions beside him, leaning your head against his shoulder.

“Thanks for today,” you said, your voice soft, content.

Chris smiled, his arm wrapping around you as he pulled you a little closer. “Thank you for being here, for making it as fun as it was,” he said, his tone full of affection.

You both sat in the comfortable silence, the scent of the meal still lingering in the air, the TV softly humming in the background. It was moments like these—simple, quiet moments—that you cherished the most. Not because of what you were doing, but because of who you were doing it with.

As the night wore on and the meal settled, you and Chris found yourselves drifting into a peaceful silence, the evening winding down in the best way possible. You felt grateful—grateful for the laughter, the food, and most of all, for Chris.

This was what love felt like—sharing the smallest moments, cooking together, laughing together, just being there for one another. And it felt like everything you ever needed was right here, in the warmth of the kitchen, in the comfort of his company…

Writers note- hope y’all enjoy ☘︎

[midnight--sadness]

Okay for your found family AU, I had like this idea come to me in the middle of my class.

You talked about Gi-hun getting back into doing his makeup and abso-fucking-lutley rocking the look. Now I imagine him pairing it with some cute crop top, boot cut jeans and block heels. This outfit kills. And now imagine In-hun seeing his wife wearing it after so long that he just freezes in place and he wants to do things, but he has to control himself because the children.

And semi also posts sometimes on her Instagram and she posts a 'get ready with me' video of gihun getting ready in the above outfit. He does his makeup to perfection and the audience is literally shoked to see him apply a winged eyeliner perfectly in one stroke and they go crazy over the red shade of his lipstick and everyone keeps asking in the comments what makeup he uses because he looks so perfect with everything on. And he also has applied some fake eyelashes. Just imagine this look and the outfit. Killer.

Ofc the social media goes crazy and that becomes a viral video because they cannot wrap their heads around the image of gihun rocking 90s outfit and just looking so so perfect and hot.

I like to imagine inhun doing breathing exercises because what do you mean gihun is going out for shopping with the kids dressed in that?! He wants to tear that outfit off of him and ruin that red lipstick.

He does exactly that when gihun returns from shopping, taking him to dinner at a 5 star hotel, they have a nice dinner and he then takes him to the penthouse of the hotel and destroys him.

He gives Junho a heads up to go and check on the kids in the morning because gihun had made sure dinner is ready for the kids and everything else they might need.

Because he needs some time with his wife as he had been so busy for the past 2 weeks and seeing his beautiful wife in that outfit is the breaking point. They return after lunch, with amazing food for the kids who forget any questions they had after smelling mouth watering food and gihun goes to the bedroom to rest after making sure everyone has enough food because he feels a bit guilty leaving his kids alone but the kids are secretly a bit happy because they had so so much fun without their parents. But he also needed that alone time with his husband. Inho meanwhile makes sure that the kids do not make a lot of noise and that his wife sleeps peacefully. He deserves that sleep after inho did not let him sleep for very long during the night.

I just had to get it off my chest. I have some other ideas brewing as well. You'll see me soon!

PLEASE SEND ME ALL OF YOUR IDEAS!!!!!!!! 😍😍😍😍

YAAAASSS TO ALL OF THIS!! 💖😩🤧🤧

that outfit also has a chunky belt and a fuzzy coat 😌

gihun ends up doing a step-by-step makeup tutorial for the girlies bc so many asked for it. he gives them little tips and tricks he used to do back in day, which works out fine since the 90s are so incredibly back. semi starts doing a segment every week with gihun to satisfy her followers' curiosity.

inho goes insane and absolutely ravages gihun in that hotel bed 🥴

the kids are so happy that their parents are glad but they def try to get them to go out more since they staying alone at home.

[saturdaynightspecialpresentation]

I've finished the main story of Fallout 3 (But not Broken Steel) and it's bad, but in a way that I find extremely confusing and just need to talk about.

Giant essay (And some spoilers) under the cut.

First of all, I feel like the received wisdom is that the east coast games are the bad ones and the west coast games are the good ones, which is true but it means that people really exaggerate the flaws of the east coast games while minimizing and excusing those of the west coast games.

Like, in the HBomberguy video on Fallout 3 he spends a lot of time on how much the intro of Fallout 3 sucks but like...

I'm sorry, compared to Fallout 1 and Fallout 2?

Fallout 2, which has one of the most obnoxious, hated, and ill-conceived tutorials on video game history?

There's a sort of refusal to meet Fallout 3 even halfway in that video, but if we approach Fallout 1 and 2 with the same attitude, *they also look really bad*.

Fallout 1 doesn't really have a tutorial, but it does have a cave full of rats.

I think it took me until my second or even third playthrough of Fallout 1 to realize that you could actually go into Vault 13 and talk to people inside. The game does not give you, the player, any reason to be attached to Vault 13, to the point that I literally did not even think of it as a location in the game.

You're getting the water chip because that's the plot of the game, not because you have a sense of Vault 13 as a concrete place.

The Temple of Trials in Fallout 2 is just a mess, yeah there's like one dude you can get past with a speech check, great, but I hope your weedy speech and guns character likes killing giant ants with a spear that you don't know how to use.

And of course, within the reality of the game it's utter fucking nonsense, that this village on the verge of collapse also built this enormous stone temple full of traps and puzzles and mechanisms just to train people how to leave the village.

It's one of the most egregiously terrible tutorial levels in RPG history.

Meanwhile, the intro to Fallout 3 shows you what it's like to grow up in the vault; you meet actual characters, you get a sense of both the ways that your character is safe and pampered, but also that she's trapped with these people, not all of whom are likeable or even necessarily entirely safe to be around.

Then, her comfortable life is suddenly exploded, she can't rely on the vault and has to make a daring escape, and it ends with an expansive vista acting as a contrast to the narrow corridors of the vault, as a world of possibility and danger opens up before you.

Look, maybe it needs to be edited down to be shorter, rewritten a bit, but conceptually this is a much better, more immersive way to do a tutorial than either of the first two games.

Unlike 1, I spent most of the beginning of Fallout 3 thinking about when I'd have enough footing to go back to my former home and confront the Overseer, and then when I did it turned out I was ridiculously overpowered, which was thematically actually really great! It felt like my character had grown bigger from her experience than even she realized and steamrolling these absurd, small vault people really brought that home in a satisfying way.

Compare to Fallout 1 and 2, where the home your character grew up in is just kind of a meaningless macguffin.

I don't want to paper over the major flaws of the tutorial or of Vault 101 in general; there's some major, even crippling flaws in execution.

But even with those it's still the best intro out of the three games.

My point is more, because Fallout 2 is a generally better game than 3, people sort of excuse major flaws in 2, while ignoring the things that actually work and make good sense in 3.

Which brings me to my main point:

What the hell happened to the writing process in Fallout 3?

Yes, it's bad, but it's bad in the way of like... a cake that got taken out of the oven ten minutes earlier than it should have.

The fact that it's just the story of Fallout 1 and the story of Fallout 2 at the same time is an issue, but more of the same, particularly after a long hiatus between games, is not the worst sin in the world.

The real question I have is why does it feel so unfinished? It's like the sketch of a plot that they were going to finish later.

Like, here's a small example:

President Eden never explains why he wants to use the FEV to kill everyone off.

Here:

"I know this solution may seem extreme to you, but the truth is, we are losing to the super mutants. There are more of them every day, while we are losing soldiers to attrition, to desertion, even, I am afraid to say, despair.

"Morale is low, you've already seen that Colonel Autumn is actively countermanding my orders; unless something drastic is done I truly feel America will be no more.

"This is not a decision I make lightly; Yes, there will be some collateral damage, but such is the nature of war, and I will not fail to act while there is still a way to save America.

"This is the burden I must bear as your President."

Done. Easy.

So incredibly easy that I genuinely don't understand why a line like that isn't in there.

And it's really easy to imagine Colonel Autumn's objections, too, but those also aren't spelled out.

Like, what if Colonel Autumn truly wants to use the Purifier as a water purifier but because of his jingoism he just feels that anybody else taking command is a risk to US security, and that violence is the only language that wastelanders understand.

Maybe President Eden even tries to negotiate with your dad on peaceful terms, but Autumn just tries to use force and the situation escalates and your dad still dies.

And then later you find out that Eden is planning to kill off 90% of the wasteland and as Autumn has realized that he's trying to stop it, and you have to deal with the fact that Colonel Autumn is both a cold-blooded killer and actually trying to help people.

Like, I am barely moving any of the pieces around. The bones of this story are already here.

And that's a really bizarre thing about playing this game: at all times it's really clear how you would use the exact same characters and plot elements to tell essentially exactly the same story in a much better way than it is actually told in the game.

There are a ton of cases where characters don't really explain their motivations even though, like, 15 seconds of thought let's you come up with a perfectly plausible motivation which could be expressed in a couple of lines of dialogue.

It's just kind of baffling. This is not an ill-conceived game, although all of the ambition is in building the 3d world, and the story is just... weirdly neglected.

Just retelling the first two games again is an unambitious choice but... there's already an extremely clear roadmap of how to tell those stories in a satisfying way, so it's really perplexing to me that they don't really manage it.

I'm curious what happened with the writing process here, it's bizarre.

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

Have you ever considered doing tutorials or showing your process step by step? I’m really in awe of how you manage to give your drawings such weight and make them feel so solid and 3D. Id love to see how you go about doing it.

Thank you!!

Funny you mention that - the other day I recorded myself working on a commission. I'm planning on making it a process video for my $5 patrons. I also recorded an intro part with me talking about my materials n such.

Unfortunately, that means I have to EDIT the dang thing. It's 3+ hours. But hopefully I'll set my procrastination aside soon. When it's on my patreon, I'll let people know it's there.

I don't want this to sound like some sort of plug though, maybe I'll keep it there for a few months and release it on youtube eventually. In the meanwhile, there's a few reels on my instagram of me working on drawings. Not a lot but maybe it'll help answer your question at least a little?

Here's one:

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