#but her design is always super inconsistent

[crowbugz]

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

[mothmanssweetsucculentass]

ZZZ Headcanons

Help this game has taken over my free time I love these characters sm <3 Billy Soukaku and Ellen my beloved

Nicole: has a not so secret hobby of bedazzling anything and everything. It’s a real problem in the Cunning Hares apartment, nothing is safe from pink rhinestones and stickers

Anby: cracked at rhythm games to an alarming degree. Can do a 2 person extremely hard DDR song all by herself

Billy: I don’t know how they did it but they programmed an android with autism. Has his own version of a skincare routine which is basically just maintenance on all of his tiny mechanical parts. Can also gain power multiple ways, including solar power. The apartment complex where the Cunning Hares live had a blackout once and everyone used Billy as a personal charging port. Nicole promised to pay him in Starlight Knight merch.

Nekomata: cuts her own hair and offers to do it for other people. DO NOT trust her when she says she’s good at it

Grace: did gymnastics as a kid which is why she’s able to pull off a ton of backflips and flexible maneuvers in battle

Anton: uses actual cement to keep his hair spikes in shape. Koleda caught him in the act once and instead of chewing him out, she decided to apply some to her own hair and now they’re cement combover gang

Ben: is completely vegan and loves chilling at hot springs a lot. Still sleeps with stuffed animals btw

Koleda: I’m making it canon right now Koleda is trans and you can’t do shit about it. Also has welding as a hobby and made most of her accessories from scratch

Corin: when not in Victoria Housekeeping Co uniform, is a Jfashion junkie. I’m talking super dedicated Lolita fits, menhera inspired clothing, the whole shebang. She ofc designs a lot of her own stuff like her bear backpack and is also responsible for a lot of the accessories Victoria Housekeeping Co wears (Rina’s bows, Ellen’s shark jaw head and neckpieces, Lycaon’s eyepatch and tail straps). She also has a massive crush on Ellen and is too scared to admit it

Rina: has a fur allergy and can’t keep animals around. Which also means she’s allergic to Lycaon. She has to take so much Zyrtec before clocking in but has such a good poker face that Lycaon has no idea. Ellen knows tho

Lycaon: specifically wears the heeled boots and has his odd posture because he’s self conscious about his digitigrade legs, he thinks they’re unsightly for a butler of his standing to have. He also tries to encourage Ellen to wear a long maid dress like Rina does to hide her tail.

Ellen: coincidentally falls into a lot of shark stereotypes. She loves seafood, has to constantly be fidgeting or she feels like she’ll go mad, and the kicker, she gets frenzied around blood, or if the thing she’s fighting puts up a struggle. Corin accidentally cut her hand while repairing her saw blade once and both Lycaon and Rina could barely hold Ellen back once Corin began bleeding. Ellen feels awful for scaring the already timid girl. Corin secretly thought it was hot and would die on the spot if anyone knew that

Soukaku: despite being a huge foodie this girl cannot cook for shit. Is also physically cold to the touch and during the summer her coworkers will ask her to hold their drinks because they’ll stay cold. Soukaku always secretly sneaks sips every time they do this to her.

Miyabi: has the worst sleep schedule known to man. Sometimes you’ll find her awake at 3AM and conked out by 4PM, other times she goes to bed at 8PM and wakes up at 4AM. It’s inconsistent and irregular and a gamble trying to contact her outside of work because she might not even be awake

Harumasa: GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY. Also pretty cracked at chess and other strategy games. Is also a major old fashioned guy and doesn’t own a lot of modern technology. He’s not into retro or old stuff, he just doesn’t like new stuff

Yanagi: her glasses are fake. When she was younger she needed them, but her vision had naturally gotten better over the years, so she now wears contacts, but for some reason still insists on wearing her glasses. Loses them constantly during battle.

Lucy: even though she was forced to play piano as a kid, she really wanted to be a sporty girl and play stuff like soccer and baseball. Now she has the freedom to take part in the sports she likes and watch them surrounded by the people she likes

Piper: insanely picky eater to the point it drives Lucy up a wall. Is also picky about a lot of other things, like how different fabrics feel, different comfort levels of chairs and beds, girl is a complainer and will always find something to complain about

Lighter: has a side gig as a tattoo artist, has really stable hands too

Soldier 11: has 5 younger brothers, a younger sister, and 2 older siblings who she doesn’t see super often. Has divorced parents who also liked to adopt, which is why she has such a huge family. Her younger brothers love it when she comes home and plays secret agent military with them

Seth: can’t drive. That’s it send tweet.

Qingyi: is outwardly dismissive of meditation tricks and hacks and tips but utilizes that shit in private ALL the time.

Zhu Yuan: shares the vegetables she grows in her garden with all her neighbors. Is also a REALLY good cook to the point people have encouraged her to potentially consider a different career path

Jane Doe: the rat girl has pet rats go figure. But in all seriousness she’d die for her little guys. She has a white one named Cocaine and a brown one named Tobacco and a gray one named Crystal Meth. She thinks the names are hilarious and every time she introduces the rats to other people their facial expressions are priceless

[eerna]

How would you describe the face shapes and facial features of The Lunar Chronicles girls? (Since you draw them so beautifully, I wanna know how you figured out what features to give them based off the info the books give us. Plus I began to imagine cinder's face looking exactly like your art).

Also what undertones do you give them (you don't gotta be specific, just list whether they're cool or warm). oh! You can info-dump if you want. I find it really helpful.

Yayyy thanks for the compliments and for asking this, I love talking about why I draw faces the way I do!! :D

Ok so first off here's an explanation of my general book character design process which I will base these descriptions on. For TLC specifically the canon descriptions are based not only on the books, but also this guide from MM's website.

CINDER

The starting canon point was ambiguously mixed (but definitely Asian), tan, brown upturned eyes, mousy brown hair in a ponytail, tall, all angles, boyish build and clothes. I HC her as specifically Cambodian (based on her family names and general description), so I based her features on it. She is characterized as brave and decisive ina protagonist way, so I gave her an oval face shape because ovals are serious and constant, and thick eyebrows to intensify her expressions. She sees herself as unfeminine, so I gave her thin lips and short, brown eyelashes. She is always messy and unkempt because of her work, so I gave her an uneven, shaggy haircut to match (inspired by Link LoZ for absolutely no reason). But she is also an awkward nerd, which I integrated through her big, goofy ears. I give her a warm undertone to match her eyes and offset her desaturated hair.

SCARLET

The starting canon point was white skin, curly ginger hair, super freckled, very feminine build, full lips, farmer girl vibes. Her color scheme is very low contrast with hair, eyebrows and eyes that are all within the same value range, because at one point she is described as soft curve shaped as opposed to Cinder's sharp angles, and I wanted to bring out that softness not only in shapes but colors too. She is also brave and decisive, but in a mean old lady way, so I gave her a long, pointy face to match it. I should def give her more defined curls than I usually do. I don't often color her so I thinkkkk I mostly give her a cool undertone, but it's inconsistent.

CRESS

The starting canon point was super pale white skin, nose freckles, heart shaped face, extremely messy wavy honey blond hair, sky blue eyes, super tiny. Everything about her is supposed to scream "pure sweet innocent little baby who never did anything wrong in her life" (even if it isn't the exact truth), and her face is based on a girl I saw at school when I was a teen. Her eyebrows and eye shape are anime inspired because I was an anime fan and so was MM. I give her a cold undertone.

WINTER

The starting canon point was very dark skin, Black, three scars on her right cheek, and a ton of other descriptions because she is the most beautiful girl in the galaxy and the epitome of soft, gentle, princessy femininity. We're talking full lips, gently curving features, insane eyelashes, etc. Her scars should realistically be darker, but the description of them resembling tears and their symbolism of Winter choosing to stick out like a sore thumb stuck so far into my brain that I simply gotta make use of artistic license in this case. I went for 3C type hair and its shape fits the cloud-like dreamy vibe she embodies while keeping to the glossy corkscrew description. Her eyes and lips are her mother's, and thus bear resemblance to Levana's. I give her a warm undertone.

IKO

The starting canon point was light brown skin, golden eyes, button nose, blue braids with golden accessories, and capitalist-made beauty. She is fun, fashionable, and flirty, so her color palette is braver and more expressive than the other girls'. Her beauty is noticeable, but man-made as a product instead of Winter's natural appeal. Her undertone is sometimes cold and sometimes warm because it makes the various color combos easier to execute, and also she is an android so I bet it is possible to do it anyway.

Hope this was interesting~

[danmeiconfession]

I love SVSSS, but I am very sure that somewhere half way in MXTX decided to fully change her plans for the story, which turned it into an inconsistent mess that is making people constantly argue now about the characterisations and themes in the novel.

Because the story starts out as a satire and points out that SY is a shitty internet hater and neet, who is designed that way to make fun of these super hateful reddit bros. Yet halfway in that whole part of his personality just never gets mentioned any more and he never learns anything either or changes his behaviour.

Same with how MXTX throughout the whole story makes all these points about SJ actually not being the scum villain he was painted to be in PIDW. Like having SQH mention that he is a virgin, him never having lusted after women, it being revealed that he did not kill LQG, and such stuff. Yet it actually never gets acknowledged at all from SY as the POV character or the story itself.

And don't even get me started on the inconsistent mess that is YQY's entire characterisation.

So my only guess is that MXTX did genuinely start out with the satire idea and that SY was supposed to be the butt of the joke. As in "Hateful and transphobic reddit bro who objectifies young women has to take it up the ass after becoming a bottom in a BL, lol! 🤪"

But halfway in she wanted it to actually become a proper BL, but has written herself into a corner with SY's character flaws and also the justification of him being in SJ's body when SJ wasn't a scum villain like claimed. So she simply dropped these plot points. Otherwise I can not understand the huge inconsistencies. And also why she always seems to ignore SVSSS's existence.

.

[oakdll]

i finished persona 4 golden !!!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 4 GOLDEN AHEAD

It’s lowkey insane that they made the final villain a gas station employee, but it was super cool. I really love the story, almost as much as P5R, although the gameplay was definitely worse for me.

Obviously there are differences because of the release dates, but there were a lot of quality of life issues and inconsistencies. The last 5 dungeons or so felt comically easy, none of them took me more than 2 hours, especially with Marie and Izanami’s dungeons which took me less than an hour each, even with exploring every floor to the max.

The lack of Safe Rooms really hurts the level design here. You basically have to do every palace in one session (at least I did because I don’t like Goho-M’s). Being able to have save points before different sections in each P5 Palace was a stroke of genius, and returning to P4 where every floor is basically identical is just boring. I like how each floor is randomly generated, but it also really takes away from the individuality of each dungeon. Pretty much every dungeon has the same random layout, the only differences are the visuals and occasional conditions like with Adachi not allowing you to fight shadows in one of his floors. Compared to P5, the lack of puzzles and insight into the characters really hurts. In P5, the design of each palace gave you insight into its rulers psyche. In P4, you really only get the occasional confrontation with the character and some dialogue at the start of each floor.

There were also WAY too many chances to mess up your ending. There isn’t anything really wrong with having a lot of endings, but having so many points where you can accidentally get a bad ending because you picked an option that wasn’t obviously wrong was ridiculous. I had heard there were a lot of chances to get a bad ending if you aren’t careful, so I used a spoiler free guide. Having to pick like 7 of the right answers in a row to get a good ending is insane.

If I wasn’t spoiled on Adachi before playing, I never would have guessed it. That is good for the story, but having to deduce it yourself is a bit too much to ask of the player. I think P5 did good with prompting you to save your game before game changing events happen. A mix of that and confirming with the player when they are going off-course from the true ending makes the game relatively simple to play through with no guide. with P4, you basically have to look up a guide for the true ending. Having to say “no” when prompted to leave Inaba to get the true ending is insane, if I didn’t know beforehand I would have messed up my entire playthrough. It makes no sense unless you know the story beforehand, especially when no other Persona game asks you to do something like that.

The game is also shockingly bigoted, which goes entirely against the themes of the Persona series and the game itself. Ironically, in a game about pursuing the truth, the made Naoto deny his truth of being trans. They wrote such good queer characters and then came to entirely the wrong conclusion and ruined it all. I still think if you can look past the homophobia and transphobia, the game has phenomenal writing, but it gets really uncomfortable at times.

The nostalgic feeling Inaba gives off and the PS2 graphics really help the vibe of this game. It feels so much warmer than P5, and I am ALWAYS a sucker for a murder mystery. The fog is such a good visual element to the game, and I have a strange obsession with electrical poles, so having those be a frequent set piece is awesome.

The characters are so wonderful, I really wish I had more time to max out all of the social links here, but I think I would have had to skip out on helping Nanako with her homework and I would never do that to her. Nanako and Kanji are both some of my all time favorite Persona characters, they are both so sweet and I would do anything for them. Marie is also one of my favorites, I have no idea why anybody could hate her. Yukiko is amazing, Chie is a lot of fun, and Yosuke is hilarious. Teddie is a freak but I love him but I HATE his blue eyes, Rise is super nice, and Naoto is so cool. The Investigation Team is debatably better than the Phantom Thieves as a main cast, but they are so close for me. The main characters are all just great.

As for social links, I think P5 still has it beat here. The social link cast in P4 is still good, but there aren’t any benefits like in P5 and some of the characters here I REALLY don’t like. Sayoko is an outright pedophile. With Kawakami at least if you don’t choose to romance her in-game she isn’t as much of a creep, while Sayoko actively sexually harasses a high schooler. I also did not like Eri, I didn’t get to spend much time with her but she really could have treated her kid better. I know she’s struggling but she would lash out leave her kid at daycare because he was having more fun there than at home. Naoki was cool, I barely got to spend any time with him but from what I did see he was nice and seeing the grieving process of one of Adachi’s victims was super interesting. For the club social links, I chose Kou and Ayane. Kou was great, one of my favorites but I ended up prioritizing party members and couldn’t max him out. Ayane was nice, I like her arc but her voice acting really ruined a lot of the social link for me. Ai was also nice, but I couldn’t spend too much time with her and I didn’t like her romance subplot. I actually liked Shu a surprising amount, he was one of the few I maxed out because I had extra time in the evenings and I really liked how his arc ended. Hisano was one I really missed out on, I only got to rank 3 with her and from what I saw she was one of the most interesting in the game. Dojima is one of the best social links in all of Persona. He is very similar to Sojiro, but he’s a lot darker. There’s a lot more drama with him than with Sojiro, both of them are amazing, and Dojima’s relationship with Nanako is so sweet. Nanako as well might be my favorite Persona character. She is the sweetest thing ever, and I would do anything for her. Marie’s social link was also great, but I really didn’t like Margaret’s. I don’t like any Persona social link that requires you to go on quests. I didn’t like the Strength confidant in P5, and I don’t like Margaret or the Fox in P4. The fox is better by default because he’s a fox, but neither are super interesting to me.

The music is phenomenal because it’s a Persona game, but the P4 OST might be my single favorite Persona soundtrack. Pursuing My True Self, Signs of Love, Heartbeat Heartbreak, Heaven, Alone, Your Affection, Like a Dream Come True, Youthful Lunch, Reach Out to the Truth, Time to Make History, and Omen are some of my favorites. The only Persona game soundtrack to compare with P4 is P5, Whims of Fate, Beneath the Mask, Alleycat, Our Light, When Mother Was There, Price, and Butterfly Kiss are also up there. P4 is more nostalgic for me, so I think it might take the edge for me.

The story of P4 is also much more complex and interesting than P5. If it weren’t for Maruki’s palace being so good, I would say that P4 definitively has the better story. Adachi being the antagonist was such a phenomenal twist, and I loved him so much up to that point that it hurt even more. His social link is a phenomenal addition, I can’t imagine the game without it. Having so many endings is partially a result of flawed game design, but also the depth in the story. It really feels like an investigation team solving a mystery. Pushing further and further towards the truth throughout every suspect, from Kubo to Namatame to Adachi, and even Izanami if that counts, the game really accomplishes its goal. I haven’t done the accomplice ending, but I might do another playthrough to get it after I finish P3R.

P4G is a really great game, I think it’s a bit more flawed than P5R, but it’s still phenomenal and it’s not like P5 has no flaws either. P4 really excels with the story and I think the primary issues with it are just a byproduct of being over 10 years old at this point.

[kitausuret]

Know Your Venom

A handy guide to differentiating all those spider-y symbols! (Part 1 of 2)

(Venom #150 "Malled!"; Michelinie, Lim)

Hey there, true believer! Are you tired of looking at comics with your favorite black-and-white wicked webslinger and not knowing who's beneath the goo? Fortunately for you, I'm here to help! We'll take a look through the years and hopefully give you some pointers on how to tell who's who. This isn't a foolproof guide by any means, but I hope it's helpful!

So, let's start at the beginning.

(Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #7-8; Shooter, Zeck)

It's very important to me that people understand that the original black suit costume came from Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter)! That's why I often, and will for the rest of this guide, refer to it as the Carpenter Symbol. Know your roots!

For the most part though, we see this design used as a mockery of Spider-Man by the first Venom, Eddie Brock.

(Amazing Spider-Man #299, #331, and #362, by Michelinie and McFarlane, Larsen, and Bagley respectively)

The earliest artists for Venom all drew the Carpenter Symbol very close to how it originally was designed. You see this continued pretty much to this day, and so if you see a stocky guy in this look with biceps the size of his head - that's probably Eddie.

Early comics are easy, because the only other person to bear this symbol is Anne Weying, and her She-Venom look is. Well. Distinctive.

(Venom: Sinner Takes All #3; Hama, Luzniak & Palmiotti - Venom: Along Came a Spider #3; Hama, St. Pierre)

A few artists will draw the legs of the spider-symbol either much, much closer together (sometimes if the shot is tiny enough they'll just look like a solid mass), but others like Ron Lim will at times draw them further apart. For the most part it's pretty consistent though.

(Venom: Lethal Protector [1993] #5; Michelinie, Lim)

And then... we get into the 00s.

(Venom [2003] #16-17; Way, Skottie Young)

The above looks are pretty unique to how Skottie Young does Venom. And even then, Young's Venom nowadays looks less... like that. I'm not going to share a lot from this series, but we start to get a beefier-looking Venom. This would continue into Spectacular Spider-Man (2003) by Paul Jenkins and Humberto Ramos.

(Spectacular Spider-Man (2003) #3, #5; Jenkins, Ramos)

In some ways, you can kind of explain the inconsistency in the symbol by the fact that Eddie and the Symbiote's symbiosis was crumbling - but it's also just. Not that well-written as a Venom story.

And then we get into other hosts.

I feel obligated to point out that Trish Robertson was the first host of the Venom clone that would eventually become Mania - she literally only appears in Venom (2003) but she's almost indistinguishable from Venom.

(Venom [2003] #16; #18. I'm not going to describe what's happening in these panels, I took too much psychic damage just gathering them.)

Best I can give you is; Trish!clone!Venom is slightly more grey-purple and that's all I'm gonna give you on this topic.

Angelo Forunato was only alive for 2 issues, and he has one look:

(Marvel Knights: Spider-Man [2004] #7-8; Millar, Dodson)

He's the first Venom we see fully deviate from the Carpenter Symbol. He also has really distinctive eyespots and the first instance of seeing an actual eyeball in the spot. The legs of the spider-symbol are fully separated from each other, and even extend down to the thighs.

The symbiote, displeased with Angelo (and having thrown him off a roof), next went to Mac Gargan, arguably the third or fourth most important Venom to carry the name.

(Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10-11; Millar, Dodson)

Beyond! is an interesting case in that it's the first time we see Mac!Venom with the Scorpion tail, which we don't really see again. It's an odd duck of a series overall, but it is kinda fun to see Mac utilizing some of the shapeshifting abilities. But, more to the point of this guide, you can always tell him apart by the white spider-legs going over the shoulders and up the arms.

(Beyond! #5; McDuffie, Kolins)

Thunderbolts is when you really start to see deviations from the original Mac look. This series especially leans into a very grotesque-looking Venom, but usually there's still some semblance of the original symbol. That's what to look for. But if you see a chonky boy and it's in that mid-2000s art style? You're probably looking at Mac.

You also get variations on the way the spider-legs are drawn. Some artists make them a little skinnier.

(Thunderbolts #114; Ellis, Deodato Jr. - Thunderbolts #122; Gage, Blanco - Amazing Spider-Man #570; Slott, Romita Jr.)

Here's where it gets tricky.

During Dark Avengers, Mac adopts the Carpenter Symbol (and a slimmer look) at Osborn's behest, and immediately starts looking anywhere between your classic Black Suit Spider-Man and Eddie's look as Venom. Your best bet during this era is to use context clues. Based on the art style for this era, if you're thinking "that's probably not Eddie", you're right. Eddie's running around as Anti-Venom.

(Dark Avengers [2009] #1; Bendis, Deodato)

And, yes, that means that this scene... is Mac Gargan. No other Venom would let Norman Osborn boss them around. Please, for the love of God, get this one right.

(New Avengers Annual #3; Bendis, Mayhew)

Mac keeps this look all the way up until he and the symbiote are separated, which leads us to...

Flash Thompson, AKA Agent Venom.

(Coming in Part 2!)

[loz-furbies]

Din

Design

I like Din's design from the shoulders up; I think she has a cuter face than Nayru and the hairstyle is fun and memorable. I also like that she appears to be a bit more muscular than the average anime pretty girl.

However the rest of her look is kind of a mess. What exactly is that outfit anyway? For starters I just can't help thinking how impractical that hyper tight jumpsuit is for using the bathroom. Also I really don't think hot pink goes well with the purple decorations, or especially with her bright red hair, and I'm not a fan of the flame sashes being the exact same colour as her hair either. The triangle pattern is a struggle to draw too since the references are inconsistent on which side of the outfit they are, or if it's symmetric.

And then there's the bangles, they are just so huge and the rest of the design doesn't exactly match them. You'd need a lot more magical super form goddess tier design for anti-gravity bracelets this big not to look awkward and Din here is just too casual for that. When I recently drew Din with her arms on Nayru and Farore's shoulders I debated if I should just leave them out but decided to include them in the end, which was a mistake because they just look so stupid...

I guess the frills do make me think of a flamenco dancer so at least the outfit checks out as a dancer outfit. And Nayru has similar frills in her design so they contrast each other quite nicely, with Din's design being the more active one to Nayru's more prim and proper look.

She has noticeably darker skin in the full colour GBC art (below), but apparently that didn't make it to the sprite. I'm guessing that's a hardware limitation?

Character

Din has a fun and playful personality, and at the beginning of the game she invites Link to dance with her and later says she had fun. The other NPCs also state that she is kind, as she was the one who took care of Link when he was out cold for a bit. And that's about all there is to Din honestly since she gets kidnapped right after.

She does have a bit of magic pixie dream girl element to her, like pretty much the only character-based thing she gets to do in the whole game is to drag the mc-kun she just met to join her fun. But I still prefer her to Nayru since at least she uses the little space she has to make an impact well. So she's above the early franchise damsels in that at least she has a distinct and likable personality, which makes it more motivating to save her than if she was just some random girl.

Din's role as the Oracle of Seasons is pretty superficial, at least you get the time travel harp from Nayru's house and also teaches you some songs for it, and obviously the villain took over her body specifically to use her powers to travel to the past, but Din doesn't really get to do anything worthwhile with her powers.

Role in the story

I played Ages first, and Nayru being surprisingly present in the story raised the expectations for Din as well. Which means it was especially disappointing when she's barely in the game; You meet her for a few minutes in the beginning, she gets kidnapped, and won't be around until the very end when you finally save her to do some cutscene magic. Nayru at least was kept relevant in various ways (her possessed body shows up, there's an NPC who talks about her at every opportunity and she is rescued partway through the game) but Din just falls off the earth. Honestly I really like Din but I'm sorry in the game she just sucks.

I do like that Din is somewhat associated with the Triforce of Power at least; the Triforce is supposed to be a neutral force but the Power triangle is always with Ganon, so it's nice to have a good guy related to it for once.

Relationships

Unfortunately nothing to talk about. I really wish Din had a character like Ralph around her for example from her dance troupe, but that is not the case.

[your-art-is-gay]

Vampire Knight Art Book (Part 2)

The illustrations in this art book are so gorgeous, and so detailed, that I just had to highlight some of my favourite to share with y'all.

Again, apologies for the phone camera photos. It really doesn't do these drawings justice.

I think it's interesting that it's specified that this is Zero's school uniform. Especially since it's kind of funny to me, picturing Zero taking enough care to meticulously hang up his uniform.

Ruka's butterfly pin, Akatsuki's necklace, and is that Kaname walking away from them in the background? Fascinating... Especially since Seiren seems to be following him, but is looking back, as if unsure of her actions...or of his.

One of my favourite pieces, hands down. The colours, the design of her dres, the cathedral windows in the background---ugh! So pretty. I have to highlight the rose detail on the hem of her skirt and the design of her gloves.

Another thing to note: the fang necklace. One thing I noticed throughout the book is that the fang symbol is associated with Zero, and yet he's never actually depicted in blue (at least in this art book). Yuki and Kaname are shown in blue or associated with blue several times, but never Zero.

The description of the image doesn't say who the mysterious blue-clad hand is, it does say that the image is "alluding to farewell." So is Yuki saying goodbye to Zero? Or does the mysterious hand belong to Kaname, and the fang necklace tangled around her hand is symbolically representing that she's thinking about Zero?

Speak of the silver-haired devil! The detail I wanted to make note of here with this illustration is the chain hooked onto his belt loop---the chain that's usually attached to his anti-vampire gun, Bloody Rose. Notably, however, Bloody Rose is missing, the chain broken. He's vulnerable. Defenseless.

I didn't take a close-up shot of it, but this is also one of the illustrations where Zero's tattoo doesn't look like a tattoo---it looks like a scar. I don't know if that's an intentional symbolic choice or not, because the way it's rendered is somewhat inconsistant between illustrations. Interestingly, unlike the anime, where it has the stark black appearance of a tattoo, most of the illustrations depict it as silvery, like his hair.

I just...love the details on this coat, holy crap.

Two things to note: the vampire skull shape of his ear cuff (fuck, I want one) and the blade motif on his shoulder.

The blade is another symbol very often associated with Zero, obviously referencing the fact that he's a slayer, and the dagger designs on his tattoo. In this particular drawing, it's also combined with bat wings, which are obviously associated with vampires (both in general, and distinctly in this book), symbolizing his duality as someone who is both slayer and vampire.

Interestingly, the vampire skull motif is seen elsewhere in the book---almost always associated with Kaname.

Lots of details with this one.

Firstly, if Zero's motifs are daggers and a single fang, Yuki is inextricably associated with roses. They're everywhere when it comes to her. I wanted to make note of this bracelet, just because I think it looks neat, and also her earring---a rose and a dagger, symbolizing the both of them. I think that's neat.

Secondly, the Cross Academy Crest. Yuki usually wears it as a necklace, but here she has a charm clipped to the sash at the waist of her dress---because we don't see her necklace? I dunno.

But what's interesting is that Zero also has one, so dark that it almost blends into his coat, and hanging from a bat wing decoration on his coat.

Thirdly, Zero's bat wing ring, which, besides being super cool, further pushes that connection to vampires---maybe because Zero has accepted himself as one? After all, he and Yuki are clearly sneaking away for a quick bite...

And, fourthly...does Zero have a belly-button piercing?!

This is one of my favourite Yuki outfits. It's amazing how it actually looks like velvet, and all of the detailing on the white embroidery and the pleats at the cuffs and neckline is just... *chefs kiss*

I could probably talk symbolism with the key on the rosary, or with her being behind a gate, but...I don't wanna.

This one is interesting, because it shows us details of the uniform that aren't present elsewhere! Like the silver tips at the collar corners, the tie pin,and the Academy crest on the shirt pocket.

[faereina]

I intended this to just be a sketch, but i liked it so much that I ended up making a mini ref sheet of Aerine, the first dnd character I ever made. I’ve only been playing for around 2 years but out of over a dozen campaigns that ended early or fell through, she’s been the longest standing one ! So while her design and story is a bit “basic” compared to other characters I’ve made since then, she has a special place in my heart 🩷

here’s her spotify playlist and pinterest board too hehe

more random infodumping about her below !

Her campaign (Tales from Estaria) is from a homebrew world by my amazing dm! It’s very Victorian-era / steampunk inspired with lots of eldritch horror elements. The dress in her reference sheet (designed by @angeliets ) is intended to be her wedding dress! I had tried to draw her wedding dress myself before (which you can see in this tiktok i made about her ) but after seeing his design when joining his ko-fi membership, I knew I had to change it immediately. The veil is a bit different than his original design, as she would be using a veil gifted by her mother! Here are some more outfit ideas I’ve drawn (please ignore my inconsistent art style lol)

As for the quote I put on her ref sheet, it comes from something I said during a session. For context, our party visited a very religious country where magic coming from any source other than their god is illegal. We brought with us a child our party has been protecting, Peter, who who had celestial runes carved into his arms after his family was slaughtered by a cult worshipping a being known as the Lady of the Woods, one of the four eldritch beings who are trying to end the world.

While stopping in one of the towns for a rest, Peter’s scars were noticed by a civilian who thought we had kidnapped/harmed him. We tried explaining, but they were unresponsive and Peter, who has aasimar blood and is a draconic soul sorcerer without full control of his abilities yet because he’s a literal child, freaked out trying to pull away and used some magic. With that, the civilians then started calling HIM a monster and attacked him which is all it took for the entire party to go off on them.

Of course, as a party consisting of two tieflings, a hexblood, a warforged and Aerine, and with 3/5 being casters, it wasn’t a good look and the people started calling us devils. We did manage to do (mostly) non-lethal damage, and the warforged ended up crashing a carriage into the building for us to get away. Aerine said that line before slamming the carriage door shut which was honestly a badass moment for her as she’s normally very polite and gentle in her speech. She was extremely upset at the audacity of these people to use their religious beliefs to excuse hurting an innocent child, especially when moments before they were SO concerned.

She is very protective of the innocent, especially children. Which is also why her dislikes include the part about not liking when her party members giving children weapons. Several of the members have given Peter weapons or taught him how to use them. They do have good intentions, as they want him to be able to protect himself in case of the worst of they aren’t there to do so. However, she strongly believes that it isn’t a responsibility or burden that should ever be placed on a child, and that they instead should work to improve themselves and their abilities so that there is never a possibility of such a situation occurring.

NOW AS FOR THE MONSTER PART LMAO

So everyone knows the reputation bards have, and well, she’s probably the least bard of all bards in that manner (hooray strict and sheltered upbringings in a society literally inspired by the Victorian era!). I thought it would be a funny idea to roll the dice any time we encountered an NPC to see how attractive she found them, and it backs a long running joke. However, she would always roll super low for everyone ! It wasn’t until mid-battle one day when the warlock (who has a weird Venom-type situation going on) was in their monstrous form that I was like, hm, wouldn’t this count as an npc since it’s technically a different being? that I randomly decided to roll and got like an 18 or something really high like that 😂 since then, I’ve rolled for many more npcs and even monster type creatures (such as this death lich we came across) and she’s only - ONLY- rolled higher than a 14 for monsters.

Well, she did also roll very high (actually, it may have even been a Nat20) when I rolled for the tiefling ranger after he came back from 5 months(5 minutes in the material plane) of being stuck in the Feywild with a hot nymph with a beard from not being allowed to shave. It may or may not have sparked a small crush on him since then. Funnily enough, last session we encountered his human version in an alternate timeline from our own, and she did indeed roll lower in her attraction for his human version than his original version. So apparently the farther from human, the more attracted she is. A true monster lover!

Anyways this ended up , much more of a lore dump than I expected! I love talking about her and her adventures with the party, so I’ll probably be sharing more once in a while. Maybe even sharing art of the party members? Who knows !

[badteavee]

Annoyance of a Lifetime

Tws / Cws : None

Genre : Fluff

Word count : 1,182

Paring : Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee

Veruca was in her storage room turned bedroom , sat at their over the top vanity. Her hair was wrapped in a silk scarf to protect her freshly done curls as they put on her usual makeup , fixing any inconsistencies so it’d seem like they have been doing her makeup on her own for far more than they actually actually have.

The second she put their eyeliner to her eye , her door that she swore they locked burst open , making her jump and make an egregious line of eyeliner going straight to their temple. They barely had to look to know exactly who it was.

“BAD NUT !” Who else would kick her door in other than that neon wearing short freak.

“What do you want , Tiny Teavee ?!” They scowled at him through her mirror , trying to rub off the eyeliner without taking off too much of her foundation.

“You’re shit at makeup.” Mike flopped onto the creaky old chair they make him sit on any time he decides to harass her , he’s forced to deal with it since she’s the only entertaining one of the ticket winners to bother. Veruca groaned and rolled her eyes as she meticulously applied the missing foundation.

“You startled me ! What was so important ?!”

“I found Captain Knuckleduster lost media.”

“That is not important !”

“Of course it is !? It’s the most important thing ever !!”

“That is the least important thing I’ve ever heard !” She hurdled their makeup towel at him , grumbling and going back to perfecting her makeup while Mike made disgusted noises , peeling the gross towel off and throwing it at their vanity.

“You don’t know how cool it is !” He proceeded to yap on about what he’d found , it was just an older poster that didn’t sell very many copies , she didn’t see anything super special about it but there was no shutting him up. Ever. They have tried. There’s only silence when that freak finally goes to sleep.

————————————————————————

Veru stood in front of her floor length mirror , adjusting their light pink jacket to frame the text on her new shirt that read “A little bit dramatic”. They scanned over every bit of her outfit , did the black leather skirt really go with this outfit or should she change into the fabric one ?

Did the design on their sandals clash with the rest of it ?

Was this too showy or not showy enough ?

What about her lipglo-

“Veru !” She jumped out of her skin , huffing as they tried to gently wipe off the lipgloss smudged down her chin. She slow turned , eye almost twitching , to face that daily nuisance. “Don’t look at me like that ! You weren’t listening.”

She growled to herself , taking one last glance at the mirror to make sure this outfit wouldn’t embarrass them at the mall. What were they thinking before ? Fuck , she looks great. Like always. Mike , however. He looked horrid. Camo shorts and a neon orange Underarmour shirt ?? God , why does her father make them hang out. “You look disgusting.”

“I look great !” Mike ran a hand through his hair , sporting that stupid cocky grin as if anyone other than him would agree.

“You’re worse than the geeks.” Veru rolled their eyes , crossing her arms under her chest.

“It’s the mall , who’s going to judge me anyway ??”

“I will ! And my friends ! If anyone from school sees us remotely together , my reputation will be irreparably damaged.”

“Are you saying we’re not friends ??” He dramatically gasped , clasping his hand over his heart.

She scoffed , disgusted. They couldn’t help but flip out her phone and take a picture of how stupid he looked to print off later before snapping it closed , picking up her purse. “Let’s go , I don’t want to be near you for more than I have to.”

“Whatever.”

————————————————————————

Elle slouched over her desk , it now being cleared of their usual mirror , makeups and perfumes to make room for the mountains of books and notebooks she needed. Her forehead rested on the palm of their hand as she twirled her fuzzy pen in their hand , trying her hardest to stay focused and keep studying. She needed to pass her LSAT.

They could hear some kind of commotion outside of he door but figured it was the girls partying with their frat boy spring flings , unfortunately something she couldn’t participate in. She almost didn’t register the clear chorus of ‘Hi Mike !’s until her door was swung open. Goddamn it.

They looked up to meet unimpressed eye to eye of her long term friend , his silly stubble and orange flannel making him look like a weak lumberjack. He still wore his cocky smile but it felt a little soft this time , not that he would be nicer when Elle was going through a breakup. Or anything.

Maybe Elle was a little grateful for the distraction.

“Yes , Micheal ?” She couldn’t help her accent slip , momentarily sounding like that annoyed twelve year old. But they found herself less annoyed with him nowadays.

“What are you doing ?” He sounded like a child asking that but he was genuinely curious about the sudden interest in reading. He picked up one of the books and snickered. “ LSATs for dummies ?”

“I’m trying to get into Harvard Law School.” She glanced back down at her open law book and notebook , god she hoped these notes were good enough.

“Harvard ? Why would you want to go to a smart school ?” He teased , setting the book back down and pulling up his designated chair that was lovingly decorated in orange and yellow stickers and gemstones by the Delta Nu girls to their desk. “Why not blonde in pink school ?”

“I have to prove that I’m serious !”

“And you’re doing that with.. law school ?”

“Don’t judge me , Micheal , you wouldn’t understand what people would do for love.” Mike made a jokingly disgusted face , they were both adults sure , but Elle’s love life ? Ew.

Elle smacked him in the shoulder while chuckling. “Don’t look at me like that either ! You should be glad I’m cooped up studying instead of bothering you.” Otherwise Mike would be dragged into the spring fling party. Again.

He stole one of her open books , reading over the pages , Jesus that was way too many words. How could she read this ? “Now I get to bother you.”

“Great.” She sounded a little annoyed but laughed it off with Mike , she couldn’t be too bothered with him anymore , even if he was hindering their ability to study. They could basically feel Kate being grumpy with her from the other room.

“Hey ! You never know , I could help you with this.” He chuckled as he spoke , he couldn’t possibly be much help but he didn’t want to leave now.

“Help… from you ? Please.”

Mike held up his arm , showing off his pink and white friendship bracelet that matched Elle’s yellow and orange one. “I’m legally your friend , I have to help you.”

They didn’t think that was a law in any of her books but at least Mike wasn’t ruining all of her things. She laugh-scoffed at him. “Sure , Micheal.”

[ddddd-pixels]

Did another tier list on Zan Evolution Butouden, since I'm more familiar with the game now, and a few new characters have been added since my last one:

(Also I based this one more off my personal ability as the characters, rather than competitive viability. This is because I know nothing about competitive viability and was talking complete nonsense in my last list.)

Explanations/unrelated ramblings below:

S Tier – My Mains (and just good characters)

Fran and Sinkage are both bosses (and the final two at that), so it's not a surprise that they're tough. I've actually figured out some TODs as Fran against the lower health characters (i.e. Fanhua, Ranmaru and Fran herself), and while Sinkage's Rise Cutter loops no longer work as well, the addition of an elbow drop output from it makes it still a very deadly move.

Ahh, Ciara, my true main... How I love spending two meters to take an enemy's entire healthbar just because they dared to jump in my presence. Her chain grabs are just really satisfying, too, and unlike anything I've seen in any other characters I've had. (and not a full-circle motion in sight!)

A Tier – The ones I'm comfortable with

A few of these characters (Zanryu, Renmia and Jacob) are shoto-like, and therefore quite easy to learn and get good as. They're all still pretty interesting to play in their own ways: Zanryu's got enough extra tools to distance his playstyle from the typical shoto, making him more of an aerial dominator (his Air Nova Strike especially, makes his air play very hard to challenge), and Renmia's moveset is like a fusion of a shoto and Terry Bogard, making her more familiar to play, and a good beginner character.

I feel like, if I gave him more time, Casben could be in S Tier. A lot of his kit feels very powerful (in earlier builds I remember his jumping knee being able to loop into itself very easily), and both of his supers are very good (his handspring is always a very tricky cross-up when the CPU does it, but a complete whiff when I try -_-). The only thing holding him back is that I play more as everyone else, lol.

Taka is in a weird spot, where I feel like he as a character isn't that strong, but my skill can kind of make up for it? I don't know, I've had a tendency to accidentally main low tiers in other games (the first character I picked up in Sm4sh was Little Mac, and I also mained Ganondorf), and with his smaller moveset and limited combo potential, Taka feels like this to me. But I'm actually pretty competent as Taka – he's one of the few characters I can chain both supers into without an OTG, and I win most fights where I play as him.

B Tier – ...I'm okay, I guess.

I know I used to main Fanhua, but the more I play as her, the worse I get, it feels... I think my main struggle are that her Elbow Reach isn't a special move anymore, and that her rekkas don't combo (or I just can't get the timing for them :P).

Ranmaru is a character I wish I was better as, because her moveset seems so cool, but all of her inputs are half-circles, and I play on keyboard half of the time (and I'm inconsistent with half-circles even on controller). She even influenced Uta a bit (Hissatsu Shinobi Cho was very much based on Ranmaru's Elbow Dive – before I played Ranmaru, Uta was going to have "Zan'eichu", which was basically just Andy's Zan'eiken).

C Tier – Yeah... I'm losing this one

wendy I'm so sorry I love your design so much I just can't play charge characters pls don't hate me...

Leo's pretty neat, I guess; his moveset is like a Joe Higashi/Sagat fusion, with an added TC and rekka. I just never really played either of those characters much, so I don't know what to do with him.

D Tier – I have no idea what to do with these people

I've not played as any of these characters much (except for Warsnite), so I'm not at all familiar with their movesets... I tried to fight Zanryu (the person, not the character) as Feng Yun once and got folded in half immediately. I've never even attempted Spike, Antbyte or Ninewave.

I honestly can't believe I used to main Warsnite... His airdash is cool, but he's otherwise the complete opposite of what I usually go for in a character – he's got the smallest moveset in the game (which is okay, I just like having more options), and is the slowest, heaviest character. I've seen him do, like, one cool combo, and even then; it was the CPU doing it on me, and it spent one meter for damage I can outmatch with Fanhua for zero.

[dizzybevvie]

Hello B!

Do you have any opinions on the character designs within the aphverse?

Example: too many characters have blue eyes, there aren't enough (x) traits, etc etc

OK I WILL GET TO THAT BUT OMG NO ONES EVER CALLED ME B BEFORE ... I LOVE IT

[Keeping this to MYS because thats what I know.]

I mean, I DO think too many characters have blue eyes. Between Dante, Laurance, Garroth, Katelyn, Zane - thats already the majority of the friend group.

I dont mind the blue hair/blue eyes combo, but Dante AND katelyn having it is a bit much 🤷‍♂️ AND they couldve kept Laurances original colour pallet :( I totally get changing the design bc of the skins, but in MYS theres no lore reason for Laur having blue eyes so at least they shouldve been green right??? Im also devastated hes not ginger but alas <\3

I think overtime the girls in the show have less variety, particularly in the hair. No different lengths or anything. I mean, just take Cadenza! She has longass hair in s1 but it eventually gets cut the same length as Kate, KC and Aph. The girl with THE most variety in character design - and probably one of the best designs imo - is Kim, and i literally couldnt tell you a single one of her character traits other than 'possessed'. Her highlights are different and I like her colour pallet.

The guys all look... kinda similar too. But they did well differing them in little ways, like hair partings and such. I do want Laurance's long hair back tho. Jess dont be a coward give us ling hair ginger laurance

I think its very funny that Laurance has ABSOLUTELY NO fashion sense, but i would like clothes to be more consistent! I like Dante's outfit with the button up/button up/shirt combo, even if it was ridiculous it felt in character - although its a shame that after Aarmau was made canon no other character could wear purple or red, because dante looked good in red!! I love Garroth's hawaiian shirt getup and they should bring that vibe back for him for sure.

I dont think there are enough brown eyes im gonna be real brown eyes are beautiful and like. way too many inbred eyes /lh

this isnt so much an issue with character designs because. minecraft. but there arent many different body types. Like, I think Aphmau and Zane are fat, and then Travis has broad shoulders (according to 1 line of dialogue in s1, and hes still buff). and everyone else is just somewhere on the sims4 slider of skinny and strong.

WHERE ARE MY SHORT KINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT EVERY GUY CAN BE 6"02U392U3837 JUST BECAUSE YOU LIKE THAT JESS. THERES NO WAY TRAVIS IS TALLER THAN KATELYN THERES NO WAY

It wouldve been neat seeing disabilities other than zane's blindness purely because of limited differentiation in design. Like, going forward into s7 I would love to see Travis keep the wheelchair bc im pretty sure he cant. recover from that. unless they pull some aphmau magic bs

All in all im torn abt Luci because I think its cute for her to be the odd one out (as i said in my If-I-Was-Tasked-With-Rewriting-Mystreet post), but thats clearly not the intention and you kinda forget shes a witch at all. Which would be cool if it was brought up? idk. Her black dress + bow was her best outfit i think. The red eyes and the bright ginger hair is a lot on the eyes and the black is a good combo for that.

TBH, the only Aph outfit I liked was the one from Season 3, but her current skin (non-mystreet) is actually very cute. I like it a lot

People have said this a lot, but one BIG issue i have with the mys designs is the colour pallets. Im a big fan of shows where one character is heavily associated with one colour, and though this doesnt HAVE to be the case for Mystreet, Id like then to be consistent. Kate's colour has always been blue, Travis' colour has always been green, Aph/Aaron Purple/red, Kc pink, zane black/grey, and Garroth is usually blue. but Dante, Laurance, Lucinda, Melissa, etc have had some super inconsistent ones.

One character design that I like across the series is actually KC. Once they know how to pair the pinks and black/white well, they do pretty well with it! Its just a lot of pink and easy to get wrong. but they do well

Travis' also isnt that bad, the outfit of his i really remember was fhe green hoodie and black trousers which felt correct.

To go back to the eye colours, Its fun to see Jess' thought process bc like. almost ALL of her love interests have blue eyes except aaron? idk. food for thought.

In conclusion,

[scarletcitrus]

pagan min as a dragon.............this idea has been in my head for so long i’ve got like prototype pagan dragons and shit but this is my final design for him

if you want to see me go in-depth about him for reasons that are related to mental illness (i have it and it is his fault) there is more :)

okay so. i’m going to explain his entire design since it makes me happy and i’m going to start with the colors

obviously he’s super flashy and extravagant in canon so i couldn’t just Not let that cross over here. i tried to make him look like a living rainbow without actually making him a rainbow BUT i do have my reasons for each of the colors.

the golden orange-y and yellow parts are obviously, well, to represent gold and the fact that he is ummmmmmm Technically royalty despite stealing the throne? the combination of blue on gold is relative to the golden path and how he and ishwari were a thing yada yada . red is for the primary color his army wears and for lakshmana because her whole shrine is decked out in the color red and pink is for his lovely suit:)

...i couldn’t make it that vibrant pink his suit actually is or it wouldn’t have fit as well into the rest of the colors. also. all the colors are taken off the rakshasa pagan thingy but i gave them meaning to make it fancier ++++ it wasn’t my intention but the way his colors fade into each other reminds me of all the colorful ?dust (i don’t know what it is. is it just powder) in far cry 4 so that makes me happy

speaking of rakshasa pagan, the other parts of his design are very much based off of it. specifically, the bird one in shangri-la. i included the way pagan’s rakshasa face looks as best as i could but the rest of the little intricate details i all sponged off of the bird, like the armor and the crown and the huge talons. the crown i felt especially needed to be included if nothing else bc well. y’know LMAO

the vaguely peacock-looking feathers are because that seems to be his motif for himself and his army and kyrat or whatever tf i don’t really know. all i know is i see peacocks associated with him and BAM he gets some pretty feathers

p.s. ik the pose is weird in that image let’s all hold hands and pretend that he’s climbing down from something

okay bear with me . the wing size might be inconsistent but shhh don’t look at that it isn’t there also thanks to tumblr for maybe tanking the quality of these (we’ll see) . ANYWAY

he gets multiple limbs because of the golden statues (or statue singular? is there just one? i haven’t played it but god i want to) that are in his dlc and it gives me another reason to stretch the definition of “dragon” which is always super fun for me :)

his face is mostly immobile aside from being able to blink and breathe and close/open his mouth but it’s like his jaw is on hinges with the way it can only move up and down (and stiffly) because i want it to really feel like he’s got a mask on or something. like if you look at the rakshasa bird its face isn’t all that. mobile. it is made of some kind of metal i think and i tried to mimic that effect + the idea of his mask in the dlc

another p.s.! let’s all keep holding hands and pretending . this time he’s landing after flying. he doesn’t normally stand on two feet

his wings are heavy to the point that his front legs can’t really support him properly sometimes even though he’s got two pairs, so he often uses his wings as support to walk like how wyverns do. he feels like it’s inconvenient because he doesn’t want to get his feathers dirty and without a beak/easy way to close his mouth it’s annoying for him to preen them but that’s just an L he has to take

and this is just him flying 4 literally no reason. i struggle drawing animals/beings that have wings in flight (and also i struggle with the tucked-in legs that come with those) so i wanted to see if i could. i think it turned out okay? maybe

i hope this made sense and that i wasn’t totally incoherent about this! thank you for reading (if you did) (and perhaps expect more dragons... i’m a big fan of them lol)

[emperornero]

not a fan of viv and never cared for her stuff but i just saw a clip of the hazbin hotel show thats actually being made by some professional tv studio and what the fuck happened to the animation i actually feel motion sickness from it . the constant camera zooms and shakes and how the animation just looks unfinished ? like its missing frames? because i dont think it has smear frames its always on model which is super weird . whag the fuck happened in the production of this. is it because of how complicated the designs are. the pilot had more amatour and inconsistent animation but it at least looked. animated ?

[aotopmha]

Can Yoshi-P please stop justifying skin colour changes in his games with awkward walls of text?

First it's that "It's fantasy, but also reality."

But now it's "It's fantasy, so we're doing what we want."

The FF16 one is at least understandable considering the subject matters the game deals with, but it's still imperfect because you can do PoC without that baggage.

Saying "we mean no harm" after all of those flimsy excuses with Y'Shtola feels so dumb to me.

I can absolutely understand the 2.0 lighting issues. Fine. That change wasn't that extreme.

And I even defended this because in a bunch of in-game artwork in ShB she's still pretty tan, but I'll believe it when we see a concept art saying she's by design supposed to be tanned, not PoC.

I'll even believe they pay this detailed attention to character design.

It's so annoying because in a new panel for Dawntrail they also say they're paying special attention to PoC representation for this expansion because they've not always done it right in the past.

And there they mentioned it's fantasy, but there is the need to still respect the irl cultures they draw from.

It's a inconsistent mess because whitewashing is still fairly common and "they're just tan" is a pretty common excuse that Japan isn't immune from either, even if it isn't entirely delibrate or conscious. (In Japanese context there is also making characters "more Asian" by removing their tan.)

And then there are some of the disrespectful outfits in Mogstation.

I still get the sense the underlying implication is that the game got more popular and Y'Shtola's tan became "less appealing" from a marketing standpoint, but they just can't say it.

But hey, going by a good faith interpretation, they better be consistent with it.

Everyone should just be tan after Dawntrail.

Then I might believe it.

FFXIV has many good to great PoC characters with complex, complete storylines, but it still falls into some pretty annoying tropes.

Most of them either die (Teledji, Ilberd, Conrad, Ahewann), are written out after their story is basically complete (Hermes, Lahabrea, Ericthonius, Lolorito) or are pushed to minor roles or were minor roles to begin with (Raubahn, Pipin, Gaius, Arenvald, Lyna).

Truth is, Y'Shtola is the only character that truly has gone through this pretty noticably, so this adds credence to her "just being tan", but I think she's also the only main character who could be 100% read as PoC along with any PoC WoL designs because she was "tan" for so long.

Currently, only Arenvald, Raubahn, Pipin, Gaius, Vytra, Cyella and Lyna could potentially become relevant in the future without "bringing them back" and as said, half of these are pretty minor characters or also have pretty complete stories.

Erenville looks to have a more major role in Dawntrail, at least.

And I think Cyella and the entire group on the First might end up getting a secondary plotline restoring the 13th along with Zero after Zeromus is defeated.

(That 6.5 screenshot is super intriguing.)

XIV is probably better about PoC than 90% of popular fantasy, but it still has its flaws and wierd justifications like this really don't help.

[fullyinconsequential]

Okay, everybody relax—I wrote this random crack Steddie fic where Steve was a writer and I wrote this from his point of view and I recently reread it after a long, long time and I was floored so enjoy.

Also it is a present-day set crack fic just to clear up time inconsistencies.

Atlantis.

When I was 10, my parents took me to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex at Cape Canaveral, Florida. I’d been to Disney World a hundred times by then, knew what the air would smell like and how the waves would sound licking the shore right beside the needlessly expensive condo we’d rent in Daytona. I expected roller coasters and cotton candy and to be sick with exhaustion by the end of it, trailing behind my booze-ridden parents, watching other kids get lifted on shoulders, fireman carried, cradled. Sometimes I walked slower than I felt, hoping one of them would have grown so annoyed of begging me to hurry, that they would lift me instead.

They never did.

Instead of a theme park, I got space. Thirty-minute presentations of one spacecraft or another—Apollo 8, Apollo 17, Apollo 11, the Challenger, the Columbia. Tears rolled down my face as we wandered through exhibits of dead astronauts, failures, fuck-ups.

But I cried harder at the successes—the cheers of the control room when Apollo 8 successfully launched, the testimonial of Gene Cernan about being the last man to have touched the moon, and Neil Armstrong himself confiding in the camera, all for a silly visitor center.

I cried the entire day. I hadn’t been able to explain it, and my mother took to believing I was scared of it all. She scolded my father the whole hour it took to get back to Daytona, convinced I had been frightened at the implication of the universe being so vast.

She never failed to misunderstand me.

If there was anything I understood, it was vastness. The echoing hallways of our four-story house, my king-sized bed, the hollow place inside me that burned bigger each time my father left for a business trip, mother in tow. At a certain point, they started forgetting to hire babysitters.

Just me and the house, my own black hole.

It’s hard to comprehend how big a super heavy-lift launch vehicle is until you’re standing beneath it. My legs weren’t long or fast enough to run the length of it. I slowed to a jog half-way, and walked to the tip of the launch escape system. Then I turned around to look for my parents, and they were gone.

I didn’t panic. I knew I would find them at the nearest supply of alcohol—but not just yet. For now it was me and Saturn V, this monstrous thing, it’s vastness like a mirror. One, two, three, four, five impossible structures that might’ve fused into one had it been launched, four that might’ve been abandoned, and one that might’ve returned home. A fraction of what it had been.

My mother always turned up drunk, my father, tired. He would say something of being jet-lagged, and retire. My mother would giggle and invite her friends to the house so she could boast of all her thrilling adventures. Sometimes I wondered if they remembered they had a son at all.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has grown in the time since I’ve been there, most notably in their addition of the Atlantis, a spacecraft that traveled in and out of space on nearly 30 round trips. It was the first spacecraft of its kind—reusable. Returnable. Designed with the capacity to come back whole, warm with information, not lacking in love.

I’d like to stand beneath it one day. I’d like to see what I couldn’t when I was ten, to know that these wonderful metal creatures can come back whole.

And that it wasn’t my fault the others could not.

I’m off to cry now, thanks for reading :’)