#Both the way i picture the characters and my art style has changed a bit since i did these

[camelspit]

old keeper character designs i never posted

Taglist

@callas-pancake-tree @neverseen-nevermore @completekeefitztrash @steal-nightmares-leave-dreams @abubble125 @purplesoup-lad-le @gay-otlc @thefoxysnake @arson-anarchy-death @aroace-dadwinstan @ravs6709 @you-have-been-frizzled @stopstealingtomatoes

[mtkay13]

The one and only Qi Ye trio!

Details on the painting, meta and more below!

So this piece is actually a "remake" of a much older drawing that I made right after I had finished reading Qi Ye:

First, I want to elaborate on the drawing itself. I usually don't like to detail the symbolism and ideas that I put in my art, simply because I don't want to impose a reading and I'd rather everyone gets their own; but following some discussions I have decided to do so for this one.

The main theme of this illustration is glory, power, and the ascention towards it. The principal symbol of it is, of course, the stairs going up. I used light, directly, colours and positioning to signify each character's relationship to those themes.

Helian Yi is the one in the light, ascending upwards, in red clothing. Helian Yi's power, as future emperor, is in the light, visible, going towards the heavens as the son of heaven himself--to enact his heavenly duty. Part of his face is in the shadows, and his being casts a broad shadow behind him for, of course, a lot has to happen in the shadows for him to reach the throne. He's looking behind as his ascension comes with dread and paranoia, never being able to fully trust anyone.

Zhou Zishu is entirely in the shadows, doesn't exist in the light. He's standing tall on the stairs but not facing upwards because his own way towards power isn't following the traditional path of having one's name being remembered in historical records. He is at his most powerful concealed in the shadows and doesn't look directly, his gaze unreadable.

Jing Beiyuan is sitting on the stairs, uninterested with the climb towards power itself, uninterested in the glory. The thin line of light on his figure means that among Helian Yi's closest allies, he's the one using his title and influence; light grazes him even if he doesn't want it to. His presence in Helian Yi's shadow signifies how he, along with Zishu, is quite literally behind HLY's ascension. His gaze is knowingly directed towards the watcher.

The main reason I decided to repaint it was because I wanted it to match my current style and, more importantly, my current mental image/character design for them. Jing Qi barely changed since my idea of him was fairly clear from the start, but Helian Yi and Zishu went through much bigger changes.

For Helian Yi, it was mainly a question from taking him out of Jin Wang's robes to get him his own. I really like Jin Wang's wardrobe in SHL, which is why I initially wanted it for HLY, but nowadays it simply doesn't correspond to how I picture him anymore. My understanding and/or envisioning of Da Qing's fashion has changed a bit as well, so I wanted to reflect that. In the original, he more seemed like a kid in vaguely chique robes that were too big for him LOL. His face was afforded a bit of refinement as well, especially since my big Qi Ye spread.

Jing Qi's robes are just a tad less flashy somehow--which wasn't so much planned as just... another design I had in mind. I still really like the first version of the robes but, oh well. His face is a bit more defined now, and overall more details in the quality of his clothing and in his hair piece.

Zhou Zishu...... well, haha. His original design was quite unpolished--a vague mix of SHL!Zishu and some random hakama I barely worked on. He was also very slim and had big eyes, which I just don't see anymore. He's bigger now, by quite a bit, both in height and musculature, and I made him look just a bit older as well--simply because he is older than HLY and JBY by a few years. I much prefer his current expression which is a tad more vicious but also a bit harder to read (I think). His robes, hair shape are much better defined and thought-out, and I am happy with the subtle shading on his face.

That's it!! Thanks for readiinngggg as always!

[purrplegyuu]

The best for both of us | Choi Beomgyu

Pairing: Writter!oc (named Seoli), animator!Beomgyu

Warnings: penetrative sex, oral (fem receiving), clitoris stimulation, unprotected sex, overstimulation, poor plot, gaslighting, non corresponded love, toxic Beomgyu, soft som Beomgyu, sub reader, lemmie know if im missing something.

Word count: 2,6k

Masterlist

“We’ve already read your book and it’s amazing. We also saw the animations, and we all thought they are perfect for our style. However…” he stops talking.

“However, it’s too disturbing for anyone under fifteen” says his boss. The woman, the owner of the video games company, who wears an expensive suit that screams everywhere she’s a squared closed box. I don’t really know how she manages a video games company. “Which wouldn’t concern us if we didn’t want the money, but we need this project to be suitable for all ages”

“I talked about this before, I have already rejected various contracts because I’m not interested in any project in which my art is changed” I say.

“Well, as I already said before, we need this to be suitable for all ages”

I stand up, taking my documents from the table, and when I’m about to leave, Beomgyu takes my arm, forcing me to sit down.

“Well, why don’t we listen to their proposal?” He asks, looking at me with killing eyes, which I don’t really understand since he’s always been on my side when I rejected last projects for the same reason.

“Yeah, sure. We just thought it would be better if Kira’s enemy isn’t her mother but her father. This way, we can avoid some future problems with angry mothers” one of the workers points out in the presentation, the part where all of the changes appear. I frown, disgusted. “We can also make her boyfriend the good guy instead of just another enemy—you know, for the love scenes we need to create a fandom” A good boyfriend? In real life? I cannot help laughing sarcastically at this, to which Beomgyu hits me with his elbow on my arm. “And she might also change a little bit—see, this is Kira before, and this might be her after” the picture on the presentation shows the draw Beomgyu made with my instructions. I told him to use only black ink, and draw it very messy. I remember the day we decided that this art style was just perfect for my book. When I created Kira I was thinking of the worst part of the world, I even got inspired by my own life. She’s too thin because she had very poor eating habits, she’s tall, her hair is messy and greasy and the clothes she wears are made for someone bigger. Which makes a big contrast with the whole new character they made—this Kira is short, and has a big pair of round boobs, a tiny waist and big thighs; her hair is pretty and… she just seems like another video game girl character.

“We will skip her eating disorder, and she will not die at the end. There’s obviously more changes to do, but those are the most important ones”

Everyone looks at me while I try to do as much as I can in order to not explode there and then. I feel just so offended that I cannot even speak. Even if I open my mouth, nothing comes out.

I stand up, take my papers and get out of the office, not even worrying if Beomgyu tries to hold me once again.

After an hour or two of getting back home, I finally start to calm down. That’s exactly when Beomgyu enters home too.

“Fuck, you could have waited for me, you know?” He wasn’t mad, that’s just his usual behavior.

“Seoli, we need to talk” I do not turn around to face him, keeping up on reading the instructions of the new bedroom lamp I just bought. “Seoli” he takes my hand, forcing me to turn around. “Why do you keep rejecting any minor change in your books?”

I turn my eyes. “You should know that, Gyu. My books are all too personal. If I write something is because I feel it, and I don’t like it to be changed”

“Yeah, I understand that, but you cannot keep rejecting every opportunity you have” he sighs. “See, babe, I think this is the best company you’ve been contacted by, and if you want to succeed, you should sign with them”

I frown. “Why do you like this company that much? I’ve rejected thousands of companies before, and you always supported me”

“I’m just looking for the best for both of us. We’re twenty now, but soon, we’re gonna be thirty, and forty, and fifty; we need to make money for the future… this isn’t a big company—small enough for you to be important and ask for almost everything you want, but also big enough to succeed monetarily and as an artist. This is just what we need”

“I don’t care about the money, everything I care about is being loyal to myself. I won’t sell myself and my art to some shitty company. The things they said to me in that reunion were almost insulting! How the fuck am I supposed to be fine while seeing one of my deepest books being thrown away this bad and be happy with it because I MIGHT get two hundred dollars a month from now on?! Specially in this one book!… this is almost my own autobiography…” the last words were almost audible, very low in contrast with the rest of my screams. It hurts my heart as I said it.

I see some kind of compassion in my colleague’s eyes. We never talked too deeply about it, but I did tell him that most of my books have some kind of self insert somewhere, but never as important as this one.

He takes my body in his hands, hugging me so comfortably as one only time before—when I confessed to him, and he said sorry because he couldn’t correspond to me.

He moves apart without letting me go, and unexpectedly, takes the back of my neck and kisses me. He only touches my lips with his once, moving away just a little, and then kisses me deeper when I take the back of his neck also with my right hand and his shoulder with my left hand.

He’s gentle at first, only leaving some close mouthed kisses on my lips, until he notices I’m more eager, and then, he devours my mouth whole like it's the last thing he’s gonna do on earth.

His hands travel all over my body as he starts kissing the side of my neck, sucking on my skin, biting and then licking, to which I cannot do anything but hum in pleasure—he touches my back, caresses my waist and pushes the hem of my gray shirt up.

I squeeze his shoulder when he take off my shirt and starts kissing my clavicles, and scream of pleasure as he bites the bone.

While devouring my torax, he manages to take off my black bralette, and kisses all of the skin of my small breasts, making me wonder if he actually likes the curvy girls he shows me of it it’s always been nothing but a façade in order to no look like a pervert.

He takes my hand from the back of his neck, moving away from me, unbuttoning my low-rise jeans and lowering my panties, then guiding me to sit on the couch. I oblige, and soon he’s kissing my body again, my abdomen, my pelvis, my thighs—which he takes and puts them over his shoulders before looking at me, right in the eyes as if looking for consent, but keeps going without a second of thought.

I scream when I feel his muscle exploring all of my cunt without a warning.

“Gyu-“ I moan while tapping his back with the tip of my foot.

He notices I got more sensitive everytime he stimulates my clitoris with his tongue, so he decides to do precisely this while one of his fingers caresses my entrance. A second finger enters, and he starts scissoring as if measuring if something will be able to come in.

My hand found its way on Beomgyu’s fluffy hair, which I take strongly trying to move it apart but also trying to keep it as close as I can.

Once he positions himself on the perfect way to have me screaming his name once and again and again, he starts doing it nonstop, faster, and holding my body by my pelvic area so I don’t move too much. My whole body trembles from pleasure, and I feel the knot on my lower abdomen tightening so much I feel it’s about to break.

And within thirty seconds morr, my whole body spasms under his, while I scream nonesenses and cry his name. He keeps on licking my whole cunt, cleaning me from my orgasm, making me cry at the oversensitivity. I try to push his face away, however, my strength after an orgasm is always null.

He goes back to the same speed as earlier, to which I scream: “Too much, gyu!”, but he doesn’t stop. Instead, his pace becomes even faster, making my head spin as I unexpectedly orgasm once again, faster than the first time.

He caresses my pelvic bones, licking my juices from his face. He stands up and kisses my lips once again, letting me taste my own cum.

I hear his right hand unbuttoning his jeans while his left hand helps him hover over me. I hear his clothes fall to the ground, and then, his tip touches my left thigh. I move away from the kiss for a second, moaning as I mentally prepare myself for having sex after one and a half large years of not being active.

“I know it’s always been hard to go through changes, babe,” he mutters in between kisses. “but everything I’m doing is looking for the best for you. You’re really successful with your books, but you don’t know if it will ever change as you grow up” the contrast between his lovely words and his condescending voice tone, and his hand lifting one of my legs up to my ribs making me go crazy. “Besides, you can ask for any change you want, and as long as it doesn’t make the game too disturbing for kids under twelve years old, they will accept it” the tip of his cock touches my clitoris at first, and then, he explores my whole cunt, looking too casual in contrast with my high expression. “Seoli, I will always be by your side” and suddenly, that option didn’t seem like trash anymore.

With that, he puts the head of his cock inside my entrance, to which I scream squeezing his shoulder. He goes back to kiss my clavicles while going on until he bottoms out. Feeling his tip against my spongy point, the deepest part of my cunt, makes me forget about all of the doubts I have, and I already know that the second I wake up tomorrow, I will be calling the company and ask for them to meet again.

He doesn’t give me time to get used to his big size, and starts moving immediately after he bottoms out, at a savage pace that makes my head spin. The way he’s hitting my cervix strongly over and over again has me cumming after less than two or three minutes. He doesn’t stop there though, and doesn’t even slow down. The second orgasm comes after maybe five minutes more, much more intense and piercing. My legs tremble, and he chuckles while taking my other leg and lifting it up to my chest also, making his cock go even deeper.

He holds both my legs up with one hand while the other stimulates my clitoris in circular motion, nonstoping, without giving me time to recover.

I cum once again, and my whole body feels so tense I feel like I'm about to break.

“Gyu-yu, I can’t anymore” I cry, the tears spilling from the corner of my eyes as I take his shoulders, trying to move his body away from mine. “please”

“I know, sweet, but you’re gonna help me cum too, right? You’re not a selfish princess, right?” His face is not close to mine now, and my legs find their way on his shoulders while he prepares himself for fucking my cunt faster and stronger than before.

I squeeze the silk of the couch, while my tears run down my face and all over the couch, and I scream his name over and over. His pace becoming even more animalistic as I feel his cock twitch inside of my vagina, the heat inside of me making me feel like I’m about to be torn there and then. The feeling is so unbearable, but also addictive. At this point, I don’t even understand myself.

He cums inside of me with a guttural growl, and keeps fucking his cum in for some seconds before using his hand to try to put his cum in when it tries to escape. I cum on his fingers one last time, and he leaves a kiss on my forehead.

(…)

I fix my lanyard with my work ID on my neck, holding my drawing tablet and the handmade sketches I’ve made.

“Oh, see! There’s coffee over there!” Beomgyu says amazed.

“Every company has coffee for workers, Gyu”

He goes to get a cup while I look for the office. The boss asked me to meet her once I accepted working with her. I signed the contract a week ago after making her accept the clause of letting my opinion be the most important one over there.

“Oh, Seoli!” That voice… it’s just impossible to forget it. “Oh my god, I’m so excited to see you again! Ever since high school I knew you were gonna succeed, you’re so talented!”

We went to high school together, and after we graduated, we also went to the same college. She stuck to me since then, but I never liked her a lot. She wasn’t a bad person, I just didn’t match her energy. However, I did everything I could in order to separate her from me in college, right after I realized Beomgyu liked her. Beomgyu and I met at college—the three of us decided to study an art major—, and it took us only one semester to start living together as roommates, and two more months to start working together on the animation of my books. We left college so we could put all of our time on making money with the animations, and luckily, that was enough for Beomgyu to forget her. At least that was what I thought.

“Dami? Do you work here?” I ask.

“Kind of. My mother is the owner of this company, and she likes me to participate on all of the projects. We’re gonna be a team! Just like in college!” She says with a big smile. “Where’s Beomgyu, by the way?”

Everything makes sense suddenly, why did he get so excited when I received the invitation to this company, and why was he so eager for me to come, and why did he want me to stay here.

I turn around slowly, and as soon as I find him with a scared expression, I feel my eyes ache.

He fucked me so he could get a chance with the one girl he likes.

How dumb.

[lobotr-on]

Hello!! First of all I want to say that I’ve seen your art around and I adore your style sm, I think it’s great.

I also wanted to let you know that depictions of Spock with green skin are unfortunately rooted in antisemitism. Ik this may not be widely spread knowledge, so just giving you the heads-up in case you weren’t aware. It’s particularly harmful given its original portrayal by Leonard Nimoy, a Jewish man, and how much of Jewish culture he integrated into Spock. Artistic liberties in how we might draw/picture Vulcans is one thing, but given this background it’s far from ideal to reinforce these stereotypes.

There are a few posts around tumblr and the internet in case you’d like to dig a bit deeper into the matter. Take care!

thank you for making me aware of this!! I stylised spock as green because he has green blood, and i tend to up the nonhuman features of characters. However, i was totally unaware of this connection so i will be depicting spock differently from now on!!

I had a look at some of the posts both on and off site you mentioned and took some time to consider the best way to go forward. I also spoke to a number of people in my personal life to decide what to do. (if you feel differently then please dont hesitate to say!)

according to the sources ive read, spock's skin being straight green isnt suitable, but green blush is fine... so i think i shall follow along these lines...?

as for my previous depictions of spock i'm on the fence over what to do!! i dont want to contribute to a harmful stereotype...should i take my spock artwork down? re-upload with changes made? leave them but colour him differently from now on? im really unsure what the best step is, and i think the best action is to ask my followers + the community for thoughts...? id really appreciate any guidance offered!!

Once again, thank you for taking the time to inform me of this!!

[nanichi0]

I can’t stop thinking about how badly I wanna have Choso’s babies so here’s some fluffy headcanons about dad!Choso

Character: Choso Kamo (JJK)

Warnings: none

•He tears up with a lot of you and your children’s firsts. The first time he sees you holding your babies, the first time he feels their tiny hands grip onto his finger, the first time they look up at him with curious eyes, the first time they give him a little smile, the first time they call him “dad” or some variation of that. It really makes him realize that “Oh my god, I’m actually a dad now, this is real, and they accept me, and they love me and I love them” and his heart is just so full.

•Choso helps out with the kids as much as he can. He’ll help change their diapers, prepare their food, bathe them, etc. Whatever you and your children need, he’s there to make things easier and take care of you. Even as the kids grow up, he always tries to be present and set the best example for them.

•Choso brushes and dries your kids’ hair after they've had their baths every night, detangling it if needed, making sure it’s properly taken care of before you both put them to bed. The kids absolutely love this - he’s so gentle and calm with them through the process that they start to fall asleep before he’s even done brushing it.

•Choso also likes to brush your children’s hair in the morning before they go to school, giving them cute hairstyles and sometimes asking you to do his own hair to match theirs

•Choso gets so excited about picking out cute outfits for your kids. When they were still babies, sometimes you’d go to the mall and see Choso’s eyes light up when you walked by a set of adorably tiny shoes, or by a cute little pair of baby-sized overalls. As the kids get older and start to develop their own fashion sense, Choso still loves to go clothes shopping with them, encouraging them when they try out new styles.

•Your kids love when Choso carries them on his shoulders. He makes sure he’s holding them securely in place, and they grab onto his hair like little handlebars.

•Choso carries pictures of you and your children everywhere he goes (in his wallet, in his phone case, in his pockets, basically anywhere that’s within his reach). That way you’re always with him even if he's busy, if you’re at work, or if your kids are at school.

•This man is 100% the type to always show up to your kids’ school and extracurricular events. Be it sports games, concerts, school plays, spelling bees, the science fair –honestly anything at all– if it involves your child, Choso will be there to support and encourage them.

•Choso is so protective of you and your kids. It can be a little bit much at times and you have to remind him to tone it down. He just gets anxious at the thought of him not being there if anything bad were to happen. At the same time, though, he believes in you and your kids’ strengths and he knows you can stand up for yourselves if the need arises.

•If your children make something or gift him something, Choso will treat those things as his most prized possessions. Your kid draws him a picture? Choso frames it and hangs it up on the wall. Your kid sculpts something in art class? Choso displays it on a shelf in your house. Your kid makes him a shirt that says “World’s Best Dad”? Choso wears it any chance he gets, that’s his favorite shirt now.

•All in all, Choso is a great dad. He’s so proud of you and your kids, and so happy to have his family, and he loves you all so so much ❤️

Side note - imagine your kids inheriting the Kamo blood manipulation technique, so they each end up with a variation of the blood mark Choso has on his nose pls that’s so cute I could melt

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Title: Good Omens

Author: Neil Gaiman

Rating: 1/5 stars

I picked this book up at the library because I remembered seeing a few positive reviews, but then I saw a bunch of negative reviews, and the implication that these books are somehow the shibboleth by which one may judge one's literary taste (or, indeed, that all right-thinking people must like these books) set me against them. (When I was in high school in the early '00s, for instance, I was harassed and threatened because my taste in books and music didn't conform to my peers' ideas of what people like me are supposed to like. I'm still quite sensitive about it.)

After a bit of procrastination I picked up Good Omens, having heard that it was odd in a good way. As it turned out, it was both good and odd, but it wasn't the kind of odd that I like.

What is it like? Well, it reminded me a bit of Turtle Diary -- that is, it has a great deal of odd detail, all used with an eye towards creating a vivid image. But where Turtle Diary managed this with a deft, artful touch, Good Omens is obsessive. In Turtle Diary you get "Four different forms of religious sign and symbol": the cross, the Star of David, a crescent moon, and a life raft. In Good Omens you get plant symbols and animal symbols and religious symbolism and religious symbolism based on every ancient and forgotten pantheon there ever was, and the name of every seraph and cherub and angel and demon to ever be mentioned in the Bible, and everything else. You get a whole list of band names that look like gibberish, because if there's one thing a demon ought to be named after, it's a band. Needless to say, this casts a long shadow, and every single line, and even every single sentence, is supposed to be not only vivid but also full of meaning and with some sort of cultural reference, even if the reference itself is nonsensical. And often, as in this example, it means that the line will be awfully goofy, no matter what the ostensible subject matter is.

I don't mind when the vivid detail is organized and aiming toward a particular effect, but there are a lot of minor quirks in the book's prose, without any discernible pattern. Sometimes it seems to be going for a style of Victorian dialogue, and then it'll go off on some digression about something that's supposed to be modern or some-or-other, or it'll switch to the conventions of head-hopping in modern fiction (the book's two protagonists, angel and demon, each get "perspective chapters" not just about their own thoughts but their own bodies and feelings), and then it'll jump back to a dialogue with no word-order changes and different sentence structure from the rest of the book, or to a form of prose that is clearly supposed to be a pastiche of classic literature, and then back to modern head-hopping, to make sure that you keep track of who's doing what to whom and what they're saying.

I kept waiting for the effect to reveal itself, and it never did. On the one hand, I can see that Gaiman was trying to do something like Anna Karenina, in which a cast of vivid and realistic characters is put through a sort of symbolic dance in a circus ring of the author's devising. A lot of people like Anna Karenina, and I think this is because Tolstoy gives his characters a lot of interiority and their relationships a lot of psychological weight. Gaiman also does this in one regard, but . . . well, what's the opposite of "psychological weight"? I think it would be "unreliable narrator," and Gaiman doesn't quite give that, but a lot of his characters seem unreliable, both in terms of their self-deception and in terms of his self-deception in painting a picture of them and their interactions. Gaiman has some skills as a writer (for instance, creating a sense of humor without playing for laughs), but those skills simply aren't enough to make him a good writer of the kinds of things that people like about his books.

More vexing, in a sense, than Gaiman's creative approach is his creative attitude. He seems to have no interest in coming up with original ideas about anything, except in the most superficial sense -- as a result, the book feels like a literary junkyard, filled with patches from books and myths and musicals and films and whatever else, unconnected to one another except by the fact that all of them come from the same junkyard.

This might be a lot more acceptable if it didn't run into the problem that one of the book's main characters is a woman who runs a bookshop, and this woman -- the owner of the world's single most well-stocked used bookstore, it seems -- talks in a weirdly specialized way about books that she read and enjoyed when she was 11, but, on the off-chance that her audience includes someone in her same age bracket, has to talk in the sort of generic awe- and wonder-pilled, "cool literature" style you might expect from the social media of a 13 year old who has never encountered anyone who doesn't appreciate literature.

There are two things about this that bothered me, one more than the other. The first is obviously an unnatural over-familiarity with these authors and their works, just as would be the case with the 13 year old in the example I gave. The other is the way Gaiman presents a woman as having read in depth and gotten something from a book in her past, even though she only actually mentions a couple of chapters, the plot of the book in question, and a general atmosphere -- which is more or less how I would talk about those books, if I had to talk about them at all. Oh, and I mentioned earlier the way Gaiman uses pop culture terms to refer to things from the past and the present. The strange thing is that he doesn't show any interest in the actual thing -- like, it's hard to imagine that anyone who actually knew anything about them would have said "Oh, you mean she's reading Colette and Poirot! How very stereotypical and appropriate of a woman!" -- which, I can't stress enough, is how Gaiman mentions these books.

I have no idea why this bothers me as much as it does, or why Gaiman seems to be inviting this kind of questioning in the first place.

[kalolasfantasyworld]

Okay, ask game for you ☘️ Nozel x Vanessa, because I love them 💜 Nozel x Helena, because your OC ship is amazing ❤️ Nozel x Fuegoleon, because Nozel ship 😅 Yes, a bunch of Nozel ships 🥰🦅

Hi Vilandel!

Hah obviously I have some more specific thoughts for Nozel ships. I really hope I won't make anyone upset with these. They're just my opinions.

Nozel x Vanessa -> doesn’t make sense, compels me

Let’s start with saying this is my favourite canon x canon ship for Nozel. I’ve drawn them and read them, but let me explain why it doesn’t canonically make sense to me. 

Before I set up tumblr I didn’t even think to ship them together, because they never really interacted (correct me if I’m wrong). I only got to like them once I saw them here and read a bit about them. However it’s hard for me to picture the start of their interaction without some outside force to literally make them. Also long term relationship… but let me get to that later.

Firstly their types based on the assorted questions brigade:

Nozel: “Someone with dignified strength who can give their all for the prosperity of the House of Silva” 

I don’t think he’s saying this “just to be proper”. Nozel really cares about his house and I think that a quality of being able to take care of and represent it can make a person attractive in his eyes. 

I’m not saying that Vanessa couldn’t just that it would not really be her style. She got out of her cage and pushing her onto Royal customs would be cruel in my opinion. She could definitely not walk around in her underwear, or casually get drunk. She likes this part of herself and is happy being a Black Bull.

Vanessa: “Wild men with muscles <3” 

Yeah… That’s not Nozel (I admit I have drawn him with way more muscles than he has… It’s a hot art I’m not going to change it and yes a future Paper Hearts illustration, normally I draw him skinnier)

Why does it compel me? (Because it does a lot)

They are both one of my favourites BC characters.

Nozel is not a good boy (closeted perv let’s face it) and Vanessa is definitely up for some heated adventure. Both are very hot. She’s flirty, she’ll pull him out of his shell. They could support one another and emotionally I think they would work well. I enjoy them in fics and the stories are amazing. I love how she would flirt with him and he would get more and more bold as they grew closer. Also there is that spicy forbidden romance part.

There are actually quite a few similarities between Vanessa and Helena as they’re best friends and I enjoy how those qualities shine through her interactions with Nozel. 

I see Nozessa so much in a heated, passionate romance. It’s just long term that doesn’t sit right with me… I feel like they would need to sacrifice a part of themselves to be with the other and I wouldn’t want that. She needs to be free and Nozel is a Royal who takes pride in it, it’s not just his burden. 

Nozel x Helena -> makes sense, compels me (you said it yourself, how could own OC ship not)

Overall I talked a bit about them in my fic explanation post.

I created Helena to explore Nozel more. This is actually my first ever OC x canon ship that I've invested in, because I'm more of a canon x canon shipper. Just that I only knew of Dorothy x Nozel and Fuego x Nozel back then and they didn't really appeal to me as something to write for and have a fun story for.

Why do they make sense? 

Despite them being so different there are actually quite a few parallels between them. For example both had a situation in their youth, which somehow set them on a path. They’re both the eldest siblings. And there are few more.

Similar backgrounds for sure. Both of them are Royals and take pride in their houses. Helena will be a great lady of the house. She was prepared for this and knows how to perfectly manoeuvre in high society. She can be a great support and simply a partner to him in his duties. 

She’s his type from the assorted questions brigade. (yeah the pervy part as well xd)

Helena brings in the warmth and will provide a family atmosphere. Being the eldest of seven siblings taught her that. She “fits” in the Silva family with Noelle, Nebra and Solid. Over time she develops relationships with all of them, so it’s not just Nozel she makes sense with.

Why does it compel me?

Enemies to friends to lovers, Sunshine x grumpy, Blue x red relationship

They have so many imperfections and they mess up, but they get up and try to fix them. There's also quite a lot of plot ahead of us and I don't want to spoil anything, but what happens later is actually more determining in my opinion to how they are fit for and grow with one another.

There are also some parallels with how Nozel treated Noelle and how he treats Helena, so that’s interesting. 

Helena is a virgin, but very much not opposed to sexuality, so they have some spicy, heated moments.

I feel like they can really connect on a deeper level and I like how their story begins right with the beginning of BC. We see the whole development of Nozel and how they interact through it. For example how their relationship changed after Fuego fell in a coma. So it's not just Nozel after he went through a change and apologised to Noelle.

They compliment each other. Helena “makes Nozel have fun” and he can tone her down (this is needed at times).

The birdies… I love my next gen trio so much. I like how they have traits inherited after both Nozel and Helena. I love picturing them as parents.

I feel like there’s more, but I’ve talked about them enough here. 

Nozel x Fuegoleon -> makes sense, doesn’t greatly compel me

As you probably noticed I focus a lot on the “Royal aspects” in the makes sense part and Fuego fits this part. They are close, clearly trust each other and they have amazing dynamics. They’re childhood friends. I’ve seen some cute arts for them and I know they’re pretty popular.

However why it doesn’t greatly compel me? (Besides the fact that I ship both of them with some OCs)

I just think of them as good friends, more than lovers. And somehow I’m not the biggest fan of how Nozel is portrayed in this relationship. He somehow seems “weak” and “needs to be taken care off”. Maybe that’s just me, but it was the vibe I got from few works (not all of them, some were cute and amazing). Maybe I somehow don’t see him have “bottom” energy, but Fuego doesn’t have it either. 

However they would support and care for one another. I also love the hot and cold dynamics and childhood friends romance.

So I like some aspects of this ship and some don’t. 

I would still put it as my second canon x canon Nozel ship.

[the-sky-queen]

March version drawn by @estellardreams

With my tumblrversary (and new sona design 👀) coming tomorrow, I thought it would be fun to look back at all the different versions of my sona throughout the years!

July 2023 version

December 2023 Version

March 2024 Version

Closeups and breakdown under the cut! :D

Version 1! This was the original drawing of my sona that I made for a story I was writing with my friends wherein we ourselves were the main characters. This drawing has the same straight cut bangs that I had back then. I designed the dress to be simple and not overly flashy. It's supposed to be white with gold borders. Then we have the wings, which have always been my favorite part of my sona, the gold feather necklace, and the gold band hidden under my bangs which was supposed to act as a crown. I also hid my hands behind my back because I didn't want to draw them. XD This design was supposed to mimic my irl appearance and it did fairly good job! The only thing missing is my glasses from back then.

Version 2! This one was an updated take on the first version. My art style had changed a bit, so I wanted to draw a better looking picture of my sona. Other than the art style, not much has changed here. The design is still essentially exactly the same. My hair got longer though.

Version [????] I didn't include these in the history pic because I forgot them, but these were two iterations that I did in between version 2 and 3 for thumbnails on my YT channel. They're both once again trying to be an accurate representation off my irl appearance (though once again my glasses weren't included. The first one was an attempt at a chibi art style which I never did again. The second one sat unfinished in my sketchbook for a while before my cousin visited one day and offered to help me color it. We took a picture of it on her ipad and then traced and colored it in whatever drawing program she was using. I played around a bit with the shirt, making it a white into black gradient and brought back in the feather motif because I've always liked feathers. This one stayed my profile pic on yt for a long time.

Version 3! Massive skip in time and drawing style here! This one was designed specifically so I could have an updated sona for when I joined tumblr. (I planned getting my account for months before I finally worked up enough courage to actually do it.) Once again, I wanted this sona to be an accurate representation of what I look like irl. Though THIS time I'd finally gotten contacts so the lack of glasses finally made sense! I'd also gotten a new style of bangs so I incorporated that into the design as well. I brought back the feather as a necklace because I've always liked it. Though for whatever reason I got rid of the wings???? Why. Why did I do that. I love them so much! I shortened the length of my hair back to something closer to version 1 as well. And fun fact about this one! By this point I'd gotten decently good at drawing Sonic characters, so I used my knowledge of how to draw them to draw this version of my sona. XD I wasn't concerned anymore about drawing in a realistic way and leaned into a more cartoony artystyle.

Version 4! honestly, this one was just me wanting to do a Christmas version of my sona. XD Gave myself a cozy Christmas sweater and a Santa hat! I also took my favorite golden feather and tucked it behind my ear. I honestly really like how it looks! (I also messed up the shade of brown for my hair, but oh well.)

Version 5!! Estelle drew this for me and I still love it so much!!!!! I didn't request this of her, she just drew it! I mentioned in a post that I needed a new icon since it was MARCH and I was still using my Christmas pic. XD Next thing I know Estelle is kicking down my door asking me if I wanted her to draw me a new icon. I made sure to specifically request that she include my wings since I'd finally realized how dumb it was that I'd taken them out. But other than that, I let Estelle do what she wanted and I'm SO happy with how it came out!! I really wish I'd used this one for longer, but then April Fools came along and I hopped on the pointing Sonic icon bandwagon. XD But anyway, I'm still very happy and thankful to Estelle for drawing this for me. :D

Annnnnd that catches us up to the present! What will the new version look like? You'll have to wait for tomorrow. :D

[minecraftbookshelf]

Marriage of State AU Character Designs: The Codfather

Like Lizzie, Jimmy has two forms, Pre-Killing the DragonPlot Event and Post-Plot Event, both indicated on the Handy Dandy Height Chart

Pre-Eeveelution Jimmy: Before his full codfather-ification, Jimmy is assumed by the other rulers outside his alliance to just be a run-of-the-mill cod hybrid. He's mostly human in appearance, with a few fishy traits. Some scattered scales, especially from his temples down to his collarbone, webbed fingers and toes a bit of a tail, slightly sharper than standard human teeth. He's a bit on the tall side for a cod hybrid, but not enough to raise any flags, red or otherwise, especially given that he's not that much taller than any of the WRA. His eyes are human (and brown). He usually has slime and/or mud in his hair. Somehow.

He does have gills but they have very visible scarring on one side, resulting from the damage done to his egg in the salmon attack. (Yes this does negatively impact his ability to breath underwater) The scarring goes all the way down his left side from his ear to just past his knee. It's faint, due to age, but very distinct and does impact his swimming, though he learned to compensate for that very young and is just as fast and agile in the water as any of his or Lizzie's people.

Eevee Evolutioned Jimmy: Swamp Monster! Like Lizzie, he is now Very Clearly A Little Eldritch. has proper fish teeth, fully fish eyes (black center with a ring of gold around them). He grows fins off his face and arms, which does make the left side scarring more obvious, as it affects his fins on that side. His tail has grown and his limb proportions are just slightly off. He also now has the lateral line, (visible in the above picture) allowing him to sense vibrations in the water more clearly, giving him better underwater perception in general. His scales are now scattered over his entire face, rather than concentrated by his hairline, giving the overall appearance of green and brown freckles. His hair is also a bit shaggier and longer, though he seriously considers cutting it at first. TBD if he actually does. There is still usually slime in it.

Jimmy actually adjusts a bit better to the physical change than Lizzie does, though they both seem to have some sort of muscle memory for their divine forms, due to his history of learning to compensate for his steadily developing physical disabilities from his egg damage. They both acclimate rapidly but he had just the slightest bit of an edge there.

Costuming:

The Codfather Head my beloved/be-loathed. ngl, I saw doodle-lists art fairly early on and it permanently changed my brain chemistry so uhh...yeah basically that. In addition to serving as a traditional face-covering (by oceanic traditions for god-rulers. Lizzie also technically is supposed to be wearing face coverings, she just. doesn't. Except very occasionally, in the style of a veil made of strings of seed pearls. I forgot to mention this on her post oop.) the codfather head/mask also has enchantments on it allowing him to breath easily underwater, accommodating for the damage to his gills. Obviously this is very important to him on a personal level, due to being amphibious. (It also has enchantments so it doesn't obstruct his vision in anyway. It is the fine-tuned result of a decades long collaboration between the Oceanic mage priests and the Swamp witches.)

Day-to-day We're pretty much throwing the whole skin out the window tbh, beyond the very vaguest of inspirations.

Like in the ocean, a priority of clothing is reduction of drag, though they care much less about transitioning from water to land, partly because they do it so often in the swamp.

Swamp day wear is very simple, primarily linen, which both is suited for a hotter climate and dries quickly. Jimmy wears the same things as the majority of his people, simple generic medieval-fantasy tunic and trousers, cut to reduce drag in the water. He does not wear shoes. (Neither of the seablings do. Most aquatic hybrids don't.)

His fancy clothes are either Oceanic or Mezalean style or a nicer version of his day wear. (Still with no shoes)

He does wear some simple jewelry, gifts from Lizzie and Joel and Pix. a copper armband, a golden tail cuff, little prismarine stud earrings. All things that won't get in the way when he's working on land or in the water and remind him of his family. (The pierced ears is a Mezalean thing, not an Oceanic thing. It was all a very teen rebellion-esque, if your teen rebellion involves the actions thereof being facilitated by one of the people who helped raised you. Mezalean style earrings are, however, extremely impractical in the water so studs it was.) Both the armband and the tail cuff have to be resized after his divinely sourced growth spurt.

He stops wearing sleeves after his eeveelution, because arm fins and sleeves do not mix. (Scott does not appreciate this in the slightest, nope.)

Armor

bronze-plated netherite fishscale armor. (I just realized i need to go back and edit Lizzie's post to include her armor rip).

His armor also doesn't have sleeves (post eeveelution) but he does have arm guards he can strap on around his fins. When he remembers to. Stylistically, this is also very similar to doodle-list's design. (What can I say, it lives rent free in my head.) His armor isn't super heavy, as it is designed as much for underwater combat as dry land and needs minimal drag.

He doesn't have a proper helmet but the codfather head is enchanted extremely thoroughly and serves well enough.

He wears his sword on his back, since it's too long for a more typical sheathe at the waist, and usually also has his trident back there so he can be hands free when not actively fighting. (Yes, his stealth stats on land are absolutely terrible. He makes up for it underwater.)

-

Lizzie || Joel ||

AU Masterpost

[tea-ddie]

Something that may or may not be clear about my book, Ballyhoo, on a surface level, is for how long it's been in the works. People who've known me for several years will remember the very first draft of the comic from 2018/2019. That version was specifically made for Webtoon and has been more-or-less scraped for the current version of the story. Because of that, all of Ballyhoo's characters have gone through pretty big changes—not just in their design/my art style evolution/etc, but also in their occupation, some elements of their backstory, and more. I've started working on Book 2 and have been making some new concept art. I realized as I looked to the future of the project, it was a good time to look back. This post will go through three of the main characters: Evelyn, Marjorie, and Oretta, and explain how we got to where we are in Ballyhoo.

Evelyn Golubev

2018: Evelyn was one of the very first characters I ever created for this story. She was originally the femme-fatale-type—her girlfriend had just mysteriously gone missing. She worked at a vaudeville-type club as a dancer and, besides being somewhat hot, ominous and foreboding in the way that a femme-fatale must be, that was about it. I was still definitely trying to understand my art style and struggled a lot with making the hair look as "natural" as I wanted. Her outfits all leaned pretty heavily femme and her makeup was heavy... but uncanny as I didn't fully understand how to color makeup on a face then.

2024: Evelyn Golubev, or better known by her stage name, "Evelyn Gold," still works at a vaudeville club, but beyond dancing, also sings and performs at other bars and clubs across the city of Portapolis. She is the frontwoman of her Baby Blue Band, which is the house-band at local lesbian bar, the Lilac. Although she still holds some of her femme-fatale vibes, I wouldn't necessarily describe her as a "femme" in the queer spaces she occupies. She wears custom blue suits at the club and brings a swagger that would make any girl blush to her performances. In both versions of her character, she holds a few secrets that she protects fiercely, but in the currently version of the story, the consequences of these secrets coming out feels more intense. Overall, I think her character has become more refined and deliberate in the story.

Marjorie Miller

2018: Oh, Marjorie. Her role in the story has shifted pretty significantly from the first drafts of the story—in this earliest drawing, she's pictured singing at what was a lesbian house party. She was always a bit desperate—trying to fit into a space that wasn't really for her. I knew she had grown up outside the city, probably in a more rural area, and was trying hard to fit into more classy and elegant circles. She mostly functioned as a background character in the lesbian scene who held a secret that would help solve the mystery (because of course this story was always a mystery).

2021: This was about at the time I was re-developing the story and laying out the groundwork for a new version of the comic. Despite scrapping the house parties, I wanted to redraw that specific scene... mostly because I liked her dress. Marjorie's hair, similar to Evelyn, was something I became more comfortable drawing with time. In 2021, you can see me trying to separate the way her somewhat messy waves and curls fell. Like I said, at this point I knew the house party scene with Marjorie wasn't going to happen, but I wasn't sure what her exact role would be. Was she a hopeful performer? Someone who performed alongside Evelyn in the Vaudeville club? Something else entirely? What was her life like when she wasn't singing? Well...

2024: Marjorie Miller is a married woman, living her perfect, heterosexual, suburban housewife life with her dearest husband George. This might seem like a hard pivot—it also feels like a hard pivot to her old friends Oretta and Evelyn, both of whom she's mostly fallen out of touch with. Despite the changes in her life, she is content with how it's worked out for her, or at least pretends to be. Still, beneath the picture-perfect surface is a woman who was, in every version of the story, desperate to fit-in and who is living a life that feels out of her depth.

Oretta Adams

2018/19: I don't have a drawing for this, but my earliest ideas for Oretta included her arriving in Portapolis on a train. This was always her introduction and it's how she arrives to the city in Ballyhoo, too. Back then, I knew she was an old friend of Marjorie's and Evelyn's who would open up an aspect of the mystery and story that both of them wanted to keep hidden for whatever reasons. I'm sure this sounds woefully underdeveloped—and that's because at that time, it really was. However, this was around the time where I started to have an inkling that maybe the trio's shared past was in the circus.

2021: Because her introduction was so vivid in my mind, a lot of Oretta's early concept art is her at the train station. Pictured in 2021 is a more relaxed version of Oretta: she smokes, she's dressed very casually and comfortably, and, of course, she has her suitcase. It was important to me that she always dressed for comfort and for herself first and foremost. This is part of why Oretta's outfits in the current story consist of a lot of 40s work-pants and sweaters.

2024: As I started writing the comic in 2021/22, it became shockingly apparently that Oretta was the main character of the story. Her being the factor that opens up secrets multiple people wanted to keep hidden put her in a prime place to act as both outsider and instigator. Oretta, Marjorie, and Evelyn share a background in circus performance and it started to make sense that she would be a writer/playwright, taking her experience in showbiz to a backstage role. And it is her play—possibly inspired by past events—that triggers the main events of the story. Her play is a catalyst for too many things coming out, and everyone seems to have a good reason for wanting to make sure the show will not go on.

In Conclusion...

Ballyhoo has been a long time in the works! I hope this is interesting, or maybe even inspiring for those starting longer stories? Things will take time, but it will be worth it. I'm really happy that Ballyhoo: Book One is out there in the world, and I'm honestly so excited to get to keep working on this project. I might do more posts like this about other characters or other aspects of the story—again, it's been in development for what seems like a pretty long time and I have a lot of thoughts about how different aspects of the story have played out.

[adarkrainbow]

Lost media quest: H&G Epic Tales (part 1)

Some times ago I stumbled upon the trailer for an animated storybook adapting "Hansel and Gretel". I even made a quick post about it and then moved on my way. However, what I was not expecting was that my casual search would end up throwing me into a whole "lost media" investigation...

So I present to you the first report of my search for the lost media "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales".

"Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales" is the English title of an interactive, animated storybook originally created by a Dutch team - hence why it exists also under the Dutch name "Hans en Grietje - Epic Tales".

Its trailer (posted around 2012/2013) is still around the Internet - on both Youtube and Vimeo, in English. It showcases you all the effort put into the product as well as the quality of it all - because when you think "Interactive storybook" you think "Just some still pictures you flip over while a voice narrates in the background". But here, not at all: you have entire animated tableaux allowing for a true point-and-click kind of game, intercut with entire animated segments and sequences - making this interactive storybook quite close to a full cartoon or simplified video-game.

In fact, I am not the only one to say this: numerous reviews pointed out this application could be considered a full cartoon in itself. And if some comparisons are left a bit generic "A cartoon feeling", "It could be a Saturday morning cartoon" I have seen one review even going as far as to compare this traditional 2D animation to a Disney movie!

I especially love the art style here which is reminiscent of classic, old fairytale cartoons - and I will come back to this element later because I do believe the game has easter-eggs or nods to classics of the fairytale animation.

Not only that, but as the trailer indicates, this game was supposed to be the first of an entire line of animated, interactive storybooks, the "Epic Tales" line, each reinventing fairytales, all narrated by the same storytelling character you see in the trailer, Silvertongue the (elf? dwarf?) who beats up gnomes to bring books to life... To have such a big project coming from Dutch folks isn't so surprising given the strong Dutch love for fairytales (it is the land of the Efteling park, after all).

In fact, the Epic Tales line had not only its own website (that you can see in a different promo for the app, here) but also a Facebook page and a Twitter account to promote the release of the game.

The game was released on iOs format and distributed by Apple. You could get it on your iPad or iPhone by just buying it on the App Store or iTunes store. And it was met with very, very positive reviews. Everybody agreed on saying this game was awesome, the dub very good, the interactions fun, the music delightful - in a word, absolutely perfect. Here is a handful of positive reviews I could find in English ; coupled with another handful of articles in Dutch this time. Mind you, some people do complain about the story being a tad bit too "light" for their taste - as in everybody agrees it is a visual treat with splendid visuals and a goofy tone perfect for kids, but some do complain about a lack of "darkness" (one review even regretted the "psycho-drama" of the original story, absent from this light-hearted story). I personally think there's enough dark Hansel and Gretel retellings out there to allow us a nice light-hearted, goofy, innocent version, but oh well, that's just my opinion... I'll return to these changes in a later post.

These online articles are notably quite precious for bringing additional screenshots of this now unfortunately lost media...

Lost yes: for if you check the App stores and iTunes pages today, it seems Apple has removed the game from their offer. And given Apple was the only distributor... it seems you cannot get it anywhere else.

The Epic Tales website (epictales.com) has been brought down - though you can still find it back thanks to Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which did preserve several versions of it. The Facebook page for Epic Tales is still here too, though inactive since the app's release. As for the Twitter account... it seems that after a few years of inactivy it was briefly taken over by a little girl who posted goofy pictures of her on it... Was it the account-owner's daughter, niece or little sister? I don't know but it seems clearly that this account is a dead-end too.

Now, outside of the trailer, official accounts and online reviews, the last remaining official bits of this animated project (because there is one un-official element I will go to later) are the Anikey Studios videos. Anikey Studio is one of the two big teams that worked on the "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales" project, alongside Cloud Castle Interactive, and while the Epic Tales line seems dead and gone, Anikey is still working a lot, regularly creating and publishing animated shorts. They have a Facebook, a LinkedIn, an Instagram - but more interestingly a Vimeo account on which they regularly post videos (itself doubled by a Youtube channel). And they post yearly Demoreels collecting bits and extracts from their animation projects. Including "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales".

Now, unfortunately they only use the scenes from the trailer of the interactive storybook, so nothing new - but still it worth checking out. The extracts most prominently appear within their Demoreels of the years 2016 and 2012 (I am using the Vimeo version, not the Youtube ones).

And so far, at first glance, this is it. If we do just a superficial search, it is a good-looking app that got removed by Apple ; a big hopeful project with a lot of effort put into it that everybody forgot about or did not notice ; a whole line of fairytale animations that got cancelled right after its first instalment. A first instalment seemingly disappeared into the limbo of "lost media"... But for me, it was only the start of the investigation - because if you know me, you'll know I can get incredibly frustrated when I see something cool I just happened to miss ; and as an enjoyer of both traditional hand-drawn animation and fairytale adaptations, this app seemed so wonderful...

As such, I am currently undergoing a sort of investigation to collect everything I can find and save about this animated storybook. Given I am not an expert "lost media hunter", I might find nothing at all - but at least it will be a fun ride playing the investigator for once! Plus something within the occult forces of the world seem to constantly condemn my blog to focus on "Hansel and Gretel"... I don't know why but every time it gets brought back to me one way or another. So who am I to oppose the mysterious flow of nature?

If any of you ever heard of this app before - if maybe you downloaded it some time ago, if you know someone who played it, or maybe if you still have it somewhere in your Apple product, please do contact me! Even the slightest memory can be of incredible use for such an investigation. Myself I am going to perform a breakdown of all the information I could find, and the following posts of this series are going to try to "reconstruct" what the app was about, and how the story unfold in this version - because here's the thing, it isn't just a regular, straightforward Hansel and Gretel retelling. They actually added and changed several elements in it... But that will be for another post.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. The application is somehow listed within the catalogues of several Dutch libraries. I don't really know much about how these libraries work, but if somehow there is a Dutch person who sees this post, could you eventually bring me some help? It would be very appreciated!

[shadowredfeline]

Five in One Post.

First off to my response to some of my On This Day Posts.

Yeah I do remember seeing jump scares a lot. But normally Anais is okay since she is a rabbit who looks really related to Panini and Halley. And every time we want to talk about the Rabbit girls, I wanted to include Amber from Camp Lazlo because she would make a great companion to them. But with Cartoon Network, anytime I would do Cartoon Network in a world of Final Fantasy, then we had to have Anais and Panini team up with Amber. But with a picture of my brother, it is really funny to see my brother get a jump scare every time I play a scary video game. And my next one, I understand what you mean about the episode with Patrick's nose. There are so many episodes that are completely disgusting and that episode was trying to ape the Ren and Stimpy Style, a bit like Pig Goat Banana Cricket. There are so many gross cartoons that are trying to ape the Ren and Stimpy Style, and I totally agree with you on the episode we both didn't like.

And mostly, the Chowder episode is really funny where we see Endive so worked up on what she was doing and Mung wanted to play a trick on her. Soon one day, we should watch a live stream of anything Cartoon Network related to some of our favorite shows.

And also my birthday response.

Thank you so much for all the wishes I did for my birthday. And also, I had a really amazing vacation and I'm thinking of doing some pics based on what happened on my birthday vacation. Plus I'm also thinking of including a side story. Starring Riya and Luna and have Miya, Lighting, Penny, Yinna, May and Aace included too. And with my presents, I like what you guys think of my presents, and also, my cousin and her daughter also got me Smiling Critters Plushies. But the characters I got are Dog Day and Hoppy Hopscotch. I might one day get some of the other characters I like. Normally my Smiling Critters can either be real or they might be replicas. But we know the difference when getting replicas and the cheap knockoffs, it happens with any kind of toys, figures and plushies, and my cousin did want to get me a Replica if I haven't got a chance of buying the real ones online.

Shadow R 😺🗡️: Thanks, Miya, Aace and Gerby for wishing me a Happy birthday. And it would be an honor before I go on my birthday vacation with my mom alongside Lisa, Spot and Maxwell. And sure I can go somewhere fun with you guys, Miya and Aace. And I hope you both can keep mine and my sister's clothes if you both want to wear them anytime. And also wear them with your cousins and try my Kid's clothes.

Tory 😺🩰: If you like our clothes including my brother's and my best friend's clothes, I hope you can give it a try on our Ballerina attire if you guys want to ballet dance with us. Plus I am teaching Miya how to ballet dance properly, and anytime we both want to teach Luna how to dance.

Shadow R 😺🗡️: uh huh. I'm sure Miya and Aace would love to dance with us besides Spot and Riya.

Tory 😺🩰: mmhmm. And I'm sure your vacation will be fun. And I'm sure your sons are having a nice time with my daughter.

Shadow R 😺🗡️: Yup. Same with Sam.

[khapaleaf]

Done with my unfair run, finally (well, I was done with it on the 10th, but I wanted to celebrate by gorging myself on extremely sour candy, and afterwards I needed a day to calm down). It took me longer to finish than I had initially anticipated, but it was a grand experience filled with fun times. Anyway, trying to organise my thoughts here, because it will be interesting for me to see whether my opinions will change over time later on, and so into archiving mode I go.

First things first, I think Owlcat did a fantastic job at making this versatile and complex setting accessible to those who are not entirely familiar with it. Prior to playing the game, my own knowledge of this universe was limited to a small number of short stories and a much bigger number of memes without context. Yet going into the game, I never felt overwhelmed with new information, and felt right at home in the Koronus Expanse (or about as much as one can in this grim and unforgiving setting). The in-game glossary and the informative mouseover parts that can appear during dialogues to briefly explain what this or that organisation does, or who that person is and so on helped immensely in helping to ease into it. Bless all developers who do this, honestly. The soundtrack (10/10; not a single bad track, a triumph of a mood-setting music that seamlessly blends with the visual style), art design (pretty fucking metal – love the skulls everywhere; and it is also very interesting to see how Owlcat makes progress with each new game in terms of graphics), and characters all also play a big role in making the game a cohesive and truly engaging whole, and allow to uncover the myriad of complexities native to this setting. I laughed, I wept, I felt a myriad of powerful emotions. This is really it, this is what I want in my rpgs! And I want to play it over and over and over again. Fortunately for me, my brain is wired in a way that allows me to do just that without getting bored.

The main story itself is ultimately not all that complex, but the way it is built up within the game is genuinely interesting and engaging even despite the relative emptiness of the post-Commorragh chapters. I like that the planetary quests are structured a bit like self-contained episodes, while at the same time falling neatly into the puzzle that paints the bigger picture of the state of the Expanse. Still, I wish that there was a kind of overarching red thread present throughout the narrative like in the Pathfinder games (even though, yes, I get that these are vastly different settings and narrative experiences). For example, in Kingmaker, the kingdom has to resolve numerous issues throughout the years, but the threat of Nyrissa destroying it altogether looms over the heroes at all times – that is the kind of red thread I am talking about. It seems to me that there is a distinct lack of such a detail in this game, but if it were actually present in the story, the momentum after the third chapter would not have been lost, and it would have added some gravitas and an emotional punch to the later part of the game. Maybe there should have been more focus on Theodora’s involvement in the grand scheme of things, and how it affected the present timeline, maybe there should have been an overarching antagonist... There should have been more interactions with Nomos, definitely. Still, even with the blemishes, the story managed to draw me into a state of fascination and infatuate me with its vast cast, even though at times it felt as if I am taking part in a quietly moving tragedy, with every small decision slowly leading to a point of no return (but it fits the setting, so no complaints there). And really, this is not my first time loving a game with a less than stellar closing chapter. After all, both Tyranny and Kotor 2 stand among my favourites.

I do wish that it were possible for the player character to be a bit more involved in/written into the setting in terms of reactivity to their background and selected class. The amount of variation in the character creator with all of the different backgrounds, archetypes, skills and triumphs and so on is phenomenal, but the fact that it is all there pretty much only to serve the game mechanics side of things instead of the narrative is honestly a bit of a letdown. I suppose that this could be related back to Theodora’s insistence to forget their previous life in one of the earlier dialogues, but the option to acknowledge the character’s background would have been a fantastic touch nonetheless. I thought it was ridiculous that my first (and main, as is customary for my playthroughs) character, a voidborn, had the option to ask Vigdis to explain just what the hell a voidborn is, and how their lives are structured, but no actual option to relate to her on that level. Of course, it is entirely possible to disregard those questions completely, but then there would not be much to talk about with her, unfortunately. And she explains things so poetically, too. Just... give my character the option to relate to this experience (even though, as far as I understand, the rogue trader cannot be too voidborn-y, otherwise they would not have had the option of becoming a rogue trader in the first place). They did apparently add in some reactivity options along with the big patch back in February, but I do not have a save from that early in the game, so I cannot check whether anything at all was written in for this particular instance, or if this reactivity meant something else entirely.

Also, when it comes to the player character, I am still not entirely sure whether I enjoy the conviction system or not. I like that it restricts certain items, decisions, colony projects and such to specific conviction levels, but I do not like how it ties into the endings in the sense that one with the highest rank overrides everything else without taking into consideration the actual decisions made in the game. Basically, do tell the story of my character’s deeds, but do not presume to know what they were motivated by. My character had the most points in the Iconoclast branch (though it was roughly equal points-wise with the Dogmatic branch prior to the lock-in), and was described as an open-minded, merciful soul because of it. Open-minded, perhaps, certain in-game decisions do point to that being a possibility, and I do not even mind the fact that the Imperium feels the need to go to war with the entire Expanse because of those decisions – this fits, more or less. But was she merciful and compassionate? I do not think that a person who servitorises people left and right, uses them as fertiliser, thinks that cutting out the tongues of servants is a great idea to emulate, executes entire noble families as a precautionary measure, nukes and purges whole ass planets, and pretty much channels her inner Camellia on a regular basis is the space mother Teresa that the game makes her out to be. She is a basic bastard, but she is my basic bastard like all of my characters are, but I enjoyed her journey and I am rather protective of her, for lack of a better word. Perhaps it is a minor thing, but I do not like that the narrative makes assumptions about my character like that. And what of nuance? Sure, she did offer help to certain individuals, but it was done more from the point of view of someone who wants to ensure their loyalty, not someone who is genuinely concerned for said individual. That one dialogue with Cassia in particular was a defining point in her character building.

So here I am, trying to make a cohesive portrait in my mind, taking mental notes on what makes my character tick, and then the ending slides come up, and introduce their own static idea of what my character was like. Oh well, I suppose such are the limitations and restrictions placed on the character due to their native environment being a video game. Perhaps I could simply ignore this part, as I did with the whole kidnapping shenanigans timeline in WotR. Something to think about, I suppose.

Fortunately, the other characters, both the companions and the support characters are all a colourful bunch. And largely consistent in their attitudes and beliefs! Each of them speaks and acts in ways unique to no one but themselves, and I really like when the companion characters specifically chime in with their opinions and even have their own back and forth interactions in conversations. There is a lot of that, more than in any other Owlcat game to date, I would say. Still, when it comes to the companions specifically, I wish there were more deeply developed ways of interaction present. What I mean is that there is no option to really get to know them and become confidants, if not friends. I do feel attached to them as a player, but I would like to see my character actually interact with them more outside of their personal quests. Talking to Pasqal while he is being involved with all of the tech stuff on board? Cool! Cassia visiting the rogue trader to ask for their advice? Excellent, give me more of that, please. Getting drunk with Jae? Absolutely fantastic and hilarious (well, that was actually part of her quest, but it was still pretty unique bit, I think). I wish there were more scenes like that throughout the entirety of the game, but that is honestly my wish for any game that features companions.

On a smaller note, I also think that the book excerpts, letters and notes were wonderfully written, and I could easily imagine the personality of the author behind them, their worries, their beliefs and their desires in life.

I do think that there should have been a bit more voiced dialogue, especially when it comes to non-companions, to get a better feel for their personality as well as their presence in this world, but at the same time I am also not at all upset that a huge bulk of the dialogue happens through nothing but pure text, as I generally prefer to read and skip past the voice acting in video games on subsequent playthroughs, anyway. Unless the lines are really good, of course. And what is actually voiced is fantastic – Owlcat always manages to pick voice actors that are so vibrant and memorable and are a joy to listen to, always. Even now, I can read a line, any line, and imagine that it is spoken by Ekundayo or Jaethal, for example, all with their unique speech patterns and inflections. Here as well, the voice actors did such a remarkable job of bringing life to the characters, that I find it easy to imagine what their unvoiced lines sound like.

That said, I did not particularly enjoy the voice sets for the player character this time around, at least initially. It seems to me like they all have a bit too much personality, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I am used to selecting these voices as a mere formality (so that the character would make noise when they are hurting in combat, or when they find something on the map), not as a pretty damn defining feature for my characters. It definitely took time to adjust. Still, it was an interesting experience, because these voice lines, somewhat surprisingly, helped me develop the character even further because I go into games without having a clear vision of what the character is going to be like, and instead develop them on the go. But! The voices for the dudes are all kind of revolting to listen to. Unfortunate, but not surprising, because I also disliked all but one in the Pathfinder games. They all sound like they have a fish bone stuck in their throat and need someone to german suplex them to get it out, looney tunes style. How will I ever experience the romance with Lady Cassia under these conditions, damn it?

Speaking of romances, I think it is hilarious that the one my character ended the game with (Marazhai) is on the opposite spectrum in terms of pretty much everything to the one I wanted her to end up with (Yrliet) before playing the game. On my first run, I was certain that the latter caught a bug sometime during its course, and thus ended abruptly without even having a proper start, but apparently Yrliet does not like it if one decides to stab a dude in the neck in front of her, as it was later explained to me. Not a fan of such colourful methods of courtship, then. But it is fine, I would rather see the characters fit together rather than force anything by having my character act in ways that do not fit them to keep the romance going. So in comes Marazhai. The dude definitely has some enviable home decor skills, is very useful in combat encounters and deals a ton of damage, sends out a bunch of his kabalites to kill the enemies of the dynasty, gives not one, but two very cool and useful buffs (and they are intangible, which means more place to equip all sorts other beneficial items – and there is such a wide variety of items to choose from, it is incredible), and is pretty hilarious overall. Also! He managed to take out nine fucking participants (five of which were at full health) of the Aeldari ambush all by himself after the rest of the party was taken out of commission. That was the most clutch moment of the game for me. So... A worthwhile investment, I say. And, most importantly, he and my character actually fit. It is stupid and hilarious, perhaps unintentionally, but they fit.

The combat! I approached it cautiously because, while I do enjoy turn-based combat, I did not actually like what I saw of it in WotR, because it seemed a bit too wobbly to me, as if the camera was swimming all over the place whenever I tried moving the party, and that made me nauseous (I never finished the fallout-bunker-type side quest due to this). To my surprise, I ended up enjoying it very much from day one, even with my immensely stupid decision to experience the game on hard difficulty during my first run of the game. I am not going to say that it was an easy task, but it was fairly manageable, and I also think that it actually helped quite a bit with making the story feel more fittingly uninviting and grim, given the amount of obstacles the characters had to overcome. Thus far, I have three full runs in total: my main run, which I did twice now, and a kind-of-sort of gimmick run with three officers in the party (plus three other characters to bash enemy heads in), though playing an officer and controlling a party member that happens to be an officer feels different to me, and I have to admit that I did not actually enjoy having the main character be one.

For my unfair run I decided to take my first character, partly because she is the one I consider to be my main, and I wanted get a more polished version of her journey, partly because I read a brilliant comment of someone saying that the warrior class is shit in this game, and my character is indeed a warrior. Well, a warrior/psyker/assassin, with the psyker disciplines being telepathy and biomancy (some people shit on telepathy, too, but it is my favourite due to offering quite a few ways to debuff and damage enemies). Still, I became curious whether she is fit to handle the unfair difficulty. And she is! My strategies may not be the best, and my builds do not allow for instantaneously killing the big bosses (oneshoting a creature with over 20000 hp? In your dreams, maybe), but they do get me through the entire game without me ever needing to lower the difficulty. And at the end of the day, so long as there is more of the enemy on the floor than there is of my guy and their party, that is the only thing that matters. Here are some of her greatest hits.

Considering that she is a bit of a hybrid build, and thus has to juggle between more ability scores than a pure warrior class, I think the results she can show are pretty good. These are all from the last zone, of course, but she is indeed able to hold her own in a fight and dish out substantial damage, both mental and physical, throughout the entirety of the game.

Overall, I was expecting the unfair difficulty to make me feel like the tussles with the wild hunt in Kingmaker did – as if I am about to experience explosive diarrhoea and vomit at the same time. And while there were numerous times when I felt like a single enemy attack could dismantle my entire party (fortunately, that tension is all part of the fun for me), ultimately as the companions levelled up their archetype abilities, and the number of available actions and manoeuvrers grew bigger, most of the fights stopped presenting a challenge in a way where it felt that the deck is truly stacked against them. I often felt like going into the difficulty settings just to check whether it is still set to unfair. Still, while I do not think Owlcat has plans for such a dlc just yet, I would actually enjoy going through a purely combat-focused one, perhaps with a planetary multi-level dungeon with an extravagant amount of dudes to have mega tussles with. More challenges, please!

But I will also admit that I do not yet understand how to build some of the party members to make them valuable in combat. Idira should be extremely powerful, in theory. And she is, but she is also doing way too much damage to the party and often gets taken out of commission during the first round, and look – now the party has to fight a shit demon on top of these other twenty guys. I am missing something crucial here, a way to prevent that from happening, a way to reduce the perils of the warp phenomena from occurring. Could it be the difference between a sanctioned and unsanctioned psyker? Mine is able to spam both damaging abilities and buff the party when the purple warp bar is at full capacity, and yet no demons will be summoned, what the hell?! Heinrix is another character that I do not know how to build properly just yet in a way that would make him strong on the lower levels. Passing out during his own quest? Pathetic!

I know it is my own fault for failing to build him properly, but come on dude, work with me a little!

I have not yet grown fond of the space battle mini-game within the game. I can see them being thematically necessary an largely unavoidable when taking the setting into account, and yet I appreciate them only slightly more than the puzzles in their previous games. I think I would have liked them more if the battles were presented in storybook format (with skill and equipment checks and so on) in order to make them feel less like padding in the game. Oh look, the green field is now positioned in a way that forces the ship to fly in the opposite direction of its enemies! And now the damaged enemy ship is attempting an escape, and now our guns cannot even reach them, and now they are successfully leaving the battlefield. And I have to reload the entire thing and try to shoot them down immediately because I cannot accept anyone making a successful escape. I understand that one enemy ship escaping still counts towards our party’s victory, but I need to see everyone in pieces.

Well, I am probably forgetting about a number of smaller details I would have liked to talk about, but the main thing is that I loved the game. Top 3, definitely! I will not deny that there are quite a few blemishes that hold it back, and there is still a lingering feeling that it game could have been even bigger and more complex, if only the development time was longer. Hopefully, that potential will be tapped in a sequel, if Owlcat ever decides to make one. And I hope that they will stay true to themselves when they do so.

[tmmfmp]

Researching some games

Cuphead - Cuphead is a game that has a similar level design to the way I want my game to be. This is specifically about the run and gun levels as they are more platform than fighting. I want my levels to look similar construction wise as I'm not confident in platform design.

Castle Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse 2013 remaster - This game has both a side scroller and 3rd person aspect to it. Although again I want to go for the level design, not the boss levels as there isn't much platforming in them. I like the idea of the flooding like there is in the sea monkey boss fight.

Geometry Dash - This game has wonderful level design. The level is entirely based around the beat of the music that the level is played with. I enjoy how the art style is incredibly simple but the game is still loved by many.

My Friend Pedro - I actually like the combat in this game more than the level design. The way you wipe out enemies is just so awesome. I might honestly add combat to this project because of this.

Thomas Was Alone - This game is incredibly strange. It has a super engaging story despite the only characters being different coloured squares. There is a narrator taking you through the story as you play. There is a character switching function in this one like my game Different Together although in this you switch character in order to progress the levels by completing little puzzles.

Similar Aesthetic

Assassin's Creed Valhalla - All time favorite Assassin's Creed game as it contains my favorite mythology. I love the way they designed the environment, animals and characters. They made the most accurate Viking representation I have ever seen especially with the oaths and honour themes through it. They spell Freyja's name wrong though.

God Of War - God Of War is a bit all over the place. For some reason, the mythology used changes. It is originally Greek Mythology and then switches to Norse which makes absolutely no sense. The games aren't very engaging to me and I don't like this take on Norse Mythology.

Apotheon - This seems to be a side scroller game based heavily upon Greek Mythology. Its art style makes it seem as though you are traveling across wonderful pieces of art from the time of the mythology being widely appreciated. I absolutely love how they styled this game and will try to take inspiration from it.

Devil May Cry - Devil May Cry is my all time favorite game (if my blog profile picture didn't give it away.) This game series actually takes inspiration from various mythologies for the enemies. It also seems to sort of have its own religion incorporated into it, through the worship of Sparda as he served as the feudal lord of Fortuna.

Metal: Hellsinger - This game seems incredibly loosely tied to Christianity because of the Heaven and Hell references throughout. It features combat against angels and demons with one direct real enemy, the Red Judge. This is a music based game where you fight demons and angels to the beat in order to try and get back what was stolen from The Unknown (the protagonist of the game.)

[kokorolinkrun]

What If... Dick Figures was an anime?

This has been on my mind for a while.

Simply put, I've been somewhat imagining what a Dick Figures anime would be like - and no, I'm not talking about something like that little parody bit from the movie. I'm talking a full-blown, completely unironic anime series that remains true to the spirit of the original series.

That said, though... Come join me as we explore my big, impossible dreams for a Dick Figures anime!

ANIMATION STUDIO: SHAFT (Monogatari, Madoka Magica, Zetsubou-Sensei, ect.)

Whenever I think of a studio that would almost perfectly nail the style of Dick Figures, I think of SHAFT. They're known for the weird stuff: Colour palette switches, their signature head tilt, random art-style changes, and (most important for this series) use of real imagery. Seeing as the original Dick Figures series already uses real imagery at times (the Raccoon/Papa-san, Kitty Amazing, the turtle-dragon from "Traffic Jams", the genie from "Butt Genie" and the map from the Movie amongst many others) and is pretty absurd itself, SHAFT would pretty much be perfect for it.

CHARACTER DESIGNER: Koichi Kikuta (KonoSuba)

This part wasn't easy to figure out, as I needed one that would emulate the vibe of the original stick figure style without taking too much away from it. At the end of it, though, my choice ended up boiling down to this dude. His work from what I've seen is cartoony and fluent, which I think would fit just about perfectly for a series like Dick Figures - especially since the characters are... Well... Stickpeople (duh).

VOICE CAST:

Red: Yuusuke Kobayashi (Subaru Natsuki in Re:Zero) or Yuuki Ono (Josuke Higashikita in JoJo) Blue: Daisuke Ono (Jotaro Kujo in JoJo, Yukito Kunisaki in AIR, The Junker in Planetarian, Mamoru Akasaka in Higurashi, ect.) or Tomokazu Sugita (Yuuichi Aizawa in Kanon) Lord Tourettes: Yui Horie (Hanyuu in Higurashi, Ayu Tsukimiya in Kanon, Tsubasa Hanekawa in Monogatari, ect.) Pink: Chiwa Saitou (Hitagi Senjougahara in Monogatari, Homura Akemi in Madoka Magica, Kotori Kanbe in Rewrite, ect.) Stacy: Satsuki Yukino (Mion Sonozaki in Higurashi) Broseph: Yuuki Ono (Josuke Higashikita in JoJo) The Raccoon: Daisuke Ono (Jotaro Kujo in JoJo, Yukito Kunisaki in AIR, The Junker in Planetarian, Mamoru Akasaka in Higurashi, ect.) Mr. Dingleberry: Chafurin (Ooishi Kuradashi in Higurashi)

EPISODE LAYOUT

This was a bit difficult to figure out, due to the nature of the original Dick Figures series. Having every episode be the full 24 minutes would probably be too dragged out, but five scenarios per episode would make things too crammed.

However, I can picture one way this can work: If there's two segments in each episode. There's 50 episodes in total (aside from Figured Out, which we'll get to in a bit), so if we put 2 into each episode, we'd get 25 episodes of this anime version in total, which I feel like is a fair number.

As for the movie, that can be released after the final episode. As well as that, I also imagine that it'd be cool if they also adapted Figured Out into an OVA series alongside the movie meant to serve as the true series finale.

In fact... Having Figured Out as an OVA would actually work better due to potential pacing issues if it was put at the very end of the movie - and since it's only one story they'd need to adapt, they can go all out and spend as much episodes as they need fleshing out the episode from it's original montage format, so maybe we'll be able to learn more about the characters' futures.

Now for the big question: Would it be an adaptation of the original series, or a new story?

Well, I guess it can go both ways. If they want to re-imagine the series for a new audience, then I guess they can go ahead and adapt the original series. In fact, an adaptation that still changes things up would actually benefit the series most, since the original really hasn't aged the best (offensive jokes, Trollz0r literally just being the 2010s version of r/FellowKids, ect.).

That said, however, it would probably benefit SHAFT (or whatever other studio takes it) morer if they went with a new story that remained true to the original series - as long as they don't mess it up, of course (Lookin' at you, Magia Record anime - Don't think I've forgotten how dirty you guys did my girl Kuroe).

But hey, this is all just my personal opinion. What do you guys think? Do you think these ideas would be ideal for a Dick Figures anime, would you imagine it differently, or do you just think the series is already good enough on its own? Be sure to let me know in the reblogs or replies!

[transsexualunderground]

Hello Mr. Jade Prideoftheline, you may be reconized me as @Susan363 who's often posting hcs, incorrect quotes and ideas on Olivia's blog. I send this message to you because I wanted to say that I really adored your Anpanman oc, Kaitojishaku. Despite not knowing much about him, I can see that he's a very funny character, and the idea that he and Horrorman are just a "dumb@sses in love" couple? Mwah! Chef kiss. 💋🤌

I really wanted to know more about Kaito, I would like to resquest that you put on his design, I know that he is suppose to be a magnet but I can only picture his head as a U size magnet. I hope that this isn't much to ask!

Oh yes yes of course! I can give a whole damn infodump about good ol' Kaito!

For posterity's sake, though, I'm slappin' this under a readmore. This is a long dang infodump!

Name: Kaitojishaku... or, that's their alias as a thief. Their real name is... last name Jishaku, given name Kaito. How creative. However, each "Kaito" is spelled differently in Japanese. The "Kaito" in their alias means "phantom thief" and the "Kaito" in their actual name is spelled in the way a given name might be spelled. Different kanji.

Pronouns: he/she/they. Albeit I think they'd be open to more. In Japanese, I think they'd tend toward the neutral and formal watashi for their "I" pronoun, just to amp up their dramatic phantom thief vibes.

Kaitojishaku was conceptualized to fill in a niche I didn't think was filled in the Anpanman 'verse: a gentleman thief/phantom thief archetype!

And of course, what's better at grabbing shiny things than a magnet? So, Kaitojishaku was born! And I started by making them the very fun flavor of morally grey that the Anpan-verse tends to lack. It's very black-and-white there, so I thought, let's throw some well-intentioned light grey in there!

Now onto design. Here is the very first piece of Kaito art, I'd say circa... August o' 2022?

Their design has changed a little since then due to interpretations from my good pal @olivias-hyperfixation-corner. Olivia interpreted their thiefy mask as cat-eye glasses, and I loved the thought of these being sorta... both! Kaito's metal body that isn't made of magnets and just metal got reinterpreted into a turtleneck sweater. So they just... kinda don't wear pants, ig.

But I did once draw them in an alternate outfit to show further limb motion and further establish their disproportionately long arms as intentional!

Oh, and their eyeshadow(?) changed a bit.

Kaito's two-tone design was definitely inspired by ENA.

Now, onto lore!

Kaitojishaku was created by a smithing fairy (think about how Uncle Jam is a baker and a fairy) named Anvil in a steampunky city that'd be a solid sleeper train's trip away from the main town in the show.

She was given two powerful gifts by Anvil. One was a jacket filled with pockets upon pockets. He can basically cartoonishly pull larger objects outta 'em. Bag of holding style.

The other gift he was given was a staff/cane of sorts in order to help him push off from any metal surfaces he encountered, but he didn't really seem to get it, instead getting frustrated with the world around him being something he just kept getting stuck to.

She left in the night, climbing up a nearby mountain as a thunderstorm raged. Yelling to the heavens on a cliffside, they were struck by lightning.

They fell down the cliff. For months, they were just... dead. In pieces. Magnet bits. All that was found of them when the town looked for them was their cane.

But... THEY LIVED. Kaito's pieces clicked themselves back together, but when they came to, their memory was scrambled, only a vague visage of a shiny city left in their thoughts alongside their name.

Their first place of residence was an abandoned baikin-lair they turned into a bunker of sorts. They decided with their name and their tendency toward shiny things, their purpose in life must be stealing. So, that's their thing for a little bit. Until it starts upsetting people. So now their thing is stealing and then immediately giving it back if they weren't supposed to take it.

Their first encounter with Anpanman involves her just grabbing a piece of his head very casually, and then when Anpanman's rightfully confused and distraught, she's just all "oh, did ya want that back? Sorry, here ya go." And then she just presses on. Anpanman says something along the lines of "How strange... nobody else just takes like that except... Baikinman."

Upon hearing this name, Kaito decides that this Baikinman fellow is worth meeting. A fellow thief! They make their way to the Baikincastle and introduce themself to both Dokinchan and Baikinman. Baikinman tells Kaito of his plots against Anpanman, and Kaito thinks it's all in good fun, so he agrees to help. He wants Kaito to go steal an anpan head so he can screw it up and replace Anpanman's head with it.

Kaito proceeds to leave and take WAYYYY too long at the bakery just having pleasant conversation with the bakery gang. They even end up politely asking to take some bread with them!

And they do! Off they go sneaking an entire head of anpan and not sneaking some additional bread for their new friends Baikinman and Dokinchan!

By the time they get back, it's been hours. Horrorman now pops in calling to Baikinman and Dokinchan because he made lunch and he's the only competent cook in this house, before he goes "oh, who's this, hora?"

And then Horrorman and Kaitojishaku hit it off immediately. Horrorman's willing to be nice to literally anyone and go with their plans until it turns out That's Bad and Kaitojishaku is willing to steal from literally anyone until it turns out That's Bad. They've a lot in common in that way, lol. This Is Relevant Later.

Baikinman baikinsciences the anpan head into a messed up one. He lures the bakery gang out and gets Dokinchan and Horrorman to guard all the entrances so Anpanman can't get a new head.

But this Messed Up And Evil Head is... not working as intended. It kinda just gives Anpanman an existential crisis. It was supposed to, y'know, make him evil for a bit, maybe.

Kaito realizes, hey, wait, that's just a dick move! Ain't that, like, psychological torture. So, time for a bit of counterstealing!

They go to the back door and... just ask Horrorman to let them in, because they need a favor. And "every good thief has a few accomplices!"

So he does. And Kaito gets a new anpan head! But Dokinchan notices and tries to put a stop to this. And her and Horrorman bicker a bit over this before Kaito throws a smoke bomb and with their epic phantom thief skills, scurries off.

They replace Anpanman's head after asking a very "distracted with trying to figure out how to improvise an anpan head" Jam and Batako if they would rather do the honors (and is ignored because they're absolutely frantic rn), they chuck the head onto Anpanman, typical genki hyakubai, anpunch, baibaikin.

Things calm down, and Anpanman says they really don't have to steal.

But Kaito argues that it's his purpose in life.

Anpanman says it doesn't have to be.

Kaito just asks why Baikinman is allowed to have his purpose be defeating Anpanman, if that's the case.

The truth is, Anpanman thinks Baikinman's too dead-set, but Kaitojishaku seems more receptive to change.

But Kaito's not ready just yet. They say that maybe their stealint will benefit everyone next time, and with another smoke bomb, they disappear.

Then the Hoshi story ensues! You've already seen that, but I'll link it for everyone else reading.

During that, Kaito has resolved to their new "stealing with permission, mostly" outlook, such as... "stealing" free samples. Or rocks off the ground. Or Hoshi back from Baikinman.

After that, there's the plotlines Olivia mentioned such as sleepovers, but I also have plans for another plot where Kaito meets their maker - literally! In Anpanman movie fashion, heheh. Good things happen there, worry not.

Oh. And I forgot Kaito's houseboat. Alongside their bunker, they have a houseboat they found abandoned and took up after realizing how big the world is. They name it the Kaito Go after the Anpanman Go, but, Sailorkun tells them most boats usually have SS before their name... so now it's the SS Kaito Go. It's just a tidy little vintage houseboat. Cozy!

But lastly, let me talk about their personality. Kaito tries to be very cool and sneaky and stylish, but they're also just silly at times. Their magnet hands will get stuck to their magnet body, for example. They have a knack for dramatics and tend to be very bombastic and energetic. But they also have a more caring, calmer side. That's the side that tends to get philisophical and all that. And in truth, they're more naive than one might think. They were created an adult, but barely had anyone to teach them... a lot, really. they don't have the basics down. They have random strings of advanced concepts known, though, so it's a big ol' scramble of things.

Kaito tries their best, honestly, and they don't mean harm. But they do wanna go grab loot and break into places and look cool doing it. And who can blame 'em?

So, that's Kaito.