#Anyone else has more feel free to add

[mylucayathoughts]

Nick smiling like Henry does (a smile that is crinkly and unguarded and infectious) when Taylor is around: a collection.

[atthebell]

practical advice about college you say?

[the weird spaces between some paragraphs are because i hit the character limit on content blocks which i didnt really know existed until now, fascinating!]

Don't buy too much shit. There will be a lot of things that people tell you are useful— buy things that seem like necessities, then figure out what you need from there. My grandma tried to buy me all kinds of crap and some of it was utterly useless, whereas other random stuff was super helpful (like towels, you should own at LEAST two towels, more if you reallyyyyy don’t want to do laundry).

Decor and things to make your dorm room (if applicable, also relevant for apartments etc.) feel more lived in are excluded from the above; if you want to have a million pieces of art on your walls, absolutely go for it. In fact, other people will think you're cool and want to hang out with you, I'm not even joking. Maybe invest in a bean bag, those are also a good seating thing for small rooms. I had a regular bean bag and then a giant one and it was a great way to have fun seating in my room (I hosted a lot of hangouts/let people just chill in my room a lot, so your personal mileage may vary).

Go find free food. There is more free food than you could even imagine on college campuses, go find it and don't be afraid to bundle some up in a napkin or some Tupperware and take it home. This is genuinely grad student 101 (grad students often don't have meal plans like undergrads) but is very relevant to all elements of college. I was notorious amongst friends and acquaintances for going to all kinds of events and bringing food home, and it was awesome. I could swipe some bagels from a student org social and the next morning I wouldn't have to worry about waking up early enough to grab breakfast from the dining hall or, heaven forbid, cooking.

Along similar lines, keep a decent amount of snacks/food in your room. Do you love trader Joe's chocolate covered almonds? Goldfish? Wasabi peas? Keep a stash in your room at all times. Future you will thank past you, especially when you're feeling down or studying or both. If you have a mini fridge or anything like that, keep a few cold things in there, like Gatorade or energy drinks for late nights or even cream cheese for the previously mentioned free bagels.

Join some student orgs! I assure you that while I have always been an over involved maniac of a human being, I am not anything even close to a social butterfly. You don't have to be, but having a few connections, especially with people in similar circumstances to you (first in your family to go to college, low income, women in stem, queer, latine, whatever your background and/or situation may be). You might not meet people you click perfectly with, but you'll at least be able to connect with people who get your experiences on some level. I truly do not know what I would've done without my college’s first gen/low income program or the Jewish community I found going to various events.

Professors are way more chill than you think. I say this as someone who asked for extensions every single semester/quarter of university i was in and again went to several incredibly prestigious colleges. Many professors are way less hardass than you may think, and some are the kind of people who will invite you over for shabbes dinner and become incredibly important mentor figures for you. The latter are harder to find, but there are plenty of extremely cool professors and TFs and lecturers who are always down to talk about course content or any number of topics. Everyone always says this but go to office hours! It really helps and it's just a great way to connect better with people passionate about the same things you are.

Grades are stupid and bad. This is not specific to college; the focus on grades in all levels of education is ridiculous and counterproductive to learning. This is important for you to know and remember, even when grades DO matter; for transcripts, for grad school, for getting jobs and scholarships and other opportunities. Trust me, I understand that grades matter, but I want you to know that they shouldn't, and you aren't stupid or worthless if you struggle with academics, or if you feel like your grades don't reflect your effort. Grades are a way to standardize (retch) measurement of learning, but they don't show the full or accurate picture. You are so much more than your grades or where or what you're studying.

Take fun classes! I know a lot of STEM majors make it incredibly difficult to dip out of course tracks, but if you can, try to take some fun and diverse classes. Take a gender studies class, take a theater class, learn photography, take a wacky science class, take a language course (this one I want to specifically highlight!!!! learn a new language while you're in a setting that's way easier (for many people) to learn one in!), find a beloved professor from another field and dip your toes in. I took all kinds of wild classes (religious studies is not a major where they fill up your schedule with required classes, at least not at my university) and had a blast, and it's good to have some familiarity with different fields and possibly how they connect with your own. Also it's just fun! You can meet new people and learn a lot from studying something you haven't before.

Be very nice to your custodial staff but know that they are probably deeply underpaid and understaffed. And get to know your housing staff too so you know more about who to call in certain situations. Also get a tool set so you can fix minor stuff yourself.

Don't be afraid to party, but also don't feel pressured. I spent most of my college years in a group of friends who played board games every week instead of drinking, and I personally did not drink until I was 21 for various personal reasons. If people make fun of you, don't hang out with those people. If they pressure you, stay the fuck away. If people are judgy about your drinking/partying/hookup choices? They can go fuck themselves. Find people who respect your decisions, either way, no matter what they are, and anyone else can fuck off.

I didn't really date or hook up in college but I did get hit on by a lot of beautiful bisexual women. If a very hot girl that you want to hang out with in a sexual or romantic context asks you to teach her to play pool, just say yes. Do not shoot yourself in the foot. If someone sets you up on a date with a friend of theirs and you guys vibe better as friends, never let this person go. I'm joking but that's how I met my best friend who I adore perhaps more than anyone else in this world so you never know what the universe will hand you.

Get more sleep. Whatever amount of sleep you're getting, try to sleep more. Sometimes homework or frat parties or boyfriends matter a lot less than just getting a few more hours of sleep, and you will retain information better and feel less like shit. Please get more sleep and maybe drink less caffeine.

Befriend some grad students! I'm completely unbiased (<3) but grad students have a lot of insight about college and life as a young adult, and they're often very cool. They might invite you over to smoke weed and talk about Kant— I cannot stress enough that you never have to do something you don't want, but say yes to this if it's at all appealing. Definitely not another personal anecdote.

Connect with your first gen/low income and/or financial aid office(s). They will have incredibly helpful info, including about getting jobs or scholarships or even just the experience of being low income at college. Also, if you're attending a California Community College, apply for the CCPG (previously known as the BOGW)! It waives all enrollment and tuition fees if you meet eligibility and qualification requirements. I would add more resources but I am a Californian so that's what I have at the moment.

Kind of related, if you're leaving university right now with student loans and you're low income, apply for the SAVE plan to make smaller (or no) payments and less (or no) interest. It's been saving my ass for a while now and it could be helpful for you.

Drink more water. If you need it cold, get a brita pitcher thing and put it in your minifridge if you have one. If not, ice from the dining hall + a decently insulated water bottle. You should be drinking on average 8oz every two hours, or every one hour when it's really hot.

Have a craft or a hobby or a video game or a show or a book or a movie or something that you can do like. At least once a week as Chill Time. Personally I would have some Chill Time at least once a day, but if you are busy to the max, Chill Time once a week is mandatory. Doesn’t have to be the same time every time, but if it is, clear your schedule. That is the only thing happening then. No one gets to interrupt Chill Time. Not to be confused with hanging out with friends, which is still a good activity you should do many times a week. This is Chill Alone Time, where you just sit with yourself and do something you like to do alone. Get a coloring book, learn how to cross stitch, read a book on native birds, whatever suits your fancy.

If you are anything like the hot mess express that I was, you will go to class in pajamas/sweats. This is fine. There are probably some people out there who care about this, but you should ignore them. Similarly, if you, for instance, wake up at 1pm for your 1:30pm class, feel only the amount of shame necessary to make you able to be on time to class (if the prof cares) and nothing more. I stayed up til 4:30am every single night my freshman year of college it is a miracle I was ever awake during the day and the fact that I managed to do my coursework and still have a social life continues to be a mystery to me today. Anyway, your fashion choices in college but especially your first year should never be judged to any significant standard. If you’re wearing clothes at all, that’s commendable.

If you’re on a biking campus, wear a helmet. This is not optional, wear a fucking helmet. Also for the love of fuck have a bike light and use it at night you do not want to be smushed by a car at 3am biking back from wherever you’ve been.

If you do not know how to do laundry, ask someone. Please do not just go into the laundry room with full confidence and dump 16 loads worth of detergent into a washing machine and fuck it up for everyone. Also not a single dorm dryer will ever work correctly. Know this, and invest in a drying rack or be content to fry the shit out of your clothes at 90 minutes of high heat.

Communicate with your roommate(s). You do not have to be friends, you don’t even have to like each other, but you should be on the same page about stuff. Especially re: sexiling, taking the trash out, volume levels, friends over, etc. etc. You don’t want to get to the end of the year and then realize your roommate fucking hates you because you never asked if she was cool with whatever thing you’ve been doing that’s been annoying her.

This is just general young adult life advice but: You will fuck up. Like, probably more than you think. But you will be okay, and you should know that everyone does that. You’re learning how to do stuff on your own, you’re possibly leaving a bad situation or even a great situation into something you don’t know enough about to possibly be prepared. It’s hard! It’s going to be hard for a bit! But you are not the only person who’s done this, and there are a lot of people out there you can talk to and find support from. The worst thing you could possibly do is isolate yourself, so please don’t do that. Find some good people, eat some good food, and for the love of fuck get more sleep.

[0x28]

another fundraiser to support

[jianghushenanigans]

Ahhh so, some of these questions is related to the donghua as well but:

-does Lei Yunhe only have one arm or how did they reattach his arm?

-isn't Li Hanyi related to Lei Hong? Isnt her father from the same clan as Lei Hong? Why is he interested in her romantically?

-is Xiao Lingya gay?(I remember in the donghua Xiao Se said something about his tastes were acquired and hinted at a man next to him)

-Does Xiao Se hate all his brothers?

-do you know how old Wushuang is?

And those are the main questions that come to mind. Thank you for taking your time to read them if you can.

SO I haven't seen the donghua (and I only started reading the novel this afternoon despite planning on doing that a while ago) but I'll do my best, and also tag @feng-huli who probaly knows more answers than me especially re: donghua

Lei Yunhe only has one arm as far as I can tell? I can't remember a huge amount of his backstory tbh

Li Hanyi's father was Lei Mengsha, but I don't know, like, how related him and Lei Hong are. It's most likely that they're different branches of family though, so they would be third/fourth/etc cousins and not really counted as related. Or I guess they could be more closely related, but they weren't raised together so wouldn't necessarily view each other as cousins? Maybe?

afaik no one is canonically gay in the novel and therefore not "canonically" gay in any of the adaptations but 🤷‍♀️ personally i like to headcanon everyone as a little bit queer, for fun

it's COMPLICATED (i don't want to spoil anything)

i think he's somewhere like 14-16 but I don't know if they mention anything specifically

[pencap]

Hey your poetry is so pretty and evoking and I've gotten back into practicing fiction writing in recent years but in my own criticism I don't think my prose is very evocative. It gets the job done and I think my stories are readable and enjoyable, but I don't think my descriptive language is particularly striking and I would like to improve on that! Sometimes I read and the author has used such creative brilliant metaphors and descriptors etc and it comes across as artistic genius. So, if you have any tips and time to share them I would love to hear about how you select your descriptors, if there's any advice you've heard before on this, etc. <3 feel like my brain simply can't come up with creative language after my decade long break lol

Hello, darling! Thank you for the kind words. I don't exactly have a formal process, but I can share some of what works for me.

The simplest, truest, and least fun advice I have is just this: practice. Practice, practice, practice. The more descriptive writing you do, the better you'll become at it. It's much easier said than done, I know--it's been months since I've posted anything here myself--but it's unfortunately true.

But beyond that, in terms of strategies, I have a couple. I think "evocative" can mean a lot of things, but it sounds like you're specifically thinking about description (as opposed to, say, emotionally evocative) so I'll focus on that. I'm gonna reference january 2nd a bunch, just for concrete examples.

Having a clear image to start with always helps. So when I wrote january 2nd, for example, I had a vivid mental image of an empty beach at dawn, practically abandoned 24 hours after thousands of people crowded together to watch the first sunrise of the year. The stretched out horizon, the dark blue twilight overhead and pale hazy dawn on the eastern edge, the shy peek of the topmost edge of the sun, the soothing ceaseless rush of the waves, the clear expanse and white-foam edges of the water, all of it. The loneliness of it, sure, but also the freedom of it. The quiet and the peace.

It also helps ot have a why. What are you trying to achieve with your description? Often in poetry I'm going for a specific emotional or visual effect, so I try to focus as much as I can on the pieces that resonate for that. In january 2nd, it was the horizon in particular. Nothing in the poem actually mentions a beach, even though that's part of my mental image, because the beach wasn't as important or effective. The sky and the horizon is what worked for the emotional tone, for me. Specifically their openness. Not the light, not the darkness, not the water, but being open, so that's what the first stanza revolves around.

If you're going for "fresh" / "interesting" / "unexpected" / etc. I like to play around with one of three things. One is transferring descriptors from one target to another. (In january 2nd, I take crowded from jostling people on the beach and transfer it to the horizon.) I think these are most fun when you take human(-adjacent) descriptors and put it on inanimate objects / the environment, but that's just my taste. Another trick is to try for hyphenates, which didn't come up in january 2nd. But two of my recent favourites are in Precious: sleep-warm and heartbeat-quiet. sleep-warm is about evoking both the cozy comfort of sleep and the warmth of holding a living, breathing animal in your hands. heartbeat-quiet is about both the volume and the intimacy and the repetitive rhythm of it. The thrid trick is simple and boring and exhilarating when it works, and that's playing around with synonyms. I remember sacred weight of the untouched being difficult. Is it sacred or precious or treasured or holy? Is it untouched or new or young or innocent or unsullied or pure? Try them out and pick the one that feels right, or at least feels the best.

Sometimes I'll think about sound, though not in janary 2nd. soothing ceaseless rush a few paragraphs ago was a deliberate sound-based choice, though. That repeated s-sound feels and sounds like waves. Sometimes I'll think about rhythm, although that's a bit more important in poetry than prose. Sometimes I'll think about length--of the overall description, of the specific phrase or sentence, of the words themselves. Rule of three feels good to me and you'll very often see me write things in triplets (young and fresh and new), frankly a bit more often than I wish I did. Short words can bring emphasis, or abruptness, or simplicity. Long descriptions can be more flowing, fluid, relaxed.

Almost every and any element of language can be leveraged for descriptive power. You'll rarely if every use all of them at once, but it's fun to try many of them out. Maybe you'll figure out versions that feel easiest or best for you.

Alright, I think that's long enough! If you had a specific line or poem in mind, I'm happy to break it down further. Caveat that some of the pieces on this blog are quite old and I might not entirely remember what went through my mind years and years ago, of course.

[thefuturewithoutus]

per your recent post i would love some house md amv and fic recs.. planning to watch s8 very soon

YES!!!!! okay i'll link everything season 8 related. i don't watch as many amvs as i should so the first two are season 8 related and the others just make me emotional.

amvs

- i bet on losing dogs by @cinemapphic

- self promoting lol but tropic of cancer

- teardrop by @alonetogether

fics

- together, in all things by sebviathan

- esopus creek by shaycat

- love is blind, deaf, and walks with a limp by iwantedtosavetheworld

- and i fight time (it won in a landslide) by @mayfieldarc

misc

- this poem by @ocdwilson

- c word comparative with angels in america part 1 / part 2 by @buckysoldatbarnes

[natjennie]

All my knowledge of ghosts comes from you so I have a question if that's okay!! If all the ghosts come from the house then how is the cave person (robin? I think) part of the crew :0c

Hope your tummy feels better soon 💖

tysm, I am feeling a little better today I think <3

but yeah that's actually a great question! so the rules the ghosts follow as explained in the show are inconsistent and confusing, even for the ghosts themselves, as shown in "a lot to take in" when julian (90's politician) has just died and can sit on a chair but also walk through it and thomas (regency poet) says "yes, it doesn't make sense, does it?" so just know that even the show itself recognizes that the lore is nonsensical.

but yeah "you stays where you dies" "and how you dies- died!" "it's your classic haunted house" is basically the number one rule, so for the ghosts that came before the house was built, namely robin (the caveman), the plagues (plague pit), and mary (burned at the stake), are tethered to the land rather than the house. even for those that died after the house was built, pat (scout leader) died outside of the house on the grounds, for example.

there's a whole bit in uhh the exact episode escapes me, but there's a bit where mary and robin act as sort of lawyers trying to insist that alison owes them because technically she's living on their land, and the land came before the house, so it should belong to them. so even they are sort of unclear on the distinction between the land and the house.

the exact boundaries on their roaming aren't ironed out totally either, julian who died the most recently tried to leave the grounds through a main gate and kept getting sort of teleported back, and cap (the captain. you know him.) remarks that "we've all done it" and robin jovially counts how many time julian attempts this, implying that the other ghosts have all similarly tried to leave the grounds. but the exact point that stops them might be different for each ghost? I have no idea. robin goes into the woods a lot more frequently than anyone else, howling for the neighbor's dogs and such. so his like. haunting radius might be bigger than the others??

but then, you have to consider the fact that, in s5, when alison is considering selling a chunk of the estate, fanny (edwardian noble lady), is all in a tizzy about losing some of their precious grounds. captain talks about how he likes to walk around the part they're planning to sell, but kitty (burgundy dress, hair feather), says that they still would be able to. and cap says "the afterlife isn't bound by freehold agreements" so???? what the fuck is it bound by then bestie???

I even have a wip of a fanfic idea going that considers this, imagining that they are connected to the physical land like the soil rather than anything, so if alison digs up a chunk of dirt they can follow her sort of on a leash outside the bounds of the house. why not?

anyway. long story short. it's a really good question. and I don't have a satisfying answer. the simple version is that they're all sort of loosely bound to the button house grounds, even the handful that came before the physical house. but the details of that connection are a shoulder shrug at best. even within the fiction of the show, they don't really know. so. that's the best I can do for you.

[pronoun-checks]

Is there any like genderfluid-theme names? (Like names that can be fem, masc, and gender neutral??)

-

There are a few different ways to have a sort of genderfluid name! You could always just go with a regular gender neutral name that could be interpreted as masculine or feminine (you can look through the #neutral names tag on here for ideas)

Alternatively, you could go with more neutral names that can be expanded into more traditionally masculine/feminine names. You could then use the neutral name by itself or use the neutral name sometimes, the masculine equivalent sometime, and the feminine equivalent sometimes. For example:

Charlie (Charles/Charlotte)

Alex (Alexa/Alexis/Alexandra/Alexander/etc.)

Sam (Samuel/Samantha)

Max (Maxwell/Maximus/Maxine/etc.)

Jo/Joey (Joseph/Joe/Josephine/Joelle/etc.)

Frankie (Frank/Francesca)

Andy (Andrew/Andrea/Andromeda)

Bernie (Bernard/Bernadette)

Mick/Mickie (Mackenzie/Michelle/Michael)

Ronnie (Robert/Veronica)

Vic/Vickie (Victoria/Victor)

Will (William/Willow/Willa/etc.)

Danny (Daniel/Danielle)

Nick/Nicky (Nicole/Nicholas)

Oli/Ollie (Oliver/Olive/Olivia)

Chris/Kris (Christopher/Christina)

Rickie/Rick (Erica/Eric/etc.)

Cam (Cameron/Camilla/etc.)

Lou (Louise/Louisa/Louis/Lewis/etc.)

Matt/Mattie (Matthew/Matthias/Madison/Matilda/etc.)

Teddie/Teddy/Ted (Theodore/Theodora)

[cutemeat]

Why does Barbara think of Dee as a mistake but not Dennis? I don't think she was a good mother to either of them, but why do you think she seemed to have this preference, and was this right from their childhood? Did she see something in Dee as a failure? Did any of it have to do with her relationships with Bruce and Frank and did Dee maybe reflect something she didn't like back to her?

I know it's difficult to have opinions on this because we only have Barbara for a season and then it's all snippets of backstory about the twins where we have to infer Barbara's role, but I'd like to know your opinion.

oooo yes i have thoughts on this!!..

My hunch as to why Barbara always targeted Dee more than Dennis is because Dee refused to be the kind of daughter Barbara wanted her to be, so she was a “mistake”. That’s what I think..

Dee’s personality seems a lot less malleable than Dennis’. While Dennis was always willing/trying to fit in and change himself to meet certain expectations, Dee was not like that (see: Dennis trying to learn the “family business” in Roller Rink, while Dee is off chasing her own dream). Dee is the kind of person who doesn’t really care about how she’s being perceived because she can always convince herself she’s in the right and the victim in any given situation because she was never given that external validation even when she may have deserved it, meanwhile Dennis does care about how he’s being perceived because he did get that external validation early on so he now struggles with feeling inferior by default because while he felt he inherently had his mother’s approval he could never gain his father’s which made him more insecure in the end.

Imo, Dee is a lot more capable of being independent than Dennis because she felt like she’d never inherently have her parent’s approval anyway so she didn’t bother chasing it and clinging to it the way that he does. At least not consciously, subconsciously she definitely is chasing that approval, like how most of her goals center around how she still wants to get to Hollywood just so she can “shove it in everyone’s faces” but she’s not about to go the more expected route by joining the family business like Den because her family was never a source of support for her, she knew early on that would be a dead end. So that is a key difference between them, I think. In order to survive, Dee had to cultivate her own strong personality while Dennis was clinging to whatever behaviors continued to gain him his parents’ approval and eliminating whichever traits didn’t get him that.

Dennis is actually a lot like Mac in the sense that he convinced himself he had this close relationship with his mother, when in reality he didn’t. But it was more difficult for those around Dennis (like Dee) to parse out that Barbara was just using him and didn’t actually love him, because she was just good at convincing people she did.

And again, I don’t think Barbara liked how little Dee paid attention to how she was being perceived by others. Dee clearly wanted affection and attention, but she was not willing to just do whatever her parents wanted her to do in order to gain those things, she was willing to seek it out in other people first. Dee was always trying to showcase what she felt were *her* own individual talents and abilities in order to gain approval. I think that’s sort of the subtext of episodes like “The Aluminum Monster v.s. Fatty Magoo”— because Dee could function as her own person, that was threatening to the family’s enmeshed dynamic (i.e. to quote The Aluminum Monster v.s. Fatty Magoo “[Dee’s dress] did not fit the prototype”). Hence why Barbara, despite not loving Dennis in any genuine, sustainable way (cuz I think she just loved how she could use him as a pawn and Dennis didn’t seem to ever realize that lmaooo), was willing to shell out at least some scraps of affection for her son while continually chastising Dee, that was probably because she was trying to implement the idea in Dee’s head that if she just did as she was told like Dennis did and met the expectations placed on her rather than trying to keep pursuing her own thing— then she could maybe, possibly be loved just as much as her brother. But that didn’t happen.

Also I do think that even after Barbara’s death in s3, we can see traces of her criticisms of Dee in the various ways Dennis attempts to keep Dee down, I’m assuming a lot of the ways he does that echo the ways Barbara used to treat her… (i.e. quote Barbara in s2 ep2: “Don’t blame this on your brother. How low can you sink, Deandra?” // quote Dennis in s9 ep1 “Dee why can’t you see this is the same pattern you always fall into… You think you can’t go any lower? Because you can.”)

And I also do think that a lot of Dee’s chasing Dennis’ approval in earlier seasons, as Kaitlin has mentioned before, is just an extension of Dee subconsciously still desperately wanting that approval from her mother.

That being said, it is interesting to me how after Barbara dies… We really see the twins sort of ‘switching roles’ over the course of the next 12 seasons. Because Dennis was always Barbara’s immediate “favorite”, Dennis could use that as leverage over Dee for a long time and it seems like he used that to make himself feel like the superior one without putting much work into actually proving *himself*, again because that external validation was the prize he didn’t put any work into finding himself as a person, only championing what Barbara wanted him to be. Again, he didn’t seem to realize that he was being used rather than loved by his mother. And now Dennis and Dee are only left with Frank, who is a lot harder on Dennis than Barbara was, because Frank also seems to have a lot more in common with Dee so then Dee becomes the more inherent favorite as time goes on because she proves herself to Frank a lot more than Dennis does**. So Dennis sort of falls apart when he no longer has that inherent ‘golden child’ status from Barbara n that’s been really interesting to watch.

**Which isn’t to say Frank is a good father to Dee, he definitely isn’t LOL but Dee and Frank do click a lot better than Dennis and Frank do. There’s a lot more of Barbara’s (and Bruce’s, imo) personality in Dennis than Frank’s. So yeah, I do think the fact that Dee reflects a lot more of Frank’s personality (see: in “Gets Analyzed” all it took for the therapist to catch onto Dee lying was her session with Frank), and Barbara did not really like Frank, is probably another big reason why Barbara didn’t like Dee but was able to at least act like she liked Dennis cuz Dennis is a lot more like her.

[orokay]

Hello, orokay!! I've adored your art for years now and I was wondering if you have any tips on how to draw and paint/render scars? I can never seem to get them to look right, any help is appreciated! Hope you're having a good year!

Hi anon, thank you so much!

Sorry this took a minute to reply to, I've been trying to figure out how I wanted to respond. For me, a lot of questions about how I do certain things are kind of tricky bc generally the answer is 'idk I just try things and tweak it until it feels right' and I don't really feel qualified to give art advice bc most of the time I'm just making stuff up as I go, but I know that's not really a helpful answer 😭

My art style tends to lean towards simple and stylized, so for scars I try to limit them to three colors at most, less if I feel like I can get away with it. It also depends a lot on the scar since there are different types of scars. Usually how I pick the colors I use is: one color darker than than the skin tone (shading), one slightly lighter than the skin tone for the injured flesh and occasionally an even lighter color for highlights. I'll include some examples under the cut. But please please please keep in mind wrt scars 99.9% of the time I'm just winging it and going off of what I think looks cool, I don't know anything about the science behind how people scar so please do your own research if you want to be accurate.

I'd say when approaching/researching scars you need to consider a few things:

Skin color of the person- Scars look different on different skin colors and different people scar differently. I think this is one of the biggest things to remember! Color pick for the scar based off of the character's skin tone and shade. The color you use for scar tissue on a person w/ light skin is going to look unrealistic and out of place on person with dark skin, doubly so if the undertone of their skin is different (ie. warm vs neutral vs cool undertones). It's so important to look up references because everyone scars differently and skin type can make a huge difference on how a person scars.

Color of the person's blood- same vibe as with blushing/lip color/etc. if your character has blue blood, the scar likely isn't going to be pink. This probably isn't something you're going to have to keep in mind a lot, but just in case. This also kind of ties into the first one because if a character has a non-human skin tone, like blue, and red blood then the scar is probably going to be more of a purple tone, for example.

Type of scar- think about the injury and what kind of scar would result from it. I'm not a doctor so idk how scarring works and generally go off of vibes, but if you want to make it as accurate as possible, I'd suggest looking up images of scars from whatever type of injury you want your character to have. I used to work with dogs and I scar easily so I have a lot of bite/scratch scars. Some of them are lighter than my skin and raised while others that were less deep are darker and on the surface of the skin (aka no texture). My brother has a very deep dog bite scar that's left a dent in his skin and light, pink and shiny scar tissue. Basically, if you know you have the stomach for it, I 100% suggest looking up examples of the type of injury you're thinking of so you can see how that injury tends to scar. Is it hypertrophic? Atrophic? Keloid?

How was it treated and how old is the scar?- is it a burn scar that received skin grafts? is it a surgical scar? stitches? did it heal well or was there infection? All of these things can change how a wound heals and scars. New scars are going to be much more stark, especially if they're still healing, and most scars fade over time. Examples under the cut...

Some examples from my drawings over the years:

OC w/ healed burn w/ skin graft stylized and very simplified // really simple, sketchy scars on Narci:

This iteration of Blue's blood is green so the scar on her cheek is green (we're going to ignore her lips and the flush on her ears lol):

raised scars on nikora and blair's cheeks:

[braisedhoney]

Alright I’ll bite loved Stanley (just finished a few days ago) and keep seeing it crossed over with clock out and your tags intrigued me. What is clock out?

clock 0ut is an animated series (? there are two shorts/music videos atm) on youtube that i believe was based on a divergent stanley parable timeline, animated by SAD-ist—which is a damn cool username ngl.

being honest i'm probably not the best person to ask since i'm pretty sure there's a discord server or smth about it that i'm not a part of. but from what i can tell, it's based in a world where stanley confronts the narrator after a bunch of resets and basically breaks space and time as a result. it's pretty badass and really well animated. the first of the two (yellow zone) can be watched here, and the second (blank decay) can be watched here!

[kanerallels]

Hello, do you mind if I ask how you write fan fics? As someone who is currently testing it out I find the whole writing process cringy. While thinking about the work I want to write I’m completely happy, and cannot wait to put pin to paper, but once I’m there I can’t seem to do anything without dying a little bit inside. Is this normal?

I am honored that you came to me for this, Anon, and I shall do my best to answer it well!

(if anyone else has other advice to add, feel free-- I'm far from an expert, just offering what my experience is)

I definitely get where you're coming, honestly. My ideas NEVER seem as good on paper as they do in my head. But honestly, I think that's something almost everyone struggles with. I was just reading a book by an author (who's published four really good books, and written several songs!) who was saying he experienced the same thing

So it's not just you, I promise. As for how... honestly it took me a while. I was not the biggest fan at first (it took me reading some truly incredible fics to change my mind) and then I just started asking myself "what if this happened?" and then just... doing it

At some point, you just have to accept the fact that it's probably not gonna seem as good on paper as it is in your head, grit your teeth, and work through it. And here's the thing-- other people are not gonna find it as cringey as you find it. You're almost certainly your own worst critic, and I 101 percent get that it's hard. But the more you write, the more at ease with it you're gonna be. You just gotta get through the hard part first-- which you can! I believe in you!

(In my experience, it did help to have someone I trusted read it and tell me that it was good. So if you can find someone like that, definitely do!)

Long story short, stick with it, friend! If you have a story you want to tell, odds are very good that there's someone out there who wants to read it. Trust me-- I never expected people to be that interested in my stories, but I've found a surprising amount of readers! And I get it can feel hard and cringey and frustrating, but finishing a story is always worth it, in my mind

If you have any other questions, feel free to send me another ask! I hope this was at least somewhat helpful

[dyed-indigo]

y'know i intended to draw a bunch of refs for some of my characters that i haven't posted a ton of art of for artfight this year but i think i'm literally just gonna make crunch and wesker's refs, re-do reverie's ref (it's been bugging me since last year), format and upload horatio's preexisting ref, and update some character descriptions. that might just be all i have the energy for regarding artfight prep, at least if i wanna have some energy going into artfight too

[ectoplasmer]

biting him biting him biting him bi

[kawaii-kushami]

Hello! I am now on the Go//lden Ka//muy train and am enjoying every minute of it! What are your thoughts about Tan//igak//I sneeze? I imagine he would be poppin those buttons left and right!

YAAYY also i see your m/ajima icon/header image... the r/gg and g/k solidarity is Real >:]

im ngl i dont have many ta/nigaki thoughts as he is not one of my faves BUT lemme see what i can come up with

u are so right he would definitely pop the buttons off his shirt with big heaving buildups

he definitely has a big and forceful snz...

... but maybe there's still a cutesy quality to it that the others poke fun at?? like a high pitched or super shaky suggestive sounding build up or something lol

he'd be really good at stifling or holding back sneezes when he needs to due to his hunting expertise (but since theyre so strong maybe he doesnt unless its necessary, otherwise it's painful)

hes definitely embarrassed about his sneezes, but they're so attention grabbing. poor guy