#creates a being called harlequin...

[yaeggravate]

arlecchino? pantalone??? MONA????

[painting-warhammer]

Solitaire in the style of Vriska Serket (Homestuck)

Just in time for 4/13! Commentary under cut.

The Lessons Learned

#1: Learn As Much As You Can Before Letting Your Mini Anywhere Near A Brush

As first figures go, this was honestly not as bad as it could have been, but I am an outlier. (and the second figure would be much worse.) Since the proverbial canvas was so expensive, it was a lot of "measure twice, cut once."

This was the main thing I used, and save for the face looking like chewed-up bubblegum, it came out relatively okay for a first try. Overall, this guy's a legend and this would be far from the only video of his I would reference.

#2: It's Okay To Be Inspired

What really hooked me on Warhammer in general is that you can paint things in your style. This is appealing at first, but if you're not an artist, you're going to be exposed quickly in the worst way possible, and that's by the color wheel theory. If you don't understand contrast and coomplements, all the technique in the world won't save your figure from looking like an eyesore.

This is where "established" characters that you are mimicking end up being your saving grace. If canon material is your bag, that works: You certainly won't lack as far as exact guides then! But in my opinion, you learn a bit more by improvising and trying to make something similar to an established character. Chances are they're popular because they have an appealing color scheme. As it happens, Vriska's various blue motifs really complement her orange, which is something I never realized way back when.

Also, reinterpretation was inevitable. I had initially considered freehanding the sun symbol on her lapel, but when everything was smaller than my pinkie, I just settled for making her jewels yellow. The real masterstroke was taking the Harlequin's Kiss weapon and recoloring it as the Warhammer (oh hey) of Vrillyhoo.

I just took the general colors and used Spiritstone Red on the rounded bits, and made something analogous to it. It's still the neatest part, imo.

#3: The Best Way To Start

For every color, I had a swatch. I had one base color, which I then doused in a shade, and then added one layer paint as the main color and one shade lighter for highlights.

#4: How To Make A Shiny Figure

There's a special paint called Ardcoat that puts a glossy texture on, but something that's a little more muted that gives a shine is... shade paint! I didn't shake the paint pot enough and created a fun glossy texture that you can see on her knee. (I learned how I accidentally did this by asking at my local Warhammer shop, lol)

#5: Don't Be Afraid To Make Mistakes

I'm sure there's more than just this wrong with this figure, but the Solitaire is supposed to be leaping off that little rock there. There were glyphs where I was able to put in a glowing line of Baharroth Blue that was watery enough that it filled in the little gaps on its own. It looked fantastic once...

Unfortunately, I overfilled my brush and it sloughed over into the other creases and ruined the whole effect. I also slopped Mordant Earth onto the stones and made it too ugly.

But that's just it. As much prep work as I was going in with, there was always going to be a mistake, and on a personal psychic level it feels bad when you make it. It ruins a whole day of painting lol. And you can't really stop those emotions, but you should at least try.

#6: You're Not Married To Your Army

It's inevitable that getting your first figure leads you to think about a whole army of them, but I had this distaste in my mouth when I thought about making more than one Vriska. For one, I didn't like any of the other Harlequins or Aeldari, or more importantly, I couldn't think of fun color schemes for them. The thought came to mind to make the ships similar to the Batterwitch/Condesce, but they were too similar color-wise (and even in the symbology!) where it just felt redundant. I get a special kick out of making something different from the boxart, because that's the point in my opinion.

I coped for a while: Green stuff or 3D print horns for the other figures to make them trolls? Suck it up and just use Vriska's color scheme for the others? In the end, I just gave up and called this a practice run. This is still my favorite figure. I'm just happy the first one turned out so nicely, relatively speaking, so I don't really have a lump of paint surrounding what was once a figure like a lot of first-time painters.

But no worries. Because I'd definitely fuck up the next one. 😅 That's for a new post.

[ilhamiman]

LMK: Confrontation (More like Haunting Azure) I listened to a song from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Broadway called "Confrontation" where Dr. Jekyll confront his alter ego. I can see Azure being in that situation but instead of confronting his evil self, he's being haunted by a harlequin demoness' magic who love to create one's nightmare to mess with their minds and Azure is no different, just a toy for her to play. I also done this before in Cuphead fandom where King Dice is being haunted by his evil self. Here. Inspired by this song, enjoy.

Reblog = Like

[the-twilight-sword]

Arlecchino, Penguins, and Angels

This theory has a bit of everything.

Naming Parallels

Perinheri- the in-game book confirmed to be related to Arlecchino's past by her 5th character story

Peruere- her birth name

Pers- Freminet's pet penguin's namesake, readable as the in-game book Tales of a Snow-winged Goose. This is based on Mother Goose from our world, which has a harlequin variant. This book also includes a story about a "Princess Marcotte" who is clearly meant to be Clervie.

Le Père- the French word for father

Hleobranto Innamorato & Blade Runner

Hleobranto Innamorato is the other name for the book Perinheri, and seems to be based on our world's Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso books. In volume two of Perinheri, we hear about Hleobrant and his unrequited love for Angelica, which parallels our Orlando books.

This is further corroborated by the local legend Fairy Knight Twins, Angelica and Medoro. In our Orlando, Medoro is the man Angelica ends up with. The achievement for defeating them is called "Tears in the Rain", a reference to the Blade Runner monologue that is repeated in Tales of a Snow-winged Goose with the line "from red giants to white dwarfs, from the shoulder of Orion to the glimmering Tannhauser Gate..."

The central theme of Blade Runner is the divide between the humans and the replicants, something paralleled in Perinheri and Tales of a Snow-winged Goose. In Perinheri, it says that the Crimson Moon dynasty existed before birds split into domestic and wild kindred, and Tales of a Snow-winged Goose says that seagulls split into two races; seagulls, which continue to fly; and auks, which would never take to the skies again. Clearly, the metaphor here is that humans have split into two races.

It wasn't until I watched this video that I began to understand what these parallels might mean for the overarching storyline. Crucially, the replicants are soldiers for an interstellar war designed so that humans don't have to fight.

Angels & Seelies

This is Arlecchino's boss form. Typically, she has just half a wing, but here, she has six. I most frequently see this design being likened to the appearance of a spider (which would match visually with the Black Widow), but I see this has the six wings of a seraph. In Judaism, seraphim are angels associated with fire, constantly burning; seraph means both "burning" and "serpent".

I don't think it's a stretch at this point to say that Seelies are angels. In fact, there are measures to prevent Seelies from falling in love (and having offspring) with humans- why would this be? Perhaps to avoid creating a Nephil, as might happen according the Book of Enoch (which Genshin takes inspiration from). The Earth is understood in Jubilees and Enoch to have been flooded, inp part, for the sins of the Nephilim, which included drinking blood.

Kaeya & the Blessing of the Crimson Moon

Arlecchino can use the blessing of the Crimson Moon's blood, probably due to her lineage. The same goes for Kaeya, who, like Arlecchino, isn't effected by the "curse of wilderness" which Chlothar says turns all but pure-blooded Khaenri'ahns into monsters.

If you read the lore for Arlecchino's weapon, the Crimson Moon Semblance, you will understand the connection. The drinking of wine symbolises receiving the blood, and the blessing, of the Crimson Moon. How does this connect to Kaeya? Recall his father's letter from Hidden Strife. The Alberich clan are connected to the concept of purifying flame, the same concept as purgatory.

The Wagner Section

For me, every great Genshin Impact theory needs a reference to the operas of Wagner. In this case, it's the "Tannhauser gate" line in the Blade Runner monologue, a possible reference to Tannhäuser, the opera. It follows a bard of sorts and his infatuation with Venus and her underground realm "Venusberg". The evening star in our world is in fact not a star at all, but the planet Venus, and is associated with the fallen angel Lucifer (the demon to which the Ars Goetia's Paimon is obedient to). Khaenri'ah, the underground nation with its star motif, seems to reference Venusberg.

[kstarlitchaotics]

Message from Mark after Conroy's passing; end of an era Mark Hamill will never voice Joker again without his Batman 🥺🦇

.....

From the page: History of The Batman on FB

Mark Hamill states that he won’t voice the Joker again after the passing of Kevin Conroy aka Batman.

In the upcoming March issue of Empire Magazine, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the DC Animated Universe film ‘Batman: Mask of the Phantasm’ and remember the late Batman veteran voice actor Kevin Conroy who passed away November 2022, Empire interviewed people who were part of creating the iconic DCAU film and series, such as Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker.

In the interview, Mark Hamill doesn’t believe he'll ever take up the Joker mantle again without Kevin Conroy there to trade lines with as the Dark Knight. Hamill says "They would call and say, 'They want you to do the Joker,' and my only question was, 'Is Kevin Batman?' If they said yes, I would say, 'I'm in.' We were like partners. We were like Laurel and Hardy. Without Kevin there, there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me."

Mark Hamill, beginning in 1992, voiced the Joker for the classic #DCAU in series such as ‘Batman: The Animated Series’, ‘The New Batman Adventures’, ‘Static Shock’, and ‘Justice League’. Writer Paul Dini knew Hamill was the perfect cast for the Harlequin of Hate, in particular with his crystalizing laughter, filled with all the bitter madness that shapes this 83 year old character. Outside of the DC Animated Universe, Hamill reprised his role as Joker in a few non-DCAU projects such as the video games ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ (2009), its sequel ‘Batman: Arkham City’ (2011) and the finale game ‘Batman: Arkham Knight’ (2015). Hamill returned as the Clown Prince in the 2016 animated film "Batman: The ‪Killing Joke‬", the animated tv shows "Justice League Action" (2016-2018) and “Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?” (2019), and the 2022 video game MultiVersus.

If Hamill is ending his three decades long contribution to voicing the iconic Batman villain, we thank him for creating this depiction of one of the most popular rogues in literature and for being a very important part of the Batman's 84 year long history.🃏😢💔

[queersouthasian]

Jack&Joker - U steal my heart!

One of the most popular Thai BL cps, Yinwar, are back with a heist themed BL after a long hiatus since Love mechanics.

*taps mic*

I refuse to spiral into insanity all by myself, so here is a thread of theories or rather poorly made assumptions regarding the characters and plot.

#1 Joker and Lupin

You know what Joker reminds me of, or rather who? Arséne Lupin.

Arséne Lupin AKA the 'Gentleman Burglar' is a French fictional book character,

There is a French live action drama on Netflix called 'Lupin' where a guy named Assane Diop, a long standing fan of the books, imitates Lupin to avenge his father's death.

Now, why am I mentioning Lupin out of nowhere? I remember binge watching the live action and wishing that one day we would have a BL with a similiar theme. The BL gods heard me lol. Joker, seems to be very similiar to Lupin/Assane. He is cocky, witty, bitchy, sassy and chaotically evil yet cares and loves beyond one may speculate.

And If Joker is our queer Lupin,

Tattoo is our Benjamin,

Benjamin used to replicate intricately made precious jewels/jwelery which helped Assane to rob the original and replace with the cloned item which looked indifferent to the human eye.

If that's that, if tattoo makes shit which gets used during heists, then maybe he was the one to create the gas which puts everyone to sleep. Literally anyone can argue that it could have been chloroform, something that's easy to access. BUT, considering the amount of 'chloroform' which flowed through the ventilators, people would have been dead. Atleast Anan. That shit results in muscle breakdown and can put people in coma.

And if we have the Assane, the benjamin, do we also have the Ganimard?

#2 Cards and Ganimard

Cards play an important role in the world of Joker, it's everywhere,

In his description

on the loan papers

It's his signature, of course.

But you know who else has a card related description?

Yes

Jack has what we call the "ace of spades"...

Now this is where this gets interesting,

If the joker is the 'harlequin' which symbolises chaos, unpredictability, wit and intelligence; who exactly what Joker is, The Lupin, then Jack is THE ace of spades, which symbolises intellectual power or spiritual growth BUT carry the reputation of being the 'Death Card' popularised during the Vietnam War. It's a die or domino with a single pip.

And If Jack is the 'ace', he can be the queer Ganimard,

This makes me think, either Jack will be the hindrance or guidance, maybe both.

It could be that, the only history Jack and Joker share is Jack getting conned by joker. IF joker did scam Jack on the 'superhuman project' which was assumbly his dream project yet Jack helps him, then he can be called inhumanely loyal and hopelessly in love.

"You are still kind and haven't changed"

And if Jack can cooperate with Joker so well (the whole fight scene against the guards), he would be the only one to know how Joker works or atleast have an idea. And If that's what it is, he would either directly join the heist by pretending to stop it and Joker, or he is actually going to do it 'cause, he is the "death card"

He is either with you, or against you.

The vibe till now seem very contrasting to Partners in Crime, while the later was more like a social commentry where two lovers rob the exploited, the rich. But this one is more like a cold witty thief who finds an extremely loyal admirer and falls for him BUT this could turn into a love story with betrayal. This show either is going to be chill, cool and quirky and little bit angsty OR extremely twisted and angsty. Let's see.

[popculturelib]

The Vivian Stephens Collection

Vivian Stephens entered the world of romance fiction in 1978 as an editor at Dell. She was given charge of the Candlelight line of romances, despite having no experience with romance fiction previously. A Black editor in a predominantly white industry, Stephens sought to incorporate the voices of women of color into the burgeoning romance industry. In 1980, Dell published the first category romance by a Black author with Black protagonists- Entwined Destinies by Rosalind Welles (the pseudonym of journalist Elsie Washington). Stephens also made sure that Dell’s Candlelight lines included romances by Indigenous, Latina, and Asian authors, creating almost single-handedly the category that trade publications called “Ethnic Romance”.

Stephens also played a key part in making romance novels steamier. Her Candlelight Ecstasy series for Dell pushed the boundaries being set by the two biggest romance publishers, Harlequin and Silhouette, by “going behind the bedroom door,” a taboo at the time.

One of the most important roles played by Vivian Stephens during her career in publishing was as the founder of the Romance Writers of America. A Houston-based group of authors looking to get their romance novels published approached Stephens for advice after the Southwest Writers Conference in 1979. She advised them to band together as the Romance Writers of America, convinced Dell to provide some financial backing, and convinced a group of other editors to attend the group’s first conference in the summer of 1981. Today the group has members from around the globe, and annually presents an award in Vivian Stephens’ name to a person from the publishing industry who has contributed significantly to the genre.

In the summer of 2018, the Romance Writers of America donated to the Browne Popular Culture Library a collection of books formerly used by Vivian Stephens during her days at both Dell and Harlequin. The collection includes books on women’s sexuality, editing and writing romance fiction, the publishing industry, as well as academic works on romance writing. A list of the books can be found in our catalog as The Vivian Stephens Collection.

We are thrilled to preserve this collection of books from a person as important to the history of romance fiction as Vivian Stephens. The books will serve as an important resource for scholars of the genre. We are grateful to both the Romance Writers of America and Vivian Stephens for this donation.

The Vivian Stephens acquisition was discussed on Fated Mates, a romance novel podcast with Sarah Maclean and Jen Prokop, in 2020 if you would like to learn more about this collection: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2020/7/6/s0245-vivian-stephens-acquisitions-with-librarian-steve-ammidown.

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States.  Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.

[bloodyvenomboy]

Ok Lets Do Some Character Intros

Kind of. Updated version I suppose. Just sort of a quick, here are the OCs, I might go more in depth with them in another post

Ok so, the first of the first, the facility trio

We have Ajara, Caleb, and Capri. They had met in a sort of scp facility where they were being tortured tested on as kids. Once the facility was destroyed they sort of became nomads. They are generally MC types

Then the Family Business duo

Kenna and Ron Harrison, a father and daughter who are for a lil murdersim I'm working on. They're both borderline sociopathic/psychopathic murderers that are successfully (for the moment) flying under the radar

Call Of The Void

Next is Frankie, Don, Addie, and Elliot . Donovan is an ex-catholic, unfortunate immortal and Frankie is his bartending bestie. Addie is Dons annoying tag along in the comic (and a AU of another character of mine -- Adryan), and Elliot, Donovans roommate and straight man to all his shenanigans. There are two different versions of Donovan and Frankie. The COTV versions and MC versions, both have variables that are seperate from the comic canon (IE Don is not effected by his repeated deaths, and Frankie not being a side character, and Addie and Elliot do not exist.)

Another comic I have in comic purgatory right now is Warm Gun

Got Trevor, 'Ulysses' and Lucius. Trevor is an extreme masochist possessed by Ulysses because Lucius fucked up summoning a demon. Accidentally summoned a succubus and did not have a tether set for her to control, so she went to the next living thing. His neighbor and stalker. She keeps Trevor alive while encouraging his harmful activities, in exchange she takes the wheel every now and then to 'feed'

Misc. Ones that are used solely for RP or I haven't decided what to do with quite yet

First is Arthur, a fleshy living BJD, created by a neurotic little biological inventor named Nellie (Eleanor). Arthur comes with interchangeable parts and is huge fucking neet. She is awkward and uncomfortable around others. Also because of the nature of her existence, without proper upkeep from Nellie she has bouts of...instability. Works as a MC and a murderbabe Next is Eericks. A dwarf harlequin rabbit shifter that never quite got the hang of turning completely human. Had run into some unfortunate folk running away from home and lost his legs and nearly lost his eye. Very energetic little guy, super kind, never swears. Next to Eericks is Lens. Or the Lensman Devil. A serial killer known for living photo and video evidence of the crimes he commits as a way to mock the family and friends of his victims. He does not like the killer title, he actually 'tries' to keep them around. He swears. Hes a cheeky little shit. And incredibly horrifying. Then theres Victoria. The picture here is old, shes be re-design currently. Shes loosely a vampire. Shes a mass fungal network that survives off of bodily fluids. She is only considered a 'she' because she developed her body over the first humans that took her in. Theres a whole thing, but again, different post. Cecile, or CC is a homunculus of his own making. Hes incredibly volatile and barely held together. So many chemicals and compounds have been pumped into his body his mind and body are barely held together. To the point where his bodily fluids are toxic, acidic, and are almost like an insane hallucinogenic Gabriel is a 'priest'. A bearded vulture shifter who feeds off the bones of the unfortunate people passing through. He preaches and worships Death. Hes a fanatic and actively delusional. Incredibly dangerous and should not be approached in any circumstances. Kodi is vampire and private detective. A workaholic married to his job. It gives him purpose since his unfortunate turning. A quiet, stone faced man who doesnt quite fit in with the rest of his inhuman kind. Respected in that quiet unattached way. Kind of want to write a whole like, noir story with him.

There are some more horror stories and characters but they are being completely overhauled at the moment so Im not putting them up here

Any questions about the characters is welcomed and encouraged

[eclipsecrowned]

🚩 // @everlived

We're getting down to my capital c Controversial opinions now. Y'all have driven me to this. And I am not sorry for what I'm about to say.

I see the resurgence of darkfic and romances as a sign we need to back off the moral puritanism, actually. If it's to the point that fandoms populated by teenagers are openly writing content that I don't think a kid their age should be aware of, then we as the standard-setters of fandom have failed.

Darkfic and romance is not endemic of some great moral failing or anti-SJ movement. Historically, it's a way to cope with sexuality in a way that does not court shame or judgment.

You know that bit about how all our grandmas had those bodice ripper Harlequins full of Dukes or Sheikhs with rippling abs who abduct our fair lady protagonist and prove Hull's hypothesis correct? You know how our grandmas also didn't have the right to divorce their husbands unless they wanted to be social pariahs? Same maxim here. When sexuality is demonized and narrowed to a very specific, thin margin of acceptability, dark content arises as 'have your cake and eat it too.'

Oh, the protagonist is having sex, but she's not a slut or anything, it's being foisted upon her by an older, more attractive man who will eventually make it right by falling in love with her. It's a way to approach sexuality and its exploration in a way that gets a pass from the moral guardians. At this point, fandom is the moral guardian over fic, and the more we push back against sexuality or say only certain kinds of relationships can be explored without some thirty year old ignoring her kids to post about anime online screaming that you're some kind of monstrous pervert, the more we drive people towards this.

And like obviously if a fic is harmful via misinformation, poor representation, being marketed at an inappropriate age group, or used to fetishmine, by all means call it out. But don't think that everyone who writes questionable content is some kind of monster because you defined everyone who writes anything past a 13k slowburn coffee shop AU as such. You created this beast. Starve it out. Let people be weirdos on the internet in healthy ways and I promise this will taper off.

And even if it doesn't, block and move the fuck on.

[welshoot]

Harbinger Names and Commedia Dell'arte Analysis

The names for the various Fatui Harbingers stem from an early form of professional theater originating in Italy known as the commedia dell’arte. The commedia dell’arte made use of various stock characters that were given names. These stock characters are where the Fatui Harbingers get their names from. What’s interesting is seeing how these stock characters interact with each other and how they might give us indicators as to the character and story of the Harbingers. I’ll analyze the Harbingers in the known order and save the question mark order Harbingers for the last. The analysis is under the cut and (fair warning) it's pretty long.

Starting with rank 1, we have Pierro, code-name The Jester. His name, Pierro, comes from the French stock character Pierrot, which is actually a rather interesting character for the play. Pierrot is a sad clown who pines for another stock character, Columbina. The Pierrot typically ends up heartbroken since the Columbina character often ends up with the Harlequin (Arlecchino) character. The Pierrot is related to a different, Italian, stock character called the Pedrolino. Pedrolino is not a sad character but rather a character who works to move the plot along. He might do this by helping or hindering the lovers (the Innamorati) who are the main characters of the play. The Pedrolino is also more cunning than the Pierrot and works as a sort of engine for the story. The Pedrolino also frequently has the La Signora character as a lover. Interestingly, both the Pierrot and the Pedrolino stand out from other stock characters as not being masked. Judging from this, Pierro is probably incredibly important to the Harbinger subplot or the Tsaristas' plans. 

Rank 2, the infamous Il Dottore, code-named The Doctor. The stock character Il Dottore, is typically an obstacle to the lovers (Innamorati) and thus an antagonist. He is usually self-loving and greedy as well as an older man. Interestingly, the stock character of Il Dottore emerged as a foil to the stock character Pantalone. Il Dottore may be rich, but that typically depends on the needs of the plot. Nonetheless, he is usually an educated individual of some sort, such as a doctor. Il Dottore is meant to playfully parody the educated elite. He is often fond of girls, but dishonest and typically gets caught cheating frequently. In some cases the Il Dottore may be father to one of the lovers, usually the female, or the Columbina in some cases. Based on this I imagine Genshin’s Il Dottore will be connected to Pantalone in some sort of way, though how this may work remains unseen. 

Rank 3, Columbina, code-name Damslette. The Columbina is actually a very important female servant stock character. She is sometimes the lover of the Harlequin(Arlecchino) character and wife/unrequited love to the Pierrot character. She might also be hounded by the Pantalone character. She is also more down to earth and sensible than other characters and, unlike other stock characters, may have several masks to confuse the Harlequin. The Columbina character’s main purpose is to aid her lady, the female lover, in gaining the affections of the male lover. It will be interesting to see how this Genshin character works out since her commedia dell’arte counterpart is the one sensible character of the play. She will possibly have a connection to Pierro (as the Pierrot/Pedrolino) and Arlecchino.

Rank 5, Pulcinella, code-name The Rooster. The Pulcinella character’s role changes depending on what part of the social class he is in, but either way he is an opportunistic old man. Though his main motivation is self-preservation he often ends up saving other characters which creates some interest for this character. Judging from Childe’s lines regarding the Genshin Pulcinella he lives up to taking care of others. 

Rank 6, Scaramouche, code-name The Balladeer. The Scaramouche (or Scaramucchi) is an interesting stock character. He is always rather villainous and is often beaten by the Harlequin (Arlecchino) character due to his boasting and cowardice. Interestingly, He also sometimes influences the audience to do his bidding. Even though the Scaramouche character’s plotting and affinity for intrigue often gets him into trouble, he usually escapes scot-free and the blame ends up placed on someone else. An in-game example of this could be Scaramouche getting the gnosis from Inazuma and getting away scot-free while La Signora ended up dying. It’s also interesting that Genshin’s Scaramouche reflects the commedia dell'arte stock character’s ability to influence the audience when he tricks the traveler into a dangerous situation by manipulating their rage at their (and Teppei’s) situation. The only curiosity here is if he will lose to Arlecchino in some way.

Rank 8, La Signora, code-name The Fair Lady. The La Signora stock character occupies a very specific role. She may be a courtesan, but is typically the wife of the Pantalone character and lover of the Pedrolino character. She is characterized as tough, calculating, and beautiful though she is frequently overdressed. She often ridicules others which typically leads to her getting in a fight with another female character much like how Genshin’s La Signora ended up fighting Raiden Shogun. The La Signora is more of a sexual character than the Columbina and often has an immediate attraction for the Il Capitano character due to him being a sort of male counterpart of her character.

Rank 9, Pantalone, code-name Regrator. The Pantalone character is actually quite important. He is the money of the play and is typically at the top of the social order. He typically has high regard for intelligence, but becomes the butt of quite a few jokes. That said he can, sometimes, be quite cunning. He is often the father of one of the lovers(Innamorati) and is, for plot reasons, driven to keep the lovers apart. If he is a single widower he hounds most every female character present, if he is married it is probably to the La Signora character. If there is an Il Dottore character present, the two often form a sort of duo. Perhaps as the parents of the lovers or just as the older males of the play. It will be interesting to learn if Genshin’s Pantalone had any relation to their La Signora.

Rank 11, Tartaglia, code-named Childe. The Tartaglia character is often rather dainty and has a stutter. He is a fairly common character and may even make up one part of the lovers. The Tartaglia character often represents the lower social class but sometimes comes from the middle or even upper social class. Genshin’s Childe may be portrayed as more sympathetic than the other Harbingers as a way of mirroring that the Tartaglia character isn’t necessarily bad and may even be one the lead characters as one of the lovers.

Rank ?, Il Capitano, code-named The Captain. Another very common stock character, the Il Capitano is a braggart who claims greatness because no one actually knows who he is, as he is typically a foreigner. The Il Capitano character is typically a coward who will run away from a fight and has trouble talking to and being around other men. The Il Capitano character may be hired by the Pantalone character to guard his daughter (the female part of the lovers). This often results in the Il Capitano character setting up a bidding war for his services between the suitor(s) and the Pantalone character while he goes about wooing the daughter himself. His primary purpose in the plot is to be ‘de-masked’ or stripped of all his confidence and shown in a moment of panic and humility. As such I imagine this character will likely be defeated or brought down in an incredibly brutal manner that may feature quite a bit of humiliation. However, Genshin’s Il Capitano may also be the opposite of what is seen in the commedia dell’arte since Childe’s voice line regarding Il Capitano implies he is very powerful. He may also end up working with (or for) Pantalone which could be interesting.

Rank ?, Sandrone, code-name Marionette. An interesting traditional character. The Sandrone is actually a male peasant who has a wife and child. These characters were originally presented as puppets. The Sandrone character himself is crude, clever, and cunning. He typically makes witty remarks through the play about city life or criticisms regarding officials. Sandrone’s accompanying creature/robot may be a tie-in to the fact that the commedia dell’arte Sandrone was part of a family and was once played by puppets.

Rank ?, Arlecchino, code-name the Knave. The Arlecchino, better known as the Harlequin, is probably the best known of all of these stock characters. The Arlecchino character is a light-hearted, nimbler servant who thwarts the plans of his master and pursues the Columbina. He often competes with the Pierrot character. The Arlecchino character is a sort of trickster and may even be a romantic hero. It will be interesting to see several things about Genshin’s Arlecchino. Will they be connected to Columbina? Will they compete with Pierro? And are they going to thwart their master (Tsaritsa)?

The only primary stock characters not portrayed in the Harbinger group are the Innamorati, or the lovers, who typically fill the lead roles. Everything about the play revolves around the lovers which makes it seem almost like in Genshin Impact the players would fill this role since the plot of the game revolves around the Traveler. The only problem here is that the player can only fill one part of the role leaving the other side empty. Admittedly, since the Tartaglia character does sometimes sub as the male lover it could be argued that only one lover is needed, but this is only if Childe is filling that role and he may not be. Another option is that two NPCs may appear in Snezhnaya and fulfill these roles, or that the Tsaritsa will fill one role and there will be someone else to be her counterpart. However, the Innamorati are often aware of the audience's presence which does complicate matters. This again points toward the Traveler, but does not seal the deal. Either way, it will be interesting to see how the Genshin Impact writers make use of the potential connections between the Harbingers and the commedia dell’arte stock characters.

Edit: The other lover could also be Dainsleif or the Traveler's sibling. Dainsleif is of particular interest since, based on the fact he looks at the camera rather than the Traveler's character model, he seems to be aware of the audience (the players).

[rock-swag-tournament]

Preliminary Poll - Opal Varieties

More information under the cut!

Opal! Opal is technically NOT a mineral because it lacks one of the defining traits of minerals - a specific, ordered internal structure. Opal is amorphous, so the atoms are arranged randomly, they don't have a pattern to them that would make opal a mineral!

Chemically, opal is hydrous silica. Something fun about the preliminary polls is that aside from tourmaline and jade, all the other minerals included are essentially variations of quartz, which is really just silica. The chemical formula for quartz is SiO2 and the chemical formula for opal is SiO2 with H2O.

Opals in general are known for their iridescence (the shiny colors that change when you rotate an opal in your hand). This iridescence happens BECAUSE opal is not a mineral; the random internal structure makes it so that light reflects in all kinds of crazy ways.

About the listed opals themselves, Australian opals are the most common, because most opal comes from Australia. Australian opal is probably what most people think of when they think of opal: shiny, with bright pastel colors.

Ethiopian opals, meanwhile, tend to have more fiery colors (think fire opals) and are also hydrophane which means they absorb water.

Harlequin opals are opals where the iridescence looks like geometric shapes. Unfortunatly, I don't know what is happening on the microscopic level that creates these rhombohedral shapes in harlequin opals. Most of the information I'm sharing in these posts is stuff I already know from the classes I had to take in undergrad, or introductory-level facts that I've been able to summarize from Wikipedia pages or Mindat.org pages. That being said, I'm always willing to learn from people who know more than me or to do more of my own research if people have questions and aren't sure where to start looking (hint: Wiki and mindat are great places to START your research, regardless of what high-and-mighty teachers might say).

Lastly, opalized fossils are fossils where the organic material from a previously living organism is replaced by silica (in this case, specifically opal). Most often, fossils form when minerals of some kind (silica, carbonates, pyrite, etc) fill in the empty spaces of a dead organism, like the inside of a snail or bivalve shell. The opalization of fossils is only one way this process, called permineralization, can occur, but it sure is pretty!

[laurel-dreams]

hello you haven't talked about your own superhero story in awhile and I wanted to more about the order like their goals maybe some Powers or ideas behind them

Yeah It has been a while huh? Mostly I've been super busy IRL so that's why I haven't talked much about anything lateley. Alright, allow me to tell you some stuff about The Order! Ideas behind them: An Idea I knew I wanted to implement with The Order was the senses. Each order member is related to one of the main senses. Cordyceps is sight. shroom(neo pronoun of chice) can use parasitic mushrooms to watch anything that happens in the city, like a red of camaras of sorts. Since said mushrooms are parasitic shroom can also see throught the eyes of whoever is being infected. Think about how real mooshrooms have mycorrhizal networks. Harlequin would be hearing. By Shapeshifting into his hero persona it's not hard for her to catch up on the news and plans the heroes have, this plus his knowledge of pretty much any important underground movement on their villain network makes her a very useful aset to The Order. DoubleH is touch. This is pretty self explainatory, his healing powers work by making phisical contact with the wound, so yeah. He is the medic on the villains team. He wasn't to keen on joining at first since he wanted to help people, but he eventually realized that, while heroes, had a heck ton of medical assistance, no one was there to help the villains were they to get hurt. "Medical assistance is a basic human right, regardless of your ideology" so he stuck it up and switched from vigilantism to villany. Aroma is the sense of smell, with her power she can generate different smells that alter someones perception or mood. THis power, which technically sounds quite weak, is actually secretly very OP, since she can cover the groups tracks easily and oh, IDK create such a disgusting smell that it makes you sick and forces you to puke pretty much instantly. Glass Shard is our delicios sense of taste. By ingesting someones DNA he is capable of ussing that persons powers for a limited ammount of time. Technically any type of DNa would work, but he has his preference in blood and flesh since it's more available and easy to eat than hair, for example. Don't let this fool you he is perfectly capable of putting on a fight without using someone else's power. Father with his telepathic and psychic abilities would be the so called "Sixth sense" and as the leader of the organization I think it fits quite well for him to be this misterious element.

But wait, what about Neutro? Neutro is a bit of an odd case. Since he works on the shadows and is never actaully on the field, (Plus his existance is compleatly unknown to the public) he doesn't have a representative sense that describes him, but well thats to be expected, he doesn't have any enhancement either. In regards to their objective? You will have to wait for that, but if you have some theories, reading then will certenly be entertaingin for me

[ufonaut]

Is Harley Quinn the legacy character of Harlequin?

only on a technicality! i don't think timm & dini were necessarily aware of the golden age harlequin when creating harley (and she was initially intended as a small time henchgirl for the joker before she took a life of her own anyway) but in current continuity i definitely don't think it's necessarily wrong to see a connection between gotham's original harlequin and its current one.

harley isn't even the first harlequin related to joker, however tangentially. that honour goes to duela dent, the so-called joker's daughter, who became the second harlequin during her brief stint with the titans.

there's also been marcie cooper (who todd rice briefly dated and who's actually the most visually similar to harley imo) and the harlequin briefly appearing in alan's glcq stories, although i'd argue that's still a manifestation of molly mayne.

harley's absolutely living up to molly's legacy of being a weird obsessive stalker though so, yknow, why not. i say she's a legacy character!

[strykingback]

Fuck it! Lets Make a RWBY Character!

Underneath a Readmore due to length.

Alright I just have this sneaking suspicion that some RWBY stans might be telling me that if I hate RWBY try making a RWBY series myself... which does make a lot of sense... except theres one teensy problem.

ITS SO FUCKING EASY

Now for example, most the characters in RWBY are either based around actual fairytales such as Ruby being Red Riding Hood, Adam being the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, and Cinder being Cinderella.

Historical or Mythological like Pyrrha, Salem, and Djinn.

Or just simply using a RANDOM color and then finding something that would fit their last name.

Now.. for me I prefer creating characters from Mythology or History. So today I want to create a character from the annals of history itself. Now comes maybe the medium to difficult part.

In what point in time are they from in RWBY

The Ancient past of Remnant? The Present Time? Or the Future?

Now this part can be easy if you just simply choose the Present but if you're choosing the Past then expect some difficulty as the levels there are basically with error. Such as: How would they be able to get to the present? We're they made immortal by the God of Light and Darkness at one point.

Now there are some workarounds to this (Once again RT does not want to expand their lore sometimes.)

Usually the good ol': They were made Immortal Sealed Away by some mages to rest or Cryogenically Frozen and even Sent Forward Through Time.

If you are aiming for the future you might as well be careful as this can be a bit tricky and usually the big question is this

Are they a child from the main cast? If so what is their relation to them? So enough of me rambling about that. So I want to create a character during the Present Time! Now how do I go about this and its usually the namimg part that is the hardest. So now its time to start researching!.

For example, I want a character that manages to perform some amazing tricks of magic.(Even though they are in no means a Mage!)

Simply do one thing look up: Great Magicians Throughout History, etc.

Now I usually want to tell people this one thing to be VERY careful especially looking up famous individuals, because while the name could fit with the character you are looking for, you need to think about how that person was throughout history. Such as Coco Chanel....which CRWBY failed to do their RESEARCH ON the dumbasses.

Plus it does NOT hurt to look through their history and come to a conclusion if it would fit your character well enough. So I have decided that our magicians character will be called.

Harlequin Houdini.

Since Harlequin is a brighter variant of a Green Tint and the Houdini part comes from the famed magician Harry Houdini.

Now comes the bio. Now this part can be a Very most tricky part since you wnat to be original, but sometimes originality can be born from tropes as well. Now dont get TOO tropey with it cause one or two tropes don't hurt at all.

So lets say Harlequin Houdini was born in the lands of Vale as part of a circus family that travels around the four great kingdoms of Remnant. However, little did he know that he had a great affinity for the magical being able to use his semblance "Showman" which he can put on a pompous act for his foes to focus on him as a means of distraction while his hat can act as a hammerspace for allied weapons to stick through to claim a shot

Yet, his Circus was beginning to run out of money and to save his beloved circus family, he would travel to Signal to study and then joining the ranks of Beacon Academy and passing the entrance exam with flying colors. thus he would gain his Hunters License and wuickly rose through the ranks of the Hunters gaining the title of: "The Greatest Showman on Remnant."

As for his semblance I think I explained how it works in the bio. But to further detail it. Show man allows our magical master to open hammerspace portals from our heroe to put their weapon through in order to get a quick shot, or throughout the fight Harlequin would use his semblance for his opponents to knock themselves out.

Lastly weapons.....

Simple he's a magician.

Top Hat and Wand. Thats it.

Well thats that for this.. and well I'm getting tired as of writing this its 3:42 and I gotta hit the hay. See you around.

Bonus Note- Will do revisions on this!

[jdeowrites]

On being an author in a tumultuous Trad Pub landscape

This is very much a... me talking to myself post, not a news post. Skip if talking about publishing is not your interest. :)

If you’re in on publishing discourse, then you know some of the biggest news of the week has been layoffs in the industry. Perhaps the most shocking was the abrupt closure of HarperCollins’ Inkyard Press, which was communicated to authors and agents through a mass email (Inkyard, if you don't know, is a YA imprint, which used to be called Harlequin Teen.). Some of those authors had gotten their edit letters or had marketing meetings with their publishing teams just the day before. The especially terrible part being, of course, that all those Inkyard employees were also let go. And it was a surprise to them too (yikes).

(Here is a Goodreads list of a bunch of Inkyard authors you can help support!)

It sucks for so many reasons—for all those authors and employees—and while I’m just an observer to this, not having any titles with HC myself, a lot of people I know were affected. And for myself? It did make me reflect on my priorities as an author in this industry. We have truly no control over what could happen on the publishing side of things. There is stuff going on at a corporate level that is… way unrelated to the work I am doing. That has nothing to do with art and everything to do with capitalism and shareholders and higher-ups making their business decisions in NYC offices. 

For myself, over the past few years, one of my major struggles has been figuring out what books I am going to write, when I have felt the pressure to write certain things or to change my works in certain ways, to create things which are more “marketable”. I have nearly bent to these expectations many times, before realizing how unhappy I was and leaving it to go work on something I was actually passionate about. This has delayed my career but I knew it was the right decision for me. And yeah, this Inkyard news really just cemented that for me: there is no point in trying to please anybody except myself with my stories. Because the institutions I’m trying to please don’t actually care at the end of the day.

Even if you and your work do manage to get past acquisitions, that’s not the end of it. Anything could still happen. Your editor who was so enthusiastic about you might leave, and/or your imprint could close like Inkyard did. Or maybe other things happen that majorly affect you, like, your marketing/publicity budget might suck. Your book might tank. It might be received badly. The marketing trends could change and suddenly your book is Out of Fashion before it’s even printed. Or things could go bottoms up at your publisher—for whatever reason, things happen—and your book never even gets printed at all.

And here’s the thing: even if you write books that are easier sells, those risks still exist. There are no guarantees. Which is why, each time I feel the pressure to bend my stories into something else, I try to remember that. If I lost it all, would I regret not just writing the book the way I wanted to in the first place? 

I find posing that question offers a significant amount of clarity. 

And that’s the key, I think: figuring out where that line is for yourself, between the freedom you want for your art, and the realities of the industry we have entered. Trad pub is a business and you have to play the game to whatever extent you can stomach. You don't know whether that will pay off or not. Some people have to write to market since writing is their main job, so they're constantly playing this game, and that's totally okay too. But if you're more like me, that's not the case. If you're like me, you're thinking, okay, so publishing is fickle, trends are unpredictable, and I don’t control any of it. That is either horrifying or... incredibly freeing.

For me it means this: write the books you want to write. Don’t compromise on the stories of your heart. It’s you who has to go to sleep every night for the rest of your life knowing you wrote it. It’s your name on the cover. It’s your life’s work. Your legacy.

Make it matter. Publishing industry or not.

[metamelonisle]

who is maschera

Maschera is one of my characters! He's part of a media universe I created known as Inkverse, and he's one of the guys who helps run the show!

Originally a man named Fortunato, Venezia's greatest gentleman thief, he would die tragically because of an error in fate, and as consolation, the god of his universe, a capricious but well-meaning adolescent deity called Inkblot, resurrected him as an angelic being, albeit without the flesh of his living body or his memories, as he did not die naturally.

As one of the four attendants of Inkblot, Maschera has three other colleagues. Two, Harlequin and Mercutio, are also humans-turned angels. The third, the crow, is the personification of Death, and tends to take the form of a crow or crows.

As time goes on, Maschera and Harlequin journey to recover their lost memories and bodies, eventually coming to learn that the two were lovers in life, and Mercutio was their mutual best friend, who didn't tell them ANYTHING despite having had his own memories and body to begin with because hes a got damn jackass (affectionate) who wanted them to figure it out together without him simply revealing the truth to them outright.

Along the road to regaining their memories, Maschera and Harlequin find their physical bodies restored from the mere masked winged skeletons they initially were, and later learn the full truth. I typically like to write Maschera during the period of time between having his body restored and his memories restored, as it allows me a lot of freedom with what I can do with him. Here's a design of what he looks like with his physical body restored!

His associated card is the King of Diamonds. He's largely a cynical-yet-kindhearted man with a soft spot for children (he was a father while alive), and a fondness for adventure, fancy clothes, and good food and drink. He's also transsexual and very proud of it! He and Harlequin are t4t : >

Out of perhaps all my characters, Maschera is the most well-known, and the most beloved. He is also the oldest of all my characters, and the first character ever designed for Inkverse, created in the winter of 2018!