#woe answers a thing!

[reality-of-woes]

💐, 🌼, and 🌻? (I know you’ll like 💐 bc your partners are nerds)

A/N: AUGH Dahlia I'm sooooo sorry this took so long to answer,, I literally had it finished and clicked off of it by mistake and lost. Everything I was writing so I had to do it all over again :'( BUT WE PERSEVERE!! Thank you sooo much for the ask as always,, and the nerd callout lmao

-I'll be answering all of these for my thg dr!!! Full names have been avoided tho bcs. I'm not trying to show up on ppls dashes & get put in a reddit cringe comp yk </3

💐: Do your s/os have a certain interest or hobby that they gush about? How long have they been enraptured by it? Have they tried to get you interested too?

H- There's the obvious poetry, and the eventual looking after geese, but those hobbies are very personal and I don't think I'd want to encroach on them too much. He does read a lot though, when hes sober, brings books to games control and stuff- genre doesn't seem to matter so much but he leans toward histories, biographies, collections of geographical information or short stories. Its always interesting to walk in and see whatever he's picked up on a given day, and I like to ask about them on his better days because hearing him give terrible abridged explanations of serious capitol history or legacy or whatever is pretty funny.

B- Invention is again the obvious, but I think given the workload the Capitol give him and the influence it has on the rebellion, building some new machine for the workforce or coding is much more of a job for him than a hobby. In terms of actual hobbies, he collects a lot of really old stuff. Most of it is unusable or scrap tech parts, but he has a good deal of pre-panem records and complicated machines that he works on repairing in his spare time. I'm hopeless with tech and mechanical stuff, but I think I'd enjoy getting to hear him talk over the phone about some ancient computer element he managed to get his hands on. The process of putting it back together might not make sense to me, but I'm still invested in it.

C- Cooking! He doesn't do it very often because, again, he isn't usually sober, but getting to test recipes and intricate techniques and just sort of. Learn how to make good food without any monetary strings attached is very enjoyable for him. He can't bake so well, but the savory stuff he's made that I've been able to taste has been phenomenal. Of everybody hes also the most encouraging and spontaneous with his bursts of inspiration- most of our calls are ridiculously late at night, spurred on by an outlandish flavor combination he thought of on the spot and now wants my opinion on. I've shared a lot of traditional D10 recipes with him to reportedly good results, and it makes me happy to know he takes my thoughts on it all so seriously.

W-Her biggest hobby really is inventing- I don't think she talks about it as much, not unless somebody asks or shes actively bouncing new ideas off of someone like Bee, but she definitely gets into a zone when shes drawing up some plan or strategy to build a new machine that is very interesting to watch from an outsiders perspective. I think for her it sort of comes naturally, the desire to build things that better peoples lives and then the execution of that idea in the however-many-stages it goes through, and shes always in her element when shes being challenged by what shes building, which is nice to see. It really is like the world melts away when she has a final concept in mind to work towards, and I'm happy it makes her so happy.

🌼: What do you find the most beautiful about your s/os? What about that aspect of them is so beautiful to you? In turn, what do they think the most beautiful thing about you is?

H- The most beautiful thing about him to me is how hopeful he is. It might sound kinda cliche or dumb but the rare moments of genuine hope I've seen from him- they're always there, just buried most of the time- are so beautiful and raw and I really love that about him, how even through his outward cynicism he always carries that internal sweetness. I also think he has a very beautiful way of thinking- miserable, and dark, but I think there's a lot of merit and poetic quality to that. In terms of physical attributes alone though? 100% his hair. Black curls are just really pretty idk what to tell you

B- His hands. I've dedicated posts to them before and I'll do it again,, his hands,, so pretty,,,, whats that one post um. "If a woman tells you you have nice hands it means shes sending her friends the kind of texts serial killers would send. Free her" its that its that. ASIDE from the hands, his most beautiful quality is his intelligence & dedication. I could literally fill notebooks writing about how deeply touched I am by his meticulous care for everything & in fact I probably will.

C- His humor. Are the jokes terrible? Yes. Does anyone really laugh at them? Not really! But me personally I think the self-deprecating humor and big smile and earnest everything-ness that he exudes is sooooo charming so pleasing so wonderful,,, I love a very genuinely awkward but sweet person I really do and he just. Encapsulates that so completely & I think its beautiful. Again, in terms of just physical attributes, I'd say his smile (obv) aaand maybe his height. I usually go for shorter guys but hes much taller than me and theres something doubly charming about someone so tall being so like. Open and awkward !! I think its cute!!!!!!

W- Her eyes. She stares a lot, and some people find that kind of off-putting (cough cough Hay describing her in the new book as 'unnerving',,,) but they're beautiful to me because they're so expressive and clear that it makes them super easy to capture in drawings or describe. I also think her voice is absolutely lovely, even if she doesn't speak so much. Its quiet but so pretty, and listening to her describe a recent invention? Listening to her sing?? I'm charmed I'm enamored I'm down astronomically bad. Then of course there's her intelligence, which just like,,,,, the capacity to understand everything she does, and to do it so effortlessly, is really brilliant to me. Like its incomprehensible but so cool and I love that about her

///

As for what they think of me? I really don't know!!! I think I'm pretty enough, so maybe my face? My sarcasm? My knowledge- not so much in academics or machines, but in medicine and plants? My singing? My loyalty?? Genuinely who's to say. Maybe none of those things!!! I'll have to ask sometime lol

🌻: How do your friends describe you and your s/os relationship? Do you and your s/os share a lot about your relationship or do you keep a lot of it secret?

Though our relationship is very secret (It isn't even legal to be queer, so we can hardly get away with a public 5 person inter-district polycule) my close friends know, or have inferred, that I'm dating other victors by the time we hit our late thirties. Naturally my brother Fleece found out first when he discovered the back section of my music notebook was entirely dedicated to songs about them, which meant his wife found out about 20 minutes later. He probably sees it as sweet, or maybe tragic- but Bovie is much more pessimistic about it. I think she would describe us as irresponsible for letting it get to that point, both because of the danger it poses to us and possible bias against helping our own district. She isn't wrong in fairness, but I can already tell its going to cause some sort of argument in future. As for my other friends- Fleeces bandmates & Celio, whos mother ran the apothecary I worked in before the games, I think they would mind their business to a point, or share Fleeces sentiment about it being nice but tragic. Overall, I don't think they would pay it too much mind unless I actively brought it up- which I probably wouldn't do.

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[toast-in-a-cowboy-hat]

oh everyone's out here "What if Ty starts dating Mike" this and "What if Mike starts dating Ty" that, what if Edgar starts dating Ty? Huh? Mike branched out of his dating type before, maybe this time it's Edgar's turn. Did you ever consider that? Maybe Ty's not gonna steal Mike, maybe he's gonna steal Mike's boyfriend. Maybe this is the #TygarTimeline. How would you know? Exactly. You wouldn't.

Think about that.

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

i think Foul Legacy would have so many affectionate names for you in the Abyssal language. you can't understand them most of the time- often you don't even know he's calling you them. but he knows what they mean, letting out specific rumbles and coos and nudging your back with his head. after some time you start to catch on, listening for a familiar series of sounds as he bumps against you, happily trilling when you press a kiss to his cheek and call him something equally soft and sweet.

[tgmsunmontue]

📣 for SOS and Drunk Vegas please and thank you (but only after you have read @halestrom update because I would be very sad if I delayed you from doing that.

Saga of Solitude

(The fact that you've already seen the first ~3k I will find dialogue for LATER in the epilogue... Actually from another bit entirely, but which I suspect I've still already shared with you. Perils of being my friend! No takebacks!)

“Jake, why is everyone calling you Angel?” “Haven’t you heard? I’m an act of heavenly intervention Bradshaw.”

You put a ring on a wild thing/Drunk Vegas

“Seresin!” “Trace…” “Where did you get the shirt? Doesn’t seem quite your style…” “Well, you'd be right there. It’s not mine. It’s my husbands.”

[silverskye13]

this is just an artist thing

i have a piece that’s red and white and i spent 4 hours on

and i just did a 10 minute red and white doodle

why is it better. what is wrong with this hobby.

does this happen to you as well

do we artists suffer in tandem

It happens! Art Is A Process And Sometimes That Process Is Hell. You are definitely not suffering alone. This happens to me frequently, especially when hammering out my initial sketches for a drawing.

There can be a number of reasons for this phenomena, and all of them are interesting.

1. You were "warmed up" for the new piece but not for the original. Because of this, the lines seem to flow better, it's less of a struggle to get going, or to produce something good. In the same way stretching before a run makes the workout easier, doing a second drawing after the first tends to make the process flow easier, and gives you better work

2. The doodle is still a sketch, and therefore in a state of change more pleasing to your eye, while the rendered piece is static. This is the same reason people often think their sketches have more movement than their finished artworks. When something is a sketch, your lines are looser and more subjective, and so your eye can pick which ones it thinks make the piece better. The trick to rendering is figuring out which of those lines are worth keeping to maintain your movement. If you have problems with this jump from sketch to lineart, or sketch to render, do multiple passes at cleaner sketch lines instead of jumping straight to lineart. Or render your colors under your sketch layer, and tighten the drawing slowly from there.

3. The composition of the sketch is better than the drawing. Maybe the render was a good idea in your head, but it just could've been better if the arms were a little to the left, or the body positioned a different way. Give your new doodle a really good squint, and try to pinpoint what about it you like so much. Is it the positioning of your main subject? Is it a specific movement to the head and shoulders? Is it the suggestion [or lack thereof] of a background? Try zooming out on both your sketch and your render, and looking at only the broad shapes.

4. Art is hard, that's just the way it be. Maybe the difference is ephemeral and unexplainable. The art gods blessed one and not the other. Remember that neither piece was a waste of time. You learned something from the first that you very well may have applied to the second unknowingly. But at the very least, you've learned there is something about the first piece you don't like quite as much as the second. Every moment you've used between the two are stepping stones in your process. You've got this! Don't be discouraged by the disparity. Take it as the sign you're learning something.

You're doing great and I believe in you :3

[ghostdnfie]

atp im going to have to redacted myself in front of tmmy and jck to change the trajectory of their lives forever like... u dont understand i was seriously thinking about getting a ticket to the brighton show and now im thanking my lucky stars i decided not to go (mainly bc health reasons) bc i couldve ran into them which wouldve ended with me jumping out of the window and running all the way home 💀

[cuteniaarts]

Digitalised + coloured + redesigned version of my Suiren and Vaatu sketch from two days ago, as promised!!

Coming up with Suiren’s design was a very long process of trying and failing because after you’ve drawn 9+ different versions of one character, the creativity starts to run a little dry, but I’m actually really proud of this one, she looks absolutely adorable <3

(Also yeah I did mostly just scribble Vaatu’s pattern because who has the energy to draw the all out accurately. Not me, that’s who, I’m chronically tired. People who draw him on the regular have my utmost respect. He’s still a funky little guy though :D)

Bonus, Raava incessantly screaming inside Suiren (and being completely ignored because Suiren is tired of her) while all this is happening:

[reality-of-woes]

OMG AGERE SHIFTER HI!!!!! missing our cg/regressor is so real tho 😞😞

Anon o anon.... I am holding ur face and looking in your eyes so intense-like and staring at you while a billion trillion fireworks explode behind me in various shapes and colours. You get it ... you get it

[ilkkawhat]

i was able to resist drinking last night but. lmao. tonight might be a different story at the rate this work day is going

[nejackdaw]

Okay I haven't talked about Judas OR the Judas album in a while so I'm going to share this analysis I finally placed and I'm losing my mind about

In the song Field of Blood (song 5,) the chorus ends with a line I've never quite been able to find a suitable conclusion about. Right. (Putting my rambling under a read more, the screenshots make this long)

Oh, okay, "what is my god," he's having a crisis of faith. Why is God so cruel as to order Jesus be killed (reminder that the album is a mix of biblical and Gnostic canon, where Jesus asked Judas to be the one to betray him.)

WRONG

If we move two tracks ahead in the album to Death is Just a Kiss Away, right before the last chorus we have these lines:

Which is insane! Because this part is actually saying "you have two gods, God and Jesus" (sun and moon, as I'll get to) "and no matter which you choose" (obeying the kill command or refusing to kill Jesus) "you're going to piss everyone off"! Okay now I know, "but where did you get sun and moon/God and Jesus" and HERE I TELL YOU:

Jesus is CONSTANTLY referred to with constellation imagery! (There's a whole song about it!) The Gospel of Judas includes the quotes (from Jesus) "Judas, your star has led you astray" and "the star that leads the way is your star." The album takes this and RUNS with it. Makes Jesus Judas's guiding star. There is SO MUCH night/star symbolism going on here, mostly in Constellation, but also from A World Where we Belong:

SO BASICALLY: considering that Jesus is heavily referred to with night sky imagery and they're literally both referred to as "two moons aligned," it isn't unreasonable to conclude that the line from Just a Kiss Away is in fact talking about God/Jesus. WHICH MEANS

When Judas is about to hang himself and he pleadingly asks "what is my god?"

HE DOESN'T KNOW IF IT'S GOD OR JESUS BECAUSE HE'S FUCKING IN LOVE WITH HIM APNDOANSOANS HE OBEYED GOD BECAUSE HE'S GOD BUT HE'S KILLING HIMSELF OVER JESUS. I HAVE MANY OTHER LINES ABOUT THIS (DEVOTION TO JESUS, NOT GOD) BUT THAT'S A DIFFERENT TOPIC

[chiropteracupola]

📻 for anyone from white doe's woes!

"Qu'a vous à soupirer, ma blanche Marguerite?" / "J'ai bien trop d'ire en moi et n'ose vous le dire" / "Je suis fille le jour et la nuit blanche biche / La chasse est après moi, des barons et des princes"

song from which the entire conceit of the story derives. what if you were the lady of the house in some vague medieval setting and every night you turned into a deer and somebody got horribly killed and maybe eaten.

Honey honey, I'm bitter without honey / Baby isn't that what you said to me / Honey honey, we've run outta honey / Baby I won't be your sweet tea / Drink me down, drink me down, drink me down...

song for Matilda's relationship with Reinhardt and her relationship with Richardis! it's one thing to have carefully and methodically made yourself cold in the expectation of waiting out your husband's lifetime so you can make it to your Well-Planned Dream Life of orderly methodical days in some cloister with only people with hobbies you approve of, and quite another to face being told that your life as a person is worthwhile and your presence is valued right where you are by someone who infuriatingly uninterested in things like 'reading the gospels meditatively' and 'walling yourself off from the world literally and also mentally' and 'denying as many of the the pleasures of the flesh as you can while still tearing people to bits in the woods at night.'

[tgmsunmontue]

📣 🎵 drunk vegas

For those unaware, the Drunk Vegas/You Put a Ring on a Wild Thing was BORN from a song when I was driving home one day, and that is Woman You Got by Maddie & Tae, which has the starting lyric "Baby, you put a ring on a wild thing"... And I started imagining a Hangster version of them getting accidentally married in Vegas just after DADT was repealed (and completely ignored that fact that same sex marriage wasn't legal in that state until 2014).

With the favourite dialogue I'm selecting stuff from something not yet posted. So here you go:

                “What’s with the ring? You married Bradshaw?”

                “Uh. I am actually. Whirlwind romance…”

                “No shit. What’s her name?”

[phoenixyfriend]

I saw some of your posts earlier and just wanted to say it's alright, these are hard times and even harder events, the important thing is that you are trying

Your works brought me a smile on my face so many time and I hope that I can cheer you up even if just a little from all the time your words brighten my day, have a good day!

Thank you. I'm mostly hoping people can recognize that I'm doing my best to approach all this with a sense of ethics and consideration of implications. On this specific topic, I'm not trying to convince people that I know the correct answer, or even that they should agree with me, but rather to step back and think things over in ways they might not have before; there are a lot of lenses through which to view this, and many of those lenses have a vested interest in convincing people of their viewpoint.

It's what I've been trying to do, and why I've been willing to adjust my thinking on some things (see: that ask with a tiktok about Yemen). I think that if we are to have productive conversations on these things, we need to be willing to take that step back. Some of it might seem really obvious, but then it might be less obvious to other people, or it's something that only seems obvious because an element hasn't been taken into account...

There's something painfully destructive about getting told off for trying to do the learning and thinking that is key to being a better person and also to the activism we're hopefully trying to strive for.

(I'm also immediately suspicious of any post with a Specific Tone that seems geared to jumpstart my emotional outrage response so I skip the fact-checking. I do still get some of that fact-checking wrong, but I do at least try to do it. Sometimes I just don't reblog, but sometimes it's egregious enough, or at least seems egregious enough, that I just go off to rebuttal with what numbers and news I can locate. Sometimes I'm in the right, and sometimes I'm mistaken, but... it's better than consuming information without thinking to check it at all, right? And unfortunately, the posts that appeal to emotion are the most likely to make a person skip past the fact-checking stage.)

I'm glad you like my fics!

[miodiodavinci]

What's the best way to keep the lyrics synced to instrumental? I do everything in the programs (I use V6 and OpenUtau) themselves because idk how to do it in Audacity at all. Oops :/

i'm not sure exactly what you mean?? i'm guessing you mean either:

vocals are at the wrong BPM: if the melody sounds right in your editor and the timing sounds good but for some reason, the vocals keep falling out of sync with the instrumental even when you start them at the right time, it may be that your file was made at the wrong tempo/BPM. sometimes you can fix this by chopping up the render and re-arranging it manually, but it's way more effective to get your hands on a BPM analyzer, find out the instrumental BPM, and then use that as the tempo for your .ustx/.VSQx instead.

vocals are at the right BPM but start early or start late: you can fix this one pretty easy in audacity, but if you're working primarily in openutau and V6, you can also just import the instrumental and then line up the notes as needed (i do this sometimes to make dragging and dropping new renders into the mix easy).

vocals are at the right BPM and start on time, but don't match up to the instrumental: if you're making your own .ustx/.VSQx track, you may be having an issue where the vocals sound fine on their own, but keep falling out of sync because the note lengths you're using aren't exact. i tend to try to mitigate this by copying and pasting notes or creating a note "palette" i can pull from to make sure i'm using consistent lengths across the file

if these are. not what you meant i apologize OTL feel free to drop an additional message if your problem is something more specific sdkjglhsdklfghkj