#but i actually think the crunchiness of the quality adds to it

[rhythmmortis]

[amavaria]

OML BRO YOUR ART IS SO GOOD!!!!! I hope you keep at it! Also do you mind sharing some tips on making the ponys body's? If not that's cool to!!!! Anyway your art is whats keeping me breathing bro🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Thank you so so much!! And that’s a difficult question I actually, it’s not something I think about much when drawing because I been drawing ponies for almost 14 years so it’s mostly muscle memory for me lmao but I have a messy timelapse here to share if it is any help

I also had the video tutorial on how to draw horses that came in the Spirit movie DVD branded into my brain because that was the movie ever to me when I was 7 lol

Just to add a bit more to this, this question reminded me of this pony tutorial I made in 2013 when I was 16! It has been preserved in a horrendously crunchy quality but there’s something endearing about it… the windows 7 layout, desktop ponies on screen… the old paintool sai… the childlike wonder of drawing my favorite thing

[pforestsims]

Does Raw32bit texture format make TS2 CC makeup look better?

Raw 32bit format is basically what it says it is. It doesn't use compression and contains much more colour information than your standard 8bit DXT format - that is 32 bits per pixel. So CC item that contains Raw32bit texture takes up more texture memory. It's like loading FOUR textures instead of ONE.. Is it worth it?

Apparently there's a myth that Raw format is 'best for makeup' (but you can find Raw32 or Raw24 textures in all sorts of custom content). It increases the file size and clogs texture memory. Is it a good idea to use it in CC for the game that is not even able to display 8bit color depth correctly? After all, banding artifacts on dark colour gradients still show up, no matter what format you use.

Below is a little comparison. In extreme close-up, both 512x512 eyelashes are more crunchy - but also, quite crisp.

1024x1024 DXT5 lash mask looks a bit different to 1024x1024 Raw32, which is more smooth, but also a little blurry - none of those two looks as crisp as actual texture viewed in SimPe.

That's because the game shrinks 1024x1024 to 512 x 512 px, which is the default size of TS2 face texture (and also the scalp) and so the quality suffers from it.

I've shown my comparative pics to a few people, some said 1024x1024 DXT5 lashes look better. Let's zoom out just a little bit:

There's still a difference. But personally I prefer crisper-looking details.

If you go through TS2 game files, you'll find very few Raw colour textures that are actually being used. I only know about this one - lamp debris contains Raw24bit texture and I bet it was done by mistake.

I don't know if/how makeup files add up to pink flashing. These files tend to be much smaller than other Bodyshop CC items (when compressed ofc). Hairs are probably a much bigger culprit. But then again, if you often use layered face masks and you get pink flashing a lot, then it's something to think about.

Here's part2 and a few more comparative pics if you're interested.

*Lashes come from this really nice set by @goingmintal - textures are 1024x1024 raw32 so I had to suppress the urge to download all of it 😉

[venusandsaturnsrings]

i’m back with another inceltaru ask since i’m obsessed…ik you’ve talked about it before, but i’m wondering if he ever gets reader just high out of her mind so he can take advantage of it…and maybe film her giggling and being all dazed and stupid because he finds it cute and he likes to embarrass her….

-🕷️ >_< (also this is v random but i love that u make ur stories with a chubby or chubby implied reader, since i’m not really on the skinny side, and pair that with also being v short..anyways…ty lov uuu!!)

EHEHEHEH INCELTARU!! ^u^ he’s the cutest even if he’s nasty!! WAHHHH AND THANK YOU!! i’ve got some chub on my bones so my readers are always imagined as a bit bigger!! it’s always made me real insecure when i can tell a reader is written as someone itty bitty when i’m just… not… ruins the immersion for me at least!! i’ve got no problems with anyone that does but i’ve always found it impacts my ability to actually put myself in the readers position!! anyways… taru!!

ahem… of course he does!! inceltaru isn’t very subtle with the pressure he puts in you with these things. he’ll taunt you for being nervous or scared of smoking until you give in and let him put the blunt to your lips, cooing about how it’s best you let him hold it so your pretty fingers don’t get burned!! his nails are blackened with all the times he’s accidentally lit them up too and he’s got plenty of scars across his finger tips and knuckles to match.

“awh, c’monnnnm… you’re not scared, are you? it’s me y’know? you think i’d ever hurt my angel? just a couple hits, promise. it’ll feel so good…”

he’s whispering low as he eases you into it. praise flowing equally as fast as his snide comments, fingers brushing along your bottom lip as you inhale. he’s holding your jaw with the other hand, telling you just how pretty you look with the smoke curling past your mouth. inceltaru is a slave to shotgunning as well. he’ll take longer and deeper hits before slotting his mouth against yours, waiting to exhale until you’ve relaxed against him so sweetly. he groans at the way you take the smoke from his own mouth.

in terms of recording, he’s got a million cameras so take your pick!! though if it’s up to him, he’s pulling out a shitty camcorder from the back of a random drawer to take low quality videos that just so happen to highlight the glaze over your eyes and add the perfect amount of crunchy audio to the cutest giggles you let out. he’s trained on your face through the small hole of the camera, sliding his fingers across your face simply admiring the way you melt in his hands and maybe, certainly, he’s a bit hard below the belt. inceltaru may even bust out a couple polaroids of you to keep in whatever wallet or jars he’s got hanging around!!

[n7punk]

What’s your beef with Spotify?

It's less beef and more just a product I don't like - because that's what Spotify is, a product. They really don't want you to think of it that way, but at the end of the day it's particularly invasive product packaging around the thing you actually want to listen to, and there are dozens of different ways to listen to music. As far as gripes, though, number 1 is that it doesn't really pay its artists for shit and its objectively kind of shitty audio-quality wise (I'm not a snob on this, but depending on your hardware it can be especially crunchy while other things like Youtube sound just fine). Number 2 is how much it spies on you and tracks your data. Number 3 is the ads. Number 4, and the actual reason I will never use it, is that it's the enshittification of media consumption.

I do, actually, have a Spotify account. I used it for all of a day before never logging in again or verifying my email. Spotify forces you to experience music the way it wants you to, with absolutely no benefit aside from cloud syncing cross-platform for your playlists that I don't actually need, and I'm used to the freedom from the dawn of the accessible mp3 era.

Better Kind Of Best Friend is a single. I bought it as part of the entire The Sex Was Good Until It Wasn't album, so it came with the album artwork. I wanted it to have its single artwork - so I changed it. And now, in MusicBee and on my phone, I see the single artwork because it's in the file metadata. Spotify doesn't give you that option. It's a little thing, maybe, except when it isn't, like when a song's cover art is graphic or otherwise upsetting to look at, or just plain doesn't fit it.

Sometimes I don't agree with a song's "official" genre (usually because the entire album classifies the songs one way while they actually span genres). The range of things that are classified as indie rock is insane. Anyway, other times I use the genre more specifically, such as "Dark Pop", which isn't actually a thing but if I played you Dark Pop songs you would understand what I mean. In MusicBee, I can change genres to be whatever I want, which is important for various auto-playlists in filtering.

I also have a custom tag for any sapphic songs that automatically populates my lesbian love auto-playlist as they're defined, and another playlist that automatically adds all music from my custom-defined list of queer artists to the "Gay Life" playlist. When I buy a new Reinaeiry song, it automatically gets added without me having to do anything.

I can't listen to demos or any music that Spotify has lost licensing to on it, which means that if I want a complete playlist with a demo song on it, I have to have all those songs exported anyway, and at that point why am I bothering to split my listening across platforms? Idk if you heard, but Spotify lost licensing to a giant catalogue of Kpop music at one point because one company pulled out, and all those listeners were fucked. I don't have to wait for an artist to upload their shit to Spotify (although right now I am waiting for Reinaeiry to put Too Sweet up for download - pls queen - this is luckily more rare of an occurrence than me seeing "please add this to Spotify" comments is).

I like music I can keep forever, listen to whenever, and do so without ads or paying three figures a year to hear uninterrupted. I'd rather buy one album a month with the Spotify premium money than pay for it. I like creating folder after subfolder worth of an unlimited number of playlists (admittedly idr if Spotify allows this feature. It varies by online listening platforms and I don't bother to track the ones I don't use). I like being able to drag and drop my playlists from MusicBee into iTunes to instantly listen to them on my phone (and thus cross-play isn't a concern for me as long as I remember to synch my phone). I like the feature of being able to instantly and permanently adjust the volume, as well as the beginning and end point, of any single song I chose (super helpful for when certain albums are inexplicably quieter/louder than others or have a stupid incongruous music or dialogue part in them).

If I want to listen to something without actually getting it, then I do it on Youtube, which has a wider music selection with more control. Don't like album art? Find a lyric video upload with a generic nebula background. Weird movie sample at the beginning? Someone might have cut that out in their upload (shoutout to the person who turned DICTATOR into a part 1 and 2 to match the two different mood halves), but otherwise Sponsorblock will skip the non-music segments. The only downside of Youtube versus Spotify is I can't share the playlists without exposing my name, but again I actually create those playlists in MusicBee 99% of the time so I wouldn't be sharing a link anyway.

[chinsims]

Happy Belated Halloween!

(Since I think I forgot this last time I made a download with a pose, I'm pretty sure pose credits go to noelyely)

(Also: I really hope the image quality won't turn out so crunchy for you guys, but for some reason Tumblr is really making the details blurry. Any other creators know how to fix this? Is it actually fine??)

I have a couple of shirts for your sims that I meant to release yesterday but instead got distracted.

First is the one seen in the preview, a tank top with a scarf. The textures for the tank top come from an old NYGirl outfit. The meshes/morphs and scarf texture come from EA, although I used this version by @sweetdevil-sims.

Only the highest level of detail will have the scarf, so from far away your sim will probably just be wearing the tank top. On the scarf version, there will be slight clipping near the arm at the highest weight.

The second one is the same top, but with no scarf.

GET THEM HERE:

Scarf Top

Regular Top

Under the cut, I'll add previews for each preset:

[copperbadge]

Hi, Sam! I had a food question for you. My partner has POTS and occasionally needs to eat something salty to feel better; this tends to happen most at night after the shops have closed, so running out for chips isn't an opthere.

Do you have any ideas as to easy snacks I can make in a relatively short amount of time out of my pantry with a decent amount of salt in them? Possibly recipes? Especially crunchy things. I've made buttered toast with salt sprinkled on top for him before, and making some kind of cracker might be doable... Thanks!

Ooh, hm, good question. I actually don't use much salt in my cooking (supertaster -- don't need much).

A number of cheeses are pretty salt-heavy; cheddar and camembert in particular, and camembert goes very well with crackers or on bread, even on toast. After my last surgery I often craved salt once I was back on solid foods and a go-to was a chunk of naan bread or a split pita, spread with pesto, topped with cambozola (a camembert-gorgonzola blend), and baked in the toaster oven. If you toast the bread first and then top it, it should stay pretty crispy.

Pesto is a good thing to have on hand because it's pretty salty (and you can add more) and it freezes well, so you can freeze it in small containers and take it out to thaw as needed, so you always have some in the fridge. If allergies are a concern it's relatively easy to make with substitutions (I make mine with almond or cashew butter instead of pine nuts) although you have to like basil. Goes on bread, toast, most veggies, can be used as a dip, etc.

Crackers sprinkled with salt are a good one; most crackers are just flour, liquid, sometimes a mild leavening agent, and if you have a pasta roller it's easy to make the dough thin enough to work like a regular cracker.

Most nut butters also have added salt and as with pesto you can add more (if he can tolerate nuts). If you have a toaster oven or an air fryer, freezer chips/fries bake pretty well and pretty fast in those, and re-salting them after they've heated actually crisps them up a bit too. Keeping salted nuts around is good. A quick google tells me that POTS patients should limit carbs, which is a lot of what I've mentioned here, so if he tolerates jerky, that's super salty and mostly protein, and there are a variety of places these days that do pretty high-quality jerky that doesn't have a lot of nonsense added.

If all else fails, definitely clear this with your doctor, but a glass of water with a shot of vinegar, a spoonful of salt, and a spoonful of sugar is an old recipe for essentially gatorade; it doesn't taste salty (I think it tastes like lemon water) but it gets salt into you and replenishes electrolytes. I'm not sure if it's recommended for POTS patients, though.

Readers, any suggestions? Remember to comment or reblog, as I don't repost asks sent in response to other asks.

[necros-writing-stuff]

YOU WANT TI HEAR ABOUT THE RECIPE I WANNA BAKE FOR EDEN??? 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️

ALRIGHT FOLKS, I hope y'all are ready for my fav seasonal treat.

I hope Eden would like it too

TODAY'S TREAT ISSS *drum roll*

NUSSECKEN BABY!!

It's a german, cookie-like treat whose name roughly translates to "corner nuts." I'll be using grams and mls because I don't know any other measurments.

INGREDIENTS!

For the topping

200 grams of butter

150 grams of sugar (I usually put less sugar, do as you like tbh)

15 grams of vanilla powder

4 tablespoons of water

400 grams of whatever nuts you like! Almond, hazel, walnuts, you name it. I personally really like almonds, sometimes mixed with hazel.

For the cookie base

300 grams of white flour

1 teaspoon of baking poweder

130 grams of sugar (again I usually use less)

2 eggs

15 grams of vanilla powder

130 grams of butter

extra ingredients

Dark chocolate (you'll need this one to garnish the topping)

Jam (traditionally you use apricot or orange marmelade, but you can use the jam you like most.)

PROCEDURE!

Start with the mixed nuts topping, because it'll have to cool down before you can actually put it together.

For the topping:

- take yor nuts of choice and blend them. Cut them up enough to have a rough crumble. You want them to be crunchy, not creamy. But definetly not big chunks. A crumble consistency.

-in a pot, put in the butter, sugar and water, and melt them.

- add your crushed nuts and cook them for 5-10 minutes MAX. Just enough to combine it all and be a little sticky.

-let it cool down a little.

For the cookie base:

-in a bowl, put all the ingredients together, and start working them with your hands.

-You have to work it like a pie crust. If you don't have experience, here's sone tips:

-don't use electronic tools. Your hand's warmth will melt the butter and combine it better.

- at first, it'll feel dry and crumbly and you'll be tempted to put liquid in it. DON'T DO IT. trust the process. Believe in the slowly melting butter.

-keep working it until a solid dough forms. It has to be firm and the ingredients must be well combined.

-don't overmix it.

COMBINING THE INGREDIENTS

-Take a solid tray, put some baking paper on it. Slap the cookie base on it and start flattening it. Ideally you'd put it in a rectangular shape to cut the cookies better.

-The cookie height should be around 0.5 to 1 cm tall. Depends if you want a tall cookie or not, or if you simply prefer quantity over quality.

-Slap the jam of your choice on the cookie dough. Distribute it on the whole surface. Use more jam than you think you need: it'll help to stick the cookie and the nuts together.

-slap the nut topping directly on the jam. Don't care to keep the layers clean, smear the jam with the nuts if you have to. That shit has to stick together. Distribute the nuts evenly.

-shove the bad boy in an oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 20-25 minutes. Check the sweets, if you want the nuts to be a bit toasty you can put on a grill mode at the last minute. NO MORE THEN A COUPLE MINUTES. Otherwise the nuts might burn.

- let the bitch cool down to room temperature.

- once it's cold, cut it up into triangles. (That's the traditional shape, squares work too)

chocolate topping:

- take a large pot, fill it with water and put it on the heat to boil.

- take a smaller pot, put in enough chocolate to coat the cookies in, and submerge the small pot into tue warming water.

- this is a pretty safe way to melt chocolate without burning it. Just be careful to not splash yourself with the boiling water.

- once the chocolate is melted, take your cookie triangles and dip the corners into the chocolate. Then put them on a tray with baking paper and let the chocolate cool down.

-alternitavely, take a sac-a-poche, fill it with the chocolate and just pipe it on the crumbled nuts. A spoon works too.

Let the chocolate cool down and VOILÀ! NUSSECKEN!

They're not too difficult to make, the only bore is the waiting time for stuff to cool down. Hope y'all like this recipe! ;)

I want to feed it to Eden snsbnansn

OK BEFORE I FORGET:

What kinda sweets do you think Eden likes? I thought about the Nussecken because the nuts remind me the forest(?) somehow and it feels very homely to me. If you have headcanons, oh Maestro of Eden, please share >_<

-💜

1) thank you so much for the recipe, I'm gonna try it at some point and I'll let you know how badly I do at it lmfao.

2) I think you're right that Eden would like this a lot because we see them enjoying roasted chestnuts in game. Which makes me think they'd enjoy those chocolate bars with nuts in them.

Also, scones with fruit jam! Both made by PC! Black Berry jam piled on Eden's shelf in the seasons they grow, ingredients for scones on every shopping list.

Keep Eden away from anything resembling warheads or sherbert. If it's sour they'll die. Just nice and sweet things, but not artificial flavours.

[ghost-trick-heritage-posts]

hey! what do you think is the better ghost trick experience, the ds version or the remake on pc? I own the ds version and plan to play it soon, but I would also be willing to buy the pc version if that one adds any significant quality of life features or is just an even better way to play or whatever

Honestly? Both have their pros and cons, most being just ‘well… depends on prefrence.’

For Example: The pc version has cleaner graphics and (imo) the better music score, but there’s a certain charm to the old crunchy ds style.

I will say for actual differences that may be cared about, the pc remake has bonus sliding puzzles at the end. Its good if you like sliding tile puzzles. (i cannot commentate on how smooth it is to use in main game vs the ds as i played the original on an emulator as i simply did not have the hardware to play it. unfortunate!)

Meanwhile, the original ds version’s top screen will display what an object you are possessing can do. (this is incredibly useful! the remake doesnt have this as it doesnt have a second screen. it. might tell you what you can do with an object but uh… if it does i must have not been paying attention close enough. hahaha. apologies if so)

So… really its do what you want. I cannot think of any major qol updates in the remake beyond the extra content, graphics, and score. You already own the ds version so it would honestly be best in my own opinion to go ahead and play that than spend more money on two versions.

but again. i am not the boss of you. do as you wish.

others are free to chime in the comments and reblogs with their own opinions. :)

[nameless-and-joymaking]

which andrew do you prefer as prior walter? i've seen the version with a.garfield in its entirety but a few clips on yt i saw of andrew scott were much more compelling to me tho i kinda liked the borderline campiness of the other andrew. thinking

this is a great question omg,,,

i prefer scott, with the caveat that it's almost unfair to compare the two bc i so intensely dislike the direction of garfield's production.

i appreciate the campiness of garfields performance. both scott and garfield are doing capital-F Fag Acting, but scott's is ahem. a bit more authentic. i also think it's more consistent (garfield should have picked a number 1-10 on how swishy prior is and had someone spray him with water like a cat every time he deviated from that number.) garfield also goes hard on Dying Acting, and it adds up to being a Lot at times, like he's playing a series of qualities more than actual, actionable human drives.

that whole production, by virtue of nathan lane being there, and marianne elliott's general sensibility, goes for every single possible joke on the page-- and it's a sign of a good actor to find all those jokes! but it's the director's job to say 'ok let's lose two of those as to not sacrifice the tone of this scene'. i rewatched both of their bench scenes (the 'ks, baby' one) and the action is never allowed to play out. letting the audience off the hook with a quick laugh, i Hated how quickly the lighting cue comes in at the end, etc. there were also some very basic mistakes in that production that either the actors or elliott should have caught-- if someone says "don't yell" halfway thru a scene the actors should not both have been yelling for the past four minutes. like cmon.

scott makes these lovely counterintuitive acting choices that i'm very partial to-- he does this in every role he's in. think his little smile in his hamlet's soliloquy. fwiw i also think scott perceived the structure of the bench scene just a tinyyyy bit better-- as a viewer, you feel the connection between the parallel threads of talking about death and talking about the cat so seamlessly. scott also thrives on being a little alienating, which is a new flavor for prior, who's usually such a straightforwardly lovable/relatable character. (ftr i don't think that's right or wrong, i think that's a matter of taste) the accent is a liiiiitttle umm. crunchy. but i famously do not care when theatre actor have wonky accents (kelli ohara italian my beloved)

[ensemblesongs]

ensemblesongs here with a reminder that if you wish a song was in higher quality, specifically one that has already been posted you should let me know. Don't go hunting or anything. Just if you listen to one and hey it's kind of crunchy and sucks. I've gone back and updated a few to sound better recently👍no promises I'll do it for every single one. If it's one of the latest songs, most of the ones I posted recently have not been actually released yet so you'll have to wait. I know to some the crunch certain few uploads have adds charm so it's only if it really genuinely truly bugs someone and they're like going to explode and die. This blog is for fun and ease of listening & spam reblogs and such. Love love.

Also, I haven't gotten recs for songs lately (which is fine who give a shit I love uploading files but it's okay I can't even think of songs I haven't uploaded but there's a few) I might post some that have gone unuploaded later maybe I don't know :-) we'll see. Don't be shy to ask for anything from me ♪ ES at your service.

[aimlessarchery]

// i still have emoji asks to address but i got my hands on python’s map sprite and got so distracted today looking at the variation in his eye color that i’m making a post about it as if someone sent me the 👁️ emoji real quick. thank u all for being patient with me

i had myself convinced that the only reason Python’s eyes are blue in his cipher card are because he’s a very blue guy, and fire emblem characters often have eye colors that match their hair. after all, his portrait ripped straight out of the game clearly shows that his eyes are um. uhhh.

dark brown-grey? idk. they’re dark. 

the grey is emphasized much more in his FEH art, turning them into a lighter steely color. they’re also much colder/bluer, though some of the warmth in the original art could be ascribed to the general warm, sepia-ish tones that are used pretty consistently in SOV’s character art.

in his cipher art that shit is just blue. when i eyedropped it, a lot of the tones in there are darker/greyer than i thought, but idk how much of that is also because i have yet to get my hands on a scan of the art that isn’t pretty crunchy. still definitely blue, and looking like it’s pulling hues from his hair.

so i was like “fuck it, they’re dark grey-brown. cipher just got it wrong.” until i remembered to look at his map sprite.

yyyou little motherfucker

anyway, i still insist on dark-eyed python. i just think it looks nice, and i’ve described his eyes that way too many times to go back lol. ridiculous maddie fact of the night is that i actually edited this blog’s icon to tone down the blue in his eyes. the resolution is not high because, again. only got crunchy copies (and i am not an experienced image editor lmfao)

the original emoji prompt also asked if there was anything notable about the character’s eyes, so i’ll just add in that they’re often closer to a lazy half-mast, giving off either a sleepy or smarmy sort of impression (he is both). there’s a sharp quality to them, though—he’s a sharpshooter, and he sizes up situations both on and off the battlefield with a quick mind behind that lackadaisical attitude. 

if you read this far thanks for playing along with my rambling nothing-post!! i think about this guy a regular amount! i-

sorry i just double checked his meet the heroes art. sharena what the HELL!!

[elecman108]

It’s finally done. I’m... feeling a little emotional, honestly. All my D&D character references are now “recovered”, as in redrawn completely, from my broken SSD whose files were all lost.

I... I just want to sit back and put my head in my hands. [Cont’d]

This... It’s every character I have made for D&D since I started playing. The first two I designed - Miri Evenwood and Cecillia - down to the most recent two - Zarris and Joy - all together, all forms, all types, all everything, all at once. I’m just... This was so much work and effort.

When I lost the original file with all these guys in it, I thought that was it. Nothing. But I do post my art here and on Twitter, no? I saved what I could off here and there, and the quality of these guys was... bad. Like, really bad. Most of the pictures I downloaded looked like this:

Fuzzy, illegible, and most details lost. Some were better quality, but...

...the image compression of being uploaded to Tumblr or Twitter was... difficult to contend with. I did have some I shared on Discord, however, those were a little more to work from.

I had some sketches, linearts, in-progress images, and some poor-quality finished works. All out of order, all wildly differing in quality. I sat back and had to think, what could I even do here? My character references, all lost to an SSD that Windows Recovery corrupted the data off of. That was probably the end of the story.

But I am stubborn.

I started to redraw them. Why did I start with Ezra, Axel, and Blaze? I don’t know why, but I’ve held these three close to me. And then I started making the basic line art for each other character, either completely by scratch (see Verda here) or with a crunchy, fuzzy, off-my-twitter-or-tumblr reference to work from.

With each new character I drew the lines for, with each finished reference, I felt like the task ahead of me was monumental - impossible at times. Work got stressful, life got in the way, and whenever I had a few minutes to myself, I was putting character after character through the redux machine and redrawing them by hand.

Some stayed incomplete for a while. Some were started and finished within a... week, reluctantly. I spent a lot of time looking at what I’d done so far, and then back at the ones I had yet to finish or start. At a certain point, I felt like I had given myself a task that I would never complete - a problem I could never solve. Maybe I would’ve given up after a certain point.

But then I didn’t. I refused to give up. I made notes for myself, I reviewed old notes saved to my old phone that barely worked that told me which of my unsaved list I had later dropped or redone. I kept drawing these characters, and about at this time I realized something.

I had been making D&D characters for almost a decade. Some of these guys are from that time - Miri and Cecillia, namely - and some had been in-progress for years before I actually ended up using them - Blaze and Axel came to mind - and here they were. Again. After I had initially lost them.

This was something that gradually made me better at drawing. This was history - my own personal brain’s history, at least - and I was doing everything I could to ensure I kept it. Not only was I determined to have at least one single full-body reference of each character I could ever use in D&D, I remembered my original goal when I was drawing these guys.

One of each race and class combination. Of course, a silly goal, but it allowed my creativity to flow and make some genuinely cool characters. I would always look back on these guys and smile, and now I can do that again - and add more.

And the satisfaction of lining them all up in a colour order was so good.

--

So yeah, from October to December. So much work, and the payoff was absolutely worth the effort and time that went into it. Through every burnt-out evening, from days I spent stuck on the couch unable to move through the pain to days I spent here and there and back again. Through each hour worked at my job, to each our I worked at home and doodled these guys. They’re here again, and they’ll see me through.

And I encourage you to design your own characters. I use D&D as inspiration for these, but I have others, after all...

But at least these references are more stuck towards their names than their full outfits, fuck’s sake. These were my May-August project of recovering files so... This year’s been certainly interesting.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

It’s unbelievable how much we are on the same wavelength LMAO YOUR HAIR GEL JOKES ALWAYS HIT I LOVE THEM Keep rambling on because it’s truly doing wonders blessing my feed!!

But ALSO OMG YEAH THE EPINAGI PINKIE THING HAD ME ROLLING LMAOOO Tbh I’m also not much of a reonagi shipper so I feel you! Movie def felt a bit rushed though I’m glad they added in some cool Nagi scenes!! His aura in the movie was sooo pretty I loved how they did that but YEAH MY DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN WE DIDNT GET CRUMBS OF THEIR MATCH AGAINST KARASU AND OTOYA??? I guess it was pretty recent in the epinagi chapters but I was fr hoping for more scenes with them T-T I was actually kinda just comparing it to the recent spy x family movie too and you can definitely notice some of the less refined moments in parts of the animation haha….overall I like how they explored a bit more of Nagi fs but it kinda makes me want another installment of the movie that’s less rushed and includes more of the actual epinagi content instead of only the parts that overall with the main series…I mean as a Nagi fan too I’m not really complaining much bc hey, more Nagi screen time! Considering the speed in which they got this out I won’t complain too much about the quality though I still think it was a good watch for Nagi and BLLK fans in general lolll

Ok but I think they chose Karasu’s va sooooo well like it fits him perfectly which I’m really happy about but THAT ADDITIONAL TIME CLIP I feel like the art is always a bit crunchy for those I kinda died at the close up on Karasu’s face there but ykw I’ll take it it’s Karasu so…

I LIVE FOR WEIRD LITTLE FREAK CHILD HIORI OMG that epinagi scene where he looks like that balled up watery eyed hamster meme thing (I hope you get the ref bc I’m not sure how else to explain LOL) I loved the light novel references in remember going crazy when that chapter released with the whole stalking thing LOLL

LMAOOO 1 CM TALLER YUKIMIYA IM CRYING THATS GENIUS I completely forgot about that fact you thought this out so well!! Imagine he puts in extra hair gel or styles his hair a little differently to add even more height or something

KARASU LOOKS SO GOOD IN THE EPINAGI MANGA!!!! I know exactly which panel you’re talking about and it’s permanently living in my camera roll! I think the next chapter should be coming out relatively soon?? But I’m also so happy that we get to see more action from Karasu and Otoya!!! And ofc their interactions with Chigiri and Nagi too! (Actually when I first got into BLLK nagi was my fav HAHA it’s changed around a little bit but he still holds a special place in my heart so I feel that) The Chigiri Barou dynamic lately is also something I’ve been loving lately they’re so goofy as a rival duo it’s hilarious

LMAOOO I COULD HEAR JUSTIN BIEBER SAYING THOSE WORDS AS I READ THEM but THANK YOU AGAIN!!! I’ll happily eat up whatever work you throw out even if it’s not Karasu because there’s just something about your writing style that’s just so nice to read (Ngl I kinda stalked your page and read through your other works like Cherry Tree, Peregrine, White Butterfly, Pathways, etc. and honestly your writing has been just invading my brain throughout the day your work is just amazing (I almost cried reading White Butterfly too)) but also don’t forget to take care of yourself!! No rush at all I hope you enjoy yourself while writing everything!!! You never fail to deliver and I’m glad to have given an opportunity for you to write about Karasu!

- Karasu anon :)

P. S. That Rin art you reblogged jumpscared me so bad LMAOOO almost died laughing and nearly peeing my pants LOL Also sorry these are always so long I just noticed the last reply you sent needed to have the “keep reading” button in order to respond to everything I said oops lmk if you’d prefer I be more concise HAHA

omg YAYYAY i love that we agree!! the hair gel jokes are necessary unfortunately…the one manga panel in the pxg vs bm game where we see him from above and his hair forms a ninety degree angle HAUNTS me. how long does bro spent sculpting that 😭

THE PINKY THING WAS SO FUNNY PLEASE i cannot get over it like why did they add that in LMAOAO i feel like reonagi is one of those ships that i acknowledge is probably closer to canon than most but i just do not care about it. honestly i don’t really have any ships in bllk (except kunigiri a bit??) that i’m super into just because them being weirdos abt soccer is so much funnier than anything!! i’ve also never really been a big shipper in general w any show i watch so that could also be why. like i recognize they exist and idc what other people ship but me personally you’ll never see me pressed or championing one ship or another. for me romance is more of a route to character exploration than a be-all end-all which is why on the RARE occasions i read a ship fic it’s almost always for the most random rare pair — you have to understand characters super well to convincingly write them together when they’ve met MAYBE once on screen so those types of fics always end up being more interesting to me. overall though if i like a character i’m going to write my own stories abt them and i’m not abt to write them w someone else when i could write abt them being in love with me 🙄 HAHA

i love nagi’s whole sparkly death aura i think it’s super cool!! and the little vacuum sound effect whenever he touches the ball hehe they definitely made it so pretty in the movie. i wasn’t expecting karasu and otoya to pull up just because of how recently it happened in the manga but i was still sad because they just made the second selection a montage (although when rin pulled up with his dramatic ass theme i laughed tbh) 😔 like ik we see it in the show already but LET ME SEE IT AGAINNNN!! i think w bllk the good animation is REALLY good and the bad is…well it’s certainly smth!! but i agree it was a fun movie and watch if you already like bllk…i hope they eventually do release another one or maybe an ova or smth w the rest of the second selection from nagi’s pov i would love to see it on screen.

the additional times either have majestic animation (the aryu vs rin glam battle was like. oddly well animated i feel??) or they’re super crunchy and i fear tabieitaken got the short end of the stick this time around…hoping they don’t do them dirty in season two because those are two of the most handsome boys in the manga (plus otoya) so i will be heartbroken if they aren’t given justice. karasu’s voice actor is super good though!! i actually do think bllk (at least the sub, i haven’t watched dub so can’t comment on that) has hit the mark with va’s every time. they all sound exactly how i would expect them too so far and i can’t wait for more scenes w the newer characters!!

YESS IK WHICH HAMSTER YOU MEAN that’s exactly what he looks like!! i don’t feel too bad about slandering hiori in the fwtkac series because i wrote white butterfly where he’s the main interest so obviously i don’t hate him…plus fwtkac y/n is hiori’s biggest (and probably only atm) defender so it balances out (and technically all of his nonsense is literally canon KHLFJSJD his light novel is so funny!! why does he literally stalk karasu (me fr though)!! i feel like in the manga it seems like karasu’s interest in hiori is v one-sided but then you read the ln and you’re like oh…this guy (meaning hiori) is actually a little bit Not Normal…in the words of y/n “he was definitely a freak.”) his light novel goes the most into depth about karasu’s character (it’s almost as much abt karasu as it is about hiori) so i did a reread before starting fwtkac and that’s what made me include little references to it!!

I JUST CHECKED THEIR WIKI PAGES BEFORE WRITING THAT TO MAKE SURE IT WAS TRUE i honestly forgot which one was taller between the two of them but i had a sense it was yuki AND IT WAS DSLFKJ especially the fact that it’s only by one cm you KNOW that is karasu’s roman empire…tbf i don’t think that it includes hair because according to the wiki nagi is taller than barou but w the hair included i think they end up being about the same height?? though nagi does slouch a bit so that much contribute to it…imagine the hairstyle y/n makes fun of in the series is actually a different one than we’re used to and he only pulls up w the crow hairstyle while in bllk so he can feel like he’s taller than yukimiya HAHAHA

oh that panel will forever be famous in the hearts of all karasu stans…plus the ones of him in the latest chapter AHHHH that is one pretty boyyy. chigiri and barou are so unserious together i honestly love how chigiri is characterized in epinagi!! he’s so much sillier than he is in the main manga. omg so i actually started the show because of rin and then when i first started watching i really liked kunigami?? i was pretty lukewarm on nagi during his first appearance and then i noticed myself rewatching his scenes in the team v vs team z match and i was like oh no…then he was in the second selection and it went downhill from there and now he’s my stupid dumb squishy boyfriend who i love sm 🥹 omg who are your favs now?? besides karasu ofc 😏

PEOPLE KEEP SAYING THEY ALMOST CRIED TO WHITE BUTTERFLY IS IT REALLY THAT SAD??? i had fun writing that one though it felt very whimsical and dreamy which fit hiori imo…omg peregrine i need to get back to working on it hehe i love nagi and reo in that fic!! the boys of all time fr 💖 thank you so much though you’re too kind 🫶🏻 i do enjoy writing a lot!! i’ve been pretty bored this summer so i’m glad that my milestone event could line up with me having sm free time…although honestly just by doing requests i’ve gotten so many new followers that i might have to do another event soon 😭 i actually really like having them open though!! i think i’ll probably leave them closed for a bit while i finish up the existing ones and work on some of my own ideas but i might open them up just for bllk again in the future because everyone’s ideas are sm fun and i love meeting new people through them!! plus i get to try writing for new characters…like realistically i never would’ve written for sae hiori or even isagi and kaiser without people requesting for them but some of those requests ended up becoming my fav fics i’ve written so far!! we will see though hehe no promises atm but like i said i’m always open to thoughts and if inspiration strikes then i won’t say no 🤩

PLSSSS THAT RIN FANART HAD ME DYING that’s who rin is to me!! he is an emotionally unavailable little weirdo SKLDJFLKJS i think a big reason why i don’t really like rin that much is because his fanon characterization is so different from the type of character i like that i’m just meh abt him. actual canon rin is one of my favs though he’s sooo funny and such a loser but i CANNOT engage with 90% of media abt him because i’m just sitting there like He Would Not Say That. ofc characters are open to interpretation though so i will never slander someone for writing him how they want to but i am afraid that the rin who exists to me and the rin who exists to the world are very diff characters entirely

NOOO dw i love getting long asks!! i add the ‘read more’ so that people who want to lurk on my blog don’t have to scroll through a bunch of my nonsense chattering to get to things like my writing/the majestic fan art that i reblog but long asks are like my fav thing ever so please don’t restrain yourself!! i will respond to each and every thing you say with pleasure 🤞🏻

[socially-normal]

Solo Leveling : Arise

The new Solo Leveling Arise game dropped like an hour ago or sumn and I wanted to dump my thoughts (From Launching the Game to the end of the Tutorial)

Non-Canon Compliant = Red

Canon Compliant = Blue

Pet Peeve = Green

AJUUUUU Nice ! ✧･ﾟ:*

The animation art is better than the anime and it's gen kinda funny. Like obv the animation for the anime is a higher quality in terms of movement but the game really understands the style and energy of Solo Leveling. (Though the anime's animation gets better and better as the anime draws on, the game is good in the beginning which was a big miss in the anime. Seeing the statue's actually look like how they felt reading the manwha was cathartic. Sad to say they didn't make the main statue as hot as it is the second time you see it in the manwha but hey what can you do)

The art style is just SOOOOOOOOOOO good

The visuals for the game are just mwah mwah mwah. The surrounding maps when fighting story enemies aren't canon complaint which like for such a highly anticipated game is a bit disappointing, but it makes up for it in the rest of the interfaces. I always love seeing how the <System> is interpreted in this genre. It's much more true to the manwha itself than the anime did with it which is funny since the anime used a very 3D model for it to show that the [System] was out of place in the world where a 3D game used 2D.

I'm a sucker for the comic panels coming in like an animated slideshow, it's so cool. Imo it's the peak way to respect the og work when you don't have the time or budget to animate them.

The game's extras have really cute voices, I'm a woman liker but I think the guilt attendants the game added in to facilitate stuff are so fun

LIVE LAUGH LOVEEEE new characterssss

The EXP icon just being Sung Jinwoo's face is so funny and for what

The visuals again are so good looking. The quick menu interface is SO well set up that you can understand things with a glance, I also like how it's themed in the way Jinwoo's [System] would be. Uber sexyness

I like what they did with Rasaka's Fang, it's cool in the manwha and obv cuts had to be made for a weapon's redraw ability so it's nice to see how the game made it look like the same blade but how it would look in a more real setting.

Negative Comments . |☂˚｡

I take it back before, the 2D art quality gives such a bad vibe, like its not a bad quality per say it's just really odd looking when they fr could've used their 3D models. Especially when a TON of it is super different in art style and it makes it so suspicious looking. If it isn't done with malicious reasons then it's a super bad social move cause the marketing team should've warned them on what or what doesn't make people think art is AI online.

One thing the anime does better than the game visually on is the transition between Sung Jinwoo as [The Weakest E-Class] to his main look in the series

The game massively caters to fans of the Solo Leveling manwha which don't get me wrong I love when a adaptation knows who the original supporters are, but the anime understood that the [System] and [Gates] genre is pretty new to anime fans. Solo Leveling, rightfully, was MANY of people's first manwhas with the settings and even more people's first exposure to it in anime which is why it took the time to explain what mana crystals were, why people raided gates, the ranking system, slipped in how they determine your rank, etc. The game just assumes you know all of that so it's not a good way to attract fans if the game is their first exposure.

Related, it adds a new feature with activity funding which while getting funds based on your rank is a feature in some [System] and [Gates] settings, it's not in Solo Leveling which can confuse some fans again.

The sprint is super crunchy, it takes a lot of work to know how to use it even out of combat

On that note the animations are so long that if there's anything timed later then it's gonna be a game breaker

The sprint animation is so long and stiff that actually it's unusable in combat, in the main story the enemies are MADE to be too weak to kill you but after it's gen a massive nerf. ESPPPPPPP in the job upgrade thing, it's SO hard to do that

Difficulty Scaling - On that note too actually the job change boss was WAYYY too hard to be in the middle of the tutorial stages where you couldn't die even if you didn't use any skills T>T

More of a pet peeve but I hate locked tutorials, like I get wanting to keep me on track but like let me go to the SETTINGS at least man...

Sung Jinwoo's ENG VA is the only really good one in game. All the main characters have super good voices. But then the side characters just have such bad fits for their VA in English, wouldn't know about Korean yet though.

Just nottttt a fan of like- character profile in their dialogue thing lately- Especially if it's drawn when the character themselves an animated model. In an age of SO much AI art even in games it just feels like such a bad move to be leaving an opening for those kinda comments. It would've wasted less time of an artist, giving the benefit of the doubt there was one, to just use stills of that 3D model you already made.

Average comments ┊•°.

The "Intense Music" is so repetitive it'll quickly give you a headache to the point that if you don't play a lot of games with sound on like I do then it'll stay off to never return. The music overall is kinda repetitive but none of it is AS bad as the Intense Music they have during a story event, the others you can tune out if you try but for some reason not the intense one? Not every game can have like Inscryption level background music but it would've been nice to get something less grating especially when ur trapped in with it for some spots.

The [Gates] reminds me a ton of Path to Nowhere's style for it with like the pillars. Just personally not a fan of that visual in any game.

The health bars are kinda long? I just don't get the point of a x10 health bar for a boss when you're knocking off half of them with one skill. But hey maybe it feels nice for other gamers

[wearethepotemkin]

Julia Child's Aigo Bouido [Garlic Soup] from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Today I’m going to make Julia Child’s Garlic Soup from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Mine is the 40th Anniversary Edition. They’re into the 50th now.

Julia says that

because the garlic is boiled, its after-effects are at a minimum, and its flavor becomes exquisite, aromatic, and almost indefinable. Along the Mediterranean an aigo bouido is considered to be very good indeed for the liver, blood circulation, general physical tone, and spiritual health. (40th Anniversary Edition p 46-47)

Well, I could use some tone and spiritual health, so let’s get going.

With the garlic, the actual first listed ingredient, I run into my first big question – yes, the garlic part of the garlic soup throws the first wrench. She says “one separated head or approx. 16 cloves of garlic.” So I haven’t counted a store bought head of garlic in a while, and I’m using homegrown. Store bought will be softneck, I’m using hardneck, looks like a Chesnock Red or Russian Red, but my row markers all washed out. And my cloves are ENORMOUS, like one head of garlic will be 5 cloves, and they’re all quite big. So I’m using 1-1/2 heads, it’s 9 cloves, and weighs 2.8 oz (before peeling). Or maybe 3 more making it two whole heads? Julia says “A head of garlic is not at all too much for 2 quarts of soup. For some addicts, it’s not even enough” (47) so maybe I should do 2 heads?

Julia, how big was your garlic??

Ok, I’m doing 2 heads, 12 cloves, 3.7 oz. Am I gonna regret it? Probably, I regret most things. Have I ever regretted using too much garlic? Not to the best of my recollection, your honor.

I have to assume that the changes in quality, type, clove size, freshness of the garlic itself could have a huge impact on the flavor of this recipe. This is probably a great tester of garlic harvests and varieties, so if you’re growing your own garlic, or buying from your local growers or farmers markets, this could be a good first recipe to try to assess a new variety.

Julia wants me to drop the cloves into boiling water, boil for 30 seconds, drain, run under cold water, and peel.

Done.

Other ingredients have been gathered.

Added all of the following: water, salt, pepper, cloves, sage (mine is old, so I’m doubling what Julia says) bay leaf, parsley sprigs, first 3 T olive oil to a 3-quart saucepan (I’m using my big ole dutch oven, though Julia says use a 3-quart saucepan, but mine is ugly and non-stick, and the coating is failing, plus I think it will be prettier in the white enameled lining.)

Bring to a boil, and simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

By which time the gigantic cloves of garlic were still very much not soft, so I would say simmer until your garlic is cooked through, because you’re going to have to push it through a sieve, and you can’t do that if it is still crunchy, needs to be something where you can, like, smoosh it easily with a fork.

Taste, burn the fuck out of your tongue, wonder why you are this way, sulk, ice tongue. Keep simmering.

And here I had to let the soup sit in the pot for several hours because Luke’s saxophone repair tech called, and he had to go pick up his horn. But I think that’s ok because Julia said “when you are ready to serve…” you do the part where you beat the egg yolks and dribble in oil like you’re making mayo, which suggests that the soup can wait at this stage until it is ready to serve. So it did. But it also meant I could taste it for seasoning without burning my tongue, and make a cocktail that uses one of the egg whites I didn’t use.

Maybe I’ll do a Mr Boston Bartender’s Guide drink-along series. Tell me what you think in the comments. Oh wait, no one is reading this. Drink I shall.

The cocktail was a disappointment.

Ok, so the next step is to essentially make a mayonnaise in your serving bowl. Whip the egg yolks, then slowly add the remaining olive oil, just whip whip, dribble dribble, until you’ve added 3T (which was plenty). Then add a ladelfull of the soup into your fine mesh strainer over your tureen or serving bowl. You need to do the first ladelfull then whip it up a bit still to stabilize it. After that you you can add the rest of the soup, pushing it through the sieve, mashing up all that good garlic, and use a bowl scraper to get all the bits that have pushed through the sieve.

Served with the cheese and toasted baguette slices. Luke buttered ours, and added Maldon salt, which was a nice touch. Undersalting the soup a little, and letting the salt on the bread compensate was perfect.

The soup is smooth and lovely, a light buttery yellow, and what I ended up using was not too much garlic by any means. If you’re a fan, I would say go with two heads of garlic, or 3-4 oz, but mileage will vary depending on variety or type of garlic. I can see cutting the olive oil in the soup to 2T, esp considering you’re adding another 3 for serving, but 3 in the soup plus another 4 in the egg emulsion may be too much for some.

Toward that, and moving forward, Julia says of the cookbooks in her introduction to the 40th edition:

You will note this indulgence here, especially in sauces, where you can reduce them with cream or where you swirl in fresh butter a generous tablespoon at a time to render them smooth, shining and luscious. I have not changed any of these original proportions or directions, because this is the way the dishes were conceived. However, do use your own judgement as to how much or how little of the enrichments you care to use, since the amounts will not interfere with the basic recipe. In my case, for instance, I have been known to substitute a modest teaspoon for the generous tablespoon. (xv)

So I don’t know what mixing an extra Tablespoon into the “mayonnaise” mixture would have done, but it was not necessary for the soup to hold together. As you can see in the pic of the finished spoonful of soup at the very bottom, the droplets of fat are well dispersed and plentiful. I suspect that is an area in which one could skimp.

Plan for at least 2T of cheese per bowl, and a bit more could be offered. Is the cheese necessary at all? Probably not.

(Confirmed, heated up 2 days later gently in the microwave. The soup did not separate, and I served it with no cheese, just some crumbled stale ass leftover baguette, and it was still delicious.)

This is a lovely, bright luncheon soup, on a rainy day, or a delightful starter course. I can see adding potatoes or poached eggs to bulk it up and make it a more substantial meal. It’s a lot like the buttery broth you soak up from the bottom of a bowl of steamed mussels or clams.

Also, this soup was incredibly inexpensive and simple to make. This really felt like making something out of nothing. Getting it going on the stove took almost nothing, and the only real labor was whisking the egg emulsion in the end, so a bit of energy right before serving, and a very warming and satisfying reward.

Julia Child’s Aigo Bouido [Garlic Soup] from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

For 6-8 people (makes 2 quarts of soup)

Ingredients

1 separated head or about 16 cloves whole, unpeeled garlic (3-1/2 oz was not too much)

2 quarts water 2 tsp salt Pinch of pepper 2 cloves ¼ tsp sage ½ bay leaf 4 parsley sprigs 3 Tb olive oil

3-4 Tb more olive oil (a candy squeeze bottle made this easier) 3 egg yolks

Rounds of hard-toasted French bread 1 cup of grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese

Equipment

3-quart saucepan, or bigger (my dutch oven was fine) wire whip soup tureen (or 2+ quart serving bowl if, like me, your tureen was too small) fine-mesh strainer strong-ass wooden spoon bowl scraper candy squeeze bottle for olive oil (optional)

Instructions

Blanch the unpeeled cloves of garlic in boiling water for 30 seconds, drain, run under cold water and peel.

Gather water, salt, pepper, cloves, peeled garlic, parsley, sage, bay leaf (just half a bay leaf now, don’t go crazy unless you’re driving (I see you, Jaime), and 3T olive oil, and simmer gently for 30 minutes — or until garlic is softened. (If your garlic cloves are GIGANTIC, like mine were, it may need more. I left mine on a gently simmer for 60 minute.) Taste, and correct seasoning as needed.

Beat the yolks in [your serving vessel] for a minute until they are thick and sticky. Drop by drop, beat in the olive oil as for making mayonnaise.

Just before serving, beat a ladlefull of hot soup (it’s soup now!!) into the egg mixture by droplets. Gradually strain in the rest, beating and pressing the juice out of the garlic.

Serve immediately, accompanied by the bread and the cheese. (It’ll be 2-2.5T of cheese per serving. We floated a couple slices of bread in each bowl, and served another 2 on the side. Worked quite well.)

 Citation

Child, Julia, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. Mastering the Art of French Cooking. 1961. 40th Anniversary ed., Knopf, 2009.