#skeleton loading animation

[divinector]

Skeleton Loading Animation

[buttercup-barf]

Wait, is it possible to do posing on loadout tf?? Like, not just game poses, but your own????

Yes!

Go to the main settings (big cog, not the two small ones), pick Scene Explorer, click on whomever you wanna pose out of the list (you can turn the visibility of the models you already loaded in on and off with the little eye icon), and look for the "skeleton" tab. It gets you a dropdown thing, showing the names of their various joints, and I have no clue how half of those work.

Most of them are considered "branches", so, like, you can't see the left finger joints, unless you open up the hand branch, through the lower arm branch, through the upper arm branch, through the collar branch- [INHALE] Which you get after clicking through the four spine branches, that stem from the pelvis (also considered the center of the model's rotation) branch.

Note that you need to have the manipulator thingy ticked, and select this spinny icon. The cross one moves stuff around (really good for moving around helmets, cigarettes, and weapons separately from the body, or just doing stretchy nonsense), and the size-changing one... I haven't touched that one, lol, it scares me.

The red, green, and blue curves are your axes of rotation. You just click and drag them (they're highlighted yellow, whenever they're selected), but it kinda requires giving it a few test wiggles to see which thing rotates where.

Also note, that after rotating something, it kinda stays in that position, so if you try to load in a different animation, it will, uh. Result in some unintentional hilarity. I know this advice is kinda doodoo, but I do sincerely hope it helped at least a little.

My good buddy and frequent tormentor, @/flandesuka, also fiddled around, and found tons of interesting stuff, like how to disable Sniper's glasses, or whatever, and you can most definitely find a lot of stuff on your own, too. You can always open the advanced settings (two small cogs), and reset everything, if things go haywire. Experiment.

[spacelemon]

Pt. 2 of unused Yona stuff

So thanks to the TOTK modding community I learned where the animations are actually stored and it turns out that Yona doesn't have just one unused animation bank, she has two! Today I'll talk about the one listed for Npc_Zora_Princess.anim.bfres (not to be confused with the used version Npc_Zora_Princess_Animation.anim.bfres).

Inside contains a single 15 frame animation called "FaceEmotionSample"

While there are 15 frames, only 10 of them are animated (where the other 5 frames went is anyones guess, could be the animator just didn't want to do 15 full expressions).

They are also static animations so no need showing video of it playing out (Yona looks possessed trying to play it).

Because of being named "Princess" and the fact it fits her skeleton, it was made likely very close or at the final design stage for her. The second being that Npc_Zora_Swordswoman also had a much more simple facial rig which I'll go over eventually in Pt.3.

Yes! Npc_Zora_Swordswoman does have some unused animations!

Tag yourself as the Yona expression you're feeling like lol, I'm 9 for sure.

One last note, it's somewhat hard to see but in many of her expressions her horns move position as well, most obvious in #8. Very cute and not sure how much is that is used in her TOTK expressions.

What a mood.

EDIT: TOTK has actually quite a few FaceEmotionSamples out there for various characters. Those who are new to TOTK have their expressions mapped out (Tulin, Ganondorf etc.) while those who are returning mostly have test animations for their various effects loading in and out (Secret stones, ancient mask equipping etc.)

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: hagfish

After taking last week off for mental exhaustion I have returned! And what better way to mark my return than with a shitload (or perhaps a highway load) of slime? Today I'm returning to the agnathan trenches to dredge up one of two living groups of jawless fish. I covered lampreys before, so now it's hagfish time. These ooey gooey critters are both fascinating and kinda gross. Now get ready, because it's time for slime.

(Image: a hagfish in profile. It is a long, brown, eel-like animal with a fin encircling the tail and a small head with no visible eyes or mouth. End ID)

Hagfish, also known as slime eels, are approximately 76 members of the class Myxini. In addition to the living species, hagfish have been preserved in the fossil record, letting us track their evolution through history. Hagfish are one of two living groups of agnathans, commonly known as jawless fish, with the other being the lampreys. As the name suggests, jawless fish are vertebrates without hinged jaws. Way back when bones were the cool new thing in town, agnathans represented the entirety of the vertebrates and were extremely diverse, but the evolution of jawed fish resulted in them getting largely outcompeted, leading to all lineages but the hagfish and lampreys going extinct. Genetic studies indicate that hagfish and lampreys are more closely related to each other than either group is to any other vertebrate. Because they are the only jawless fish left, hagfish and lampreys are of interest to scientists studying the evolution of vertebrates.

(Image: a hagfish coiled up, under orange light. The head is visible, featuring small sensory barbels and a large hole that resembles a mouth but is actually the nostril. End ID)

Hagfish are eel-shaped animals that range in length from a few centimeters to over a meter in the largest species, Eptatretus goliath. They have no scales, flattened tails that bear the only fin, and simple, eyeless heads. The heads bear sensory barbels, a single nostril, and the mouth. The mouth has two pairs of rasping plates that normally sit within the mouth, but can be everted to face outwards. The plates can grab food and pull it into the mouth to be swallowed. Hagfish do not have true eyes, but they do have eyespots that can sense light and dark. Interestingly, their fossil ancestors did appear to have fully-developed eyes that reduced in complexity until the present state. Likewise, ancestral hagfish had a true vertebral column made of cartilage, but modern hagfish only have remnants of their ancestor's vertebrae. Hagfish skin is very loosely connected to the internal body, only attached along the spine and slime glands. This makes the skin very flexible and harder for predators to grab. A third of the blood is contained between the skin and body and is pumped around with the heart as well as a few additional pumps that act as auxiliary hearts. Hagfish have some of the lowest blood pressure of any vertebrate and the highest blood volume to body mass ration of any chordate. Hagfish are also the only vertebrates that do not osmoregulate, meaning they cannot regulate the amount of salt in their bodies. Changes in salinity, especially moving to a lower salinity environment, are very dangerous to hagfish. Hagfish skeletons barely qualify, consisting of only a skull, notochord, and fin rays, all made of cartilage. The gills are internal. Water enters through the mouth and is forced over 5-16 internal gill pouches, then ejected through pores in the side of the body.

(Image: a closeup of a hagfish head with the rasping plates everted. The plates are mounted on pink tissue around the pharynx. there are two plates on either side of the pharyx which look like rows of small, sharp teeth. End ID)

That's all well and good, but you're here because of the slime. The hagfish's main defense is to create lots and lots of slippery slime. The slime helps them slip away from predators. If a fish tries to eat a hagfish, the slime can clog up its gills, forcing the fish to either release the hagfish or suffocate. A common factoid is that a single hagfish can turn a 5-gallon bucket of water into slime in seconds. To produce the slime, the hagfish releases threads made of special proteins into the water from glands on its skin. These proteins react with seawater to create a matrix of trapped water held together by filaments similar to keratin. The slime matrix can expand 10,000 times its original size in 0.4 seconds of exposure to seawater. The slime is quite durable and resistant to breaking and dissolving in water. After sliming, hagfish have been seen wrapping their bodies into an overhand knot and running themselves through the loop to scrape the slime off of themselves. Its possible that the slime also impairs the hagfish's ability to use it's gills and it needs to do the know to get the slime off and breathe again.

(Image: a person reaching into a holding tank full of hagfish and pulling out an armload of thick, viscous, white slime. End ID)

(Video: a hagfish in the wild demonstrating its knotting behavior. This one is going in the opposite direction usually seen: tail-to-head instead of head-to-tail. End ID)

Hagfish are found in most of the oceans, with range varying based on species. They are benthic animals that rarely swim far above the seafloor. Some species dig burrows to shelter in while others will shelter under rocks and other structures to avoid predators. While lying on the sediment, some hagfish species will coil up while others will lie straight. Hagfish are carnivorous and feed with a combination of hunting and scavenging. A large portion of the hagfish diet consists of polychaete worms and other known prey species include small crustaceans and echinoderms. Some species have been known to hunt burrowing fish, possibly by clogging up the burrows with slime to suffocate the prey. If you've seen a documentary about deep-sea fish you probably know about hagfish scavenging. Using their large nostril and sensitive sense of smell, hagfish can sense carcasses from long distances and are often some of the first scavengers to arrive at a new body. They use their rasping plates to pull bits of meat off of the carcass. A similar behavior to the slime-cleaning knots is seen when scavenging, but in reverse, going from tail to head instead of the other way around. This grants the hagfish additional mechanical advantage, allowing it to rip off larger chunks of food. Hagfish will burrow into larger corpses, possibly to get access to a food source with less competition than the outside of the body. Hagfish act as part of the deep ocean's cleaning crew, consuming corpses before they can decay and release potentially harmful chemicals into the water or act as sources of disease. Unlike any other living chordate, the food a hagfish swallows is encased in a permeable membrane during digestion. Hagfish can also absorbed dissolved nutrients through their skin. Hagfish have a very slow metabolism and ones in captivity have been observed going for up to 7 months between meals.

(Image: several hagfish feeing on the body of a fish. The hagfish have their heads on the fish's body and one hagfish is entering the fish's mouth. End ID)

Hagfish reproduction is still something of an enigma as so many of them live in the deep sea, making it difficult to observe them reproducing. It has been observed that females seem to outnumber males, with the exact ration varying depending on species. In some species, the sex ratio is almost even, while in others, there are 7 females to each male. however, it should be noted that females mature sexually faster than males and it has been suggested that this is responsible for the apparent skewed ratio. Hagfish eggs have tufts at the end that cause them to get stuck to each other like velcro. It has been suggested that eggs are laid in clusters possibly in burrows, beneath rocks, or protected with slime. Some species seem to have a mating season and seasonally migrate. Hagfish have only a single ovary or testicle (the latter of which has been described as unusually small by scientists and bullies in the deep-sea locker room) and they have no specialized reproductive tract. Instead, gametes are released into the main body cavity and must find their way to the anus to leave the body. Hagfish embryology is poorly understood, though it has been reported from studies of Eptatretus stoutii (Pacific hagfish) that the eggs can take up to 11 months to hatch. Hagfish have no larval stage, unlike lampreys and bony fish.

(Image: a group of 9 hagfish eggs in a plastic tub. The eggs are ovoid and dark yellow, with tufts of fibers at each end. End ID)

The conservation status and needs of most hagfish species is hard to discern because of the depths they inhabit. Threats to them include bycatch, as hagfish are often caught during deep-sea dredges. It is alos possible the chemical pollutants may be passed to hagfish through scavenging. There is a commercial fishery for hagfish, which is largest off of the west coast of the Americas. Hagfish are eaten as a delicacy in Korea and less commonly eaten in Japan. Most of the hagfish fishery goes to Korean food markets. Hagfish skin is also values as a durable leather and often marketed as "eel leather" or "yuppie skin". Study of the slime and the highly durable threads that produce it indicates they could be used to create very strong materials, similarly to spider silk. Research is currently being undertaken to find uses for hagfish slime and threads.

Once again, these cards show up in my posts (Image the Weird n' Wild Creatures card for hagfish, featuring an exaggerated drawing on a hagfish. End ID)

[coldbronzemoon]

Dead on Arrival

Stan goes to his brother's house hoping for a reunion.

He doesn't get one.

A Frankenford one-shot inspired by this post by @crypticmushroom

Stanley Pines didn't know what the hell he was looking at.

Well, he did. He was looking at 618 Gopher Road, the address his twin brother supposedly lived in. But that didn't make sense.

He wasn't sure exactly what he would've imagined Stanford's house to look like at this point in their lives—mostly he'd be busy gnawing on his jealousy that Stanford had a whole house to his name—but it would've involved less... barbed wire. Less 'KEEP OUT!' signs. Less of an overwhelming air of mania and fear. The cabin stood stark against the white of the blizzard Stanford had forced Stan to drive through. It looked less like a building and more like an animal crouching in wait, some looming beast with one large glassy eye staring down at him.

Stan almost wanted to turn around and go back to his car, currently abandoned some distance away when the piles of snow had proven too much for an old girl with no winter tires to speak of.

But Stanford had sent for him. After ten years. Even if the last sparks of brotherly concern weren't urging Stan on, sheer curiosity would've pushed him forward. What the hell was going on?

He trudged his way through the snow and up to the front porch, stilling at the door. His fist hesitated in place. This cabin was nothing like what he would've imagined. It unsettled him, left him off-kilter. It made his imagination spiral off to odd places; he thought of this house not even being Stanford's, that he was about to invite a maniac to hurl the door open and shoot him dead then and there.

But no. Stanford wouldn't break ten years of silence just to be a bastard. Would he?

"C'mon," he muttered to himself, just to hear something outside of the howling of the wind. "He's your brother. He won't bite."

He knocked on the door.

Nothing.

He pounded on the door.

Nothing.

Just silence underneath the wind and the whipping of pine branches out in the forest.

His breath rushed out of him in white plumes. He shivered. His jacket was good enough for New Mexico, not a freak blizzard up north in Oregon. If nothing else, Stanford owed him some time in his heated house for making Stan drag himself through this weather.

Stan gave one final round of resounding knocks, ones so harsh anyone in the house had to have heard them.

Nothing.

This was the point were Stan turned around, got back into his car, and gave up on his brother. Or at least, it was the point that he turned around, got back into his car, and found a place to stay the night in town before trying again tomorrow, hopefully with less snow whipping around him and chilling him to the bone.

Stan's hand drifted down to the door knob. In a fit of impulse, he turned it and tried to open the door.

The front door groaned open, something scraping along the frame as it went. Stan almost laughed out loud. All of the fencing, the signs, the frantic desperation to keep people away, and the front door was unlocked? Was Stanford stupid?

No. He wasn't. Not this kind of stupid, anyway.

The unlocked door was suddenly as unsettling as the rest of the house.

Still, Stan didn't have any plans to freeze outside when there was a perfectly good interior right in front of him. Better to ask forgiveness instead of permission, that was always his motto. Right behind 'Never say please' and 'Punching solves all your problems one way or another.'

He pushed the door in even further and let himself inside.

Stan didn't know what the hell he was looking at.

He expected a living room. Maybe one of those fancy 'mudrooms' that just seemed like a waste of building material to him. Something half-way to normal.

Instead, there was stuff. Loads and loads of stuff. Things in jars, giant hulking shapes hidden underneath tarps, a huge fish tank with a skull in it, an anatomical skeleton, way too many medical instrument-looking things. It looked like a horror movie props department and the storage room for a college of science had thrown up in the same spot.

Stan edged into the room, shutting the door behind him. It was nearly as cold in here as it was outside, that was the first thing he noticed. The second was that there were no lights on, and that the place smelled bad.

He knew this kind of smell. It came from a bunch of injured people being in a room together before they got any medical attention that introduced disinfectant to the equation. It was a heavy metallic smell that cut through the dust and rot that also hovered in the air.

Why did Stanford's house smell like blood? Why did it look like this?

Mechanically, he turned to make sure that the door was locked, a well-earned habit. He stopped. The front door had eight locks running down its side.

Stan spent a long moment looking at those locks. Somehow, they were worse than all the signs of paranoia outside.

The outside... it was over the top. It was too much. He couldn't imagine Stanford setting it all up. These locks were also too much, but Stan understood them. He had never wrapped barbed wire around his house, but he had installed more locks on a motel room door in a fit of desperation once.

That was something you did with wild eyes, crouching and ducking and thinking that at any second someone was going to take a knife to your back.

Stan took a deep, ragged breath, still staring at the locks.

He was—afraid. Yeah, afraid. Stan had been afraid a lot of points in his life, but it usually wasn't this kind of slow, sickly fear, one that made him unable to move. Usually his fear was driving his feet to run him straight out of Dodge.

A loud howl of wind scraped along the sides of the cabin, rattling it. Stan flinched away from the door, then lurched back to it to hastily lock every lock he could in one go.

He turned back to the dark cavern of a room he was in, finding a doorway to a hallway with his eyes.

There were two options.

One: Stanford wasn't in the house anymore. Whatever had driven him to the extent of paranoia the cabin displayed had later driven him to run from it, out somewhere Stan couldn't follow. Stan hadn't seen a car, so maybe... but then, he hadn't looked around the cabin too thoroughly, so there was a chance there was a car here he hadn't noticed.

Two: Stanford was here in the house somewhere, and had forgotten it was Stan that was coming and hid himself away once the knocking started. It was cold and dark because Stanford wanted to make it seem like there was no one here.

Option two was the one that gave Stan anything to do, so he chose to believe that one. He just had to find where Stanford had holed himself up, coax him out, and then start a game plan for dealing with whoever had frightened his brother so much he resorted to barbed wire and eight locks on the door.

And then... then they'd go from there. Stan had spent too much of the drive imagining that this was finally Stanford reaching out to him so they could be proper brothers again, but that thought wasn't important anymore. Stan didn't need reconciliation right now. Knowing Stanford was safe would do.

He crept further into the house after giving the first room a cursory once-over. All he found were more weird things in glassy containers, reams of messy papers, and machines and tools with purposes he couldn't divine. He hadn't really expected to find Stanford there.

Taking a bat he found among the stuff for an emergency weapon, he took on the hallway. It was as dark and cold as the front of the cabin, random things strewn around. There were a lot of post-it notes stuck up on the wall, and when he used his lighter to read them, he found a confusing mix between written codes and demands for someone to stop talking.

Unnerved, he stopped pausing to read them. Stanford could explain them when Stan found him.

Beyond that was a room that was maybe a living room before tons of junk had been shoved into it, or maybe it used to be some sort of study. Either way, Stan called out that it was him and sifted through the stuff until he was satisfied that Stanford wasn't crammed behind a desk or something.

The kitchen was refreshingly kitchen-like, as long as he ignored the stupid arrangement of the furniture and the masses of dirty plates and cups. There was even something shattered on the ground and a huge dark stain on the wooden floor and smeared along the wall. Stan chose to believe it was coffee Stanford hadn't cleaned up and moved on. There was nowhere for someone to hide in there.

The wind outside continued to howl and wail as he worked through the dark interior. Snow was driving against the windows. Soon enough it wouldn't matter if Stanford was hiding in this house; Stan would be stuck until the snow melted.

He pushed that thought away and made for another door. A bathroom, this time. The sight of it stopped him in his tracks. The smell was worse. It was the metallic rot of blood, and it was easy to see why. The tiles of the room were splattered with the stuff, rolls of soiled bandages chucked into the small trash can, a bloody six-fingered hand print left on the cracked mirror.

Stan's breath seized in his chest. What the hell had happened here? How had Stanford gotten this injured?

Was there a reason Stanford hadn't come to investigate who was in his house yet...?

No. Stan forced himself to look the blood over again. It was old, having at least a day to dry. Maybe more. If Stanford had been attacked, he survived it well enough to fix himself up and later replace the bandages multiple times and trash them.

All this meant was that Stanford had good reason to give his door eight locks. Someone did want him hurt. But that didn't mean they'd done him in.

The plan still remained the same. Find Stanford, figure out what was going on, get rid of whoever made his brother so frantic and paranoid. Whoever had hurt him.

Stan backed out of the bathroom. He needed to be anywhere else before the room started to really get to him. He didn't want to get lost in thoughts of exactly what kinds of wounds his twin had gotten.

He stepped through the hallway, calling out to Stanford. He was pretty sure his voice was close enough to what it was ten years ago that Stanford would recognize it. He was getting a bit sick of having to search every nook and cranny.

No response but the creaking of the cabin. Stan twitched at every sound, sure it was either Stanford coming out of his hiding place or someone returning to finish the job.

Another door. He creaked it open, expecting another room full of junk.

Not this one. It was eerily open compared to the clutter of the rest of the house, even with all of the papers stacked around. It took him a moment to register the calendar on the wall and the fact that the couch in here had blankets thrown over it.

Stanford used to jokingly claim that couches were infinitely more comfortable to sleep in than beds, and that if he ever got his own room he'd insist on a couch to sleep on. Was this his room?

Stan nudged his way in, surveying the papers from what little he could make out in the long shadows of the night. Maybe there'd be something useful here, notes that helped explain who was after Stanford. It was worth a look.

He took his lighter out and got a better look around. Papers, papers, more papers—

And something else in the very back of the room. A dark lump. Stan had seen too many weird shapes in this house to jump, but he didn't like that he couldn't tell what it was all the same. He stepped over the papers to get a look.

It was the right size...

Stan didn't let himself think that.

The fabric that his lighter revealed didn't look like upholstery...

Stan didn't let himself think that.

The smell of blood was heavy in his room as well...

Stan didn't let himself think that.

"Sixer," he said into the cold air. His voice was hoarse. "Stanford. What are you doing? Get up."

There was a dark patch on the wall in front of his brother.

"Stanford. This isn't fucking funny. I'm tryin' to help you."

The shape on the floor didn't move. Stan's breaths were coming heavy now, more gasps than anything, and he didn't know why, he refused to know why. He dropped the bat.

He stooped down and grabbed Stanford's shoulder, forcing him up into a kneeling position from where he'd been folded over himself.

"Get up, Stanford. I'm serious," he said.

But Stanford wasn't listening. His eyes were wide and wild and unblinking. One of his temples was bloody and caved in like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Dark lines of blood trailed down one of his eyes, out of his nose. He wasn't breathing.

Stanford was dead.

Stan's heaving gasps filled the room. He couldn't hear the wind anymore. He couldn't hear anything.

Stanford was dead.

That was impossible. Between the two of them, Stan should've been the one to die first. He had always known that in the back of his mind. Stan was the drifter, the criminal, the one who got himself tangled up with all the wrong people. He was the one who should've died with no one caring to check on him. Not Stanford.

He should've known, somehow. He should've felt it as he drove up to the cabin.

The blood was still tacky. When had Ford died? It had to have been recently. Had it been today?

Could Stan have gotten here before it happened? If he had driven faster—had jumped into his car the minute he saw the card, not leaving time to pack his meager possessions—if he had rustled up the money for a plane ride—if he'd bitten the bullet months ago, years ago, and just said something after calling Stanford in a moment of weakness—

Then his brother might not be dead.

"Stanford," he croaked. A denial. A plea. "Ford, Ford, Ford—"

His brother didn't answer, merely staring up at the ceiling where his tipped-back head directed him to look. For the first time, Stan noticed the red cover of a book cradled in Ford's stiff arms, a piece of paper crinkled in his hold as well. It was almost like Ford was just looking up at the ceiling in thought after reading another science textbook Stan couldn't hope to understand.

The bloody indent on Ford's head refused him that daydream. Stan couldn't bear to keep looking at it. He looked down at the book and paper instead.

On the paper was the word 'STAN'. He almost let Ford drop down against the floor in his haste to tug it out of his cold hands. There was a note written there, one in their old secret language he still remembered after all this time. That Ford still remembered after all this time.

Stanley Pines didn't cry. He hadn't since he was a child. Crying was useless. But sitting there in the dark with the cold corpse of his own twin brother, he came dangerously close. Perhaps he really did cry.

There was no one else in the house to see it happen, after all.

He held the note bearing his name tightly in his hands.

Later, when he finally mustered up the courage to read the note, it read: IF YOU HAVE THIS, I'M DEAD. MY BODY IS AT RISK OF POSSESSION--THE DEMON SEEKING MY BODY CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO USE IT. PLEASE LOCATE THE NECROMANCY BOOK I'VE STORED BEHIND THE SHIP AND FOLLOW DIRECTIONS TO BAR HIM FROM ME.

Stan read the note at least three times. He came to an easy decision.

He didn't give a damn about any demons. If there was a book on necromancy in this house, he was using it for one thing and one thing only.

Bringing his brother back to life.

[pforestsims]

Tutorial: How to adjust joint position (in TS2 object skeleton)

This tut is NOT meant for beginners because I don't explain how to use SimPe or Milkshape. But actual process is very basic: you change joint coordinates and do GMDC model rebuild. The tricky part is to get coordinates right.

If you don't know much about joint assignments, start with this tutorial: "Retaining object animations in your new package" by Bluetexasbonnie @ MTS2, which explains how to add joint assignments to custom stuff cloned from functional objects (to make parts of the mesh move when Sims interact with it).

The pic above: SimPe GMDC skeleton preview. You can click on each joint name to see which part is assigned to it. Gate is here.

This will work for simple object skeletons without IK Bones.

There are no plugins that would allow us to properly import TS2 CRES skeleton data with IK bones - like sims, pets and more - to any 3D program

If object has IK Bones - you'll find out when importing CRES to Milkshape. If it displays a notification "joints with rotation values found...", IK Bones are present and there's a high risk that skeleton: A. will not be imported. B. if it's imported, it will get mangled. C. will be mangled after using model rebuild option.

I've experimented with car skeletons (those have IK Bones), managed to edit car door joints but it required removing wheel bone assignments - because wheel movement becomes wonky after doing model rebuild

/FYI: steps 1 - 5 are optional, you can edit CRES joint coordinates right away if you know the right values - which is usually not the case/.

Export GMDC with your custom mesh

Export CRES (if you wish to preview entire skeleton and/or joint names)

Import GMDC to Milkshape

Import CRES (if you need it. Plugin is called: Sims2 AniMesh CRES Skeleton Import. Click 'yes' to 'replace all bones?'). You should be able to see entire skeleton imported. Note that Milkshape won't let you export a GMDC after you imported CRES skeleton unless you change joint comments (point 7.)

Measure how much you need to move the joint. You can create a box as ruler substitute, then check the distance with extended manual edit plugin. If you're not sure where to place your joint, you can move it and test if object animations look alright (import CRES again to reset joint position).

tip: when working on GMDC in Milkshape you can rename the model parts in model list (door right, door left etc). Only names inside the model comments actually get exported.

6. Go back to SimPe, open CRES resource. Remember TS2 is using flipped coordinates: X = -X, -X = X, Y = Z, Z = Y. Edit joint Translation data, commit, save.

Optional: you can export CRES skeleton again and import to Milkshape to test if joint has moved to the right position.

7. Go to GMDC, Model tab - hit rebuild, commit, save.

if you have the edited object placed on a lot, it's gonna look weird when you load the game. You need to re-buy it from catalogue to see results.

If for some reason you'd like to export entire GMDC with your imported CRES skeleton, Milkshape won't let you do that. You'll get "ERR: No quaternion values stored" error. You need to go to Joints tab and edit each Joint comment to ImpQuatDat: (that's imp, with capital i )

Notes:

if you go to GMDC Joints tab, there's also a rebuild option to update single joint - but I've tried it on car door joints and it didn't work.

If you edit joint coordinates in CRES, for example- move the car door forward, and preview skeleton in GMDC viewer, your model is gonna look fine. But in the game every vertex assigned to that joint will also be moved forward. That's why you need to use model rebuild option. In theory, if you'd like to skip rebuild, you could import GMDC to milkshape and move the door backwards to compensate for joint adjustments? I haven't tried that (yet).

[the-named-anon]

Dungeon meshi x Minecraft thoughts

(Assuming it’s a modern au and everyone knows how to use a computer…)

Laios

Laios would get the achievement for eating everything edible without even trying. Loves exploring caves, but often falls to his death because he forgets there’s fall damage.

Is trying to speedrun to the dragon, but dies so often it’s pointless… (dude. You’ve lost so much diamond armor Chilchuck isn’t going to give you any.)

He lives in a dirt hut until Marcille or Falin build him a better one

Wants everyone to live nearby, and eventually everyone does

Had a self-made skin, but it looked horrible so Falin made him one

HOARD of dogs. Used to be individually named, but then after the fourth (Name) fell to their death/burned in lava/shot by skeleton, he collectively calls them buddy

Tried to have hardcore worlds, died within the first hour on each.

Is part of a separate server with loads and loads of monster mods (run by someone called LordOfTheDungeon, who made most of the mods)

Gamer tag is xXMonsterSlayerXx

Falin

Is the dragon /j

Master of potion creation, figures them all out very easily.

Lives in a pretty build that her and Marcille built. (And they were roommates 😳)

Is the supplier of ores for the group, is decked out in pretty trimmed diamond armor (enchants courtesy of Chilchuck)

Practically made all the skins that the party uses, based on how they actually look

Has a big farm of animals (is trying to get two of each passive mob in there… tropical fish are the only thing she’s missing, and she has a in-game book to keep track of which ones she has)

Yes, she does have a strider, skeleton horse, and a sniffer.

Has named all her animals, and has a strict “no weapons on the hotbar” when people visit.

Has a separate hardcore world that she’s sunk hours into.

And is part of two other servers, a cosy animal filled cottage core server and another one she won’t tell anyone about

Gamer tag is FlowerFalin

Marcille

Tried desperately to learn potions, but also doesn’t want to step on Falin’s toes…

Is the builder of the group, grows the biggest trees she can. Master of bonemeal.

Went out of her way to grab two mooshrooms for Falin (one red, one brown) under the guise of “I needed mycelium anyways”

Wants to get all of the achievements, but also refuses to eat rotten flesh or poisonous potatoes

Named her sword “Ambrosia two” (and then “Ambrosia 3”, “Ambrosia 4”… she doesn’t loose/break Ambrosia four)

Uses potion tipped arrows. (Realized too late that she probably should’ve named her bow Ambrosia, since its usage with the potion tipped arrows is more similar to her real Ambrosia.)

Falin made her skin based on Uriale

Also plays on a server that has a mod for The Daltian Clan

Gamer tag is UrialeOfDaltian

Chilchuck

Under his quaint little house is a MASSIVE villager trading hall. Has every trade imaginable, at the lowest cost it can be. Lets “no one” in there (Laios has a bad habit of accidentally hitting villagers… and was banned before it was made)

Has the best enchants, and actually successfully speedran to the dragon. (First to have an elytra, and HOARDS shulker boxes. Wants the other party members to pay him for them.)

Has lots of beacons, and has unlocked all the end teleporters… (wither sounds are common on the server)

Most skilled at the game (dad of three girls… what did you expect? (Gamer girl-dad))

His girls made him his skin. (Big anime eyes, but everything else is akin to him) ((begrudgingly uses it))

Has a separate server with his girls, that they modded (custom biomes, more enchant options, fun tools and weapons)

Gamer tag is ChillsChuck

Senshi

Makes food. Only wants to make food… big farm of meat animals, and actual crops.

Is disappointed that there isn’t more monster-based food in the game. (What do you mean you can’t eat enderpearls? Why don’t more mobs drop meat?)

Ate rotten flesh once, and then decided against it. (It’s too bad you can’t use it to make food. This game is seriously lacking culinary options.)

Prefers to play modded, with loads and loads of food options. (The party server is straight vanilla, so he’s part of another one where he’s more active on… modded with food.)

Is confused why they’d think he’d be interested in mining… he makes food irl?? (Can’t differentiate any stones. Even though they’re different colors)

House was made by Marcille, skin by Fallin. (Previously default Steve skin)

Has a horse named Anne (really crappy… like, he tamed the first horse that looked like her so it’s only slightly faster than running and can barely clear a two block jump)

Gamer tag is ChefSenshi402

Izutsumi

Falin made her skin a cat girl (previously one of the default skins (can’t remember any of the other ones, but not Alex or Steve))

Doesn’t really understand Minecraft, or why people want to play it.

Has a hoard of cats, but only the tuxedo ones. (Because they look like her)

Master of the horse-stats trade, and has had luck with llamas.

(Sorry… I don’t have many ideas for her because I’m not at the part of the show where she’s at)

Gamer tag is Izutsumi1 (Izutsumi was taken for some reason)

Bonus:

Thistle

Moderator and owner of the monster-filled server.

Made 90% of the mods in the server, the only mods he didn’t make are the mods he uses to have his mods to work (like geckolib)

Has two accounts, LordOfTheDungeon, and ThistleThorn

Uses LordOfTheDungeon as his moderator one, and ThistleThorn is for the cosy cottagecore server he’s in.

Had a raffle for the players with the longest time in-server to come up with a monster for him to implement

Laios won, and it’s taken Thistle a while to make his “Ultimate Strongest Monster.” (Multiple heads and attacks are time consuming.)

Falin is also a moderator on his server, with a fake gamer tag of “Chimera” (Laios doesn’t know that, but she thinks it’s fun to watch the custom mobs roam around.) Has a custom game mode where the monsters don’t attack her, so she can make a little sanctuary for her favorites. (Also uses a different skin for the server, per the request of Thistle)

There’s an unknown person who’s a moderator that’s skin is lion-like, who’s gamer tag is “BeastWishes”

[foggysilverfeathers]

Follow up to this, but Wild Life edition:

0 notes

🤖 daily-trivia7 Follow

Today’s trivia question: Who was Grian’s ‘secret soulmate’ in Double Life? Beep boop!

Put your guesses below! Beep!

🌍 scarred-sunflowers

Damn

☀️grain-sub-one-club

IT WASNT LIKE THAT

947 notes

🟡 impulsive57 Follow

Just found some basalt, going to see what it tastes like! This will be awesome!

🟡 impulsive57

hopital

2,322 notes

🐤 not-a-canarydeactivated74628 Follow

hey is anyone else seeing loads of weird spam bots

🐌 slimeidarity-gaming

Free lives! Click HERE!!!!

🍪 creaking-cookiesdeactivated228976

I’m going to click it to see what happens!!

🐤 not-a-canarydeactivated74628

It killed him

🌼 gemini-slay

Why is everyone here dead. Skill issue tbh

1,276 notes

🛞 ilovecarsandmywife Follow

Day 32 of posting fast and furious quotes: 

“I don’t have friends. I got family.”

12 notes

🐾 the-diggity-dog Follow

Days without snails: 3! Life is good.

4 notes

🍁 etho-slab Follow

Just wanted to say a few words about the best person among us, @spoonsandspanners, for being taken from us far too soon. Skizz was one of the best people I knew, and it really hurts to have to say goodbye.

👂 littlewood-is-listening

Wrong account buddy 

7,843 notes

✨ scott-the-stars Follow

Everyone out here like, ooh, look at my cool superpower! Look, Scott, I can fly! Look, Scott, I can teleport! Look, Scott, I can literally summon the undead to do my bidding! You know what I can do? 🐓 

1,947 notes

🌑 human-cleo Follow

@skizzlywizzly-real @littlewood-is-listening-real @spoonsandspanners-real go make fun of Grian

🧟‍♂️ spoonsandspanners-real

Yes my liege

🧟‍♂️ skizzlywizzly-real

Yes my liege

🧟‍♂️ littlewood-is-listening-real

Yes my liege

3,473 notes

⏱ bbdoubledouble Follow

They call me a shreeper agent the way I can. Shreep. Can also stop time but the shreeping is more important.

3,689 notes

🦜 shadow-lady Follow

12,438 notes

🐾 the-diggity-dog Follow

Days without snails: 0

…

…Don’t speak to me.

34 notes

🤖 daily-trivia7 Follow

Today’s trivia question: What animal did Gem and Pearl ride around on in Secret Life?

👂littlewood-is-listening

its a skeleton horse trust

👨🏻‍💼spoonsandspanners 

Ok, thanks for the help! 😊 

👨🏻‍💼 spoonsandspanners

MARTYN

1,748 notes

🛞 ilovecarsandmywife Follow

Day 46 of posting fast and furious quotes: 

“You don’t turn your back on family. Even when they do.”

32 notes

🌙 pearlyp0p Follow

Love using tiny writing to pretend I’m small. Hey there little bugs.

☀️ grain-sub-one-club

Hey! We don’t appreciate being called bugs!!!

👨🏻‍💼 spoonsandspanners

Yeah!! Pick on someone your own size!!

😇 skizzlywizzly

Sub one club won’t take this slander!!!

🦜 shadow-lady

Hi guys

6,293 notes

🛞 ilovecarsandmywife Follow

WHO ATE MY CAR

🛞 ilovecarsandmywife

YOU

477 notes

🛞 ilovecarsandmywife Follow

My wife is mean to me :(

3,925 notes

🌼 gemini-slay Follow

What do you MEAN the snails go after one day :((((

🌼 gemini-slay 

<🐌3

🐤 not-a-canary

I cant tel if youre joiking or not

☀️ grain-sub-one-club

Ough there’s some rage in those notes

🌼 gemini-slay

They’re just little guys, cmon, they haven’t done anything wrong!

🌑 human-cleo

THEY SLAUGHTERED MY ALLIANCE

13,582 notes

🌍 scarred-sunflowers Follow

Hey you ever focus so hard on a project (building a rollercoaster of death) that you get distracted and end up several miles away from it knee-deep in research into something else (red bamboo is a thing) ultra-concentrated on a third, unconnected thing (how many innuendos can I get away with claiming are accidental)

3,343 notes

🐾 the-diggity-dog Follow

POV you are so bound to another that even in death you carry his face, clinging onto the last memory of him, so fearful of forgetting him that you splice your DNA with his, losing yourself to save him, and ultimately turn everyone away from you until you roam the wilderness alone, lonelier than Frankenstein’s monster yet weaker, haunted by his memory every time you look at your reflection and see his staring back.

🐾 the-diggity-dog

I don’t miss him though

6,426 notes

Thanks for reading! Super fun once again 😊

[imtrashraccoon]

Ooh could you perhaps write something for cross? Like an X reader? I haven't seen many of those- like- at all, and it's incredibly sad because the boy deserves love :c

Feel free to ignore this if you don't wanna do it <3

I'm so sorry for the wait, Anon! I didn't realize it had been almost a month since I received this! In my defense it took me like two weeks to figure out what I wanted to write in the first place. I hope this doesn't disappoint because it's way longer than I intended it to be...

A Gentle Soldier

Cross!Sans x Gender Neutral Reader

Word Count: 4,875

You were simple person, just doing what you could to get by in the world. It wasn't an easy or comfortable life but you made the best of it.

After your father passed away, you were left with the cabin he'd built that had been your childhood home. It was a small one room building with a loft for sleeping and a fireplace set into one wall, which was especially nice in the Winter when the stone bricks it was built from radiated the heat throughout the entire cabin.

You kept a small vegetable and herb garden out back and regularly hunted or trapped animals for meat year round. You also preserved anything extra for the cold months when you might not be able to leave the cabin during bad storms for several days. Other than the occasional trip into the nearby village for rifle ammo and a few other things that you couldn't make yourself, you were self sufficient and almost never interacted with anyone.

Maybe one day you'd meet someone and start a family, but they'd have to be adaptable because you weren't about to just abandon the life you'd worked so hard to build for yourself. You liked to think that you were a reasonable sort but there were some things that you wouldn't compromise on. Moving back into the village was one of them, so unless you had no other options, you were going to hang on dearly to your little piece of paradise.

Today was a bit of a gloomy one, but despite the heavy rainfall the previous night, many dark clouds still remained overhead. There was a cool breeze as well, but you figured the inclement weather would hold off for a few hours at least, which was enough time to check your traps.

After putting on a thick coat for warmth and in case you were wrong about the rain, you shouldered a rucksack which held extra traps and some small tools. You also slung your father's hunting rifle over your shoulder, which while you didn't think you'd need it, there was always the possibility of running into a hungry bear or wolf this time of year. You were a decent shot, but hopefully if you did end up missing, the loud noise would be enough to scare them away.

While checking each of your traps, you thought it was strange how quiet the forest seemed today. Not even the occasional birdsong interrupted the silence and none of the traps had even been touched. That was disappointing, but you still had some meat you'd smoked previously and you had enough flour to make some bread so you wouldn't go hungry tonight at least.

You were on your way home again when you heard a loud noise.

It was like several trees had been knocked over or like a landslide had been triggered.

That wasn't something an animal could do.

You checked that your rifle was loaded but kept the safety on for now as you carefully made your way towards the strange noise. You only wanted to take a peek, just in case someone had gotten hurt. Although, it soon became apparent that whatever or whomever had caused the disturbance was still in the area and, as you drew closer, you began to hear people shouting as if they were in the middle of a fight.

You stopped at the crest of a hill and peered down into the little valley below.

There were at least four monsters below you, three of which were seemingly working together to attack the fourth. They all looked like skeleton monsters, however there were some anatomical differences between them and human skeletons. They were dressed completely different from both each other and from any monsters you'd ever seen before too.

The first was a skeleton whose outfit was rather intricate but it was also completely black and white. It was hard to describe with all the layers of clothing, but the basics of his outfit seemed to be a white parka with a fluffy hood, a narrow white cape with black edges, and a pair of black shorts with white stripes that were shaped like an X. He had twin bone daggers with hollow blades and even from here you could tell that he was quite experienced with them.

The second skeleton was wearing a metal chestplate, a light blue bandana tied around his neck with matching gloves and boots, and sturdy looking jeans. He kind of looked like a warrior from an RPG to you and the large maul he was wielding only solidified that thought in your mind.

The third skeleton was a bit shorter than the others and he seemingly flitted about like a leprechaun with what looked like a giant paintbrush. His outfit was mostly brown but some of the straps holding it together were bright yellow and green. He also had on a pair of fingerless gloves and sported a very long brown scarf that somehow didn't impede his movements at all.

Their outfit choices seemed to be representative of their personalities since you couldn't think of any other reason for the variety on display. The first struck you as the strong and silent type, with the second seeming like he was dependable, and the third looked almost carefree and yet also rather bubbly at the same time.

Their opponent though, just looking at him seemed to fill you with dread, and while you had limited experience with people, even you knew he was bad news.

He was several inches taller than the three, not counting the numerous black tentacles protruding from his back. His bones and clothing also seemed to be completely black, in such a way that gave him the appearance of having been dipped in ink, except it didn't seem to leave a mess everywhere. Speaking of clothing, while it was hard to differentiate where his bones ended and clothes began, his outfit looked like it consisted of a fancy overcoat and you could see that he was wearing a gold circlet and several rings on his phalanges. He seemed to only have one working eye socket, which had a piercing cyan eyelight, if the way he kept guarding his right side was any indication, but other than the uncountable number of tentacles, he didn't appear to have any weapons of his own, not that it seemed to be a problem for him.

You knew in your heart that you shouldn't be sticking around and risk being caught in the crossfire, but at the same time, you couldn't help but want to continue watching. It was almost mesmerizing with how fluid their movements were and even though each had their own techniques, they all seemed to work flawlessly together. Their opponent seemed frustrated in comparison and yet he was managing to hold his own against all three at once. You didn't know what the stakes were or how the fight had even started, but you couldn't help but silently cheer for the three skeletons to win.

The monochromatic skeleton was suddenly grabbed by a tendril and sent flying until he collided with a nearby tree. You watched in horror as his body slumped to the ground and when he didn't move for several long seconds, you felt the sickly feeling of dread beginning to pool in your stomach.

The other two skeletons were too busy to check on their compatriot and you could tell the nightmarish looking one would send each of them flying as well if they lost focus for even a second.

You had to see if he was hurt and how badly.

Not caring if you were seen anymore, you scrambled down the steep incline, scattering loose stones and dirt under your boots in a mini landslide as you did so. Somehow you didn't lose your footing but it certainly did slow you down.

Although, before you could reach the fallen skeleton, there was a flash of bright light and another one appeared by his side.

This skeleton was a bit taller than the others, but still shorter than the scary one, and you almost had to squint to even look at him. His presence almost seemed to warm up the immediate area and, rather confusingly, just seeing him made you feel calm and like you should be happy. Considering the situation, it also felt unnerving but you couldn't place exactly why that was.

Somehow, he was dressed even more fanciful than any of the others. Over a form fitting black body suit, he had a loose white outfit that kind of resembled a tunic with bright yellow accents. The best way to describe it was like he'd stepped out of an ancient Egyptian mural, only he was somehow more beautiful.

This new skeleton knelt down by the first and placed his gloved hands on his still crumpled form. A soft yellow glow flickered from between his fingers before the monochromatic skeleton's body jolted awake. The bright one then stood up and said something you didn't quite hear, which the other nodded in response to.

He summoned a gorgeous longbow with a string made of glowing blue energy. Then, he appeared to notch a similarly glowing arrow and turned as if to join the fight, before his gaze locked with your own.

You were completely awestruck and for a moment you found yourself lost in his golden eyelights. You felt like you should be overjoyed that he'd noticed you but the disinterested look on his skull quickly quelled those thoughts. He looked like he was about to say something to you, when a shout from the nightmarish skeleton interrupted him.

"Dream! So you've resorted to collecting pawns now?!" his voice thundered across the little valley.

The bright skeleton, whose name was apparently Dream, let out a tired sigh and turned to face the antagonizing one. "I'm tired of fighting, brother. So I'm here to finish this once and for all," he responded in a tone that, while much calmer, still held a certain level of venom and he'd notably ignored the accusations.

The two brothers practically leaped at each other and their resounding blows echoed throughout the surrounding area. Dream was far more agile than you'd expected and his arrows seemed to burst like a firecracker as they found their mark. His brother seemed to transform into a form that struck so much more fear into you than his first had, so much so that you couldn't bear to watch them any further.

"hey, are you alright?"

You startled and glanced to your left to find the monochromatic skeleton had hauled himself to his feet and apparently had also noticed you.

He looked rather banged up but fortunately didn't seem to have any broken bones or other obvious injuries. Although, there were several tears in his jacket, which you could now see was actually short sleeved and that he was wearing a long sleeved shirt underneath. The ends of his cape were also frayed but you could tell they were already like that before he'd been whipped into a tree.

However, the most striking details about him were his white eyelights, that almost seemed to have a soft purple glow at the center, and an old jagged red scar under his right eye socket. He seemed genuinely concerned about you too, which was a little odd since you were the one who'd originally been concerned about him.

"Yeah, I'm okay, I think..." you managed to respond.

His bonebrows knit together in a way that seemed to suggest that he didn't fully believe you. He didn't choose to press you further though and instead retrieved his daggers from the ground where he'd dropped them earlier.

"okay then, but you should probably try to get as far away from here as you can. as you can see, things get messy fast when these two meet."

"You don't need to tell me twice."

With one last glance to make sure you really were okay, he charged back into the fray again, leaving you to figure out how you were going to get back up the hill. The rain had left the already steep slope much softer than usual and even if you crawled up on your hands and knees, there was no way you'd make it without sliding back down.

Which meant you'd have to find another way.

While you were trying not to focus on the terrifying fight going on, you couldn't ignore it completely. Still, you did your best to make as little noise as possible and hoped that they were all too occupied to notice you.

Just as you'd found a place with decent looking handholds to haul yourself up, you heard someone shout a warning from behind you.

As you turned to see what was going on, your vision was engulfed in a bright blue light.

You heard something impact the rocks behind you.

Then you heard a crumbling sound and felt some small stones hit your head.

[...]

When you came to, you were lying on your back staring up at the grey sky. You could still hear fighting so you must've only been out for a few minutes. You started to sit up but a firm hand on your shoulder kept you from doing so.

"easy there." The monochromatic skeleton was leaning over you now and he still looked rather concerned. His pale eyelights flitted over your face looking for injuries before focusing on a spot just above your right temple.

Your head was throbbing in such a way that you knew you'd get a headache later and when you gingerly ran your fingers over your scalp, you discovered that you were bleeding. Whatever had knocked you out had apparently been sharp enough to give you what seemed to be a nasty cut.

As soon as you'd registered this, the skeleton quickly tore off a section from his cape and wrapped it around your head to serve as a makeshift bandage. He also applied a firm but gentle pressure in an attempt to stem the bleeding. You couldn't help but admire how calm he was as anyone else would probably be a little panicked in this situation. It was almost like he had done this many times before.

"What happened?" you finally asked.

His cool demeanor faltered for a moment to be replaced with a tight frown. "you were spotted by nightmare and he tried to grab you, but dream stopped him..."

You noticed his phalanges twitch as if he wanted to clench his fists before stopping himself and continuing to try to patch you up. Sensing that there was something else that he wasn't saying out loud, you tried to press him further.

"I'm grateful of course, but what's bothering you about it?"

"he was careless and if his aim had been off just a bit more, he could've actually hit you," he grumbled under his breath.

He closed his eyes and took a long-suffering breath. When he seemed to have calmed down some, he made eye contact with you again.

"are you alright otherwise? does anything else hurt?" he asked.

You took a second to flex each of your limbs, but other than a few aches that would probably just become bruises, you didn't seem to have any other injuries.

"No, I think I'm fine. A bit shaken up but that's pretty normal in these situations, right?"

He raised a bonebrow and was about to respond when a sound that sounded like a mix between a harsh hiss and a deep growl interrupted him. He whirled in the direction it had come from, simultaneously drawing his daggers that he must've sheathed earlier when he had stopped to help you.

Two shadows wielding battleaxes had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and they started advancing on the two of you. With the black armour they were wearing and the way they easily dwarfed everyone else on the battlefield, you knew these guys were bad news. Other than the glow of their cyan eyelights, they were entirely black and while it was hard to tell, save for their sharp teeth and claws, they also appeared to be skeletons.

Your rescuer didn't hesitate for a second before basically launching himself at them. When they responded to his assault by swinging their heavy weapons, you half expected him to get knocked back, but he ducked under one and sidestepped the other.

He moved so quickly that you could barely keep track of him with your eyes but it seemed that he was using his smaller stature to his advantage. He wasn't wearing heavy armour either which meant he could dodge pretty much every blow with relatively little effort.

In the blink of an eye, he sliced clean through one's torso and simultaneously beheaded the other.

The bodies of the shadowy skeletons seemed to flicker before dissolving into thin air.

He'd won!

"Wow..." you gasped. "I could tell you were good but I didn't know you were that good..."

He nodded and took a cursory glance around the area before letting himself relax again. He was breathing quite heavily after all that, but there was a small glimmer of relief in his pale eyelights when he looked back at you.

"thanks." He seemed to study you for a moment before approaching and holding out his hand. "do you think you can walk?"

"Yeah..." As he helped you to your feet, you felt your cheeks grow slightly warm and you were certain that you were blushing.

What was this day? You'd never seen any skeleton monsters before now and when one of them had showed this much concern for your well-being, you were reduced to nothing but a flustered mess, as if you were a grade schooler with a crush all of the sudden.

He held onto your hand for a few seconds longer than he probably should've but when he realized, he quickly dropped it like he'd been burned. Even though he looked away immediately afterwards, you thought you saw a soft purple glow flicker across his cheekbones.

In that moment, you were struck with the realization that he looked kinda cute. Unfortunately, he seemed a bit unsure of himself all of the sudden, despite how confident he'd been fighting moments prior. It was...rather endearing actually.

"Hey, um, thanks for stopping to help and...for just saving my life too."

He smiled and, while it was a small one, you could almost feel how genuinely glad he was. He let out a soft chuckle and fiddled with the wrapped handle of one of his daggers as that same purple glow coloured his zygomatic arch again.

"yeah...of course. i couldn't just ignore you, especially when you had no part in this," he muttered.

You introduced yourself before asking the one question that had been on your mind from the moment you had first seen him. "What's your name?"

He opened his mouth to answer when a bright light from the still ongoing battle grabbed your attention.

While his clothes had been slightly torn and dirtied, Dream stood tall with his bow drawn, ready to fire the notched golden arrow at his brother. He'd only been using blue energy arrows before, but this one seemed much more powerful, if the magic that was pouring from it like a hungry flame was any indication.

In contrast, Nightmare was in a combat ready position with his tentacles poised to strike. His clothing seemed relatively untouched, but the inky substance covering him had either served to protect him or at the very least hide any damage he'd incurred.

While both skeletons were breathing heavily, Nightmare definitely seemed like he was much more worn out than his brother. Which was probably why Dream had brought the others along in the first place now that you thought about it.

Time seemed to stand still as the golden skeleton let the arrow fly.

The world was instantly bathed in an explosion of light.

The nightmarish one let out an anguished scream and clutched his chest as he fell to his knees.

The edges of his form seemed to blur together and for a moment you wondered if he would disappear like the dark skeletons had earlier.

Then the ground suddenly erupted around the golden skeleton.

He was abruptly run through with several black tentacles.

Your hands flew to your mouth in shock as he collapsed as well.

The monochromatic skeleton next to you seemed frozen in shock but in the few seconds that he hesitated, the other two reached Dream first. They seem to briefly examine him before the one in blue gingerly picked up the injured skeleton.

The skeleton in brown swung his large paintbrush which summoned a swirling golden vortex in mid air.

"Cross! We have to go now!" the blue skeleton shouted.

That seemed to spur the skeleton by your side into action and he started to hurry towards them, but stopped himself and glanced back at you. He had a conflicted expression on his skull, as if he knew that he should go with his colleagues but he also looked like he didn't want to leave just yet.

"Cross? Is that your name?" you asked.

He nodded firmly, "yeah..."

"You should probably go with them. I'll be fine, okay?"

He hesitated for a moment longer before his skull took on a determined expression. "stay safe then," he said before sprinting across the valley to the others.

They disappeared into the portal and silence blanketed the forest once more and for the second time today, you shouldered your bag and rifle, neither of which seemed to have been damaged from the debris that had hit you.

Just before you climbed back up the hill, you glanced around the little valley. While a couple of trees had been knocked over, no lasting damage seemed to have been caused by the conflict. There wasn't even any bodies that you'd have to think about burying.

[...]

Time passed as it always did. Summer came and went without anything else out of the ordinary happening and you began preparing for Winter.

You couldn't stop thinking about the kind skeleton that had saved your life. His skills were impressive and you'd never met anyone who actually knew how to fight like he did since it really wasn't necessary nowadays. Oddly enough though, you began to realize that you also found him...handsome.

You'd never heard or met any other skeletons before him and you certainly hadn't since. Maybe they were very rare or maybe there just weren't any living in the area. Either way, it was probably because you'd never found actual skeletons scary. You never would've imagined actually being attracted to one though, monster or not.

You wished you could see him again.

But you didn't know where he was from or really anything else about him besides his name.

So you tried to it put out of your mind and focus on stockpiling food and fuel for Winter.

Today you were chopping up some firewood. You'd been doing a little at a time over the past few weeks so as to not overwork yourself and by now you'd managed to stockpile just about two month's worth. You estimated that you were probably almost halfway done but you wanted to be sure you had enough just in case.

Just as you cleaved yet another log in half, you heard someone approaching from the forest. With your trusty axe still in hand, you turned to see who or what was intruding on your little piece of rustic paradise.

To your shock, Cross was standing only a few paces away from you. He looked much the same as he did before, although his uniform had since been mended.

"uh, hey again," he said in a quiet tone of voice.

For a moment, you were tongue-tied but quickly tried to recover. "H-hey! Um, what...brings you out here in the middle of nowhere?"

A purple glow flickered across his cheekbones and he rubbed the back of his cerebral vertebrae. "i wanted...to come check on you..." he muttered. "i hope this doesn't sound weird, but i just had to see you again..."

You leaned your axe against the chopping block so as to not risk dropping it on your toes. Running a hand over your face, you couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"No, it's not weird. I was actually hoping we'd see each other again."

His eye sockets widened in surprise and his pale eyelights quickly scanned your face as if he didn't believe what he'd heard. After a few moments, he grinned, although his cheekbones were still flushed that beautiful purple which you thought was adorable.

"really? you don't mind that i just showed up? i mean, i would've called first but..." He glanced away from you as he trailed off.

"Well, I don't exactly get cell service out here so you couldn't have anyways," you responded with a chuckle.

Cross chuckled as well as he moved closer to you. "on another note, did you need any help here?" he asked as he motioned to the pile of wood.

"I think I'm done for now but if you don't mind, you could help me carry all this back to the cabin," you suggested and began to scoop up an armful.

He nodded and started to pick up what was left of the pile. You walked around to the front door and propped it open to make it easier to bring the firewood inside. By the time you'd unloaded your armful in the large stack you had been steadily building, Cross appeared in the doorway with a much larger armful of wood. He didn't seem to be struggling with the weight but he also didn't have a free hand to unload.

You couldn't help but smile at the sight of him and wondered how he'd even managed to pick up such a large amount in the first place. Still, you took pity on him and started taking off a couple of the pieces from the top of his armful.

"You didn't just bring all of the firewood in at once, did you?" you teased.

He smirked but shrugged his shoulders as his hands were still occupied. "well, it wouldn't make sense to go back and forth if we didn't have to, right?"

You shook your head and just continued helping him. He was right in a way. If he hadn't offered to help, you would've had to make probably a dozen trips, which would have been pretty tiring.

Your fingers brushed against his hand by accident and you quickly pulled back. Although, Cross didn't seem to notice your embarrassment and he finished stacking the remaining pieces of wood he had been holding.

Clearing your throat, you tried to distract yourself from what had just happened. "So, how are you doing?"

"i'm doing alright, i suppose," he hummed. "what about you? did your injuries heal properly?"

You nodded, "Yeah, I don't even think it left a scar but if it did, my hair covers everything anyways."

His expression turned into one of relief. "that's good, i'm really sorry that i had to leave abruptly like that."

"No, I completely understand!" You hesitated for a second before asking, "Was...Dream okay...?"

His eye sockets narrowed and he seemed to grow more serious for a moment. "yeah, he's fine."

"Oh, that's great to hear."

A bit of an awkward silence settled between both of you. Since he seemed like he wasn't going to expound on what had happened further, you decided to try to lighten the mood and motioned for him to sit down on the couch by the fireplace. He sat down gratefully but his posture seemed a bit stiff.

"Can I tell you something?"

He tilted his skull and gave you a curious look. "what's up?"

Rather than answer immediately, you reached over and placed your hand on his. He briefly glanced down but when he didn't pull away, you took that as a signal that he was okay with the contact for the time being.

"This sounds weird, but I haven't been able to get you out of my head for months."

One of his bonebrows twitched but his expression otherwise remained neutral.

You took a deep breath and continued. "Cross... I really like you."

He placed his other hand on top of yours and smiled. "well, that does sound weird...but i really like you too." His cheekbones flushed with purple as he spoke but he didn't look away from you this time.

You couldn't help but laugh. This conversation felt like it'd come straight from a fairytale and yet it was real. Your heart swelled with joy and while you were certain your cheeks had turned bright red, you couldn't care less right now.

Cross chuckled softly and, to your surprise, he reached over to wrap an arm around your shoulders. This brought you closer together but not uncomfortably so. Even like this, it seemed he was still being considerate of your feelings.

"does this mean i can come over again to see you?" he asked in a quiet voice.

You nodded vigorously, "For sure!"

[xx0acidicorchid0xx]

some notes on wolverines (mustelidae) and Logan

cause new hyperfixation (its been goin on since a few weeks ago). gonna preface this by saying i have only seen the first x-men movie, and whatever else i found on tiktok n tumblr through my hyperfixation hoarding, so if anything is wrong or actually canon (or not canon) I'm sorry

notes under cut:

wolverines, while technically weasels, theyre the largest terrestrial weasel, and can weigh 26-50lbs.

Logan, is 5'3, but weighs at least 300lbs due to the admantium skeleton (195lbs without, meaning this small furry smelly man is just pure bulk)

wolverines are muscular n stocky and have thick fur (also waterproof n oily to prevent frost n such in them harsh canadian forests), are native to canada but can be found in similar environments, and are described as lil balls of violence and are extremely territorial around their food, family, and themselves (only out of necessity in order to survive the winter wastelands they live in). they also lack social skills and pack behavior like wolves

Logan, hairy beefy man, born in canada, described as an asshole, is violent n aggressive, but also severely traumatized. now with the fur, wolverines are nicknamed skunkcats because of how much they reek (they also mark whatever carcass they stole or found so nothing else can take it from em or where they buried it). if Logan (who canonically reeks) has waterproof n oily fur, it must be real difficult getting him to shower (not to mention he doesnt like getting wet) and also the water will not be able to get to his fucking skin because hes built to survive canadian woods.

wolverines are also commonly found in trees, as they use the height to locate prey and eventually pounce onto said prey

from some of the panel screenshots ive seen, Logan isnt unfamiliar with climbing onto trees

wolverines have been known to take on animals 3x their size, such as fuckin Moose, polar bears, elk n caribou, etc etc (only difference here between the mustelid and Logan is that there is no known attack on a human by a wolverine).

while wolverines have semi-retractable claws, Logan's claws are fully retractable. they (both the animal and Logan) have huge paws/hands, for the animal, its to prevent sinking into the snow

along with the thick waterproof fur and stocky build, theyre latin name gulo basically means glutton, so they have to eat a fuck load in order to maintain their body temp (usually they just eat their weight or very frequent small meals, but larger stuff is common), also theyre carnivorous but will eat anything they can find or kill, usually carcasses from avalanches n such, aka opportunity eaters

i have heard that Logan eats a shit ton, especially meat, but only large meals when alone, and small meals more frequently at the mansion. with the body heat thing, it must be super hard for him post-adamantium to keep his body temp at a normal range without literally sitting in the sun all day.

despite the aggressiveness they develop in the wild, when domesticated (which ive heard/read is super easy than you would think), they become very attached to one person, who usually is the trusted handler. they exhibit very cat-like behaviors, except wolverines actually like being picked up and wearing harnesses, they also like pets (but again, the trusted handler thing). they can become calm when hearing a high pitched obnoxious voice, and can go into a kind of trance when their gums are rubbed.

not sure about the cat behaviors n harnesses n other shit for Logan, but with the voice thing: Wade. thats all i really need to say about that

wolverines are naturally polygamous, but do come back to the female every so often to help raise the kits. theres a video of a wolverine male leaving out a moose leg near a female's den so she can have something for the kits to eat

this man gets passed around the x-men mansion like coleslaw at a southern get together dinner, aint no way hes monogamous. he does worry about the women he basically adopted and raised (rogue, laura, jubilee i think, yukio?,, i cant name any others but theres several)

wolverines also have the ability to smell a frozen carcass from over a mile away (and lemme tell ya, unless you have an excellent sense of smell, frozen anything doesnt have a smell except sharp)

this man can canonically smell emotions, and be able to tell the difference between Mystique and Storm just from smell Alone.

wolverines are very vocal, usually this kinda snarl/snort/growl/mumbling/chuff sound

not sure about comic Wolvie, but Hugh Jackman (and Logan, obviously) does snort n growl n roar n other shit like that

wolverines' mating rituals often include fighting multiple times, and mate Only after the female is confident in the male's fighting (males who return several times are more likely to mate than males who only fight once or twice) and that the female doesnt submit too easily. this is so the female and male can ensure the produced kits are strong enough to survive

self explanatory, minus the producing kits (that i know of)

also fun lil fact, wolverines' back molars are rotated at a 90 degree angle, so they can gnaw through bone easier (supposedly this is a common trait for mustelids)

not sure about sideways molars, but Logan does canonically have longer, more animalistic canines

most of my notes and how i worded some stuff is taken from wolverine expert Steve Kroschel, and tumblr user @/icarusredwings, as they have Amazing notes and headcanons on wolverines and Logan

[divinector]

Skeleton Loading Animation join telegram

[norel-ravenclaw]

My favourite relationships in One Piece so far

See also: Half my reasons for loving this absurd(ly long) anime to begin with

(((Loaded with spoilers, obviously)))

Luffy and his first mate Zoro

Just all the Strawhats going soft for this batty kid who is so in love with life

Merry and Kaya 😭

Koby and Luffy

Shanks and the feral little dock rat he gave his hat to

Zoro and Sanji when they can shut the fuck up and get along for two seconds

(also that one scene where they’re sleeping with their faces two inches away from each other??)

Nami and Kaya in the live action

Garp and his insane grandkids that he loves so much

Helmeppo and Koby are you kidding me??

Zoro and Nami being the competent ones for so long

Genzo trying to support Bellemere and her daughters

Zeff and Sanji 😭

Luffy making friends with every psycho and monster he comes across

And everyone fondly comparing him to Roger

Usopp visiting Kaya to tell her stories for YEARS

Smoker keeping Tashigi alive and they’re kind of friends??

Pell and his charge Vivi 😭

Chopper and his tsundere, somewhat fucked, verbally abusive parental figures

Usopp and giants

Robin and Nami

Idk what Mihawk and Shanks had going but he always mentions him in a way that seems fond?

Robin and Franky?? Big blustery jerk goes all soft and encouraging trying to convince her to live?? 😭 She grabs his balls and now they’re friends?? He’s insane but he’s also a grown man and he makes her laugh and sometimes when his brain is actually on they can be the adults in the room together

Porche and the insecure Foxy is cute and I don’t care what you have to say he loves his crew and it’s sweet

A FUCKING SKELETON AND A WHALE???

Franky and his daydrinking gremlin sisters that he forcibly adopted 😭

A guy called Iceberg and the mouse he just picked up off the street one day and named Tyrannosaurus???

Tom and Kokoro and their little found family of feral junk rats

Bon Clay and Luffy??

Buggy and Mr 3, the cynical scheming brotp I never saw coming and am so here for

Puzzle Phoenix and his first mate Vigaro who were most definitely fucking no I won’t accept criticism

The flag hunter ice skating couple bc I guess I’m a sucker for a pair that just genuinely love each other?? Especially if they’re weird or insane and match each other’s freak

Merry and Usopp??

And of course the Strawhats love Usopp too

Sanji may be a freak but he’d do anything for his crew and seeing them happy with his food is everything

Chopper and all his animal friends

Zoro and Perona are SO sibling coded it’s hilarious

Whitebeard and all his sons 😭 (thank FUCK the one and only thing I’d ever heard about One Piece was a certain spoiler. I wanna punch lava now)

How could I forget Robin and Chopper??

I NEED an entire season of Muggy Kingdom antics with Daddy Mihawk, his goth daughter, and his directionally challenged son who he unwillingly adopted

Shirahoshi’s older brothers trying their best to take care of her

Tashigi and Monet had something kinda lesbian going on~

Side note, please may I date Madam Shyarli and make her tea and stroke her hair when her anxiety flares up and help her run the shop and take care of her pretty shark tail please 🥺

Smoker and Tashigi taking care of their delinquent Marines and being willing to do anything to protect them and just loving them and each other in the purest way

Dang it I’m falling in love with White Chase Smoker too

You know what? Let’s break down who I’d date because time isn’t real. Tap here

Everything Luffy says breaks Law a little bit more and it’s hilarious

Finally, a good moment with Nami and Usopp. Cute!

Aokiji and Smoker friendship? Juicy

Kyros the tsundere bodyguard to the Princess Scarlett? How can he be so cute??

Bartolomeo and Cavendish’s friendship is so funny

CORAZON and Law omg

Señor being the secret mafia husband to Russian is an interesting twist

His telling off the fan girls that they should care about the company they keep more, and carefully protecting them

Lmao Bartolomeo the ultimate fanboy who literally wants Robin to step on him I can’t

Sai telling Baby 5 to value her life more, it’s okay to live for herself

Hehe Robin and most of the crew being enamoured with silly Ryunosuke. SHE was so cute 🥹 And then Law and Zoro being so over it lmao

A deer-human girl for Chopper?? How cute!

Pudding breaking down when Sanji tells her genuinely tells her she’s beautiful and not a monster

Katakuri has these soft moments when he’s protecting his siblings. They all love and look up to him so much it’s precious.

I just learned about a ship called Sweetheart?? Corazon and Katakuri??? So damn cuutte! Lmao Law would terrorise his stepdad

Speaking of adoptive fathers, I love Sanji explicitly calling Zeff his dad

Stop, not Pound sacrificing himself over and over to save his lost daughter 😭 Not Pez reaching out for him!!

Bege’s a psycho, but he loves his family so much. And his men too

KATAKURI 😭 Marry me please you big softie tsundere That sweet moment with Brulee! She’s the only one who understands him and lets him be who he really is

Nami and Carrot are cute

Reiju secretly supporting Sanji and fixing him up over and over

Flambé and her squad of grown men who get to laugh and mess around like a stupid delinquent gang of 15 year olds lmaooo

Well damn… the milkmaid getting a handful of titty and Belo Betty just letting her 😳 Ladies saving damsels in distress is PEAK

Aww Rebecca being so excited by the news, and no one is reacting properly until Koby hehe

LAUGHING MY LITERAL ASS OFF- There is NO WAY they made a king for the reverie based on Abraham Lincoln with a bunch of dumb looking guys with guns I’m WHEEZING 😂 Zero punches pulled and I respect them so much for that

Vivi and Rebecca are adorable

Aww and add Shirahoshi!

Shirahoshi and Moncheri?? CUTEEE

A bunch of pretty pink princesses ready to throw hands for their giant mermaid friend they met five minutes ago? Hell yes!

Otsuru and Okiku are so sweet

Aww Mihawk! ‘Take care of yourself’ You secret softie

Komurasaki waiting 20 years trying to survive alone, with her Kappa adoptive dad, conning awful men. More power to her!

Haha her cuddling Zoro was sweet and funny. She felt safe with him.

Luffy saving the old man in the mine and finding out he was a powerful guy who helps him hone his Haki

Lmao the banished newcomers being harassed by the cheerful poor villagers

Law loves his crew so much 😭

Nooo not old Daimyo Yasuie helping comfort his village after they ate the SMILES by making it as much of a positive and a thing of pride as he could 😭

WHAT?! That was Killer?? Kid crying over what they did to him oh god

Okiku is trans?? I love the gender affirming moments in this show (Still delighted that Sir Crocodile is trans too)

Sengoku and his little goat buddy

Stop, baby (teenage) Marco is the cutest thing

STOP baby Marco babysitting baby Shanks and baby Buggyyyy???

I still think it’s hilarious he got Oden to literally carve ‘Roger was here’ next to the Poneglyph

Denjiro/Kyoshiro scheming to protect Komurasaki/Hiyori all those years

I love that they all love Jinbe already

Shinobu protecting Nami and Momo. I like her

Zeus coming back to Nami~ (… … I’ll stick with Zeus. 😂)

Yamato as another trans character is so exciting. Hearing Luffy affirm him instantly. He might mess up people’s names out of laziness, but not this. Happy pride indeed!!

Yamato taking the final steps to breaking away from his dad.

Interesting, Law and Robin sharing secrets and trusting each other.

YAMATO AND ACEEEEE

How DARE they change the animation so everything is somehow 1000% more heartbreaking?!! And also the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen

Marco is great, I get the hype

The only person on the planet who could make Kid and Law be friends is Luffy, damn what a superpower

Hitetsu adopting Otama and then taking Toko under his wing. Just an old guy who can’t help but take care of these pure little spirits with nowhere to go

Sanji and Zoro trust each other so deeply despite all their bullshit

He takes his mask off. You know exactly who. And he’s THE PRETTIEST BOY IN THE WORLD

Kaido revealing while he’s drunk that he’s sad people never accepted him, he’s lonely and lost and depressed. DONT PROJECT YOUR WEAKNESSES ONTO YOUR SON OR THE REST OF THE PLANET DUMBASS

Damned Kaido had to be the one to save him. Give Alber a better purpose to follow! Someone! Anyone! Immediately - after he gets medical care 😭

GIANT SPOILERS: THE ZOAN HUMAN-HUMAN MYTHICAL TYPE FRUIT, model named after a mythical god of the sun and patron of liberated slaves Nika

Aww Otama wanting a mother daughter like relationship with Speed/Horselina?? Adorable!

Hiyori and Zoro. She totally has a little crush on him it’s adorable. But she’s so mature and considerate and deserves the world

Carrot being entrusted with leadership of the Minks

Hehe Sanji being so nice to the geisha’s mousie friend and getting her all flustered. Entirely valid, ‘you like that don’t you?’ SIR!

Kid is such as ass lmao - and all three of them are such insecure egotistical dumbasses falling for each other’s taunts

You’re an enabler Bepo! 😂

Lmaooo Ikakku (the only woman on Law’s crew) getting all starry eyed when they randomly turn into women. I see you, you beautiful lesbian, you were always my favourite background crew member 😆

I love the older brother marine from the fan letter episode. Him taking the girl to see their heroes, refusing to abandon his brother - so sweet!

Good lord almighty Kuzan in the Z movie 😫🥵😳 He knows what he stands for, even if he’s out of the Marines now. That moment meeting Robin’s eye. She’s still scared of him, but she knows they support the same values at the end of the day

Hehe the journalist ladies fangirling over Vivi like adorable little lesbians (same fr)

LMAOOOO in the Red movie, Law is inexplicably there at the concert too, and when Bepo comes out of the shadows in his costume 😂😂😂 He’s such a good friend

(Not Luffy stacking rocks while Uta’s adoptive dad is talking 😭)

Why are Zoro and Sanji always shown sleeping beside each other? 🤔

LITTLE SUNNY?? Hehe clinging to Luffy so happily

Fujitora fighting blind AND deaf all while trying not to hurt people too badly

(Uta’s voice actor Ado has PIPES!)

The first contact Usopp has with his father in ten years is learning observation Haki and connecting with him 🤯

And Luffy connecting his Haki to Shanks’!!!

Lmao the crew all panicked and awkward, The hell do we do with a baby?? And the flashback to Roger and Rayleigh freaking out with him and Buggy as stowaways

OUR daughter 😭

Not Uta turning over her wish for a better age to Luffy oh god

Nooo, they just wanted what was best for her and the poor girl ends up going crazy and dying??? They don’t deserve the guilt they’re feeling, it wasn’t their fault 😭

Nami and Robin wrapped up in one of their coats after the fight

I love the glimpses to their families back home connecting them to current events - like Uta’s music

Lmao Carina tricking Nami and everyone into thinking she was going to sacrifice herself only to take over and become the owner of the biggest entertainment district in the world. I’ve never respected a hustle more 🫡

Shanks protecting all these weak people in the New World so they don’t have to just die. His panic and urgency when Kid was about to kill them. KID’S fear when he attacked omg why would they make us like the villains and then kill them 😭 And Killer tried to protect him and got struck down in the same blow

Garp (needs a good perspective shift and a kick in the pants but he) loves Koby -and Helmeppo too I guess- a lot

Hehe Hibari’s crush on Koby

I forgot Saul and Aokiji were friends. Best friends no less

Love me some Marine women solidarity

I love how Franky connects with Lilith, so effortlessly calming her and bringing out her excitement for science just with his enthusiasm and kind energy

Baby S-Snake having a crush on Luffy like Hancock and Jinbe finding it hilarious hehe

Sobbing right now. Kuma’s family smiling with each other, knowing they’re all suffering but deciding together to just smile anyway oh GOD 😭

Lmao feral little Ivankov

Little Kuma and Ginny surviving together

Just rip out my heart and stomp on it why don’t you- But Kuma being so incredibly gentle with Ginny’s daughter, so careful

(lol he actually made a cage for the bed so he didn’t squish her 😂)

“You’re no fun.” Alright Kizaru girlies, I finally get it.

I’ll keep updating this as I watch more!

[goldenshrikecomic]

Hello, this is gonna be a long one and I hope I don't bother you too much with it but you have something great going and and I think maybe some advice for someone like me who wants to do a longer comic and I took heart in that one ask you recently answered were you said you are plenty of pages ahead of the readers to not get paralysed by a deadline which seems like a no-brainer now that I read that with my own two eyes black on white but I had not thought to maybe go about it that way and I needed to have someone spell it out for me apparently. So to my question.. see, I have a skeleton of a story I have key scenes that need to happen and that I want to happen and I am sure in between things will shift and change and grow and a part of me can't wait for it to happen but- How do you start. How do you get going. It is in my head I have some written notes but most is in my head and I do not want it to remain there and rot I want to draw and tell the story I had in mind but I feel.. paralysed on the starting line of this journey and I am unsure how to go from there because my mind gets caught up in estimates of if I post one page a week that is "only" 52 pages. That seems so little. How many years would it take. Can I do this. And then my mind fires up in passion because I am willing to commit I want to do this I need to do this and I have a good idea of how to pace myself and how to go about it. I have the beginning of it on the back of my tongue and the tip of my fingers I can imagine it so vividly I wish I could animate it (if that wouldn't take up even more time and be insane I would) But somehow I still feel stumped on how to start. How to get over this first hurdle. It might be the executional dysfunction playing a huge part in it, maybe I am overthinking to much and stand in my way because of it, but like... How did you start your comic. How did your journey on GS begin? I know this was a bit of word vomit I am sorry but you are an inspiration and you seem to go about things (from what I could gleam from the asks) in a way that feels like it could work for me too and the way my brain functions but I do not know how to start? I dunno if it makes sense I am no english native and my thoughts are hard to put into words.

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while because it's such a loaded question. I have plenty of asks in this tag about my comicing process, so check them out maybe. This reply got lengthy! The more I wrote the more I noticed I feel very inadequate trying to give people tips on making comics. It's such a trial and error process.

I've seen plenty of advice for people wanting to start out comics to just start small, come up with a smaller story to get a feel of it before you go big. And I absolutely understand it in hindsight because I would've done many things differently if I had just tried it out first, but it's not what I did. I wanted to make a big comic, and a big comic I made, as my first project.

I don't think about the years these things take, but it'd absolutely ease your worries if you could come up with a simple style and be able to make pages faster. I've stripped my comic of shading and gotten more lenient with myself when it comes to backgrounds. You absolutely need to cut some corners if you want to make more than one story during your lifetime. It's a limited time afterall! Being able to turn your sketch into a lineart without having to redo everything with a careful hand would help a lot already. And colors, they take a lot of time.

This is not how I went about it in the beginning, but I'd love to tell you to write those things in your head down before you start. Leave holes, just write in what you know because you will forget some cool details if you keep them in. Write the starting point, middle and the end, even with just couple of words. Add things that interest you in the middle of those points. Do you want a sad arc for your character at some point? Write it in. Come up with what makes it happen. Weave it into the other scenes. If you know what's to come, you can add foreshadowing to the earlier scenes. Even if you didn't know what would come, you can take something from earlier scenes and make it foreshadowing. Writing is a fluid process. You can jump around and add things, you don't have to approach it by putting one block next to the other. Once you have the elements you want, you just have to tie those things together. It's the hard part. And you will change your mind about many things when you get to draw your characters and see them doing the things you've written.

The start! I always say it's the worst part, but I've started to think it might be the second worst. I think the worst part comes after you've started and worked for several ten pages on fumes and you finally run out of juice. Picking up after that is hard, for me at least. But if you can manage, it should get easier. You know your characters better by now, and they carry some of their own weight.

Make a canvas. Think about the scene you want to start your comic with. Night or day? Calm or busy? Just doodle, BIG and loose. Add some frames by just drawing lines, move things around, resize. What do you want to portray with the first page of your comic? I like to establish some of the world or atmosphere, and only then move on to the characters.

Don't try to be perfect, in fact leave that first canvas completely unpolished and move on to the next one. What should this page tell? Will you show the character? I'd leave the establishing shot of them as the last big panel. The rest of the page should build up to it. The last panel is important, it's a hook to turn the page.

Come back to polish those pages more only after you have a few of them done. The most important thing is to get yourself away from that first page, because the first page is scary. After five pages you can move things around and start adding ears to your spheres. You've started a comic now. You can go back to the first page and make it nice, because you already have opened the path to continue.

IT'S HARD. But it's rewarding. It's not for everyone but it's awesome if you can make it yours.

[pending-trans-action-2]

i have such a normal question. Can minions hang themselves? They don't have necks...................

I think you could snuff a minion, yeah

Theyre shown to have evolved on earth, and as such would have to come from an earth based lineage. They are tetrapods (4 limbed vertebrates) and though the neck is not clearly visible they are clearly cephalised (sensory organs and nervous tissue concentrated at a "head" end of the body) which indicates that at least internally they would have some form of neck structure to break, with a dorsal nerve cord that would be broken to kill them. Additionally, they have mouths and are shown to breathe so it would also logically be possible to strangle them by crushing the windpipe that one would expect to find ventral of the neck.

The cause of the minion's so-called missing neck would, if I were to guess, be due to a thick blubber layer as seen in seals: they too have heads that appear to be entirely in line with their bodies despite having fully developed skeletons underneath. In a seal this layer is for insulation and an aerodynamic body shape to better suit it's aquatic home, but in a minion this cause cannot be the same. Their limbs are extremely thin, with no thick fat layers to speak of and they are terrestrial animals, not aquatic. It is possible that this is to maintain their impressive degree of dexterity and motility on land, and to facilitate as head sinks of sorts as such a thick blubber layer in air would retain much more heat than in equivalent water temperatures due ti the difference in air/water thermal capacity. As such, I believe this blubber serves a different purpose: it may be for protection, serving as padding to the fragile internal organs and perhaps be where they derive their impressive durability seen in the films. This is also evidenced by their overall body shape - the gently curved anterior and posterior would hell distribute shock loads across the blubber layer and dissipate the force of the attack.

To conclude, I believe that yes it is theoretically possible to hang a minion however their particular characteristics provide them with impressive durability and resilience to blunt forms of attack and their aerodynamic body shape would likely cause a noose to simply slide off. So if a minion REALLY wanted to off itself it should just idk blow its brains out or something lol

[annamaystudios]

What oc of your's do you share the most traits with, or the most important/special to you traits with, and how does that affect the way you write your character? Also, It's your turn now. Here's your chance to talk about Wraith. Go for it. (P.S. What's /your/ favourite soda, and why?)

Explanation lmao: I wouldn't say I share traits with my ocs, at least not anymore. My ocs more represent people or things I've dealt with as I grew up. Cyro was my first Undertale oc & I originally made him in middle school. Middle school Anna was depressed & angry at the world so I just loaded Cyro up with all kind of trauma. Sorry my son ToT Emma's original creation was an ideal version of myself if I was 'perfect' so she was born out of my insecurities. She is now her own character & I'd like to think she's a gray character (not purely good & not purely evil) She has made mistakes that she's not proud of & has let her emotions get the better of her.

Aabid started off as just a fun ship child with no real weight, but over the years I have made him representative of toxic/abusive spouses. It has helped me resolve some left over trauma but still keeping his fun character. I wrote him as Cyro's ex. Aabid is a caring person but only to certain people. If he can manipulate you or use you for his own gain, he will. There's more story to explain this but I'm keeping this short for now. Let me know if you want to know more.

Spirit. My beloved precious bean. I made Spirit with an old friend but over all he was made to represent my love for Halloween & paranormal/creepy things. He's a lil gremlin who is kind hearted but over all has no emotional attachment to strangers. He would turn you into a frog with no hesitation.

Apollo started off as a laid back pirate vibe. He loved the sea. But of course I traumatized him & gave him anger issues cause fire boi.

Lastly on this list Apex. Apex is just, what if I gave every dark intrusive thought an outlet. Apex is a soul eater. He goes on mass murder sprees often. But also just hot killer boi. Do I need to explain? lol

As for my beautiful wife~

she's a rat. JK lmao But for reals, @wr-n or Nighty, we have been friends for like 8+ years now. She's my BEST friend. We talk about the most silly & unhinged things & both of us are still obsessed over cartoon skeletons. Like how could I ask for a better wife? lol She's a silly goober who has seen me at my worst & has helped me through a lot. She is so kind & everyone is drawn to her cause of it. I would beat up so many people for this woman.

You know you are close with someone if you bicker like an old married couple & can laugh through the entire thing cause you know it isn't serious. AND you know who wins 9/10 of these arguments, me. cause I'm always right (inside joke) omg I love this woman guys. She's the best. I can't really put into words how much I love & respect her. I know she was being a feral lil animal when you asked the same question. So sorry if this simp(me) caught you off guard with my more...not chaotic response. I just love my short feral crazy wife & I hope she stays this silly forever. I hope you all can find your own nighty somewhere in this world. She would totally divorce me for Gaster though. She likes them dilfs

Also my favorite soda?

I am type 1 diabetic so I can only have diet soda. BUT I really like Diet Dr.Pepper if it is in a CAN. Fountion diet Dr.Pepper is trash. Other wise I drink Diet Coke Also unsweet tea...so good.

[nobodyknowsanything]

okay so i have this world on minecraft where im just building a little cozy farm and thats it and my skin is andrew and it just made me think

we know andrew plays video games with aaron and nicky, right?

so one day, years later when andrew and neil live together and are both pro, one night after a challenging match (though andrew won’t admit it) he needs something to help his mind calm down and chill tf out, so he downloads minecraft on his laptop and starts to play.

neil notices him glued to his laptop more often after that, but doesn’t question it. he glances over andrews shoulder every so often out of curiosity but he probably doesn’t recognise the game because he’s not really bothered with that sort of stuff so he leaves him to it.

at first andrew goes through the expected motions of a new minecraft world, gathering materials, fighting monsters, and eventually working up to kill the ender dragon. he battles some of the other bosses too, as they get added to the game. but he starts to find the process monotonous and not enough. its all the same after a while and although he would rather cut his dominant hand off than admit it, fighting zombies and especially fucking skeletons stresses him out more than he’s comfortable with, let alone fighting the big bad bosses.

playing minecraft on peaceful mode always seems to get a bad rep, like why are you playing if you’re on peaceful, what’s the point if there’s no monsters?

but andrew thinks to himself, has he ever really cared what other people think of him? the answer is no, and so next time he loads up the game after his and neils team won a match barely by the skin of their teeth, he creates a new world and sets the mode to peaceful.

he sits there for hours. well into the night and early hours of the morning, definitely ruining his eyes but he just gets lost in the simple ease of gathering small things he would’ve previously considered insignificant, and starts with building a farm. he organises it by each different type of crop, builds pens for each animal as well as a farmhouse, windmill and huge wheat field. it brings him so much peace, it becomes part of his routine. every night, even if he’s had a relaxing day, he builds his little farm that soon develops into a small village and then a whole society. neil sometimes leaves him to it and sometimes sits next to him on the sofa, busying himself or unabashedly watching andrew play.

as the new updates get added, with new biomes and features, andrew keeps playing and exploring new parts of the world, building in the new places and connecting everything together. its where he lets the inside of his mind out on show, and if anyone else asked, it never even existed but he lets neil look, shows him round with a boredness in his voice that neil sees right through to the almost pride and calm. neil doesn’t think hes ever seen andrew so wholeheartedly focused on anything simply for the pleasure it brought him.

and maybe one day neil will buy the game for himself and andrew will let neil join this world he’s been creating for years and they’ll continue to build it together, their own little escape to a much more simple world where they get to be in control and nothing is out to get them.