#aws tutorial beginning

[revenantghost]

Oh my god oh my god oh my god

There's a Vash and Wolfwood dog papercraft

[135-film]

every time i hear anything art-related on tiktok, i immediately get really like... upset? annoyed? idk. unpleasant feeling because it's literally always "we're making fun of this child/beginner for their anatomy or how they color" or whatever else or pretending that an artists deserve to be treated like a piece of corporate media.

i know tiktok is literally the devil and hell incarnate, but i don't think any artist deserves to be targets of mass harassment especially not people who are just starting out (and even more especially not children).

if tiktok was a thing when i was younger and i was posting my art on there, i would never fucking draw ever again. my art career would've ended after a few months of drawing "seriously," and i really do mean it lol. call me sensitive or whatever, but a 13-15 year old does not need to hear whatever criticism you think they need to hear i promise.

[pkbeamgamma]

30 hours in and the game is still letting me know that time sensitive side quests are time sensitive

[batsovergotham]

🦇 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘆𝘀𝗼𝗻 | A DETAILED GUIDE

regarding the project: whether or not you have read the comics, this is a straightforward tutorial for anyone wishing to write mark grayson more precisely. brief notes. genuine emotional breakdowns. no lecturing. no gatekeeping. just a straightforward, honest look at what really shapes him and how to use the source material to portray him accurately.

a/n: i posted the poll about making a how to write mark grayson guide today, but honestly... i’ve been working on this for a while, ever since i posted some fics. it started because a few people mentioned that some of my mark breakdowns helped them with their fics, and i thought it might be nice to have something more detailed all in one place. so even though the poll went up today, this guide’s been in the works for a bit hehe i really hope it helps anyone who wants to write mark more true to the comics! thanks for reading!

in the invincible comics, if there’s one thing about mark grayson, it’s that he’s stubborn as hell when it comes to his ideals. like, painfully stubborn. there are so many times where he just flat-out refuses to back down from what he believes is right, even when everyone around him is telling him he’s being naive or that it’s gonna blow up in his face. and since the show hasn’t gotten to a lot of these moments yet, let’s talk about some comic only examples that really show just how stubborn (and sometimes reckless) mark’s idealism can be.

okay, so first off: the whole fight between mark and cecil stedman (the government guy who runs the GDA)? it's turning point of mark's view of the GDA and what it truly means to be a hero. it also begins to shed him of his naivety.

basically, mark finds out cecil’s been doing all this shady stuff behind the scenes like building an army of zombie cyborg supersoldiers (the reanimen), working with literal evil clones, just... real villain behavior. cecil’s whole mindset is like, “yeah it’s awful, but it’s for the greater good.” and mark? hates it. the second he finds out, he’s ready to fight.

and cecil’s response? he doesn’t even try to explain himself anymore. he just sends a whole damn army of reanimen after mark to try and beat him into submission. it’s brutal. mark gets swarmed, blasted with this crazy sonic device they rigged up, he’s getting absolutely trashed, and he still refuses to back down. he barely escapes, pulls some of the guardians together, and marches right back to finish what he started.

they trash the reanimen, it’s a mess, and at the end, cecil’s standing there like, “i did what had to be done.” and mark, bleeding and furious, basically tells him to shove it. he straight-up quits. no backup, no government support, nothing just him deciding he’d rather be completely alone than be part of something he thinks is wrong. like... that’s mark grayson. stubborn to the end.

Universa Arc.

so, universa’s this alien warrior who shows up on earth basically trying to steal the planet’s energy to save her dying world. mark and eve fight her, they win, she gets thrown in prison. standard superhero stuff, right? most heroes would’ve been like “cool, problem solved” and moved on. but not mark. mark can’t let it go.

he actually goes out of his way to visit her in jail. just to talk. and when he finds out she was only doing all of this because her people were desperate not because she was evil or power-hungry or anything he immediately goes into “let’s fix this” mode. like, no hesitation.

and he doesn't just feel bad about it and leave, no, mark convinces the warden to let her go, helps her find a way to safely get the energy she needs without hurting anyone, and sends her back home to save her people. universa is so stunned she literally promises to repay him someday.

it’s honestly one of the purest things he ever does. he refuses to just see her as “the bad guy.” he sees the person underneath. he believes that people, even enemies, can do the right thing if you give them a real chance.

was it a little naive? yeah, kinda. but it worked because mark’s the kind of guy who means it. like, really means it. and people can tell. that’s why his idealism hits so hard. he never gives up on the idea that there’s a better way.

Oliver and Allen VS Mark

okay, so one of the most heartbreaking examples of mark’s idealism clashing with the people he loves is the whole scourge virus situation.

basically, allen the alien and mark’s half-brother oliver come up with this plan to release a modified version of the scourge virua, the same virus that almost wiped out the viltrumites, to finish the job for good.

and mark? mark is horrified.

he’s not just worried about the viltrumites (even though yeah, some of them deserve it). he’s thinking about the humans. he’s thinking about the risk. he’s thinking about how unleashing something that dangerous ever is just crossing a moral line you can’t uncross.

so he tries to stop them. and it turns into a full-on fight. it’s messy, it’s emotional, and somewhere in the middle of it all, oliver, desperate and panicking, accidentally infects mark with the virus. mark almost dies.

and even after all that, after being betrayed and almost killed by his own brother, mark doesn’t blow up in rage. he’s just heartbroken. because for mark, the real tragedy isn’t what happened to him. it’s that people he loves were willing to risk something so horrific, to cross a line he’s spent his whole life refusing to cross.

like... he would literally rather fight his own family, risk dying, than give up on his ideals. he genuinely believes that the ends don’t justify the means, even if it costs him everything.

The Final Battle with Thragg and Mark's Monologue

by the end of the comic, we really get the full picture of who mark grayson has become. all that stubborn idealism, independence, and moral conviction he’s built up over the years? it all comes to a head during his final battle with thragg.

and the thing is...mark’s not just throwing punches. he’s saying everything he’s believed, everything that’s come to define him. he straight-up rejects thragg’s whole worldview, the viltrumite mindset of "strength over everything." and while they’re fighting, mark gives this monologue (mid-fight, because of course he does) that honestly just hits you right in the chest:

“you see us as people living only for conquest, measured only by the size of our empire. no room for peace. no room for compassion. no room for love… the truth is you were holding us back… we can be a force for good. we can spread peace throughout the galaxy. we can love and be loved. we can be happy.”

like... that’s so mark. even after everything he’s been through, even while he's locked in a life or death fight, he still believes people, even viltrumites, can be better.

and it’s not just talk either. this is what mark actually wants. he’s trying to turn an empire built on war into something good. it’s insanely idealistic, yeah, but it’s 100% real. and what’s really cool is that he’s doing it his way. not the way any viltrumite leader before him would’ve done it. this is mark’s independence on full blast, he's building something new, completely breaking away from the old viltrumite pride and brutality.

thragg, of course, can’t even wrap his head around it. and mark beats him, physically and symbolically. it’s basically proving that compassion and strength aren’t opposites. mark’s showing that being a good person doesn’t mean being weak, and being cruel doesn’t mean you’re strong.

if you’re writing fanfiction that covers late-series or post-series mark, this moment is a huge thing to keep in mind. by now, he’s not the uncertain teenager anymore. he knows who he is and what he stands for. but he hasn’t lost that earnestness, that moral fire he had as a kid, if anything, it’s gotten stronger and sharper.

mark taking down thragg with conviction shows the kind of leader he’s grown into. he’s not just reacting to problems anymore; he’s actively trying to shape a better future. people look up to him, even people who used to be enemies, because of the integrity he shows. not because they’re scared of him, but because they respect him.

another super important thing: even after all that, mark doesn’t turn into some dictator. like, it would’ve been so easy for him to say, “i’m the strongest, i’m in charge now.” but he doesn’t. he stays focused on making things better. he pushes for the viltrumites to actually protect earth, to integrate, to live differently. he keeps that humility.

even at the height of his power, he’s worrying about being a good husband, a good dad (the finale shows his future family life), and living up to his ideals. he never stops checking himself because deep down, he’s terrified of turning into what his dad was.

so if you’re writing a future!mark or an alt ending where he’s leading the viltrumites or running with huge responsibilities, always keep that in mind: no matter how powerful he is, he’s still that same kid who’s scared of losing his humanity and who’ll do anything to protect it.

Now that we understand the Idealism surrounding his character, let's discuss how to actually write him.

okay so if you’re writing mark grayson in fanfics, one of the biggest things you have to remember is that he is not a soft boy. he is not a “yes man.” he is not some passive sunshine character who just agrees with whatever the hell his friends or love interest says because he’s so sweet and loyal. that’s just not who he is.

mark is kind. he’s empathetic. he loves deeply. but he is stubborn as hell when it comes to his beliefs. like painfully, frustratingly stubborn.

he doesn’t just roll over when someone he loves disagrees with him. he doesn’t abandon his moral compass to avoid conflict. if anything, he’ll fight even harder against the people he cares about because he believes so strongly in what he thinks is right.

this is the guy who:

tells cecil (the literal head of the GDA, who helped him post omni-man) to fuck off to his face because cecil’s methods are too corrupt.

tries to rehabilitate a literal eco-terrorist (dinosaurus) because he genuinely thinks they could do good together, even when everyone else calls him insane.

punches his own little brother and one of his best friends (oliver and allen) in the face when they want to use the scourge virus to wipe out the viltrumites, because he refuses to believe genocide is ever the answer even when it would save billions of lives.

goes into exile on an alien planet with his family instead of accepting a “peaceful” dictatorship run by robot, because he would rather lose everything than live under tyranny. then, he eventually comes back and kills robot himself.

like... mark is kind, yes. but he’s not compliant. he’s not someone you can easily sway just because you’re close to him. he doesn’t make decisions based on what’s easiest or what’ll hurt the fewest feelings. he makes decisions based on what he believes is right, even if it blows up his relationships. even if it hurts people he loves. even if it isolates him.

so when you’re writing him:

let him argue. let him push back when something doesn’t sit right with him.

let him get angry when his beliefs are challenged. he’s emotional. he’s reactive.

let him stand his ground even when it costs him.

let him care so deeply it hurts him sometimes.

don’t be afraid to show that he’s wrong, too because sometimes his stubbornness backfires horribly (like trusting dinosaurus). but even when he’s wrong, he’s never malicious. he’s never apathetic. he’s trying.

he’s not cold. he’s not cruel. but he’s also not a people-pleaser. he’s willing to lose friends, mentors, allies, and even his home if it means doing what he feels is right.

common mischaracterizations you should avoid:

making him a soft, easily manipulated boyfriend who never questions anything.

making him prioritize romance over his core values without struggle. (like, if you have him abandoning his morals instantly for love, it feels wrong. he might bend, but it would mess him up inside and cause conflict.) DO NOT CONFLATE HIS MORALS WITH WHAT THE GDA BELIEVES!!

making him unrealistically calm and detached. mark feels everything with his whole chest. when he’s hurt or angry, it shows. he doesn't bottle it up perfectly.

writing him like he's just “along for the ride” emotionally. mark makes decisions. he moves the plot. even when he’s wrong, he’s active, not passive.

writing mark grayson right means letting him be a mess sometimes. it means letting him get bloodied up in fights he probably can’t win. it means letting him make terrible mistakes because he believed too hard in someone. it means letting him love people and lose people and still keep standing, still keep hoping. still keep fighting for the better world he dreams of.

because that's what makes him invincible. not the powers. not the strength. it’s the fact that even when everything in him is broken, his body, his mind, etc, he keeps fighting for what he believes in.

bad vs good characterization examples for mark

example 1

bad: "are you sure about this?" he asked, voice trembling. "i mean... if you think it's right, i'll go along with it. i trust you." (he says nothing else. he just follows along. no hesitation, no conflict, just blind loyalty.)

why it's wrong: this makes him sound like a passive puppy who just goes wherever the story/author pushes him. mark is loyal, yeah, but he’s not a yes man. if something feels wrong to him, he’s going to say something even if it starts a fight.

good: "i don’t know if i can go with you on this," mark said, frowning. "i get why you want to do it... i do. but it doesn’t sit right with me. it’s not who i want to be." his hands flexed at his sides, restless. "i’m not trying to fight you. i’m trying to make you understand." (there’s tension. there’s conflict. but the love is still there. he’s standing his ground because he cares.)

example 2

bad: mark nodded immediately. "you're right. i didn’t even think about it that way. i’ll change everything i'm doing for you." (he has no independent thought. he never questions anything. he changes core beliefs instantly.)

why it's wrong: mark can compromise sometimes, but it’s never instant. if he changes his mind, it comes from hard conversations, real consequences, or deep emotional shifts. he doesn’t just flip a switch because someone asked him nicely.

good: "maybe you’re right," mark muttered after a long beat, his jaw locked. "but you can’t expect me to throw away everything i believe just because it's easier." he exhaled, frustrated, running a hand through his ebony hair. "i need to think. i can't just... pretend this doesn't matter."

key reminders when writing mark:

he’s stubborn. like cartoonishly stubborn. even when it’s inconvenient. even when it costs him everything.

he’s idealistic. he genuinely believes doing the right thing matters, even if nobody else believes it anymore.

he’s emotional. he feels everything with his whole chest. anger, sadness, guilt, hope, it’s never muted or put down for the sake of plot purposes.

he’s reactive. mark doesn’t always think things through. if he sees something he doesn't like or someone he loves in danger, he moves first, thinks later.

he’s not a people pleaser. even if he loves you, if you’re doing something he thinks is wrong, he’s gonna call you out. loudly.

he fights with people he loves. not because he loves them less but because he loves them too much to let them destroy themselves or cause harm to other people that causes conflict in what he believes in.

he’s not a soft boy. he’s kind. he’s empathetic. but he’s also willing to bloody his fists and risk his life for what he believes in.

he’s not passive. mark makes choices. even when they’re bad ones. he’s an active character who moves the plot forward.

he’s wrong sometimes. his idealism blinds him. he trusts the wrong people. he fucks up. and he owns it (eventually).

he doesn't believe violence is the first answer (especially at the end of the series). but when it’s necessary, he doesn’t hold back. if he’s in a fight, he’s there to win.

he can’t be guilt tripped into giving up his morals. you can hurt him. you can betray him. but you can’t make him become someone he’s not.

he keeps hoping. even after all the betrayal, death, loss, heartbreak he's gone through, he never fully lets go of hope.

NOTABLE MOMENTS TO HELP CHARACTERIZE HIM IN YOUR FIC

“DON’T EVER THREATEN MY FAMILY!!” – Issue #33.

this is mark at his absolute breaking point just pure protective rage, screaming at angstrom who just hurt his mom. it’s a simple line, but it hits because you can feel everything behind it. the second someone he loves is in danger, mark doesn’t hold back. he doesn’t care about looking heroic or calm, he just loses it. and that’s something to keep in mind if you’re writing him, when mark’s temper explodes, it’s not about his pride or getting even. it’s about protecting the people he loves. period. he’s like a lion protecting his cubs its all instinct, no hesitation. so if you’re ever writing a scene where a villain’s threatening someone close to him, picture mark practically shaking, shouting until his voice breaks, just burning with that raw, desperate anger. it’s not polished or composed, it’s messy, it’s emotional, and it’s all love underneath it.

“THIS IS BEING A SUPER-HERO? I'M JUST STOPPING CRAP FROM HAPPENING AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT. I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING REALLY WORTHWHILE… …AND WHEN I FAIL… MY GOD, I FAIL BIG. WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE WORLD, EVE… …BUT INSTEAD THINGS JUST KEEP GETTING WORSE.” – Issue #81.

it’s not just some random thought he brushes off. you can tell it hits him. like... what if everything he’s been doing hasn’t actually changed anything? what if he’s just patching holes in something that’s already falling apart? it’s honestly a gut-punch moment because mark is usually so stubbornly hopeful. but even he isn’t immune to wondering if any of it’s enough. and it’s such an important part of who he is, he doesn’t just blindly believe everything’s fine. he feels it when it isn’t. he questions himself. he struggles with it. if you’re writing fanfic and you want to show a more introspective or vulnerable side of him, especially after something rough happens, this is the kind of feeling you want to tap into. not him giving up, but that raw, exhausted moment where he’s like, what’s the point if nothing ever really changes? it makes him feel real. because even with all the optimism and fight he’s got, sometimes the weight of it still catches up to him.

HOW TO WRITE HIS HUMOR/MORE LIGHT-HEARTED SIDE

mark isn’t all heavy drama and serious fights, he actually has a ton of light, funny moments, especially early on. like when he first starts getting his powers and his coworker asks him about his future, he just says

“finish high school, I guess.”

which is funny because he already knows he’s about to step into something way bigger.

there are little moments like that all over, times when he’s play fighting with william, or throwing out corny jokes, especially about stuff like science dog (his favorite comic, seance dog in the show). even though a lot of this guide focuses on the heavy, emotional stuff, it’s important not to forget these slice of life stuff

if you’re writing fanfics with him, adding in those little jokes or funny lines can really help keep mark in character. think about it like how spider-man cracks jokes during fights except mark’s version is a little less snarky and more dorky he jokes the most when he’s around people he’s comfortable with, and it’s not because he’s not taking things seriously it’s because that humor is just a part of who he is.

DISCLAIMER!

one of the biggest differences between comic mark and show mark is that comic mark is definitely rougher around the edges, especially early on. he’s not the super polished, always perfect hero type. in the early issues, mark can actually be kind of crude, he uses slurs (like the r-word) and makes some offhanded gay jokes, usually when he’s goofing around with william. it’s definitely surprising when you read it now, but it’s also important to understand that it’s part of his growth. it’s not written to make him look good, it’s showing that he’s a dumb teenage boy who hasn’t figured everything out yet. he says thoughtless, insensitive stuff because he’s young, immature, and still has a lot of learning to do.

and the comics let him grow.

later on, when william comes out to him, mark doesn’t just brush it off or make another dumb joke, he’s genuinely supportive. he accepts william without hesitation. and from that point on, you can see a clear shift, mark stops using slurs, stops making those kinds of jokes. it’s not a huge dramatic “lesson learned” moment, but the change is there. he matures. he gets it.

the show sort of skips over this whole messy, realistic part of his character arc. animated mark is a lot more careful and a little more "clean" from the start, he doesn’t really say anything offensive, and he’s framed as a lot more socially aware right out of the gate. which makes sense for a modern audience and a tv format, but it does smooth out some of the rough growth we see in comic mark.

comic mark’s early immaturity makes his later kindness and emotional intelligence feel earned. it’s not that he’s perfect, it’s that he chooses to grow, to be better, to really care about people in a way that goes beyond surface-level acceptance. that’s a huge part of what makes comic mark feel so real. he screws up, he says dumb stuff, but he listens, he learns, and he changes.

CONCLUSION AND FINAL NOTE!

at the end of the day, mark grayson isn’t about being perfect. he’s about trying. he’s stubborn as hell, emotional, sometimes reckless, and way more human than people give him credit for.

he holds onto what he believes even when everyone’s telling him to give up. he fights for the people he loves even when it costs him everything. he messes up (a lot), but he always, always tries to be better. that’s what makes him mark.

when you’re writing him, don’t be afraid to show all of it, the anger, the humor, the doubt, the stubborn hope that somehow refuses to die even when everything’s falling apart. he’s not supposed to be perfect or untouchable. he’s supposed to feel real.

sometimes he gets it wrong. sometimes he crashes and burns. but the point is, he keeps going. he cares even when it’s easier not to. and that’s why people love him.

i hope breaking all this down helps if you’re trying to write him, understand him better, or just see where he’s coming from. because when you really look at it, mark’s whole story isn’t about being the strongest guy in the room it’s about being the one who refuses to give up on people, even when it would be easier to stop caring.

thanks for reading! and honestly, if you ever feel stuck writing him, just go back to that core idea > he never stops trying. that’s who he is.

[rhenuvee]

Playing Animal Crossing New Horizons with HSR Men

Warnings: ugly villager slander, established relationship (can be platonic or romantic)

──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

Argenti: Your fellow knight of beauty grows quite fond of the game, immediately finding the freedom of creativity in decoration endearing. He always gives you compliments on your OOTD, and takes screenshots whenever you design a new area on your island. Argenti gave himself the gardening job- spending his bells on red rose seeds. He gets proficient in following the flower guide, and is very proud of himself if he ever gets a golden rose on your island. He loves the villagers, finding them each very cute, and even beauty in the "ugly" villagers. "Did you see the villagers wearing the red rose on their head? I must say I am flattered they love it so much. Though, I am more happy that they appreciate the beauty of our island." He enjoys documenting the beautiful places in your island with photos <3

Aventurine: From the beginning he points out the fact that Tom Nook is a capitalist, which makes you roll your eyes thinking he thinks this game is silly. However, it is quite the opposite as it doesn't take him long to get out of his home loan debt and is somehow extremely lucky. It's unfair to you that he could just log in on any given day and have the best deal for turnips. However because you are his favourite he says he’s willing to buy you whatever you want, he guesses. He happens to be able to catch rare species like the Coelacanth, and it infuriates you but you really can't be if it's helping the museum. "445 bells per turnip, sounds like music to my ears~" "What's that? You want this violin? Well I guess I could spare you a few bells... is one million okay?"

Blade: Let's not kid ourselves here- it takes a lot of convincing and help from Silver Wolf to get him to even be in the presence of Animal Crossing. He says he would much rather stand and look at the wall (SW: "You already do that everyday"). Eventually he sits himself next to you, and listens to your giddy rambling about what to do in the game while he puts on a serious face not saying anything. After the preliminary tutorial/startup gameplay, he finally says, “…why is this rat harassing me for money.” However, the loans aren't the worst but the villagers chasing him down are. He purposely ignores them and grumbles when you tell him to answer ):/. He prefers to watch you play, but because he sees you smile and laugh at his sarcastic comments, he thinks it's not so bad.

Boothill: He's definitely down to try it out, but he ends up being a bit of a troll. He doesn't really mind cute/ugly villagers, until he judges them for what they say. “That’s right, (y/n) did catch all those fish.” “Did he just ask me if he could call me Muffin.” “WHAT DO YOU MEAN I GOTTA PAY ANOTHER LOAN?!!?” Yeah… he quickly feels the grindy-ness, complaining that Tom Nook was working him like a forkin’ dog. A little bit of comical rage, but he won’t lie he is enjoying it. He also asks if there are any guns and he is disappointed, so he opts for the net. He's a little rough and rowdy, but he does it in style. That being said, he 100% spends his extra bells on a cowboy outfit.

Dan Heng: He agrees instantly- aw :(. He knows you (and March) have been begging him to play. He’s is fairly good at it- gets out of the tent quickly, masters catching creatures, a nicely organized house… He’s quite resourceful too, chopping down trees and going to mystery islands to farm the heck out of it. The villagers love him, both of you often seeing them run to him with the little sparkly flowers. And even though he's normally serious, you can't help but fawn over how sweet he is with the villagers. "...She wants to call me Shmoopy, do I-" "YES." Villagers asking him to catch a fish? He's immediately on it. He remembers their names and treats them like real people :(

Dr. Ratio: "Is it educational?" Bro is such a nerd. You deadpan at him, and sass him for expecting this to be IXL or something. He is also one to get through the tutorial part easily. You expected him to be overly critical of the game, but he finds appreciation in the museum: both the creatures and the art. Is it a farfetched idea that I think he'd know how to tell the reals and fakes right off the bat? "Do you really think Da Vinci spilled coffee on his work?" At least it saves you the troubles of wasting your bells and getting a fake. I think your island would not be a mess, and would have at least a few statues (you know the ones) which add his touch to it.

Gallagher: Honestly he's happy as long as he gets a little area for himself. Kind of a wild card this one- somehow calm and chaotic at the same time, and it's puzzling because how is he doing such weird things with a straight face? Trolls the villagers quite a bit (he's lucky ACNH villagers are nice) by hitting them with a net (just once though) and giving them different catchphrases every time they ask. "Why is Bob saying 'spaghettini' at the end of his sentences?" "Um, because I thought it'd be funny? Also I'm kinda hungry so-" "Gallagher ):/" Despite the randomness, he is wholesome at times. He is also one to compliment your new outfit, and stargaze with you on the new area you decorated.

Gepard: He's busy so you weren't expecting too much from him, but he takes pride in having a well-rounded island. He gets so excited when he catches a new species that you don't have yet- what a cutie. Also goes full throttle when there's a bug-off or fishing tourney. Despite being a video game, I feel like there will be some way he messes up taking care of plants. The flowers overgrow, the turnips rot, and he doesn't understand why the trees aren't growing? But with some tips from you along with your island designing skills, your island rank moves up and he is BEAMING. "Zucker asked about you." "...he did?" "Mhm, he asked how you were doing, and said he saw you laying out pathways on the island."

Jing Yuan: He finds it so cute when you ask him to play. Lowkey like Blade where he likes watching your happy expressions when playing. He's happy that this game provides him a way to relax while not getting bored. Secretly an enjoyer of villager drama: "Wolfgang wants to apologize to Audie with this present. What happens if I don't deliver it?" "Again? Ah, just give it to her quickly." "...what if I don't." "...Jing Yuan." Oddly I feel like he'd enjoy the group stretching (what an old man), and encourages you to join. Like the "Dozing General" he is, there will be times when he's inactive and gets the bed head.

Luocha: You weren't expecting him to enjoy the game, but he's surprisingly willing to be resourceful. His storage is full of materials, which you scold him for because this is the reason for his empty undecorated house. But he always has things you need so you can't exactly complain. Also one to be pretty smart with managing bells and resources, able to maximize their worth. When the island gets visitors like Label or Flick, he has items ready. "Luocha... where did you get that coat?" "This? It's a designer piece, from Miss Label." I'd say he does have a sense of beauty in design, so thankfully your island is gorgeous.

Sampo: Sympathizes with Redd like a true scammer. "Aw look, he just needs a bit of money to get started... he even gave us a 'cousin's discount'." However, a rivalry starts with Redd when Sampo's first art piece turned out to be fake (scammer gets scammed moment). He asks if he can be the salesman that he's supposed to be. When villagers run up to him to offer bells for an item he has, he accepts thinking it'll get him a deal along the way. Unfortunately friendship gets you nowhere in terms of home loans. I'd say he's pretty good with the turnip stonks, so there's a balance. Also TRASH ISLAND. I'm sorry, but your man is a hoarder, "But what if I need this?" (Literally me.)

Welt: When you ask him to play he asks why the animals are crossing. He finds the style and characters are so cute, and he can see why you enjoy it. This is definitely a way he gets in touch with his "youthful" side. He loves the creative freedom in the game, even getting indecisive about how to design your island, and thinking of what outfit to wear. He once made a simple t-shirt for fun, but was surprised when he saw a villager wearing it. It'd be so cute and funny when he learns new emotes- and he just spams them with a straight face. Not gameplay related, but I feel like in his free time he'd draw you both in villager form <3.

──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

[hananan2]

Watching Heathers Musical with Ace!

A/N: hiii!! my first fanfic/headcanons! I’m scared BUT I LOVE HEATHERS!!😼

Characters: Ace Trappola! Baller

Cw: Death and a little freaky things (only mentioned once and all happens in Heathers)

Genre - fluff & comedy!

Summary: After you keep yapping about Heathers, He finally cave to watch it with you to understand your little joys

He is so sick and TIRED! Whenever he breaks into your room, he always see the primary color girls on your screen? He always hears you humming a peppy melody and singing out randomly whenever you guys are study (your ass is NOT studying) or in class

He heard you say “Oh fuck me with a chainsaw!” Once and he screamed in terror “WHAT???”

He teases you an about it a lot though, “Aw? You watching your chick flick again? You still find this stuff entertaining at your big age?” He chides, “Shut up you like watching big sweaty men play with balls.” “ITS BASKETBALL???”

It was corny, Mean girls and bombs? Girly, couldn’t find him watching that! But after a while of seeing you happy and cheerful and him having no idea why… he felt kinda shitty. Look at you, eyes shimmering whenever you talked about it, singing the songs so freely, yea he called it goofy but that’s just his way of saying you sound amazing trust me, he finally caved.

After you guys got snug in the ramshackle couch, dimed lights, his arm sneaking around waist, snacks propped on the coffee table, eee you were so Excited! you opened up your slime tutorial somehow and started watching it, it actually got him kinda interested when Veronica started singing, of course with the scattered remarks about how “cliche” and “corny” it was, but he was looking at the screen with intent.

When Candy Store starts playing, he gawked at how hot Heather C was, and you agreed but DAMN. But it clicked, THIS is what you have been randomly singing! He immediately starts singing along, lyrics memorized thanks to you. You both chuckle, you eyes filled with joy already, seeing he wasn’t falling a sleep and a little interested, he mentally cursed at himself for not doing this earlier, seeing how happy you were.

I’m sorry to say but..This man is BULLYING JD when first comes on screen, “he looks like he’s going to sell me aspirin and lie it’s Adderall” “Why is he so…emo?”. specially if you like JD, he’s DOGGING you “Pfft- THIS is your type? You like guys who are nerds?? If you were smart you’d like a guy like me~” bro is NOT slick

He actually really likes Kurt and Ram and first, since their kinda like him, but he still gets hella grossed out by some of their behaviors, but vibes with their energy.

Dead girl walking oh… Ace is just sitting there and side eyes you “are you showing me por-“ “NO NO!l” you yell, he laughed, which made you mad “let’s just skip it you weirdo… good song though…” you muttered kinda bummed since you liked the song. “Hey I didn’t say to skip it, I mean, this could be me and you tonig-AHH!” Ace’s head will never be the same.

When Heather C dies, he cries NOO FINE SHYTT, you both crode together. Though deep down, he’s getting some ideas for the next time Riddle pisses him off…

He’s laughing his Ass off when Blue or You’re welcome starts playing, he’s singing along, of course, he understands the bad connotations of the songs and he it makes me him mad, yea he’s a teenage boy but he’s not a monster. But get ready for him to keep singing blue around you randomly.

Throughout the musical he is just tearing JD and Heather D apart, literally it’s just “shut your lame ass up” whenever they speak. “Veronica bro WHY ARE YOU WITH HIM LEAVE” every few minutes too.

Meant to be yours is probably his favorite song after blue and big fun. He likes how frantic it is, and he’s not insane or cringe, but he did hug you a little tighter during it.

When it ends, he starts saying it was still corny, but after getting jacked up by you a while, he does begin telling you how much he liked it and what he liked, ending up in you guys laying on your bed together, bodies close with a thin blanket draped over you, talking about Heathers all night and laughing giggling with Seventeen playing in the background softly as you laughed into his chest and finally went to steady breathing as you both fell asleep<3

[mrs-stans]

For God’s Sake, Let’s Talk About a Different Movie

By Angelica Jade Bastién

For months, cinephiles have claimed to find substance in a certain body-horror movie. I am politely asking you to look elsewhere.

About 40 minutes into A Different Man, the face of Edward Lemuel, the striving actor played with wounded insecurity by Sebastian Stan, begins to fall off in reddened, meaty chunks.

Edward is a man with neurofibromatosis, which manifests most noticeably as tumors on his cheeks, forehead, and chin. In public, he is vigilant, picking apart the ways people gaze upon or ignore him, viewing himself from the outside like a passenger in his own story. In more private moments, he is awkward, needy, and hopeful, like in interactions with the burgeoning playwright Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), who moves in next door. When he opts to participate in a drug trial whose clinicians market it as a cure, he accepts a cast of his face as a premature token of remembrance for when the drug proves efficacious. His is a kind of pathetic that inspires neither scorn nor pity, but a universal, sorrowful connection — his yearning for a different face is a consideration of what makes a human being legible and thus able to be understood, known, even loved. That Edward is a struggling actor only renders this consideration more acute.

As Edward’s fretting hands peel off the wet and bleeding parts of his post-trial face, the body horror is shown primarily in the darkened glass of a framed photograph. The chunks drop into his hands and he lets out gasps, and in each breath, Edward is reborn. The slim montage of transformation continues over the next three minutes, and a rhythm locks in place. He stumbles into his bathroom with a white undershirt stained with blood. He looks at himself with awe and confusion, observing whatever pockmarks and roughness still remain. His face itself is a liminal space: not quite who he once was, but certainly not who he will end up being. In the meantime, he spends evenings looking at Ingrid through his door’s peephole and eating microwavable dinners on the kitchen floor while inane whistle tutorial videos echo in his dingy apartment. Until one day, he closes the mirrored cabinet in his bathroom and confronts the face of a fully transfigured man.

Edward tentatively explores the city by foot with his new face. Shot from behind as he moves through the candy-colored lights of nighttime New York, his shoulders are hunched. He’s still on guard. When he sees his own reflection, he stands straighter. Marvels at himself. Is this what beauty feels like? The ability to take up more space without question? To look at yourself and not wince? As he spends more time with his handsome face, Edward decides to metaphorically kill his former self, taking on the new name of Guy — telling one of the doctors from the clinical trial who comes by his apartment that Edward is “really, really dead.”

Guy is a cutthroat Realtor with a spacious apartment who infiltrates new pools of society, auditions for the play Ingrid has written about her former neighbor (she doesn’t recognize Guy and Edward as the same man in ways that become increasingly hilarious and galling), and gets cast. That’s when a figure disrupts the new stasis of Guy’s life: Oswald, a charismatic Brit with neurofibromatosis, whose face is an echo of what Edward’s once looked like. But Oswald has none of the baggage Edward continues to heave around and is embodied with wit and charm by actor Adam Pearson, who actually has neurofibromatosis. Writer-director Aaron Schimberg spins a darkly comedic, profoundly existential, and gimlet-eyed film from this narrative setup, with Oswald eventually weaving himself intimately into Ingrid’s play, her life, and Guy’s imagined future.

When I first watched A Different Man, my mind immediately turned to The Substance. The Coralie Fargeat–directed body-horror onslaught is pure blunt-force trauma, a cocktail that is one part fairy tale, two parts hagsploitation, focusing on a woman named Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), a former Oscar-winning actress who hosted an aerobics morning show for decades before getting unceremoniously fired for the sin of turning 50. That’s when she’s introduced to an underground product that offers people a way to recapture their youth and become “simply a better version” of themselves.

Elisabeth injects herself with a neon-green liquid, only for a younger, prettier version of herself to be birthed bloodily from her back in the form of Sue (Margaret Qualley). They must switch places every seven days to maintain the balance of their dual existence; one body remains conscious, the other unconscious, spinal fluid crassly transferred from Elisabeth to Sue for stabilization. As Sue rockets into the stratosphere of fame, auditioning for and nabbing Elisabeth’s old role, the older woman watches from the sidelines as the younger one disregards their time limitations and forces Elisabeth to age into a cartoonish elder so grotesque the characterization dovetails into cruelty.

These movies do not invite neat one-to-one comparisons, but The Substance and A Different Man — released last year within a few months of each other — are two films inadvertently in conversation. They play with similar thematic terrain: doppelgängers, the body, disability, self-loathing, misguided desire, nihilism bred from consistently looking outside yourself for a definition of who you are. Both won awards when they premiered at film festivals; Stan earned the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at Sundance, Fargeat got the Best Screenplay award at Cannes. Both lead actors won Golden Globes for their work, giving committed performances set in hyperstylized worlds (the former existing in a fun-house, ’80s-inflected version of Hollywood inhabited by hopeless image-obsessed women; the latter in the conniving, parasitic world of New York theater).

Moore and Stan have also been nominated for Academy Awards, though Stan is being recognized as a Best Actor nominee for his far less impressive work in The Apprentice. (That Pearson wasn’t nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category is a discussion for another time.) In the public eye, The Substance is the comeback contender that could earn Moore what many perceive to be an overdue accolade. Yet it’s only A Different Man (nominated only for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and up against The Substance in that category) that has anything meaningful to say. One of the biggest sins of this Oscar season is that critics and audiences are projecting upon Fargeat’s movie a substance it doesn’t actually have.

Where The Substance is unrelentingly direct, A Different Man is deliberately slippery. Where The Substance’s camp is too enamored with itself, causing it to trip into self-seriousness, A Different Man has genuine pitch-black humor wrung from discomfort and angst. Where The Substance is engaged in surfaces, bolstered by tremendous prosthetic work and special effects, A Different Man plunges into the murky depths of its characters, rendering the fallout of its lead character’s transformation as far more subterranean. Moore appears in mirror scenes not unlike the ones that occur in A Different Man, though in Fargeat’s the camera pores over Moore’s every feathery wrinkle, every ripple of flesh under harsh bright-white light. Let’s keep it buck; Demi Moore looks amazing at 62 years old thanks to all the privileges at her fingertips. But the camera sneers at her, creating a distancing effect that undermines the complexity of Moore’s performance. For all the film’s interest in the body, it has a remarkable lack of intimacy. The closer the camera gets to a legible face, the less you see of a soul.

Meanwhile, A Different Man’s camera treats the body’s appearance and movements as the richest way to connect. The body is still a site of horror, as the single sequence of Edward’s transformation implies. But more crucially, the body is rendered as a consistently fraught site on which identity is fomented and complicated, turning Schimberg’s film into a slyly constructed and powerfully caustic doppelgänger tale. Late in the film, Edward finds himself at a karaoke spot with Oswald. Against a backdrop of glittering red tinsel, Oswald performs a rendition of “I Wanna Get Next to You,” by Rose Royce. While everyone vibes to Oswald’s crooning, Edward’s face is masked with confusion. His eyes jut around, searching for a truth with which he can’t come to terms. In real time, through Stan’s pellucid physical performance, the audience experiences Edward coming to an understanding of the gulf of experience standing between him and Oswald. Edward has everything people have been culturally told in this country to desire: money, a social life, sex. But none of these gives him meaning or pleasure. It’s as if his own truest desires remain incomprehensible.

Meanwhile, Oswald lives a capacious life in spite of the very disorder Edward believed doomed him. Pearson plays Oswald with a light-on-his-feet charisma that becomes a stunning counterpoint to the heavy sorrow of Stan’s performance. It’s the most revelatory decision in the film, allowing Schimberg to bypass simplistic moralism about disability. The further Oswald encroaches upon Edward’s new existence, eventually swooping into the role Edward was meant to play on Ingrid’s stage and ultimately disrupting his romantic relationship with her, the more it dawns on Edward that his problem wasn’t his face but something more tricksy.

By contrast, there is no real pleasure in existing within any body in The Substance. Even when Sue, jejune and perfectly calibrated to modern beauty standards, stumbles onto her feet after tearing through Elisabeth’s back, she admires herself the way the camera does: with a leering quality, reflecting a hunger with no end. The visual language of The Substance is rendered in the machinations of gleaming advertisements meant to trade upon the fears embedded in women by a culture that argues death is preferable to aging. Fargeat adopts the dehumanizing gaze of 2000s beer advertisements or modern porn to heighten the exploitation of Sue’s dewy skin and taut figure, her eyes gliding over her own flesh, drinking herself in. Where the film sees abjection in Elisabeth’s body, it sees endless possibility in Sue’s.

But these possibilities are a closed circuit. All Sue desires is more. More youth, more beauty, more fame. That those possibilities curdle into exploitation is a result of Elisabeth’s own making. The film roots women’s problems not in the patriarchy that ushers them into single-minded desires, but in their choice to remain young — as if they really have a choice. Ads like Carl’s Jr.’s are unsubtle seductions, but what is The Substance trying to seduce its viewers into experiencing and considering otherwise? These aren’t characters but containers for derision.

Schimberg’s characterization looks outward as much as, if not more than, inward. His work here demonstrates a remarkable interest in the ways the ideas we hold of ourselves clash into the reality of other people. His direction, the script, and Reinsve’s performance in particular explore the extractive ways of artists who worm their way into the lives of others and steal meaning for material. While having sex one night in the hushed darkness of her apartment, Ingrid asks, “You have the mask? Put it on,” referring to the cast of his face taken by the clinical doctors before he was “cured” of neurofibromatosis, which he used to audition for Ingrid’s play. Edward balks, “Why?” “Just do what I tell you,” her tone harsh enough to bruise. Edward tentatively goes into another room and returns naked save for the mask entrapping his face. When they start having sex again, Ingrid erupts in laughter. “This is so fucked-up. You look ridiculous!”

Scenes such as this reveal A Different Man to be the best kind of doppelgänger story — each figure brought to life in tight performances, offering enclosed, fully realized emotional and psychic realms. Stan often wears a strained, venomous smile when around Oswald, but the only person it’s poisoning is himself. You’re constantly waiting for him to succumb. And he does. After losing the role in Ingrid’s production — which goes on to find great success with Oswald in the lead — he crashes a performance, wearing the mask of his old face. His attempt to strangle Oswald leads a large prop door hanging above the stage to fall and crush Edward’s limbs, which are henceforth contained in thick casts. Oswald and a now-pregnant Ingrid handle Edward’s care, with his anger and dejection only growing. After his in-house physical therapist makes a remark about how the hell Oswald got with Ingrid, Edward snaps, stabbing the physical therapist and killing him in a sloppy fight in the kitchen.

The Substance ends in an even more violent fashion: a parade of blood and viscera involving Elisabeth’s fully deformed body and the consequences of Sue using the substance on herself. The finale recalls Brian Yuzna’s 1989 flick Society; The Substance is nothing if not committedly referential, though it never quite synthesizes its inspirations to give us new language in the forever fraught conversations around women and aging, or even what horror can do as a genre. After all, bodies in The Substance aren’t venues for truth but obfuscation, suffering, and self-loathing. Every body in Fargeat’s film is a hall of mirrors caving in on itself. When you take a look at the shards, it’s clear they’re reflecting nothing at all.

A Different Man has a coda to the violence Edward impulsively remakes his life with. Edward, out of prison, much older and graying, runs into Oswald — or, more accurate to their dynamic, Oswald runs into him. They decide to have dinner at an upscale sushi restaurant with Ingrid by Oswald’s side. “I’ve achieved everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m ready for the next phase,” Ingrid says about her decision to retire as a famed playwright and move with Oswald to a nude commune in Canada. Oswald calls Edward by his real name, confirming that his arrest would have finally outed the true identity of Guy. “Oh, my old friend, you haven’t changed a bit,” Oswald says, as Edward’s face fills the screen, Stan’s tight smile and gaze directed at the camera. Edward is paralyzed by the realization that shedding your skin, your name, and your history isn’t transformation but a futile disavowal. Written upon the bodies of the characters in both these films is a story their respective filmmakers obsess over, but only A Different Man understands that there’s narrative potential under the skin.

[blueskittlesart]

can we talk about how rauru is literally like. just zelda’s dad. like in that one scene where zelda looks like she’s gravely contemplating turning into a dragon and then rauru goes “i believe the answer lies in more research and understanding your power!” and she looks at him with such shock and awe. zelda’s adventures in the past are literally like her life but with a better dad. the queen promises her to help her figure out her power but dies before they can figure out a way how to use that power to safely save everyone. zelda desperately wants to help everyone and is clearly feeling the pressure of it all and the king is the one to tell her “hey i understand how hard you’re trying and how much you want to save everyone and we’re thankful for what you’re doing”. rauru actually acknowledges zelda’s dedication and the importance of research and technology, he is kind to her and never blames her for any of the bad things happening. he also never pushes zelda to make sacrifices and is the one sacrificing himself in the end - in botw, all the champions and zelda have to choose to make sacrifices to save the kingdom, but in totk rauru doesn’t ask that of any of the sages, instead recognizing his own responsibility as king and basically dying to save his kingdom. he’s literally zelda’s better dad.

same anon as the one raving about rauru also the differences between how the two kings treat link. they’re both tutorial figures but the way they guide is SO different. pretty much the first thing rhoam does is lie and pretend to be a random old man, being quite annoying as he sends link to do a bunch of challenges for a paraglider. the framing is so fundamentally different, rauru freely offers the information he has to link upfront, he apologises for the body modification, acknowledging link’s potential distress. rhoam basically keeps link on the plateau arbitrarily, presenting giving items and teaching link about things as challenges for link to overcome. rauru on the other hand aids link as best he can, tells him what he needs to do from the beginning (tells him to open the door which is pretty much the last thing he’ll need to do in the tutorial, telling him about the ultimate goal from the beginning), proposes solutions when it doesn’t work out (directs him to the shrines as a way to help him gain the strength he needs, as opposed to making him complete challenges to get a paraglider that in the moment seems like literally arbitrary conditions). rhoam telling link how much responsibility and pressure he has on him all of a sudden and how much he needs to do vs rauru telling link that it was wonderful to meet him and zelda’s accounts of him were all true. like. the framing. the difference in character. the deterioration of knowledge within hyrule falls parallel to the deterioration of its king’s kindness and virtue.

the differences between rauru and roham are crazy to me because one of them was so fundamentally good and one was so fundamentally flawed and yet. neither of them were able to save their kingdom. no matter how good a king of hyrule is, no matter what he gets right or wrong, he is still doomed to die. rhoam tried to sacrifice his daughter to keep hyrule alive. rauru did everything in his power to make sure she DIDNT have to be sacrificed. and in the end the outcome was the same. but the KINGS were not the same, and that difference in framing you mentioned i think is fundamentally a difference in legacy. rhoams legacy is to forever be the king who sacrificed children to save himself and died anyway. rhoam died a loser through and through, a king atop a throne of nothing but failure. i think that’s partially why he appears as an old man at first, because he KNOWS what being the king of hyrule means and he’s EMBARRASSED that his legacy is what it is. but rauru. in complete contrast, rauru was so GOOD. rauru died with his sages and his DAUGHTER alive to see another day. rauru ENSURED they’d live no matter what. he wouldn’t LET them sacrifice themselves for him. rauru put everyone else before himself. he didn’t expect or even tolerate self-sacrifice and yet when the time came he sacrificed HIMSELF selflessly despite knowing that it wouldn’t even WORK. rauru’s legacy is something to be proud of. he’s open to link because he has nothing TO hide. no regrets or stupid decisions. and he is remembered so much more favorably because of it.

[0nlyhere4phil]

what are some of your fave solo amazingphil videos? ^_^

OMG AMAZING QUESTION!! where do I even begin LOL Xb

For classic AmazingPhil (pre manchester apartment) some of my favs are Worst Day Ever mainly cause the way he says "awful" is just perfect, No Sleep cause that purple shirt looked so good on him, Hayfever Sucks idk why tbh I just love it, 51 things in my room cause srsly how can he be so cool, Psycho Boyfriend okay actor Phil I see you, CLAW I love you Mrs. Lester <3, ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ the way he says "ow" is so cute </3, Alarm he looks so good in this video, and Robot death machine psychic Phil at his finest (and for these ik they're not solos but the sprite advert and Jonathan and Mary Beth argue are srsly my favorite amazingphil videos they're so funny OMG)

Then when he was really starting to pop off (manchester apartment era) I love Things I thought were true that are not true its short its sweet and it made an amazing series, The Change another just banger plus "straight" Phil LOL, KILLER ESCALATOR is just so good "nostalgia face", and SIDEWAYS GARY cause like genuinely what did that guy even mean?!

Now it's time for like "stereotypical" AmazingPhil (1st london apartment): MAN FLU I love videos like this they're so comforting, Smoking Fail just a classic, LOST AT THE MALL ;_;, My Body Sucks, FIREWORKS FAIL, Phil's Favourites, OPTICIAN HORROR STORY, PHIL IN THE CLUB, I SMASHED 3 MIRRORS, 2017 WANTS ME DEAD, Reacting to my Baby Videos, BADGER SIMULATOR?? - Phil Plays: Shelter, SLENDER BADGER - Phil Plays: Shelter 2, THE RIVER OF DEATH - Phil Plays: Shelter 3, FOREST FIRE!!! - Phil plays Shelter FINAL EPISODE, and every sleepless night with phil. I could keep going but honestly I would just be linking to every video he made in this time cause they were all bangers.

Moving on to 2nd London apartment era: I Read A Letter from My Younger Self this video inspired me to also do this LOL, Reacting to my DELETED VIDEOS 1. QUIFF! 2. Phil's art house era eats, Why I Went To Hospital , Why I Went To Hospital (again) I love his medical videos I love how speaks about these topics, A Chat With Myself From 10 Years Ago, My Google Search History 2 just so entertaining, Reacting To Myself On A TV Quiz Show BANGER, Reading The Creepiest Email I've Ever Been Sent, Coming Out To You of course <3, Trying To Bake My Birthday Cake WITHOUT A RECIPE and underrated gem, I Tried To Follow A Festive Bob Ross Tutorial (gone wrong) so endearing AND AN EXTREMELY UNDERRATED VIDEO, I Tried Floating In a Sensory Deprivation Tank For 3 Hours, A Tour Of My Plants (living and dead) miss u jenna thank u for inspiring Phil to make this banger of a vid, Trying to Catch and Rescue An Injured WILD Pigeon COMFORT VID, Visiting My Hometown! (On Google Maps), and the Awkward Stories From the Closet series. THIS ERA WAS SO GOOD TOO <///3 I LOVE HIMMM

The Phouse Era: This era does not have many solo Phil videos and also not that many videos in general but there are a some bangers like Viewers Pick My Birthday Presents the mega dilf shirt is such a slay, I was mess at university, Exposing My TikTok Likes I love seeing him laugh, I have a confession he looks so good in pink, I made a construction worker cry, A New Era PHLONDE, Let's Talk About Dating...Again ginger quiff my beloved, and honestly all of the BitLife videos.

So those are some of my personal favs but who am I kidding all of his videos EAT!

HAPPY 19TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE AMAZINGPHIL CHANNEL OMG!! <3 <3

[arrowfleur]

✩‧₊˚ Redacted HC’s ✩‧

Part 11: Guy and Honey

If there is a couple trend online Guy wants to do it

Dances , matching blankets, hand print art you name it

Honey goes along with most of them, they had a good time with the couples yoga poses

Guy hates long drives and he will say he needs a wee 10 minutes after you’ve set off

Honey loves them, they love driving

Honey cannot STAND wearing fluffy pyjamas, any kind of clothing with fluff inside it is a no go

They have matching slippers, robes and toothbrushes

Neither of them are good at remembering appointments

They use post-it notes a lot to give each other messages

Guy can and will boogie anywhere, he wiggles a lot

And is very fidgety

Honey plays with their fingers a lot

Guy cannot figure out how to eat with chopsticks for the life of him and finds it very upsetting

Honey had a guitar in their room but they cant read music so just teach themself with YouTube tutorials

Their are plectrums littered all over the apartment

Whenever they go shopping Guy has to look at everything.

There is a display of awful hats? He’s trying them all on

Honeys guilty pleasure is those competition tv shows where people bake or do tattoos

Guy has the babiest of baby faces

His favourite food is sandwiches

Honey gets very passionate about certain topics and it’s the only time guy sees them speak with their hands

Their first Christmas as roommates neither of them went home so they bought some crappy tinsel from dollar tree, bought each other a present and ordered Chinese food

They both look back in it very fondly

Honey bought Guy a gag gift thinking he’d do the same but he splurged for a graphic-t that he’d seen them looking at on their laptop

Also, Honey is adamant that die hard is a Christmas film. They will not hear otherwise

Guy is very cleanly and always showers as soon as he gets in the door, he cannot stand the grease smell

Honey always takes warm drinks and snacks to Guy when he’s writing

As much as they liked to make fun, especially at the beginning of their relationship, they always listen intently to his plot lines and ideas

Honey is such a still sleeper, they do not move

They’re a good packer, they always know what they’re gonna need and what they won’t use and very rarely forget to bring something

Guy knows how to knit

Neither of them like cooking

Guy loves jumping on honeys back

They groan but always catch him

Guy doesn’t care if he’s overheating l, he’s rather stay cuddling than move to opposite sides of the bed

Guy sleeps in socks

Honey is horrified

Honey would do anything to have a house with a fireplace

They love fire

They think if they didn’t have so much self restraint they might be an arsonist

Thanks for reading!

[dol-dee]

aw man, you totally don’t have to finish a mod for DOL if you don’t want to, but I love your art for it SO much!! the face options alone look so sick and I know body replacement would probably be hard to do, but the pixel art you made for your characters!!!! Is SO good!!!! I LOVE FAT PEOPLE & HAIRY BUTCHES SO MUCH. AMEN 🙏

Hi anon i feel an innate kinship with you<333 🔥💞hairy butches and fat people!!!!!!!💞🔥 🎉🎉🎉🎉

(George belongs to @dolbog as always) So in the spirit of butches and fat people- have a complimentary Geordee sketch that nobody asked for B) Anyways-- Honestly the body replacement would prolly be pretty easy(?) bc (tbf, I havent tried it out yet but-) in theory it should be as simple as replacing the corresponding files. You just need to have assets for well.. a majority of things- or at least the things you plan to engage with. Its more... idk if i will ever release this as a full public mod. (uh.. if i ever get anywhere close to it being playable considering the millions of files.. jfc... ...and also the fact that theres not really any guides or tutorials out there, no one to explain shit to me. yes im in the modding server, no it didnt help much..) Partly because of all the shit with the creators and d0lcord (i had problems with the game from the beginning, but this just kinda.. was the nail in the coffin. besides, most of what i established for myself character wise is already pretty divergent from the original intention i feel..) and partly bc im plagued by delusions of grandeur, such as potentially doing my own setting inspired by dol + doing my own game. so.. id rather keep my files private, maybe share them with a few friends. (maybe this will change idk) Originally i did want to do a full public mod, bc i was so bothered by the fact that (afaik) there really arent any mods out there for fat people or butches. its all very petite femme girls or twinky men (which is fine, to be clear) but it made it so i felt the need to stick to the vanilla sprites, since my characters all have rather.. specific designs and the vanilla sprites are also chibi enough to were i can at least pretend my character isnt thin. thats a lil more difficult with other mods..

[theriseofashclan]

OPTIONS — SECTION ONE

You have selected: Options!

The menu screen dissolves and a new screen appears in front of you: "Options" floats at the top, slightly transparent, and a dialogue box with the words "Would you like to view the tutorial?" written inside. There are two options: Yes and No. The No option is greyed out.

You have selected: Yes!

The screen fades to black and the word Tutorial appears at the top. It's slightly transparent, though you can still read it. Beneath that, a void, dark and looming.

At first, all that surrounds you is darkness and silence, like a void. It's not uncomfortable or suffocating, though. Instead, you feel warm and almost fuzzy inside; the feeling reminds you of the heat of sunlight through your fur.

A flicker of light appears in the distance. The longer your eyes linger on it, the brighter and larger it grows until, at last, a ticked orange tabby with significant white colouring appears. They're smaller than you, and look younger, too. Their bright cyan eyes stare up at you with awe and curiosity.

BRAMBLEPAW: It's you! It's really you! After all this time, I thought you were never comin'!

Hah! You should see your face! I'm just kiddin', I knew you'd come. That's kinda one of the cool things about this. Huh? Oh, I'm from StarClan!

As soon as they notice the panicked look on your face, the cat waves their paws in a placating gesture, trying to calm you down.

BRAMBLEPAW: Woah! Calm down! Don't worry, you're not dead. This is just our way of sendin' messages to you Clan-dwellers. And my message is really important, so you gotta listen, okay?

Remembering what the elders had once told you about your ancestors in the stars, you decide that sitting and listening to whatever message this little cat has for you seems like the best option.

You settle in the grass—which appears silvery and almost ghost-like—and curl your paws beneath you.

YOU: All right, I’m listening. But, before you tell me anything, can I know your name?

The cat stares at you, their head tilted slightly as they process your request. Their eyes narrow just slightly, contemplating for only a moment before grinning, the smallest set of teeth bared in your direction.

BRAMBLEPAW: Sure! We’re friends after all, right? Well, not friends. But y’know what I mean! I’m Bramblepaw!

I've been here a while now, longer than you've even been alive! I know, spooky, right? Oh! Right! My very important message! Listen carefully, now!

The Clan cats can't tell you this themselves, so they're lucky I'm here, but they need your help. Don't ask how I know, you'll only make this more complicated and I have limited time already!

BRAMBLEPAW: There's one Clan in particular I want you to keep your eye on. It's kinda your destiny so you can't say no!

They're called ForestClan and they're super important to the future of the Clans!

You'll be watching them from the sky, and all you have to do is help them make big decisions. What? Don't worry about it! You can handle it! StarClan wouldn't have picked you if they thought you couldn't!

The air grows cold around you and Bramblepaw's voice begins to fade into the distance. They give you a bright smile as their small body dissolves into twinkling stars.

As you continue to stare into the space where the strange young cat once was, your head starts to feel fuzzy. An unfamiliar feeling fills your body and you feel wiser than before, as though you know things that a Clan-dweller like you shouldn't...

PREVIOUS | NEXT

NOTES: We are OFFICIALLY BACK!!!

[katyspersonal]

Why is there no Vargram fanart or anything for him at all?! D:

Oh deeeear.....

This specific issue is the absolutely awful dumb thing that rotted the whole artistic side of the fandom. Fromsoft, the absolute buffons, the complete and utter FOOLS, decided that it was a wonderful idea to straight up erase a character with established lore (!), and outfit unique to him (!!!), so they can instead use his drip under guise of 'John Eldenring'.

Do you even realise? Can you even begin to comprehend my pain? When 90% of the shitposts and fanarts featuring "default Tarnished" instead draw VARGRAM and not even care? Yes, I get that, he is somewhat easy to miss because he is encountered through following the Volcano Manor quest, and Fromsoft shoves him on every promo and all. But like, how does no one still have the sense of wonder to read the description of so-called "default Tarnished" and see that it is NOT their!!! AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, as for the ACTUAL default Tarnished wear, a much better choice is the Knight Set, also known as Tutorial Set!

It is not worn by any NPC in the game, it is not attached to any pre-existing character, it is sold by Twin Maiden husks in the Roundtable Hold and it is the set that appears on the tutorial windows! If you own digital artbook for SoTE, you can also confirm this is the set used for the player there!

And yet, Fromsoft chose to ensure erasure of pre-established character in the fanarts. I'd say 49% of the fans don't even know Vargram exists, other 49% decide that erasing a minor NPC is not a big deal for more "aesthetically pleasing" default Tarnished, and the remaining 2% are me, you, Fantomette and Val. xD

[tgmsunmontue]

Online & Anonymous 8/16

Hangster. Explicit. Years before they meet in person Bradley and Jake strike up a friends-with-benefits relationship online. And then something more like an actual relationship.

Odd year = Bradley's POV and Even year = Jake's POV

>>Bradley chatting (bold and italics)

>>Jake chatting (italics)

2005/2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

2013 – Bradley

                When he gets the invitation to Top Gun he almost vibrates out of his seat in excitement. He keeps telling himself it’s excitement and not terror. He’s already going to be turning thirty this year, and while he might be a bit older than some of the other attendees he knows he’s unlikely to be the oldest. However he is older than his father was when he attended. He’s already older than his father was when he died and the idea that his father was married and had had a kid is mind boggling to him, because he doesn’t feel anywhere old enough to have either of those responsibilities, even if he’s coming around to the first one whenever he thinks about a potential future with Jas.

>>I got invited to a thing. An elite training thing. It’s sort of a big deal.

>>I’ll probably be busier than usual.

>>Like what?

>>Wait. Rangers? Delta Force? Pararescue?

>>Yeah. Something like that.

>>Fine. Keep your secrets.

>>You’re the one that said you want to keep some stuff for when we meet.

>>Can I change my mind?

>>Ask me again in 24 hours.

>>You’re pretty impulsive.

>>You like me being impulsive.

>>That’s true. I do.

>>Don’t want you to regret it though.

>>End of May isn’t that far away.

>>Assuming nothing happens again.

>>Yeah well. Fingers crossed.

>>Thinking about finally meeting you is the only gets me through some of my worst days.

>>No pressure.

                Bradley squeezes his lips between his teeth, wonders if he should apologize.

>>There is no pressure. I’m just… being honest with you.

>>I’ve had to lie about do much for so long, that even now it’s…

>>Well. I’ll never lie to you. Even if I think it’ll scare you.

>>This is where I get to be myself.

>>But you don’t need to worry about me not liking you.

>>I already love you.

>>Okay.

>>Well.

>>In the interests of being honest, do you want to know a secret?

>>Of course.

>>I’m scared of meeting you.

>>Why?

>>What if you’re not as perfect in person as you are through my phone?

>>Well, I’m not perfect.

>>At all.

>>Do you want me to share some of my gross habits with you?

>>I can do that if you think it would help.

>>Yeah. Go on.

>>Well, a recent one which drives my roommate absolutely batshit crazy, is I leave my moustache hair clippings all over the sink.

>>You have a moustache?

>>Yep. A new one. That long leave period I had last year when we were meant to meet up the second time? I started growing it.

>>Keeps my upper lip warm.

>>Do you look good?

>>I look like my dad.

>>Makes me feel closer to him.

>>I broke down and cried when I caught my reflection because I thought it was him.

>>I think mine is better, but I just wish he was here to joke with me about it.

>>Teach me how to take care of it.

>>All I’ve had are YouTube tutorials and it’s not quite the same.

>>If you’re watching online tutorials it definitely looks good.

>>Vain motherfucker.

                Bradley laughs but doesn’t bother disputing the fact, he likes to look good, and taking pride in his appearance is something that is necessary because it reflects on the Navy. He can’t say that specifically though.

>>What about you? Annoying habit?

>>I leave empty bottles and cups everywhere.

>>Not in the mess hall obviously, but everywhere else.

>>My friends despair of me.

>>I try and remember when I’m elsewhere, but I just keep forgetting.

>>Awful Southern manners.

…            …            …

                His seventeen-week stint at the Navy Fighter Weapons School begins and he doesn’t think he’s ever worked so hard in his life. He studies every waking moment, spends time with the ground crew asking questions about particular aspects of their jobs and their experiences, uses them to piece together a better understanding of the planes, although he’s already got an excellent understanding of most things, his obsession and upbringing in his youth meaning he’s knowledgeable about odd things, which sometimes get a raised eyebrow from one or two of the instructors. He does his best to ignore them.

                He and Jas have discovered SnapChat and started using that, not for conversations, just for staying connected and sending tiny little snippets of their day to each other, letting him know he’s thinking of him. Shots of morning coffee, books where he carefully covers the titles when it’s related to flying, the sky when it’s particularly pretty, his empty bed with the simple caption wish you were here.

                The seventeen weeks come to an end, he comes out on the top and he feels so much. He survived for a start, which is something he can admit now that he was worried about. God, he wants to ring Mav and Ice, and not just to brag, but to hear them be happy for him, although a part of him accepts he definitely wants to rub Pete’s face in it, that he is good enough. Of course it throws everything else into sharp relief and he wishes more than anything he could talk to his dad. He’s sitting in the lounge, just staring at the photos of previous Top Gun classes and 1986 is right there, an image that conjures so many mixed emotions.

                “Lieutenant Bradshaw. Thought you’d be out celebrating the win.”

                “Sir.”

                “Seriously. I’m surprised to see you here and not with the others.”

                “I will celebrate. Just. Having some mixed emotions sir,” he admits.

                “You don’t think you earnt the win?”

                Bradley blinks, because he’s not sure there’s a way to answer that question the right way, without sounding like he’s

                “I think it was an honor to be invited here and challenged by fellow aviators who are excellent in every respect. I worked hard and flew well. Just. Did you know my father died at Top Gun? During a hop?”

                “Bradshaw. I did wonder. Thought it was in bad taste to ask.”

                “No-one asked, but I suspect some are aware. No-one brought it up, sir.”

                “No, they’d probably take your lead on that. Well, I’ll leave you to it Lieutenant. Have a good evening.”

                “Thank you sir.”

…            …            …

>>How did you go?

>>Well, I didn’t wash out and I completed it.

>>That’s a pretty low bar.

>>Didn’t wash out? Pretty sure you smashed it.

>>I love your faith in me.

>>I love you.

>>Of course I have faith in you.

>>What I don’t have faith in is the universe and its apparent desire to fuck us over.

>>I’ve been invited to my own elite training thing.

>>Like, I can’t turn it down, it’s pretty much an order to go. And it’s an honor to be selected, but the timing could not be fucking worse.

>>I’m so sorry.

                Bradley is so disappointed he’s close to tears, but he also knows that when these type of opportunities are offered to you, you cannot turn them down. Ever. Not directly. Except he sort of just did, and his mind is

>>I understand. I totally understand.

>>Doesn’t stop me being disappointed though.

>>I was really looking forward to finally meeting you.

>>You and me both. Waited this long though right?

>>I am getting really sick of us having to say that.

>>I’m starting to get very sick of waiting.

>>I feel like we’ve waited long enough.

>>But I was offered something, I might see if I can backtrack my decline.

>>Shit. Did you turn something down because of me?

>>Well, I asked if I could think about it for a day or two. I was intending to turn them down, but I think I’ll accept it now.

>>Not if I don’t have meeting you in May to look forward to.

>>Nick. I don’t want you turning down things which could help your career just to meet with me.

>>I’m not going anywhere.

>>This goes both ways. I don’t want you turning things down either.

>>I’m sorry – did you just miss the bit where I said I can’t meet up because I’m taking up a training opportunity?

>>Yeah, but you thought about turning it down.

>>Next time don’t think about it, just accept.

>>I’ll always understand your desire to put your career first.

>>What about when I don’t want to anymore?

>>Also this applies to actual guys you sleep with and could have a relationship with.

>>Don’t you dare use me as an excuse to not pursue something if you think it’d be worth it.

>>Then the same applies for you.

>>Fine. Although the guys I’ve been sleeping with have yet to impress me with anything worth writing home about. Or well…

>>Sharing with you. My fantasies are definitely far more interesting.

>>Still think it’s your useless superpower, ability to hook-up with the worst possible guys and just have bad sex.

>>It’s okay. We’ll practice plenty in person when we meet.

…            …            …

                The offer to stay on as an instructor is there, and he’d said he’d think about it. However he really doesn’t want to stop flying, but he also doesn’t feel like he has the necessary skills to train other aviators yet, which is why he’s seriously considering staying to learn from the Top Gun instructors. When he raises his concerns about wanting to keep up his flying while also wanting to build up his experience with teaching and training to a set syllabus he gets a considered look for his troubles.

                “You’re not very much like your father or godfather are you Lieutenant.”

                “Excuse me sir?”

                “I know who you are Lieutenant. I flew with both your father, and Maverick. You remind my far more of Iceman. Cool and collected, little bit detached from emotion when you’re flying.”

                “Sir,” Bradley states, because he’s not sure if he’s asking a question or not. Whether it’s simply an observation or a compliment.

                “I’ll see what we can figure out.”

                The experienced tutors seem to take his interest in training with enthusiasm, recommending readings and setting homework. He learns that some of them have gone on to do Masters degrees in learning or development. He hadn’t expected quite a thorough background as he’s getting, but it’s good. He’s permitted to take flights early in the morning as long as he clears his flight plans with his commanding officer and also has at least three others awake and at least one willing to act as ground crew. He makes decent deals with several of the instructors, some who just prefer being on base that early to prepare for the day and doing it while he flies around is acceptable to them, especially when he agrees to try out any particular maneuvers and tactics in different planes. He loves it and it’s his routine for three weeks before the next Top Gun intake arrive. He shaves off his moustache and then regrets it almost immediately, but he can grow it back the next time he has a decent amount of leave to go unshaved.

…            …            …

                There are twelve naval aviators and Bradley has read all their files. He’s flown with a few of them before, one of them being Bambi and another Coyote. Then he knows Slipper, Knocks, Frank and Truffle. It leaves the other six as unknowns, although he does recognize the names. He has to admit it’s almost more intimidating than going through Top Gun himself, being expected to command the attention of other aviators for lessons, people known for challenging the status quo. The fact that he already knows half of them actually makes it worse, because he knows they won’t hold back. Not that he expects any of them to hold back, but he’s read their files and they’re all good and more than deserve to be here.

                It’s a little awkward, he’s not sure whether he is meant to be hanging out with the instructors, or whether he’s somehow part of this Top Gun class as well. So he finds a weird middle ground, friendly and professional with the instructors, happy to act for them, following their instructions and carrying out flight moves as an example or acting the part of bogey for tactical training. He is even more professional with the Top Gun class, slightly cooler but still friendly enough that he doesn’t think it pisses any of them off, although Bambi does roll her eyes at him more than once and Coyote gives him a quirked eyebrow.

                He and Jas continue to exchange snaps every day, although they both poke fun at the seemingly endless monotony of their current day-to-day lives. Bradley’s same mug of coffee everyday wishing him good morning, and it hasn’t escaped his notice that Jas seems to be in his time zone for the first time ever. Or at least for the first time since he really started paying attention and using Snapchat. They haven’t made any long-term plans to meet-up, not until next year and that’s too far away for Bradley to even know where in the world he’ll be let alone what weeks of the year he will have free which makes him feel a little more irritated than usual.

                “So, your score is the score I have to beat huh?” Jake Seresin says, and Bradley can’t help the immediate spike of annoyance at the words. He shouldn’t, because they’re Navy, competition between them all is something that is drilled into them from the beginning. More so for the USNA, but Bradley’s been around Naval Aviators his entire life and knows how they are, for the most part. Bunch of egotistical adrenaline junkies. Himself included, although he likes to try and temper his own ego by being as friendly and hopefully genuinely likeable as possible. Of course, being professional and maintaining some sense of distance can be difficult when he just wants to roll his eyes and tell the guy to grow up.

                “Just concentrate on your own flying and don’t worry about beating me.”

                They’re all good pilots. Of course they are. But Jake Seresin just seems to take the cast of egotistical and break the mold. He’s just so full of himself and the most annoying part of it is that it’s completely justified. He is that good, but he also gives off waves that he doesn’t feel like he has anything left to learn and Bradley knows he can’t be the only one feeling a little frustrated with his attitude sometimes. He asks the other instructors, in a round-about way, and he gets amused looks and told that he’ll learn to manage that with experience.

                Then there is how Seresin looks. He’s very nice to look at, Bradley isn’t going to lie to himself about it, and he wouldn’t kick him out of bed, however he’d have to like his personality enough first to invite him there, and that isn’t happening anytime soon. Definitely not while they’re at Top Gun, even if he thinks he could ask and get accepted, he doesn’t want to get a reputation for sleeping with students, that would be disastrous. It doesn’t stop him jerking off and thinking about Jake Seresin’s lips around his cock and he sends a couple of pictures to Jas during and after, telling him he misses him.

…            …            …

                Seventeen weeks feels like the blink of an eye and also, somehow, the longest drawn-out torture ever. He’s glad he has flying everyday, because somedays it’s the only thing that keeps him sane. Seresin seems to ask endless questions, some just bordering on disrespectful and he knows the other instructors find his frustration amusing, because he catches their poorly hidden smiles when he privately expresses his frustration to them, so he starts ignoring it as best he can.

                He doesn’t think he enjoys training and teaching enough to want to make this his career, not if every class is going to have people like Jake Seresin in it. He can’t bring himself to whine about it to Jas, not when he knows he’s so busy with his own specialty training, so he does the next best thing and rings Natasha, exchanging pleasantries before just launching into the complaining when she asks how the training aspects are going.

                “I just can’t seem to teach him anything! He just rubs me the wrong way.”

                “Well, you definitely want to be rubbing something…”

                “Jesus Natasha!”

                “What? It’s not going to get you kicked out or anything anymore…”

                “I’m not going to sleep with him!”

                “Would you? If that were an option? Is he hot?”

                “I don’t know. Have you met Jake Seresin?”

                “Oh. Definitely hot. He’s also Javy’s best friend.”

                “Javy huh?” Bradley asks, wanting to steer their conversation away from his inconvenient attraction to the most annoying person he’s ever met.

                “Shut up. At least I know what the guy I’m interested in looks like…”

                “Yeah yeah, whatever. I had noticed they were pretty tight.”

                “Yeah. Tight as brothers. Academy and flight school buddies. Hopefully Javy’s actual brothers are nicer.”

                “Well, they aren’t currently here driving me fucking insane, so that’s already a point in their favor.”

                “How is Javy doing?”

                “He’s good. Everyone here is good. You should be here.”

                “I’ll get my turn.”

                “Yeah you will.”

…            …            …

                “You know, the other instructors, they call you a rooster, because you get up so early so you can get up and fly before class.”

                Bradley grunts, because if he ignores him, maybe he’ll go away. He knows the other instructors call him that, and he doesn’t mind it, because there are far worse nicknames he could have landed himself with. This one has been an almost affectionate one, given to him with a ruffle to his hair and a wink.

                “I wanted to see if you’d be interested in getting a drink.”

                “With you?”

                “Yes.”

                “No, that wouldn’t be appropriate.”

                “We’re the same rank,” Seresin states, but Bradley is shaking his head.

                “I’m still an instructor.”

                Seresin’s lip curls, and it’s not in a nice way, but he’s stepping back, hands out in a no harm no foul gesture and Bradley hates that he looks good even when he’s looking pissed off.

                “Your loss.”

                “I think I’ll live.”

…            …            …

                When the seventeen weeks come to an end, he finally allows himself to socialize with Bambi, taking her out for dinner as an apology for being so formal and professional for the last four months. Allows, for a given definition of allow, for her to sweep the floor with him at both darts and pool. Then he takes her back to his place where they make a video call to Natasha and have a proper catch-up. Of course the first thing Natasha asks is if he’s slept with Seresin yet which has Bambi cackling and telling her all about the times Seresin seemed to be an ass solely to try and get Bradley’s attention.

…            …            …

>>You ever wonder what would happen if you did something different?

>>Only every fucking day.

2014 - Jake

[hannahssimblr]

How did you improve so much in a year at building and taking screenshots?! Forever in awe

hahah thank you so much! I'm so happy with my improvement - the answer is ~magic~

nah, really, it's just that when I started Lucky Girl back at the end of 2022, I knew absolutely none of the screenshot tricks - I only ever got ts4 as a way to tell the story, and hadn't played it at all in the years prior. I ended up trying to take screenshots in a game where I didn't even know how to work the teleport function - and you can tell, I fear.

I was also using another platform to share my story at the time, and a lot of the content there kinda looked the same - vanilla, screenshots taken with plumbobs on and the walls down etc. I wasn't using Tumblr so I didn't have any inspiration. Coming here really pushed me to be better and taught me a lot of tricks and new things to add to my game to make it look better - the short of it, is that I just really didn't know better, and I just wanted to write the story. The screenshots felt secondary. I look back and cringe tbh, but I distinctly remember not really bothering that much with them, and thinking that 'just okay' was good enough.

Since then I've learned so much!

The first was how to teleport, and use MCCC to get sims to do couple poses off the lot

I got TOOL and figured all of that stuff out - including to create the illusion of varying heights etc.

I added in more details to the sims, changed any hair and skin issues, and added in skin details galore

I use WW for posing whenever I need something a bit more complex

I got over my fear of having too much CC in my game and just got so much build/buy cc - this made it possible to create the kinds of houses and rooms I imagined in my head - also, experience building helped a lot. In the beginning I was so intimidated, and frankly, unable to make things looked good that I relied on builds from the gallery 90% of the time.

Weirdly, even though I studied film in college, I never applied my knowledge of composition to the screenshots - I just started doing that, and generally trying to think more cinematically.

I got more use to using photoshop to fix screenshots, mix them together and crop them to be more compositionally pleasing. I also did that tutorial about changing the BG of a scene - I do that as a last resort, but it really works.

RESHADE - this was the biggest one. That DOF really changed my screenshot game - there's a point in lucky girl where I started using it, and you can see the instant difference.

Lighting mods - I use sunblind, and I also use the ghibli replacement clouds. I have a few others also to fix the shadows and lighting in general

Being more intentional with poses. I got a bunch of new ones with more subtle expressions that I felt suited the tone of my story better. I think the exaggerated ones are super cute, but they always seemed too much for my story. I also got animations for even more natural movement in scenes. Sometimes I'll make my own, too, if I can't find exactly what I am looking for

The eye trick was a huge gamechanger - I use it almost every single shot, and truly couldn't live without it.

Relight is a recent addition to my game - I only figured out how to use it around the end of part 2 of Lucky Boy. I don't use it a lot, but it was great more some of the dramatically lit festival scenes, and whenever I want some lamplight on a character (Or to just balance out a dark part of the shot)

camera mods have helped me gain more control of my scenes, along with the CTRL 5/6/7/8/9 camera saving trick. I use this a lot too, especially when I need to characters to look at each other with the eye trick and they won't do it at the same time (recent example below)

All of that is basically how I did it! It was a whole process but I'm so pleased because I look at the old screenshots and just think, damn, I've come so far!

More examples of the same scenes redone, because it's fun

[sassycheesecake]

''All I Want Is You'' - Hajime Iwaizumi x Reader

A/N: During a hot summer day, this idea came to me while I almost suffered a heat stroke at the public pool.

Warnings: cursing

It is boiling hot in Miyagi, no doubt the middle of July not doing any favor to the volleyball team of Aoba Johsai. Training has been canceled due to the extreme heat and the teenagers are extremely bored, not a clue on what to do to kill some time.

Matsukawa, Hanamaki, Iwaizumi and some other members are sitting in the shade of a tree, trying to protect themselves from direct sunlight. The only person that is missing is currently their Captain, Oikawa.

„Ugh, it’s so hoooot.’’ Hanamaki groans in annoyance.

„What made you think that?’’ Matsukawa snorts as he fans himself with his English textbook.

Most of them have taken off parts of their uniform, only leaving them in their dress shirts and a lot of them have loosened ties.

Iwaizumi has his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, wondering where his best friend is lounging around.

All of sudden, their misery was interrupted when Oikawa came jogging to them with a large grin on his face that screams trouble.

Standing in front of his teammates, he looks at them with excitement.

„Fellas, I know now what we can do to cool off!’’ The brunette proudly announces.

The team looks at him in annoyance but still waits for him to go on.

„A little birdie told me that the swim team is currently away in Tokyo for competition week, so that means the pool is unoccupied.’’

Iwaizumi looks incredibly skeptical and frowns at his best friend.

„Did someone shit in your brain? It’s off limits for non-club members, if someone catches us, we’ll probably get suspended.’’ The brunette warns him.

„Actually, I am in, even if it means I just get to dip my legs in the water for 10 minutes.’’ Hanamaki agrees with Oikawa.

The Ace is even more shocked now.

Hanamaki, Matsukawa, Yahaba and Watari all get up, ready to follow Oikawa to the pool.

Iwaizumi remains seated, not wanting to get in trouble with his teammates.

„Come on, Iwa-chan, live a little and come with us.’’ Oikawa tries to persuade him to come with them.

„No thank you.’’ He declines and makes his way to the school building.

„Just for fifteen minutes at least, come on Iwaizumi. Just 15 minutes and then we will leave.’’ Yahaba tries.

Iwaizumi ponders for a few moments, actually reconsidering his decision.

After a few seconds, he sighs and turns to the direction of his team.

„Fine. Just fifteen minutes and then we will leave. If someone catches us, I am going to hunt every single one of you down and choke you in your sleep.’’

Oikawa cheers, not being intimidated by his threat.

„Don’t worry Iwa-chan, I promise no one will be there. After all, the swim team is gone for the week, no one will be there.’’ Oikawa promises him.

Still, Iwaizumi can’t help but think this is a bad idea.

When they reach the gate of the pool, they look around, double checking no one is there and tries to open the door, only to find out it’s locked.

„God damnit!’’ Hanamaki curses.

„Well, it looks like the universe is trying to tell us something. I am going back.’’ The dark-haired brunette with the spiky hair bluntly states, beginning to turn around and walk back when Yahaba grabs a hold of him.

„Not so fast.’’

When the Wing Spiker turns around again to see Watari beginning to pick at the lock with some instruments he has grabbed from his bag, he widens his eyes at his classmate’s ability to pick locks, watching him as he highly focuses on getting the lock to open up.

After hearing a loud ‘click’ the gate unlocks and Watari proudly steps aside to push the door open with a smirk.

„Where… where did you learn how to do that?’’ Matsukawa asks in a mix between shock and awe.

„I was bored one night and couldn’t sleep, so I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to pick different kinds of locks.’’

Almost like wild dogs, everyone except Iwaizumi begins to run to the pool, taking off their dress shirts and pants to jump into the water.

Multiple people doing jumps cause a big splash of water to land on Iwaizumi and his uniform, almost drenching him to his underwear.

Closing his eyes to try and calm down, he reopens his eyes to watch a bunch of 18 year olds turn into five-year olds.

„Hajime, the water feels amazing! Come and join us.’’ Yahaba floats in the water like a log, looking like he is in bliss.

Sighing in defeat, Iwaizumi rolls up his uniform pants and sits on the edge of the pool to dip his legs in the pool water.

As soon as the cold water consumes up to his knees, he can feel the refreshing cold relaxing his muscles and the Wing Spiker leans his arms behind his back and feels himself relax.

The feeling is indescribable. He can feel his whole body cool off, the heat of the sun now barely noticeable.

It seems like time barely passed because Watari looks at his phone for the time and tells the group it’s already been fifteen minutes.

The boys all look at each other and it’s like they share the same thought of agreeing to stay longer.

„Let’s play Chicken Fight! Maki get on Matsun’s shoulders, Iwa-chan come on mine!’’ The Setter suggests with a gleam in his eyes.

„Chicken wars? What are you? 12?’’ Yahaba laughs.

„I am not getting on your shoulders Crappykawa, first, I don’t trust you, second, I played this last time I was 8 years old.’’ Iwaizumi declines.

Oikawa pouts at his best friend’s answer, turning to Yahaba again.

„Shigeru come on, don’t be a sissy.’’

Yahaba’s eye twitches in annoyance, nonetheless, he accepts the challenge.

„You’re on, captain.’’

Iwaizumi watches his friends with a small smile, happy that they can enjoy their time together before they graduate next year in spring and part their ways to different life paths. Some might stay in Japan, others like Iwaizumi are planning on traveling to the United States for becoming an athletic trainer.

„What the hell do you think you guys are doing?’’ A stern voice interrupts the fun of the rowdy teens.

All freeze, slowly turning around to the voice that cut in on their fun.

It is a girl, around their age, wearing the Aoba Johsai uniform, but she is missing her blazer.

The boys can’t help but gawk in amazement at the beauty queen standing in the sun, glaring at them while tapping her foot in annoyance.

„I locked that gate for a reason, you know. This pool is the property of the Aoba Johsai swim team only. Not for the volleyball team to cool off in or anyone else.’’

Oikawa finds his voice first.

„Well you see cutie-’’ You immediately interrupt him, your gaze gaining more stern.

„Don’t. Call me that.’’

„I give you all 30 seconds to get out of there before I kick your asses out of here myself.’’

As soon as you say those words, the rest of the team scrambles out of the water so fast that you don’t have to say it a second time thankfully.

You watch as they quickly get dressed again, not being fazed by their muscular bodies that glisten in the sunlight from the water.

Running past you, they quickly apologize, just leaving you and Iwaizumi now.

As Iwaizumi is about to walk past you, you say something that makes him stop next to you.

„Out of the bunch of you, I thought you‘d be the most rational person in this group and I admired you for that. Guess I was wrong.“

Taking a deep breath, Iwaizumi continues to walk his path, feeling guilty for breaking the gate open and probably causing you trouble.

He doesn’t see any of his team members, they probably scrambled away like startled cats.

Making his way home, the Wing Spiker can’t help but keep thinking about the words you said to him.

For some reason, he can’t help but think you look familiar. He has seen that beautiful face once or twice but he can’t figure out where.

You never told them your name but you were wearing the school uniform.

As Iwaizumi lays in bed that night, he makes it his priority to find you tomorrow and apologize properly to you, even if it means apologizing for his team as well.

The next morning, Iwaizumi gets to school earlier than usual, waiting by the closed gates in front of the school.

Extremely tired, he leans against the gate, waiting for students to show up. It’s barely light outside, the sun just showing its first rays of the day.

The sky does look beautiful though with just a hint of orange and red showing up on the horizon beneath the woods.

About thirty minutes later, more and more students show up but Iwaizumi doesn't spot you among them.

Finally giving up and not wanting to be late to morning practice, the dark brunette walks to the gym.

During three-on-three matches, the Wing Spiker can barely focus, messing up receives, slamming the volleyball into the net more times than he can count.

“What’s up with you today? It looks like you’re playing volleyball for the first time.” Kindaichi says to the Ace.

“I don’t know, something keeps bothering me but I can’t pinpoint it exactly.”

Having listened to their conversation, Hanamaki makes his appearance, swiping his sweat off his face with a towel.

“Sounds to me like you’re feeling guilty Hajime. Is this about the girl from yesterday?”

“Girl? What girl?” Kindaichi frowns in confusion.

“We broke into the swim club’s pool yesterday for cooling off and the manager that stayed behind caught and scolded us.” Matsukawa laughs.

Iwaizumi stays quiet, pondering if he should try again to look for you and apologize on his and his team’s behalf.

All of sudden, he feels a heavy arm wrap around his neck, startling him.

“Awwww Iwa-chan is in looooooove.” Oikawa taunts him.

Elbowing the Caption in the stomach, the Setter groans in pain, immediately letting go of him.

After morning practice is over, the third-years make their way to the classes, talking among themselves and laughing together.

Iwaizumi is walking next to Yahaba in the back, about to enter the classroom, when he sees a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye that halts his steps.

It was you.

You are putting a paper up against the poster board in the hallway, having a neutral look on your face as you put pins in the corner of the paper.

“Hajime, you coming? Maths is about to start.” Yahaba interrupts.

“Yeah… I… uh… I will be right in.” Iwaizumi says distractedly, making his way over you.

Yahaba shrugs, making his way to his seat.

The heart of the Wing Spiker begins to beat rapidly, he can feel his hands starting to sweat, his stomach doing somersaults, the closer he gets to you.

Last night, he practiced what he wanted to say to you, so this should be no problem.

Until it is.

As soon as he is close enough, his throat gets dry and his mind is blank.

What did he want to do again?

Fuck.

Sensing that Iwaizumi is standing there, not getting a word out with a face so red, you’d think his head is about to pop off.

Raising your eyebrow in confusion, you wait for him to say something but he stutters incomprehensible words out of his mouth, not being able to form proper sentences.

“You okay? You having a stroke?” You ask.

Iwaizumi has to calm down, before he actually gets one from all the stress his body is going through at this moment.

Clearing his throat, he finally finds his words.

“Listen. I am sorry about me and my team’s behavior yesterday. It was wrong of us to break into the pool, I hope you didn’t get into trouble.”

You stare at him for a few seconds, looking deep into his eyes, thinking if he actually means his apology or not.

His dark green eyes show certainty though, regret reflects among it.

“Alright. I forgive you. Thank you for having the courage and maturity to apologize personally to me. And I am sorry too. For indirectly calling you immature.”

Iwaizumi smiles at your apology and you can feel your heart skip a beat.

That smile really suits him, better than the frown he usually carries on his handsome face.

“May I ask for your name?” Iwaizumi rubs his hand against his neck. A small blush spread across his cheeks.

Giggling at his nervousness, you introduce yourself.

“My name is (Y/L/N) (Y/F/N). Class 3-C.”

In return, Iwaizumi introduces himself as well.

“Iwaizumi Hajime, pleasure to meet you (Y/N).”

Oikawa watches the scene behind the door frame, happy that his best friend managed to find you and has the courage to talk to you.

Nonetheless, he has to have fun poking the bear with a stick every now and then.

‘’You know (Y/N)-chan, Iwa-chan here has a weak spot for cute, nerdy girls that work for the swim team and would LOVE to have your number.’’

‘’SHITTYKAWA!’’

@rukia-uchiha-98 @wake-uptoreality @nerd-of-karasuno @darthferbert