#xzidane and i are making a game

[xkuja]

🌼 Fave flower & 🎥 Fave film!

|| A Munday Meme on Tuesday ||

🌼 Fave flower

Venus flytrap. They grow little white flowers with loooooong stems that look really stupid, they're so charming.

🎥 Fave film

Amadeus. I have a thing for any media about historical composers, and that aside, its just a really entertaining watch. Actually, I have a thing for historical composers full stop. You could call it my 'special interest', I suppose.

[alcxandros]

4 and 5 for the munday asks?

What is your favourite thing about your muse? Why did you pick them up, what do you want to explore?

Man, there’s so many things I love about Garnet that it’s hard to narrow it down. I think I related to her a lot as a kid. Someone just trying their best but their best doesn’t feel good enough to them. That self-deprecation we see morphs into self confidence as the story progresses. Despite the road blocks and people telling her ‘no’ - even when she doesn’t believe in herself, she keeps going and keeps trying anyway. What she lacks in confidence is made up in determination, and that determination carries her so fucking far. She was a role-model to me, and a reminder there are multiple ways to be strong. What makes Zidane strong is different than what makes Garnet strong, and VIvi strong, and Steiner strong, and so on.

Let’s see. I considered picking her up about four months ago due Astrid catching my eye, and I thought she captivated how I’d imagine Garnet to look like. Then I went on a four months hiatus from Tumblr entirely and really didn’t intend on coming back, but oh how writing has a way to pull me back in ~ Anyway. The fandom I was last in wasn’t great for me and it’s pretty much dead in the water anyway. I can’t say I know them very well, but @xkuja @xzidane and @zinidyne-zidane have been in the fandom for a good long while, despite not knowing them personally I knew they were likely around. When you’ve been on Tumblr since 2012 and have been in the FF for a few years, you get to know faces. IX felt like a ‘safe’ place to come back to since I felt pretty sure I could find active people to write with regardless of the tiny fandom. So far, I’ve been proven right, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to create again, especially in my favorite game of all time. It’s under-appreciated and over-looked and interacting with people who also love it is just chef kiss. 

I really don’t know what I want to explore yet, but I am enjoying what I have so far.

What is your least favourite thing about your muse? What makes them difficult to write, or interact with?

Hmmm. It’s been over a decade since I last played and to fairly criticize Garnet, I’d ideally like to have all of her information in front of me to critique. Since I’m into Disk 2, take what I say with a grain of salt and being open to change. And since you’re new here ( hi hello hi thank you for this ~ ), one of my favorite pass times is criticizing my favorite characters. I LOVE flaws; flaws make characters human. I’d have to say Garnet’s biggest one currently is how stubborn she is. Pack that with her being naïve to the world around her, it puts avoidable stress and danger to the front. This can also put other people in danger too, despite me not being able to think of examples right off the bat - likely because everyone else around her has world experience to avoid mistakes she makes. But mistakes is how someone learns.

I can’t even say that totally fairly because to give her credit, she often does try to communicate with people before making a reckless decision - she just doesn’t feel like they listen to her. To THEIR credit - sometimes they’re right, and she is the one who doesn’t want to listen. Once her mind is made up, she is sneaky enough to get the jump on professionals in the trade of being crafty, and that speaks volumes. I could say that Garnet is subject to tunnel vision - once her mind is made up, everything opposing her seems to turn into an obstacle, which makes allies turn into something to get out of her way if they aren’t going to help her in the way she wants help.

I’d say the hardest part so far about writing her is the dialogue. I’m used to writing characters that are a bit on the smartass side, and that isn’t Garnet. She’s a different kind of muse for me, but I’ll learn. Also, for anyone reading, I am open to constructive criticism. I don’t improve on my writing by smoke being blown up my ass. 

[xkuja]

|| The Year 2022 in Review ||

So, @her-enlightened-ladyship​ made a review of her 2022 year, wherein she read 100 books and travelled and accomplished things. And then she tagged me, assuming that I also did a lot of things in 2022 besides doing a book and taking a lot of naps.

Well, maybe I did. Let’s see.

Projects I am proud of completing :

Put together a bunch of my Kuja art into my own zine, with print copies that people actually bought, which was nice. The digital copy is over at @kujazine for everyone who wants one now.

Took more naps.

Cooked an omelette without dropping it on the hotplates or turning it into scrambled eggs.

Started making an RPG game with help of @xzidane. We’ve made the whole story, now its time to make maps.

Got back in touch with a dear writer friend and started writing our story again.

Talked to a lot of neat people.

Got invited to partake in a Final Fantasy IX zine as a guest!

Books Read:

How to draw Vampires

Draw Manga Style

Innocent Bleu Artbook

Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It

Drawing and Painting Anime and Manga Faces

Manga Drawing Deluxe

Born to be Bound (that book by the lady who took to court over ABO tropes) - DNF

Everything Guide to Writing Graphic Novels

The Joy of Photoshop

Comics Read:

Sensor

Liminal Zone

Dick Fight Island

DRCL

Dragon Ball Z

Some manga where the different families fused together into big flesh mechas and fought

A lot of manga in the death game genre

Board Games Played:

One of those little things where you roll the metal ball bearings into the holes in the plastic maze.

Trust Me, Im a Doctor

Video Games Played:

Elden Ring

Bloodborne

Planet Laika

Photoshop

Inscryption

Monster Hunter Rise

Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy XIV (does screenshots count as playing a game)

Fear and Hunger

Fear and Hunger Termina

Goblet Grotto

American Truck Simulator

Pokemon Violet

Tetris 99

Golf Story

TV Shows:

Trashy reality shows

Anime/Cartoon:

None.

Fun Places:

Nice hotel

Nice craft show

Bed