#Set 55

[gobs-o-dice]

Old Dice Staging Methods: Batch #11

[dreamingdarklyblog]

Process Breakdown

hypnoticpresence

It's not boring to me. I may not be writing professionally, but I still enjoy hearing about the creative process. Please consider me a vote for more of a breakdown and thank you so much for sharing what you have.

Well let's see...

Today I was working on a post for the Nerdy Girl Next Door set. And I got permission from @sweetn0vato use her photos last month. I just haven't gotten around to using any yet. She has a great, cute, girl next door look and wears glasses. Which, is pretty stereotypical but sells "nerdy girl" pretty well.

So I figured I should find one of her photos that would work. Usually choosing a photo is a lot broader job, I've got a "Gallery" of potential shots set up with 30 of so images per page, somewhat loosely sorted. So I can tab through them and try to find something that jumps out at me with a good idea. In this case the gallery is a lot smaller. @sweetn0va is very hot, but most of the things she posts are gifs or videos, and quite lower resolution. There's not a whole lot of photos that will work.

Here's what I found parsing through her media. Made some notes for your guys sake with my thoughts. I wasn't sure what kind of post I wanted to make, aside from the general theme. Go with a blank look, her being programmed over a facetime call? I like the outdoor shot, she looks gorgeous, but I don't think it really sells the mind control angle well. I could try and shoehorn it in... But there are better options.

In the end I opted for the "schoolgirl" outfit. I felt it leaned into the "girl next door" fantasy best. For a different theme I probably would have picked the one above it, or the top left if I wanted a blank look.

Next step is setting up the page, applying a watermark, and making some word bubbles. I usually get them started, then apply some styles I have pre-configured for different character "tones". I'm sure it's obvious, but I tend towards a default of blue and green. Blue being for the "male" voice, and green being female. I also make heavy use of pink when there's more than 1 female, or when it's a clearly ditzy/bimbo voice. It's a blatant sexist stereotype, but I find it's a good way to quickly communicate more about the scene without having to "Say" it.

Once the styles are applied I re-arrange and resize the bubbles to fit, and start really "Writing". Usually I have only the general outline of where I want the scene to go. Where it starts, where it ends, maybe a beat or two in the middle if a good line pops into my head, but mostly I just write a line and then move on to the next one. I very often find that the dialogue just doesn't flow in the direction that I wanted it to, and have to make adjustments to the intended "Story".

Probably less than half actually end where I originally intended. The rest change on me as the characters voices develop on the page, and they take a different direction. This one changed a fair bit on me, as I'd intended one idea, but instead it drifted into sort of a trigger play direction.

Anyway. This page is now finished, but not published on the discord yet. I sent it to @sweetn0va for final approval, before showing it to anyone else ;). If you want to see it before it makes it to the tumblr (at current page that will be about... 3 months) you know where to sign up for the Patreon ;)

[mellxncollie]

Sophus Helle, Gilgamesh — tablet X, line 55 Dead Boy Detectives (2024) — season 01, episode 07

[pollyna]

au in which a new journalist has to interview Admiral Kazaksy and they are tasked with the simple and straightforward task of "under no circumstances asking, talking or even mentioning Captain P. Maverick Mitchell".

At the end of the interview, they add another note under the previous one stating "not a drill guy, not a drill. The man talked about the Captain for 55 minutes straight and barely answered any of my questions."

[angryricepudding]

Vic Sage and Danny Fenton because I'm still in that dp x dc phase

Mr. Sage is in dire need of sleep, which to a hypocritical Danny, is unacceptable

[captainjonnitkessler]

My anti-consumerism win for the week is that I found out rain barrels are like $150 apiece online, so I called a union buddy who works for a brewery and now I have 3 free 55-gallon barrels that are food-safe and smell deliciously of the lemon flavoring they used to contain (not a necessity for a garden rain barrel but it's nice)

[finelythreadedsky]

next to normal is such an aggressively 2008 musical in terms of its treatment of mental illness and psychiatry (among other things) that it's super weird to see the characters styled like millennial adults and gen z teenagers in a very mid-2020s kitchen set

[rickythesearenotnewinters]

I'm not gonna call a winner for the sincaraz match, however my thoughts:

If Jannik wins, he'll do it in straight sets

If Carlos wins, he'll drop either the first or second set and win in four

[wannursyafiqah74]

dividers from junabuggy (CW for flashing lights and blood in the original post)

also also. i might as well admit this (i am also horribly biased towards the future trio. mainly dusknoir. i should've admitted to that. BUT YES I HAVE A BIAS)

stupid tangent below!!! i have really bad brainrot but it's just kinda my headcanons

no images bc i can't draw with a mouse or trackpad rn, it'd look bad. (so no reblogs, oop)

if i would i would have endless power

guess who was late to drawing? this guy!

i just see dusknoir as this guy who's just like. he does not fuck around. canon in explorers of sky/time/darkness happens (and bc i don't see the anime as canon, it's just weird to me). the works

then grovyle teaches dusknoir to be a better person (so slow progression up until super mystery dungeon), i BELIEVE, and it's revealed dusknoir is genuinely a charming, cunning man. it's just that he's still kind of a bastard (considering the monster house he sends the heroes to) LMAO

also dusknoir has an occassional soft side that pops up. particularly with grovyle and celebi. in terms of romance i'd imagine he'd be passionate but kinda tease the two?? IDK I THINK IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND CUTE... AND ALSO. the POTENTIAL

(i fw the future trio polycule ok. and also actaeonshipping. i am very normal)

but i can imagine he'd be a father figure as well (dadnoir hc also got to me. he's not a good or perfect dad figure by any means but he's just. he's just warming up to things. and that makes me SICK IN THE HEAD /LHJ)

and bc IDK. he's chumby he's adorable but he's also intimidating. i don't mind the shitposts, i don't personally see him as unserious.

anyhow i'm done with this stupid tangent

[gobs-o-dice]

Dice Set #55: Neon Sunrise Layers

[lesbianboyfriend]

girl who is going to be cutting it so close to get there on time

[zetterbabe]

what 22 minutes of ice time looks like (02.08.24)

[every-yumichika]

[jakeperalta]

I know the mamma mia universe isn't limited by the constraints of time and space but if I was 39 year old amanda seyfried being asked about 25 year old sabrina carpenter playing my daughter I might cry

[princepipper]

I bought some really wonderful pieces at Art In The Park today!! I didn't stay for too long (very busy + bad air quality = lots of overstimulation) but I had a great time and I really enjoyed visiting and chatting with the artists.

Here's links to their pages, but please check out the photos above for business card info with the full list of links and such!

Rico Dancel [FB // Instagram]

Su Silk Art [Website]

Lydia Joy Palmer [Website // @lydiajoypalmer]

All artists are based in southern Ontario, but I encourage everyone to browse their works online, even if you aren't able to make a purchase. I can't wait for next year to see what new artworks will be waiting!!!⭐️

[miraculous-ninjabird]

Now I know everyone else is losing it about 110 (and I am to to an extent though I believe in Akutagawa saving Aya) but I having delusional theory thoughts about 109, Dazai and No Longer Human and I have to share them.

It starts with the fact that Dazai can canonically channel his ability through objects. We know this because this is how he and Chuuya defeated Randou in the 15 light novel. This is why Dazai’s ability works even through clothing and why Tainted can’t be used on Dazai even through a conduit. In 109, we see Chuuya directly touch the gun to Dazai’s head before he shot him. We cannot, however, see if that gun is still touching Dazai when Chuuya takes the headshot. All we know for sure is that Dazai was shot 4 times, there are only three impact holes on the wall, and we never actually see the bullet make impact on his head.

This is my theory thus far:

Chuuya, thanks to Arahabaki, is not completely under Fyodor’s control in that he has some free will to move and see and hear but he cannot disobey a direct order. Chuuya understands exactly what Dazai’s angle was when he tried to provoke him into punching him.

Fyodor tells Chuuya to back off since being touched nullifies the vampirism. But what Chuuya knows and supposedly Fyodor doesn’t is that Dazai does not have to directly touch him. All he needs is for Dazai to simultaneously be in contact with the same object as him. So he shoots Dazai in the shoulder (perhaps to show he has free will perhaps just to get Dazai back for all the suffering his plans put Chuuya through in the past) and uses that chance to get up close and touch the gun to Dazai’s head. This action then nullifies the vampirism.

Dazai, initially shocked by the shoulder wound (likely because even he couldn’t be exactly sure how conscious Chuuya was under the vampirism), immediately picks up on what Chuuya has done. However, they cannot under any circumstances let Fyodor know what’s happened. Hence the ‘Am I though?’ when Fyodor tells him he’s all out of plans and the line about finding the right words to cause a miracle and have Chuuya returning to normal. This is Dazai’s subtle way of saying ‘I see and I understand but now is not the right moment to play our hand’

Everything from this point onward is an act. Chuuya and Dazai are just pretending Chuuya is still under Fyodor’s control. Chuuya can take step back and then manipulate the gravity of the bullet shot at Dazai’s head. Since it’s being effected by an ability, it would nullify the instant it touched Dazai’s skin. If I’m understanding how No Longer Human worlds correctly, this means the bullet would theoretically drop harmlessly to the ground, but not before causing a surface wound in the split second between when the bullet hits its target and Dazai’s ability kicking in. This makes for a fairly believable act since Fyodor doesn’t have a good enough angle to see the bullet fall.

Chuuya fires the additional two shots are also a part of the act so that Fyodor will be confidant that even though the headshot didn’t kill Dazai immediately, he was still as good as dead thanks to the other three shots and the broken leg. He then steps back (still not facing the camera) and pretends to be completely unaffected.

Fyodor will have assumed he won. He thinks Dazai is dead, he thinks Sigma is dead. With all the guards gone and Dazai gone, he has no further use for Chuuya. This allows for soukoku to make their move and execute (an albeit modified version of) Dazai’s original plan. (Which I’m personally choosing to believe was killing Fyodor and getting Sigma out, relying on Yosano to be on standby should something happen to Sigma. Her presence though would also ensure his survival as long as they’re quick enough)

Now granted. Chuuya’s eyes look the same as they have the whole arc and he has no visible reaction to this turn of events. But we don’t see his fangs and there’s also the fact he’s also known Dazai for a very, very long time. They know each other inside and out. The hardly even need to communicate anymore to know what the other is thinking. The moment Chuuya comes back to himself is the exact moment everything turns back in Dazai’s favor because they are Soukoku and together they are unstoppable.

Chuuya may not be as brilliant as Dazai but they would not have been such good partners nor rivals if Chuuya was not capable of thinking on his feet fast enough to keep up with Dazai’s thought processes. They also wouldn’t have made good partners if Chuuya hadn’t at some point learned to play up the roles Dazai’s elaborate plans required. If he’s smart enough to keep up with Dazai’s lightning quick plans then he is capable of thinking on his feet fast enough to come with his own way of achieving Dazai’s original goal. (Nullifying Chuuya)

I honestly think with the way it was specifically framed so that even we can’t see what actually happened when Chuuya shot that gun plus knowing this additional fact about how Dazai’s ability works plus the odd number of bullet impacts plus the fact there is no way Dazai would have been able to speak after being shot in the head like that is enough evidence for me to say with reasonable confidence that Dazai is not dead.

I also love the idea that this was not a part of Dazai’s plan. He was not expecting Chuuya to be there initially and after the failed attempt to provoke Chuuya he was not expecting to survive that encounter. I love the idea that Chuuya is one of the few people capable of actually taking Dazai by surprise and that he genuinely did not expecting a turn of events that could actually end in his survival. We already know Dazai wasn’t planning on escaping the prison anyways. All Dazai needed was to get the information he needed on Fyodor’s ability and stop Fyodor from further interfering with his plans to stop the Decay of Angels. What happens to his own life doesn’t matter as long as those two goals are accomplished and he can put his trust in Sigma and his ‘Angel’ to finish what he started.

But with Chuuya in the picture and on his side, he perhaps doesn’t have much of a choice. There’s no way Chuuya is gonna let him just die like that. (He may still die but Chuuya is def gonna do his best to prevent that.) I love the implication that it would be all thanks to Chuuya, his quick thinking, his deep understanding of both his partner’s thought processes and ability, and his genuine desire to see Dazai live that Dazai has any chance of survival at all.

(Bonus notes and at the end since it would have interrupted my flow but. Knowing BSD and it’s penchant for dramatic twists and crazy cliff hangers I would not put it past Asagiri and Harukawa to have portrayed Chuuya as still a vampire just to up the suspense)

Images/supporting evidence/more rambles under the cut (includes 15 light novel and chapter 109 spoilers)

Light Novel Evidence

This is a man who genuinely does not understand What The Fuck just happened and is mad about it because he prides himself on not being taken by surprise.

This is the face of a man who realizes something is happening but is so thrown he hasn’t quite figured out what yet

And this is the face of a man who has figured out exactly why things just played out the way they did out and is pleasantly surprised by it.

Gunshot? What gunshot? I don’t see anything here? hmmm….. (also verrrrry convenient that we cannot see Chuuya’s expression in this panel. In fact we don’t see his face at all any of the times he fires the gun after the initial shot. Which if you ask me is pretty sus.)

I would also like to point out that the vampires don’t seem to talk, and that there hasn’t been a single point since Chuuya’s introduction as a vampire where he has any sort of speech or thought bubble assigned to him. Just sound effects.

Not a single point. EXCEPT.

This panel here. Right after Dazai supposedly ‘dies’ we get to see Chuuya going ‘…’

But why would they include that? We know he’s a vampire and we know he doesn’t talk. (I’m thinking they can’t speak unless ordered to and/or Chuuya has been ordered not to speak to Dazai). Chuuya could have just stood there silently and emotionless without the ‘…’ bubble and it would have had the same effect. Unless this was a way to highlight that Chuuya is specifically choosing not to say something rather than being completely unable to. Which. Interesting to think about. (I won’t discount the possibility that it’s supposed to highlight Dazai’s silence but personally that would have made more sense if they put it on the empty Dazai panel instead. Plus I think this idea is way more interesting.)

Anyways if you stuck around to the end I’d love to know what y’all think of this