#also I have zero idea when I'll actually get around to drawing the other ones in the series I just wanted to get this one done first

[mayorofcattown]

Thinking of doing a small series of illustrations of... idk dramatic eye closeups? whatever this is? of the natsuyuu characters and Of Course I had to start with Natsume, Tanuma and the pond

also just uploaded a timelapse of the painting parts of this pic to my patreon (link in bio) if ppl are interested!

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! Do you have some ideas in regards to facial differences and fun/cool make-up?

I'm planning to re-design a character, and was planning to give her a port wine stain during the redesign; she's also the type of character who'd really enjoy fun/cool make-up, like stuff that incorporates rhinestones or wild eyeliner shapes. I feel like she might enjoy incorporating her port wine stain into the make-up, but I'm drawing a blank as to how she might do that, and all google gives me is how to cover them, which is the exact opposite of what I and the character want. Are there any resources you could point me to? Or am I missing something that'd make it distasteful to put so much attention on her FD, even positive attention, since I don't have one? (I'll definitely try to have some more characters with FDs who are just, like, neutral about them/don't draw attention to them through make-up like that, but the character in question is one of the main characters so I want her design done before focusing on the more minor characters)

Hi!

I will preface this by saying that I'm a guy with close to zero experience or knowledge about make-up, if I misuse any basic terms or am ignorant about it, I apologize!

The idea of a character incorporating their birthmark into make-up is really fun! I definitely don't think it would be distasteful. I can easily imagine an influencer with a facial difference deciding to do something like this!

Some of the cool things she could do;

She could make it stand out more, rather than less - maybe make the color pop; make it more brightly red (or purple, or any other color hers is)?

Coordinate colors! Matching the color of her birthmark with her lipstick, or eyeshadow, or anything else. Or fun palettes; maybe a sunset gradient that incorporates the port wine stain's color?

Make fun shapes with it! If she has PWS spots, she could maybe turn them into stars, or if the whole thing is visible enough, maybe she could make it into a heart?

Adding rhinestones actually sounds awesome! It probably depends on where on her face it is, but maybe she could frame the stones to go around it, or point towards it?

She can of course wear regular make-up that doesn't put any additional attention to her PWS, there's no issue with that. Just don't make her cover it (but you know that!).

Personally, the rhinestone idea sounds the most exciting to me! There's something high fashion, or maybe even royal-esque about it that characters with facial differences don't really normally get. I would love to see that.

I think that, assuming your character has internet access, the lack of resources is an issue you could bring up in the story. A "why do I have to do everything myself, there's only so many ideas I can think of!" or "no, Unspecified Search Engine, not how to hide it- oh my god, why is it so useless" kind of scenario when she can't find anything new to do when she's out of ideas or hitting the artblock. I've been there when trying to find tutorials on drawing people with facial differences. This is how being a disabled artist kinda is.

all google gives me is how to cover them, which is the exact opposite of what I [...] want

And well, sounds like you got a lick of that facial difference experience ;-) (winky face). Now, imagine if incorporating FDs into art was popular and this wasn't an issue- okay, I probably made this point in too many posts now, but if your body of work ever gets published/popular, it could have an effect on things like this! I love seeing facial differences shown as something to be proud of and not to hide. I also enjoy that you mentioned additional side characters with FD. Thank you!

mod Sasza

[sleepymccoy]

Alright, I have been thinking about spaceships!!

Basic premise, we don't have light speed tech so it's all within the solar system. Moons and some planets are terraformed, there are space stations, so on. I haven't designed anything with fake gravity, so the ships would need to handle gravity and zero grav in space. That's mostly fixtures though, the structure is fairly unchanged I reckon, cos it does all still need to work in gravity. Because of that, the engines are taking up a bit of space. And i've tried to leave some dead space in the ship cos i'm sure i'll come up with more scientific necessities, like I'm already thinking about constantly having to create fuel to burn to leave orbit.

Other thing, this ship has to work in three ways. One, space flight/leaving orbit stuff. Two, can park on solid ground and has a functional trade door. Three, has some way of fishing while hovering over the open ocean. That's why every ship has a "fishing" zone for the fishing part of things. They're all at the bottom of the ship, obvs.

Also, you'll probably get this from my writing the pros and cons, but this is for a romance that just happens to be set in space lol

First of all, the UFO

Basic UFO design premise. One big wide disc, on one level.

Pros: I can fuck around with the design on the one level pretty freely, and don't need to commit to shit For example, storage and rooms should def swap cos rooms can have windows then. This can have whole areas the pov character doesn't go to very easily. Open plan means secrets and privacy are harder to have, encourages drama.

Cons: The design doesn't make sense against like air drag and leaving orbit. It' so not aerodynamic. Maybe it takes off at a 90 degree angle, so like every room has a take off chair fitted to the wall cos it's gonna flip to its side. Okay, that's kinda fun, this shouldn't be in the con line anymore but whatever. It's a good example that all cons can be overcome x

Second, let's look at the Slice

Pros: Small and intimate. There's less rooms so everyones sharing a room with another shift, which gives everyone a unique friendship with one person on another shift schedule. Can't hang out in your room, so gotta see other people, encourage interaction. Tbf, I can make that happen in the other designs if I decide it's too cool to skip

Cons: also not aerodynamic. Very good in space or staying in gravity. Maybe it has another way it sorta collapses in to leave orbit, like the angle bit on the hangy downy slides up to be more like an arrow head. Yeah alright, there' another con that's become a cool pro. Actual con! Not having your own room lessens how easy it is to have sex. Although i guess the shifts undo that, cos you wouldn't want to risk waking the person who's got the room rn. Could be a fun pro as secret sex is much harder to do. Ugh

The Ball

Pros: Hysterical. Quite a bit of space. Confusing layout gives you nooks and crannies to bump into someone in a sexual tension way. Aerodynamic enough i guess? Fucking wild looking, it's just a big ol ball. I could redesign this a bit to be like a luxury yacht that's been refitted to be a fishing boat, which'd add some fun world building stuff. And some crazy down time options

Cons: This feels the most disjointed to me really. And it would be so damned hard to build. Oh, the multi level idea, which i kinda forget when drawing, is that 1B would be accessible through floor holes in the 2C corridors. They probably dont line up cos I forgot about it. Actually, they kinda nearly do. Cool.

Here's a poll so you can choose lol. I'll do another poll in reblogs with some of the features so you can suggest what you think is the most important feature, if you really want to have a say! I love feedback and brainstorming, so please, bring your heart <3

[yakuzacanons]

If you're still taking requests, how would the boys help out their s/o that has scars/trauma around dogs?

Such a good ask, I have a few family members that struggle with this actually so I can kinda draw from some experience here. This is a relatively short one, just because my other recent post about comforting an s/o dealing with emotional/mental shit is up and a lot of it can be cross referenced here. Headcanons below da cut.

Kazuma Kiyru

He'll ask the kids to keep Mame away from you, especially since Mame barks a lot. If you decide you want to try to overcome this fear, he'll allow it but he'll keep a watchful eye and will notice if you've hit your limit. Not mindful of scars at all, as he has plenty himself. Very big protector energy, super understanding, never judgemental.

Majima Goro

Type of idiot to say "Dontcha worry, if a dog tries to bite ya, I'll just bite it back!" which doesn't really help but at least makes you laugh. Totally isn't afraid to tell strangers if the dog they're walking is barking at you too much, saying things like "Ya gots to be mindful of other people, ya know!". As for scars, like Kiryu, he's got plenty of his own. If you ever feel self conscious, he'll once again say something silly like "Babe, if ya can love me with a whole eye missin', then ya got nothin' to worry 'bout when it comes to yer appearance! Compared to me, yer hot as hell!".

Akiyama Shun

He kind of gets nervous around dogs too. Really, he's nervous around most small animals or small children as he has zero idea what to do with them, especially when they get noisy. He empathizes with you a lot in this aspect. Out of all the boys, it is easiest to confide your fears or trauma with Akiyama as he shares a similar mindset, even if he doesn't have personal trauma around dogs. Type of guy to wrap his arm around your shoulder if you're walking by a particularly aggressive dog while saying "Just keep walking, I'm right here, okay?".

Tanimura Masayoshi

Has never had a pet in his life and honestly never wanted one. Since he's a cop, he's good at enforcing neighborhood laws like owners having to scoop their dog's poop, so most of the pet owners in the area are pretty up to snuff. You won't have to worry about a rogue dog getting aggressive out of the blue. Type of sweet baby boy to kiss your scars when you get upset about them and say "There, all better now!".

Saejima Taiga

Has a really good connection with animals so they don't actually get super aggressive around him. Maybe it's because he's built like a tank. Either way, he's really understanding and is the type of guy to stand between you and a dog when you're on a walk, keeping the dog out of view, so you can cross the street and feel safe, all the while saying things like "Don't worry, I gotcha". He's super neutral on having pets so you never have to worry about him wanting to bring a puppy back home one day.

Ryuji Goda

Biggest dog person out of all the boys so he will want a dog someday. However, he would never make any important life decisions without talking to his partner first and he would make sure you felt safe and prepared if he really wanted to bring a dog into the family. Most likely to actually help you overcome the fear by slowly getting you to interact with dogs, as he really likes pets and frequents pet cafes. He'll show you how to approach them, how to read their body language, and the like, all while saying "See, sometimes they're just as scared as ya, but they ain't all bad." Ryuji would rather see you learn to overcome your fears than try to blindly shield you from them.

Nishikiyama Akira

He is ALSO actually scared of dogs. Just looks really shocked if one starts barking loudly at him and then just sneaks away. He'll comfort you by jokingly say "We survived that dog encounter", allowing you both to laugh about it in hindsight. Truthfully, he's kind of sheepish that he gets skittish around loud or big dogs so it's nice that you both can understand each other without feeling like you have to reason with each other or explain it over and over again.

Daigo Dojima

He's actually a cat person. He's not afraid of dogs but he's kind of sensitive to loud noises so when he hears a lot of dogs barking, he gets frustrated or annoyed. If you have particularly bad trauma with dogs, he'll enforce a no-dogs-allowed-on-Tojo-Clan-property rule. He takes a private car most places so you don't have to worry much about public interactions with dogs. Also the type of guy to kiss your scars but instead of saying they're all better, he'll say "I love every single part of you. Even your scars".

Mine Yoshitaka

Ever the fearless lad, Mine would probably bark back at a loud dog to make you smile before saying "I gave that dog a good talking to, he won't be bothering you" which only makes the two of you giggle. Glares at people who let their dogs wander around freely, as he thinks it's a public nuisance and not helpful for anyone. If you guys run into a dog on a walk out and you start to panic, he'll say "Let's take a detour and take the long way home." and he would never judge you for feeling anxious. Very good at removing you from situations of stress.

[riflebrass]

Today was my first actual gun class. My proficiency is pieced together from family, friends, and self taught stuff. I'd like to think I'm an above average shooter, but I've really wanted some professional training to learn better technique while unlearning bad habits I've picked up. It's going to be a long post so I'll hide it under the read more link but the tl;dr was that it was a great day.

Unfortunately most classes I've looked out are at least $500 and require at least a thousand rounds of ammo, neither of which I can afford. Fortunately I found an instructor recommended by some of the locals who train pretty regularly and his classes were a lot cheaper. It was just $150 for the class and the ammo I already had saved up. This class was just what I was looking for too. It was advanced enough that the instructor expected us to already know the fundamentals of gun safety and how to use our guns but we weren't doing a ton of running around or timed drills. We focused on drawing from the holster and getting shots on target, shooting from awkward positions, drawing and shooting one handed with our weak hand in case your dominant arm gets shot before you have a chance to draw. Stuff like that. He made sure to emphasize that this was meant to be slow fire to really get the techniques down.

The instructor also had a neat motorized target stand that uses two-sided targets. It starts off holding the target sideways. Then when it flips one way the target is a guy holding a gun. Facing the other way it's a guy using his phone to take pictures. It presents the target for a pre-determined time then flips back to sideways. So the idea is you have to determine quickly whether or not the guy you see is a threat then you need to get shots on target. For most of us the target was presented for 3 seconds before turning away. One of the more experienced students was given 1.5 second intervals. The instructor also threw everyone a curveball by flipping to the camera guy for half a second then immediately switching to the guy with the gun. I really liked that.

After we finished the pistol break he brought out a couple blocks of ballistics gel for us to test our carry ammo in. I already posted about it earlier. It was really cool. Then we transitioned to rifle work. Unfortunately today's class was a few hours shorter than he normally runs so the rifle stuff was really rushed. We spent most of the rifle course checking and adjusting zeroes. Afterwards we did some work at 100 yards, 50 yards, and 10 yards to work on our up-close holdovers. The instructor said next time he wants us to work out from 100-400 yards to practice our further holdovers. Since I barely touched my ammo it's just a matter of scraping together the money for the class.

Also the instructor was a really nice guy. All his pics on facebook have that tough guy/resting bitch face look but he was all smiles and a cheerful personality in person. Also really patient with me. There were a couple times I got a little too lax on safety and he had to remind me to stay aware. There were a few other things we were doing that I had difficulty understanding and he had to explain it a few times because I'm a little retarded. Anyway he was still really patient with me and supportive when I got it right. I really appreciated that.

So I hope I'll be able to do more classes with these guys. The rest of the attendees were all regulars with the group and all really nice guys.

[brucenorris007]

"Sonic 06: gameplay is shit, story is shit."

Okay, I somewhat disagree but don't see the need to expend energy toward-

*comparison between 06 and Forces is drawn*

My brain: heyguesswhatyou'rehyperfocusednow

I was going to do things today. . . but here we are.

Okay, up top and up front: 06 and Forces are both flawed, yes.

But they are flawed in fundamentally different ways, and Forces flaws are, quite frankly, far more glaring and demeritorious for a franchise like Sonic than 06. Anyone who, years from now, goes on to claim that "Uh, actually, Forces was peak." the way that some people are saying about 06 now will be just as, if not more, wrong. And I'll attribute such claims to declining media literacy.

BEFORE the youngsters in the fandom start throwing things at me, note that I said just as wrong. 06 wasn't ever as good as some of the mainline games prior or even spinoff titles after.

The difference is, most of 06's issues stem from the fact that it reads as pitiably unfinished.

The problems with Forces begin and end with the fact that it reads like self-insert fan fiction that had either zero beta readers or too many beta readers that were all given editing privileges. There's definitely a place in the world for that sort of creativity, but said place is not within a licensed game that people have to pay for; one that drastically affects the canon of the franchise and how the fans old and new perceive it and the characters within.

All right? Okay, let's get into details.

Let's address gameplay first, since I have less to say about that.

On this count, if nothing else, Forces barely edges out by being functional; granted, that's the end of it. I wouldn't go back to play it again, and the 'highlights' I can recall mostly felt like reskins of stages in the style of Colors but shortened, with boss fights reminiscent of daytime Unleashed. I imagine the primary draw for people is watching their customized 'sona jump and fly around whilst listening to dialogue from the main cast.

And this isn't really a substantive point, but the fact that receiving stuff like outfits like loot crates at the end of virtually every stage feels kind of manipulative and annoys me. If there's unlockable features, put some actual challenge between the player and the prize, like how you perform within the stage. Otherwise it's just another example of "shiny, novelty, tickle brain often, get player to play longer."

Setting that brief tangent aside since that's just a trend in games in general and not Sonic specific, moving on to 06's gameplay. And uh, yeah. The USP was, like the adventure games, supposed to be that you got three interconnected stories and three main characters each with unique play styles.

I suppose 06 showed us before anything else that Shadow really isn't as fast as Sonic, and as an idea, Silver's psychokinesis was cool. If the tracking in the Speed Up stages and the hit boxes in a handful of other areas had been ironed out, there's foundation for a fairly solid experience. Project 06 is basically proof that the base of the game had potential that wasn't realized, whether due to time constraints or other reasons.

As far as environs, the concept for Kingdom Valley showed off the most soul, I'd say, with Silver's future coming in close second. Character design for the Iblis fragments (not sure if that's the official name but I'm doing stream-of-consciousness here) and Mephiles I actually like a lot. I don't think there's anything objectively wrong with them and however you rate them will come down to preference.

Also, the model for Sonic is like. . . ridiculously good. He just looks like an older teenager; it fits with the widely accepted idea that he was 15 as of Adventure 2. Polish it a bit and that's just how he appears in my head when I write about him.

That said, there are only about six different environs that serve as stages, discounting the hub areas, and compared to Heroes' twelve stages, it just adds to that incomplete/rushed feeling.

That's about all I can say on the gameplay aspect. Functional yet non-stimulating technically wins out over some creativity yet patchy. They are games, after all.

Now then, the "story is shit" business.

Look, if you're going to criticize Sonic's story—which, yeah, his should be subjected to more scrutiny, being the titular character—then much of what you can say against it also applies to the first Adventure. Eggman wants to collect a thing (emeralds/Princess), Sonic wants him to not collect the thing (emeralds/Princess) because he's obviously planning to do evil stuff with the thing, Sonic manages to get the thing only for Eggman to snatch it out of his hands.

Multiple times.

Meaning Sonic spends most of the games on fetch quests that Eggman keeps one-upping him on until the penultimate fight.

And those are the beats. Of both stories. (For Sonic.)

And then at the end of both games, a monster you've fought in various forms (Chaos/Iblis) reappears to threaten the world on a scale that requires the seven chaos emeralds to combat.

Super Sonic. Rad soundtrack. Credits.

Granted, much like how Gamma's story was the strongest in Adventure, the quality of the three main story lines in 06 also vary in strength, with Shadow's taking first place.

My point is, in a franchise that is about characters, you don't grade every aspect of the story on the same scale. You weigh the grade of various aspects differently; and the point that gets graded most heavily is:

Character moments; which can encapsulate literal moments, arcs, development etc.

And for all its flaws, 06 has character moments, almost immediately, even. Sonic's first spoken line is "My, that's a pretty snazzy performance there!"

Which, after the tension of Eggman interrupting the festival and threatening Elise, cuts through the moment right away and, paired with the next several seconds, shows who Sonic is. He sees Eggman's robots aiming and waits until the last second to jump before going to town bashing up bots. Even as he carts Elise off amidst homing missiles and explosions, he's grinning the whole time.

Sonic does what he does because it's fun.

And his third spoken line, answering Elise's question of why he's helping, is: "No special reason."

Again, that's Sonic. Doesn't matter who it is, he helps people because he Does what's Cool. And as well as being fun, fighting off Eggman and his bots is Cool.

06, as Silver's introduction to the series, also does a decent job establishing his character of Temporal Bulldozer. He can be aimed, but his solution to problems first and foremost is usually smashing, and it's really tricky to change his mind once he's focused. He suffers from myopia arguably as bad or worse than Metal Sonic. Amy's the only one who momentarily gets him to pause and wonder if really does want to kill Sonic.

Which is a character moment for her. As in Adventure 2, Amy will happily break laws and go against who and whatever to help her friends; and as she did with Shadow, she's rather skilled at getting very hurt people to listen.

She's not unlike Silver in her willingness to do whatever it takes, really; since Temporal Bulldozer can and does traverse time on several occasions to make things right. And up until the last moment, it never occurs to him that anyone but he should bear the burden of saving the world. Blaze has to physically shove him aside so she can absorb Iblis herself.

Silver sees himself as a Hero with a responsibility toward the future just as much Sonic sees himself as just Some Guy.

Finally, Shadow. And man, there's a reason a lot of people say 06 was the last time a game featured Shadow written correctly.

It's me. I'm one of a lot of people.

Team Dark in general gets a fair bit of spotlight in 06. Rouge, an anti-heroine with perhaps the greatest self-interest after Eggman, promises Shadow that she'd stand with him even if the very world turned against him. Omega, who loathes taking orders and prioritizes his own freedom nearly as much as Sonic, takes on Rouge's assignment for him without question or complaint to wait out 200 years to help rescue Shadow.

And Shadow, in an in-game line during his first fight with Mephiles, reaffirms all the progress he made in his titular game that was wholly about discovering his identity: "Don't bother trying to deceive me. I know who I am!"

And, in contrast to the Shadow the franchise first introduced us to, the Shadow of Adventure 2 who was thoroughly convinced that his only remaining worth was his ability to keep his promise to Maria, the Shadow who was so resigned that he chose to plummet through the planet's atmosphere to his presumed death. . .

That Shadow is faced squarely with his fate of persecution, asked why he would bother fighting to protect. That Shadow declares that it the world turns on him, "I will fight as I always have."

He's grown such that he's now willing to fight against fate.

And that's pretty fucking cool.

On the other side, applying the same grading method to Forces, we find what I call (as of just now) character fauxments.

Remember how I talked about 06's introduction for Sonic? How he cuts through tensions, finds joy and fun in fighting bullies and bad guys?

The thing about that, which Forces doesn't seem to understand, is that if you lean too hard on the wisecracks and nonchalance, you end up with a character who reads as either obnoxious or totally tone-deaf. Sonic knows when to take things seriously, yet in Forces he's purportedly been tortured as well as locked up for half a year, Infinite's destroyed countless homes and killed who knows how many people, and yet when Sonic interrupts his fight with Silver. . .

I mean, if Sonic was written correct, you'd cut out a bunch of faff and change his line delivery. Show that he's frustrated by his time confined and absolutely raring to throw hands and get to business; because Sonic does understand when things have gotten real, and while rare, he does get angry. Something like:

"Since you like talking so much, mind sharing the source of your power? I can ask the easy way or the hard way. I've been cooped up a long time, so I'm hoping you pick the hard way."

It doesn't need to be the most original lines in the world, but Sonic's banter in the middle of a war shouldn't be long-winded, no matter how pretentious his opponent is (and damn, is Infinite pretentious. Like to the point that it's the most memorable part of the game.) If there's banter, it should be punchy and succinct; quick, like he is.

Instead, Forces Sonic's attitude is just kind of. . . incongruous with the stakes the game claims to have established. But then, since we don't get a truly convincing scene showing the rest of the cast being sad that he reportedly died, that's not too surprising.

Speaking of setting up stakes, here's an idea. Rather than cutting from Sonic laying battered in the middle of the city for a lazy six-month time skip established by text on the screen, make it clear that "Oh shit, things are different" via gameplay.

After Sonic falls, immediately transition into a level. Where you run from right to left to escape Eggman's fleet. Turns everything on its head, you can witness and navigate the destruction as it's happening and if you string together enough environs, you can even have the city burning in the distance or the skyline as you near the end of the stage and escape to relative safety.

Anyway.

And of course, the notorious character fauxment: Tails cowering in front of an offline Omega.

There's nothing I can say about this fauxment that hasn't been said already. It's not the first time in the series that Tails was portrayed as having regressed to a scared child, but it is the most egregious.

And. . . actually, that's about it, at least off the top of my head. Which might speak to how short the game is and how little screen time and action the main cast get aside from Sonic and the player character.

But it's enough to determine that Forces' story, or what stands in for it, is weaker than what 06 offered.

Again, I'm not here to rally a feral defense of 06 as a masterpiece, but its flaws are not on the level of Forces. The reason they're lumped together is the amount of disdain both games got on their release; though in the case of 06, the 2000's were just a weird time when hating things was somehow cooler than liking them, and since 06 wasn't up to par with Adventure 2 or Heroes, people picked an aspect of the game-most often how much the almost final fantasy style model for Elise didn't match up with the Mobian models (and yes, the final cutscene, but there's nothing new I can say about that either, and talking about it here is just an open invitation for someone to blow it out of proportion again) and dogpiled the hate on the game.

Sonic 06 feels unfinished owing to a lot of little and larger details. Knuckles' portrayal and having little to do in the story, poor optimization leading to nearly twenty second loading times, BLAZE BEING A GLOWING NEON MISSED OPPORTUNITY! (SEGA, I know I was literally twelve when the game was released, but my Phoenix headcanon works so well and makes her appearance in both Rush and 06 work! A retroactive fix would be so easy and we could get more adventures in her dimension!)

Even acknowledging all that, though, there were still attempts at creativity that just, for one reason or another, didn't pan out. There's significant potential here.

Forces is just. . . a mess. In every sense. And I understand how a mess can be attractive to a fandom, because a mess means you can take whatever you want from it and organize things however you choose.

But a mess that's sold as a finished game is not the same as a rushed title with visible untapped potential.

[revui]

Friend !!! how are the silly little guys in your head doin. what have they been up to

buddy they are doing so well. hyacinth just made a deal with a ghost and if she doesn't get a girl to fall in love with her by the end of the day then she'll have to give up her body. that'll be fine i'm sure

OK I actually want to ramble about this part because Hyacinth's arc in the narrative has so much ghost shit going on and it's extremely fun for me to write. This whole plotline heavily involves two different artifacts, one being an orb that holds the souls of all Hyacinth's ancestors from the past ~400 years and the other being a necklace capable of acting as a vessel for the Corruption, allowing whoever wears it to wield the curse. There's a lot of stuff I'll skip over in order to stay on the main point, but here's the important summary:

Skyler shows up in Hyacinth's family's casino wearing an illusion stone that disguises her as Colum, and she intends to steal the Corruption necklace

Hyacinth almost loses the necklace but is able to leverage the fact that Skyler is honor-bound to NOT kill her (since Sky is buds with Hyacinth's older brother) and Skyler gets captured

While trying to find out where to put an assassin who keeps trying to bite her fingers, Hyacinth finds the aforementioned orb and gets to chat with the soul of her grandmother, a talented singer who died decades ago when the casino caught on fire

Her grandmother, Gloria, manages to pick out a ton of Hyacinth's insecurities during this conversation and gently exploits the fuck out of them in order to convince Hyacinth to make the deal

The long and short of it is: "Hey, Hyacinth, you're an incompetent person, I need you to prove that the family can depend on you by doing something super easy—just confess your love to Delilah and get her to reciprocate those feelings. If you don't, then I'll just take your body and live your life for you because clearly you can't be trusted to do it if you can't manage a task that simple."

Gloria recognizes that Hyacinth is generally socially inept and assumes that Delilah probably doesn't like her back, while also knowing that Hyacinth is very desperate for approval, so it's a perfect storm of promising precisely what Hyacinth's wants more than anything while hinging that on her greatest weakness—social emotions.

Hyacinth takes this deal immediately. She's scientifically minded and figures that it'll be easy enough to just solve love—she just needs to study how love works and she'll be good to go. Once she understands the theory, it'll be easy enough to put it into practice.

(I don't think I need to tell you, but that's not how it works.)

Unsurprisingly, she fumbles hard and completely blows up her already volatile friendship with Delilah, and Gloria comes to collect her end of the deal.

So, Hyacinth's soul is trapped in the nightmare orb, but remember Skyler? Remember how he was captured and he's just been hanging around for a while, and how he was left in the same spot Hyacinth found the orb? When Gloria takes Hyacinth's body, she leaves the orb there again. Skyler frees himself with relative ease and investigates the nightmare orb, and Hyacinth's soul pops out to be like "Sunset—(by the way Skyler's alias in Thistle is Sunset)—I know we've done nothing but try to murder each other for the past couple weeks, but Gloria's fucking up the casino and she might kill my older brother for being in Thistle, and I know you're pals with him so I have a horrible idea."

The horrible idea in question functionally being "let's split our souls in half."

This is to solve two problems.

Skyler is an unrefined caster. They don't have the natural reserve of magic that sorcerers do and can only draw on the land's latent, "wild" magic, which is difficult for anyone to control and especially for someone who spent 15 years of their life in a world with zero magic; Hyacinth happens to be an incredible sorcerer who's already familiarized herself with wild magic and would be able to use it competently.

Hyacinth is not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination. She's a nerd familiar with only the basics of self-defense and would be incapable of surviving in combat with no magic; Skyler fights pretty exclusively without magic and also happens to be extraordinarily competent in combat thanks to the whole assassin training thing.

So in order to get Gloria's soul out and take Hyacinth's body back, these two socially incompetent near-strangers whose only major interactions have been physical fights, have to enter what may be the most hilariously intimate scenario possible, which is to physically share a body and mind. They each halve their souls; half of Skyler's soul goes into the orb and half of Hyacinth's soul enters Skyler's body, irreversibly changing their relationship and creating the most literal interpretation of the phrase "platonic soulmates."

It's very fun to write. Anyway, in summary, they triumph, the orb is destroyed, the trapped souls are allowed to pass on, Gloria is defeated, Hyacinth gets her body back, Skyler gets the other half of their soul back, Hyacinth reunites with her older brother for the first time in four years, and then... Skyler just fucking takes the Corruption necklace and leaves. He just goes "well this has permanently transformed our bond with each other. yoink. bye."

[protocolseben]

slipshod writing because i just want a companion random story to that edit accompanied with some drawings (and also all written in lower case)

fernando is pissed as balls that his engine broke down in abu dhabi. He can’t even have a leaving-team race in peace, and worst of all, no donuts. he can’t send seb off like he wanted. everything was going to plan even. alas renault’s high quality engine™ decided it had enough of the year and wrecked itself in the middle of the race. 

karma in a way after ocon’s car also went spectacularly, it seems

so there he is dragging his items and the whole nine yards to the aston martin motorhome with his friend and basically minder because he’s also had enough with alpine management screwing him over. aston was nice enough to have a few spare rooms so he dumps everything in there and just. sits on a chair. he’s properly rinsed anyway and tired and also sad that now he has one less super experienced driver to go toe to toe with and really get him going

Internally he’s wishing really really hard. i wish with whatever is left of my heart that i get a really fun season next year with not a lot of crashes and good good racing please i'll politick a little less even.

something in his mind makes a faint click sound, but he's gone and napped too far to care about it.

Anyway his friend just lets him ko on the floor because it’s fernando, he knows what he's doing 95% of the time so its alright.

might as well acclimatise to the aston place that feels immediately extra homey and already accepted him as compared to alpine. Its gonna be his team for a while after all. uncharacteristically he just straight up KOs on the floor and no one had the mind to actually wake him up because that’s a dirty floor sir. but it's a comfy dirty floor for starters.

- - - - -

Anyway it gets real funky when he gets up and is in a hotel, but he felt like the entire weight of last season was completely gone. Its an athlete thing to always be at the top of your game, but right now he feels the same as if it was 2012 all over again and superduper motivated. That’s absolutely not right.

It’s dawn and really cool out and his stuff is still there except none of them are alpine related. It’s practically his black sponsorless suit and normal kimoa stuff. His helmet is…not bwt? It’s his standard asturias flag, not the horrible and pink but also seemingly missing the tribute flag lines he did for seb’s last race.

wait a minute, the season just ended.

he finds out he's near silverstone and his friend’s basically at the door telling him he needs to get ready to go to aston’s hq, meet the team etc etc. well ok sure no problem, except he swore it was not that fast dude. sadly the calendar on his phone says 1 JANUARY 2023 ..

He gets driven to the hq by his friend and he loves how nice the whole place is turning out. Getting to know the engineers and also Lance’s engineers and see how the car will go. Judging from how chatty they all are they are really excited about it, saying that he was excited about it, but fernando has legitimately zero idea about how the aston car felt like. because he can’t remember if he did a post season test or anything, and for once in his life just hoping he's not too clueless while looking around in the factory

Now you see, the other driver standing there waiting around isn't 185.5cm and fernando remembers this very well because Lance is a lanky man. This person is very much 176cm and wearing a knitted aston beanie and has the stupidest but gentle looking hair curls. He also has the biggest shit eating grin on his face seeing fernando come in and welcoming him in happily 

“wait you're supposed to be retired totally wtf”  fernando is whispering in semi-panic later when the engies are all away to get things because “THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED” and he is positive the date is 1 January 2023 

“No??? We welcomed you in and stuff remember”

“No you said you were done with the whole thing and you wanted to do new things not driving”

"fernando you're getting old!!!! i signed for another year"

This makes nando the most confused he has been in years and to make sure he proper isn't on some funny drug, he asks seb if he did post season testing

“Yeah you were really loving it you said the engine was really solid despite the miles i did”

Nando runs out of questions because he knows seb is almost incapable of lying unlike him who has chronic politicking syndrome. Also because the man is looking at him like he has grown five heads and that's not a good way to greet your new teammate.

- - - - -

He leaves the factory very confused but also very satisfied in the racing part of things, because the car feels so strong. He gets a genius idea on the way to his car and knows the internet is permanent, and he checks his twitter and-

that is not right. there isn't a single post about seb’s retirement. In fact the month of July-August is celebrating that both he and seb are going to aston, hell there’s an edit.

it takes him a minute to parse that this is in fact the new reality and he has 2 months to slowly get to it. he thinks he has a plan, but it fizzles before realising the contact he wanted to speak to wasn't even in his phone. briatore has stopped existing in his list .

...

who's briatore again?

[theophagie-remade]

The argument that, because art can be used to groom people, thus the blame of such a thing happening should or can be placed even just partially on it angers me so much you have no idea. lol. Tmi-ing moment but. I don't think I know how to coherently describe this situation because even just thinking about it makes me feel sick to my stomach for a number of reasons that go beyond the situation in itself, like the fact that NO ONE did anything about it despite what the students said and despite the school administration and staff being absolutely aware of what was going on, but when I was in middle school it was well known that the art teacher who worked there was a predator (or at the very least exhibited predatory behavior towards the students, I don't fucking know), said extremely inappropriate or explicit things in class while passing them as jokes, brought erotic pictures or magazines to class (eg Playboy), and so on. Older girls would literally warn the younger ones not to get up in class and turn around or anything, because there had been cases of him taking pictures of them from behind. He worked in another school building as well, one where a friend I later met in high school went to, and to them he even showed actual videos, "albeit" animated ones. In my class what he would do was call upon the girls one by one or in small groups, have them sit in front of or next to him, and use the excuse of drawing them pretty portraits to touch their faces or pose them and stuff. I'd alway been one of the "good" students, quiet and responsible, and what happened was that every so often another one of the teachers would pull me aside or even call me out of the class during his lessons to ask me whether all was going well or if anything strange(r than usual) had happened. And that's the fucked up thing, because at that point his behavior had become a "normality", something that we had grown accustomed to no matter how inappropriate it was, or how uncomfortable it was, or how wrong it was of all the other adults to allow it. But at no point was art the cause of it, or to blame for it (how many times has even my not-online, none the wiser about discourse™ friend who was directly shown cartoon porn said "oh, if cartoon porn hadn't existed all would have been fine" when we talked about this? ZERO). Art was a means to an end, and the thing is also that the explicit stuff was only a part of it, and not something he always "needed". "I'll make you a good portrait" was all he had to say in my class, because he was a good artist and children are curious and naive, and even if he made you feel weird, you don't always have the words to describe or fully understand why some things are wrong, especially at that age, especially when there isn't any of the "outright" or "directly" physically inappropriate behavior that you (should) have been taught to recognise as wrong, especially when everyone around you skirts around the issue without lifting a single finger to intervene because you live in a shitty, shitty place where, as long as nothing "actually" bad happens, there aren't any problems that truly need to be addressed. And that's also the thing, every fucking idiot who has sooooo much to say about the correlation between art and fiction and grooming or whatever not only adds NOTHING to the conversation by actively taking the responsibility of the perpetrator's behavior out of their hands, but also completely fails to see that their actions themselves don't exist in a magical vacuum where only they and their subject exist, but in a much larger system that could be all levels of fucked up (and in this case there is also soooo much to say about the climate that this teacher in particular created in class and the "conspiratorial" relationship he tried to establish with the boys through his "jokes" and through the magazines he brought with him and put in their hands, one that would fit into a broader one regarding the treatment of women and girls and people who are perceived as such in this shitty country, but that's a whole other story)

[starlytenight]

So we have seen Velesia's dad Papi, what about her mom? Is it possible for us to se a drawing of her too? Or maybe Orin's parents even? If it's not too much of a spoiler to ask?

I had to quickly design some parents, but ye I can indeed do that without issues! We're probably not going to see like most of these guys in the fic, but they exist! I can gladly talk a little about them.

First up:

Of course Papi found the one Puff named Mami LMAO There's the momma, one of her antlers was broken since she was absolutely a warrior while Papi was a master healer. Papi's primary Ability was Light, while Mami's were Animal and Water.

Neither were around long enough to see Velesia's children but Mami died pretty early on in Velesia's life. When Papi was taken out, Velesia took it very poorly and vowed to never be weak. Papi perished while he was healing someone who was possessed by Dark Matter. (It's why she's a bit harder on Apollo because he reminds her of him a lot and she's afraid he'll let his guard down from his compassion and... yeah.)

Velly also remembers stories Papi would tell her about spirits visiting their loved ones from beyond the grave but... well. That'll have to be saved for the actual story.

Next is Orin's folks, (which are still alive since Fairies are immortal unless they have babies outside of fellow fae.)

There's Rico who was a master at plant magic, and Charolette who was also one; she obviously hails from Floralia as one of the People of the Sky (who in this AU are just Ripple Star Fairies that moved to Popstar long ago and adapted.) Their intense plant power gave Orin his own, as well as Charolette's gentleness teaching him about medicines and healing. Orin grew up on Floralia until his parents decided to move when the war was getting a bit much. They moved back to Ripple Star and their son wanted to remain and join the GSA to help them. They didn't stop him since he was old enough to make his own decisions.

The two were still on Ripple Star during the new Dark Matter invasion but were freed like everyone else. They were just in their home in the tropical side of the world. They have no idea how Orin's doing considering he's stuck in the forest at the moment but they hope to see him and Velesia before their time is over. They've also been dying to see their grandkids all these years.

And for a small bonus I'll include a couple others I've designed. They'll be below the cut so this post doesn't get too long! :')

Fairy Queen's parents! Queen Titiana and King Oberon!

She definitely got most of her looks from her dad. He gave up the throne when his wife convinced him their daughter was ready to take over since they had ruled for quite some time. Unfortunately for her, Zero swung by and that was an awful time for the young queen. x'D

Finally, a family that is a little bit special.

Sparkelle's parents. They were indeed on Ripple Star during that invasion, but on another part of the planet for the most part. If they were closer, they would have absolutely sensed Sparky's magic in Vladimir and the confrontation would not have been pleasant.

Oh and Sparkelle has a sister!

They got along as kids but Sparky was definitely an eccentric gal in her interest in science and her views when she was younger.

She definitely got flack for it while her sister was praised for sticking t magic---kinda like how with humans some parents pressure their kids to choose "reasonable" careers, but in this instance it's like "why are you bothering with mortal shit you're magical, stop being a nuisance and stick to magic" kinda thing.

Regardless, the two were close until Sparkelle grew up and tried to do her whole 'helping the Dark Matter' thing with science. She definitely soured the family's thoughts about her with that, though Nissa just hoped her sister would be alright.

As we know... She wasn't.

Vlad hasn't really thought about seeking this family out since he doesn't really think too hard about what family does remain. That, and it's 99% likely Mystie would not recognize Vladimir as her grandson and reject him immediately. Vectorio is more gentle and would want to, but yeahhh. Nissa would likely be weirded out at first, but be welcoming to the weird hybrid since that's all that's left of her sister.

[miloscat]

[Review] Starlink: Battle for Atlas (NS)

An Ubisoft open world... in space! Also Star Fox is there!

Lylat Wars is one of my childhood favs, so I'll play anything if they put Star Fox in it. It just so happens that the Switch version of this open world toys-to-life game included a bunch of Star Fox side content as an extra, so here we are. Now it's taken me a few years to recover from Star Fox Zero, but the characters are handled very well here, enough for me to open my heart to them again.

At the very tail end of the Skylanders/Lego Dimensions/Disney Infinity craze, when shops were cutting back on the shelf space they had reserved for plastic figure after plastic figure of dubious usefulness, Ubisoft decided to launch their own entry in this space... for some reason. This being a customisable space ship game, their implementation involves large ship models that attach to a controller mount. The ships then have slots where different weapons and pilots can be attached, and each component can be swapped on the fly depending on the situation. In practice this is clunky and cumbersome, but luckily the physical models are entirely optional. Instead you can buy the components digitally and switch them around in a menu, and I was pleased to score a version off the eShop that included all wave 1 components at a good discount.

Locking weapons that have situational usefulness, or suit your playstyle, behind a purchase feels a bit scummy; especially when I stuck to just four of the 27 available (double gatlings and double missile volleys). Ships are helpful to have a handful of, as they essentially act as extra lives. The pilots are more understandable as optional DLC, but you do need ones from certain factions to unlock global upgrades and I think questlines. So there's a big FOMO component that feels exploitative, but it does make extra purchases feel helpful in-game. Beyond the "digital deluxe" set I also got the Star Fox team pack that adds Falco, Slippy, and Peppy to the base game's Fox (plus a new questline), and the monkey-like pilot Startail because she looked cool... sadly she had an annoying voice (she's not alone), but I still used her and Falco for most of the game thanks to their abilities.

But how does Starlink actually play? Funnily enough it feels a lot like a follow-up to Star Fox 2, Argonaut's SNES sequel that Nintendo cancelled then finally released 22 years later. You have a big star system map with various planets, where the baddies spread to over time. Strategy elements are present but light, where most of the progress comes from the player's direct action. Most of your time is spent ranging over planet surfaces, doing tasks and activities that get you resources and push back the army of robots. These build towards climactic battles with space battleships which you fly inside to destroy (again, very like Star Fox 2). Then follows much rinsing and repeating: this is an open world game, after all.

On the surfaces your ship becomes a sort of hover-speeder. I had more fun with the planet-bound sections than the space stuff, mainly because there's a much greater density of things to do there, and movement and combat is also more manageable when it's constrained by gravity and dimensions. Special mention must be made of how almost seamless it is to transition between ground and space by simply flying up; especially impressive on the Switch which handled the whole thing remarkably well, only chugging when there was an abundance of enemies on screen. The other platforms probably have better overall performance, frame rate, etc., but Star Fox is the winning draw (the other platforms don't have any equivalent extra content of this sort either).

Anyway, in the first few hours you'll get an idea of the loop: zipping around, building up outposts to get map information and resources, and fighting enemies to capture points of interest. All of this builds up a planetwide meter that represents your control vs. the evil alien robot whatevers. I settled into this groove and found it quite fun, never getting too bored of it, although this may vary with your tolerance for repetition. A scant few sidequests can give you some different things to do (and let you hear more voice lines from the actors other than the very oft-repeated expositionary chatter) but a lot of the time it's the ol' open world grind.

The plot is your standard YA sci-fi stuff, not much to write home about. The main team, a set of largely unlikable human schmoes, have uplifted themselves with alien technology to help an alien buddy, and in medias res arrive in the Atlas system. There's some uncomfortably heavy colonial vibes here, as the planets are all some variety of wilderness teeming with settlers, explorers, prospectors, and bandits, and your role as outsiders is uniting these folk under your banner—ostensibly to fight some monster guy and his robot army—and make big decisions about how the system is run before presumably jetting off again after the credits roll. Hmm.

The personal stories of the characters, especially the alien friends you make in Atlas, were the highlight for me, although I feel like they aren't always introduced effectively. As both a game where characters can be spawned in any time from the start and one with some open-ended elements, developments can feel abrupt and the pacing uneven. The Star Fox team and their story is actually integrated very well, although Wolf as the antagonist of this sidestory was, I feel, acting quite out of character from what I would expect. I see him as an amoral mercenary, while here he's set up as a would-be galactic conqueror. Ah well.

Otherwise the Star Fox stuff is excellent: you get a spiffy Starlink version of the Arwing, there's some nice covers of classic music tracks, and the team chatter is top-notch (again, when it's not just open world exposition). The voice actors have mostly carried over either from their original Lylat Wars appearances in a few cases, or the recasts that have stuck since the 3DS remake, and they nail it, especially because they're not just doing weird alternate takes on a reheated script (Zero still hurts my soul so much...). The team are integrated into prerendered cutscenes and there's unique events and missions, plus having them as an addition only makes the overall roster stronger. It's not a full new Star Fox game, but it's pretty much the next best thing. My only complaint is having the characters still trapped in this Lylat Wars/Zero-era setting, continuing the writing-out of Krystal, Sauria, Panther, the Aparoids, everything that Command introduced, etc... but I guess that wasn't really Ubisoft's decision. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

Anyway, Starlink was a pretty good time. As long as you resign yourself to spending more than the normal cost of a game to get a full experience. And you don't think too hard about the themes of the setting. And you don't mind a bit of open world repetition, or the uneven weapon balance, or that obnoxious influencer kid who's on the team for some reason. But let's not focus on the negative; there's a lot to like here. It's a cool sci-fi space game that integrates planet surfaces well, the core gameplay loop is solid and satisfying, and it has a very good crossover with my favourite rail shooter series. I wouldn't get my hopes up for a sequel though, as the retail toys underperformed and five years later the developer is now making Watch Dogs and Far Cry games (as if Ubisoft didn't have enough of those) or assisting on every other Ubisoft release.

[supernaturalworldsofsecondlife]

Urban Supernatural Sims; Magic Systems Part 1

Elemental systems in Second Life urban supernatural sims are outdated.

What do I mean by that? First we have to understand what they are! So elemental systems are nothing new if you're familiar with tabletop. Generally, most will have various abilities associated with them (Fire casts fire, water manipulates water, air can make it windy -- you get the idea). Most tabletop system use this as a way to balance their world out via their character sheets where they interact with attributes, feats, and other factors (environmental, spatial, etc.) As such, dice rolls come into play. However when you don't have any clear listings about how complex something should be to cast -- that's where things become an issue. Balance only works when you have the criteria to set up that balance. With no examples or charts, people often rely on people present and sometimes admins will say if it succeeds or not. While what admins say goes, they're not infallible of failing to interpret the text. All in all, though, it's meant to be a fairly simple system that's loosely based around World of Darkness-like themes. Now why are they outdated? Because of what I mentioned -- there isn't any universal criteria that both roleplayer and admin can 100% agree on. Riverside, Crescent Valley, Lakewood Pointe, VirtueNV, Vexford -- they all use roughly the same systems with a modicum of differences. There's also the issue of choking the creative muscle when it comes to sub-magics, especially when they overlap. Ex; Sigils and enchantments. Enchantments can have sigils, but not all sigils are enchantments. They're not the thing that's being used to enchant, it's the other materials present. They're also not just for enchantments. Generally these elemental systems will have you choose two or three different elements to play with, but none of them really expand beyond that you're 'drawing from that particular element'. Not only that, it takes away the grit of what a lot of us love about magical tropes; where's the ritualism? Where's the occultism? Where's the actual progression? Some admins will let you progress into additional elements, but this is just an illusion OF progression. In the end there's no great revelations to your character -- no mysteries. There's just those simple, miniscule elements that also try to give an illusion of balance without a proper framework. Don't get me wrong -- I love World of Darkness, but there's only ever going to be one World of Darkness. Likewise with DnD, Pathfinder, etc. Hell, the people who ran Crescent Valley did the same system in Lakewood Pointe, and then again in Vexford. They even used the same website with minor adjustments between every iteration. Which I'll go more into the criticisms of those sims in one post eventually. The facts are, this system is overdone and it is DEAD. If I wanted that kind of system, I'd be on New Haven By Night which works off of the old World of Darkness systems and has a framework. But what can you do differently? Magic is always going to be complex. There shouldn't be insta-gib magics. Resurrection spells? Should come at a price. For that matter, all magic should have a price. Create the structure around those prices. Spell components, unpredictability of the workings, maybe even shaving some years off the caster's life -- there's literally so much creativity in systems like THAT than this watered down, half-assed World of Darkness-like crap that's beaten the horse dead. For those that would say, "Why don't YOU build a sim then?" are deflecting from the issue. In fact, while I've got ZERO interest in Unnatural -- their magic system is pretty open in terms of how magic works and gives the player a modicum of wiggle room to be creative. When you're restrictive on magic, it just kills the inspiration and drive for those of us who drink deeply of the esoteric shenanigans that are actually balanced. If you give your witches and casters more to work with? We're more than likely to stick by your sim until the day you close your doors if you give us the chance.

[timpac-capstone]

Week 7

So I tried making a completely new story because my original idea was just way too ambitious for the amount of time I have and where my skills are currently. Writing my script like this is difficult, it's hard to keep up with the flow of ideas that pop into my head and write them out in this style. I've tried looking up some videos online on how to write a screenplay but they're so long, 10 to 15 minutes, when all I really want to know is how do I format my words when describing the setting, where the camera is, and characters actions; which does not take 15 minutes to explain, just say if it's bold or italicized and where I should align these things. I started getting somewhat of a writer's block, I know the story I want to tell but describing it to others is difficult.

Finally finished Keep Your Hands Off Eizoken, it was actually pretty useful regarding this project. I went more in-depth in my week 5 post regarding the plot, but I didn't really get a chance to talk about the characters themselves. I really related to Asakusa because often I will have this idea for a video that I really find enjoyable but once I start typing out ideas I start to think, "People will think this is cringe" and then I start to pivot away from what I originally wanted and I slowly start to lose passion for it. That's when the producer, Kanamori, steps in to stop Asakusa from pivoting and procrastinating not because she's a concerned friend but because they are trying to make a substantial business. Mizusaki also has the same struggles as Asakusa because she is very much a perfectionist, she doesn't care that average people won't see the cut corners of their projects because she cares about the anime enthusiasts that will and in return it creates a lot of stresses on her and the team. It is relieving to see that this is something that all artists share on a professional level and it's not an exclusive thing to me. But despite these personal challenges we are still able to make amazing works that can have everlasting impacts on people.

I went to a Redshift meeting Wednesday night that was about making zines. I've never made a zine before and loosely know what they look like so I thought it would be a good idea to go because I think I'm going to have to make a zine eventually for my Capstone or if not for some project in the future. It's a pretty easy process especially when you have the proper tools so it only took like 5 minutes to make the booklet itself. Afterwards, I didn't really know what to do, I saw people writing in their zines but I wasn't really sure what to do for mine so I just made a comic. This was an eye-opener for me because it showed that I can still tell a story without developing a script first or with super amazing drawings. I'm not a reader and certainly not a writer so why was I trying to create a story the way a writer would. So I'm going to work backwards from how I usually do things which is making the visuals first and then I'll write the script around those visuals.

This is a podcast episode that my capstone professor recommended to the class to help us get over our roadblocks in doing research and experiments for our capstone. I am definitely a perfectionist, usually whenever I do an edit in a video that I'm really proud of I will watch that one edit hundreds of times as I'm working on the video just to make sure it has absolutely zero mistakes which you can tell causes a lot of delay. I definitely feel that perfectionism is getting in the way of me trying to learn digital art or animation, it is a mixture of making sure I find the perfect program and trying to use my time more efficiently, which is ironic cause I never make time in my schedule to try and learn Krita. My OCD definitely plays a part in this but not everybody in my class is diagnosed with OCD so there is something more at play here which up until this podcast I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It's that feeling of failure that I'm desperately trying to avoid, there are two instances in my life that really stick out to me when it comes to trying to make creative projects. There was one video that I made with my friends called "Why I Haven't Uploaded in a While", I was really excited because up until that point I was only making videos by myself and it was going to be a parting gift for my friend Brett who was going to the military in a couple of weeks. However, I soon realized that explaining the ideas in my head to a group of people is a lot harder than expected and as they got frustrated I got even more frustrated, not to mention I wasn't prepared for the battery in my camera to run out or the SD card to get full. I was just such an asshole, it was supposed to be a fun thing me and my friends would do before we all went our separate ways after we graduate but the video never came out the way I wanted it to and it's just a bad memory for me even though I'm still friends with these guys to this day. Another video I made, called "I'm Innocent", took me several months to make and it's where I really pushed myself in terms of editing and why my skills are so good today. I still consider this video to be my magnum opus even though the subject matter and jokes would probably get me in trouble today but I'm still really proud of what I was able to make. But when I sat down to watch it with my friends they didn't laugh at a lot of the jokes that I thought they would find hilarious and it didn't get a lot of views on YouTube. For a while after that, I was just so discouraged from making another project because of that feeling of failure constantly lingering in me, just waiting to rise up again. It wasn't until I had a video project for my "Moving Image: On Screen" class that my passion for video-making resurfaced. The fact that I treated it more as a project that had to get done before a deadline rather than a masterpiece that would define me for the rest of my life really helped me get things in motion. There were a lot of rewrites and a lot of last-minute touches but I got several compliments despite it not being as perfect as I wanted it to be. So the point of this very long tangent is that you can't always focus on the optimal route and that doing something is better than doing nothing.

Finally, I have a story! It took me a while but I finally got something out of my head and onto paper. Here's the premise, everybody's brain likes to constantly remind them of the embarrassing things they did years ago but I feel that I tend to think about them way more than other people do and I certainly react a lot more violently. I will swear at the top of my lungs, I will smash my fist on my desk as hard as I can, I will punch my own head, and sometimes I just want to shoot myself. In this storyboard, we have a character who is trying to go to sleep but the brain cells in his brain find a huge bag of VHS tapes with all his embarrassing memories and they start watching them. As the brain cells watch these tapes the main character gets more and more uncomfortable and agitated. The brain cells find these tapes hilarious and continue to watch and rewind them at the expense of the main character's sanity. Eventually, the main character has enough and heads toward his closet, meanwhile, the brain cells run out of VHS tapes from the initial bag but don't worry they drag in another huge bag. When the closet door is opened we see a shotgun and some shells; the main character grabs the shotgun, starts loading it, and puts it in his mouth ready to pull the trigger. Meanwhile, the brain cells are loading up another tape as they sit back with their popcorn in hand readily anticipating what's about to play. However, they are shocked to see that it is a happy memory and as soon as that happy memory plays the main character takes the shotgun out of his mouth with confusion, as if he just snapped out of a trance. The Brain Cells realize that this bag is filled with only happy memories which to them is boring and walk away from the TV out of lack of interest. The main character finally has peace in his mind and as he stares at the clock he smashed earlier he sees that despite its cracks and discrepancies it still functions and with that, he happily goes to sleep.

Writing a script for this became 1000 times easier with the rough storyboard by my side. I also found the Rick and Morty scripts from season 1 which gave me a reference as to how things are formatted in a screenplay for an animation. Every time I had a hard time trying to describe a scene I would just look at the storyboards and describe what I see there. This method allowed me to focus more on the dialogue for this animation since I purposefully left it out of the storyboard for that reason. I want to see if people can tell what the story is about just from my rough drawings and because I'm not 100% certain if I am going to use embarrassing moments from my life or use embarrassing moments that people can relate to but if I ever do decide to change it it will be easier to edit this way.

REFLECTION:

There was a lot of progress this week, I feel that this breakthrough of working backwards has lifted a lot of tension off my shoulders and I also feel like I'm halfway through this project. Obviously, I need to get some second opinions before I put things into motion but at the very least I have something I can use to practice character animation or start recording myself so that I can see if my scenes work.

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

First Monday of the month, so here we go.

As per usual, this also means an open question night--my askbox is always open, but I'll be actively keeping an eye on it tonight. I do take prompts, but am not necessarily fast in filling them. Any fandom I've posted about here or on AO3 is fair game, as is any of my original stuff.

Short one this month, because I didn't get much done last month, whoops...a big work project took up more brainmeats than I expected it would, ah well.

Mostly moved, mostly everything is sorted; a few things I still need to finish organizing/putting away/etc. But that should also free up some brainspace hopefully!

Anyway. Actual updates.

Star Wars:

Pretty much the same as last week--need to catch up on OTP meme fills; poking back at my original plan for last year's SWBB so I can use it for this year. Not a lot of progress, but hopefully this month will be better!

BSG:

Big Bang matches have gone out! I'm excited to see how everything turns out. And hopefully get actually back into writing the many plotlines that are floating around in my head, lol...particularly The Other Battlestar which still needs an Official title and has been waiting to come out of my head and get Shared for like. over a year. even discounting the like 8-10 year gap when I wandered away from the fandom...

I should be picking up my rewatch soon, too! I have the back half of season 3, plus season 4, and maybe the webisodes (I have access to Face of the Enemy but not Resistance, so we'll see if I actually watch those). Which does mean we're coming up on my absolute least favorite episode in the entire series, haha. I haven't even gotten to it yet and I'm already mad about it (and have found an Additional Reason to be mad about it that I hadn't had before! Yay!) But also after that I get Lampkin, who I love, and while season 4 is a mess in terms of cohesion/continuity it has some of my very favorite episodes in the entire series, So.

Castlevania:

I haven't actually sat down and watched Nocturne yet (mostly because of the aforementioned work stuff), so I haven't quite fallen back into this fandom yet. I do want to get back to Incinctus, and I had one other plot thread idea for another fic based on the first series (essentially, shifting Alucard's S3 timeline by six weeks so the night Sumi and Taka plan to attack him is the same night Greta's messenger gets there, and then see where things go from there).

It's kind of interesting--I have approximately zero knowledge of the games, apart from a few bits and pieces I've picked up from reading fics and/or hanging out on a discord server. Which, of course, has been talking a lot about Nocturne...but almost entirely in the context of how it relates to the game characters/plotlines it's drawing from. Which means I'm both...more and less hyped for it? I don't know, I'm not sure how to word how it's impacted my interest/excitement/etc. for the followup series, because a lot of the comments about certain characters/choices completely fly over my head but they Dominate the server and I'm like "...okay?"

Anyway, we'll see how I feel about it when I watch the series. And if I do end up building a VC crossover in my head (because like. armand and the theatre are right there and while I was able to confine myself to a quick Easter Egg reference in Incinctus...lol.)

Les Mis:

The next chapter of P&J is coming, I swear. Also planning to debut Acheron this month because...I mean I know it's technically a Groundhog Day AU set in June, but it feels appropriate to start posting it around Halloween? IDK XD

Original Fic:

Again I do need to catch up on OTP memes. I do like the one piece I put out this month, which was about the Horsemen in Lux. They're a Delight and I love them.

...yeah, that's about it. Like I said, short post this month because I didn't get much actual writing done last month. Hopefully October will be better for me (if nothing else, hopefully I actually will catch up on all the backlogged OTP Meme fills, lol...)

[sapphicscholar]

Hi! Don't know if you're still doing the ship ask thing, but if you are, could I ask about Ava and Deborah? (also do they have a ship name yet?)

Ooh thanks! And hmm I actually have no idea if there's a ship name, I think I've seen a couple variations floating around?

Ship It

What made you ship it?

-So I knew about the ship before I watched the show because it took me a while to get access to an HBO account to watch, which meant I went into the show knowing that it was a thing. And there were plenty of moments where I was like, oh! I totally see how people ship these two, even though I was just cruising along feeling invested in the show but not so invested in the ship to the point of thinking that I'd write for it or anything like that (lol @ summer me). But then I got to the funeral, which I had seen zero spoilers about. And Deborah fucking Vance strolled in looking like a vision of Carol, breaking every last one of her well-established, decades-old rules about forgiveness and funerals, all to be there for this woman who she technically had zero ties to anymore. So yeah that's the moment I sold my soul to the ship. (And upon rewatch, all the earlier moments that I had seen as intimate and fun and full of potential suddenly were just, like, SO MUCH MORE)

What are your favorite things about the ship?

-Oh man, it's got lots of hallmarks of the kind of ships I go hard for, and that asshole 4 asshole dynamic is just chef's kiss perfection. But, and I know I sound like a broken record here from other posts and answers I've given, I adore that they're allowed to be messy, imperfect humans and to have these complex, not straightforward, not even self-evident desires that, at least in a lot of TV and movies, women didn't really get to have unless they were bound up with their romances with men (or in the service of a kind of careerly ambition that had to be renounced for something like romance and family). I love that they want and want so hard. I love that they push each other, even when it's painful, and often doing it in the most antagonistic of ways. I love that they get under each other's skin just enough to leave some piece of themselves behind that keeps drawing them back to each other. And I love that they find this space of comedic creation where suddenly they're able to kind of look at each other as equals (after a long, hard-won battle). Anyway yeah I could go on for too long, so I'll stop there

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

-I don't think this is unpopular in this fandom per se, but in larger shipping fandoms I think it has become so: I don't care if they're ever "canon." Like yes, I'd kill for another kiss to have endless gifs of, I really would, BUT I also think that intimacy just suffuses so much of their dynamic as it is that I don't need anything more than that. When they fight, when they write, when they make each other laugh - to me those are all intimate, even erotic, so I'm just here, vibing hard, ready for whatever S2 throws at me!

[morkhan]

Will Byers is Gay: The Evidence So Far

With the release of Stranger Things 3, there has been a lot of discussion kicked up about the character of Will Byers and his sexuality (or lack thereof). I've seen a lot of takes about what "it's not my fault you don't like girls" was intended to mean, many of which seem to take it in isolation, so I wanted to make a post putting it into what I think is its proper context; not an isolated incident, but the latest carriage in veritable train of queer themed language and imagery that has followed Will Byers since episode one of season one, and before that. You ready? Alright, let's go.

Season Zero: the Montauk Files

Before Stranger Things became Stranger Things, it was called Montauk. Like many would-be show makers, the Duffer Bros put together a "show bible" describing the premise, setting, tone, and characters of the show they intended to make. Like many shows, a lot of these ideas changed or were lost on their way to the screen, but it's always worth looking into their original concepts. Here is their description of Will Byers in the Montauk show bible:

Obviously, the major whammy there is in the first line "sexual identity issues." But there are some other interesting notes, like his "colorful clothes" that you might want to keep a lookout for on your next rewatch. Now, onto...

Season 1

The thing to pay attention to regarding Will in season 1 is in the language used to refer to him when he is not present (which he isn't for most of the season).

Episode 1: the subject of bullying comes up right away in the conversation between Joyce and Hopper. "The kids, they're mean. They laugh at him, laugh at his clothes, call him names." "What's wrong with his clothes?" "I don't know!" This harkens back to the Montauk show bible, but it's arguable, since it's never made clear what about his clothes draws ire.

She also mentions that he is "sensitive," "not like most," and that his dad said he was "queer" and called him a "fag." Hopper asks "is he?" to which she replies "He's missing is what he is!"

Episode 3: Troy says he's not missing, he's dead. "Probably killed by some other queer."

Episode 4: Troy, again "Will's in fairyland, flying around with all the other little fairies, all happy and gay."

Sensitive, queer, fag, fairy, and gay are all used to describe Will in season 1, but perhaps more notable is the fact that they aren't used to describe anyone else. If the show were truly period accurate, let's be real; the whole party would've been called queers on a pretty regular basis, because "queer" doubled as a generic insult back then. But in season 1, these words are only ever used in relation to Will, with one exception; in episode 6, Steve says to Will's brother, "I used to think you were queer." So it's not even an active accusation in that moment; it's used in the negative.

Hell, Troy walked up to Lucas mockingly proposing to Mike and proclaiming his love for him, and he still didn't call them queers. That language is reserved for Will.

Now granted, most of these are used as insults by characters who don't like Will, but still; as a writer, if you want your audience to remember something, repetition is an excellent way to embed it in their minds. There's a reason for the specificity of language surrounding Will, and a reason that language keeps coming up over and over and over again.

Season 2

Season 2 retires much of the homophobic language used to insult Will, replacing it with "Zombie Boy." The only homophobic language used in season 2 is the word "faggot," used by Billy's father to refer to Billy, who expresses a clear interest in women (and an arguable interest in one particular man, but that's the subject of another post).

Still, there is an arguable bit of queer theming in Will's conversation with Jonathan regarding the benefits of being a "freak" and how normal people never accomplish anything. Jonathan even invokes bisexual icon David Bowie to make Will feel better about his "freakishness."

The clearest piece of queer theming for Will in season 2 comes in episode 8, in this beautiful speech from Joyce to Possessed Will:

"When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons, do you remember that? It was 120 colors. And all your friends got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colors. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was YOUR spaceship; a RAINBOW Ship, that's what you called it. And you, you must have used every color in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's, and I put it up. I told everyone who came in, 'My son drew this.' And you were so embarrassed, but I was so proud. I was so, so proud."

This is one of the most powerful memories of her son that Joyce has, an image so strong and distinct that she uses it to invoke his true identity against the monster that is slowly subsuming him. She notes very specifically that it's not something he copied, but something that came entirely from Will himself, an image that she felt represented him so perfectly that she took it with her to work and proudly touted it as his to everyone she knew. The Rainbow Ship is Joyce's picture of her son's very heart, and surely I don't need to explain to you how powerful a piece of queer imagery the rainbow is.

Some subtextual stuff; in episode 9, when the girl asks Will to dance, he stammers "I... I don't..." and only goes to dance with her when Mike literally pushes him towards her.

During the final montage, the scene cuts to different characters in time with appropriate lines from the song: "every move you make" cuts to Mike and El (as he is teaching her to dance), "every vow you break" cuts to Nancy dancing with Dustin (as she technically cheated on Steve with Jonathan), "I'll be watching you" cuts to Lucas dancing with Max (as she has playfully called him 'stalker' all season). What line cuts to Will? "Every smile you fake," specifically on the word fake, while Will dances with a girl wearing this expression:

That is not a real smile, that is not a comfortable boy, and that is not an accident; Noah Schnapp is one of the best actors in the entire show, and of the young boys, he is the one the Duffers trust most to do dramatic heavy lifting.

Do you want it to be a little more explicit? Okay, here is that scene in the script:

I mean, that pretty much speaks for itself. It's less explicit in the actual show, but it's still there, you know?

Season 3

And now, the biggest and most explicit thing to date; The Scene. I mean, you could discuss the obvious subtext in the simple fact that Will is the only male main character who has yet to find a girlfriend or express any interest in girls whatsoever, but that pales in comparison to The Scene.

The setup for The Scene is pretty simple; after declaring "a day free of girls" in order to get his friends to run the D&D campaign he's probably spent a significant amount of time creating, his friends have blown him off to continue bemoaning their girl troubles, so Will has decided to leave. Mike, realizing too late that he has genuinely upset his friend, chases after him to try and get him to come back.

A back-and-forth argument ensues, where Will accuses Mike of ruining the party and abandoning his friends in favor of girls, and Mike, in the heat of the moment, responds with "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" After which, everything stops. There is a full second of silence, and a close up on Noah Schnapp's face so you can take in his reaction.

There is a lot to unpack here. Now, acting is up to interpretation to a degree, but to me, that expression conveys two primary emotions; shock, and betrayal. That face says "how could you?" Because here's the thing; regardless of what Mike does or doesn't know about Will's sexuality, Mike knows for a fact that Will has been called a queer all his life by everyone from his school bullies to his own fucking dirtbag father. By invoking even the specter of that, Mike has crossed a fucking line, and he knows it. And we know he knows it, because he immediately backtracks and tries to mitigate the damage. But it's too late. The damage has been done.

I also think there is a tinge of fear in that image. Just a moment of soul raking panic that pretty much every closeted queer person knows intimately. It's very brief. But I think it's there, if you look.

This scene sends Will into an emotional tailspin that culminates in him tearing down the literal last bastion of his childhood in a fit of sorrow and rage. His innocence has been destroyed. He cannot regain what he has lost, and he can never go back to the way things were before. This is the emotional climax of his arc for season three. It's a powerful one-- shame it comes in the third of eight episodes, but that's neither here nor there.

And that's pretty much it for now. Any one of these things taken in isolation could be very easily dismissed, but here's the thing; they aren't isolated incidents. They are part of a clear and consistent pattern, one that goes all the way back to the show's inception, before even one minute of footage was filmed. And this pattern points to one very obvious conclusion; the Duffer Brothers have always intended, and continue to intend, for Will Byers to be gay.

Now, for the obvious question; why haven't they made it explicit yet?

The answer is as unfortunate as it is obvious; I don't know.

It's entirely possible that there is some external force that the Duffers have to answer to that is preventing them from actively pursuing this particular storyline. This happens all the time in Hollywood, and it could be anything from Netflix to Noah Schnapp's parents to Noah Schnapp himself just being uncomfortable with it. Many are the creators who dream Big Gay Dreams only to run into the horrors of our Forced Hetero Reality. If the Duffers ultimately submit to these pressures, I hope you won't be too hard on them. This shit is harder than you think to get to the screen sometimes.

But it's also possible that they just aren't ready for it yet. That they have been saving this for a future storyline, that they just want their characters (and the actors) to get a little older before they pursue this particular storyline explicitly, but they've been busily laying groundwork for it so that anyone paying attention will know it's coming.

I don't know. Only time will tell for sure.

For now, I can tell you this; I see a great deal of evidence that the Duffers still intend for Will to be gay, and precisely zero that they have changed their minds.

I hope that holds true.