#Tumblr's taking so long to upload things I just edited them all together

[royalarchivist]

Ender King: Your son has found me. Found you. And we’ve been fighting him this whole time.

[Phil gets knocked off the platform by a zombie]

Phil: Ok, well... bloopers! 😅

[darewolfcreates]

IM BACK! Its summer babyyy!!! Have some pics of my metals final! These images look weird? That's because I'm glazing my art to protect it!

[pixelatedraindrops]

RAINCODE COMIC DUB~🎙️

NEW PROJECT ALERT!

Story takes place at the start of Chapter 4 (MINOR SPOILERS)

Comic Title drawn by Kazin (as well as the whole comic)

Here's the Dub! Vocals and Editing done by me 🎙️📑 Enjoy!!

Further Rambling Below

Hehe I bet you all didn't think voice acting was among my list of hidden hobbies/talents didja? (I’m just full of surprises x3) Well... I can only hope that I delivered well enough here. (please feel free to laugh at my attempted Yakou voice… LMAO)

So this is yet another collab project that @kazinsblog and I did together. The story is based on a kokowendy ch4 canon divergent skit that I made way back last fall. When Kazin saw it, she wanted to make it into a full comic. I didn't protest (I never do LOL) but then I wanted to try something.

I've never attempted a solo dub of a comic before, and honestly I didn't think I would with RainCode due to a majority of the characters being male. Sadly with my naturally high voice I can only do so much with attempting male voices. I usually only do female or child character voices.

But since Kurumi is the lead role of this story, and has the most lines, I decided to give it a try. I do love Kurumi (she's my best girl) so I hope I did her justice here. I like to think I did her voice fairly well. I struggled a bit with the guys (and Halara) but I think my Yuma is decent enough... x'D (plus it was really fun making him sound tired and out of breath :3)

I do enjoy Kokowendy as a ship, though I'm not a huge shipper. But these two are just too cute... ;w; So I think a scenario like this suits them both. Plus it gives Kurumi a chance to be reliable and try to help her beloved hero in his time of need <3 Honestly it can even be seen as platonic. Its very tame (the only small hint is that Yuma blushes at some point, but that's it)

I had a lot of fun doing this!! I got the voices and editing done in only 3 days, so it’s definitely not a long lasting project. (on my end anyway) But I still think it’s a pretty big project with all of the work both of us did. Editing the video was probably the most fun part for me >w< I knew exactly what BGM and sound effects I wanted months in advance c: I only hope I did the editing style of it right. Comic dubs are very peculiar in the way they’re done… 💦 (also no I’m not putting this on YouTube, this is a tumblr exclusive ONLY! And I give NOBODY permission to re-upload it without my consent!)

I’m not sure if I'm the first that's attempted a RC comic dub before, but if I am, then I am very happy c: Idk if I'll do another full one though. Like I said too many of the characters are male... x'D This may be a one time thing for me here. But if I were to do one, I figured why not on a comic that was made specifically for me? c: (ty again kazin!💕)

Anyway I'm done yapping now, I hope you all enjoy! 💜 Feel free to let me know what you think or which role you enjoyed from me the most! (tho I think the answer is obvious lol)

[taiturner]

NEW YEARS CLEAN-UP 🎊

rules: unburden yourself from the abandoned WIPS collecting dust in your folder and share 5 gifs, then tag five people. (tagged by @yenvengerberg, thank you i feel like i can do something useful with these things now 💖)

tagging with no pressure of course: @wyllhalsin, @capinejghafa, @cardvngreenbriar, @seance, @ayoedebiris, @ughmerlin, @craintheodora, @lottiemilfews, @natscatorrcio (yeah miles i'm tagging you to be funny i know what you did with those psds)

these are all from projects that i have in a folder titled "on the bench" that i want to pretend i'll come back to, but.... some of these have been benched for so long and they're no longer fresh in my head so i fear they'll be abandoned forever. should also be mentioned that a lot of projects on the bench are literally just me making all the typography first and then losing inspo when i actually wanted to gif things.... usually by the time i do start, i change my mind about the type anyway. i also have so many abandoned gifs from other gifsets i've already posted but i'm not even sure where to begin searching so... here are some things!

one of the many gifs i already created for a prompt from @yellowjacketsoctober to put the show in a different genre. ironically, a prompt that i came up with for the event specifically to make this gifset but didn't even complete. i spent so many hours and so many days trying to gif this entire arc for these three with the intent to make it a heist drama set but after so long i realized i was just giffing exactly what happened in the show and it started to feel pointless. but at least here's a preview of something that i'll never finish. my trio of all time, can they commit more crimes together please! (should also be said that this folder is 44gb because i already saved all the caps + because these psds are so heavy... new years clean up for real)

i don't know what it is about lydia that makes it so hard for me to finish any set for her, but every time i try i seem to always lose the drive eventually (probably because twd in general just feels really uninteresting for me to blend, for some reason). from a 2022 spotify wrapped meme, i'm pretty sure i restarted this specific gifset so many different times, unhappy with the colors and the blends and the text and everything -- which is why there are two very different examples here. my girl of all time though i will finish something for her eventually (and maybe even this one, because this song is still so good for her).

one of the many gifs that were abandoned by my scream vi set for favorite slasher in october. when tumblr first changed the image upload limit to 30, i promised myself to never take advantage of that too much, but i severely underestimated how many moments i would want to include for this movie and i made so many other gifs for this set but ultimately cut them so i could try to tone it down - 18 gifs in this set still feels like a lot but i spent so much time on this set that it was hard to part with many more. anyway here's sam being the hottest final girl in the world and correct about everything.

i don't know how long this has been on the bench but it was definitely a project i started way before season 2 even aired. i think i just got stuck and wasn't sure where to go with it, but anyway her!

extra spoiler for @wyllhalsin but this was supposed to be a pride edit in june for one of my favorite lgbt characters of all time. this show's camera movements nearly makes it impossible to blend anything so i lost the drive, but i will come back for felix someday (and for coty, obviously this set was for him).

[stinkrascal]

get to know me sims edition tag thingie ! tysm for the tag @rebouks <3

1. What’s your favourite sims death? ummmm getting eaten by a cowplant tbh. gets me every time

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match? maxis match hair, preferably the kind with the hair strands, and then alpha everything else

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight? when im doing gameplay then no, but if im taking screenshots for my stories then their weights dont really change bc i dont play w them anyways so they dont change much. so i guess the answer is still no

4. Do you use move objects? always!!

5. Favorite mod? probably slice of life? idk i think its so fun!! i also like mccc for the utility but thats a boring answer so sol wins

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? ive basically always torrented ts4 so i got the eps when they first came out and idk which one i played first. but the first one i bought on an origin account was cats and dogs!

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing? like alive!!

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? breanna!! caspian!! vaughn!! i like them all can that be my answer

9. Have you made a simself? yeah!

10. What sim traits do you give yourself? lazy, goofball, geek

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color? the white/blonde color!!!!

12. Favorite EA hair? that one hair that came with the luxury stuff pack that was vlad's hairstyle for like 3 years before i changed it.

this one!!!

13. Favorite life stage? young adult duh. thats why i have vampires so they can stay young and pretty forever

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? both duh!! it's all fun for me :D

15. Are you a CC creator? no but i can make simple recolors and adjustments to meshes if i need to! id love to learn how to make meshes from scratch. i really wanna make my own trees for story stuff but i dont really know how to start that. but one day!!

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad? all my mutuals of course :)

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4) honestly probably 4 because even if the gameplay is lackluster, w all my mods its pretty fun and i always gravitate to it. i think ts3 was the first game i ever played from the series and its great too. i played ts2 about a year ago and it is also fun but its too ugly for me so i never wanna play it lol. and i never played ts1!

18. Do you have any sims merch? no

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims? yes but all the videos are unlisted, you can only access them through my tumblr. i just upload random silly things and tutorials sometimes, but i havent uploaded in years. im still gonna make an updated editing tutorial vid i promise aha

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing? i think my sims are more blushy now, and they have more skin details and textures since i use alpha skins now. but besides that not much

21. What’s your Origin ID? actually its stinkrascal but i dont use it for ts4. i just have my dragon age games on it ha

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator? umm idk!

23. How long have you had a simblr? since 2017 :) but i made this blog in 2019

24. How do you edit your pictures? photoshop 2022! i promiseeeee im gonna make an updated editing tutorial one day

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next? i want horses, fairies, and a new city world like san myshuno! besides those things im pretty happy w what we have

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far? growing together or werewolves! obviously i like vampires too!! oh or island living that ones great too. idk i like a lot of them

im gonna tag @gothoffspring @woohooincoffin @itsmariejanel @pxltown @omgkayplays @lucidicer @barbieaiden @void-imp and anyone else who wants to do this!! <3

[inklore]

Hey dear! How long since I wrote to you, I don't know if I can ask but could you give me some advice on how to edit/theme/customize your blog in an aesthetic way?

Idk, even basic tips are fine, I really love seeing your blog and I think you have really good taste in aesthetics ❤️

hey lovey! it would be my pleasure to try and help you <3. i say try because my explaining skills are the absolute worst but i will do my best lmao. gonna do this in bullet points ok:

have an idea / inpisration / a crumb of what you want your blog to look like! you can find inspo literally anywhere, a friends blog even (but please remember to always ask and don't take it harshly if said person declines you doing so). pinterest is also amazing for this, looking up graphics, different aesthetics, templates, i literally have a board on my pinterest i've had for years now where i get graphic inspo or where i go when i just need to feed my creative juices to put me in the mood to create something. canva is also great, i literally go on there and look up headers, moodboards, etc and just star them for later. keywords are everything as well, so like 'aesthetic here + color, vibe, look, graphic, template' helps sites like canva and pin lead you in the right direction. same with just typing things like 'green, grunge, lovecore, etc'.

edit on desktop! now i know not everyone has a laptop or ipad or the ability to do this but i highly rec it over editing on the janky mobile app where sometimes things save and sometimes they don't. plus i always use one of the random saved user blogs i have to make a test layout / theme so if i don't like it everything on my main blog is fine, didn't change, and i didn't waste all that time on a theme i don't even want to look at lmao. so making a side blog where you do that is also great cause you can just copy and paste your nav post over, you can take the graphics you've already made and upload them onto your main without second guessing if they look good because you've already seen what it all looks like!

start small! by that i mean start with a simple theme or idea and build up from that. don't just start with seven graphics and ideas and overwhelm yourself. sometimes i just think of a color and be like yeah i'm make something with this color or wrapped around that color and i create something great.

ask a friend for help! i can't tell you how many times i've asked friends if this theme looked good or to send me inspo pics or what theme they think i should do, or even asked them to help me find resources. utilize your besties and mutuals.

not everyones aesthetic is the same! some people like messy themes, some like overdone, some like super simple. don't compare yourself to anyone!!!! everyone creates differently, everyone sees colors and aesthetics amd themes differently. no matter what you decide to go with is all your own and great and special.

etc: putting all your most important links in your nav is always a good rule of thumb (anything you really want to highlight as well), if you use pngs they're all over tumblr and pinterest 'transparent' + 'png' at the end or beginning of what you're looking for will always lead you in the right direction, and when it comes to pngs i highly rec adding them to a white background or transparent one and make the size of the background 500px and move the png halfway / towards the bottom (centered) of the background so tumblr doesn't make your header all the way at the top and ugly, don't make your nav post too long, take colors from your images / aesthetics to incorporate throughout the whole theme so everything meshes well together, don't use flashy dividers because it's not good on a lot of users eyes and unless you state a tw in the tags it's just not as cool as some people think lol.

that's all i can think of but if you have any more questions bby my pms are open!!

[fa-by]

Help a friend out

Hey my babies, how are you?

Can I ask you a favor? Could you go report (as ‘spam’ will do) this post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWmmdNNMT0G/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link?

This person, whoever they are, has been very disrespectful to me and to what I asked to all of you in my AMAs post. These kinds of people are exactly the reason why I regret every single time doing posts like that. It's not fair to me, and it's not fair to all of you who are kind and respect other people's decisions.

I know they didn't copy what I wrote (thankfully, at least one thing), but they still stole some of my pics, and worst thing, they tagged Carlene and Chelsea in two of them. The point is, they could very well have gone to the original accounts that some of those pics came from (Mila's and Justine's ones) and taken screenshots from them, but no. They had to steal those from me, plus some that I created myself as collages. I did research and wasted hours and days putting everything together for that post. I mean, you guys know this. You know how long it took me to create that post. I know this isn't that bad compared to anything else because they're just pics, but it doesn't make it right anyway. It doesn't make it right for me, and for all those who like me, work their asses off to then get ‘robbed’ just like that.

And yeah, I'm also talking about a lot of you here on Tumblr. I saw two YouTube channels, one called Chonops Production and the other one called Kellyzzlee CS, who like to steal posts from here and post them as if they were their own work. I know about Chonops Production because they stole one of my love’s posts about Thinkin' 'Bout One for which she had to ask them to delete it. And the first time, they pretended to do it by hiding it to then posting it again, and the second time, just a few days ago, I myself started reporting them because the video was back there again. As for Kellyzzlee CS, on the other hand, I know about them because they stole every single analysis of @karlaswine​ passing it off as their own (I told Karla's Wine when I found out), and then, since she's on an indefinite hiatus, Kellyzzlee CS started to steal someone else's analysis from here on Tumblr. I don't remember from who, guys, and I'm really sorry, but if you wrote analysis, then I recommend you to go check their channels because your work might have been stolen by them without you even noticing it.

People like una_camren_shipper_mas / Fernanda Lieberher, Chonops Production, and Kellyzzlee CS, are people who like to steal from others and take their credit. Credit of a work they didn't do. Credit they don't deserve.

And I'm referring to you three now. I don't know if Chonops Production and Kellyzzlee CS are following me or if they'll read this through some re-blogs, but I'm referring especially to you una_camren_shipper_mas / Fernanda Lieberher that you stole from me. Instead of taking what's not yours from others without asking their permission and passing it off as your work, why don’t you learn to be less lazy and use your brain to create something instead of stealing it from others? Oh, oh, wait. I do know the answer. Because it's easy in your way, right? It's simply easier to steal, post, and get praised for that because anyway the other ones who follow you don't know it's stolen, right? Wow. Congratulations. My most sincerely fake congratulations 👏🏼.

When I noticed this, my girlfriend commented in their post with her finsta:

Translation: “Those pictures are not yours, they belong to a CS fan that explicitly asked that her theories and pictures were not uploaded in other social media outside Tumblr. Please * hide the post * and contact the owner of the post where you copied the pictures from so that she can tell you if she wants and in which way you can post her theories or edits.”

She was nice to them. And what did una_camren_shipper_mas / Fernanda Lieberher do? Not only did they completely ignore her, but they deleted her comment and blocked her. Then I commented with my finsta, and after seeing that the pics were still there, I commented a second time by giving them the last chance to make up for it. But guess what? They deleted my comments and blocked me too. This happened today. And now I'm tired of their attitude. So, babies, I'm asking you too the favor to go report that post please 🙏🏼. The more reports are accumulated (I don't know how many exactly are needed) the more the social network concerned, in my case IG, is required to take action by shutting the post down.

This is what people like that deserve. And if you want, even report anyone else who has stolen (without asking permission and without giving credit) something that doesn't belong to them on other social media because it's really not fair to the owners. I know that this kind of thing like ‘reporting’ someone/something may seem silly to you, but it's not, because it's a way to teach that kind of people a lesson.

As small as this thing may look, it can at least make one difference. And who knows, if everyone started doing it, it might make a big difference because those people would stop doing it (stealing other people's work).

Thanks for your time, and thanks in advance to all those who are gonna actually do it for real and that won't just read this 🙏🏼❤.

[trippin-over-my-fandoms]

I’ve seen this done before but here are my modern!rdr2 social media headcanons for the Van der Linde gang.

some of these are LONG and then some are shorter. doesn’t mean I love any of them any less however. I just did my best with all of them. 

* I treat the gang as family especially for my modern au 

Dutch

frequently uses Facebook and has dozens of friends he doesn’t even know. like if he gets a friend request he’ll accept it. John tells him he might as well just make his page public and Arthur pleads with him to make a facebook PAGE so that his random friends will stop liking posts that Arthur tags Dutch in. 

Dutch has no idea how to make a facebook page. 

he also has a Twitter and a massive following at that. He’s VERIFIED. 

all of his twitter posts are vague though

are they a joke? are they political? is it what he’s eating for lunch that day? literally no one knows.

Hosea

also has facebook but doesn’t use it because why does he need to look at pictures of events he was at. he only uses it to see things he didn’t partake in

also has snapchat but just to keep up with the kids 

because life360 was too much to deal with for everyone

and snapchat is cool

also he can and will spam you with bitmojis 

Arthur

used to use facebook a lot but stopped because he was tired of his posts getting likes from people he didn’t know and friend requests from people Dutch was friends with. 

plEASE

he has a private facebook for a reason, he doesn’t want other people to know his business. 

he also has an instagram but anything he posts on facebook also goes on there. it’s not aesthetic or pretty or anything and he doesn’t even caption over half his pictures. 

he literally only uses social media so that his friends and family know he’s alive

has snapchat because of Hosea but barely knows how to use it 

doesn’t get why everyone wants to use snapchat when teXTING AND CALLING ARE RIGHT THERE

John

the question is what doesn’t he have.

john has been trying to make it big on social media since youtube came out.

his youtube used to have videos on it but he deleted them because they were cringy and arthur liked to send them to the group text. 

plays twitch games on the weekends and sometimes with Jack but he thinks most of the subscribers are there for his kid since most of his solo streams don’t do as well

has a twitter, doesn’t follow Dutch, literally envies that he’s verified. 

he’s tried everything but no matter what he does nothing pans out

uses tiktok to promote twitch streams

instagram feed is mostly selfies of him but 99.9% of the time he’s wearing sunglasses and the caption is some random quote 

also has facebook but only to appease Arthur and Dutch, he doesn’t even have a profile picture. Claims only boomers use it. 

an avid reddit user. if he’s got problems he’ll go to reddit. claims reddit saved his life. everyone’s tired of the story so they stopped asking. 

also uses snapchat more than he should and the only social platform he has more than 100 followers on. 

Charles

same as arthur and has both facebook and instagram and posts the same on both except his are pleasing to look at. 

they’re unintentionally aesthetic 

he uses a psd on all his pictures and won’t share what it is

has monthly life updates that start with some inspirational or deep quote and then text that pushes the instagram word limit

also has a deviantart , has shared psds there before , constantly tries to convince Arthur to get it. 

used to use tumblr but he forgot about it

Abigail

the definition of a facebook mom. 80% of her facebook posts are about Jack or parenting. 

Instagram is similar but also different, she’s actually a relatively successful influencer with over 1,000 followers. 

all of her friends and family (who have instagram) follow her

has snapchat solely for the cute bitmojis and to send John adorable snaps of Jack playing with all the fun filters. 

she also won’t take a selfie unless it’s with snapchat because she no longer trusts her own camera. 

also uses pinterest and has a collaborative board with all the ladies. 

but in general, on her own, she has too many boards. she uses pinterest for EVERYTHING 

Sadie

bold of you to assume she uses social media. 

she does just not a whole lot. 

checks it once in the morning and once at night. 

except pinterest because how dare Abigail get her into it. but even pinterest she only uses in downtime. 

has facebook and instagram but there’s maybe only five posts.

if anything she’ll post on her story

will only snap Abigail and Arthur otherwise she doesn’t use snapchat

all of the social apps are mostly offloaded on her phone anyways

if she needs to know anything she just checks the group text which she has on do not disturb because they text way too much. 

Molly

she’s verified on instagram 

it’s also the only social platform she’ll use, which frustrates Dutch because he wants to be friends with her on facebook

but she’s happy with just instagram 

she keeps it simple 

and the main theme to her posts are fun outfits in her ever expanding closet

the other posts are usually of plants that she’s managed to grow. she’s not the best at being a plant mom but she’s still a good one to the ones she’s managed to keep alive. 

the only thing she contributes to the pinterest board are her own pictures of her plants which are overly aesthetic. 

Karen

started out with a normal instagram account then made a spam account which she ended up using way more often.

all of her posts are extremely chaotic

and usually reposts from her snapchat

has a reddit just to troll John

reposted his cringy youtube videos to reddit and got hundreds of upvotes

if you wanna see the most raw and chaotic videos of Arthur and John then she’s the one to follow. 

also if you wanna see Abigail when she’s not all put together. 

is the reason there’s so many memes in the collaborative pinterest board

Mary-Beth

has a instagram but also has a second instagram for art and book reviews

or basically anything she’d post on her tumblr

which is her second most used social

also uses facebook but only because she is an admin for one of those multifandom blogs. 

also begs Arthur to get a deviantart. 

uses pinterest most but only second to Abigail

literally the queen of pinterest DIYs

Micah

has twitter

as far as anyone else knows that’s all he has

maybe he has snapchat?

maybe they saw him on snapmaps once? 

all he ever does with twitter though is retweet anything Dutch posts.

yet somehow he has so many followers. 

Lenny

anyone who has snapchat has streaks with Lenny

even Hosea who doesn’t understand why it’s a thing

he also posts a lot on facebook but it’s mostly travel or vacation photos everyone is just a tad jealous of. 

Lenny always seems to be busy but still has time for streaks with his friends. 

he’s also an up and coming youtube vlogger

Sean

also has reddit to troll john

but he also legitimately uses it too. 

he’s also really popular in the minecraft subreddit , don’t ask

also has twitch and also has way more subsribers than John

and a youtube which he’ll upload (overly edited) twitch streams to

everyone subscribes to him but they don’t tell John that.

also has a tiktok and is up to date on all the trends because of course he is

Kieran

got facebook when he was 10 and just never left.

literally doesn’t use any other social media

he’s not in the group text either so he has to facebook message Arthur to know what’s going on. 

but he shares a lot of memes and cute pictures of animals

he used to follow Dutch but unfriended him when he was the only thing he ever had on his activity feed. 

Susan

has facebook but claims she doesn’t have time to use it

Arthur knows this to not be true because she will like a lot of his posts. 

she’s also guilty of liking every single picture in one post or album. 

Arthur has also caught her looking at memes and using recipes she finds on there. 

also part of the pinterest board but never contributes. 

Trelawny

he has an account for everything

like

litereally

everything. 

even whatsapp and linked in and kik

even tinder

the only one anyone knows about are his facebook, twitter, and instagam

but there’s no posts on any of them except twitter

he’s also verified

but for unknown reasons

any posts on his facebook are ones he’s tagged in

he’s also in a lot of facebook groups

Strauss

runs a subreddit

a paid facebook admin of several pages

the only person who actually knows this is Dutch because Strauss has told him about it

he has no online presence whatsoever out side of those.

Javier

spotify king

has over 500,000 subscribers on youtube

uses instagram but as another platform for his music

edits his own album covers

top tier playlists too

Tilly

aesthetic queen

the most put together and pleasing to look at instagram feed next to Charles. 

uses pinterest a lot as inspiration and for making moodboards.

also uses tumblr to share moodboards

part of the sims global community facebook group

she keeps saying she’s going to start a youtube vlog but hasn’t yet

keeps trying to convince John to let her help him with his youtube.

she also uses twitch to play minecraft and sims

oh and she set up a minecraft server for everyone

Bill

facebook boomer

that’s it

I don’t know how else to put it

probably shares heavily republican posts

Swanson

didn’t use social media until tiktok.

he doesn’t do dances or anything but he does post weirdly obscure and chaotic videos that end up trending on more than one occasion

it’s usually drunk ramblings in his car that end up being hilarious

or videos of the others almost dying or ending up in the ER

Pearson

facebook boomer but make it cool.

also shares conservative posts but less offensive ones compared to Bill’s

likes almost every post any of his friends share

also comments on them too

Uncle

does he have social media? no one knows for sure. 

yet somehow he knows what’s going on

even if nobody can find any of his social accounts or have ever seen him using one before let alone doing anything on his phone other than playing cheesy mobile games.

[ask-king-bandee-and-sir-kirby]

Butterflies Lay Upon Our Heirlooms Chapter 1

I thought uploading the chapters directly to tumblr as well would be a good idea, so more people can actually read them.. Full fic is under the cut because it is long

Dreamland hasn't been the same since the loss of its king and his loyal knight. Two years ago a terrible beast of a massive portion came to dreamland while its protector was watching over other worlds, a gruesome battle broke out because of its rage.

The knight was the first to meet his end, swiftly crushed to death as he tried in vain to protect his comrades. The king survived only to the end of the terrible fight, with nothing to heal him the injuries sustained was too much to come back from and soon died in the arms of his adopted son, his dying wishes for him to keep dreamland safe in his absence as its king. It was only after then, did Kirby return home from the stars, only to find two of his closest friends, whom he had seen as fathers each, had perished before he could even try to save them.

Bandee and Kirby hung clinged onto each other for a while after that day. Not talking, but having a mutual feeling of a pain that resided deep within their hearts and would not let up. Days, weeks, months had passed. It was a terrible time, it seemed as if the sun did not shine as brightly as before. But, life goes on and Dreamland needed a king, and the universe needed its best warrior. They could not forsake their duties to mourn forever.

Two years had passed since that day, yet Bandee still remembers it like yesterday. However there is no more time for painful memories. Today was the day the star allies would all be together in one place since before the deaths of Meta Knight and Dedede. He swore that it would be the best party anyone would have in years, something positive to remember in place of the grief that had consumed them.

So Bandee got out of their bed, and got dressed. Carefully putting on their king's robes, which were way too big for the small waddle dee, their kimono and their crown. They could never look in the mirror and think this was right, because it wasn't. But nothing was right anymore. They put their beloved blue bandana over their mouth and headed out to make preparations for the party.

He had already planned everything meticulously the weeks beforehand, so he really only needed to worry about checking in with the other waddle dee's to make sure everything was perfect.

The waddle dees working in the kitchen were now taking a well deserved break, as behind them mounds of food lay deliciously on the tables behind them ready to be wheeled out into the party room. Bandee themself was never quite as food crazy as Kirby or Dedede, they could still admire the sheer amount of it needed to sustain their friends' appetites.

They gave the chiefs praise and made their way to the room in which the party would be taking place. The band (called the 'rockle dees') were setting up a stage,, they were handed a good playlist filled with songs their friends had recommended (that was heavily edited by Bandee, they did not know how anyone could like some of those songs requested).

The room was wide, big enough to hold (probably) hundreds of guests at a time- it was more like a ball room though to their knowledge there has never been one held here. This meant there'd be enough room for games and things of the sort.

As Bandee was thinking about things they could do during the party today, a jolly finger would tap their shoulder making them jump. It's alright though, the owner of said finger was Kirby after all! Always early to show and late to leave, not usually this early but he's been anticipating today since Bandee announced it.

"Kirby! You startled me!" They laughed, Kirby lifted his mask to reveal a great big smile, to emphasize excitement.

"Sorry Bandee- I just can't wait until everyone gets here- it will be SO much fun- ahhh I can't wait to see everyone again!!" He rambles on about how much he's excited, Bandee simply nodded along happily in agreement.

"I'm really excited too but the party won't start for another two hours- no this doesn't mean you can get a headstart on the food." They smirked, to which Kirby made a pouty face.

"Fineee, I won't. So what do we do while we wait for everyone to come?" Kirby asks.

"I've been checking in on the Dee's, making sure everything's in order.. We don't want a big mess happening after all!" The waddle dee was under a lot of stress lately and today was supposed to help with that. The day is still young and the party hasn't even started yet, don't be so negative Bandana! "Say Kirby, do you want to walk around the castle with me?"

Of course, Kirby takes the offer and the two begin taking a walk around the castle, it’s a nice peaceful walk that takes stress off of Bandee. They make conversation about the last planet Kirby visited, what kinds of people he met, his climactic final battle that was just childs play at this point, he goes on and on until a butterfly passes a window. Kirby is oddly silent now. Bandee wants to ask what’s wrong, but he can’t help but shake the feeling that he already knows.

Two hours passed in silence as the Waddle Dee’s set everything up, taking out all of the food while Kirby was distracted with Bandee. But soon enough the gates open and good old friends flood the castle doors, it seems like everyone who was invited came! Marx came in flying chased by Magolor, Taranza was following close behind Susie and the Mage Sisters, even Highness managed to come, Adeleine and Ribbon came in trying to avoid the chaos couple (Bandee was really excited to catch up with the two specifically, seems like years since they actually- wait). The animal friends, gooey (who now had a blade form!!), Daroach and the Squeak Squad came, Elfilin, King Fluff made it to- Bandee was going to embarrass Kirby today defiantly- and even shadow Kirby managed to come!

What a good day today would be! Kirby who stood behind him turned his cape into sparkling yellow star wings and flew to the guests, he seemed in better spirits now that everyone was here! Today would be great!

…. Is what optimistic people said. Bandee could basically smell the coming chaos and probable disaster. Keep your cool Bandana, you are the king. You got this.

[ziamhaze]

My Future in Fic

Yeah, so, the 100k fic that I’ve been working on for the past six months?  The one that was going to be uploaded to AO3 last week?  Yeah, it’s accidentally getting published...

Where do I start?

I suppose with a massive thank you to anyone who’s clicked on any of my fics over these past two years.  I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again.  I never ever thought about writing as a career.  I’ve never written anything prior to my Harry Potter AU Compartment 451.  I didn’t even take an English class in undergrad or grad school.  I genuinely just had an idea for a fic I wanted to read and since no one had written it, I had to do so myself.  Since then, I’ve written every single day for 2 years.  I left my job in the entertainment industry, got accepted to one of the best creative writing programs in the world on a scholarship, and now one of my stories is being considered at Harper Collins.  Yes, the Harper Collins.  It’s the longest shot in the world, but for legal reasons I was not allowed to upload the fic version on any website prior to submission.  Even if they don’t pick it up, I’ve been advised to continue to shop it around to agents.

What I can do, however, is share the premise.

If you’ve been following my tumblr and watching my tags - I SEE YOU ALL OUT THERE - then you’ll know that this fic was meant to have Zayn with his signature undercut hairstyle and one more little thing...

Someone sent me an ask a while back about what this fic was supposed to be about.  I believe I said something about it being an adaptation fic, but not from a film/tv show/other piece of literature, from a song.  This next fic was meant to be an adaptation of the song Younger by Ruel.  Later on, it also took shape with the help of Remember by Liam and a few others that you can find here.

The miniature summary is as follows:

When his father suddenly passes, twenty-nine-year-old Liam Payne is brought back to the Sydney suburbs where he grew up.  He doesn’t plan on seeing his childhood best friend, Zayn Malik, at the burial service.  They haven’t spoken since going from brothers to strangers one fateful day fifteen years prior.  But Zayn puts an end to this when he approaches Liam after the burial, offering his condolences and asking if Liam can help his archaeological research team with photographing their newest project.  The unexpected closeness forces each man to wade through uneasy emotions.  For Liam, a mixture of grief, lost identity, and confusion over why he’s willing to interact with the one person he swore he’d never forgive.  And for Zayn, a tidal wave of anxiety that comes from finally facing a part of himself he’s always chosen to deny.  When We Were Younger is a story heavily rooted in blurred identities and exploring what loss can look like in two different scenarios: death and friendship.

For obvious reasons, their names will be changed.  Liam, to Hutton.  Zayn, to Cairo (his ethnicity will also be changed to Egyptian).  As you can see, it was meant to be my big ‘enemies to lovers’ fic.  Technically, it’s ‘best friends to enemies to lovers’, but you know.

Right, so what does this mean for me going forward?

I still have so much inspiration when it comes to writing Zayn and Liam as characters.  I don’t plan on putting a complete stop to writing them, but with my career taking this large of a turn, I do have to prioritise my time.  That said, as of now, I can’t afford to write long-form fic any longer.

Soon, I’ll be starting a PhD program where I’ll be writing another full-length novel for mass publication.  For fun, here’s a little insight on the two ideas that I’ll be pitching:

1.  Underground boxer (loosely based off Liam) falls in love with arms gang leader (loosely based off Zayn).  Throughout their love story, the latter has to outrun the psychological trauma his father (the leader of Zayn’s rival gang) still throws his way. 

2.  Cold War AU.  Paris, circa 1950/51.  Ambassador’s son (loosely based off Liam) befriends new student (loosely based off Zayn) at the international school.  Paris is a ticking time bomb; war is about to break out at literally any second.  The two clearly have feelings for each other, but can’t act on them because homosexuality in the 1950s...yikes.  When war does break out, the two are separated, and as Liam’s character goes out to find Zayn’s, he learns a secret of his that changes everything.

Whichever I don’t write for the PhD will be the novel I write following it.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue to write (and edit) like crazy.  Ever since I randomly wrote C451, there hasn't been a day that’s gone by where I haven't written something.  It may have only been a paragraph or two, but never zero.  This is how you get better.  This is the equivalent of going out and shooting free throws for 30 minutes a day.  You have to put in the work in order to get better.  I'm very lucky that I'm incredibly self-disciplined and I've been able to crank out as many stories as I have over the past 2 years.

That said, I’ll be writing shorter little oneshots.  I have several ideas that I’ve been sitting on, but haven’t ever thought to write because I HATE writing short stories.  Little ideas that don't have huge plotline/climax potential, but that I want to just see on paper, I'll probably end up writing.  If I had to guess, I'd say they'll come out to around 10-15k.  Also, sequels?  Prequels?  Haha, you never know...

I’ve also got a series called “Sleep Drabbles” that are, yes, you guessed it, a series of drabbles based around one theme: sleep.  I also have a few scenes that I want to write which are based on ziam’s kids, not actually ziam themselves.  If there’s enough demand for that, I can upload those too, but they’re quite niche, so I don’t think the general fandom would be very interested.

As far as frequency for all of this, I have no idea.  I’ve always done things at my own pace and written stories that I want to write, for myself.  That won’t ever change, so I don’t want to commit to one drabble a week or one short-length fic per month.  It takes me weeks (months for this last fic) to research and interview the necessary people to get character arcs correct/believable.  I love that part of writing, and so if I have a little story that I want to write that may only be 10k but takes me ages to put together how I want, then so be it.  I will always be around to answer asks/messages and please, continue to tag me in your writing tag posts!  But please, no prompts.

So, that’s my future with fic.

Again, I cannot say thank you enough to every single one of you.  Every single thing that people tag me in (@malik-payne , @zqua1d , @zentiment , @liamisthesun , @redyellowberry I’m looking at you), I appreciate and love!  The recommendation lists that people have put me on, THANK YOU!  It’s wild to think that I used to look to rec lists for years and now I’m on them.  @ziamfanfiction THANK YOU for always having my back with exposure!  @paynefulperiods , my beloved beta reader, THANK YOU for always encouraging me and putting up with shit first drafts.  @march-z5 , THANK YOU for always being on call for ideas and listening to me bang my head against the wall at 4 am.

Now, might fuck around and make a fake picspam for the fic that never was...

Also, all of the behind scenes pages for each of my fics are now public, so feel free to check those out here.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making this journey possible. I know people say that a lot when they gain a following of any sort, but I truly truly mean it.  You have to have talent in order to be an author, but you also have to have people who want to read your stuff.  Proof of concept is a real thing.

So thank you a million times over.

Speak soon my friends.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with tatooedlaura (Laura Sprys)

Laura has 28 fics at Gossamer, but the big treasure trove of her stories is at AO3, where she has 193 fics. Thank goodness for the richness of the X-Files and for talented, creative people like Laura who can find so many interesting ways to tell tales in the show’s universe. Big thanks to Laura for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Maybe reading mine but reading older fic in general is something I still do and something I still find entertaining. I do wish i could get into my old fics and post a warning that some of those were written before the author: ever had a drink, ever had sex, ever had a boyfriend, ever lived on her own, ever had a real job, or ever experienced much of anything in the real world.

Then again, fanfic is a perfect time capsule for the age and it’s always fun to see where the originals started and how they’ve grown.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

Back in the day and up and through today, it has always been a fun experience. From it, I’ve learned to love writing. I’ve learned that fans are crazy, weird, wonderful, generous, talented, committed, passionate, and imaginative. In a fandom, you can think whatever you wish and write about anything you like and because I’ve been around so long, I’ve gotten to watch the storylines shift and the relationships change ...

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Originally, I never had much interaction with people other than ones who sent emails commenting on my fanfic … the internet at my parents house was dial-up and I had to access through the AOL free disks that arrived in the mail so, for the most part, I didn’t have the bandwidth or the connection speed to do more than upload stories and download episode guides.

Good lord, I remember submitting a story and having to wait upwards of two days to two weeks before the new batch of stories was posted ... then ephemeral came around and you could actually have your story up in under a day ... all ya'll who started on tumblr and ao3, you have it great, let me tell you :)

One thing that stands out in my mind still (and I’m still friends with her on Facebook) was a woman from western Canada who I stumbled across somewhere while looking for the blooper reels. She offered to send me her copies on VHS for my collection. I don’t think she asked for payment and one day, a package arrived from a lovely woman near Lethbridge, bloopers playable, tapes labeled in clear printing. I still appreciate that 20 some odd years later :)

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Fandoms are crazy places. Tread lightly at first but enjoy what you want, ignore what you don’t, rewrite what you hate, and write what you love. Don’t be an asshole when you don’t agree with someone … when you do, tell them …

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I was on board from the first episode. It was a show about two people who you felt were destined to be together but weren’t, and wouldn’t be for years. It was a cop show about aliens and a monster show with cops. I was in the right place at the right time in the right frame of mind and there was just something that clicked and I never looked back. Friends were not allowed to call me on Friday night and once it switched to Sunday, I made sure that my parents got us on early evening bowling league so we’d be home in time to watch. Even my boyfriend (eventual husband) knew to shut the hell up from 9-10pm, even if he was sitting next to me on the couch (with my parents in their chairs watching as well)

Also, my 56-year-old dad had a crush on Scully from the start so that was entertaining as hell as well

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I have been writing stories in my head for literally as long as I can remember. Watching some episode, I honestly don’t remember which one, I suddenly had an idea for a story about Mulder and Scully. I had never written a story with pre-existing characters before and it was totally foreign to me. How do you write a character with a current storyline. It was weird, it was difficult, it was some of the most fun I’d had writing up to that point.

Suddenly, I didn’t have to explain or describe the characters, think of jobs and mundane things … they already had those … and it was great.

Honest-to-God, my first fic was written, in pencil, on a yellow legal pad by flashlight while lying with my head at the foot of my bed so I could see my parents coming down the hall if they happened to wake up at midnight to go to the bathroom. Later fics were written by the light of an 10” TV/VCR combo with me still lying with my head at the foot of the bed. I still have those old legal pads somewhere and I remember having to type them in secret, having to wait until the house was empty for 20 minutes to an hour at a time. Uploading them was always unnerving because of the slow dial-up and the fact that I didn’t have my own email address, but had to use my dad’s. I’d have to make sure to check it whenever I could, intercept the feedback I’d get off gossamer.

I was such a damn rebel.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Well, I now know how to interact with people given tumblr and AO3 but it hasn’t changed much. I contribute a little more now that I understand posting on social media but mostly, I still just write like a fiend and post, read voraciously and give kudos and likes often, comment some and reblog.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I dabbled and have a favorite ‘Fringe’ fic … I tried to read a Harry Potter fic once … I type ‘West Wing’ occasionally in ao3 and tumblr ...

And nothing, absolutely nothing, has ever caught me like the X-Files did in regards to the fandom experience.

I have shows I watch and re-watch and re-watch but no two characters have ever had me writing and thinking and planning like Mulder and Scully. No other combo has ever made me write upwards of 300,000 or more total and still have plenty of stories to tell.

I’m okay with this.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Aside from Mulder and Scully and the gentlemen three of Frohike, Langley, and Byers … I love all Scully’s nieces and nephews in my ‘Life’ series … I also love Corduroy (picture books), Harold (purple crayon fame), Neville Longbottom, the characters from my own novels, Katniss (book not movie), Anne Shirley, Elnora (from the Limberlost), Will Stanton/Merriman/Barney/Jane from ‘Dark is Rising’ and 10,459 others …

I’m a children’s librarian so most of my favorite books are those written for the younger and YA crowd. I like my job :)

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I watch this show all the damn time. I will think about Mulder and Scully when I have nothing else to think about, normally writing and editing whatever story I may have in the hopper at the time about them.

My husband laughs when I have the show on. He knows all the episodes with me and it’s one of my comfort shows that I don’t have to pay attention to when it’s on. During it, I have edited books, decorated cookies, been sick, been recovering, simply wasted a perfectly good day because I could.

My 17-year-old daughter keeps it on while she does homework and works out.

It’s a staple at our house and no one is allowed to make fun of it, even though we all know that parts are completely ‘make fun-able’

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I read fic all the time … I have worked my way through AO3 starting from the beginning and if it was more easily readable on a phone, I’d work my way, once again, through gossamer.

Restated from above: I dabbled and have a favorite ‘Fringe’ fic … I tried to read a Harry Potter fic once … I type ‘West Wing’ occasionally in ao3 and tumblr ...

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I have all kinds of favorites on tumblr but right now, I honestly don’t remember most of the names … I pretty much read everything that comes through my dashboard and every few days, i read through the newest posts on AO3 … I love you all!!

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Of X-Files fics, I love my newer stuff … I read “Life” and its sequels every few months … ‘Your Place or Mine’ is another one I will read … actually, I’ll just say it .... I read all my own fic over and over again …

With fic, you get to write the characters as you want to see them and write situations that you want to see … I write for myself most of all and I love to read what I wrote :)

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I write them all the damn time. I have tons of snippets and half-finished that I occasionally glean things from but while sometimes, old stuff morphs into new, sometimes, it just needs to gather that dust and live a quiet little forgotten life in some backhand folder on my dropbox account ...

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

First question is answered above.

As for other creative work, I have published two YA novels, have the third in that series in editing … I have five other novels in the hopper in various stages of ‘good lord this needs an edit or twelve’ …

I am writing things constantly in my head or on my laptop … most is crap … stome sticks … some turns into fic and some turns into books …

But the point is, I am writing, in some form, at all time :)

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Some two sentence conversation will spark an idea … the line of a song will inspire an idea … a word will start a sentence which will turn into a paragraph which will tumble straight into a story … and sometimes, stuff just pops in my head for no damn reason at all ...

What's the story behind your pen name?

On gossamer, I am L. Sprys because that was my name at the time :)

On tumblr and AO3, I’m tatooedlaura because my name is Laura and I have, now, six tattoos (yes, I spelled it wrong in my handle but that’s life) … when I decided on the name, I think I only had two

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

They do now … it took me years to crack and tell them … my husband has never read them, nor have any of the people I have told (as far as I know)

Now, I don’t really care who knows … I’ll tell them I write smutty X-Files fanfiction and family-friendly X-Files fanfiction …

I am too old at this point to be embarrassed by what I like to do. If they laugh at me, I tell them they only get to laugh when they’ve published a book and I pull up my books on Amazon … I’ve only had to do that once and it shut them right the hell up …

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Gossamer: L. Sprys

Tumblr and AO3: tatooedlaura

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

I love you! I see you! I appreciate you! I hope you enjoy! Don’t judge me for my grammar issues! I will never be able to spell the word ‘excersize’!

(Posted by Lilydale on April 27, 2021)

[spicyfoodboi]

OK BEA I'M HERE TO REQUEST FOR HAIKYUU, may i have a soft loving night of massaging sakusa/akaashi/osamu's back, like, they must be tired so s/o offers to massage their back and its so relaxing and ugsjfnxkddnkd much floof pls hahaha thanks ily ♡♡♡

kneading his knots away

A Kiyoomi sakusa, keiji akaashi, and osamu miya x reader

a/n: so I did say that I couldn't post but here we are! hope this is good enough v! This is the easiest thing next on my drafts so let's do this one so I could at least upload today! Hope you guys enjoy it! Let's get started!

 Kiyoomi sakusa

No physical touches.

Okay, maybe a couple of exceptions.

Sakusa would make you wear a mask and use alcohol on his hands as a precaution when you first started dating.

But now, just a spritz of alcohol would do.

He came home from practice, sore and exhausted.

And of course disgusted.

He can feel the sweat on his back.

You noticed his discomfort and told him to take a shower.

He nodded before leaving.

So you decided to set up a surprise for him in the bedroom.

Not that kind of surprise, ya nasties-

You get some candles and lit them to set the mood.

You got some oils out, some towels, you even changed the sheets.

Sakusa came out from his shower, a towel wrapped around his lower body, to see a homemade spa, complete with you in scrubs you used in a costume once

(you dressed as a nurse and he became a doctor but he didn't want you to dress all skimpy)

He hesitantly stripped his towel off, laid down on his stomach then let you place a warm, damped towel on his ass.

You leaned in, pouring some oil on his back then you started to massage the stiff parts, kneading the knots out.

He didn't react much, the only thing that you would hear while you massage him was little hums.

Overall, he was very thankful for the little surprise and will ask you for more.

In his sakusa way of showing you that he's sore and wants another night of massages.

 Keiji akaashi

He was up very late, on his desk, editing a part they needed before that issue could be published.

He was tired and sleepy and a bit stiff from sitting by his desk for a long period.

You were already asleep but you wake up to the sound of his mouse clicking endlessly and his keyboard clattering to make sentences on the screen.

You get from the bed and head over to him, placing your head on top of his, hands resting on his shoulders.

He looked up at you and smiled, leaning back a little more to feel your warmth.

Once you started to feel him relax in your hold, you started massaging his shoulders and his upper back.

He would let out small hums and groans as you fir the right spots.

He would be so cute.

When you get up and see him doing work, you take this as a sign that he needs more massages.

He would be so appreciative and give you massages in return when he sees you stressed as well.

You know his stiffest parts and now he knows yours too.

And you combat them together.

 Osamu miya

This bitch-

I feel like he's never gotten good massages before.

Like the only thing, he would get is those lousy and lazy massages from suna and atsumu.

So when you started to massage his back, he felt like there were rainbows and unicorns out in the world somewhere.

He would thank the heavens when you give him a massage in the breakroom of his shop.

He would tell you something along the lines of this.

"if you have hands like this, then you are fit to make onigiris for the shop."

"then I would like to apply." you joked as you continued to knead out the knots in his shoulders.

He lets out compliments and loud groans.

He likes your massages.

He isn't shameless about asking you too.

He would beg for you to bring him into the breakroom and ease his back in the middle of the day.

And you would gladly do it for him.

 That's all for today! Hope you guys enjoy it! Soldier, poet, king, or the undead exists now coming out soon! Requests are open for everything so please don't be shy to request anything! Love you guys ❤️💖💞💕

General taglist (don’t be shy to comment your tumblr @ below!): @tokyoghoose @macaronnv  @brainwqshed @reogou @cadekagi @himichii

[localvoidcat]

FMR Characters/Story Summary

Decided to make this so people could ask questions about my characters without having to go to their blogs. This is gonna be two posts as to divide the two stories, and you can always ask anything you want about any of the characters listed :)

Full Moon Rising (FMR)

Main Characters

Andre Torres (he/him): Protagonist of the story. Inherited a family curse that turned him into a werewolf, and ended up being nearly killed by Salvador. After escaping the town with the help of Josh, he spent the majority of his time trying to break his curse and stay hidden (disclaimer: he did not manage to break his curse and actually got a second one because of that) before finally reuniting with Josh nine years later.

Josh Collymore (he/him): Co-protagonist of the story. He had been friends with Andre nearly their entire lives before the latter had to flee the town, during which Josh was killed by Salvador. However thanks to faulty magic messing with things, he came back to life as his body was found. This entire situation begun a rivalry between both him and Salvador, as Josh wanted to uncover the truth behind the curse so he could expose the family's long history of killing werewolves. He eventually succeeded, but not before committing multiple crimes against the town, dying two more times, and faking his death (is it faking your death if you actually die?) to finally escape the town. Two years later, he reunited with Andre and things began to calm down from there.

Salvador Torres (he/him): Antagonist of the story. He's seen as a protector of the town, much like all the hunters in his family before him. His plans of raising his son to stand in his place crumble when Andre inherits the curse, which Salvador was unaware of up until this point due to never being told about it. After failing to kill Andre, leading up to him killing Josh so the information doesn't get out (also partly due to a personal grudge) and losing his eye, he begins trying to save what's left of his legacy. This fails, as shown above, and what becomes of him is currently undetermined, as the fourth arc of the story has not yet been planned out entirely.

Notable Characters/Supporting Characters

Julie Collymore (she/her): Josh's twin sister. She ended up getting the majority of the magic from their parents, and mostly just uses it to mess with him. Her side of things doesn't really get to be focused on until later in the story, but she's pretty important nonetheless.

Laurel (he/they): One of the members of what I jokingly call the Werewolf Gang™, which just happens to be a friend group Andre joins sometime in the second arc. He's something of a brother figure to Andre, and helped him learn how to control his lycanthropy.

Oriana (she/her): Another member of the Werewolf Gang™. Out of the five, she tends to be the more responsible one (which honestly isn't much of a challenge considering the people in it.) There's absolutely something going on between her and Laurel.

Entropy (she/they): Another member of the Werewolf Gang™. My original description of her was just that she was an unhinged and feral girlboss, and that still stands. They take great pride in their lycanthropy.

Elm (they/them): Another member of the Werewolf Gang™. Somehow, they're the only one in this group that is completely fine, not even a little bit messed up. They spend most of their time trying to get a degree in psychology, which means they're not present with the exceptions of full moons, but that doesn't stop them for being an honorary member.

Isa Torres (she/her): Andre's mother. Decidedly the best parent out of the two, she just wants the best for her son, who she believes is dead until he returns over a decade later.

Amy (she/they) and Danielle/Dani (she/her) Collymore: Josh and Julie's moms. They don't appear in the story nearly as much as they should, but they absolutely should. The pictures are edited together because Tumblr is a coward for not letting me upload more than ten pictures.

Picrew links will be given on request.

[evansyhelp]

✧  TEXTURES  –  A TUTORIAL BY EVANSYHELP. 

In this (long and image-heavy) tutorial, I’ll be showing you how I make textures, as requested by a very kind anon. I use Photoshop CC 2019 but you should be able to replicate my methods on most editing software. Please like or reblog this post if you find this helpful!

Index.

Ethically Sourcing Your Images.

Finding The Right Image.

Making Your Texture.

Other Tricks I Use.

Quick Recap.

Making Textures Without Images: Speedrun.

Outro.

Ethically Sourcing Your Images. 

I will be explaining a couple quick ways to make textures without any images at the end of the tutorial, but since my personal favourite way involves images and that’s specifically what the anon requested, that’s what the majority of the tutorial will be focused on.

The first step, naturally, is finding an image to use. My personal favourite site is Unsplash, but there are plenty of options out there. 

What you need to keep in mind is what kind of license the images have. Unsplash is free for personal and commercial use with no attribution required, which makes it perfect for things like this. There are more sites like this in my free for commercial use masterlist (linked at the end of the post), but unless you’re using them in products you’re selling (like graphic commissions), the commercial aspect isn’t something you need to worry about. Just check the site/photographer’s rules to make sure you’re allowed to edit the images for personal use, and whether attribution (credit) is required. 

Another important thing to keep in mind is that these sites typically never allow you to redistribute the images as they are. That means you can’t just go to Unsplash’s texture category, save the images without any changes, and reupload them in a texture pack on Tumblr. That’s stealing. We don’t do that.

Finding The Right Image.  

Knowing what kinds of images will make good textures is a learning curve. My first couple texture packs are rough compared to what I make now, because I basically taught myself with no guidance and learned through trial and error. But with practice, I learned what worked and what didn’t. 

You want your images to be HQ, either with no ‘subject’ (ie. a person) or with a large background. Higher contrast is better but not super necessary. You should hopefully be able to envision what kind of texture you want to make before you even touch the image.

Making Your Texture. 

For the majority of the tutorial, this is the image I’ll be working with. Credits can be found in the link at the end of the post. 

Open your canvas. You can make specialised textures, like 100px for icons or 540px for Tumblr graphics, but I personally prefer to make them large for versatility. I’m using 800px in this tutorial. Once you’ve chosen your size, upload your full-size image into the canvas. This is where the fun begins!

Drag the image around into a nice position. Or use Edit > Transform to rotate, flip, and warp the image in different ways. Or use Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T) to change the size or the angle more precisely. Or probably some combination of all three! With Free Transform, make sure this aspect ratio anchor is selected so you don’t butcher the quality of the image, unless you’re warping it intentionally:

This is all very individual to each image you use. You might want to flip one, shrink another, put another at a 30 degree angle. Just experiment until you end up with something you think would look awesome as a texture. For the sake of providing a good example, I flipped this image vertically, shrunk it to 80% its original size, and rotated it until it looked like the smoke/cloud was coming from the bottom right corner. This is what we have:

Then we move onto enhancing. Textures work best when there’s a lot of contrast because it’s easier to manipulate the blending modes. So if your image isn’t already high contrast, these adjustment layers (Brightness/Contrast, Levels, and Selective Colour) are your new best friends:

If you don’t see this on your Photoshop, go to Window > Adjustments and it should pop up. Again, just experiment, because different images will require different things. Essentially, you want to make the darks darker and the lights lighter. Something I like to do is add a Selective Colour layer and use the Black slider. Pick out the primary colour of the image, and then Whites, in the drop-down menu, and move the bottom slider (left to lighten, right to darken) until you’re satisfied. Like so:

So with those Selective Colour settings and the following Levels settings, here’s the before and after of my image.

Much better contrast! If you want to end here, you can, but I personally prefer grayscale textures a lot of the time because it makes it more versatile. Instead of being forced to make a blue graphic because this image is blue, I can make any colour graphic I want with one simple black and white Gradient layer. Photoshop does have a default Black & White adjustment feature, but I prefer using Gradients.

Pro tip: if your image doesn’t have a pure black, you can keep the darkest parts of your image dark by using the left slider, shown below. 

A lot of the time, I’ll also decrease the opacity of that Gradient layer, to somewhere between 80% and 95%, so just a hint of the original colour comes through. This gives it more dimension in my opinion, while still keeping it mostly neutral. Here’s 100% vs. 85%:

You may find that you want to add a little more contrast after. With this texture, I decided to grab another Selective Colour layer, pick ‘Black’ in the drop-down menu, and pull the Black slider up to +40. I also settled on 95% opacity for the Gradient. And here’s the final product!

Other Tricks I Use. 

That covers how I make a lot of my easier textures, but here’s a quick run-through of other, slightly more complex tricks. I’ll be working with this image (again, credit at the end of the post):

This, of course, is not as obviously texture-worthy as the previous example, but I love textures with strong lines, so here’s how the magic happens! I wanted to get rid of the detail on the bottom half, so I used the Polygonal Lasso tool to select it:

Then I used the eyedropper tool (the 4th symbol under the polygonal lasso in the image above) to select the blue of the sky and, on a new layer, painted that selection completely blue. I decreased the opacity to 90% just so it wasn’t a total block colour, but not enough that you can really see the lines. I repeated this process for the sky, so it looked more consistent with the bottom half.

Then, using the eyedropper tool again and making a new layer for every colour, I went in with a small soft paintbrush and painted out the harsh vertical lines on each segment of the stripes. I didn’t want to make them totally perfect, but I painted over the bulkiest interruptions. 

I added a black and white Gradient layer, using the slider tool I showed you before to darken the darks and lighten the lights, and decreased it to 50% so that it wasn’t totally black and white but still more neutral than the original. Here’s the result:

Another fun way to shake things up, which unfortunately will require Photoshop (CS6 should be fine, not sure about earlier versions), is the Filter Gallery. Go to Filter > Filter Gallery, and you’ll find a TON of effects that change your image drastically. Most of the default settings are nightmarish, but you can play around with the settings panel on the right.

Here’s just a few results that are possible with the Filter Gallery, labelled for convenience. You can view the HQ versions in the link at the end of the post.

Quick Recap. 

So you don’t have to reread this obnoxiously large tutorial every time you want to reference it in the future:

Choose a HQ image.

Resize, rotate, flip, and/or warp.

Enhance the contrast.

Black and white!

Paint over problem areas!

Filter > Filter Gallery.

Making Textures Without Images: Speedrun.

We’re almost done! There are some tools built directly into Photoshop that can allow you to make textures completely from scratch, and I’ll briefly cover my favourites here. 

The first is pattern fill layers. I spent too many years not appreciating the patterns feature in Photoshop, but they’re great. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Pattern, click ‘OK’ on the box that pops up, and another box will pop up to let you choose your pattern. 

By themselves, they are UGLY. It can take a while to figure out how to use them. But if you change the scale, change the blending mode, and change the opacity, you have thousands of textures at your fingertips. And if you add two or three together? Billions of possibilities. I can do a more in-depth tutorial on patterns if y’all are interested, but here’s two examples I just whipped up in a matter of minutes, using two patterns on each:

The next feature is gradient fill layers, and the gradient tool. Go to Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient… to select a gradient (or make your own!) and an angle, OR use the gradient tool (featured below) to drag the gradient across your canvas manually. On its own, boom, that’s a gradient texture. Paired with a pattern or put through the Filter Gallery? Even better!

The last is brushes. Brushes can be great for textures because there are so many kinds. You want to make a paint splatter texture? Paint splatter brush sets are everywhere! You want to make a smoky texture? You can get brushes that look like smoke! Smudged? Scratchy? Grunge? Halftone? Light leaks? Torn paper? Brushes have your back. 

With all of these features (and things like actions, too!), your saving grace is going to be this little cog wheel shown below, and the list you’ll find under the Reset/Save/Load section. There are SO many more options built directly into Photoshop that you don’t even see right away, because you have to add them manually from this little cog wheel. 

And you can download countless more patterns, gradients, and brushes from sites like Brusheezy and DeviantART. A couple tutorials on downloading and installing them can be found in the link at the end of the post, but remember, download these things ethically. If you want to sell products that use a custom brush, it’s your responsibility to find brushes that are free for commercial use. If you don’t want to credit the creator, it’s your responsibility to find resources that don’t require attribution. 

Outro.

I think that’s everything, guys! If you found this tutorial helpful or otherwise enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi! I offer exclusive rewards, like custom graphics, to everyone who donates. 

Due to Tumblr’s latest rules about links, you can find the credits list, the promised bonus tutorials, other important links, and the full-size HQ versions of the textures made in this tutorial over here.

Thanks for reading!

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Vmin Vlive Asks

From anon: saw on twitter people asking for vmin vilive again. If vmin were just friends it wouldn't be a problem streaming together, or if they hated each other as some say they would be professional enough to stream together without any problems. But since they don't, it's because it's difficult, even as a professional, because vmin is so cute with each other. just a thought.

From anon 2: It saddens me that we still haven't got a Vmin live/selfie. It really makes me wonder. Surely they can go an hour without flirting/touching/exposing themselves, right lol? Same with a selfie. V did a live with JK and JM did one with JK, last year. V uploaded a selfie of him and JK on NYE, but when it comes to Vmin we barely get crumbs. Not saying I expect it, but it raises the question of what the big deal is kinda. Worst part is antis see it as confirmation that Vmin aren't close. Makes me sad.

From anon 3: What are your thoughts on why we haven't seen Vmin selfies or vlives in a while? Same with Jikook. Nothing from them either. Do you think Jimin just isn't wanting to for some reason? Even TK uploaded a selfie on NYE and then we got Tae in a video, in a rush to get their selfie uploaded. Kinda makes me sad. Not cause T/JK uploaded a selfie, but I just wish Vmin would throw us a bone. Since we haven't seen any selfies/lives with J/k**k either, seems maybe its on Jimin's end why we aren't. Maybe?

Perhaps this is a moment where being a namjinist is quite a handy thing since we’re rather used to a lack of selcas, even if there are moments that we know (and even saw) them take some together and yet we never got to see the selca, meaning they took them merely for themselves as memory. Which kind of makes it actually much cuter, but that’s besides the point. Same goes for vlives, before the RJRJ vlive Summer 2020, we had to wait a very long time for a namjin vlive. Perhaps I’m just desensitized to this wish of a joined vlive, not that I wouldn’t want one, I very much do, but I’m used to just…not getting one, I suppose?

Admin 2 has actually written a post early on into our time on tumblr about their theories regarding the potential of a vmin vlive and how chances are we will likely not get one, at least not any time soon. Looking at anon 2’s question if they would really not be able to go an hour without flirting or touching or doing something else that could “expose” them—I’d like for us to remember their “Radio” for Japanese ARMY where they basically spent the entire time talking softly/sweetly with each other, Jimin calling the way Tae wrote words on a whiteboard “cute” (the video was deleted but this is at least the translation of this), how he wasn’t able to open a pen so he softly asked Tae do it for him, and how Jimin did this funny charade move which Tae claimed was “Jimin waking up” resulting in Jimin playfully/cutely “hitting” Tae’s chest (1:28 onward). And that’s edited content, yet it’s so sweet and full of little tender vmin moments.

Now imagine that but without editing and happening live.

Of course, Jimin and Tae are absolute professionals at their job, I don’t have any kind of doubt about it, but perhaps it’s just something they’ve decided they don’t want to do (despite Jimin’s initial “promise” of talking Tae into doing it with him, and Tae saying “okay” on the phone when asked about it). Not due to a lack of possibilities or time, not due to a lack of self-control both verbal and physical wise, but due to some completely different reason only they know. We know what literal hellscape the comments during vlives are, so imagine what kind of nightmare the comments during a vmin vlive would be…it makes me sad and furious just thinking about it. Considering the comments are already full of hate and shipping related comments and questions when they do solo vlives. Or how hateful people were when Jimin, Seokjin and Yoongi did their Just Dance vlive together in 2020, how Seokjin was basically accused of “getting in the way” of y*onm*n and far, far worse things, even though all three of them were having so much fun together.

We know how much certain people despise vmin and any (cute) interactions between Jimin and Tae that show that all their wishes or claims that “they hate each other” and “have drifted apart” are not true. Also, remember how Tae posted their ITS bed selca on weverse and was flooded with hate for it? I admit, that was in parts due to “bad timing” (or rather people being unable to stop demanding things from Bangtan without immediately turning hateful but that’s a whole different story) but in larger parts due to it going against “popular agendas”.

“Worst part is antis see it as confirmation that Vmin aren't close. Makes me sad.” If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years as ARMY, as well as vminnie and namjinist, it’s that the opinion of antis is worth less than dirt. Even dirt is more useful, tbh. They can think whatever they like, but the good thing is, their opinion and whatever they think is a “confirmation” of their agenda, it doesn’t affect the truth and the reality of Jimin’s and Tae’s bond in any kind of way. So, please, don’t let their noisiness make you sad. Literal antis are not worth our times. Not in relation to vmin and not in relation to BTS in general.

“Not cause T/JK uploaded a selfie, but I just wish Vmin would throw us a bone.” While I know what you mean, I’d like to remind you, and everyone else, that we’ve gotten a whole mountain of bones in recent weeks between RUN and other content like Winter Package. We might not have gotten any selcas or vlive, but we got so many other things, do they not count? Besides, we’ve made it five years without vmin vlive, I think we’ll be okay, no?

So, it’s okay to hope we might get a vlive from Tae and Jimin together one day, as well as a selca, if they’ve decided against it behind the scenes, we should respect and accept that. In the end, if they’ll one day do decide to do a vlive or post a selca out of the blue, imagine how happy we’d be.

Instead let us look forward with anticipation and excitement for tomorrow’s Grammy performance and hopefully their first win, even though I’ll forever be salty about the organizers putting their category in the pre-show instead of making it part of the main gala despite knowing that their category is basically the most anticipated one this year. As well as most of the categories with POC nominees being outside of the main gala. Very telling.

Then again, like that one Forbes article once said:

[fishoutofcamelot]

IT’S OFFICIAL! I’M MAKING A MERLIN-THEMED D&D CAMPAIGN!!! <3

Do you like Merlin? Do you like D&D? Do you like the idea of D&D but don’t know how it works? Then The Rising Sun campaign is just for you! (named after that one tavern in Camelot lmao)

CAMPAIGN PREMISE:

Jailbreak! The members of your party have been locked away in Camelot’s dungeons and must work together to bust out. But with a mysterious curse terrorizing the city, that might be easier said than done. Takes place during the three-year gap between seasons 4 and 5.

BASIC INFORMATION:

4-6 players, all at LVL3

Is this your first game? Your 50th game? All experience levels accepted!

Will feature monsters/characters/settings present in BBCM canon

The session will be recorded and posted to Youtube, so even people who don’t play can still join in on the fun!

Wanna chat about Merlin? (And D&D, but mostly Merlin) Join the Rising Sun Discord Server!!!

It’s a oneshot campaign, meaning there will only be one session

Submit your character sheet/s to me (email under the cut) by November 15th!

The exact length of the session will depend on player availability/preference, and how long it takes us to get through the campaign. But expect it to take around 2-4 hours

You can play as a canon character (like Mithian or Percival), or make an OC 

We will be running this through D&D5e (5th edition) as this is what I’m most familiar with. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it!

Players must have access to Discord. Announcements, party talk, scheduling, etc. will be held on an exclusive channel through the Rising Sun Discord Server

WANT TO GET INVOLVED WITHOUT PLAYING?

Don’t worry, we’ve got something for everyone! I want this to be something everyone in the fandom can enjoy :)

The campaign will be recorded virtually and posted to Youtube in 30-minute parts/episodes, with captions available

Transcripts will also be posted to AO3

Join the Rising Sun Discord Server!

Don’t have a Discord account? Information about the campaign will also be posted to the Rising Sun Campaign tag on Tumblr

Feeling artsy? Feel free to post it! Any campaign-related art sent to me (through Discord, Tumblr, or Gmail) will likely be posted to my Tumblr blog and also feature in one of the episodes uploaded to Youtube, provided you give me permission to do so <3

Interested? More details under the cut! 

PROJECTED TIMELINE

November 1: Player Submission period opens

November 15: Player Submission period ends

November 20: Official player + character list announced

December 18-January 18: Campaign session held. The exact date/time will depend on the availability of party members, but this is just the time period in which it’s most likely to happen (it’s my winter break!)

January/February: Campaign “episodes” will be uploaded to Youtube on a weekly basis, with their respective transcripts posted to AO3. Official release schedule to be posted after the campaign has been recorded

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Submit to my email: ragicmobot@gmail.com

If you don’t know a lot about D&D and want me to teach you/help you make your character sheet, let me know through Tumblr! 

Submissions should include your: 

Tumblr URL and/or Discord ID

Time zone

Expected availability between Dec18-Jan18

Experience/comfort level with D&D

If you are willing to have your face shown in the recording

Character sheet/s

Any homebrew content you would like to use

You can submit more than one character sheet, but you can only play as one character, and only one character will be accepted into the campaign

If we get more than 6 submissions, players will be chosen based on their availability, friendliness, and how well I think their character will fit into the campaign/party

If you’re accepted as a player, I will let you know via Tumblr/Discord before posting the official player list to Tumblr. You will also be granted access to the Party-Only channel on the Rising Sun Discord server

You MUST be a member of this server, as crucial party discussions, announcements, and Zoom links will be shared there

Make sure to have everything submitted by November 15th!

GUIDELINES

My time zone is PST. Expect this to influence scheduling

If you aren’t comfortable having your face in the recording, you can turn your camera off! However, I will ask that you at least keep your mic on

The session will be held and recorded through Zoom. Make sure you have access to this program! 

Due to Zoom restrictions, a Zoom meeting can’t be any longer than 45 minutes. So the session will probably be broken up into 30-minute meetings, with 5-minute breaks in between each one. The Zoom link/s will be posted to the Party-only channel on the Rising Sun server. If I find a more efficient way of doing this, I will let you know

There will be a session zero, also on Zoom, about a week before we record the session. This is just a quick and casual opportunity for us to meet, work out any technical issues, address campaign expectations, talk about our characters, and get to know each other better <3

General courtesy and Zoom/D&D etiquettes apply. Don’t be a dick!

I might end up commissioning/having art done of the Player Characters (PCs). If you’re not okay with that, let me know!

CHARACTER CREATION

Put your character at LVL 3

Homebrew content is allowed, so long as you have me look it over first!

Use the D&D5e character sheet for character creation (if you need help accessing this I can send you an editable pdf, or help you find an online character sheet creator)

CANON CHARACTERS

Make sure all information on your character sheet is accurate to canon. Any deviations from canon (like giving Elyan magic, or making Percival a time-traveler) must be talked over with me first

Does their canon background have holes or unknowns? Fill them in yourself! Get creative <3

If this character doesn’t have a race available in D&D, like a sidhe, then you have two options. You can either homebrew their profile, or you can using an existing race profile that’s similar while clearly establishing what their real race is

When writing their backstory, try to think of how they would fit into the campaign. Why are they in the dungeons? Is Merlin suffering the aftermath of a magic reveal gone wrong? Did Gwaine get into a tavern brawl? Has George been framed for murder?

OCs

Be creative! Time travelers, shapeshifters, orcs - as long as you develop it well enough, I’ll probably allow it

If your character has a race/species that doesn’t exist in BBCM canon - like an elf or a dwarf - then provide backstory as to why their people are never seen or mentioned in the show. Did the dwarves go into hiding during the Purge? Is your character the first of their kind? Were they cursed into a non-human form?

In the event that we get someone to do art for the PCs, please make sure the physical description of your character is very clear and concise. Consider including reference art of some kind as well. This will hopefully make it easier for the artist/s to do their thing

When writing their backstory, try to think of how they would fit into the campaign. Why are they in the dungeons? Did they get caught trying to kill the king? Did their friend turn them in for sorcery? Did they steal something from the vaults?

This should be a chance for us all to goof off and have fun, so I’m not gonna be super strict on the rules. And if you have any questions, hit me up on Tumblr!! <3