#their color scheme and design was so so cool i wanted to try my hand too ^^

[jarwithdragonteeth]

moonstone doodles based on @alexandriaellisart artwork ^_^

[hiscalliope]

Luigi Mangione x Writer GF! Headcanons

𖦹 read your manuscript before you queried it out to an agent. gave you genuine feedback with suggestions to add, spent money printing the manuscript on paper, got a red pen and a yellow highlighter to highlight is favorite parts and annotate in his suggestions.

𖦹 he headed out with you to the post office to mail in your query, gave you the sweetest, most encouraging words as you finished off handing the piece of mail over to the post office clerk. pulled you in for a comfy side hug and plants a kiss on your hair.

𖦹 several months go by before you're finally contacted by an agent wanting to represent you and pitch your work to a publishing house. once you got off the phone with your new representation, you called luigi up at work with shaky hands, you know he'd be so proud.

𖦹 "baby? baby, i did it! i got an agent and they want to pitch my book to penguin random house!"

𖦹 "god, that's amazing! i'm so proud of you! i knew you could do it, i knew you could get it done all along!" he whispered into the phone, having quickly exited a work conference to pick up.

𖦹 once your book got picked up by penguin random house, he took off work to come to the offices as moral support to sign the book deal with your agent. your deal consisted of a three book deal in the young adult fantasy genre, the first book successfully pitched would the first in a trilogy.

𖦹 the male love interest in this story is, unbeknownst to luigi and your readers, very much an ode to luigi. his name was tiberius (you would've named him lucius but that would've been too obvious to him). this character was modeled to be kind, generous, selfless and without ulterior motivations to help the main character reya navigate her destiny (a/n: i chose the most basic fantasy plot with the most cliche buzzwords i know i'm sorry)

𖦹 very involved in asking how the editing and book printing process is going. every other evening after the both of you were done working for the day (you still had your day job even after getting your advance, it had been suggested you kept this job until after the book was released) you cuddled next to him on the couch going over different ideas for the physical appearance of the book. "wouldn't it be cool if the book had deckled edges, spray painted edges?" he'd suggest to you.

𖦹 just a few weeks before the book was set to print, you discussed some cover design options with luigi. the publishing house was trying to push a cover made with AI art, its cheaper and easier to make. you were very torn because you had a real appreciation for artists and their craft but you didn't want to be regarded as "difficult to work with" when or if you decided to insist on real human art.

𖦹 luigi advised you sincerely although he makes sure to let you know that the final decision lies with you, "there's something so beautiful and so unique about art made with feeling, with emotion and that's just something a AI system can't replicate no matter how hard it tries."

𖦹 you ended up picking one of luigi's good friends to design the covers for you, the publishing house did end up signing off on the commission begrudgingly after making some initial protests. you felt proud in standing up for your beliefs to prop up human art over AI art and you were so incredibly happy that your boyfriend stood by your side as you stood your ground, clasping your hand on the day his friend signed on to design all three book covers in the trilogy.

𖦹 luigi planned a party with your and his immediate families and your closest friends at the apartment the two of you share. filled with red balloons (the color of your book's sprayed edges and the general color scheme of the book), a giant sword shaped cake (it's totally red velvet inside), a charcuterie board (luigi stayed away from eating it but he helps arrange it with his mom) and little sandwiches he had especially catered for this.

𖦹 there was a countdown to midnight at the party and when the clock struck midnight your baby book was out officially in the world. luigi gave you a fierce kiss, cupping your face in his hands and you stayed in his embrace, smelling his sweet cologne for what seems like ages. after he pulled away from the kiss, he pressed one to your forehead, repeating how happy he was for you, elated by seeing your dreams finally come true.

𖦹 later that day you had your first ever book signing. your book had a great marketing team behind it and your book had received a ton of hype, being branded as the next "it" YA fantasy novel. your signing event was completely sold out. luigi arrived with his friends ten minutes before the signing is set to begin, sitting in the front row that'd been reserved for the your editorial team, your boyfriend and his guests. he was wearing khaki colored slacks and a crisp baby blue button down (your favorite of his shirts)

𖦹 he was laughing and chatting animatedly with his friends when you're finally brought out to begin the author q&a portion of the event. once you're introduced by another author you're holding the event in conversation with, his eyes are glued on you, taking in your every movement. an audience member asks you a question you've been equal parts excited for and dreading. "what was the inspiration behind tiberius' character?"

𖦹 "that's an excellent question! the main inspiration behind tiberius is actually someone in my life, someone who has always been able to make me smile even when i don't feel like smiling. someone who has never once stopped believing in me, someone who has never been afraid to say what he feels when he feels it. someone who once said to 'follow my heart' except my heart led me to him."

𖦹 your gaze slowly but surely found its way to where luigi is sitting in the front row and when your piercing gazes finally connected, he knew what you were saying and his lips pressed together in emotion, he had no idea that you had specifically modeled tiberius after him, he hadn't made the connection until you had decided to confirm in front of hundreds of readers. the audience also very much picked up on what you were saying and a chorus of 'aw''s slowly grew. the blush that grew on the bridge of his nose and his cheek bones rivaled the intensity of the red deckled, spray painted edges of your book. his friends snickered teasingly next to him. his mom seated on his right side chuckled to herself, seemed she may have had an inkling about that.

𖦹 once the q&a was over, he like everyone else got on line to get his copy (that he bought with his own money) signed. once it was his turn to get his copy signed, he handed his phone to the bookstore employee so they could snap some candids of the two of you. "hi pretty author lady, i love your book. a lot. its too bad i love the girl that wrote it a little more"

𖦹 you autograph his book with a little message that goes: "to luigi: thank you for being the candle that was lit during my darkest days. now you can enjoy the sunshine with me."

[hey there lovelies! <3 this was just a little something i wrote to cheer myself up. i hope this is something all of my writer friends would love to envision, luigi reading your books and showing up to your author events, he would be the most loving and supportive]

[impyssadobsessions]

So about dmc danny, if he can't switch to human, does that mean phantom is his true form now? Or maybe like his human and ghost forms merged and we get spooky eldrich phantom as a devil trigger?

I kinda feel like his devil trigger might only sorta look like Dante? He could have taken after him if he didnt leave the world but probably has a lot of influence from his time in amity. Where Dante is big and mucley, Danny is kinda dainty and elegant like an eastern dragon compared to western, thin antler like horns made of frost, legs that can merge into a tail that fades into shadow gradually, wings more for show than actual flight, looking like a cloak of stars and frost that he folds around his shoulders like a gargoyle, or maybe like big chill from ben 10? Green claws on long white fingers, floofy hair, big teeth with a bit of a muzzle, which could help focus his wail? Idk I'm just spitting ideas here.

Definitely the third thing. His devil trigger is like his phantom form- but since I want to keep the green. I'm thinking of like making it inverted from Dante's in color scheme, since Red and Green are opposites. So white scales instead of black. (This to hint at his phantom form back from amity where he was an invert coloring of himself) A lot of his Devil Trigger will be influence by ghosts or even the ghostly looking demons in the game. So imagine his wings look like a cloak when closed. I wish I could get the idea I have drawn but XD IT hasn't worked yet. I'm not going to make him look too different compared to the others, but knowing I can play around a lot like how Nero's wings are hands, Danny's form will heavily be influenced by ghostliness. Ooo I also thought it be cool when his new form is revealed- it shows what his colors were suppose to be for a split second before being overcome by his true ones. ( Hard to explain since I see it animated in my brain and I don't know how to put to words yet.) A white light that flies from him like ashes, forming rings around him as it splits and sizzles to reveal his devil trigger. In the small space in between the rings is where his coloring be black and red, just a peak of what he could have looked like. ANYWAYS I've played with designs before but the invert is the new idea I had. hehehe. I thought it be a cool. OH and for the horns, right now I'm playing with the idea of them looking like a hood around his head, so when his wings are closed he'll look like a reaper/a phantom ;3 Its when he opens his wings, his body will glow similarly to the others, just a bright green. His body I imagining right now, will be more slim and sleek, which gives him his own style of fighting in the universe too. He's the guy that's going to move around like water, and will overwhelm/drown you if you're not careful. Also definitely want to give him a sleek tail but that depends on how overdone it looks. XD It might be too much. Could also give the manifestation of wings/cloak like Nero has with his arm wings. I need to try to concept it out again XDDD But I have had fun thinking about it.

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 6-4: Daddycop

Alright, Sabrina Focus Episode! And Zoe might get something! Funny ass episode name!

Oh hey! It's fake Chloe!

Damn, they're adding on the Chlobrina subtext. Also who made the Queen Bee action figure?

I forgot how bald Officer Roger is, lmao.

Oh. She lied. Of course she lied.

Hm. Jupiter. According to my cosmic theory that's Marinette.

Special privileges from the mayor? What if Marinette ended up becoming Chloe 2.0? That would be a fun irony.

Oh hey! She wants to help Marinette like in Evilustrator!

Oh boy! Exposition and Marinette noting she failed Chloe! She did, in a sense!

Look how they massacared my girls. The hair hunters got to them but didn't complete the job. Also I guess Kagami and Zoe are part of the girlsquad now. Wish I could've seen that development.

I used to have a movie night with a friend every Wednesday.

Kagami status: cooking

Oh. Just a friend?

Wait, love.

Also I'm liking Zoe comforting Sabrina about this. Cute!

Hamster named Marinette again lmao

It should end like this, honestly. Adrien's a Virgo and you're a Leo. According to Astrology, you two are incompatible as hell.

The sudden turnaround lmao

Oh, so Felix's Henchgirl is going to preach to Zoe now!? Mylene I can understand, but Sabrina did zilch to you!

Oh boy! More dramatic irony!

Oooh, Zoe lore?

Yes! Go Adrien! Stand up for yourself!

Oh my god that was instantaneous. Sabrina W.

Another decent mind-control akuma.

Wait, he loves being a distraction? I guess the Marinette salters were wrong.

So did they decide on the Miraculers as well in the episode 11 flashback?

Outfit upgrade! (Although I think this was in episode 2 as well. Yet Marinette was alright with Miss Hound taking her motorbike. Was it because she was helping her? What is the timeline on this stupid season?)

Ah, Pegasus again. This is the second time. Will this be a common thing?

And a detransform phase for the powerups. That was missing all the way back in season 2!

Alright, quick pajama review for the new PJs:

Mylene: She's wearing Ivan's season 1 shirt. It's so good.

Rose: The unicorn kigurumi (or is it onesie? What's the difference between the two?) it hyper-fitting. I'd also be jolly if Rose had handmedowns from Juleka as PJs and vice versa.

Juleka: I always imagined her as wearing handmedowns from Luka as PJs and occasionally regular clothes. Unless we wanna imagine Luka in that black tank and sweatpants.

Kagami: Silky rich pajamas are good!

Zoe: Yeah, sure. She has so little going on for her that I'm down with anything.

And Zobrina. On one hand I do love extra yuri, but Zoe isn't beating the "meant to take everything Chloe was going to have post-redemption" allegations. I'm more of a Julerozoe fan anyways.

Eh. I don't like the new cut that much. Kindof a downgrade and not even that different. I'd rather grow her hair out. I love short-haired girls with long hair and vice versa.

Jesse-ass sounding prick

That was a good episode! It felt like good damage control after Chloe's Swan Song that was trying to say: "If you're a bully in middle school you aren't scum less redeemable than an actual supervillain and deserve to live with your abusive mother." And it worked!

So I marked off everything I believe in for S6 from the past two episodes with two new colors. Cyan means I think it's happening but not yet confirmed while piss yellow means it's deconfirmed. I love the CYM color scheme. For example, it seems like Zoe's getting some extra backstory and the fact that Sabrina and Ivan have focus episodes makes me think Nathmarc might too, but I don't have any proof for either of those.

Wow, if those cyans become magentas we have 4/5s of a bingo!

As for the Axes of Funk, making Ladybug and Chat Noir into Sabrina Zombies would probably make them drop their guard, but the handcuffs stuff would be better. Also the car is cool, but overall I prefer the original Rogercop design.

[telekitnetic-art]

Hi!! Your art is so fucking cool! Can I ask what the process looks like for form line? Ex. What do your sketches look like when they are really rough? How do you go from idea -> final product. 💕

Hadih, thanks so much for your question!

Honestly, it's sort of hard to explain? I do have some sketches to sort of give an idea though.

This sketch I posted a couple days ago is a pretty good example of what my initial concept sketches sometimes look like.. As you can see, they're pretty chaotic and very rough, and usually these sketches are more about getting the idea down then actually making the formline itself. There aren't formline shapes just yet, although I do sometimes sketch out elements or shapes like eyes or bodies or paws/hands that will usually have an ovoid in it, because those elements tend to be a focus or centerpiece. The sketch is obviously not final, and things can change along the way to account for space and balance as well as what I'm trying to convey. (These sketches aren't entirely accurate of course because they're for pieces that are meant to be fusions of character illustrations and formline art, but they're the best thing I can find on my pc at the moment)

The rough sketch helps me figure out the flow of the piece, and once I'm satisfied with it I try and get to putting down the shapes and silhouette, and it's here where I try to find the balance with my rough sketch and how the shapes can fit and behave in the piece to the best of their limits while also still conveying the message I want to send. The most common shape I start with is the focus shapes, which are usually ovoids.

This rough of my harbor seal formline which I sent to my aunt for review sort of gives a better Idea of what I mean when I say I try and focus on where the centerpoints will be. Ovoids are usually a focus, so you can see them pop up a lot; in the body, the head, the eyes, the tail, etc. Ovoids are so important and probably the most common shape in formline art, and one of the most common feedback I get from my aunt is to adjust how the ovoid looks in any one of my pieces; she often compared them to a loaf of bread! You don't want your ovoids to look like a loaf of bread! (Her words, not mine). I feel like I've gotten better at drawing ovoids though, because she gives it as feedback less and less nowadays. Ovoids usually also have to have a bit of weight/perspective to them; it's hard to describe but essentially the top of the ovoid should usually be bigger/thicker/have more weight then the bottom.

From ovoids, the next shapes are usually circles, u-shapes and crescents, then usually y-shapes/trigons. It can be difficult, because the key is to make sure the shapes flow together and feel cohesive, as well as to make sure the negative/positive space balance feels right. Also a fun tidbit, trigons are most typically used to essentially fill space; it's always important to make sure that they are binding bigger shapes like u-shapes and ovoids and not stealing all the space and attention.

The lines in this stage tend to be very rough and messy, and I always try to go over the next rough draft with a smoother and cleaner pen.

Once the initial shapes are done, I'll usually send the piece to my aunt (sometimes I send them earlier on, when I'm in the middle of working out the shapes) for feedback! I am still a student in formline work after all; basically all of my teachings come from my aunt, who has a lot more years of work in formline art then me. She'll give me feedback and tips of what she thinks I should fix or experiment with. I adjust and fix and sometimes even completely delete and redo parts of the piece with her guidance. The list of things she tells me to change decreases with each piece, so I like to take that as a sign that I'm improving!

Once the black and white version of the design is done, I move onto coloring. Usually I already have a color scheme in mind when I go into a piece, so I'll mess around and put down colors and see how well they contrast before I color it. Typically, a piece will have about 3 colors; one for the background, one primary color, and one secondary color. I use a clipping layer to color the entire formline piece with the primary color, and then go in with the pen tool and bucket tool to use the secondary color. Adding in the secondary color is tricky but important because it once again falls into balancing positive and negative space/colors and the transitions between the two.

Once coloring is done, the project is basically finished! Unless there are some other plans I have for it, ie using it for an overlay in a bigger piece, colouring is usually the final stage.

And that's about it! I hope this helps you understand a bit; this isn't a perfect explanation as this is just from my own artistic POV and other nations and artists have their own process, but I hope it helps nonetheless!!

Edit: I forgot I posted other WIP formlines here before 😭 here and here!! You can sort of see me figure out the flow and balance of the designs in between the WIP and the finished piece!

[quibbs126]

You can wrap them in gold, but you’re still bound in chains

So I was stressing over a project today (I’m going to be dealing with it with my professor tomorrow, I may have ended up writing a very long email about the whole mess), and in the midst of me trying to calm down, I had this idea, specifically with my AU Sentinel Prime

The line was one of the first things I thought of, and unfortunately I don’t remember the line exactly, but I think this is the cool enough equivalent of it

Admittedly maybe I should have done more with the lighting and background (I’m still not good at them, sorry), like trying to make the colors more vivid and really emphasize the gold more. But it’s serviceable as is

The focal point was supposed to just be the neck, but I went a bit ham with the other gold accents, so maybe it loses its intent a bit

But yeah anyways, I made a new design for Sentinel in my AU some days ago, on paper at work, and one of the things I gave him was that large neck thing he has in Animated, with this sort of idea that it would also look like a brace or chain around his neck. And then that spiraled into the chain line that led to this drawing

I’m still a bit unsure if this will be the design I’m sticking with, but I do prefer it over the original, at least in the head area. It might just need some tweaks here and there

I’ve also tweaked Sentinel’s story a bit, mostly because of my new Alpha Trion backstory. Sentinel here was still created to essentially be the better Prime to Optimus, and while maybe some of his origins lie in pettiness, there’s also more political involvement in his creation and role

Alpha Trion is a very respected individual on Cybertron, but he’s never been particularly fond of authority and can’t really be pushed around by the politicians. And then he created Optimus Prime, who was given the Matrix of Leadership, something he had been keeping out of government hands. And while Optimus is more willing to work with the government, as seen in his position in the Autobots, he’s associated with several wild cards in the higher-ups’ eyes, notably his own family, and his own actions on occasion have shown that he is still something out of their control

Sentinel is meant to be the “better Prime” because he was made for their political schemes, they can control him. He’s more favored by higher ups than Optimus (and gets to be shinier), and ultimately they want it to be proven that Sentinel should be entrusted the Matrix over Optimus, being his superior. Unfortunately, Sentinel doesn’t do that great a job of this, usually ending up 2nd place to the original, but he is determined to best Optimus, and hopefully with time, he will eventually succeed and the Matrix will be in the government’s hands

I’m not sure how aware of this role Sentinel is. Like I’m not sure he’s 100% aware of his status as just a poltical pawn, though he probably knows at least on some level, something he may try to avoid thinking about and shield with his bravado. But his goal to be better than Optimus is more personal than for the ultimate purpose of it, he just wants to be better than him. He wants the Matrix, but only because he thinks he wants it, because it’s a marker he’s better. He has no idea what he’d actually do with the thing and really it’s just a trinket to him

It isn’t really Sentinel’s fault for being in this position, he was created to be this. I think that might be something Alpha Trion is aware of (like AT probably knows this guy exists, due to being basically a ripoff version of his basically son), which might color his interactions with Sentinel. Like he’s an asshole and Optimus is clearly the better choice for the Matrix, both in the role and in their characters, and he may find it a bit satisfying to see Sentinel get put in his place, but he also knows Sentinel never asked for this, and feels a bit sorry for him

His role might also have to do with his undefined angst, though I’m not sure. Like for example, his lost partner could have instead of a lover, been his twin (made to sort of be the answer to Elita-1), but something happened, possibly internal malfunctioning, and they died horribly. And Sentinel cried out about this, wanting to get them fixed and just genuinely being torn up about the situation, but those same higher ups that once praised the pair and treated him like something special completely discarded his partner as little more than a failure, gave him replacements and wanted him to be over this. And this would have been the moment Sentinel got more of an understanding of his real place in everything, even if he later chooses to just push it down and ignore it

Sentinel here isn’t supposed to be a truly bad person, but he is an antagonist in the sense that he’s an ass, and what he wants (to get the Matrix as a sign of being “the better Prime”) would ultimately be a bad thing overall. What he’s probably going to get is instead some form of redemption, in which he realizes he can be something outside of the shadow of Optimus, and that the people who say care for him truly don’t, and that he needs to carve out his own path in life. Though granted, that’s probably going to come with some more pain for him, because he must suffer

And yeah, I think that about covers things for now. I had another idea this afternoon regarding this AU, specifically a scene after Megatron, and also Optimus and their Autobot team, learn the truth about him and the origin of the Decepticon virus. But it's supposed to be pretty dramatic (and probably a bit dark in subject matter, Megatron does not take this information well), so I think I should save it for like a comic or something rather than just text

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results -- Narngreg

All right, time to look at this week's critters. (Sorry it's a few hours later than normal, it's been a busy few days and I'm behind on everything.) This one is not only breaking the bird streak, but it's also one of the handful of animals that gets a color scheme. The entry our artists are working from is here, if anyone wants to check:

As per usual, the art is under the cut in roughly chronological order.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has again demonstrated their ability to create these with an impressive turnaround time: this went up the same evening I posted the entry. I like the design -- the high, muscular back there gives it a good silhouette and a threatening appearance, and the way the black fur is patterned looks really cool -- but what really caught my attention was something in the linked post's description of their design rationale. Apparently binturongs smell like buttered popcorn?? Learn something new every day.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has given her Narngreg an interesting low-slung design, like if you built a hippopotamus on a crocodile frame. (She's also provided her own alt text, thank you.) We can see the characteristic claws, and also the fun decision to give the creature an extra-large mouth for its scented breath.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has again done some fantastic medieval stylization. I really like the decision to go literal with the "eye-shaped circles" description -- makes me wonder if this fur pattern just coincidentally looks like eyes, or if it's meant to ward off predators. Which raises the question of what this friend-to-all-other-animals, dragons-are-scared-of-it beast is trying to ward off. Also, if you check out the linked post, in addition to discussing design decisions, coolest-capybara has another version of this art where a number of the other beasts they've drawn for this project are indeed gathered to follow the Narngreg's scent -- except for the Choglaem, which is hidden in a cave in the earth.

@karthara (link to post here) notes that big cats are probably the sort of beast that can hold their own against dragons, and they fit the physical elements of the description, so here's a big cat species for you. I really like how the coat pattern turned out; the stripes on the end of the tail are a nice touch. Excellent cats all around.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has taken an interesting (and very cool-looking) direction here. (And has also provided alt text, thank you.) In their explanation of their design decisions, which is quite detailed and worth checking out in the linked post, they explain that a lot of the influence on the design came from trying to reconcile "gentle animal" with "dangerous claws". What kinds of animals have large claws but aren't predators? Well, there are a few, but the ones they are primarily drawing on are the extinct chalicotheres and ground sloths -- large herbivores that nevertheless possess sharp claws. I think it's a clever direction to take. Additionally, I appreciate the stylized eye spots. And the mane-plus-goatee situation. They've also included some previous Beaſts following the Narngreg's sweet breath, and the Choglaem hiding from it in the upper right there. And, of course, Stylized Plants that they made sure to point out to me. :)

@pomrania (link to post here) had a similar thought to cheapsweets: what creature is gentle but has large claws? a sloth! And since there's no mention of it being arboreal, it can be a ground sloth. (Ground sloths are cool and I like that they came up more than once here.) This little guy is frankly adorable; I love the ear tufts and mane. I can see why other animals would be friendly to it -- it just looks like it would be pleasant to be around. There are a number of non-sloth influences happening here, which pomrania lays out in detail in their post, so go see that.

(P.S. Pomrania: I have no idea what, if any, pattern there is to whether the bestiary authors cite sources for a specific fact. I kind of suspect that the difference is "whether they know where that information came from" and possibly "whether they think a particular source is prestigious enough to be an impressive citation".)

@strixcattus (link to post) is also of the opinion that the Narngreg is clearly a feline, or at least similar to a feline -- they also note the "sleeping in caves" thing as inspiration for the "feline equivalent of bears" approach they took, so we might be drifting back to the binturongs again. Anyway, let's all take a moment to enjoy the incredibly cute scene here. Now, go read the linked post. Strixcattus's practice of turning the bestiary entry into a realistic modern naturalist's description of the animal is on point as always, and you owe it to yourself to read this and the other entries they have written. They're fascinating, especially in the context of the Bestiary Telephone situation.

They also express a suspicion that the cave thing is a Biblical allegory, and... ding ding ding!

On the third day the [Narngreg] rises from its sleep and gives a great cry, emitting a sweet odour, just like our Lord Jesus Christ, rising again from the dead...

Granted, bestiary authors turn pretty much everything into a Biblical allegory. You may also be interested to know that dragons retreat from it because the dragon represents the devil.

Anyway, the Aberdeen Bestiary version, which I have to say is particularly nice this time around:

Yep, this artist had the same idea as coolest-capybara and cheapsweets: the drawing should show other animals following it and a dragon... um... hm. Let's just assume that dragon is supposed to be hiding in a cave.

(I assume the critter is blue in this image because painting it black would make all that shading more difficult, so we're using a dark blue to indicate "black".)

And everyone who thought "feline" was indeed correct, because this is the panther.

Some of you may be thinking, "hey, I don't remember learning any of these facts about panthers."

Some others of you, who are up on your taxonomy, may also be thinking, "hang on, panther isn't a species. what animal did the medieval bestiaries think they were talking about?"

I am delighted to inform you that the answer to that question boils down to Bestiary Telephone! See, classical authors wrote about leopards, as you might expect from people who were kicking around northern Africa and southwestern Asia back when there were still leopards there. But Latin had two different words for "leopard", and as a result people from Europe assumed those were two different animals and panthera must be a separate, non-leopard thing. (How would they know, after all? It's not like they have any Leopard Experience.) The confusion created by this simple mistake continues to reign even to this day: the existence of a "panther" as a distinct species of big cat remains a common misconception, and I bet at least one person reading this was in today's lucky 10,000.

(This is not the only etymological absurdity that comes out of medieval Europeans dealing with What Is Big Cats, but we'll get to that when we get to it.)

[madameaug]

Meet the Streamer || JJK x OC

The official continuation of 'Meet the Mod.'

Pairing: Jungkook & Jennette

WC: 3.1k > (longest fic I've written so far)

Jennette was rudely awakened by the sound of bottles hitting the ground. She cracked one eye open, still trying not to lose her gateway to drowsiness. Instead, she recognized the back of her little sister's head, Asia. She was sifting through her makeup box. From what Jennette could see, she already had two of her Fenty Beauty lip glosses in her hand.

"Asiaaaa." Jennette groaned at her meddling sister. Asia too often 'borrowed' makeup from Jennette without trying to return such items promptly. Jennette didn't mind sharing products with her sister, but she hated when Asia just took things without asking.

"Uh- good morning, sleepy head." Asia put the tubes back in their designated container. Her hands were behind her back.

Jennette trudged over, giving daggers to her sister. She bent down and picked up the other makeup items that hit the ground. Thankfully, they were just lip glosses and lip liners, not expensive items.

"Don't you have school or something? Why are you in here bothering me?"

"Today is a teacher workday, so I don't have school." Asia cheesed, showing her pink braces. The two sisters were completely different when it came to their aesthetics. Jennette loved her minimalist wardrobe. Tops with funk color schemes and her endless supply of mom and flared jeans. And the occasional boot heel or wedged sandals.

While Asia ensured getting dressed was a production in itself. Her outfits were always coordinated with themes of pink or white. If Asia were blonde and blue-eyed, she would resemble the pop culture icon Barbie. There wasn't a time in which Asia didn't wear something pink. 'If it wasn't pink, then it wasn't right.' Her words. The sixteen-year-old had also taken a liking to cosmetics but makeup specifically. Asia could do a full face ranging from soft glam, kawaii, to even the 'siren' look growing popular on social media.

Asia was talented, and Jennette always encouraged her to take her hobby seriously. Chasing your passion could open the door to opportunities never seen before. She knew this first hand. Watching her favorite streamer, Jungkook, go from fifty viewers to thousands in four years. If chasing your passion allowed Jungkook to become the second highest-paid steamer (behind Kai Cenat) then she was confident that Asia could do something similar.

"Oh, I'm taking flicks with Mimi at the mall today. So I have to look cute."

"Is that my crop top?" Jennette squinted her eyes, ignoring what her sister had previously stated. The fabric on her body caught her attention.

"Oh, this old thing? I'm sure you weren't looking for it."

"Asia, I literally just bought that. The tag is still on it." Jennette held onto the tag from the online store where she purchased the magenta long-sleeved crop top. Jennette was trying to add. More color to her closet since she wore business trousers five days a week. Working in a government office didn't allow for a lot of color to be in her wardrobe.

"Well, it's pink and matches my outfit for the day."

Before Jennette could continue fussing with Asia, her phone rang. She rolled her eyes at Asia before shooing her out of her room. She answered the phone without looking at the caller ID.

"Long time no see Mang."

"Jungkook?" Jennette's eyes almost burst, hearing his voice come through the call.

"Uh yeah, you expecting someone else to call you?"

"N-no."

"Good. But I wanted to call you to talk about yesterday. What happened in the chat wasn't cool. The behavior was uncalled for, and I apologize on their behalf. "

"Jungkook, you don't have to apologize. A lot of those comments didn't faze me."

Jungkook paused on the other side of the line. He was sitting in the same position as he was on stream. Knees up to his chest with his arms engulfing his knees. He was relieved Jennette wasn't sulking about the comments. Most of them picking fun at her skin imperfections. The same skin imperfections that Jungkook had. The bright light he streams in front of drastically hides the remnants of picking his white heads in high school. Acne scars were just a part of growing up, which is why he didn't even think twice when he saw the similar imperfections on Jennette.

"Well, I still want to make it up to you somehow. My treat."

"Okay." The response came out before Jennette even processed what Jungkook had asked her. She just agreed to see Jungkook in person. The Jeon Jungkook, the hot streamer she had been watching since she was a sophomore in college.

Straying away from the original purpose of the call, Jennette and Jungkook made small talk. Making herself more comfortable on the bed, Jennette laid on her stomach. Her feet swung in the air, laughing at the corny story Jungkook was telling her.

"Wait- wait. So your friends physically fought over dumplings?" Jennette tried to catch her breath from her hysterical laughing. She imagined two high school students throwing down their bookbags and tussling each other over the small package of dumplings that Jungkook described.

"Yess! Neither of them were really fighting; it was more like grabbing each other and cussing."

Jungkook enjoyed listening to Jennette laugh. It slightly contrasted her usual tone of voice, which was direct and full of sarcasm. It was light and goofy. Jungkook also joined in the laughter upon hearing Jennette snort in laughter.

"Oh my gosh." Jennette covered her mouth with her hands. Her face was hot with embarrassment.

"Ignore that, please."

"No way. I wish I had recorded that, you sounded so cute just now."

Jennette face-planted into her comfort, wanting to hang up the phone.

"Did you call me cute?" Her head popped up.

"Actually, I called your laugh cute, dumbass." Jungkook teased.

"Ha ha ha smartass."

Jungkook remembered a similar dialogue from the night before. The feeling of deja vu, pausing his movements for a second. All that was missing was the eyes of thousands of viewers, and the impending face reveal. Seeing an outlet to tease Jennette some more, Jungkook proposed a question.

"Can I see you?" Jennette's heart rate increased yet again.

"Your face, obviously. That's the only thing missing from our little deja vu just now."

"What about the steam. You're missing that too."

"Yeah, but now it's just us, so you should be less nervous."

Jennette wanted to laugh at Jungkook's incorrect statement. She wasn't nervous about showing her face to the stream. Many of those people she followed or interacted with outside of the stream. The real reason why she was so nervous about showing her face was Jungkook. In the past year, Jungkook had started maturing into a different person.

He was more than a guy who made her laugh with his gaming fails or funny story times. He was the guy who would talk to her in the eerie hours of the morning, laughing about nothing in particular. In those late hours, she was getting to know the real him. The version of him that she and few others had access to seeing. She felt special knowing that she could crush on Jungkook, the person, and not the famous streamer. But this self-realization didn't come out as smooth and simplistic as hoped.

A viewer kept typing during one of his streams, hoping to get Jungkook's attention. She was spending points to get the AI robot to repeat her lustful comments. Drooling over his recent lip piercing. Maybe if it was a viewer that she was familiar with, she would have ignored the thirsty comments. But Jungkook, feeding into the audacity of the commenter with his relentless flirting, hit Jennette in a low spot. Icky feelings of jealousy were bubbling in her gut. With no hesitation, Jennette clicked on the username, banning them and deleting her comments. In her defense, it was a temporary ban, and they were allowed to chat after 24 hours. But reflecting on that moment, she knew she had to address the elephant in the room. Her feelings for the streamer were more than platonic.

Too afraid to confess, she suffocated those feelings under the guise of being grossed out by his flirty ways. When deep down, she wished the direction of such flirtation was towards her.

"Mangy Pangy?" Jungkook called out.

"Yeah? Sorry, just tuned out for a second."

"I asked if you would let me see your face again?"

"Nah, I'm good. Once is enough."

"Guess I'll just have to wait till I see you in person." Jungkook faked his disappointment. He stepped in his closet looking for what he was going to wear.

"I guess so."

"Try not to think about me too much." Jennette cooed over the phone.

"Real funny Mang."

"See ya!" Jennette hung up the phone, flipping onto her back. She kicked her legs in the air before squealing to herself. She was meeting up with Jungkook, of course she was over the moon.

Not long after she hung up she got a text message from Jungkook, containing the address of the place they were going to meet up.

"Let's get dressed." She spoke to herself, opening her door to see Asia stumble back.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"Umm, no. I dropped my lash and was trying to find it." Asia got on her knees before patting the carpet, attempting to cover her tracks.

"You have both lashes on your face." Jennette folded her arms over her chest. "But that doesn't matter. Can you do my makeup? I'm meeting someone and want to make a good first impression."

"Oo la la." Asia wiggled her eyebrows.

"Cut it out." A smile peeks between her lips. "I'm gonna shower and be back."

With a tap of her designated shower playlist, Jennette smothered herself in lavender-scented body washes. Lavender was her go-to scent in the fall time. Wrapping her towel around her body she stood in the mirror, thinking about what to do with her hair. Not want to do too much, because she would get getting her knotless box braids next week. Tapping her lip she thought about doing an updo buff or unraveling her twists for a twist-out look.

Deciding to go with the twist out, she decided to finish getting dressed. It was a latte brown maxi dress, a fall staple in Jennette's closet. On top of the dress was a knitted- holey shaw that was a cream color. Her shoes were fuzzy slip-on Uggs. Turning in the mirror, Jennette admired her outfit. Loving how seamlessly the outfits came together.

" 'Bout time." Asia said as Jennette sat on her bed. Her makeup brushes were laid out as she looked at her big sister's face. She turned her head from side to side, thinking about what style to do for her big sister.

"I think we are gonna do a 'natural' beat." Asia started working her magic on Jennette's face.

---- all irrelevant details laterrrr----

Jennette sent her 'here' text to Jungkook, stepping out of her car. It was a little bit cooler than she had anticipated. Walking into the building with her hands tucked under her armpit. The bell above her head rang as she stepped into the artsy building. It had funky wallpaper. Different abstract art pieces covered the wall.

"Mang?" Turning to her left, she saw Jungkook walk up to her.

Damn, he was finer in person. Jennette thought to herself. She smiled before embracing the hug Jungkook gave. His summer tan was still present, giving him an olive skin complexion. He smelled so good, masculine yet fresh. Jungkook's attire was all black and casual. It was an athletic set, loose full-sleeve shirt, black jogger pants, and white sneakers. Jungkook kept a mask over his face and a baseball cap.

"Where are we?" Jennette and Jungkook walked deeper into the hallway. Jennette could pick up the smell of paint getting stronger as they reached what appeared to be a classroom.

"I remember you said how you wanted to do a pottery-making class. So here we are." The pair stood in the doorway of the pottery class, looking at the other people settling into their spaces.

Jennette wanted to release another squeal. She recalled the conversation about a pottery-making class. It was true she wanted to take a class for the experience but also for the romantic vibes. As a kid, one of her favorite television shows had an episode in which the female main characters made pottery with their brief love interest. Jennette wanted to recreate that scene with her boyfriend. A key detail that she purposefully left out in the conversation.

"This is too much, Jungkook. Here I was thinking we were gonna get ice cream or something."

"You're someone in my circle. You deserve more than some ice cream."

Ugh, Jennette just wanted to melt. Jungkook motioned her over as they chose their station toward the back of the classroom. The instructor entered the room, passing out smocks for everyone to tie around their waist. Jungkook was able to do his quickly, but Jennette struggled slightly. The string for the smock getting caught in her knitted shawl.

"I got ya." Jungkook stood behind Jennette, tying the smock around her waist without a second thought. At this time, he noticed how much her figure was on display. Jennette wasn't an outwardly curvy woman; she leaned more on the slim slide. Nevertheless, she still shapely. Most of her weight bearing on her thighs, with hips wide enough to give her a 'pear' physique. Out of respect, Jungkook made sure his eyes didn't wander too long below her waist.

"Thanks."

The instructor lectured on the proper technique of making a bowl or plate for twenty minutes. Everyone in the room was attentive and listened to every word that he said. After speaking, he permitted everyone to mix their clay and water. Then, he flipped a switch that caused everyone's station to spin slowly.

Jungkook found himself glancing at Jennette. He was just taking in her appearance. Her bottom lip tucked in her mouth as she focused on the wet clay before her. Her hair looked like cotton ball clouds compared to the twists he saw last night. He could tell that she put effort into her appearance. He's spent plenty of time in hair and makeup to understand the true art behind it. Finding the perfect shade, understanding contour, and color correction. It was a science. It made him feel good that she also put effort into her appearance, as he did the same for her. He shaved his peach fuzz and styled his bed hair. He was growing out his hair, so a middle part would have to do. He clipped in as many earrings as possible and matched them with silver rings on his fingers. Regardless he felt a little warm, knowing that Jennette took this much time just to hang out with him. Despite her mature look, she looked like her true self with the purple-framed glasses.

He loved how large her eyes looked in the glasses. The close proximity allowed for him to see the different beauty marks underneath her frames. They were sporadically placed around her eye, but still pretty nonetheless. Blinking fast, Jungkook stopped the one-sided staring contest.

"Tada!" Jennette held her clay, placing it on the table allowing it to solidify and harden. Just as the instructor had demonstrated, she made a bowl that was even on all sides. It was nicely done.

"Wow." Was all Jungkook could get out.

"Pffft!" Jennette burst out in laughter before looking at the shape Jungkook had made. The shape was neither a bowl or a plate and looked very inappropriate at first glance.

Jennette was laughing so hard that she couldn't even speak. Her semi-dirty hands fanned her face to prevent tears of laughter from messing up her makeup. Genuinely, Jungkook thought he knew what he was doing, but the pottery before him proved otherwise.

"Why did you make a dick?" Taking in breaths to get out her question, Jennette went back to laughing. Slightly embarrassed, Jungkook felt his ears getting warm.

"I wasn't trying to make that. Had I known you were going to be an art critic I would have chosen something else to do." Jungkook explained, trying to re-shape the clay. His struggle was on display making him feel more embarrassed than usual.

"Poor baby." Jennette got behind Jungkook, taking his big hands and putting his hands in position to make a proper bowl. Jungkook watched their skin tones contrast, as Jennette held onto his hands so delicately. Her face was so close to his, that if he turned slightly then his lips would be on her cheek. Jennette talked Jungkook through the steps to make the bowl, without a condescending tone.

Truth be told, both of them were basking in the closeness of each other's bodies. It didn't feel weird or unnatural. Perhaps the years of friendship curved any feelings of awkwardness. But there was something deeper. The growing connection could only be caped as friendship for so long before it would become hilariously ludacris. Intimacy was the word that would pop into both of their heads. But it was a word that neither Jennette nor Jungkook would be comfortable to place on their relationship.

Jungkook and Jennette left the pottery place before purchasing some boba tea. They were sitting outside on a bench, enjoying the cool fall breeze.

"Thank you for today. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would." Jennette admitted, sipping her berry-flavored boba tea.

Jungkook bent over in fake pain with his hands to his chest. "You didn't think you would have fun with me? Wow, Mangy Pangy that hurts."

"You're never gonna let that nickname go huh?"

"It's kinda embedded in my vocabulary. Can't help it."

"Excuses?" Jennette rolled her eyes.

"Plus, only I call you Mangy Pangy, so it should mean something." Jungkook playfully nudged her shoulders.

"Yeah. Yeah." Jennette swatted at Jungkook.

"I wanna take a picture to remember this." Jungkook pulled out his phone, swiping through his apps to get the camera icon. With his arm extended, he took several pictures of him and Jennette. She did simple poses; a smile, a peace sign, and a wink.

"We do look good together," Jungkook stated.

"Your girlfriends won't like to hear that."

"They'll get over it. Watch this." Jennette watched Jungkook tap his screen several times, unsure what plan he was acting out in front of her.

" 'Sup chat. Guess who I am with." Turning his phone screen toward you, you leaned in smiling for the camera. The chat erupted as if there was breaking news. Text was jumping, and exclamation points were everywhere.

No way!! Mang is so lucky!!! Mang is so pretty !! Jungkook marry me not Mang !!

"We had such an amazing day. We made pottery and finished drinking boba. I'm hoping that we can hang out soon." Jungkook put his arm around Jennette's shoulder. Jungkook looked at how bashful Jennette was acting, secretly loving every moment. Jungkook looked at Jennette through the camera, staring at her once again.

Jungkook staring mad hard Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!

Turning his head to look at Jennette. Jungkook looked at her dual-toned lips. He can't lie and say the thought hadn't crossed his mind. But he wasn't sure if she would accept the advancement.

"It's a quick stream, y'all. I just wanted to show y'all who I am with." Jungkook ended the stream. His eyes wandered back to Jennette, noticing that his eyes were already on him, too. No longer beating around the bush, Jungkook lept with his words without a second thought.

"You think you could be a little less obvious with how much you like me," Jungkook smirked.

"Excuse me???"

"You're not denying it." He teased in a sing-songy voice.

"You make me sick, Jeon. So sick." Jennette pointed a finger down her throat, fake gagging.

"You don't have to admit it right now, Mangy Pangy. Cause I haven't come to terms with my crush either."

"Oh really, now." Jennette couldn't help but smile. Embracing the warmth Jungkook's body radiated, she laid her hair on his shoulder. She was on cloud nine. Nothing felt real, that so much could happen in a singular day. Jennette would forever remember the day she met her favorite streamer.

A/N: Yall got any favorite streamers/ Youtubers??

I wasn't going to make a part 2, but I was so kindly asked by: @mundayoonimnida hope this met your standards !!! <3

[mincedpeaches]

Transformers One post

Okay FIRST off I have to say. Sentinel Prime. He was everything. Blue and gold color scheme, with gorgeous gold WINGS. The most obvious villain in existence, but still kind of charms with his first overly friendly reaction to Megs and OP. The scene were he killed Alpha Trion: SERVING. Arachnid being his fag hag. I'm kind of obsessed.

Anyway. I just got back. Walked into the movie theater at 7pm in business casual since I came from work (after a quick detour to pick up dinner to sneak in). I say I want a ticket for Transformers. The teller goes "just one?" with a just barely perceptible bit of puzzlement. I say yup and proceed to have the entire theater to myself. Because no one is taking their kids to see Transformers One on a school night at 7:15pm. And I came alone. 👍

Of course I had fun. The humor I'd say was like 75/25 for me. I had some chuckles and laughs. For kid humor I thought it was really good.

Once again I kind of struggle to conceptualize what it would be like to be watching it as a fresh face though, and someone NOT well versed in transformers canon and lore. Like of course I (metaphorically) barked and clapped my hands like a seal when I saw Transformers I recognized but had no real lines. But a normal kid isn't really gonna care about that.

Anyway, again. It's late for me and I'm trying to get thoughts down now. What else. Let's try rapid fire all over the place.

Loved Elita's whole career woman thing and REALLY loved her "I'm better than you" bit because A) woman after my own heart and B) we love some unironic "girls rule boys drool" style feminism in this house. and I'm so serious.

I don't want to reduce Arachnid to just Sentinel's fag hag either because she also ruled. Her helicopter design looked siiick. The extra eyes on the front of her face and they way they moved independently was also sick. The way she was always yelling when she was stabbing guys was also kinda funny. (The way they used her eyes "seeing everything" to expose video of Sentinel, SOMEHOW, was actually kinda dumb. But don't worry about it.)

The way the trains and roads appeared in front of the train/driver looked really cool.

The scene where Optimus was dead and was floating into the heart of Cybertron, conversely, looked bad.

When it was first revealed in the movie promo content that Optimus was also going to be a miner alongside Megatron, while I wasn't as disappointed as the average tfp simp, I did think it was kinda of a bummer. That being said, it actually fucking RULED how Optimus was a miner. Ever since the introduction of oppressed bots into the tf canon, it was always this post. But in THIS canon Optimus is right there with Megs being oppressed and Optimus is the one that's fighting for social change, while Megatron is towing the line until he learns its all a lie. And once they learn its a lie, Optimus is still advocating for that change, and meanwhile Megatron is just really pissed off and down to get revenge and murder. I remember when I watched Siege and my conclusion was "hey guys, you can just do Autobots Good Deceptions Bad"! Well guess what. they DID that here, to great affect.

That being said..... it did make the megop slightly less tasty. 😔 Autobots Good Deceptions Bad generally requires a goofier, more G1 style favoring of megop. The scene were Megatron drops Optimus into the pit is very befitting of him being evil but if he's already willing to genuinely kill Optimus this early? It does not bode well for the homoeroticism.

Also what this movie loses in not having the Megatron be a liberator is how he gets followers. The Deceptions being the old high council is such a odd thing. Sure they'd want to get rid of Sentinel now, but it's odd to think of them with their whole "the strongest bot rules" thing (or whatever it was, I forget the exact line but you get the gist) but wouldn't they have been working for the other Primes before Sentinel? Who were ostensibly the good guys? Why would they all join up with Megs after getting rid of Sentinel, when Megs goals are seemingly going to shape up to be "just killin everyone". Where would the Council's bloodlust be coming from? Maybe its a political party thing, the Prime Left vs the Council Right lol. Or maybe I missed something. Also side note is funny how Starscream had them all languishing in cowardice when I all I could think were the same thoughts I had when a very similar thing happened in IDW's Spotlight Megatron, which was: "come on, it can't all be Starscream's fault. the other guys like Soundwave are competent right. why aren't guys like Soundwave doing shit."

Also may I say. HUGE ups to the timescale in this movie. It's been "50 cycles" since the quint war and if Megs and Optimus were born after it then they're 50 "cycles" old at most. And I missed it but I think Alpha Trion says the war went on for "hundreds and hundreds" of cycles. Four millions year naps? We don't know her!

Bumblebee was the kid appeal guy of course, but it wasn't too grating to me. What I think also helped is alot of the slightly awkward-to-me humor was already in the trailers. So I was prepared for it.

Finally, when Megatron generates his canon. Oooo big sexy.

I enjoyed myself alot! Of course its for kids but that at least wasn't to it's detriment. And it made me want to go look up some toys so. A SUCCESS on the only front Hasbro really cares about, lol.

[leori-the-unlearned]

sad to say but sometimes i am a hater (and in this post the thing i am a hater of is specifically the neo diamond cutters in da idw comic of sonic)

now i dont MIND them as a team and i was hyped at first! but thats kinda. decayed. under the readmore are my thoughts on them (long & rambly)

theres a few reasons to it: the visual designs next to each other, the team dynamics, the way tangle is treated in those dynamics, the reason the team even formed, the way they had tangle take the diamond cutters name so insensitively… i really *don’t* like them as they are that much, although i still dont ‘hate’ the team as a concept

visual designs: their color schemes overlap so much and not necessarily in a good way. every color used on one is used on the others in some form, which kinda blends them together instead of building separate identity. looking at other 3-man sonic teams highlights this: not just sonic tails knuckles being distinct primary colors, but even team dark that overlaps in black and reds is still distinct thru shadow and omega’s body shapes, rouge having pink instead of red, AND having different concentrations of each color. the neo diamond cutters/NDC have two majority white characters, both of whom wear yellows and browns and warm tones, and then one character who is yellow and brown and warm and wears cold gray tones. their shapes do stand out with tangle’s stripes and tail, lanolin’s puffs, and whisper’s angles, but still all the white is super same-y (and it gets worse when silver teams up with them). and the character designs aren’t bad on their own - but they’d work so much better together to be tweaked imo, maybe by working more purple into tangle’s design with her eyes (which is a color neither of the others use), and finding a way to give whisper a bit more of a peppy outfit (her extreme gear fit works SO well for this, the blue is cute on her and works great with the gold in a different way than it works with tangle’s white and purple with gold), and then lanolin can kinda stay the dusty down-to-earth tones, maybe work in green somewhere..

then my next point….. why does tangle stay with them i know the reason they gave her is she wants to stick close to whisper, but why is she back in a team with authority over her and responsibility and specific missions? isn’t that why she left the restoration - besides to be free to go find whisper, to be able to go where she wants and be helpful where she feels she’s needed? i can’t see tangle being content with this setup for very long, especially as it is where lanolin is clearly like their commander/boss. seeing that scene with lanolin slapping the paddleball out of tangle’s hand instead of asking her to stop - based on what they show in the comic, lanolin went right to smacking around instead of communicating, and based on what tangle says, didn’t even communicate to tangle that she wanted her to stop. tangle, who HAS been shown to be fairly good at self-correcting and staying within boundaries with whisper. it’s sure not the only part of their dynamic but the fact it was there is, man,, additionally tangle herself is getting slandered this arc, particularly by recharacterizing her as a rookie who hadn’t done any fighting until sonic showed up - issue 4, tangle’s introduction, explicitly contradicts this by showing tangle already easily handling badniks before sonic and her even first see one another!!!

for the purpose of this NDC team layout where lanolin and whisper are Good At Things and tangle is the rookie who needs their training and doesn’t even know how to fight, they’re scratching out the parts of tangle that made her so cool and fun! and it’s so frustrating seeing the character i like being written so wrong, i want to make a separate analysis post just for how recent issues contradict or build friction with recent tangle vs how she was in earlier issues.

additionally, if whisper’s trying to move on from her past and the diamond cutters, the better way to show that narratively isn’t by forcing whisper into another team, it’s letting her function outside a team, with her friends - the way tangle does. so instead pushing tangle into whisper’s box having a team, it grates all that down into ‘but what if they were secret agents sorta’. (oh, and all had wisps except tangle. is she allergic to wisps or something, or are they trying not to give tangle anything else special because she has her tail, despite whisper having *5* wisps not being too many?)

i guess i dont really have a conclusion besides ‘i hope tangle realizes she isnt having a good time here and that adhering to the standards other people hold for her instead of playing to her own strengths is holding her back and goes and spends time with literally anyone besides whisper and lanolin’, but i really wish this team hadn’t started at all, or at least ended up as a one-off instead of a recurring unit that isolates each member from anyone else in the comic unless they join the team. it pulls tangle and whisper away from potentially more interesting situations and interactions with other characters and pushes them into a structure, even ignoring what the writers had to break (ie tangle) in order to force them into that structure. and tangle clearly came out the worst among the three of them, but i think they all kinda hurt for it.

and hey, if you disagree- well first, why did you read all this if you knew i was just gonna be hating on the thing you like?- you’re free to share your standpoints! i’m not committed to thinking of NDC as Bad and Awful, but the things done with them have made the comic less enjoyable to me, so i’m not inclined to like the team very much. and i don’t dislike the characters themselves, just this specific way they’re stuck together. even lanolin, my least favorite, still has good points but is kinda kept in her ‘unlikable’ state by being stressed and put supervising the other two when she doesnt like it.

[pinkprimrose05]

character asks bc other anon was a coward: blade

HAJFTOVNWHYFAGDYSDNTJ

General opinion/How much I care about them: Ren Blade Yingxing my beloved beloathed depressed miserable angsty bastard aaaaaaa-

This man, oh my god. This edgy mess is somehow the second fastest blorbo to be coined as such in my blorbo-having history, and I think that alone says a lot. But even if not, he has his special little spot for being: 1) my first HSR fave, 2) my current main (the gameplay is ridiculously fun holy shit), and 3) the reason I downloaded the game at all (shoutout to Bronya, of course, but it was mainly Ren).

Also I really like the fact that he's genuinely batshit insane. An unapologetic menace to the galaxies. He can be so unhinged and evil sometimes, and that's a new flavor of fave in my collection. Did I mention the story doesn't try to redeem him at all? Because it's true! Extremely uncommon win on the hyv writers' part there; doubly so because they manage to balance this aspect with the subtle gap moe they love to give to all their stoic characters.

Yes. Ren is simultaneously edginess incarnate and a tired grandpa that sucks with words and doesn't know shit about technology. Oh and he keeps getting roped into Situations by his colleagues- and goes along with them all the time! The dude was literally asked to pose for a movie cover and he just. did that. No questions asked. Nothing.

I care about him a very normal amount. He's so neat and- oh my god I forgot to mention the aesthetic. Black/blue/red/gold is such a banger color scheme. He also has a spider lily motif and that looks very cool! And the pretty ribbon on the back of his coat is a 10/10 design choice. His only problem is that the game keeps forgetting to edit his silly beta design sneakers out of splash art, and that the washed out jeans clash hard with the coat. But otherwise? Perfection. I could (and did) stare at him for hours on end.

A ship I love: Kafblade is one of those pairs that you can read as romantic or platonic with equal efficacy and I love that for it. They're partners in crime! There's a great sense of trust and faith between them! They're each other's guardian and tether and the one who understands them best and they're such an awesome dynamic, good lord.

Honorable mention goes to jingren for the old man yaoi potential to take the relationship in a very (bitter)sweet or very sad way. There's something to be explored here and I wish canon could give it consideration someday.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Stellaron Hunter agenda!!! They're so awesome individually and as a group, and the comedy is just lovely. You have Ren wrangling two terribly reckless women because in some way, by some miracle, he happens to be the braincell holder among the three. You have him trailing after Kafka on one of her shopping sprees with a whole bunch of bags and coats, you have him going to an arcade with Silver Wolf because she wanted to show him this brand new game she's been talking about nonstop for four days, and you have him in an impromptu shooting session with them both because they wanted to make silly movie covers and needed an extra actor.

They're one small hilarious family and I adore them so so much, you have no idea. Can't wait until Sam and Elio make an appearance in the story so I get more fuel for shenanigans.

The NOTP: None here sir, as long as the ship is normal it's fine by me.

My biggest headcanon about them: Ren is autistic and you will pry this hc from my cold, dead hands. He's stuck in his own head 80% of the time. He doesn't do conversation at all. Back when he was still Yingxing, he used to spend so much time at the forge when inspiration struck him, to the point of tuning out everything until his friends physically dragged him out to touch grass. He's an autistic nerd through and through, and even several thousand deaths can't take that from him.

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: One idea I've been curious about lately is what would happen in a roleswap scenario, where the Astral Express crew find Ren before the Stellaron Hunters do. He may not make for a great archivist, his state of mind may be less-than-stellar, but it's interesting to imagine the dynamics between him and the crew- and hey, who doesn't love taking sad guys out of situations for a change?

I'm filing this concept for later, just in case. Who knows? The writing ghost visits when I least expect it.

Something that makes me think of them: Everything these days The flute, the sound of wind blowing, red spider lilies, and -to the immense detriment of my composure in public- mentions of the word blade in any context ever. Why gee, thanks for permanently altering my brain chemistry.

[welcometoteyvat]

graphics rambling/metacognitive time (the Kinich graphics in question)

Honestly I started this on a whim, I think I wanted to make some kind of video game character profile mock for him, taking inspiration from how his trailer was structured lol, and it ended up morphing into 4 posters, none of which remotely resemble a character card lol. Overall I knew I wanted some kind of pixel theme to unite the entire thing, if not a 1-1 video game reference, and over the course of making that the uniting theme morphed into halftone, pixelation, squares, and elements of his green/blue/yellow color scheme.

I started out with his splash art because I thought the pose was really dynamic, and I actually started with a landscape oriented banner image instead of portrait orientation like the final version. I wanted to incorporate kinich's pixel chibis into another banner and make it a sillier type of project lol, but that didn't happen.

For the actual editing, I knew I wanted something with his pixel theme, and while I was inspiration hunting, I stumbled upon this neat butterfly graphic design for a piece on digital transformations. Thought it looked super cool, especially the illusion of the butterfly wing disintegrating at the edges! I wanted to try it out on kinich but ended up not actually using it; after I got the image into black and white and added some halftone patterning, I couldn’t figure out how to automatically cut it up into squares and reassemble it with all squares in the correct locations (it would’ve taken way too much time manually with like 300 squares lmao). Gave up on that and thought it looked ok with just black and white coloring (3 thresholds worth of b/w adjustment lol), but there was too little color in the black and white so I ended up experimenting with some colored squares and quite liked the result!

I ended up deciding the banner was too cramped, so I switched orientations to see if it helped. It forced me to rearrange the text, and I then wanted to combine his splash and icon into one image, like a character profile/card, but I ended up getting rid of the icon because it was too cluttered and I couldn’t integrate it well into the overall poster. Cutting off his leg also looked awkward to me lmao

I think this took me the least amount of time overall, or at least I didn't feel blocked anywhere while working on it. Silkscreen pixel font thanks for your service (shame I didn't use it anywhere...)

second poster I made was the turnfire hunt poster; I was going to stop after that one but thought the two posters side by side were too… uncohesive? They each had their own central focus (Kinich) so it felt awkward putting them next to each other, I wanted to add some more stuff/filler to balance them out. Anyways, I was scrolling through kinich's official art and thought that image was a pretty cool pose too—he really has such dynamic art. I was going to use halftone + b/w color scheme again, so the background was going to be the one with color, but then I couldn't make it work and the green was making my eyes bleed so I gave up.

lowkey this one still reminds me of some kind of cartoony action movie poster.

I still wanted to try the color blocking style that the butterfly design used, and ended up stumbling upon the pixelate filter to create large color blocks sampled from the original image, and using those to color the black and white base! At first I didn’t edit the original colors, but I changed it to all green to be more cohesive (the orange-browns felt out of place in a mainly cool color dominated scheme). I tried limiting the colors to green and blue first, to match the first poster, but it looked weird removing the browns from his face (don't have an example of this version)

Ended up with the shades of green and I’m pretty happy with it. I was originally thinking about making him hang from the image border, but it didn’t pull off that illusion as well as I wanted (probably because the top of his hand was cut off) so I tried it with some text; it still felt really flat but bending the text helped a lotttt. Playing around with that was really fun! Had trouble with the background on this (as evidenced by the green halftone lol), but I found one of genshin's texture files they used for the natlan events (thank you genshinimpactresources) and I layered that for the background so it wasn't super boring.

and then I was like well. I can’t just post these two because their background colors and their designs in general are too similar, so I started looking for more stuff to edit him with. For panel 3 I chose the pose from his tribe reputation quest background, and the quote from his character stories. sidenote I could go on about how many times it stresses his connection between the mountains (they gave him freedom in an empty box ueueue) but anyways. I had a lot of fun playing around with blur/halftone/weird coloring effects on this, and styling the text! I love highlighting certain words with different colors and fonts hehe. incidentally this probably has the most saved versions because I was struggling with background texture, bg color, and kinich's color too lmao. I didn't choose the green filter because it looked too similar to #2, and discarded the white background because the green text doesn't pop as well. I feel like he melts into the background better in the white version tho (and I like the illusion of brighter colors on Kinich), so it was a tradeoff ig.

The second poster in the layout and 4th poster I made gave me so much trouble because I literally just didn't know how to design it. I didn't want to have yet another panel with Kinich as the focus, so it was either a) find an object or something similar that's associated with him b) use his quest icon/tribe's icon c) pure typography, which I barely have experience with. I tried using his ascension materials and his weapon for something, tried just sticking a quote on there and shaping it into the shape of his necklace, etc. I was so stuck lmao this was my closest attempt. I full circled back to the video game UI theme I tried at first, but it felt way too empty lol.

the font made it into the final version of panel 4 though! Honestly, I don't have much to say about this design. I caved and used another Kinich image instead of forcing myself to stick with a design centered around his constellation/quest icon and it made things a lot smoother. I was playing around with different formatting of "atonement or compensation" and "give up" (tried overlaying them on top of kinich's scribbled out eyes, etc) but those versions all ended up asymmetrical, so I chose to wrap the quote around the frame instead. I also tried using some leaf textures to mask his face, but it made the scribble look like it's floating around randomly, because you can't really see where his eyes are supposed to be. Ig, have a version with thinner text (kinda hard to read unless you zoom in) and no filters. the font's called m+1c or something and lowkey idk whether there's any difference between some of its thickness settings. i swear to god regular and medium weights look exactly the same

conclusion: kinich. i love your character stories. live your best life.

[alevolpe]

Okay but that silver millennium Mercury design is cool as hell. May I ask if/where you got inspiration?

Thank you!!

It's not from a single source, for each of them I have a few details/ideas that stick in my mind for them (both from design and narrative perspective) so I try to build the character around those.

My main inspos for this whole series is a mix between pics of ancient Greek gods, art I browse on pinterest and the amazing art of @NN_EE_ZZ on twt.

For mercury I knew I wanted 3 major components for her design: her helmet, it being a mix between a futuristic type visor and the classic winged Mercury helmet, her cape and her frostbit hands (yes, her hands are black cause they are at a constant state of frostibe, you nailed it anon, hope you see this).

I know for each of these designs I'll want to keep major elements from their classic versions, like their color schemes, tiaras, the sailor cape and the bow clip on the front of their uniform, but I want to also change them up a bit, especially the cape, there's so many ways to change it while keeping it recognizable!

Anyhow, sorry I went on too long, thank you for the ask!

[stfmp]

Contextual Research

Looking at different examples of wire frame graphics, I thought it'd be interesting to look at since It was one of the earliest examples of computer animation, but It also showed a very nice example of wireframe graphics being used to achieve the model of hand and face. That is the type of style I want to achieve with this project's graphical appearance, though it will be tougher since even simple models now aren't just made up of squares, they're made up of triangular shapes which make the wireframe models much more complex.

The Operation: Anchorage DLC for fallout 3 is this games main Stylistic inspiration.

the DLC's rocky landscapes makes a good setting to have the game based in, though the color wont have any whites since the pip boy screen only supports 1 color, and the default for most of the games is green, I will still try to replicate the different areas of anchorage in the games background.

A mix of the open areas of the final area and restricted zones before said area would be a good place to have the game be set, since the areas are quite open and better for tanks to drive on, this will also open up for some other unique mechanics that could effect the player to certain degrees.

Leading on from that the tanks are also going to be based on the chimera mining rig from the same DLC, It seemed fitting since It was the only other tank in the game that wasn't american from my research into It.

something to take into consideration is how these tanks were far superior to anything the american's had, though I could also take a note out of the DLC's book and make the game a bit fairer for the player since realistically If It were made in the fallout universe, the people playing wouldn't want to see how incredibly outmatched the army actually was compared to the chimeras.

the model is complex but I might be able to find a 'lower quality' version to use that looks better with wireframe graphics, this way It will still retain Its retro style with the non-complex game assets. If It comes down to It I will also make the design myself.

This was stated on the projects concept but Its going to be based off of holotape games from the latest fallout titles, I though it'd be cool to make one based off of battlezone since they had other famous arcade recreations like space invaders and donkey kong, why not add battlezone to the mix?

It'll be unique from the real in-game holotapes in the fact that those are all 2D games, this will be 3D so there will be some things to think about when It comes to designing the game, If I have the spare time I could also design my own holotape and pairing magazine like they have in fallout, that would help diversify my final outcome to not just being a game, but to also contain a sprinkle of concept art and other bits.

I decided to have look at some newer games that utilized the tank control scheme, and one of the more popular examples was the game Signalis by rose-engine.

In my opinion this game nails the retro aesthetic with the fixed top down camera, pixel art graphical design, and of course, tank controls.

By the end of this project I aim to achieve a quality similar to this, though that might be stretching it a bit since this is a fully polished game rather than a small college project

[kooldewd123]

@godzillalover alright, bet

haxorus is supposedly the first unova pokemon ever designed, according to junichi masuda. I wonder if that influenced their decision to make it the partner Pokemon of one of the most prominent new characters of the generation. speaking of which, iris usually has the haxorus line as her partner and drayden has druddigon, but the two of them were actually swapped for some reason when they showed up in Pokemon generations. Also, if you haven't been keeping up with the anime, iris came back with her axew fully evolved (and it even got to fight against cynthia, which was set up all the way back in bw), which is some great redemption for a character that I think was dealt a really bad hand in her original series.

this is gonna be more ranty, but mega charizard x is the one Pokemon design I actively dislike. it just reeks of trying to be overly edgy, and not in a cool way like ceruledge or something. the black and blue color scheme, the weirdly shaped wings, the flames blocking half its face, the stupid shoulder spikes... I just can't stand it. and it sucks that this is the form they've decided to promote everywhere when oh my god mega charizard y is fantastic. it's such a cool sleek design (aside from the arm wings, I do think those are a bit weird) that improves upon and feels like a solid progression of charizard's features. it's genuinely one of my favorite mega designs, but it keeps getting overshadowed by its ugly bastard brother and it's a damn shame it doesn't get more love.

personal anecdote for rayquaza: I've been working on a shiny living dex for years now (I'm actually pretty close to the finish line, too). shiny rayquaza was a fairly memorable one for me because I actually found and caught it on the bus ride to school one day. I like to nickname all of my Pokemon, but I couldn't come up with a good one for rayquaza. I spent like twenty minutes trying to find a nickname before first period started, and eventually I just gave up trying to be clever and ended up with this:

so, diglett. ever wondered why alolan diglett and dugtrio have those luscious locks? well, it actually comes from a real geologic phenomenon. volcanic events can create what is known as "pele's hair," thin wisps of volcanic glass that resemble, well, hair. the combination of Hawaii being volcanically active and the hair itself being named after a Hawaiian deity makes it pretty clear why Game Freak would want to reference it with an alolan design. the connection is even further reinforced by the fact that according to moon's pokedex entry, alolan dugtrio are worshipped as feminine deities.

in Pokemon journeys, suicune made an appearance, in which it was actually caught by goh. it was a super contentious episode at the time (and probably still is, but you just don't see it talked about as much now), but it's one of my personal favorites. it was a great goh episode, and he's one of my favorite anipoke characters. really wish they ended up doing more with suicune, but it's clear internal plans ended up getting shifted around heavily over the course of the series. I've seen some people make comparisons between goh's suicune and one of the characters from gs pokespe, but I've never been able to get into pokespe enough to have an informed opinion about it.

it's fairly common knowledge at this point that umbreon was originally intended to be poison type. there are still remnants of that original version with the pokedex occasionally mentioning its poison sweat. however, lesser known is the fact that it was also supposed to be a stone evolution: eevee would evolve into umbreon when exposed to a poison stone, and into espeon with a heart stone. i think the friendship mechanic wasn't yet created at that point in development, although i could be mistaken.

Well, with all the new users here, I figured it was about time I make an actual intro post to pin to my profile. Here's the old r/curatedtumblr meet and greet post I had pinned before if anyone still wants it.

Hi, I'm Kool. I've been around Tumblr for about a decade, albeit pretty infrequently for the past five-ish years up until Reddit shit the bed. I reblog memes, fandom stuff, and anything else I find interesting, and occasionally post my own thoughts under the #kool speaks tag (kinda wanna come up with a better tag name, but whatever). I've had some bad experiences when it comes to political stuff online in the past, so I generally try to stay away from more serious topics nowadays. I want this blog to be more of a space of escapism, especially with *gestures wildly*. yeah.

In terms of fandoms, I'm into a lot of Nintendo (Pokemon in particular - I'm a big shiny hunter) and general animation stuff. Battle Cats and Sentinels of the Multiverse are my two smaller fandoms I think I might try to talk about some more, too. Oh, and Animorphs. Please send me an ask about any of them, I'd love to infodump about discuss them!

uuuh yeah i think that's about it

[quibbs126]

Helooooo, can I have espressoline fankid

All right, this is Opera Madeleine Cookie

Fun fact, technically this isn’t the only or first person to request Espresso/Madeleine, as someone else commented a request on the original post I made asking for requests. I believe the name was @cerulaenfunkz. It’s actually listed as my third request, but I guess I just never got around to it. I was originally trying to make it, but I was having so much difficulty figuring out what to do that I just went on to other ones, and I guess it just went to the back of my head. So yeah, of all the fankids, this is probably the longest time coming

Anyways, so Opera Madeleine is named after opera cake, because it’s a cake with coffee in it, but I changed the “cake” to “madeleine” since she’s part of House Madeleine, similar to Choco Madeleine’s name. Also I just think it sounds better

The original name I gave her way back when was Coffee Cake, but I didn’t like that and when I eventually discovered opera cake, I changed it

Opera cake:

I’ve already made my design struggles with her known, basically in that, I had the hair, hairpieces and gloves down, and I like those bits, but wasn’t sure what to do with the rest of her. And to be honest, I like the scarf and boots, but I kind of flubbed with the coat. I thought she’d look cool with a coat, but I also wanted to show off the boots, so I made it high up, and I don’t think it worked all that well. Not to mention I don’t really know what her upper half looks like, as you can see with the admittedly pretty bad sketch

You know what, I may just go back and edit her later to make her coat look better, it’s just bugging me

Edit: I did do that

Originally I gave her blue eyes like Madeleine, but I changed it to pink so she’d look closer to Espresso. Also because I wanted more brown/warm tones, but didn’t want to give up her blue outfit color scheme

All in all, I liked most of drawing her, but I flubbed the last bit and it looks kind of eh. I just didn’t know what to do for it, but I didn’t want to keep her in development hell for eternity and I wanted to do her hair, so I just went with something

Anyways, let’s get on to her

So Opera Madeleine is the heir to House Madeleine, however she is not a Paladin like her father Madeleine and instead chooses to use coffee magic like Espresso. However she still follows Madeleine in that she’s a warrior, she just prefers to use magic instead of a weapon. Granted I’m sure Madeleine still taught her to wield one just in case. And also she’s good at hand to hand combat

Chances are she went to school in Parfaedia, given they have a whole school for magic and from what I can gather, Espresso once went there himself

Unlike Madeleine she’s more of a no nonsense kind of person who’s more focused on her duties as a warrior. Not saying Madeleine doesn’t care about being a warrior, she’s just not as…prideful as him, not caring much about appearance. However one thing she refuses to publicly admit is that she takes great pride in her hair and goes through great lengths to keep it as pristine as possible. But that is the only thing

She’s a hard worker, but not as much of a workaholic as Espresso, as she doesn’t have nearly as much coffee in her dough to maintain that lifestyle. Also Madeleine made sure that she didn’t follow in his footsteps

I feel like I’ve talked a lot about Madeleine but little about Espresso. I imagine the two talk about coffee magic and such, but due to her differing interests in careers, she probably spends more time around Madeleine

I imagine when she was younger, Madeleine just showered her with adoration and tried to be a loving father. But if you asked her which of her parents was the coolest, she would say Espresso, much to Madeleine’s dismay (more like he gets moody that he’s not the favorite more than anything). She’d probably learn combat with Madeleine, but would also just wander off to find Espresso and just watch him do his work for hours on end, quietly sitting in his lab

Hmm, I think that’s all I have to say on her. I wasn’t expecting to write that much to be honest. But yeah, hope you like her

Edit: so as said earlier, she’s been edited, and this is the original if you’re curious