#and it literally gives you vibes of ghibli work spaces

[fairydrowning]

COZY WORK/STUDY PLACES.

[cas-rivaille]

@reinertiddiejuice

hi there! i saw your matchups were open and i couldn't stop myself </3 so i'd like an aot matchup!!

before i start i want to say thank you for doing these matchups :( even though theyre literally matchups with people who dont exist 💔💔  they comfort us so much so thank you for taking the time to do this and i hope you have a wonderful day :D

now hi! im katie! or katherine, (literally no one has ever used that though), i'm straight, afab, and use she/her pronouns. i'm 5'2, have shoulder length dark brown hair with face framing pieces in the front. basically a wolfcut but more with a more 70s feel, i have an overbite and a slight tooth gap which means i can never fully close my mouth </3. i have dark brown cat eyes, tan skin, and plump lips. the best way to describe my style is a tamer phoebe buffay! eccentric!

my mbti is enfp-t, my enneagram is 7w8 and my big 3 are libra sun, gemini moon, and sagittarius rising!

as for my personality i'm a generally upbeat and giddy person! with people im not that close to im usually laid-back but with people i know i can get really loud and just really let loose! i LOVE using cursing at people im close to. its a form of endearment for me. dont ask me why i dont know either but i just know that i feel safe around someone when i start cursing at them. im a scatterbrain like ive rewritten this so many times just so everything is easier for you to read RIPPP i get insecure at times and im kinda stubborn too its hard for me to get out of that mindset without someone realllyyy pushing me to do better dont ask me how im getting over it now...im not. which is why id like someone who is patient with me </3 and doesnt get mad at why am feeling a certain way. but id like to say im optimistic cause even though im feeling bad, i know in the future ill get better, i just have to work through this.

now im an artistic and expressive person. i love singing and acting! especially with acting, for some reason, pretending to be someone else grounds me in a way? i have no idea how to explain it but after ive finished a monologue, i always feel so calm and so in tune with myself. i also LOVE getting to know peoples little quirks and interests. no matter how "weird" they deem it (within reasoning ofc) i love getting to know what makes people happy! i also get really excited over little things. both literally and figuratively. i love tiny objects which is why the secret world of arriety is my fave studio ghibli movie hAHAHA theyre just so cute and tiny :( and the way you have to handle each item with such care because theyre so small just warms my heart. i also want a ferret. like as a pet. theyre literally the perfect animal theyre so small but theyre energetic MANNNN THATS ALL I WANT THEYD BE SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY WITH. i also adore handmade items. whatever it is, from a cake to a stuffed animal, i love handmade things cause you can see the love and care they put into making it. it doesn't have to be perfect, hell it's better if it isnt because you can see the humanity in the item, you can see that a human being actually made this and it rly does warm my heart :(( 

now for relationships, its the little things that matter the most to me. if they remembered a small detail i told them, or if they make sure to do something because they know i'll like it, it's just the small details that get me because that means they're really listening and really do care about me.more often than not you'll find me spaced out and find that ive slipped into my imagination again. i do love my little world of scenarios ive created in my head but thats cause i like it more than the present but i know i only do that cause i dont have someone who im reallllyyy close to and someone who i can talk to and be present with so i think once i get into a relationship ill want to spend most of my time with them because they make the present a little more bareable :)

i hope that was enough info for you to work with!! pls take your time!! i'm not in a rush but also if you don't want to do it that's fine :D i wish you the best <3

---

HI OMG THANK YOU FOR THE REQUEST !! ITS MY FIRST AOT ONE I HOPE YOU LIKE IT !!

also this is my first time responding to a submission i hope i did it right !!

on another quick note, i love doing requests n matchups n hcs so feel free to ask anytime !! also i totally agree ik me personally i always love fictional character stuff and when i get matchups that i asked my serotonin goes NYOOM

okay so i'm assuming you won't hate me because based off your username i don't think you will, but i got SERIOUS reiner vibes from you. and here's why:

- ik you said you like small things and this totally counteracts it bc reiner is just huge in every aspect,, but like you'd be the small one now and idk i feel like the size difference is s o cute

- reiner loves that you let loose around him and as much as he's a kind loving doting himbo when it comes to you, he would so be down to have a roast war

- HE THINKS YOUR TOOTH GAP IS SO CUTE AHAJSHSHS

- knows you can be scatter brained so he leaves you little notes in places you'll find them and sometimes it's just like "remember to drink water :)"

- he would get you a ferret and the two of you would name it together🥺

- reiner knows you like handmade stuff and he would literally take EVERY opportunity to do smth for you

- hungry ? suddenly he's made your favorite food. tired ? oh look at that there's a knitted blanket on your bed with your name on it that reiner started making whenever you left because he took it up as a hobby and wanted to make you smth

- MUSIC DATES

- everything from playlists to singing and dancing in your room

- if you need an acting buddy, you got one, it's reiner

- PLEASE GIVE HIM CUDDLES HE WOULD BE SO HAPPY TO BE SNUGGLY W YOU

- mmm falling asleep on his chest

- if you spaced out w him he'd let you be in your world or he'd smile and hold hands w you to bring you back :)

- he's such a good listener and is v patient w you

- overall, giant good boi and smol energetic bean duo

- he loves you sm

a/n: I HOPE I DID A GOOD JOB AND I HOPE YOU LIKE IT ITS MY FIRST AOT REQUEST BUT I HOPE I GET MORE AND HAVE A GOOD DAY/NIGHT AND REMEMBER TO DRINK WATER <3

- cas :)

[nighttimepixels]

How do you draw chubby characters, if I can ask? I've only really been able to draw one type of body and I want to expand that! And your art is so lovely I wanted to ask you. If this ask makes your uncomfortable, you dont need to answer!

Oh stars, I dunno if I’m any sort of high tier speaker on this, but I can give a few tips?

First, it’s really common for most artists to start with only being able to draw a fairly lean or lean-adjacent stock body; it’s rad that you’re looking to work on that, and I’m delighted and cheering you on, right there with you! Also, super flustered and grateful that you’d say as much.

There are a few main things you’ll want to do to draw a better variety of body types:

Look at different body types! Actively seek ‘em out!

This sounds almost offensively obvious, but I really mean look.

Study, follow online - make observation part of your regular routine!

Are you on Instagram? Make a concerted effort to follow creators who have different body types. There are a lot of fat-positive bloggers & creators out there to vibe with! Same applies to Twitter, Youtube, etc - whatever your social media consumption, mix it up and make an active effort to diversify.

And if you’re not the type to regularly consume online real-person-visual-here content, that’s okay! Bookmark a few you like the vibe of, at least, and start checking on them more often - draw a couple random studies as you do so. Not anything you intend to post, but just - to help you get the feel of what that body feels like in it’s core lines, navigation of space, and so on!

Example of the kind of rough sketches I mean-

First one’s an exploration based on me feeling my own body, second’s referenced from online media, third’s a cross between them, and so on. These were all purposefully on the stylized end, and I focused on the feel of the body most of all.

(...Please note that I’m very sapphic and favor drawing ladies, but this applies to dudes and body types of all genders! I’m working on my dude game atm too, but it’s a WIP for sure, heh. We all gotta start somewhere, and that somewhere for us artists is... our eyeballs!)

((I imagine it goes without saying to study anatomy, from bones to muscles to of course fat itself, but here’s saying that in acknowledgement, anyways. It helps no matter how tedious it may feel to hear the advice ad nauseum XD ))

Follow and study artists that draw different types of bodies!

Maya Kern and Jijidraws (on Twitter) both pop to mind immediately, but there are so many more! I’m an artist that likes stylization, so though I work hard to get irl reference, part of being an artist is dissecting what other artists do to learn and grow on your own.

For example - on chubby/fat bodies, note how the neck & and jawline connect in a gentle slope or rolls! Note how boobs rest on tummy fat with a cat-like mouth (think the w in uwu) rather than a defined round-then-flat ‘skinny’ look. Notice how arm fat falls softly, but there’s still a little elbow definition - and often elbow ‘dimples’! Notice the way leg fat falls, moves, shifts solidly but softly against itself when kneeling... and so on!

Different artists have different ways of boiling these traits down - study ‘em and figure out what’s the core essentials, what works for your level of stylization, and keep applying those things until you get your own flare and can do it naturally.

Feel how your own body feels, and read accounts from others if possible!

No, really. Even if you’re not chubby or fat yourself - feel how your body distributes it’s mass as you bend, twist, hunch, crouch, curl. You’d be surprised how much translates - our squishy bits have to go somewhere, so figure out where that is on yourself! Both by touch/feel, and in the mirror/using the camera on your phone, if possible :)

Biased bit here, but- watch good animation with different body types!

I really like the Ghibli-type approach of stylization where you don’t just draw what you see, but you draw how the thing feels. From tears to laughter, to sleeping, to stomping in frustration, to running! That applies to literally all parts of the body.

Even if you’re not an animator, you can learn and grow so much from studying how animators move different types of bodies (and personalities) through space. Try to figure out why and how, and translate that into your own art! It’ll benefit both in helping variety in your character designs, and in portraying how they carry themselves, regardless of their shape.

====

These are just a few tips, but they’re the core of it. When in doubt, observe! But don’t think that just means still-life, fancy nude studies - though those are important and helpful too - basically, be mindful of the choices you’re making.

Use reference for everything, until it’s freakin’ second nature - and even then, use reference! And observe other artists work just as much as real life - every act of creation is in fact an act of remixing, and that’s okay - heck, that’s the beautiful, wonderful thing about creating. We’re all building off one another, and ideally, pulling one another up with each other as we go :)

Godspeed, and happy chubby drawing!! :D

[fizzingwizard]

So I played Snowy Escape this week! It’s my cup of tea! I watched LGR’s review (and Plumbella’s too) and yeah, as usual, I agree with both of them. The pack doesn’t give us a lot that’s really new, especially in terms of gameplay, and I really wish there had been even small interactive moments aboard trains and ski lifts. However, I also agree that it’s a really aesthetically beautiful pack. The way tourists who haven’t gone to Japan yet think of Japan might be like Tokyo Shibuya area, or Osaka shopping streets... but uh, Tokyo and Osaka are only two cities in all of Japan, and pretty much the entire rest of the country isn’t like that. The majority of Japan’s tourist attractions are nature- and history-based, after all.

The big question for me was just how touristy “Mt Komorebi” was going to come across. Sims is pretty noticeably America-centric, and Western culture is the norm. They put out Jungle Adventure and it’s like stepping into a 90s action movie. The most progressive thing you can say about the locals in that pack is that, due to being governed by the same rules that apply to all Sims, they don’t come across “different” enough to be straight up othered. The area they live in, of course, is underdeveloped in spite of the “culture” skill, and very much is meant to be an exotic adventure for Indiana Jones.

Komorebi’s not that bad though. I was impressed at first by the amount of detail there seemed to be. I never expected we’d get space heaters and kotatsu and nabe in-game without downloading CC. Taking off your shoes to go inside, using chopsticks, sliding doors (which I’ve wanted more of for SO LONG), are all true to life as well as modern and also just nice to have. There’s some weird bits, like how when sims sit at the kotatsu they don’t sit on their knees, their legs just disappear into the floor... I guess we can assume there’s a hole underneath (which is the case with some kotatsu just not usually the at-home kind). I also would have liked more every day interactions, like doing homework at the kotatsu or watching TV or even taking a nap.

The patterns for yukata/kimono are pretty awful though. The more understated ones I can live with, but anything with a splash of color is a fashion disaster.

The look of the houses in the towns are really nice. The interiors, not so much, but that’s easier to fix than the facade and landscaping for most of us. The non-interactive backgrounds areas really do look like Japan. It’s a pity we can’t explore it at all. (I would have LOVED just one interactive conbini. That’s one Japan staple that it’s simply weird to leave out. They probably figured conbini wouldn’t have anything the vending machines don’t have, but personally I’d rather have conbini than vending machines. Unless they made it rabbit hole, in which case fuck it)

Also liked the snow festival and the lights festival. It’s true there’s not a lot to do at them, other than take pictures, and it was really hard to get good pictures with my sims in them... When I went to snow festivals, you could do things like light candles in little snow cubbies, or have a meal in a kamakura, etc. That would have been nice. Otherwise it’s just look at the pretty sights and make normal snowmen. Same with the lights festival - it’s gorgeous, but... They do have food stalls but the variety is limited. You can get four different kinds of yakisoba and ramen but no okonomiyaki, no ikayaki. There’s no festival games. I’m currently festival-starved due to covid-19 so my hopes were a bit higher. Still... like I said, I enjoyed them. I guess I just like pretty things. And I do spend an inordinate amount of time just taking pictures of my Sims doing things anyway xP

The Youth festival is pretty dull. It seems more like a not!Pokemon festival than anything else. The crepes, however, are great. Also it’s really WEIRD that the koinobori (the carp flags) are out all the time, like a normal decoration, in the city. That’s one culture thing that I think got confused.

So as far as it goes... it’s not as touristy as I expected it to be. I give it props for that. It’s definitely still got a vibe of “non-Japanese foreigner goes for a visit,” as in, I think if a Japanese company made a Sims game with Japanese players in mind, they’d have done a ton things differently. But we got a more robust cultural depiction than we ever have before, so, nice.

The winter sports are fun! I weirdly didn’t get bored even though like LGR says, it is just watching the Sims do the same thing over and over again without any player interaction. That does suck but is also par for the course with Sims 4. Since I play multiple Sims at a time, it’s easy for me to stick one on the bunny slope and just let them ski until they level up while I do something else with another Sim :P (Sims is more fun when you cheat!)

The onsen is a let down. It’s nice, sure. It’s just a spa though. And it’s WEIRD that you can have sex in the onsen while other people are in it, even children, and they are not freaked out, but you can’t skinny dip in front of children. All they get is an uncomfortable moodlet afterwards because now the onsen water is dirty x’D I wonder if that’s an oversight that will get tweaked in the future...

However, onsen is very pretty too. I would have liked a smaller building and better landscaping with two or three hot springs to pick from. Also, there are gendered entrance curtains, but they don’t actually divide Sims by gender and all lead to the same place... I guess it’s good to have for pictures at least. If you want to put in the ladies room and mens room doors you could easily make his and hers as well as a mixed hot spring baths. I think this is one we just have to let the Sim builder greats take on.

So HIKING is awesome! I loved it! It’s relaxing for me. Some might find it dull, but it’s really just so pretty, and for me brings back a lot of memories. Hiking in Japan is pretty much like that (although a lot more mountainous of course). It’s somewhat dependent on your graphics settings - mine aren’t that high so like the bamboo forest vanishes as I cam through it.. can’t get that sense of really being inside it. Also when I came across the cemetery I had my spellcaster try to Necrocall the one grave that has interactions, but it didn’t work, even though the option came up. ?? I was expecting some sort of cool ghost. Oh well.

I’m interested in climbing. I don’t have Fitness Stuff so I never did it before. It’s way more boring than leveling the winter sports though. But I think the mountain climb will be worth it.

There are little kodama and sprites you can come across and interact vaguely with. I’ll accept that as a Ghibli nod. It’s more cute than cultural but it’s also a bit of fun surprise, though I haven’t noticed any real effect beyond a moodlet. (Was told one gave me a present but I couldn’t find it in my inventory so I think it was just the moodlet.)

Also the bugs!! That’s very Japan! And you can buy insect repellent hahaha that’s a level of realism I didn’t ask for but will take

I’ll talk about lifestyles and sentiments too. I don’t need them personally. The sentiments are kind of nice to see, but they’re predictable. You get the same ones if you do certain things. They give you a moodlet when the Sim shows up, which I guess I do like, but... tbh it’s damn inconvenient sometimes. For ex, I played by Tsubasa family to explore Mt Komorebi, and I noticed many conversations were inexplicably becoming “awkward.” The reason was - even though no one was saying or doing anything flirty - Kurogane and Fai were getting in the mood by just looking at each other thanks to sentiments, and Sakura and Syaoran were like -___-; I mean, it’s hilarious, but also annoying!

Lifestyles... eh. So far all my Sims just get the same ones. They all seem to get Adrenaline Seeker just for playing winter sports. Also I find the pop-ups warning me when a Sim’s going to lose their lifestyle annoying, and if a Sim gets a lifestyle I don’t want for them, it’s annoying to watch their mood change for dumb reasons like “didn’t spend enough time outdoors today.” It’s the same concept as traits. It’s kind of nice that you can change them around by doing different things, and since we’re limited to three traits I won’t say no to more (for example, instead of giving a Sim the “Loves the Outdoors” trait, you can try to get the Outdoorsy lifestyle and use the trait slot for something that influences their personality more). But all in all I find my Sims still just act the same as usual and the gameplay is all in pop-ups, so it’s just not exciting for me.

Also had a glitch where Sakura would take off her shoes to go inside but when she went out, she put on a pair of snowboots that I never even equipped her with, and she wore them with every outfit. Editing in CAS didn’t help. A reboot did though.

So pretty much, I definitely think they could have done more with this pack, BUT that’s been the case with literally every pack since the base game. There are no expectations for me anymore, that’s why I really just genuinely like this one. I’m happy they picked North Japan rather than Tokyo or Osaka, I think we got a lot more detail because of that.

[gaijinginger]

Arrival/Day One

When Japanese tourists visit Paris, a significant number of them experience severe panic attacks due to the extreme contrast between Paris as it’s depicted in Japanese culture and Paris as it actually is. All too often they get off the plane, and realize the city they’ve always known as being synonymous with romance and wonderment is actually just as loud, rude and dirty as the next million-person metropolis. Apparently this occurs so often that there’s an actual medical diagnosis, aptly dubbed “Paris Syndrome” (no joke, google it).

As I sat on my first flight leaving Boston on Tuesday night, I couldn’t help wondering if I would experience my own “Tokyo Syndrome” upon touching down at Narita airport. After a childhood spent watching Studio Ghibli films, an adolescence spent playing Nintendo, Sony & Konami video games, and, recently, an affinity for Akira Kurosawa movies and Neon Genesis Evangelion, I was legitimately concerned that my rosy perceptions of the city and Japan at large would be summarily shattered when I arrived. I’m very happy to say they weren’t. Obviously Japan isn’t completely the caricature I had of it before arriving, but that’s a good thing.

I arrived in Japan at around 9AM Tokyo Time (about 8PM EST), and after spending an hour in customs, acquiring my Train Pass, Subway Pass, and pocket wifi station (the most crucial purchase I’ve made thus far, I might note), I took my first bullet train into Tokyo. From there I made my first foray into the labyrinthine complexity of the Japanese subway system (significantly streamlined by Google Maps), and emerged in Kuramae, a relatively quiet (but still extremely densely populated) residential neighborhood where I dropped my bags at my first hostel, dubbed “MyCube by MYSTAYS Asakusa Kuramae” (the first of many examples of strange Japanese English I’ll probably cite on this blog).

It’s worth noting that my hostel is a “capsule hotel,” meaning that my hotel room is essentially a 6'x4'x5’ (that’s L*W*H for you numbers people) cube with a TV, a bed, and a locker beneath it where I store my luggage. For the claustrophobes among you that probably sounds like hell, but so far I’m a huge fan. Once you get your luggage unpacked and feng shui-ed, it’s quite cosy!

Once I dropped off my bags at the hostel, I made my way over to the nearby Akihabara neighborhood. Like Boston, Tokyo is a city of neighborhoods, but at a far greater scale. Akihabara is essentially the gaming and Anime district. I’m a huge fan of the former, but have honestly never really understood the latter outside specific (read: very very good) movies & shows like the aforementioned Studio Ghibli and Evangelion. Aside from that, it’s all weeb (a derogatory term used to denote westerners with a fixation for all things Japan, namely Anime) stuff to me. Akihabara looks like Times Square if you replaced all the surfaces that aren’t covered by screens with more screens. To borrow a phrase from Mike Daisey, it looks “like Blade Runner threw up on itself.” Massive billboards and LED displays clog every surface, and the streets are lined by girls in skimpy maid outfits (Japan’s fixation with girls in uniforms is still something I’m trying to wrap my head around; nearly every girl I’ve seen under the age of 18 has been dressed in a literal “schoolgirl uniform” and it’s really really really weird…) faux-flirt with passerby in attempts to lure them into “Maid Cafes,” where lonely Japanese men pay young attractive girls to pretend to be interested in them. While I try to keep an open mind when experiencing other cultures, this particular aspect of Japan stands out to me as being plain old sad and weird. Needless to say, Akihabara was quite a vibe for my first afternoon in Tokyo.

From there, I proceeded to a nearby Ramen shop and had American ramen ruined for me, forever. Like getting Pizza in Rome or Poutine in Montreal, it’s one of those things where trying the real thing makes all the imitations that much worse. The shop was set up like a bar, with the patrons sitting at a long counter behind which the owner of the shop worked away in the kitchen. Perhaps the best part of the meal was discovering a custom that’s apparently very common in Japanese restaurants; when you enter the restaurant, the entire staff greets you in unison, and when you leave, they thank you in similar fashion. Sitting and slurping my ramen, punctuated by the “Arigato Gozaimas!!”es for each and every patron leaving has been one of the more memorable experiences I’ve had so far.

After that I went back to my hostel, and fell asleep at around 4:30pm. Try as I might to sleep on the plane ride, I’m still wrestling with jet lag as I write this. Thank God for Tylenol PM and Coffee (separately).

This morning, I woke up at around 5. After sitting in bed watching Japanese TV for about an hour, I went downstairs and took advantage of my hostel’s continental breakfast, eating no less than two plates of eggs, ham and croissants, one bowl of cereal and three cups of iced coffee.

After that, I went to go check out Senso-Ji, the biggest shrine in Tokyo. Dozens of teeming streets lined with tiny shops selling all manner of Japan-centric trinkets give way to a huge inner plaza home to several large temples filled with huge paper lanterns, bells, massive paintings and silk screens. I got there at around 8AM, so it was pretty vacant. There’s apparently a huge festival going on there this weekend, and the TV in my hostel cube is currently broadcasting live from there as I write this.

After Senso-Ji, I made my way over to Tokyo Skytree, the tallest structure in Japan. Up until 2010 that honor was held by Tokyo Tower, another massive space-needle style structure on the other side of the city, but in classic architectural-weenie-wagging fashion the Skytree now beats it by about 1,000 feet. It’s so tall that at one point, the elevator to the top was going over 500 MPH. I know because it said so on a display inside. The view from the top was nothing short of spectacular, a 360 degree panorama of the entire city, which goes on as far as the eye can see. For what it’s worth, the Tokyo Metro area is the most populous metro area in the world (which seems like kind of a big deal). At the top of the Skytree, you don’t need the Wikipedia page for Tokyo to know this. You feel it, strongly, from the density spread out below you. It’s humbling to say the least.

From the Skytree, I walked over to the Edo Tokyo Museum, which covers the entire history of the Tokyo region in exhaustive detail from prehistory to the present. Perhaps the most interesting part of this visit was the section of the museum dedicated to the Second World War. Being the only westerner (let alone the only American) in a room filled with somber Japanese people reading about the thousands of people killed in the US firebombings of Tokyo was quite the experience, and I felt a significant degree of guilt-by-association. School taught me we were the “good guys,” (and don’t get me wrong, we were) although it’s exhibits like this one that remind me that war is always shades of grey.

After spending a few hours in the museum, I walked over to Komagata Dozeu, an institution that’s been serving up Dozeu, fish simmering in soy sauce served in a small iron cauldron over hot coals, since 1801. There are no chairs; everyone sits on small pillows on the floor in classic Japanese style. Needless to say it was the perfect follow-up to learning about pre-modern Japan at the Edo Tokyo museum.

That brings us up to the present; it’s about 7pm Japan time and I’ll probably head back out soon to find some food and take in the local nightlife, something I was woefully unable to do last night. The neon-studded nights of Tokyo are the stuff of cyberpunk legend. Hopefully I can be this thorough going forward in recounting my exploits! Thanks to all reading this for sharing in my adventure!