#The last one is cloning out a figure in the background

[fionaapplerocks]

Fiona Apple and Winona Ryder, photo by Lester Cohen

[collophora]

Found a cool color palette. Might finish it later. (Probably not.)

[hdmiports]

power couple

[gsirvitor]

When the FUCK did Fortnite have lore?

You’re not telling those collabs have canon lore attached to them right?

Right?

Each season of Fortnite has a storyline, and each chapter has its own overarching storyline, each story is connected to the last and builds upon the base idea that Fortnite takes place in a realm that sits at the center of all realities.

This realm is powered by a transdimensional sphere known as the zero point, it has been pulling people from random timelines and universes, no one knows why, there are two separate factions that want to control the zero point.

One is a governmental organization founded by a man named Genos, he created it to study the Zero Point, to discover why those trapped in the loop lose their memories, and why when they leave the loop creates a copy of them.

Ultimately we are lead to believe he wants to control the Zero point for nefarious reasons by the other group known as the Seven, a group of loopers who figured out how to retain, or regain their memories.

The war between the Seven and the Imagined Order has been the background story of the battle royale game, there is a larger story beyond that, involving transdimensional conquerors known as the Last Reality, who want to capture the Zero Point to feed off of it, we killed their queen, their former king is a member of the Seven.

Each crossover has a comic dedicated to telling the story as well, this began with the marvel crossovers, since then they have been expanded each chapter or season, with the largest one being the Fortnite X Marvel: Zero War comic series.

Oh yes, and one of the few voiced characters in the game is a recurring character named Jonesy, originally a gag in the game, he showed up in different costumes, or transformed into different creatures, such as Peely, when the Zero Point fused him with a banana.

Later we discovered these different versions of him are clones made by the Zero Point each time he entered the loop, as he was an agent of the Imagined Order sent in every season to make sure nothing was going wrong in the loop.

Eventually he found what the Imagined Order was doing to be very suspect, and defected to help the Seven, he later found them to be equally shady, and is currently running a rebellion as the leader of an organization known as the Underground, who are fighting an organization that is most likely a front of the Imagined Order, known as the Society.

Oh and there's a greater threat we have just made contact with known as the Nothing, a dimension destroying force of nature.

[andmaybegayer]

What are some of the coolest computer chips ever, in your opinion?

Hmm. There are a lot of chips, and a lot of different things you could call a Computer Chip. Here's a few that come to mind as "interesting" or "important", or, if I can figure out what that means, "cool".

If your favourite chip is not on here honestly it probably deserves to be and I either forgot or I classified it more under "general IC's" instead of "computer chips" (e.g. 555, LM, 4000, 7000 series chips, those last three each capable of filling a book on their own). The 6502 is not here because I do not know much about the 6502, I was neither an Apple nor a BBC Micro type of kid. I am also not 70 years old so as much as I love the DEC Alphas, I have never so much as breathed on one.

Disclaimer for writing this mostly out of my head and/or ass at one in the morning, do not use any of this as a source in an argument without checking.

Intel 3101

So I mean, obvious shout, the Intel 3101, a 64-bit chip from 1969, and Intel's first ever product. You may look at that, and go, "wow, 64-bit computing in 1969? That's really early" and I will laugh heartily and say no, that's not 64-bit computing, that is 64 bits of SRAM memory.

This one is cool because it's cute. Look at that. This thing was completely hand-designed by engineers drawing the shapes of transistor gates on sheets of overhead transparency and exposing pieces of crudely spun silicon to light in a """"cleanroom"""" that would cause most modern fab equipment to swoon like a delicate Victorian lady. Semiconductor manufacturing was maturing at this point but a fab still had more in common with a darkroom for film development than with the mega expensive building sized machines we use today.

As that link above notes, these things were really rough and tumble, and designs were being updated on the scale of weeks as Intel learned, well, how to make chips at an industrial scale. They weren't the first company to do this, in the 60's you could run a chip fab out of a sufficiently well sealed garage, but they were busy building the background that would lead to the next sixty years.

Lisp Chips

This is a family of utterly bullshit prototype processors that failed to be born in the whirlwind days of AI research in the 70's and 80's.

Lisps, a very old but exceedingly clever family of functional programming languages, were the language of choice for AI research at the time. Lisp compilers and interpreters had all sorts of tricks for compiling Lisp down to instructions, and also the hardware was frequently being built by the AI researchers themselves with explicit aims to run Lisp better.

The illogical conclusion of this was attempts to implement Lisp right in silicon, no translation layer.

Yeah, that is Sussman himself on this paper.

These never left labs, there have since been dozens of abortive attempts to make Lisp Chips happen because the idea is so extremely attractive to a certain kind of programmer, the most recent big one being a pile of weird designd aimed to run OpenGenera. I bet you there are no less than four members of r/lisp who have bought an Icestick FPGA in the past year with the explicit goal of writing their own Lisp Chip. It will fail, because this is a terrible idea, but damn if it isn't cool.

There were many more chips that bridged this gap, stuff designed by or for Symbolics (like the Ivory series of chips or the 3600) to go into their Lisp machines that exploited the up and coming fields of microcode optimization to improve Lisp performance, but sadly there are no known working true Lisp Chips in the wild.

Zilog Z80

Perhaps the most important chip that ever just kinda hung out. The Z80 was almost, almost the basis of The Future. The Z80 is bizzare. It is a software compatible clone of the Intel 8080, which is to say that it has the same instructions implemented in a completely different way.

This is, a strange choice, but it was the right one somehow because through the 80's and 90's practically every single piece of technology made in Japan contained at least one, maybe two Z80's even if there was no readily apparent reason why it should have one (or two). I will defer to Cathode Ray Dude here: What follows is a joke, but only barely

The Z80 is the basis of the MSX, the IBM PC of Japan, which was produced through a system of hardware and software licensing to third party manufacturers by Microsoft of Japan which was exactly as confusing as it sounds. The result is that the Z80, originally intended for embedded applications, ended up forming the basis of an entire alternate branch of the PC family tree.

It is important to note that the Z80 is boring. It is a normal-ass chip but it just so happens that it ended up being the focal point of like a dozen different industries all looking for a cheap, easy to program chip they could shove into Appliances.

Effectively everything that happened to the Intel 8080 happened to the Z80 and then some. Black market clones, reverse engineered Soviet compatibles, licensed second party manufacturers, hundreds of semi-compatible bastard half-sisters made by anyone with a fab, used in everything from toys to industrial machinery, still persisting to this day as an embedded processor that is probably powering something near you quietly and without much fuss. If you have one of those old TI-86 calculators, that's a Z80. Oh also a horrible hybrid Z80/8080 from Sharp powered the original Game Boy.

I was going to try and find a picture of a Z80 by just searching for it and look at this mess! There's so many of these things.

I mean the C/PM computers. The ZX Spectrum, I almost forgot that one! I can keep making this list go! So many bits of the Tech Explosion of the 80's and 90's are powered by the Z80. I was not joking when I said that you sometimes found more than one Z80 in a single computer because you might use one Z80 to run the computer and another Z80 to run a specialty peripheral like a video toaster or music synthesizer. Everyone imaginable has had their hand on the Z80 ball at some point in time or another. Z80 based devices probably launched several dozen hardware companies that persist to this day and I have no idea which ones because there were so goddamn many.

The Z80 eventually got super efficient due to process shrinks so it turns up in weird laptops and handhelds! Zilog and the Z80 persist to this day like some kind of crocodile beast, you can go to RS components and buy a brand new piece of Z80 silicon clocked at 20MHz. There's probably a couple in a car somewhere near you.

Pentium (P5 microarchitecture)

Yeah I am going to bring up the Hackers chip. The Pentium P5 series is currently remembered for being the chip that Acidburn geeks out over in Hackers (1995) instead of making out with her boyfriend, but it is actually noteworthy IMO for being one of the first mainstream chips to start pulling serious tricks on the system running it.

The P5 comes out swinging with like four or five tricks to get around the numerous problems with x86 and deploys them all at once. It has superscalar pipelining, it has a RISC microcode, it has branch prediction, it has a bunch of zany mathematical optimizations, none of these are new per se but this is the first time you're really seeing them all at once on a chip that was going into PC's.

Without these improvements it's possible Intel would have been beaten out by one of its competitors, maybe Power or SPARC or whatever you call the thing that runs on the Motorola 68k. Hell even MIPS could have beaten the ageing cancerous mistake that was x86. But by discovering the power of lying to the computer, Intel managed to speed up x86 by implementing it in a sensible instruction set in the background, allowing them to do all the same clever pipelining and optimization that was happening with RISC without having to give up their stranglehold on the desktop market. Without the P5 we live in a very, very different world from a computer hardware perspective.

From this falls many of the bizzare microcode execution bugs that plague modern computers, because when you're doing your optimization on the fly in chip with a second, smaller unix hidden inside your processor eventually you're not going to be cryptographically secure.

RISC is very clearly better for, most things. You can find papers stating this as far back as the 70's, when they start doing pipelining for the first time and are like "you know pipelining is a lot easier if you have a few small instructions instead of ten thousand massive ones.

x86 only persists to this day because Intel cemented their lead and they happened to use x86. True RISC cuts out the middleman of hyperoptimizing microcode on the chip, but if you can't do that because you've girlbossed too close to the sun as Intel had in the late 80's you have to do something.

The Future

This gets us to like the year 2000. I have more chips I find interesting or cool, although from here it's mostly microcontrollers in part because from here it gets pretty monotonous because Intel basically wins for a while. I might pick that up later. Also if this post gets any longer it'll be annoying to scroll past. Here is a sample from a post I have in my drafts since May:

I have some notes on the weirdo PowerPC stuff that shows up here it's mostly interesting because of where it goes, not what it is. A lot of it ends up in games consoles. Some of it goes into mainframes. There is some of it in space. Really got around, PowerPC did.

[npcemi]

Here's that little quick piece I promised in my last post. Here is the chronological start of my planned multiverse. Though it all really started when My KP fic and how a part of that started event in cigarettes and valentine's.(my life is strange and Dr who crossover) now it's all got away from me and I digress. big thanks to the danny phantom and DC fandoms for giving me a great anchor point. Anyway like I said when I get out of the hospital I'll work on getting everything else updated. Here's the fic:

The long road of how starting a fight with superman over clone parenting eventually lead to Danny Phantom become God:

Danielle “Dani with an I” Phantom, the clone of Amity Park’s local ghost vigilante Danny Phantom, decided to start a clone support group. Dani had experienced firsthand the struggles and challenges that came with being a clone, and she wanted to create a safe space where clones from various backgrounds could come together and share their experiences.

Word spread quickly, and soon, they gathered at one of Danny’s safe houses he loaned to Danielle. She also had help so each member only had to go to a specific room at a nearby community center. Her father’s ghost abilities and Mama Sam’s Magic would take care of the rest to turn the doors into temporary portals that would bring each member to the safe house. Among the members who arrived were Linda Danvers, a clone of Supergirl, Conner Kent, a clone of Superman, and Jarro, a Starro clone.

Danielle welcomed everyone with a warm smile. "Thank you all for being here today. I created this little group so we can share our stories, support each other and just be there for each other. Being a clone can be difficult. I know that as well as anyone. Let's start by introducing ourselves, I'll go first.”

“I’m Danielle Phantom but you can call me Dani, that’s Dani with an I, and I am a clone of Danny Phantom. I was created because some fruit loop wanted Danny as a son and when he couldn’t get that he made me and then tried to get me to kill my original and his parents. Obviously that didn’t work out and now Danny and I are on really good terms!”

Jarro floated gently in the air before psychically speaking "I'm Jarro, a clone of Starro. Being a clone means constantly battling stereotypes and misconceptions. People assume I'm evil because of my origin, but I strive to prove them wrong every day."

Linda Danvers raised her hand and spoke next. "I'm Linda, a clone of Supergirl. Being her clone makes me feel as if I’m constantly living in the shadow of my original. People expect me to live up to her legacy, but I'm still figuring out who I am as an individual." Linda received many nods as they could truly empathize with her on living in the shadow of their original.

Linda Danvers took a deep breath, her eyes softened to reflect her vulnerability. "Being a clone of Supergirl has been a constant struggle for me,"

She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "The truth is…I'm still trying to figure out who I am. I have my own dreams, desires, and flaws. It's hard to escape the comparisons and the feeling that I'm somehow a mere shadow of my original"

Linda glanced around the room, meeting the compassionate gazes of her fellow clones. "I often find myself wondering if I'm destined to live in her shadow forever. But being here with all of you, hearing your stories and struggles, gives me hope."

She continued, "I don't want to be defined solely by being a clone. I want to be Linda Danvers.."

Conner Kent could definitely understand how Linda felt. Conner’s stomach turned as Linda’s words hammered in the truth of his own relationship with the man of steel.

Danielle reached out, placing a reassuring hand on Linda's shoulder. "Linda, you're not alone. It can be a lot to remind ourselves and the world that our worth isn't determined by the circumstances of our creation. But that’s why we’re here, so we can support each other.”

“Thanks,” Linda smiled at Danielle’s reassurances.

Conner took a deep breath, his voice tinged with a mixture of sadness and anger. "I... I'm Conner Kent, a clone of Superman," he began, his gaze fixed on the ground. "But my relationship with Superman has been anything but what I expected. Instead of acceptance and guidance, I've faced rejection."

He looked up, meeting the eyes of his fellow clones. "Superman has never treated me as an equal. He sees me as a flawed imitation, a violation against his bodily autonomy. He constantly compares me to himself, highlighting how I will never be him. I’m not him, I’m me. My own person. I just wish he could understand that, it’s not like I asked to be created.” Conner’s voice rose with rage until he slumped back down, his voice damping in his own personal defeat.

A surge of anger coursed through the room. Danielle Phantom's expression hardened. "No one deserves to be treated that way," she said firmly.

"Conner, you are more than just a replica. You have your own strengths, your own worth. You don't need Superman's validation to prove that."

Linda Danvers spoke up "Conner, your value isn't determined by Superman's actions or opinions. Honestly it sounds like he is being a dick about the whole thing,"

Jarro joined in. "No one has the right to treat you as less than who you are. Conner, you should be treated with respect and dignity as any person would expect"

Conner’s eyes glistened with gratitude. "Thank you all. Your words and support mean more to me than you can imagine," he said, Danielle looked at Conner, "if you want me to do something about it, I can try to talk to my dad," she offered.

Conner looked at Danielle, confusion in his eyes. "You can do something? Like what?" he asked,

Danielle smiled mischievously, knowing exactly what she meant but choosing her words carefully. "Let's just say my dad has his ways of dealing with situations," she replied,

Linda, sensing the unspoken desire, arched an eyebrow and leaned closer. "Danielle, what are you thinking?" she whispered.

Danielle chuckled softly before responding, her voice barely above a whisper. "Let me talk to my dad, he might have a unique perspective on this situation."

Jarro floated closer, his curiosity piqued. "What are you saying…," he started, only to be interrupted by Danielle's raised hand “I have a feeling that my dad might be able to provide some guidance or at least offer a... different perspective."

“After all my dad, Danny Phantom has experience being the one cloned and he doesn’t like it when clones are treated badly, no not at all.” Dani shook her head silently laughing at what her father’s ‘talk’ with Superman would most likely entail.

As Danielle revealed her secret, a collective gasp filled the room, followed by a mix of surprise and awe on the faces of Linda, Conner, and Jarro. Linda was the first to find her voice. "Wait, you mean to say that Danny Phantom actually adopted you as his daughter?" Danielle nodded, a warm smile spreading across her face. "Yes, he did. After finding out about me, he took me in and treated me as his own. Danny has been an amazing dad to me. He provides love, and support, just like any other parent.”

Conner's eyes widened with astonishment. "That's incredible."

Danielle's smile turned somewhat sheepish. "It honestly is incredible. Sometimes, though, he can be a little overprotective.”

Jarro floated closer, intrigued by this newfound information. "A protective father, huh? I guess I know how that feels. My adoptive father is like that as well."

Conner gave a soft smile. "Your bond with your dad is inspiring. It gives me hope that not all clones have to face rejection and mistreatment.” The “like me” at the end of Conner's sentence, went unspoken.

“Exactly, and I’m sure my dad can talk some sense into Superman.” Dani grinned.

[drcyrusbortel]

The Assistant

It's not an interrogation. They just want to properly debrief you.

That was what Rex had said, and Hunter had nodded along. And Omega trusted both with her life.

Unfortunately, it seemed that nobody had told the intelligence officer in the nondescript - Alderaanian? - uniform, or the designers of the dimly lit durasteel cubicle that he had chosen as a venue for his... debriefing.

The spook fired up his holorecorder and set it on the table, bathing them in an eerie blue glow.

"Let's start from the beginning, shall we? What's the first thing you remember?"

=/=

…a beige-and-red helmet filling her mind with ideas and attitudes, facts and figures, instincts and reflexes, pouring composite memories and unlived experience and rote understanding into a meticulously engineered personality imprint stamped upon optimized wetware… 

The words came to her, unbidden, as she looked around the flash-training center. Walls of pure white adorned with a magnificent ultraviolet mosaic of Academian Vor Nui’s Great Lecture, as vivid as day in her mind’s eye, stared back at her. The other rigs were empty, odd considering the high facility overhead…

The door dilated, and a pair of tall, slender Kaminoans - adorned with the insignia of very senior scientific officers - glided into the room.  

She snapped to attention, rattled off her serial number, and reported herself fit for service to the scientists towering over her.

The younger Kaminoan was first to speak. 

“I am Doctor Nala Se. This is Chief Scientist Ko Sai. We are part of the senior scientific staff providing support to Kaminoan Industries’ flagship Republic Military Project. Can you describe your training?”

She blinked. Medicine. Genetics. Bioengineering. 

And much, much, more. 

A vague disquiet stirred in her chest, as she looked down at herself. Biologically five standard. Small batch production. Nonstandard flash training. Modified mass production clone, alternative template, or composite?

“Modified mass production product.” Nala Se noted. “Please proceed.”  

She almost felt dizzy, but complied with the directive, describing her scientific background even as a small part of her seemed to yearn for service of the Galactic Republic, its Constitution, and its elected officials. 

Ko Sai smiled as she completed her report. “Excellent. You will be a most useful addition to Nala Se and her team.”

“Indeed.” Nala Se said. “As you know, Kaminoan Industries, in concert with the Government of Kamino, has embarked on the greatest industrial undertaking in Kaminoan history - the creation of a military force for the Galactic Republic.”

Ko Sai continued. “In essence, we have been tasked with converting a considerable infusion of financial capital into material capital, and in particular, human capital.”

“The economy of Kamino is to be totally remade in service of this goal. Extremely large investments into plant, machinery, and associated support and defense infrastructure are ongoing across Kamino and Her Colonies.” Nala Se bent down, bringing herself eye to eye with the human. “Commensurate investments are being made into new creche production - Kaminoan and human - to provide the necessary labor. You, and others like you, are part of this human capital accumulation.”

She nodded, understanding. 

“You will be working under Nala Se in support of our contracts for Clone Army research, development, production, and sustainment. You answer to her, and ultimately to me. You are property of Kaminoan Industries.” Ko Sai looked thoughtful. “You are not property of the Galactic Republic.”

Nala Se gestured to the door. “Please follow me. We must vacate the room for the next cohort. You are the last one.”

She obeyed, and followed Nala Se out the room. 

=/=

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: As You Move Forward

So I went a few months thinking about how I'd forgotten to include Makini to my past depictions of Kion's Guard as adults (1, 2), so I decided to celebrate the 4th anniversary (albeit 2 days late :p) of the Journey of Memories episode by finally showing off the adult design I have for her!

Because I'm still salty about TLG's last-minute decision in making Makini the Mjuzi of the Night Pride instead of Kiara's bestie like Season 2 hyped her up to be, I made a compromise by headcanoning that she frequently journeys back-and-forth between the Pridelands and the Tree of Life, especially when she's called over by each land for a ceremony of some kind.

Design Process:

To avoid making her look too much like a clone of her mother Fikiri, I figured that Makini would develop her dad Kitendo's features as she grew older (I think she's about 20-something in this image). It's kind of a thing for TLG to erroneously depict animals without their distinct sexual dimorphism (see: Mbuni the ostrich), but this time, I felt like embracing Makini's unusual bright colors for a female mandrill and make her look a little androgynous. I feel like it would fit her role as a Mjuzi for some reason lol

I figured the Bakora Staff she received at the Tree of Life would be her last new one as she's since learned to keep better track of it. I like to think that it symbolizes not only growth and learning, but it coming from the Tree of Life symbolizing that her true place is there.

In all that time she's owned it, being the crafty artist she is, she's put years of customization and souvenirs from her back-and-forth Pridelands/Tree of Life adventures into her decorating her staff, selecting just about every pretty flower and naturally-occurring bead she saw. I mainly sought out the idea of people bedazzling their canes for reference, she seems like the type to do that, making just about anything she owns pretty lol

Drawing Process:

ngl I got to work on this very much like that episode where Makini procrastinated on getting started on her portrait of Simba's family. I just, like... really struggled with the composition until I was hit with sudden inspiration to just go wherever my hand took me.

I grabbed a thumbnail sketch of my adult Makini design that I was the most happy with and rendered it digitally and was happy that it got me somewhere... then I ran into the background that I didn't put any thought into.

Because of the cropping and composition I already had going on with Makini's standalone model, it was very hard to come up with something she could be surrounded by, until I decided to insert some headcanons about a certain new TLG-related short Disney released. Basically: I headcanon Makini made those Circle of Life paintings that Kion shows to those younger cubs as I think the style they used in those paintings looks WAY different from Rafiki's (I mean the whole video looks different from the whole TLK art style). You can't tell me those purple pigments and cutesy flowers aren't something Makini would draw everywhere lol

Sources of Inspiration:

Sadly not pictured due to the angle and cropping is the headcanon that she paints her nails all the time, and she's always trying different color combos basically every week lol. I adopted that headcanon from iceflowerglow, who depicts Makini with painted nails in their comic "Shining Above Your Head". Other artists I drew inspiration from were Vtoony's "TLG: Kion's Guard" and tango_fizz.le's "Where'd all the time go?" when it came to designing her fully-developed mane.

[platinumrosetail]

Hi can I have a part two of Yandere jtww x reader

Like how they help with the Baby dipper's

How they help the reader around

How the date the Reader

How they get merrid

And then my surprise one how did they live that long and how did they find the reader

And how they still stay young.

Sure! Though this might turn out short, I am not sure yet just going to have to wait and see 😅

Warning: noob author, female reader, romantic yandere characters, and others.

Characters: sun, macaque, pigsy, sandy, Bai long ma.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sun wukong:

After you two met each other again you soon got to spending time together as it had been a century or two for sun and 3 month for you since you two last saw each other so you two wanted to to get to know each other again as things might’ve changed, mostly for sun as he had to wait until the modern time where you resided in to see you again.

Sun helps with the groceries as long as you have a list of the items you may need and some other chores like cleaning the house, he’ll just have his clones do it as he cuddles you and little mk though! He’ll also help out in gardening any vegetables, fruit, ot flowers you want to have in your garden that you have at your house.

It wasn’t until after 6 months of dating before the two of you married and became a actual family. Sun was still his mischievous way and in the past you didn’t really head much to punish with….. until now. Whenever he does something bad you get him to be on diaper duty for a month, which was basically all the time so now he does it when he smells that mk needs a change of diaper.

Though sometimes he’ll feel like being sneaky and uses his clones to do it for him while he hides to not get caught but mk always cries around the clones and not around the original when he doesn’t use the clones so you figured out that he’s being sneaky when mk cries and now he’s in bigger trouble than before.

You usually cook food but mk seem to have an attachment to a noodle shop called ‘pigsy’s noddles’ on it, at first sun was jealous but stopped when you mentioned how your brother, tang, married him, so sun doesn’t have a reason to be jealous which he is glad that he doesn’t have completion anymore besides the background characters that magically disappeared after only seeing them once.

Your babysitters are usually pigsy and tang when you and sun want alone time but when both couples want alone time sandy is the one to babysit mk who loves the big teddy bear.

His first word was mommy even though sun been saying anything close to a father title like: dada, day, papa, baba, but it all went in vain as mk had said ‘mama’ instead which made you laugh so hard you snorted at sun’s defeated faces before he playfully glare at you.

Macaque:

You, him, and little bai he spend most of your times watching movies at your home.

It didn’t take for you two long to date and get married as nothing changed sept for both of you needing cuddles and that you two have a child now .

He mostly stays in your shadow as the three of you go do errands and makes sure to come out when he feels like you’re in any sort of trouble and needs his help.

He would have his clones do the diapers as he doesn’t want to smell… that, plus he has more sensitive nose than yours so it’s more overwhelming than it is for you which you understand and try to help any way you can so it be easier on him as he wants to be there for everythingg bai he does, even if their embarrassing and smelly.

Bai he loves to play with the fingers of her father as it’s a bit different from her more human hands, sometimes she tales interests in his six eases but he makes sure to not get them tugged on by her as baby hands can grip hard especially if they start to pull.

Bai he gets babysit by tang, your brother, and his husband pigsy and mk is her playmate. Though when both you and macaque, tang and pigsy wants alone time you go to sandy who is happy to watch over the two.

Bai he had said a mixture of dada and mama which made you two ‘aww’ at, you a little more so than macaque but in the end all three of you got yourselves a nice treat and relaxed at home.

Pigsy:

You and him got to know each other again And found out that he had went into the modern times after the journey to the west journey ended and made a noodle shop in hopes of having you come in and find you again as he knew you liked noodles.

He does the diapers when you’re feeling stressed and overwork along with the other baby stuff like feeding him formula, burping him, and all sorts of things you need to do to take care of a child.

He also helps with chores and errands while you take care of tang, and on other times you three relax, watch a movie or play a game that can have a child play, like making slimes; though you do have to be careful so as to not have tang eat the slime, and theres also paint y’all do together.

It wasn’t long before the two of you got married, about 5 months after you started dating since you two already know each other due to being in a relationship before having to unwillingly be apart for however long cause of you leaving without even saying goodbye.

Tang grew an obsession over noodles as he grew a bit more to eat anything that was edible and not formula.

Tang had said ‘dada’ while holding the little pig plushie that you had gifted him before you were reunited with your love, pigsy was estacted and thankfully you were away to see his little dance of joy that he did which made tang giggle, pigsy did show you that tang had said ‘dada’ as his first word once you had gotten home.

You three go back to the park where y’all reunited as it bring nostalgia and tang likes the park as well.

Sandy:

Sandy is a saint when it came to helping you out with the child you two have. He helped with the diapers, the throw up, the feeding, the burps and possible vomit afterwards, everything, of course you also tried to help as well, key word on ‘tried’ as he wanted you to rest and even made mo and the other cats pile on top of you for cuddles.

He is a big guy so he helps with any errand you need done even if you say that they were small enough for you to do by yourself, his sweet words make you melt involuntarily as you try to fight it back to not become a burden until sandy reassures that you should rest as you had the baby inside of you for 9 months and had to take care of them for 3 months afterwards before he finally reunited with you again.

You did ask how he’s still alive and haven’t passed on, he said that quayin decided to teleport him to the modern times that you talked about to be with you after he and the others finished the journey and that all he ever did was try and find you after all that time of staying in your time.

The babysitters for your child is pigsy and tang, but if their busy then it’s huntsman who you met and was explained how the two met via huntsman used to be on the bad guys team before lbd happened while you and your family was away on a relaxation vacation while you wre pregnant.

You two had ended up getting married after 2 months of dating as both of you already knew each other quite well to understand each other so why wait any longer.

Your child always loved it when sandy showed them the miniature builds he does, along with the cuddle pile with you three and the cats while y’all watch a movie together and that makes them sleep pretty fast unless it’s in the hot seasons.

Your child first word was ‘cat!’ Which made both of you laugh and agree as they were pointing at mo who was innocently licking himself clean but stopped once the attention was on him making him look up at you three in confusion.

Bai long ma:

Bai long ma, or also known as ao lie was apparently sealed in a dragon sword that became the heirloom of his descendants and was finally released on the day you came to visit his descendants that was from his siblings side as he only had eyes for you before he was sealed away in that sword.

He swore that the sword he was sealed in would be mei’s once she’s old enough to have and wield it but until then he wild wield it and eventually will train and show her how to wield it for the future.

He was having a hard time with the diaper changes with the displeasing smell along with how he has more enhanced sense of smell than you but the others he was a pro at.

He made sure to do research on how to take care of babies after he reunited with you and found out he had a daughter and also to take some of the stress you gained from having her in your baby and taking care of her for 3 months.

Mei’s first word was dragon which was pronounced ‘dwagon!’ Which made you both ‘aww’ at, it was when he had first changed into a small version of his dragon form for her the first time and apparently she catches on what a dragon from Chinese culture looks like.

She really likes dragons and have all sorts of plushies of them in her nursery.

She took a shine of mk and created mischief with her cousin like friend which made both you, ao lie, pigsy, and tang all very tired as the two have tons of energy it seems.

(A/n: i hope y’all like what i did with it! I ended up being able to make it seven paragraphs after all which makes me happy 😁 but anyway, hope y’all have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)

[jewishcissiekj]

One of the things that upset me most about Dark Disciple & the Quinlan/Asajj romance is just how much it's the writers smashing their action figures together. In general, the entirety of Asajj's TCW storylines also severely lack thought other than somebody playing a game with their dolls.

Let me explain. Asajj has a lot of potential. Her character and themes from the get-go (concept art for AOTC Sith) are full of intrigue and mystery. You want to know this character and whatever is behind her, why is she doing all this, and how she got there. And TCW answers that question pretty well. She was a Nightsister baby who was given to a slaver and later trained by a Jedi Master who died, she encountered Dooku and trained under him, only to get betrayed by him and return to her Nightsister roots, causing the murder of almost all Nightsisters and her transition to a Bounty Hunter and …redemption? leading to her eventual death at the hands of Count Dooku.

The thing is, this story feels so all over the place for me. There are themes, sure, but other than a clear motivation, something is missing. There's no point to her character. When she's introduced in The Clone Wars movie, she's just a flirty villain for Obi-Wan to quip and play off of. In the end, when she dies, she furthers a male character's character development we never even see afterward. TCW has plenty of pointless characters, don't get me wrong. But her story starts nowhere and goes nowhere, only affecting her and having no real story importance or relevance outside of that. It also means nothing. There are no repercussions to Dooku taking on an apprentice, no, uh, how do I put this. Her story is full of themes but no meaning. No underlying plotline or development that feels natural and beneficial to her character. That wouldn't be a problem if she was just a throwaway villain, coming in once in a while to flirt with Obi-Wan or fight with Ahsoka. But because of the natural interest in her, the intrigue and mystery, they gave her a story. Not even a motivation, a story that came out of nowhere and in watching back might feel like just an elaborate build-up to Maul's return. Instead of looking at the character and, idk, thinking about how you can develop her current character and the yet-unexplored background with Obi-Wan and her relationship to the Dark Side, they threw her into that whole Nightsister bullshit. And then that wasn't enough and they made her a bounty hunter because they wanted a Boba Fett & friends episode. For the love of god, if she knew about the Nightsisters, why wouldn't she go to them earlier? You didn't tell us how she found out and who told her, so why THE FUCK would she go to Dooku after her mentor's death and not to her people? What of all things made her go to Dathomir in Nightsisters? Why would an ex-dark sider with (probably) knowledge of Dooku's most secret plans who just lost the people she just found go and be a Bounty Hunter? And what about that redeems her? What the fuck was she doing on Coruscant? If she hated Dooku so much and knew she couldn't kill him alone, why would a single Jedi help her do it? What is her motive and why was she so loyal to Dooku if she's just going to throw the Dark Side and her hate for the Jedi out of the window like that? Does she have principles? Character motivations? Is there a point to any of that?

Legeneds version aside, what does she mean? Is she the last survivor? Is she a failed apprentice? Does she just want to be loved but gets consumed by the Dark Side? She's all of these things but none of them consistently. If character development happened, I'd have no problem with her character changing. But it DOESN'T. Things just happen to her and we barely see any reaction to it from her. To me, she's kind of like Thrawn if we never got the (canon) books, empty and lacking any character motivation.

In Dark Disciple, instead of expanding on the actual character, they just kept on putting her in situations. Because we don't really see her POV anywhere in the book, and she's not written to express emotion openly, she feels like she was molded to fit the story instead of the story being character-focused and following her and Quinlan's development through a situation. The only time her character feels well-written in the canon era to me (not just in a fun comic story) is in Dooku: Jedi Lost, which actually shows us her perspective for once, and even if she still lacks motivation, it feels like a story of her character and not of her action figure. She has a character and a personality throughout all of Canon, don't get me wrong. I can't accidentally write her like Ahsoka. But a character and what the writers do to put it in a story are two different things.

And I know I said I wouldn't get into the Legends part of it all, but even in a few shorts and a handful of comics, there seems to be a much more consistent line of thought and an arc to her character than there is in the canon version. The best way I can describe it, tbh, is that something just clicks with the way her story and role are in Legends, while in canon it feels like 10 different people trying to put together 15 different jigsaw puzzles. Maybe it's the fewer writers, maybe it's the different approach to story-telling in general, it's just very different to me. Right now (since a May comic issue and excluding the mention in Ahsoka), there isn't any new Asajj content, so it's not really a problem. But if they ever do something new with her I need them to get their fucking shit together and make it make sense.

[that-rackin-frackin-varmint]

i really love to read your essays and thoughts!!! whats your opinion of the portrayal of daffy in duck dodgers? have you watch it? what are your favorite shorts? (old or new it doesnt care)

Aww thanks!! I enjoy writing em!! I've watched all the Duck Dodgers shorts and the show so I can cover my opinions of his portrayal in each of em.

Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953):

I think Daffy's portrayal here is quite typical for Jones' Daffy shorts in the 50s. This one seems to stick out among the other 'hero-complex Daffy' shorts in terms of longevity for reasons that don't reach me. It's no Duck Amuck, but I do appreciate Daffy's assertiveness (albeit it being the standard of the time). All in all, I've watched it numerous times but the gags and lines don't stick to me tbh. (The backgrounds and music have had a lasting impression on me though).

Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½ᵗʰ Century (1980):

I distinctly enjoy this one scene where Daffy has a cheerful conversation with Marvin and took a moment to process that "blowing up the Earth" wasn't something he'd want. And then immediately following that, doesn't connect the dots on why that wasn't something he'd want. Daffy is particularly airheaded in this one, going so far as to abandon his mission after Porky pulls one too many fast ones on him, and letting Marvin blow up the Earth. It acutely conveys the x-axis duality of Daffy's capacity for friendliness and hostility, as well as his y-axis duality of self-awareness and obliviousness. Initially since the voices weren't properly pitched up, I was kind of put off by it. But the more I watch it, the more I can appreciate the longer duration time, and character portrayals.

Marvin the Martian in the 3rd Dimension (1996):

This short... I am astounded by the stage presence of it. Iirc, it was produced as a part of an attraction at WB's Movie World. Also to show off the wonders of 3D. Which, for something produced in the 90s, still stands the test of time. As for Daffy's portrayal here, I can't understate just how much I find Joe Alaskey to be THE definitive interpretation of modern Daffy. The modulation, the delivery, the animated quality of it-- it boosts the residual charm of any media he stars in. But aside from quality voice casting, I find Daffy's portrayal in this to be entertaining, engaging, and an evolution from the simpler characterisations of his classic shorts (warning, I might say this in a lot of my future rambles). What the 60s-80s seemed to lack with Daffy was his impassioned, boisterous determination to a void cause. So I feel very endeared by the garish, plucky charm of this portrayal. It also does something that a lot of shorts in the latter half of Looney tunes' near-century neglected to do -- which was letting Daffy retain his cunning. I enjoyed that last scene where his beak came off and he tricks Marvin into taking him out to space for "world conquest".

Superior Duck (1996):

Tbh, I blindsided myself with this one. While checking on the titles of all the Duck Dodgers sequels, I tripped into it. I didn't see this one until the time of answering this, so my thoughts are subject to change. I found this short to be more bogged down by the pacing and a lot of character cameos that only serve to progressively get on Daffy's nerves. His portrayal is diminished by the nature of having to be reactionary to all the mayhem. Some of it was funny, but overall, since it wasn't character-driven, it'd be insincere to say I enjoyed it for his participation in it.

Attack of the Drones (2003)

For a rare instance where Daffy wasn't voiced by Alaskey in the 2000s, I adored this portrayal. Like T3D, Daffy retains intellect when he figures out how to systematically defeat his robot clones. And his plan to use clones to defeat the enemies at the start was successful. His unorthodox thought process and freedom to perform with minimal pushback make for a fun spectacle for the entire runtime.

Duck Dodgers (2003)

The first two seasons were tightly written with only a few episodes where Dodgers felt way too unlikeable (like that one episode where he self-admittedly sold Cadet's sister to the sausage factory). However, the third season had a noticeable drop in quality. It was noticeable with how s2 ended with promising development with Dodgers' character, only to drop it on the first episode. If you haven't noticed already, I've been praising the shorts for adapting Daffy's proactive nature. This is specifically because this show pulls at my hair with how reactive, lazy, and incompetent they made Dodgers. His moments of ingenuity and valour are few and far in-between. So for a show that has Daffy as the main lead, it's frustrating to know that his portrayal is this... rudimentary.

And for that second question, this post is loaded enough so I'll just answer within the perimeters of Duck Dodgers shorts/episodes.

My favourite shorts are Marvin the Martian in The 3rd Dimension and Attack of the Drones for the reasons above. And my favourite episodes of Duck Dodgers off the top of my head are:

Trial of Duck Dodgers (S1) Pig of Action (S1) Shiver Me Dodgers (S1) The Fudd (S2) Of Course You Know This Means War and Peace Part 1 (S2) Of Course You Know This Means War and Peace Part 2 (S2)

Thanks for the ask!!

[ooops-i-arted]

It's the last day of June but I have one more post in me for @jedijune but it's a little different. The goal of Jedi June is to appreciate the Jedi, but this time I'm appreciating them in a more meta sense.

I saw Attack of the Clones in 2002 as a wee lil preteen and as soon as I laid eyes on the Jedi, I instantly wanted to be one. I wanted a cool lightsaber and space adventures like many a kid, of course. But I was also hitting those awkward teenage years and all that comes with it and I had no words for it, but I knew I was experiencing it different than my peers. I only heard "gay/queer" as an insult or an opportunity to be bullied or even murdered. I wouldn't hear "asexual" until after college. But I knew that more than anything I wanted to imagine being a Jedi because then I would never have to get married. (Also: they had girls. My sister and I watched the AotC VHS over and over and over again and memorized every single frame that had Aayla and Shaak Ti and Bultar Swan and Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee. Even though you had to be a thin, pretty girl, girls still got to be Jedi.)

And on top of all of that, I was supposed to be too old for toys but I still wanted to make stories. So I took my happy ass and my allowance money to Borders and bought this:

This, here, is Baby's First Fanfiction and Fanart. I wouldn't fall in love with LotR until January 2003. So this is where I got my start as a writer and artist of characters. (I drew all the time since I could hold a pencil, but mostly dinosaurs and animals.) I loved writing and drawing before, but it was the Jedi that first catapulted me into what I've become as a fan artist and fanfic writer now.

So for fun I dug out Baby's First Jedi OCs and decided to draw them with twenty-one more years of art skills:

For a little background, 2002 Preteen Me had a Very Grand Plan of writing a novel, submitting it to Lucasfilm, and getting it published. It would be about Derran Kanis, My Most Wonderful Jedi OC and her life and her adventures, and the very last scene would be choosing her Padawan, whose final line would be "Yoda, my name is." (Preteen Me was confident that since we don't actually see Yoda in action this wouldn't break George Lucas' rule of not revealing Yoda's species or background. The focus would be all on My Wonderful Jedi OC anyway.)

A little Yoda is a lot easier to draw now after all the practice with Grogu! Should I call Favroni and tell them it was my idea first? XD

I was obsessed with the Jedi Apprentice series most of all, so of course there had to be more characters for them to get into Shenanigans with for both generations.

Leronna was Derran's friend, a wise and serious Jedi Master. Derran was the Qui-Gon of the relationship and more of a risk-taker, while Leronna was more solemn to balance her out.

Their other friend was Mukdon, because I thought a Hutt Jedi would be really cool and unique. To contrast Hutt stereotypes, he was rather un-confident and a worrywart.

Of course Yoda needed a friend to get into trouble with, so he had Leronna's Padawan Te-Mon Zeyon. Te-Mon was the serious and play it safe one to contrast Yoda being more reckless (I figured he couldn't be that wise and solemn yet but that cheerfully mischievous side had been there the whole time.) Now that I look at him, I think I accidentally designed a Light Side version of Kylo Ren's TFA outfit.

Last of all my redraws was Tama Ci, a posthumous character and Leronna's first Padawan. Losing her to an illness made Leronna reluctant to take another Padawan and contributed to Te-Mon being more cautious, since he didn't want to risk himself and force his Master to face another loss. I don't remember for sure but I strongly suspect her design was influenced by Aayla Secura, since she's my sister's favorite Jedi and we often tracked down any content or merch of her together.

No I will not post any of the fanfiction... it's baaaaaad. It was written by a preteen and it shows. (No offense to any of you in that age range - just that as an adult, I've learned a lot more since then.) But like favorite dolls you take off the shelf and play with now and then, all these characters hold a special place in my heart. Derran, as my first and most dearest - the core of my first grand plan for a long fic - is very special to me and my oldest "active" OC, now existing as a character in SWTOR.

The Jedi were escapism and a refuge for me as a kid, just like Din Djarin and his friends are for me now. So that's what I really appreciate most. That even as a preteen/teenager, in all those awkward years, I still had a place to mentally escape and pretend I was a badass space monk who never had to get married and could live in a cool building with a huge library.

[wanderinginksplot]

Clone Trooper Rambles

Part writing exercise, part diary, part daydream. Rambles are an idea of how life would be with clone troopers around. In these Rambles, clone troopers are unseen and unheard by other people, but they're always willing to share their opinions on my life and choices.

Warnings: This Ramble references a throat surgery I had a while ago. This is not current (Rambles rarely are), but it contains themes of frustration, recovery, and worry about future abilities. Please read with caution!

---

Ukulele

“Your voice sounds better,” Kix told me. 

He had been observing my recovery with interest, noting each benchmark no matter how small it was. It could very well have been irritating, but I appreciated it. Otherwise, I was worried I would slip into frustrated self-pity about the slow pace everything was taking.

“Thanks!” I thought about it for a moment. “It has been almost two months since the surgery, though.”

“They said up to six months until you can expect full use of your vocal cords,” Rex reminded. He had insisted on going to every post-operation appointment with me. By this point, he probably knew more about my recovery than I did.

“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh. “I hope I last that long.”

I had managed to regain most of the tones I used to speak. As long as I didn’t try to do anything too dramatic with my voice, or speak too long or too loudly, I sounded almost normal. It was certainly better than the first few weeks after the operation. When I could first bring myself to speak, I sounded like Izzy Hands from Our Flag Means Death. 

“Why wouldn’t you last?” Waxer asked.

“It sounds stupid…” I hedged, only to be met with three steady stares. “I miss singing.”

“Have you… tried to sing?” It took a while for Kix to ask the question, but he seemed eager to hear the answer. Times like these, I was reminded how similar medical professionals and scientists were in their attitudes about unknown situations or variables.

I brought my mind back to the question. “Uh… No, actually. I just figured it wouldn’t work and I didn’t want to risk hurting something.”

“Now that you’re talking better, I think you should sing,” Waxer suggested. “Don’t try to scream something or belt out an opera, but give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?”

The answer to that, of course, was that I would mess something up in my vocal cords and lose not only the ability to sing, but the ability to speak as well. Something told me that a worst-case method of thinking wouldn’t go over well in this particular crowd, so I just nodded. “I’ll probably try it on the way home.”

I did, in fact, end up singing on the way home. ‘Singing’ probably isn’t the right description, though. I tried to croak out the songs I loved and could always sing, but it wasn’t happening. No matter what note I was trying to sing, it would end up as one of the five notes I was able to speak in. Even trying to raise my voice to a notably high pitch only ended with a slight difference in tone.

It was odd. It hadn’t bothered me too badly that I couldn’t sing when it was background knowledge, but having it proven made me frustrated beyond reason. 

After a thankfully short journey home, I took a shower and played a podcast instead of music. There was no use in listening to music if I couldn’t sing along. Even after I had showered and eaten a snack - my typical mood-lightening routine - I still felt irritated and on edge.

When I stood and started for my room, the troopers looked concerned. "Everything okay?" 

I nodded with a slight, reassuring smile and kept walking. When I had sat comfortably on my bed, I pulled a small, light case onto the surface of my comforter. It unzipped easily and I took the slight weight of the ukulele into my hands.

It had been an impulse purchase from years before, a treat for restraining myself from buying an antique accordion at a flea market in my hometown. I had never intended to keep it so long, but the bright orange paint made me happy, as did the cheerful zing of the nylon strings.

Tuning it took only a moment. The correct notes were ingrained in my head after so long. Along with those notes were a few particular patterns for them. It was as easy as breathing to slip into the opening notes of the Beatles's Let It Be. 

The chords rose and fell under my fingers as I played the familiar melody. It was my favorite song to play when I needed a little thinking space, and my knowledge of the actual song had long faded into a vague idea of refrain and chorus.

I played and thought about my surgery and my fear, my voice and my frustration… about everything and nothing. When the suffocating worry in my chest had moved far enough away that I could pick through the tangle, I began to do just that but stopped after only a moment. 

I could play. I could breathe. I could live. That was enough for today. I would handle the rest of it when I decided it was important. That might never happen. That was fine.

With a sense of peace cooling my blood, I began to whistle along with the song plucked out with the tips of my fingers. Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

When I let the last bright notes fade away, I smiled at Rex. He had sat on my bed at some point, but I couldn't track exactly when. 

"Thought you didn't like that song?" he asked, voice low and careful. It seemed like he was worried he would break the calm spell if he spoke too loudly.

"I don't. Not to listen to, anyway. I think it's sad and wistful, and that isn't the kind of song I like to listen to." I began to pack away the small instrument as I spoke, glancing at Rex. "But on the ukulele? It's… I don't know how to describe it, but it's like the difference between a slow, mournful fade and the fond remembrance of a favorite time."

The crease between his brows didn't disappear. "And it makes you feel better?" 

I took a deep breath, feeling far lighter than I had when I started to play. "Yeah, it does."

---

Previous | Next | Masterlist

Author's Note - Like I said, this isn't a current situation, but it is very much real. For anyone who may be struggling with recovery of any kind right now, I wish you all the best! Please know that I'm rooting for you!

Thank you for reading!

Taglist: @rexs-wife @sugarpuffsstuff @just-some-girl-92 @kimageddon @ladysongmaster @carodealmeida @nomercyforthewarrior @bitchylittleredhead @lackofhonor @buddee @salaminus @hikime @808tsuika @ladykatakuri @shawtyitsyou @bikerlorian @torchbearerkyle @frietiemeloen @justanothersadperson93 @leotatombs @rain-on-kamino @itsagrimm @dancingwiththeplanets @theclonesdeservebetter @murder-of-crows-1 @rosmariner @staycalmandhugaclone @marennial @eyecandyeoz @fordo-kixed-rex @lucyysthings @quietplaceinthestars @dinsverdika @xxxcertifiednerdxxx @coruscanticoffee @archangelsunited @samgraver

[satindupe]

heyyyyyy ( with the intention of getting you to plot with me ) this is a second muse so i hope you're interested in meeting miss yang taeri, because she likes to be everywhere at the same time! her profile is up here and anomaly here, below i'll give her background and some ideas for plots. please like this post and i'll come to you, or let me know if you prefer discord b/c i sure do!

yang taeri, 23, textile & fashion design major with self replication

ok now that that's out the way, she was bork in new york city, usa! went by the english name madison. her family did well for themselves because her dad was an it manager, but her mother was an anomaly with psychic powers and fully leaned into the occult. well known within the city and charged people for readings and what not. a controversial figure due to it, but people kept coming to her in an attempt to deal with lifes uncertainties.

not only to mention that taeri is the oldest out of 3 and looks nothing like her younger siblings. at all. only vaguely looks like her mom. like come on, as she grows up she knows she's mixed but it's not something that her parents bother talking about, with her or even each other, just settles as the constant elephant in the room. eventually she learns to stop asking.

but! taeri is cute and charming and not at all odd like her mother and so people just learn to ignore that part. she still gets invited to things and does well in school because she doesn't talk about her mom and people just know that she's not going to be like her.

but mom is right a lot of the times. like how she told her that she was an anomaly too but didn't specify more than that. she's seven in a martial arts class ( shoutout to dad ) when she gets kicked and an identical clone also gets thrown out of her. that's the first time that it happened in public, however. a couple of year before that she talked about having an imaginary friend, as most do, and thought that the replicas that she just ... pulled out of herself was imaginary. turns out they weren't.

anywho i'd like to believe that new york is more liberal-ish when it comes to anomalies so despite that, it doesn't effect her reputation too much. at least not yet.

fast forward to high school and she's class president, golden girl, sweetheart. the resentment has grown with her mother as she refuses to fit in and loves to put on a show, but she also uses her powers to help taeri excel too. she doesn't understand why her mom is still so kind to her even when she doesn't admit her existence outside of the house. it's a love hate thing that she can't exactly explain. her younger sister is a couple of years younger and they go to the same school, and has taken on her mothers ways. she overhears a cheerleader call her a 'fucking occultist' and she just. kind of sees red. she's pushing two other clones of herself and beats the girl's ass LOL, completely unexpected coming from her. it takes a couple of dudes from the football team to get them off of her too.

it also doesn't help that same week her mother sits her down and tells her the truth ⏤ that she's the product of a heated love affair between herself and a different man that left the country once she told him he was pregnant. or at least, she thought that was the case until he started writing you recently, showing a letter that's addressed to her. then it clicks why no one ever discussed anything with you.

lots of conflicting feelings as it turns out this is a man is a foreign diplomat currently in south korea. apologizes for what he's done and would like to get to know her. she tells her mother she isn't going, mother states that she'll end up there sooner than she thinks. it makes sense when taeri attempts to make up with the cheerleader and thankfully charges aren't pressed, but taeri does end up expelled and her reputation tanks. so, y'know, maybe a change of pace in korea isn't so bad after all.

she ends up moving to finish up her last two years of high school and realizes that this dude has moneyyyyy! upper class lifestyle, and a younger baby brother with his korean wife. adjusting to life in korea was hard as hell, especially because anomalies were looked down upon much more than in america. her actual father gives her a nullivi patch as he doesn't want to deal with her powers, and she's not fond of it but keeps her head down and plays along until she gets to sua. spends time w her dad on the weekends, he likes to have breakfast and he's very open to answering whatever questions she has.

which brings us to present day! she's a fashion major because it's the one true thing that she has a passion for, and eventually would like to work at a fashion house or start her own little boutique.

uses the patch for classes only / when told to, but otherwise you may catch her around multiple places around campus at once. she wants to know everything!

joined curious currents because she's nosy as hell and can't put her fucking camera down, and considering she's minoring in marketing it made sense for her to be the social media manager. very bubbly with them but not in your face.

and in terms of plots here's some i can think of off the top of my head:

childhood friends? anyone from new york? probably somewhat of a long shot but could be nice

roommates! red hall girlies! very much the type to try to do things w the other girls in the communal areas and loves the ~sisterhood~ and what not

i need her to have a fat ass crush on someone. very much dreamy sighs and doodling their name on class notes, liking all social media posts. can absolutely be one sided or not!

a bad influence! someone who thinks she's too much of a goodie two shoes and she would like to prove them wrong

you keep running into her and think that it's simply coincidence when in reality! it's not, she keeps sending her clones in your direction to get information / tea from you. are you weirded out? find it annoying? sorry, there's something about you that interests her ( or she finds you sus ) and she's just trying to help out the newspaper, y'know?

she likes to think that she's your guardian angel, watching over you and helping you when needed

cousins? maybe from her ( actual ) father's wife side ( so by marriage ) who had no idea that she existed until now

people who think she's fake! that she's putting on an act for attention

party friends because you know that she's always at all the events and needs someone to enjoy them with

sexual tension? a will they won't they situation of sorts?

and the usual stuff of friends, exes, and everything in between! really i'm down for anything ~

[anghraine]

The best friend and I played a bunch of Mass Effect 3 over the last few weeks! The things I remember most clearly are Thessia, Leviathan, Sanctuary, Horizon, the Citadel DLC, and the initial return to [redacted].

Long ramble about all of it:

My best friend had me choose the companions for the run to the temple on Thessia, and naturally I chose our beloved Liara and problematic fave Javik. I wasn't glad to see it fall (quite the contrary), but it seemed a bit apropos that the asari leadership's various choices wrt the war came back to bite them. Still, it was really sad, esp since it's the only time we really saw it and Liara was really upset.

...all the more because we brought Javik and he kept interrupting her explanations to be like "all your religious beliefs are gifts we gave to your people's ancestors before they figured out writing." It was a lot for her, but I did feel a touch of annoyance at what seemed a bit of an unspoken assumption that this might happen to other people's homes, but not hers. Very asari, to be sure. And I like it as a subtle aspect of her character—not a criticism of the game there, just a sidenote, I guess.

Kai Leng showing up was just ... /sigh. I don't really get what his deal is beyond being Cerberus and hating Shepard a lot for some unknown reason. Eventually we do see the past!Illusive Man comparing him to Shepard (in a positive way!), so maybe it's something to do with that, idk. He feels pretty underwritten to me compared to the rest of the major cast, who are generally super vivid (I mean, I love background characters like Westmoreland!). So I'm just irritated when he shows up and disrupts interesting things.

The Leviathan DLC was a really good horror episode taken in its own right, but as part of the wider game, I'm not sure. I kind of ... didn't want to know more about the Reapers? The sequence was fantastic (especially down in the bottom of the sea!), yet the less mysterious the Reapers get, the less engaged I am by them. Whatever the hell is going on with Cerberus and the Illusive Man is a lot more compelling to me at this point.

Speaking of whom, Sanctuary was just what the fuck?! from beginning to end. I've always been suspicious of the whispers about it, but I didn't guess that they were transforming refugees into husks to experiment on, you know? Damn. Miranda was not exaggerating about her father's callousness even a little.

Speaking of Miranda, she is probably at the top of my problematic ME characters list, and ... look. Okay. I know the mechanics of the game suggest she's straight. To me she has the most intense bi energy of just about any human in the game. I love (female) Shepard/Liara, a lot, but I just feel like there's a ton of UST between our Shepard and Miranda, all the more by the end of the Citadel DLC. I'll just leave that there.

After that, it was extremely cathartic to wreck the Cerberus base on Horizon with EDI. No gods no masters <3

And then we got to finally kill Kai Leng for good. Asshole. Blahblah, more villain monologues from the younger-looking Illusive Man (/suspicion). I suspect he's in cahoots with Harbinger or something and thinks he's actually the one in control.

Then there was the Citadel DLC, which I've heard a lot of great things about. Early on, I wasn't actually sure I'd like it as much as other people do—self-referential humor and stakes-lowering banter are not to my taste in general, and there were several times in the earlier parts that it didn't quite work for me (not because it was bad, but I just don't like that kind of thing by and large). I did laugh at the "I should go" jokes, though!

We did it with Wrex-Liara and then Garrus-Liara, which felt very apropos to the storyline, since the whole deal with the clone is that she has all of Shepard's technical skills but overlooks the importance of Shepard as team player and friend. And Wrex, Garrus, and Liara specifically go way back with Shepard.

When the clone was going on her villain rants about how she has everything Shepard did, she can do everything Shepard can, I was like "but she can't do everything Liara and Garrus can ... oh. This is about the power of friendship!" And it was, in a really charming way.

I did think Brooks was suspect as hell the whole time, so that was validating.

The clone's obsession with being The Real Shepard and having the grand mystique and galactic stature and all of that did highlight something interesting to me. I'd read an argument that ME1 is actually the best ME game, and one of the reasons in that argument is that ME1 Shepard is ... cool, but not nearly the superstar legend she becomes later on.

And Shepard's super special awesome greatness is hammered in a lot through ME2&3. I'm not sure that's actually worse than being scrappier, in terms of some artistic merit kind of thing, but the DLC is so reliant on Shepard's mystique that it got me thinking again about how easily this could become really annoying.

Like, I've loved many special or chosen male characters, but the idea of male badass Shepard seems just incredibly tedious to me. I'm not sure I could buy into this except with the pretty specific scenario we have of a lesbian Shepard who came up through a hard childhood on the streets of Earth.

Anyway, I absolutely adored the end of the clone arc (Garrus and Liara pulling the real Shepard up ;_;) and then the entire rest of the DLC, except the pull-up thing with James (very tiresome mechanically and he's my least fave of the ME3 squad). Miranda and Jack semi-reconciling was really adorable and I loved all the bizarre inter-character dynamics at the party. Also, Traynor winning against an asari named Polgara made me cackle. And my absolute most hated from ME2, Zaeed, was kind of delightful. Zaeed vs The Claw was just ... jafdkk;jadfjk;a

And Glyph's little bowtie! Incredible all around.

Oh, and the little date with Liara was super sweet. I loved that it stopped where it did, just that image of them embracing. It's great.

It was nice to see them seriously together even later, of course. And we got back to Earth! I was incredibly tired at that point, so my main thought was that the imagery of the united galactic fleet was essentially what The Rise of Skywalker tried and failed to do, but it was fantastic here, especially after everything we've done to get (almost) everyone together. (We did basically tell the salarians to go fuck themselves wrt the genophage.)

London looks suitably dreadful and we'd just gone around and talked to Anderson and then essentially everyone. Pretty much everyone continually brought up how awesome Shepard is, again, which reinforced my sense that this could be really annoying but is very nice for lesbian Shepard, and in any case, it feels like it's going somewhere now. We'll see where exactly that is!

[thepatchycat]

Hi, I’m a real new shiny here (on Tumblr, but also at drawing), and it’s the first time I ask anything, so I hope it’s ok. I must say first that I love the way you draw TCW characters (especially the clones)! 😍 I just came across this sketch you made on canvas (if I remember correctly) https://www.tumblr.com/thepatchycat/729224397978828800 and I was wondering, if you don’t mind sharing, how do you get the perfect white background on non-digital drawings? I currently use a scanner app on my sketches and the results are always inconsistent and far from that white… thanks a lot in advance!! 😊

Welcome to the Tumblr crew, shiny! ;) And thank you kindly!

So my dirty secret for that sketch is... it actually is completely digital! I drew it in a program called Rebelle 5, which is designed to mimic traditional canvas/paper and pencils/paints. I picked it up for super cheap during a huge sale last year, and it's a lot of fun; unfortunately, it's usually pretty expensive, as many art programs are. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for sales though if you ever get into digital drawing--and if you'd like a free program, the one I use most of the time is MediBang. But those programs are really mostly helpful for digital art, not so much for scanning actual pencil sketches.

While I tend to stick to digital drawing nowadays, I definitely feel you on the scan cleanliness issue; phone pictures and even proper printer scans tend to end up either kind of dirty or faded. The short answer is that I don't actually have an easy and effective solution, but there might be some things you can try depending on what you have available. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already explored more methods than I have, and there are definitely people with better ideas and more experience than me, but I'll share what I've tried.

Long(er)-winded rambling under the cut!

So, I currently have an unfinished piece sitting in my files that began as a traditional drawing, one that I want to keep all the pencil details for. Here's the sketchbook page, scanned using a household printer:

Not terrible, but it'd be nice to have clearer contrast between the lines and the background. In MediBang, I can adjust the contrast by going to Filter>Levels (or Ctrl+L), which gives me a little box that looks like this:

I don't technically know the nitty gritty of how it works, but by my understanding, the outer triangles for the input and output indicate the range boundaries. Adjusting the input--particularly the darker boundary--so that the output boundary exceeds it basically tells the program to make the darker parts even darker, resulting in this:

Better! As you can see, though, the darker parts of the background also show up a bit more. Rather than relying only on contrast adjustments, what I actually ended up doing was carefully erasing the background around the drawing after adding a plain white layer underneath, and also going over some of the lines digitally. I did this first in MediBang (the only art program I had when I started working on it), then transferred the file over to Rebelle.

MediBang (left) has the pure white background, while the Rebelle (right) canvas settings I chose are a little off-white and more textured, which I think blends a bit better with the texture and shading of the image. It's possible to add textures and the like in MediBang, too, but Rebelle has it built into its design, so it's a little easier to figure out there; I'll likely finish this piece in Rebelle (whenever I get back to doing so, haha), since the canvas and brush settings will be easier to match to the texture of everything that came directly from the drawing.

Most of this is much easier to do with a drawing tablet/pen, unless you're a wizard with a mouse. As for traditional means... the best suggestion I can come up with is to try inking sketches, or at least darkening them further with a pencil. The more contrast you can get between your lines and the background, the more easily you can digitally tease that contrast out even further. I think most photo editors have at least some contrast, color, and brightness adjusters, and probably more useful functions I don't even know about--it never hurts to mess around with any program's filters and settings to see what happens!

Good luck, and happy drawing! :D