#ask the broads

[trashmammal-7]

If I was friends with Data I would let him infodump about whatever he wants whenever he wants. Rip to the crew of the Enterprise but I'm different.

[alannah-corvaine]

GET TO KNOW THE OC ASKS

1. What kind of person is your OC in a crisis? Are they calm and collected? Do they panic? Or are they chronically the cause?

2. Is your OC a loner or a social butterfly? Are they satisfied with how they come across to other people?

3. What is your OC's financial status? Are they just scraping by, making enough to live comfortably, or wealthy? Has there ever been a drastic change in their status? If so, what happened?

4. Does your OC have a failed friendship or relationship they still think about? What happened? Is it an unresolved regret or is there a chance for reconciliation?

5. Does your OC have a signature weapon and/or attack? How long did they train to master it?

6. Does your OC know magic? Were they born with magical ability or did they train to acquire it? What is their favorite type of magic? Least favorite?

7. Does your OC like their natural hair color or do they dye it? What styles do they prefer?

8. What was your OC's most embarrassing moment? Does it still bother them or are they able to shrug it off?

9. Is your OC laid back or do they thrive on drama? What role do they play in their group of friends/associates?

10. Is your OC sentimental or pragmatic? Do they keep mementos or only what they need to survive? Have they always been this way or did something happen to make them change?

11. What does your OC believe in? God(s)? Monsters? Love? The power of unbreakable bonds of friendship to overcome any obstacle? The ability of money to open any door? Or are they indifferent?

12. Is your OC cynical or optimistic? Who or what shaped their outlook on life?

13. How important are romantic relationships to your OC? Do they prefer casual sex, short flings, or long term relationships? Do they want to get married or are they content with what they have? Or do they have no interest in romance whatsoever?

14. How important is friendship to your OC? Do they prefer to have one or two close friends or a large group of casual friends? Or do they prefer their own company over that of others?

15. What places hold significant meaning or memories for your OC? Do they have a positive or negative association with those places?

16. How does your OC make money? Do they have a respectible profession or work a series of odd jobs? Are they a criminal? Or do they get creative in the pursuit of coin?

17. Does your OC have an enemy? What happened between them? Is it mutual or one-sided? Is it petty or serious? Is one party seeking revenge? Does one person want the other dead or are they content to hate them from afar? 

18. Has your OC ever had a prophecy made about them? Was it a big deal or did they ignore it? Was it straightforward or cryptic? Did it ever come to pass or did they circumvent it?

19. Has your OC ever had an experience with the paranormal or the divine? What happened? Was it a one time encounter or is it a normal part of their life? Did they find it terrifying or thrilling?

20. Has your OC ever done something terrible and lied about it? Did they run away or blame someone else for it? How long did they maintain the lie and did the truth ever come out?

[chocostrwberry]

Ooohhh when is there going to be an akumatized luka?

RIGHT NOW!! :D

Heartrocker is Akumatized Luka, after breaking up with Marinette. 💔

His music creates supersonic waves!

I’d like to think that a special song also makes civilians to fangirl over him, but he’s not interested? He’s just over them/doesn’t want their attention (even though he’s creating them) and he just wants to find Marinette and use his powers to make her love him, or obsessed with him like he kind of is with her. He sends the fans to go find Marinette while he focuses on trying to take the miraculous.

It’s not the right thing to do, but he thinks Marinette doesn’t care about him at all, although he loves her to his core. She didn’t show up to his concert, lied about it, then didn’t even try to protest their breakup. So clearly he’s not over her and wants clarity, which causes his Akumatization. Ofc the breakup was over multiple instances of lying, but the concert was the final straw because she promised him she’d be there, and he was going to perform an original song he wrote just for her.

He ends up putting Ladybug under the same spell, and he’s about to take her miraculous before realizing if he does, Hawkmoth will take away his powers and he can’t get Marinette to love him again. So he ends up just having a depressing therapy session with her, where she convinces him to hand over his akuma object and he can’t be akumatized anymore after that!

[vaxxman]

Do you like red oktoberfest (like romantically)?

Aha! Interesting and very valid thing to ask! Thanks for your question!

I shall not answer straightforwardly!

Doodle (1) and rambles you didn't ask for below the cut. The answer is in the last paragraph.

Clown language.

I admit I personally prefer showing characters interact with each other and allowing their interaction to be interpreted as either romantic, platonic, or even nothing at all.

I think this approach makes relationships less framed by "signpost cues" of friendship/attraction/love (not that I do not enjoy seeing these either). I think it leaves more room for interesting human interactions, independent of what expectations the reader has for the two characters. Some people seem to search for actions like kissing, hugging, confessions, in order to confirm whether something was supposed to be romantic or not. But then, the absence of such cues make them arrive at conclusions that ignore other forms of relationship-building interactions all together :(

(Fig.1: The unparalleled amount of different flavours of intimate feelings that are evoked from "getting shot and dying on your shoulder" - disease)

So for me, it's Schroedinger's character relationships, with a generous amount of "the true value of this relationship is the collection of interactions we have made along the way" and it doesn't need a name. So with that out of the way:

I am not averted to the idea of Medic and Heavy finally getting their hot steamy Tf2 Sex Update thanks for readin-

[hellsitegenetics]

My name is Yoshikage Kira. I’m 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don’t smoke, but I occasionally drink. I’m in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning.

I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I’m trying to explain that I’m a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn’t lose to anyone.

String identified:

a ag a. ’ 33 a . t tat ct , a t a a, a a t a. a a t a att t, a gt a 8 at t att. ’t , t ccaa . ’ 11 , a a gt gt , att at. At ag a ga a a g at tt t ttc gg t , a a g t g. t a a, a tt a atg t t g.

a t t at at cc-. ’ tg t a tat ’ a t a t . ta ca t t t t a , g a g, tat ca t at gt. Tat a t ct, a tat at g a. Atg, t gt ’t t a.

Closest match: Noctua janthe genome assembly, chromosome: 16 Common name: Lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing moth

[soup-child]

Tony is the man that made Kelsey realize she didn't like men

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Hello! Many people have said this but ill say it too, I LOVE YOUR COMIC SO MUCH ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡

I really wanted to ask you about how you do the backgrounds? (Something i struggle with) whats the process? Like from start to finish, also, to do the rise backgrounds do you use reference from the show and generally real photo of ny? Or do you come up with them? And last question- The shadow and light on the background- Like HOW

i know it’s a lot of questions but i’m just so curious qwq and wanna learn to be better, thank you again in case you read this and respond, in case you don’t, i hope you have a nice day and a wonderful life uwu keep up the great work! (≧◡≦) ♡

Backgrounds are a really broad subject and I'm always a little overwhelmed when asked this question. Just like drawing the human body, backgrounds take time, repetition, and practice!

My answer got a bit long, so it's going under a read more :) but if you digest info better in video format I found this on youtube

It pretty much goes over everything I wanted to say, but in a much better way. I wish I had found it before writing all this out lol

ok, first of all, I'm not a teacher nor was I built to be one of those cool helpful art tutorial people who do a full coloured tutorial filled with illustrations. This is just going to be a messy "how I do backgrounds / environment layouts from start to finish." kinda thing.

... lets start with a sight tangent.

Sketch from Life!!!

If you want to get better at backgrounds I recommend doing some sketching out in the real world!

When I was first getting into doing backgrounds I went to cafes and parks to just sketch the buildings and objects. Sketch rocks, flowers, clumps of grass, garbage cans, bottles, tables, street signs, etc. If you are drawing a tree observe how the trunks twist, how the bark flows, or how the leaves are bunched.

If you can't leave the house the same still applies! Sketch the interiors of your house, the walls, or common objects like chairs and bookshelves. How are objects stacked? items on the floor?

If you aren't comfortable with drawing outside or in public you can take some photos to draw from! They are good for practice and you can use them again as references later. Alternatively you can find pictures online of buildings and objects to sketch as practice.

All spaces have objects in them, it becomes easier to draw those kinds of spaces when you already have spent time observing and sketching them.

ALSO! They don't have to be good sketches! It's just to build out your mental catalogue and strengthen your perception of perspective.

now the actual thing...

BACKGROUNDS

(the pictures used for this are my own. I dug them out of my 2022 folder)

Backgrounds have slightly different rules based on what you are making them for. Videogame Environment Concept Art vs Animation Layouts vs Comic Backgrounds vs Illustration backgrounds.

They all follow the same basics, which I will go over here, but the intention and function of those designs are going to be different. It's all about how you set up the scene and what it's purpose is!

Brainstorming and Thumbnailing

I like to think about a location as though it is a character. An abandoned old house with creaky sagging floorboards is very different from a futuristic space ship with sharp metal floor panels. A gas station has a very different feeling from a library.

I usually start by asking what is this location's story? Why was it built and for what purpose? What kinds of things does this room need to fulfill that purpose? You don’t need solid answers, but its good to be thinking about it while you are working.

Next, sketch some ideas for how this place is going to look. For me, this usually involves drawing the idea from multiple angles and then making lists & small sketches of the objects I think should be filling the space.

Example: The main character of my original work is a Wanderer. They collect a lot of things on their travels, but those items have to be small enough to be easily carried in a backpack. I wanted his room to be in the corner of an attic, walled off by curtains, and filled with trinkets. You can see some of my brainstorming above.

References

I only look for references after I've done some sketching and planning; this is to solidify my idea first so that I don't accidentally copy anyone else's work. I will make a moodboard with pictures of lighting, colours, items, rooms with specific ceiling beams, old chairs, etc. basically whatever I feel fits the vibe.

Honestly, I don't use references as much as I should. For ROTTMNT fanart I look at backgrounds and screenshots from the series to study the style. I also reference actual photos of NYC to get a feel for how Rise condenses the visual information.

In general, it's good to have references of real life objects/locations, because there are so many details like cracks in pavement, stickers on polls, crowning on buildings, fancy fencing, weird chair legs, etc. that you might not think of. It's the imperfect details that can make a location feel more alive.

Perspective

Once you have your chosen sketch we move to.... the infamous perspective boxes. Doing backgrounds is just learning to be comfortable drawing So Many boxes and carving items out of them.

Many better artists than myself have made videos on perspective, vanishing points, and all the technical bits. Videos like THIS ONE and THIS ONE are helpful (this post is great too!!). There are probably a lot of classes to be found on Skillshare or Schoolism. I learned a lot of this in my college art course, so I can't give you a specific video which helped me.

You can get by and be a good artist without learning this stuff. There are quite a few successful artists who have admitted they never bothered to learn perspective (one of these people even made a whole graphic novel series).

I personally avoided properly learning this stuff until I was in my 20s because I thought it would be boring and difficult to do. tbh I really wish I had learned it earlier because it's so much fun to make those silly little boxes imo. It looks scary and complicated but, just like drawing humans, it just takes time, repetition, and practice to develop the knowledge and skills.

Cleanup

You have your boxes and lines! Cool! Now to make a scene out of it. Fill in the details, get everything placed were you want it! Generally, the lines of each item will point back towards the horizon line, but they can have different perspective points.

Generally you would want to clean it up and get your room completely sketched before doing the lineart. I tend to combine the steps (not recommended)

Lineart

I've mentioned how I do this before. Closer objects have thicker lines and more detailed inside. Further objects have thinner lines and less detail. I didn't quite achieve that balance with the image below, but it's close enough.

Colours and Shading will have to be a separate post. In the meantime, I highly recommend the book "Color and Light" by James Gurney. I used to borrow it from my local library and a good chunk of my knowledge was learned from it :)

[dipperscavern]

reverse elsa anon onto something…..

broad, lumbering bodies like cregan’s run common in the north, are needed in the north if you want to stay warm, alive, keep others alive.. though in adulthood it can become a liability; always clipping doorways, so impossible to say unseen, needing more food, always waiting for a bigger, stronger horse to come along. it stops being noteworthy to cregan, but these are the thoughts that come up when others express envy. he doesn’t think too much of it most of the time.

but you… seeing the way you stare at his paws hands, watching his shoulders move through a room, blinking up at him with an open mouth, realizing you take some strange enjoyment in his size, ohhhhhhh… oh that changes things.

he wants to be strong for you now. wants to stay this way. ONLY GETS WORSE ONCE HE’S IN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS. you clawing at him, can barely get your hands around his back, knees and feet pushing against him to CLIMB him, get closer, tug at him harder, the way you sigh and tremble when he presses you down, covers you completely in his body… oh boy that ignites something. and your wedding night, when he’s pushed every lord and lordling away, and you’re there, wide-eyed and new, looking at him as if to say ‘you won’t fit, i’m not made to open for that’. WELL!

being able to block you from wind, haul you upon his shoulders and in his arms, swallow your hips and hands and face in his palms, just completely envelop you in his grip, IT DOES SOMETHING TO HIM. always wanting to be near you, on you, in you… big bear man instincts kick in: Must Keep Wife Warm. he succeeds i am sure of that.

gets worse when you’re pregnant. he’s always curled around you, hand covering your stomach as if he can hide in, and in the beginning he certainly can. he can hold your whole babe, not yet completely made, in his hand. still can hold it when its born too. but oh god when you’re pregnant… he lays atop you until your tummy’s so big he fears hurting the babe. wraps his whole hands around your head, your neck, your hair, trying to soothe the emotional stresses of making him a child. then its your thighs and your feet and . your breasts .

i might explode if i think about it any more

always clipping doorways… NGH~!!! ALWAYS CLIPPING DOORWAYS!!! GREAT CLIPS ANON YOU HAVE BLESSED US ALL

YES. HE CAN ENVELOPE YOU IN HIS GRIP. HE DOES BLOCK YOU FROM THE WIND. HAUL YOU ON HIS SHOULDERS AFF ARFA ARFARACAD

oh my god your breasts getting bigger when you’re with child.. and they’re so sore… the only thing that helps is cregans big warm hands holding them… massaging them.. smoothing a thumb over your nipple when he gets distRACTED OHHHH IM UNWELL

[inkskinned]

it is all chaos and entropy. the thing is that the chaos and entropy make it beautiful and lovely.

yes, it's true that nature and the universe are uncaring and unspecific, and that is terrifying. i have lived through some of the unfairness - i got born like this, with my body caving into itself, with this ironic love of dance when i sometimes can't stand up for longer than 15 minutes. i am a poet with hands that are slowly shutting down - i can't hold a pen some days. recently i found a dead bird on our front porch. she had no visible injuries. she had just died, the way things die sometimes.

it is also true that nature and the universe are uncaring and unspecific, and that is wonderful. the sheer happenstance that makes rain turn into a rainbow. the impossible coincidence of finding your best friend. i have made so many mistakes and i have let myself down and i have harmed other people by accident. nature moves anyway. on the worst day of my life she delivers me an orange juice sunset, as if she is saying try again tomorrow.

how vast and unknowing the universe! how small we are! isn't that lovely. the universe has given us flowers and harp strings and the shape of clouds. how massive our lives are in comparison to a grasshopper. the world so bright, still undiscovered. even after 30 years of being on this earth, i learned about a new type of animal today: the dhole.

chance echoing in my life like a harmony between two people talking. do you think you and i, living in different worlds but connected through the internet - do you think we've ever seen the same butterfly? they migrate thousands of miles. it's possible, right?

how beautiful the ways we fill the vastness of space. i love that when large amounts of people are applauding in a room, they all start clapping at the same time. i love that the ocean reminds us of our mother's heartbeat. i love that out of all the colors, chlorophyll chose green. i love the coincidences. i love the places where science says i don't know, but it just happens.

"the universe doesn't care about you!" oh, i know. that's okay. i care about the universe. i will put my big stupid heart out into it and watch the universe feast on it. it is not painful. it is strange - the more love you pour into the unfeeling world, the more it feels the world loves you in return. i know it's confirmation bias. i think i'm okay if my proof of kindness is just my own body and my own spirit.

i buried the bird from our porch deep in the woods. that same day, an old friend reaches out to me and says i miss you. wherever you go, no matter how bad it gets - you try to do good.

[redvelvetwishtree]

I am still not over a video I saw where they literally picked people from New York and other states to go and populate Israel. They literally have to ask people from other countries to move there and occupy Palestinian land...like ???

The videos of settlers running away from homes (that they occupied) and running to the airport makes you question sooo much and yet no one seems to want to open their eyes.

[pcktknife]

what does proship even mean? i see it thrown around all the time but the only description ive ever seen of it didnt sound like a bad thing, necessarily, (more like a net cast too wide to actually Mean anything) so i think i misunderstood the issue lol

generally people who ship literally anything it's almost only ever used by people who like weird shit like child/ adult or siblings whatever the fuck

[d0d0-b0i]

you don’t need anyone else.

[starryjoy]

"Trans" is merely one of the many adjectives that describe me but in the eyes of so many people so many things I do will immediately be tied to that adjective.

So many things I feel weird talking about because everyone assumes I am like this because of my transness.

Me being openly very sexual in nature while being a woman? Well, I am a trans woman, need to remember that!

And the thing is so many people don't do this maliciously. So many people have simply internalized the misogynistic idea that women have to be one certain way and when they see a woman who isn't that way... well, if she's cis, she's a weirdo, but if she's trans... well of course, that explains everything doesn't it!

And the people who are seen as cis women in this equation also suffer please don't get me wrong. They get shunned and talked about with intrigue and wonder like they're some sort of mythical beast.

But to the people who are seen as trans women then a part of the observer so often will go "makes sense" as if they discovered the one single key to read humanity.

I am also curious how other people under the trans umbrella feel to this stuff. My idea is that we probably have similar but different relations to having the adjective "trans" heavily influence how people see us, and I would like hearing them out.

Also absolutely necessary disclaimer that it's great if to you personally the adjective is so important that it defines parts of your personality! I won't yuck someone's yum and stuff. I'm just tired personally of feeling like so many people will immediately think of me as trans before they think of me as anything else, but I get the idea of that being something someone could like.

[peppermintmochafem]

i think there is a lot of pressure on butches to do things to make femmes feel stability and safety when really it is just their butchness that does that you know? it's like as a femme I know all the steps to this little dance and I just need someone to do it with. being able to know the step you are going to take and knowing what step I do next is stability that is safety!

[sweetgaleria]

Help a college student graduate by answering a survey!!

Hey!! Are you over 18 and in the miraculous fandom? Then this is for you!!

Hi everyone, this is my last semester of uni, and one of my final projects to be able to graduate is to write a scientific paper. I'm writing an article about adult fans of children's animation, specifically Miraculous Ladybug. My goal is to understand what makes adults (like us) want to join fandoms centered around shows aimed primarily at children, and to do that I'd love to hear directly from the source! The survey takes around 10 minutes to answer, it's 100% anonymous and it would help me immensely!

>>Click here for the survey<<

I need at least 30 people to answer, but honestly the more the merrier! I've also made a little thank you gif at the end, so if you see it let me know! If you have any questions feel free to send me an ask, as well!

Please reblog so it can reach more people! Thank you so much!

[aroaceleovaldez]

Hey, I'm writing a PJO fanfic, and I'm trying to come up with a nickname that can be given to Percy (ocean/Poseidon-related) that isn't Seaweed Brain. It's iconic, but personally, it makes me a little uncomfortable as someone who was also bullied for my (lack-of) intelligence. Do you have any suggestions?

Hm, this is difficult only because I am not someone who particularly uses petnames/nicknames often. I have considered what Percy might call other people (usually fish puns - like calling people different fish species as a pun based on something about them. Like flying fish for Jason, etc etc). I do think it's interesting that with how the series censors swears in-universe there is some implication that "Seaweed Brain" and "Wise Girl" may just be stand-ins for "Dumbass" and "Smartass" so you could potentially play off of that with Percy just having another cuss nickname but most potential ones with that don't fully solve your problem/still be negative-leaning though not necessarily related to his intelligence.

"Water Boy" i can see being one that people jokingly call him as like a teasing insult, a la Jason being called "Golden Boy/Weather Boy" or Nico being called "Death Boy." I personally like the hc of him taking up a job as a lifeguard in New Rome during college so maybe something related to that? Pop culture references - Aquaman, Ariel, Jaws, Aquamarine, any character from h2o, Baywatch, etc. Maybe superhero jokes along the lines of Jason's "blond superman" nickname.

I could see him getting little cutesy sea-themed nicknames particularly from Sally - starfish, cuttlefish (or "cuddlefish"), scallop, "lil barnacle" (if he's being clingy), "lil clamshell," pearl, etc etc. Tbh fish/aquatic/marine stuff in general is an easy one. Maybe even branching out to waterfowl and similar/other water-adjacent animals. Also anything based off his name itself is easy (just referring to him as "Jackson," Perce [pronounced "Purse"] - though he kind of already has "Percy" so shortening that further feels redundant, etc etc). Maybe anything specifically about him being the son of Poseidon, depending on who is saying it ("Mini-Poseidon" / "Lil' Poseidon" etc etc).

Edit: actually, addendum - any of the silly nicknames from 50% Off used on literally any character. Especially ones directed towards Rin.

If anyone else has suggestions feel free to comment them!