#doing your best with your limited knowledge goes right along the themes of the story so... lol

[origami-fleur]

Pointy Hat Δ

A little fanart(fanorigami?) for the manga Witch Hat Atelier ♥

[illdothehotvoice]

Hey uuuh do y’all want all the riddle solutions (as of 4/17) for the pokemon masters event? No. Anyways- (under the read more ^^)

1) Blue and sparkly! Solution: You need to get 10 Evolution Crystals in your inventory. (And because every tutorial on how to get them is from 2019 and outdated: You can get these from the daily scout (not your best bet) or by battling Ramos (limit of 3 battles a day). You can find Ramos’ battle in the Training Area under Evolution Material Area. It’s the second boss and under Hard. Idk if you have to unlock it or not but yknow.)

2) Mingling is a must! Solution: Have 30 pokemon center conversations with your sync pairs. They don’t need to be different characters to my knowledge i literally got this unknowingly by obsessively talking to Ingo so dsghjkdfh-

3) Rock-solid role model! Solution: Use Brock in in a Riddle Mission Battle.

4) Nature’s Beauty! Solution: Bring a sync pair that falls under the “Nature Lover” filter to a Riddle Mission Battle. To do this tap one of your sync pairs before the battle to switch them out. Hit Filter -> Theme Skills -> Other -> Nature Lover then close the menu. You don’t have to use any of their moves just bringing them along is enough so don’t worry about leveling them up if you have a sync pair way over leveled that can one shot K.O the opponents pokemon. (Thank you Ingo for carrying my entire team 😌)

5) Strategic Genius! Solution: Bring 3 Tech sync pairs to a Riddle Mission Battle. You can find them under the Role filter when filtering your Sync Pairs. These sync pairs also have little exclamation points next to them instead of a fist (strike) or heart (support).

6) Solve Riddles 1-5.

7) It’s all about cooperation! Solution: Complete 3 Co-op battles. (to unlock co-op you must first complete Interlude 1 of the Main Story/PML Arc. (this is after Chapter 10. You’re going to have to go through a decently long turotial on how to play Co-op and then sit through 3 battles so make sure you have time to sit down and do this one since it takes a bit. If you’re in the middle of it PLEASE keep riddle 8 in mind it’ll make your life so much easier.)

8) It’s all about communication! Solution: Use 10 emotes in Co-op battles. Just spam those babies it’ll be over with quick (and don’t feel bad about annoying people chances are you’re gonna get stuck with NPCs anyways)

9) A spark of inspiration! Solution: Use Electric Type moves 3 times in a Riddle Mission Battle.

10) Fancy forks! Solution: Bring 2 sync pairs that fall under the filter Fancy Lady to a Riddle Mission Battle. Just like with Nature Lover you’re going to go into the filter and hit Filter -> Theme Skills -> Other -> Fancy Lady. I HEAVILY suggest bringing along an extremely over leveled sync pair to one shot k.o the other pokemon since you’re probably gonna end up with 2 sync pairs you don’t use much (Again I brought Ingo along who’s Level 87 and the recommended Level is 10 so.) 

11) I need some healin’ . . . Solution: Bring along 3 sync pairs that can heal their teammates. I believe all Support sync pairs can do this but don’t take my work on it. You can quickly check a Sync Pair’s moves before battle by holding down on them. Then you can tap their moves and see what they do qwq.

12) Complete riddles 6-11

13) I’ve always rooted for Rosa... Solution: Change your favorite sync pair. To do this go to the Pokemon Center -> Tap your Poryphone in the bottom right corner -> tap the (+) on your profile -> Then hit “Edit” under “Favorite Sync Pair”. You can change this back after and don’t even need to change the character you just need the sync pair to be different (For Example: I changed mine from Ingo. . . to Ingo but he has a monocle on.)

[If I remember to I’ll be sure to update this as the event goes on because ha ha um (using the riddles to farm for gems for Emmet) but if I forget This Channel should have them all up (probably even before I do) and was a big resource for when I was going through them yesterday qwq. (Just thought it’d be nice to have all the solutions on one page since i haven’t seen them all typed out yet).]

[hawkland]

(Mostly) Destiel Fic Recs #5

This is a LONG recs post because it’s been a while since I did an update and I fell hard into reading one author’s work (DeanRH). In fact I could easily do a rec post just of their fics alone, but for this round I’m just going to pick out a handful of my absolute favorites so far, the ones I’d recommend to start out with, along with more other authors’ works I’ve especially enjoyed lately.

Absolution at the Five-and-Dime by DeanRH (125k)  - this is perhaps THEE DeanRH fic to start with if you want a good, long read with a little bit of everything (Roadtrips! Intriguing casefic! Americana! Tasty Dean/Cas pining! Wing!kink and unique angel lore! Kinky soul fisting and tentacles!) It’s kind of two of parallel stories in one: the first, a flashback to Dean and Sam's first year hunting on their own (as well as trying to avoid hunting, and John in general); the second on how Dean and Cas finally get together during an unusual case and when Dean is able to really let go of his past trauma and accept himself/accept love from Cas. 

What I love about DeanRH’s work is that they write from the unique point of view of a drifter, so they understand living on the road, traveling place to place, and the highs and lows of that life like no others I’ve encountered in SPN before. (The author’s notes are often as much fun to read as the stories themselves). They also write a kickass angel!Cas and never lose sight of his non-human traits and background. Their writing style is unique - almost poetic in nature, and I know some readers have found it difficult to get into. But it works really well for me in their SPN fic...gives it the flavor of oral story telling as might actually happen at a drifter’s camp (with one story written exactly as such). Be warned this particular fic does play up the idea of John Winchester being mentally abusive and Dean having to turn tricks when he was younger in order to support him and Sam, so there is some dark stuff. But as someone who grew up with mentally abusive parent, reading this was extremely cathartic to me and believably written (unlike some stories that go too over the top with abusive John, or just don't understand how that kind of abuse leaves lifetime psychological scars.)

The rest of this round’s recs below the cut.

Carnevale by DeanRH (18k) - Actually the first fic by this author I read, because I just couldn’t resist a story set in my favorite place in the world, Venice, Italy. Castiel is the Angel of Venice, banished there for so long he does not even know or remember the reasons why. But Carnevale season is the one time a year he can let his wings out - figuratively and literally. And during this particular Carnevale season, he meets an intriguing masked young American tourist there with his brother and their one night stand turns into something far more powerful than either expected. This one’s hot, romantic, and achingly sad at the end as it all ties together unexpectedly with canon-verse...though with a hint for the future so it’s definitely not totally sad. I loved how DeanRH clearly understands Venice as a fellow lover of the city, the side of it most tourists never see unless they spend a long time there. This story made me cry just from wanting to be back in Venice again.

Ice cream was sweeter, food more satisfying, everything was an epicurean delight. There was just something magical about Venice, and he had lived here in the city for hundreds of years, so the shine should have worn off by now.

But it didn't, and there was always something more, something wonderful to discover around the next corner. The painted eaves of a church. The beauty of two women dancing with flowers in their teeth across the Piazza San Marco one day, overcome by the sheer joy of just being there. The way the university students still created Venetian masks, like Castiel's extravagant volto mask and Dean's humble servetta muta, with crafts that had been handed down across the generations. The morning silence that lay against the stones.

Hard Landing by DeanRH (26.9k) - A bit similar in theme to Carnevale. A pre-series Dean and Sam are sight-seeing in Spain when an angel, struck by a babel-spell, crash lands right in front of Dean. A strange yet seriously hot encounter with the angel turns into something much more complicated when the brothers return home and realize something more serious is afoot and they are both trapped in the middle of it. This is another story where things are very much not as they seem at first (as fun as that is!) It features master strategist Cas at his best, with a side helping of delightful trickery care of Gabriel and Balthazar as they deal with Lucifer, Michael...and a few others along the way.

The Sacred Band of Thebes by DeanRH (14.5k) - The last DeanRH fic I’m gonna allow myself to include in this round up, because it’s just very soft and sweet and beautiful - for a story about Dean & Cas being magically transported back in time to ancient Sparta! This is another story infused with a great knowledge of place and history, with some wonderfully delightful original characters added in that make it all the more enjoyable to read.

And now on to some other authors, I promise!

IPAMIS OL OLPRIT by emmbrancsxx0 (56k). A really wonderful fic that take a different look at what might have happened with a temporarily resurrected John Winchester during Season 14. Dean & Cas are in an established relationship here, and John here isn’t too happy about it — though mostly because he sees Cas (and Jack) as monsters, the kind of monsters he spent his lifetime hunting. This is a great fic for the emotional complexity of how John, Dean and Cas are all handled. John isn’t a cardboard evil dad, Dean is struggling between his loyalty to his father and to Cas, and Cas is increasingly bitchy/frustrated at Dean still being so desperate for his father’s approval (and all the more complex for not just being a quietly suffering perfect supporting boyfriend.) There’s some great action sequences in this too along with the emotional angst and a delicious dose of hurt!Cas if that’s your thing (as it is for me :D)

Abrenuntio by Neonbat (51k). A very dark but compelling AU take on the/a apocalypse universe. Dean, Sam and John are all alive in this post-angel war-apocalyptic world. They are part of a group of human survivors fighting against the angel army when they manage to capture “Blue” — a particularly feared angel of death. Dean is tasked with bringing Blue in for interrogation and he becomes a prisoner in their camp after John is killed. As mentioned, this is a pretty dark/sad fic (with some rather gruesome torture scenes) but I still found it quite compelling as a look at how things could have gone in some other parallel universe. And somehow the author manages to make the Dean/Cas relationship come together despite them starting out as complete enemies. This is one of those AUs that works for me because the core of the characters really shine through despite the differences in the setting.

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow by spocklee (37k) - a gorgeous post-Empty rescue fic that takes an approach I haven’t really seen explored in detail before (despite being something I’ve actually thought about as something that could’ve happened.) What if Cas has spent so long denying himself happiness, and then trapped in regrets and false-rescue scenarios created by the Empty, that he can’t trust that his rescue is real? And so he runs off to be on his own - literally stealing the Impala because he can’t handle being in Dean’s presence one moment longer - and only slowly comes to terms with the idea that it’s over now and he can be happy with/around his friends and family. This one’s both deliciously angsty and at times funny/sweet, looking at Cas’s relationships not just with Dean but with Sam, Jack, Claire, even Eileen. It does some fun stuff with other returned angels and demons who now find themselves back on Earth (and human), and...I just really enjoyed this one a lot.

Both Saved and Lost by angelfishofthelord (13.7k) Gen Cas character study, absolutely gorgeous and sad and one of those fic I couldn’t stop thinking about the day after reading it. AU where Apocaverse!Cas isn’t immediately killed by our Cas during 13x22 but instead hitches a ride back to the main ‘verse. Dean and Sam want to keep him alive for information on Michael; Cas is torn and trying to figure out just how similar—or different—they really are. Some great angel stuff here (I also highly recommend this author’s Jack & Cas “dadstiel” fics, they’re equally lovely and heartbreaking at the same time.)

flesh of the mighty by Mudprophet (2.7k) - THEE “What exactly did Dean eat in Purgatory, anyway?” fic you’ve probably already heard about. *cough* I’ve been trying to work up the courage to read this one for a while and finally gave in and OH MY CHUCK I’m so glad I did. It’s perversely disturbing and beautiful at the same time, Cas is wonderfully DERANGED and ALIEN in that way that I love it when fics managed to convey just how much angels are NOT human. Do heed the tags.

Full of Grace by ilovehowyouletmefall (11k) - Another one for the weird-as-fuck-angel!Cas lovers’ list. Heaven/canon-compliant fic where Dean knows he should feel happy and at peace but he just...isn’t, even with Cas and all of his friends and family there. He finally goes looking for Cas when he’s been absent for a time and, for the first time, gets to not just see but experience his true form. Another one that hits some kinks I knew I had and others I didn’t...until now. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

don't ask me where i've been by saltwound / @1x06 (8k) - I can never resist a good 09x06 fiction gap fic! What makes this one really stand out is how well it captures Cas’s internal voice - his struggles adapting to human senses, limitations and emotions versus what/how he experienced things as an angel. The longing and feelings between Dean & Cas here are so achingly beautiful and I just wanted to cry when Cas says he misses hearing Dean’s prayers, so Dean, he...oh, I’m not going to spoil it. *happy sigh* Just read it.

this room is wrong by DarkHeartInTheSky (12k) - Sometimes I like torturing myself with some good 15x03 divorce arc angst and this fic hit that button just so. It’s an alternative take on where Cas might have ended up after leaving the bunker and features some great Cas & Sam friendship feels, when Sam sets out to try to bring Cas home. It’s all the stuff you’d wish the writers would’ve let them talk out in canon.

Well that’s more than enough for this round! Go forth, read and give some great writers some kudos & comment love!

[monkey-network]

Why EVE is The Best

Heads up. I’m basically gonna sperg about this whole film, so spoilers for this twelve year old film. Enjoy!

Wall-E is one of my favorite films; I would gladly kill and extort to bring the sequel I had in mind to life in any way; animatics would pleased me if nothing else but anyways. I love this film and one of the biggest reasons for that is the character EVE, a character that stuck in my mind longer than most if you can believe. So, better time than any, Imma just ramble about why I love this character. And, before we begin, I’m gonna say EVE is a girl, Wall-E is a boy due to my brain believing they were respectively female- and male-coded for most of my life but do NOT let this stop you from envisioning them however you please. If they’re both girls or boys to you, all power to you. With that said, here we go...

The Design

Now I’m not saying she has the greatest robot design ever; I don’t look at eggs and remember better days when I got to watch that film for the first time in my old house. But Pixar certainly knew how to make simplicity work to perfection. Simple shape, simple mechanics, simple movements. All feeling right at home with her coming from the more advanced future, especially compared to Wall-E where he’s literally a more grounded looking robot. Thematically, this design is fucking genius. A scouter robot with the ability to fly with ease and yet carries a literal arm cannon with incredible fire power. Both expressing how she can have her head in the clouds, observational when necessary, and yet trigger happy amidst the slightest inconvenience or surprise. *MWAH* What the fuck? It’s a great duality where the hard, more logical exterior possesses a sweet and approachable core just waiting to be shown and it’s wonderful seeing Wall-E, this literal block head, fumble his way into having a simple conversation with her. Now I can’t really disassemble how the programming in Wall-E works where they can behave like humans but follow objectives like a machine... but, I can try. With this scene.

Now take this with a grain of salt, the inferencing is more to the imagination otherwise the fun of this movie is tarnished. But from this scene, it’s clear that in this universe robots can show feelings for one another but can’t be romantic with humans because they can recognize human emotions and reactions but do so in an automated sense. The film expresses their curiousity just enough to where their reactions to human things and functions are within reason and yet doesn’t toy with the viewer’s believability. EVE is capable of responding to Wall-E’s advances but doesn’t 100% reciprocate his feelings because Wall-E isn’t her directive (least not yet, that’s for later). Not to mention, she isn’t that adept at romance unlike Wall-E who, by being alone with Earth’s technology, was able to learn and process human romance through the Hello Dolly VHS and potentially other things over the years. So this conversation works with the two having their limited knowledge, we don’t know how much they know, and the film keeps focus on having a balance between somewhat logical reactions and minor impulsive humane reactions that makes them alive but only just enough so it doesn’t feel like them being robots is pointless... Phew. Speaking of which, you know what isn’t pointless? Her motherfucking buster cannon.

Her whole ass arm houses a gun capable of nuking an entire cargo ship in a matter of seconds and it makes sense that she’d have it cuz how can a scouter robot defend themselves but beyond that, it’s just so goddamn cool. Like yeah, I can express how this symbolizes about America and... how they want to fuck their guns or something but who cares. She has a FUCKING ARM CANNON and it’s badass, end of discussion.

The Hanger Moment

Much as I love the moment where the two are in space flying, I honestly say that this moment where the two are in Wall-E’s house during the darude sandstorm is incredibly important. EVE is reasonably taken to his home and naturally, when the lights come on, she looks through the stuff he gives to her. She gets to take it easy for once, things can be quiet after she blew up a whole ship, have a giggle or two at the trinkets he’s collected, with the cigarette lighter being a good tool that’ll be used for later.

She’s curious, bouncy, still a bit quick on the draw, but is nonetheless taking in a lot this robot on Earth has to offer. It’s this and the small 1v1 they had before that is a lovely seedling to not only their connection but EVE’s development on her own, where we hardly need dialogue to show how she’s feeling about it all. And yeah, I’m with plenty of people to say that if this movie was just about the two of them being on Earth it probably would’ve been the greatest Pixar film of all time for many. Fortunately the plot kicks in when Wall-E shows EVE the plant, forcing her to go dormant, thus pulling Wall-E into an adventure on the Axiom ship. And I say fortunately cuz this is where EVE goes from good to great as a character.

The Axiom

While it’s something where we all wish that this film wasn’t the densly plotted, society driven second half, I say the second half on the Axiom carries the film’s themes and character building for EVE to good heights. We enter EVE’s territory, the slick, iPhoney synthetic world where humans have become literal potatoes and everything’s more or less automated. For EVE, the first half of the film lets us see the more playful side of her and doesn’t mind being around Wall-E, but isn’t immediately won over with the concept of love. She’s still goal-oriented and trying to keep the two stuck on Earth would’ve made her arc as open-ended and ambiguous as The Good Dinosaur. Time on the axiom puts her original sense of thinking to the test when Wall-E tags along.

To share the bigger picture real quick, the human element of Wall-E is complimentary to Wall-E and EVE’s humane behavior. To quote RealJims’ honestly flawless analysis, “What better way to show the humanity in a robot than to be among humans that act like robots?” For Wall-E the robot, this works perfectly as a fish out of water story. His time on Earth affects not only a few humans, but other robots like MO and the secretary machine, as minor as it seems.

So when Wall-E seemingly fucks things up, EVE is rightfully peeved. His slip ups especially with the Diagnostics scene tests her goal-oriented nature and patience, to a tasteful comedic strength. Doesn’t mean they now turned Wall-E stupid, the film makes sure the monkey wrenches are only accidents from someone severely out of the loop of things. This leads them and us well into

The Depths of Space

The scene where Wall-E gets launched in the escape pod thrills me with joyfully painful suspense every time. EVE making a mad dash to him as Wall-E madly tries to get out of the soon exploding pod, leading to it exploding and we get this from EVE. The wide eyes of terror followed by the whispering “No”s gives me shivers every time I see it in full. 

Now one could argue her concern was more for the plant getting destroyed, but I say she was more frightened at the idea of both Wall-E and the plant getting nuked. While Wall-E did make her mad, she nonetheless cared about him and wasn’t expecting the tiny bot asshole to send him to death. So it’s like, “Oh no, both my purpose and the one that helped me are both gone.” 

Luckily, thanks to some foreshadowing, Wall-E made it out alive with the plant in safe keeping and EVE seeing Wall-E actually care about her goal makes her beam with joy, being that reasonable spark that brings the two closer together. I mean if your love interest cheated death to help you out, why wouldn’t it? Everything about this moment is what made EVE stick with me long after I watched the film; the emotional journey the director was able to convey with her is so well-built to this point, it’s still amazing how they were able to do it with little dialogue or facial expressions. I especially love the emptiness we get of the two of them in space, where it adds focus to the two of them especially. But my god, that’s only half of it...

The space dance sequence between the two is still one of Pixar’s most gorgeous scenes. The way Wall-E is able to keep up with the fire extinguisher after having trouble in the film’s beginning, the wide shots of space, the lovely glow of the engines, the music. I especially like to think of this scene as a parallel to EVE’s initial flight on Earth. For her, it was that rite of passage after the touchdown and now she gets to share that same moment with someone she’s grown to like or appreciate. Then again, this isn’t the moment where EVE loves Wall-E. We’re close, but we need that one inch to finally show her the truth. That’s when she sees

The Recordings

The moment where EVE gets to see the memories of her time on Earth, including her dormant stasis, is where shit finally clicks. She essentially gets to know how Wall-E felt not only about her, but about love. Even when she couldn’t be there, she sees now that Wall-E cared about her and is able to process what Wall-E processed when he looked at Hello Dolly at one point. Scene also works because getting her directive, or the plant, was generally done and done with, she finally gets time to focus on something else, on her feelings for someone else. This leads well into... the well that leads to...

The Dumpster Moment

The scene with the recordings is where things finally click, but the moment with EVE and Wall-E in the ship’s dump is where it comes together. After getting betrayed yet again by AUTO, EVE’s concerns are now less with the plant and more for Wall-E and thanks to the moment previous, I can totally buy this. It’s teeth gritting seeing her try to rescue a now broken Wall-E from getting ejected into space and losing his energy thanks to a destroyed chip. So when we see her finally toss the plant aside and says Wall-E is her directive now, I tear up. It feels like a genuine, built up declaration on her part; the moment where EVE can rationally return his feelings ten-fold and truly be there for him. But that isn’t all to it, because Wall-E reasonably struggles his way to the plant to show that to save him, they need to get to Earth which means getting the plant back to the core of the ship.

This gives EVE newfound resolve and puts that to the test, where she has to basically defect against AUTO who’s become the physical antagonist of the film. The escape sequence is a bit of a step down since putting humans in danger doesn’t really affect the film’s themes all that well, but I can’t argue that pitting the captain against AUTO is a bad climax. 

The Death to Wall-E

Thinking about this film after so long, it is still pretty fucking shocking to realize how punishing they treat Wall-E in the final act. It’s even more shocking when you realize how the roles have reversed, where Wall-E focuses more on EVE’s goal with the plant instead of EVE herself and vice versa. Then again, I say it’s fair that they did this, to show how much Wall-E was willing to sacrifice for the one he loves which makes the painful wails we hear from EVE feel all the more impactful. Like you’re serious with her as she struggles to accept his death before they reach Earth. And speaking of Earth...

The Finale

Now, I can’t help but argue it’s an unfortunate plothole that EVE is somehow able to fully repair Wall-E in spite of never fixing anything else in the film. Then again, it’s fucking pumping seeing her move quick to put him back together and it’s that final stomp on the heart when, even when he’s fully restored, Wall-E bares no memories of her or anything. You see her desperately try to get him to remember anything only to be met with an emotionless, reset shell. In finally understanding Wall-E’s feelings of love, she can’t really be with him. Until...

True Love’s Kiss Saves the day

I can get scientific with how getting his memories back was possible, but I won’t because the scene just works. It’s quiet, takes it time, and that last eureka moment with the two truly get to hold hands makes up for any scattered logistics. I’d say this is where Wall-E finally gets the love, but the same can be said for EVE, after everything she went through. I’ve admittedly seen a few talk about how the female lead is only valid through the love of another, typically male, but I believe what works 120% here is that the two characters basically have themselves figured out, Wall-E more than EVE, and EVE’s journey is never hindered for a sudden realization to love. She still succeeds in her mission, but the stakes for her have risen once she comes to terms with her newfound feelings and these feelings aren’t out of pocket. Wall-E has his feelings for EVE from the getgo, but dedicates to helping EVE with the goal, even if it means death. The connection they get to have is earned and is what drives the plot. EVE earns what she realizes she wants and that makes her a great female protagonist in my eye.

The Conclusion

Wall-E is a pretty warm movie; a film how the love of two brings humanity to salvation and vice versa. How EVE and Wall-E’s love is synonymous to the intertwining of modern and older technology to shape the world. But honestly, that probably wouldn’t have worked as well without how great they made EVE as a character. Wall-E is great too, but it’s astonishing to see EVE’s journey with Wall-E and show her natural growth of understanding something as warm as romance. Her journey is pretty synonymous to how I feel with the movie overall. The time we get of them on Earth is symbiotic to the time we get in space; we get an intimate journey that expands to a film about society but remains personal and intimate nonetheless. And with EVE, we get this superbly fleshed out character that’s emotive, understanding, and above all gets a resolves that’s awesome to see every time I catch or just think about this film. What else is there to say?

They’re the Best.

[lethendralis-paints]

Artist Meme

Was tagged to answer this set of interesting questions by @kourvo​

(original post is here: https://kourvo.tumblr.com/post/621355098110640128/artist-meme

Thank you so much for that!

Let’s see....

1) What is the character you've drawn the most (Can be original or fanart)

This precious boy. I can never get enough of him. One of the most compelling characters I have ever come across. Love everything about Fenris and can relate to him on so many levels!

2. What colour do you often use? 

Gray and brown are my faves. And all other colours have the same chance of appearing in my artwork :D

3. Any colour you are bad at using?

I don’t think so...I love them all, even the pinks and yellows people usually find hard to incorporate into a colour palette. Tell me in the comments if I’m wrong :)

4. When drawing people, where do you start? 

Funnily enough - either with the front of the hairline or with the left eyebrow. Don’t ask me, why - I don’t know myself.

5. What is a character only your eraser will love?

Hmmmm...any sort of villainous character. I can’t draw evil people convincingly. I’m a huge softy at heart.

6. Which of your works took the longest time? 

Big scale commission I did for @pikapeppa​, featuring all the Inquisition companions, along with Fenris, Rynne and Carver Hawke. That one took almost 3 weeks, due to its sheer scope and my relative lack of experience in such large works. Pika was extremely patient with me though, for that I am eternally thankful!

7. What techniques do you use when you want to improve in drawing? 

Classical art studies. Varying my technique, themes I choose and software I use. I try to experiment and go outside my comfort zone often.

8. What do you think of the art of the person who gave you this ask meme? 

I adore Lillymon’s technical skill, refined style and limited colours! She is a huge inspiration for me!

9. What art tools/media are you good with? 

DrawPile, Photoshop, graphite pencils and liners. That’s about it :)

10. Art tools/media you are bad at? 

Traditional paints. I have no formal artistic education and my lack of knowledge comes to the forefront whenever I have to paint on a real canvas. It’s so much trial and error, you can’t even imagine....

11. What do you think about your own art? 

Lately it’s one of the last few things that were bringing me joy. I hope I won’t lose the passion for it. Because at this point I’m not sure I’ll be able to find some occupation I will be genuinely interested in and good at it. I don’t know if me gravitating towards moody fantasy art speaks about my fear of facing reality. If so, idk what to do with that. I do hope to develop my skills and being able to support myself financially as an artist.

12. Do you consult references for your drawings? 

Yes. A lot of them. Anatomical atlases, schemes for both academic and manga art, photographs found online and taken on my own, copying colour palettes from classical art - anything goes. I think it’s essential to develop your technical skill.

13. What do you like about your art? 

Lately - consistency, both in terms of produced results and in sticking to the timelines I set to myself. I hope this lasts. I would also like to branch out to other themes and not confine myself to quirky fantasy characters, so I’m working on developing my own story behind the scenes (spoilers) :P

14. What habits do you have while drawing?

Only the bad ones, lol. Hunching forward in front of the screen, forgetting to eat, drink and letting my eyes rest. Tilting my head to the side instead of rotating the canvas....I’m an idiot XD

15. Are you good at drawing faces facing right? 

I think that’s the thing I’m good at!

16. How frequently do you draw? 

For the last 1,5 years - almost every day without fail, for good or ill.

17. What do you do when you have artist's block? 

Change occupation and work myself into a depressed state. I changed work places in the last few years a lot, working as an interior designer, draftsman, textile designer, a cook, a bartender to name a few.

18. What must you have when you draw? 

No commotion around me and a cup of some hot beverage.

19. Do you have a lot of stray lines (messy lineart)? 

In the starting stage of my work process - yes, like you wouldn’t believe! If it’s a personal doodle, I sometimes just leave in as am under layer and draw clean lines on top of that mess. It looks cool in a way.

20. What is drawing to you?

An essential part of what helped me to retain my sanity in the last year and a half. Hopefully a lasting profession that will help me pay bills and survive on my own, if my life falls apart entirely later.

21. Your art goal from now on? 

Broaden the themes I depict, improve my technical skill, work on personal creative project and not only fan arts. And most of all - not giving up on it this time.

22. Artists you've had influence from? 

To name a few: @kallielef​ @kourvo​ @shayafury​ @fairsparrow​ who I met here on Tumblr, and many others who I follow and zealously study their works for clues on how to improve my own work.

23. Artists you like? 

I am following them all either here or on Instagram, I also do my best to share their works on my side blog!

24. Which is easier to draw, humans or animals? 

It was animals earlier. But now that I started to diligently study human anatomy, I would say it evened out! I’m quite confident drawing humans/humanoids now!

25. Show us an old drawing 

My first digital drawing from 2010 when I first bought my tablet!

26. What is the charm-point of your art?

I ummm....I don’t really get the question? Is that like the the strongest suit of me as an artist? Intense expressions maybe? Idk. Let me know in the comments :D

27. What is the first thing you would draw if we're talking about fantasy? 

Broody warriors, he-he

28. Please draw your most beloved character:

Here’s a sneak-peek of me drawing him right now! :D

29. When thinking of characters is it mostly female? male? or androgynous/no sex? 

I usually gravitate towards depicting strong-willed, caring, passionate, brave, honest men and women.

30. What did you draw yesterday? 

Started cleaning up that sketch from the last question, actually!

31. What is the funnest part to draw? 

A circle. Mostly because you’d die laughing seeing my struggle to draw a believable one XD

32. What part of other people's drawings do you notice first? 

colours, mood, eyes, hands.

33. Regarding backgrounds, what is your method of making it easier to draw? 

pick your favourite textured brush, find a good reference for mood and colour scheme, zoom out, squint your eyes and start slapping colours like mad. You’d be amazed at how much you’ll be able to achieve in 30 minutes with this approach. Bare white background is the enemy - destroy it! >:)

34. What colour coordinations do you like? 

Gray or brown as a main colour and then deep, earthy, saturated colours to complement the main one. Pink and orange is the combination I strangely enjoy using lately too.

35. What character did you last draw? Fenris and Eris :)

36. Does your style change easily? 

I don’t think so. More like it’s evolving slowly into something more serious and deliberate.

37. What part of drawing do you pay most attention to? 

Facial expression, body movement, mood and light effects. Not so much the composition and framing, he he.

38. How do you feel about drawing adult art? 

Tbh, I don’t consider straight up porn to be ‘adult’ exactly. To me adult art means aiming towards serious topics, exploring complex emotions and ideas, being honest with your viewer. I did doodle a few more steamy sketches of my OTP just to see if I could, but it was definitely a tongue-in-cheek kind of a artwork that I don’t take seriously.

39. Do you like criticism from others? 

If it’s friendly and in done in private - I welcome it always.

40. How many people do you normally draw per artwork? 

1 or 2. Rarely more. Crowded battle scenes are definitely not my thing :D

This was fun! Tagging forward to @shayafury​ @schoute​ @stella-minerva​ @nug-juggler​ @kallielef​ and anyone else wishing to go through such a long questionnaire!

[necroalx]

My problem with P5R new ending (spoilers)

I’ve been asked in my curiouscat about why I have problems with P5R ending a bunch of times by now, and honestly, I can't really put it in a way that wouldn't sound personal since my dislike over the matter comes from a personal appreciation of how the themes were handled in both versions.

With that being said feel free to ignore my POV:

First I would like to mention the things I loved about P5R (with spoilers ahead):

-The gameplay improvements were just perfect.

-Akechi's character arc was top notch for me, exactly what I wanted from him and I feel very satisfied with his new interactions.

-Sumire characterization during the first 8 ranks of her confidant were pretty cool.

-The individualization of the thieves until December, I loved the showtime attacks If anything I would have wanted they added more of those between more of the thieves too.

-Maruki is an incredibly well written character and Daiki Itoh's direction for relatable antagonists shines through him, he was really what P5 needed, the timing of the new semester events may be debatable for me, but I loved everything about him.

-Also loved Jose even we didn't get that much of him.

-The final boss fight was amazing!

Anyway My problem with the P5R ending is (Also, obvious spoilers for P5 and P5R):

-Retroactively diminishes the meaning of the original ending:

P5 vanilla original ending was in a way, the ultimate message about changing the world in the most healthy way possible, seeing it as the way it should be FIRST.

There were theories about this being an altered reality, and this is proven right by the events of the last semester in P5R.Also, with the mere existence of the events of P5R new content, the original ending becomes now an inconclusive story. Which makes it ultimately a lessened ending, because "this isn't the way the story should end".

-The theme of rebellion against an unjust society gets pointlessly messy and lost in transition:

Yes, I get the subject of facing reality is a way more important topic and way more down to earth, the thieves disbanding the way they did and going their own separate ways is indeed thematically fitting and shows some growth coming from their experiences in the new semester. Still, the game being written by a different person, plus having a scenery of "kids dreaming about their perfect world given to them by a overprotective father figure" seems to in a way tarnish and overwrite their experiences gained through the whole story.

I understand this is not the message meant to be conveyed by this new ending. I know and for sure love that in Royal the thieves don't exist just for Joker's sake was their whole characters aren't defined just by his actions anymore. BUT with those things mentioned above, all these change feels like a "correction" made to express how "japanese societal expectations were ultimately right all along things are not always like how we want and you have to deal with that" instead of the original ending's more positive outlook towards the future, that's now seen as a naive handled view of how things should be, and ultimately as I mentioned before, inconclusive.

Things are clear in that regard for me, (In the original, without Maruki's existence in the plot, the thieves were granted a world were they could do "whatever they wanted", between the limits of their own cognitive knowledge of how the world worked, after defeating Yaldabaoth and getting the holy grail treasure to basically "grant them that wish" as a reward after the fusion between mementos and the real world is finished. In P5R new ending, the change is made evident by having Morgana not steal the plug from the man in black chasing the thieves Van and the thieves not taking Joker home in the new ending to give the "more realistic" approach to that matter.)

This conclusion couldn't exist until P5R came out. Since now the entirety of the new Semester concept lies on the basis that the Phantom Thieves subconsciously granted Maruki his power and caused the whole "actualization event" through wishing someone could make those ideal realities for them, with Maruki being the only one capable of seeing the world the way they would've wanted to be because of their interactions with him. I actually give them credit for this since this is a brilliant detail and makes his tragic antagonistic role even more appealing.

But that leads me to my real and biggest problem with P5R new ending:

-The phantom thieves becoming secondary characters after being the main characters and vehicles to the story in the original game and through the 80% of P5R's story.Now people would call Kasumi waifu bait and other things, hell, even I memed about it before, the reality is, she's the most important tool Itoh and the new writers used to built this new ending, she is the most important character (besides Maruki himself obviously) to make the player empathize with Maruki's motives and actions, she is a victim of her circumstances just like the rest and she's "rescued" by this overprotective father figure character found in Maruki, but he was taking away her freedom as a consequence, thus making her relevant to the game's theme of rebellion. But then she faces that reality and she has to grow out of it by... "insert Itoh favorite writing trope of the protagonist beating the crap out of the heroine to make her come back to her senses" (Same thing he did with Marie in golden). Which is ok I guess, it can be a forgivable writing sin since the built to this was pretty well done. But then... there's nothing.Kasumi is presented and forced into scenes and moments so the player realizes "this character is important, more important than the rest" from very early on, it goes from scene to scene while the original events of the vanilla game still happen, and she was not the only one of coruse, Joker Akechi and Kasumi having their little arcs separated from the rest of the cast was obviously building towards something. But then going against everything Joker did in the original game, (and through 80% of P5R since those events are still in the game obviously) he chose both Kasumi and Akechi (twice in his case) over his other friends. Yes, the thieves were trapped on their fake realities, yes they came to the rescue in the end FOR Joker. But at this point they were: Not fully aware of who Kasumi really was and her involvement with these developments, not aware of the alliance between Joker and Crow, not aware of the weird palace that's been there the whole time. ALL because Joker and Mona kept these things secret from the rest, why? What's the sound logic behind this? Why would Joker not trust his friends with such important information after all they went through? Why are they reduced to convenient sidekicks after they saved his life and proved themselves capable of doing the impossible when they all decided to work together? Why? It makes no sense. They all have been through so much with him, just days before they all were inside the velvet room alongside Joker, finding out about his most intimate aspect and sharing an irreplaceable moment of realization and conviction of together. Just for them to become anticlimactically trapped on their dream worlds and completely forgetting about Joker and their true bond with him. Sure they come back to their senses AFTER Joker triggers their true memories with some words, but this SHOULDN'T have happened after all they went through after their fight with Yaldabaoth. Call it bad timing in the writing sense, but it was a testament of how separated they become from their original role in the new story, all for the sake of these new additions. And still, we can ignore that, I can see over that and say "well it's the ultimate tentation they were never tested through", but here's were the problem lies, besides the fact of Joker never telling his friends about the things I mentioned before, he is now a fully self insert character, when 80% of the original story (which is just the vanilla game honestly) he was written as Joker being his own entity, with his own sense of justice very clearly defined and a focus towards his friends as his most precious part of his life. This is suddenly thrown to the garbage in the new semester.

Why? Because now the player has to make a choice that the original Joker wouldn't make in the original, chose Akechi over the other phantom thieves. It honestly feels like a huge regression.Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Akechi's new confidant and his amazing dynamic with Joker being exploited the best way possible. I do, I am a fan of Akechi's character archetype and his characterization in both vanilla and his new scenes in royal. I am a sucker for antagonistic villainous characters getting a proper redemption arc in convincing ways. But the price was too high for my liking.

By the price I mean; You literally CAN'T get the new TRUE (complete) ending without choosing to keep your promise with Akechi, which means, you can't see the full extent of the story conclusion, Maruki's and Kasumi's arcs won't get any closure and you will only get a now "diminished" ending (the vanilla original ending), if you don't chose to keep your promise with Akechi. A "personal" promise and one you never told your friends about. The worst part of this decision is, the whole reason Joker and Akechi's dynamic works so well is because they were originally written as pretty oposite characters with their own unique distinguished quirks morals AND sense of justice. But then, suddenly, at the climax of the story, Joker is just a self insert blank state? That just does not work.

As for Sumire, once she's brought back and awakens again, her character arc ends, she becomes just another sidekick like the rest of the thieves, which makes all the built her character was used for... what? It's not really pointless, since it brings the story to this point, but what's left for her? What's her role now? She goes back to being Kasumi in the metaverse and the optional aspect of her confidant makes this transition to her going back to being Sumire feel kind of ambiguous and also inconclusive. Yes I know she is honoring the memory of her sister and that she has accepted her reality, that's true, but the development comes to a sudden turn when she suddenly becomes just another one in the crew behind Goro and Joker. All the phantom thieves had their roles cleared out beforehand soon after their insertion arcs were finished, Ann was the conscience of the team, always asking "are we doing the right thing?" Yusuke was the same, always second guessing every choice with a worst case scenario since as he said in his awakening "in order to see true authenticity, one has to be dispassionately realistic", Ryuji was always the one going for it and wanting things getting done he's the focus, Makoto is the advisor, so she became the clear headed tactician, Futaba was the tool device, she became the medium to the ends always finding ways to work around towards their goals, Mona is the heart and the hope representing their wish to inspire society through their actions, Haru was the kindness, a reminder of what are they trying to inspire and a source of tolerance the thieves were missing until she joined in. Sumire was... what? This honestly bothered me, made me feel the whole journey was just a bad joke, because now not only the phantom thieves were reduced to mere sidekicks, so was the one character with most promise in the story while Goro became the player's beating husband through Joker, a testament of the choice he made of choosing the image they made the player have of Akechi, the one person Joker couldn't save, the one who's beyond saving at thins point over the friends and family he did saved. By the way, as contradictory as it may sound, I loved the twist, having Akechi's life depending on the final choice for true freedom, it was clever, it added the right heart wrenching moment right before the climax, what I didn't like was how clear it was made at this point how little the other thieves mattered. Why? Have the phantom thieves ever sent a calling card without having giving their full agreement? Especially when a new important development could come up from their actions at the last moment? Not until this point, Goro's life was on the line here, he was an ally now, he was a phantom thief member, they all agreed to this. But were they informed of this last minute development by Joker, you know, so they could all agree to what was the right thing to do like they all had swear to do every time? No, because Joker made that decision himself, because all that mattered was the player decision the self insert decision. Hell not even a cheap text group chat scene, nothing.You can say "this is a personal thing between Joker and Goro and a personal choice for Akechi". Well sure, yet they were all about to put their lives at risk for this, like they've been doing this whole time. They would've argued they deserved to know this, even if they had reached the same conclusion at the end, but with this, in a story that focuses so much on details, whatever oath the phantom thieves had before this, became meaningless. The player can once again just like with Yaldabaoth chose to ruin everyone's chance for true freedom by choosing a selfish self inserted reasoning out of the blue to get a "bad end". Honestly, I also felt the original bad end in vanilla P5 was bad but this? This was worst, this took things to another level, sure the angst was well written and the suffering masked behind this fake happiness was very clever, but its also so cheapened because at this point, why would the player care about those other characters if you make this choice? They were sidelined so bad that their "happiness" becomes just flavor to the story and to be honest, the good decision was just as selfish because of this. I have no problems with the final boss fight, it was honestly amazing and almost made me forget all that happened before when I first played it because it was just so over the top and emotional, I honestly loved it. But then comes the final cut-scenes. Skip Joker going back to prison (why even bother with that though? He literally went just for 10 days and every value of the sacrifice he made in the original was now lost because of the new semester events), skip the the decisions the thieves made about their futures, their display of individuality was great but they don't matter at this point anyway. And here's the final insult, yes I am salty because the "main party" didn't take Joker home, but not because they didn't go through the action of taking him home, but because they weren't really doing anything relevant if anything at all after being the main characters the whole game (except for the new semester) No closure for them just quirkiness and flavor for the sake of a "reality" based message, felt cheap and dismissive, like someone not wanting to go through the trouble of writing something for characters they didn't create or even like. Why did I called the P5R ending lazy you ask? Because they didn't bother making an ending at all, but just to rewrite the original in a way the message of "reality" is settled over, sure their individuality is highlighted by not taking joker home and them being focused on their own different things on their lives, but so they were in the original, this ending and them being sent away was made at the price of the relevance of the thieves bonds with Joker once again, I would've been ok if we at least got to see more of THEM as individuals through the ending or even just as a group, hell this was the final time we'll see them and they were our most precious allies, maybe give us some time with them for the sake of the experiences we had, they did that with Golden's epilogue after all, why not here? But instead, we just see them just go around town being quirky and sneaky distracting the corrupt policemen while Joker gets his new cut-scenes goodbyes with the new characters in the game, because they deserve closure as well for sure, yet they do so over the others? In my opinion, at this point, no. But they did just that, they declared with this change that, the phantom thieves members weren't needed and their futures and story were irrelevant, it was all about Joker, Goro, Maruki and Kasumire, the rest were just sidekicks and these scenes were more important so the player can get what happens to these new favorites, all at the price of the original team relevance. That, was my problem with the new ending. Of course I'm happy to know about their futures and choices through the credits, but that's just lazy, they were more relevant than that in the original, but now they're just afterthoughts shown through credit scenes. No relevance whatsoever in their final moments in this story. It certainly hurt seeing them being this diminished after the original made me care about these characters so much.You can say to me "well, there's still the vanilla ending for you" but no, I said it before, retroactively that ending has become irrelevant and inconclusive, which means this is now how the phantom thieves are represented as, Joker's sidekicks, not a team of bandits and misfits working together as a unit like it was in the original. Again, this is my very personal take on the game new ending, feel free to disagree and call me a clown, but the original made a huge impact on me, the events of P5R ending wounded my appreciation for this story, not it's characters, not the theme, just the future they'll write for these characters from now on. That is all.

Sorry about this Essay lol, but this is the only way I could fully communicate everything It made me feel wrong about this new ending. It was not just a matter of preference for me.

[rowanthestrange]

Big Doctor Who Meta time.

It’s no wonder The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos was a weird episode - hard to follow, too much information for the story it was telling, bit all over the place. Because it wasn’t trying to tell just one story. It’s telling three. One past, one present, one future.

It contains meta for every plot point so far, and what look like considerable signposts for what’s to come next.

If you wondered why it seemed so shallow on the surface - to the point where it is titled for The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos, which we get almost no information on, and yet the people in the text are the ones who keep asking about that - then stick around.

The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos is the codebreaker for Thirteen’s era.

We’re going to go along at a fair clip, but hopefully because it involves so much of the episode, there’s enough context in to jog your memories of the episode if they were as ropey as mine were. I’m assuming knowledge/fair understanding of media analysis, and hopefully links to other relevant metas where they’d be too long to get into will cover the rest.

We meet Tzim-Sha determined to rise in the ranks, and stealing a person. Ends up in control of a planet and the remains of a limited-in-number race who do his work for him and see him as the Creator. (Tzim-Sha is a Rassilon mirror - this is important throughout)

Tzim-Sha using Sniperbots. Just robots. Boring. (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI. Tecteun=Rassilon=Ashad meta. )

((When we first met him, he had his own independently acting data collector and conveyer, that he eventually initiated a data transfer with and caused it to put everything it had learned, into him. His plan involves taking people, who are left on the cusp between life and death, put in machines. (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI))

Paltraki, separated from his three crewmates, memories gone. Doesn’t even remember his real name. He could’ve left any time, but didn’t. (Paltraki is a Doctor mirror).

“What did you take?” “Not take. Recover.” Paltraki doesn’t know/remember what’s in the special thing that he and others worked so hard to get. He knows he’s not supposed to let it fall into enemy hands...but his crew, his friends, are being threatened. (The Lone Cyberman and Cyberium AI plot)

The Planet gives off psychotropic waves to keep people away, but the element seems under-utilised in the story. (We’ll come back to that).

Everyone else passed by the cries for help. (The Timeless Child(ren))

The Doctor attaches two grenades to the cube. (Mirrors the Master and the TCE’d Lone Cyberman with the dark twist that someone did blow it up and effectively destroy the remains of a planet that time)

Tzim-Sha got blown up but survived after a fashion. (future Tectuen=Rassilon=Ashad meta - no-one thinks the Lone Cyberman is actually dead)

“The Ux? As in the duo-species, only ever two of you? Lifespans of millennia?” (The Timeless Children, plural) “Only found on three planets in the whole universe?” (Now isn’t that a weird and unnecessary addition. A lot of meta possibilities in that. Starting with: The Timeless Child and the boy on the cliff, Martin!Doctor and ??? The Doctor and the Master.)

One is following the will of the Creator. The other is being tortured. (The Timeless Child(ren))

“Wait. Is this yours, this building? Is it true about the Ux? Faith-driven dimensional engineers. Is that why the building feels alive?” (What Are TARDISes meta)

Yaz: Do you have a home [on your planet]? Paltraki: Beautiful home. Some land, and animals. Too many facts coming back. It's like a flood. I don't know what's important, or... We were the last fleet. When the others didn't come back, they sent for us. (Feels like how the Doctor will regain bits of memories)

Paltraki was sent by The Congress of the Nine Planets in response to the atrocities. (The Alliance)

The Doctor: Why do you call him the Creator? Andinio: Our faith is handed down. The Creator is the cornerstone. (The Legends of Rassilon)

“But I've got so many questions, Andinio. Because there's a battlefield outside where many people died, but you're no warrior. And your words are certain, but your eyes are full of doubt.” (The Timeless Child(ren))

There are literal codebreakers. (Like Steganography and The Ireland Metaphor, the text is telling you to meta this)

They only came to rescue two people, but there are dozens of bodies in the pods. Thirty. (The Timeless Child - more bodies than imagined)

It’s been three thousand four hundred and seven years since Tzim-Sha saw the Doctor  “banishing me across the universe to this desolate rock for the rest of my existence”. Later in the episode: “Even in exile, I shall lead.” (Meta 1: The last thing the Doctor linearly did with Rassilon was banish him. Meta 2: The Master or Matrix says Tecteun was adventuring but her story and other meta fits much better with someone trying to find a way to save her dwindling race - perhaps previous experiments got her banished, because the next lines are: )

The Doctor: “But you got more than you could possibly have wished for. The Ux.” Tzim-Sha: “The universe provides.” The Doctor: “You wanted to be a leader. Now you're worshipped as a false god. Why all the ships outside? What have you made them do?” (The Timeless Child(ren))

Tzim-Sha: “I carry the entire hive knowledge of the Stenza civilisation within me.” (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI. Tecteun=Rassilon=Ashad)

The Doctor: “When you say revenge, revenge on who?” Tzim-Sha: “You, Doctor.” The Doctor: “Oh, no. Don't put this on me.” Tzim-Sha: “If you had not interfered, I would have become leader. First of the Stenza. And yet, I should thank you.” The Doctor: “Thank me? Why?” Tzim-Sha: “You have made me a god.” The Doctor: “You are nothing of the sort.”  (Tzim-Sha can do double duty as a Master meta in a lot of places too - three stories, past, present, and future.)

Tzim-Sha: “It has taken thousands of years. Every fragment of scientific understanding the Stenza ever possessed, allied to the impossible power of the Ux. You will see, Doctor. I must be a god. I have the powers of one.” (The Time Lords/Shobogans and the Timeless Children)

The Doctor: “Let me guess. They built you a weapon. That's what your sort like to do. Is that why all those ships came? You made a weapon, and they came to stop you.” (The Alliance. The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI. The Timeless Children)

((An inscription scored in the floor of a dead Stenza-controlled planet, where the only thing imitating life are robots and remnants: “We are scientists. Abducted, tortured and made to work, while our families are held hostage. We are forced to find new ways of destruction. Poisons, weapons, creatures. We gave them our minds and they made us the creators of death. This planet has been left scorched and barren from our work. The atmosphere and water are toxic. Killing machines and creatures inhabit every corner. We had no choice but to obey... The Stenza. We are trying to destroy all of our work before they use it against others. There's two words below that. They're coming.”  (The Timeless Children))

The building is weird - treated weirdly in the text. The Shrine. They refer to the building as pulling them in - not the people in it. This shrine is the weapon. The TARDIS directly referenced as Ghost Monument (What Are TARDISes) ((the planet itself is screaming))

Paltraki: “I remember what they did. Five objects. Five planets. One weapon. They stole five planets.” The Doctor: “That's not possible.” Paltraki: “It's what happened. Entire planets removed from their spatial orbit.” The Doctor: “It would've destroyed all life. Planetary genocide.” (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI: The Death Particle | Backups of species - currently two, Cybermen and Time Lords)

The Doctor: “All these planetary masses cannot exist in the same place at the same time. The technology isn't stable. You bring another through, it could destroy everything.” (Rassilon with Gallifrey in The End Of Time)

Graham - everyone’s Grandpa, and Ryan, trap Tzim-Sha - mirror of the Doctor’s abusive parental figure. (Era theme: The concept of family and chosen Fam)

The Doctor: “Can't disconnect them, it might kill them.” Yaz: “But if we don't, what happens to Earth? Their life versus seven billion others.” (A Crisis of Utilitarianism meta feat. The Astronaut, Percy Shelley, The Timeless Child)

The Doctor and Yaz make themselves vulnerable to the Planet being able to affect their mind. (No current meta besides it just feels TARDISy and Kasaaviny, and it goes nowhere in the actual story to the point where it feels certain this is meta for the future.)

“There's too many things to do! One thing at a time. It's fine. All good. Well, almost.” (The desperate cry of the Writer creating meta. I know it well.)

The Doctor and Yaz block the Ux’s powers. (The narrative likelihood that this set of Doctors are not actually immortal, or if they are they cannot keep it)

The Doctor: “Universe provide for me.” - the TARDIS arrives. Is referred to as a Ghost Monument. Tzim-Sha: “The Universe provides” - the Ux. As Rassilon mirror - the Timeless Child. (What are TARDISes?)

The Doctor: “Their knowledge, their abilities, Tim Shaw's tech, our blue box.” (What look like the best guesses for each of the plot points of the era in meta form. The Doctor and Master’s memories. The Timeless Child(ren)’s abilities. The Cyberium AI, TARDISes).

Tzim-Sha has an electric hand/power gauntlet thing. (In case you weren’t sure on the Rassilon mirror. + The Lone Cyberman)

The Doctor: “I know this will be painful. I wouldn't put you through this if I could think of any other way right now.” Delph: “It's okay.” The Doctor: “It's not, but thank you.” (The Timeless Child(ren) (and that distinct sensation that this is all going to be very direct mirroring in the future))

Graham: “You brought us all together. You ain't going to tear us apart. You ain't worth killing. But you can have a taste of your own medicine.” Ryan: “We're not weak, we're strong, and we sentence you to life.” Graham: “So, as you're contemplating eternity, keep one name on your mind.” Both together: “Grace.” (This feels like the slightly nicer sounding version of what personally I’m hoping the Master is going to say and do to Rassilon at the end of all this)

The Doctor decides on “Fam”. Yaz likes it. (Era theme: The concept of family and chosen Fam)

[thej13579]

Paper Mario Sticker Star: Really That Bad?

This will be the first in a series that I have made called Really That Bad? It's where I judge a negatively reviewed product to see if it's really as bad as people say it is.

If you have your own suggestions for Really That Bad? or you just want to give out your own opinions on either this critique or the game itself, comment down below.

Paper Mario is a series that I really liked growing up. From its humble roots as a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG to its generally considered superior sequel in The Thousand Year Door to even its weird diversion into platforming with Super Paper Mario, I considered these three games to be some of the best Mario games ever made.

But starting with the game that I’m discussing today, the Paper Mario subseries has gone in a different direction that has not been received all that well. Considering that Paper Mario: The Origami King just came out recently, I have been wondering if Paper Mario: Sticker Star deserves all the hate it gets, or is there something worthwhile in the direction that the subseries is undergoing. Let’s find out if I think Paper Mario: Sticker Star is Really That Bad.

Story and Characters

Let’s start with the story. A basic rundown is that Bowser has disrupted the beloved Sticker Fest by causing the Sticker Comet to explode. Now Royal Stickers and pieces of the comet have been flung far and wide, and it's up to Mario and his ally Kersti to set things right by recovering them. That’s basically the entire story. A basic Mario story with nothing aside from the paper theme making it stand out. 

Sadly, the characters don’t come out much better. Nearly all of them are basically bland and generic with very little in terms of personality or character design making them stand out from each other. (The Toads in of themselves have become a meme because they’re all the same exact character model) Even Kersti, an ally that follows you on your entire journey, stays static from beginning to end. Characters like Mizzter Blizzard, who actually does have a fairly sympathetic reason for what he does with him wanting to live longer and not melt, are very few and far between.

Overall, the story and characters lack any real charm from the other games and it comes across as a generic Mario story at the end of the day. While the first Paper Mario game had this exact same plot with the stars instead of the stickers, there were several things making that game stand out with its unique and memorable cast of characters and you also get to play as Peach every now and then to help Mario on his quest which was always rather nice. Not a particularly great start to this analysis.

Graphics

The graphics definitely are one of the highlights of the game. It’s fairly bright and colorful and the Nintendo 3DS takes good advantage of the fact that the world is paper. Some may dislike the extra emphasis on paper compared to the previous three games but I think it does add a little charm to the game that is sorely needed.

My main problem with the art direction essentially boils down to the locations; mainly, how generic they are. The designers fall back on various Mario locations that have been done to death by the time this game came out: Grasslands, deserts, jungles and finally Bowser’s castle. You take out the paper style, there will be nothing distinguishing it from most Mario platformers in the franchise and that’s a shame because the game actually looks pretty good on the Nintendo 3DS.

On a side note, I don’t really care that much for the 3D function of the Nintendo 3DS so I’m not taking that into account when evaluating the graphics.

Overall, the graphics, while good at taking advantage of the paper theme, suffered from a lack of originality when it comes to its locations (a flaw that later Paper Mario games did fix). It’s good but not great.

Sound

I’ll admit that the soundtrack is actually pretty good. It does have plenty of great tracks and the jazz motif throughout most of them really make it memorable in my eyes. Special mention goes to the main battle theme, Boo Night Fever, the Gooper Blooper battle themes, and the final boss themes.

I honestly don’t have much to say in this section. I just find this a very good soundtrack and I bet even most of the people who hate Sticker Star will agree with me on this.

Gameplay

Now, here’s the main part that many people have been criticizing this game for; the gameplay.

Let’s start with some positives. I liked the exploration aspect. I liked roaming around the areas, looking for stickers, solving puzzles. It really does feel like I’m accomplishing something whenever I found a secret passage that leads me to a different goal than when I was going down the beaten path.

There’s also the paperize power where you can reveal areas where you can place stickers down to enable certain events whether it is simply placing a sticker to make a ? box appear or a Thing that can really affect the environment, allowing you to progress further into the level..

That leads to the Things that you find by looking around the levels and I kind of like how they can affect the environment such as using the Faucet to fill up a dry oasis in the desert world and I especially like the animations that are played when you use them in battle. My personal favorites are the Goat, the Turkey and the Water Gun with how fun and bizarre they are. Sadly, they are not perfect for a major reason that I’ll get to in a bit.

Then we get to the battle system and here’s where most of my criticisms on the game design start to pour in. For the most part, it seems fairly similar to the RPG battle system from the first two games. You and your enemy take turns attacking each other and you have to get their health points down to zero to win the battle. Sounds exactly like the first two games... but that’s where the stickers come in.

Stickers come in a fair amount of variety with various forms of jumps, hammer attacks, and items. The main problem with them comes in the fact that all of them are consumables, even just the regular jump and hammer attacks. If you ran out of them, your only options are to either wait to die, or run away. Granted, you usually find enough stickers around the area just by looking around so it never really became a problem for me during my playthroughs. But the fact that it’s possible is not good game design.

The idea of your basic actions being entirely reliant on consumables would have been bad enough on its own, but then there’s the fact that, unlike nearly every other RPG ever, you get no experience from fighting enemies. What do you get from enemies? Coins and stickers. Two things that you can easily find on your own throughout the levels and you get plenty of the former the first time you actually complete a level. Not a very good incentive to battle if I say so myself. You are basically better off just avoiding enemies and saving your stickers for scripted encounters and boss fights.

And here’s where we get to what I consider the worst part of the game, the boss fights. The main issue can be boiled down to the fact that they are puzzle bosses with too much emphasis on the puzzle part. They are so powerful with their high health points ranging up to the hundreds and attack points they are all but guaranteed to wipe the floor with unless you have the proper Thing (and without a walkthrough, you probably don’t). If you do have the proper Thing, the boss quickly becomes a joke, hence the puzzle boss with too much emphasis on the puzzle. This is the flaw that I was referring to earlier when it comes to the Things. You have very little knowledge of what Thing you need for the fight until you’re already fighting the boss. Without a walkthrough, the only way to know is to die and possibly get a hint on what Thing you actually need.

To best describe what I’m talking about, let’s go with the very first boss, Megasparkle Goomba. To beat this boss, you have to fight the boss like normal until the sixteen Goombas that the boss is made out of reveal themselves and start to flip. From there you need one of two Things: Scissors or a Fan. Seems simple on paper (pun not intended). However, the main problem is that there is no indication that you need either of those Things to beat the boss. 

It’s far from the only example of this design issue at work and not the worst, the final boss takes that spot, but it’s a perfect example of how the Things work when it comes to bosses and how poorly designed the bosses in this game are. This is not helped by how the game actively discourages trial and error considering that, one; you only have a limited amount of space for stickers and Things take a huge chunk of space in your inventory. Two, they go away once they are used so you have to either buy them which costs quite a bit of coins, or you have to go to the place where you originally found them which can be long and tedious depending on the level.

Overall, the exploration aspect of the game is kind of fun with plenty of clever puzzles and platforming. But the battling system ranges from pointless at best to downright cryptic and poorly designed at worst. The gameplay is an extremely mixed bag ranging from pretty good to pretty bad.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

So, after all that, is Paper Mario: Sticker Star really that bad? Yeah… sort of.

I will admit that all the parts the game gets flack for do genuinely deserve all the criticism it gets and then some. The lack of emphasis on story and characters, the uncreative environments, and especially the battle system with its stupid reliance on consumable items to do anything in battle and lack of any good incentive to actually fight enemies along with the awful bosses. Aside from the art style, which I do like, the game lacks the charm that the first two Paper Mario games, and even Super Paper Mario, had. The fact that the very first Paper Mario did this exact same plot but did it better with more creative characters, environments and better game design just makes Sticker Star look that much worse by comparison.

But, I can’t find myself to really hate this game and that’s for several reasons. First, when I’m not battling any enemies and I’m just travelling the world, overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles, Sticker Star can actually be pretty fun. There may be some issues with that, mainly when Things are involved, but I’m still having a good time just exploring the levels, uncovering whatever secrets they may have.

There’s also the graphics and music which are still top notch with the extra emphasis on paper in the former and the excellent jazz motif throughout most of the tracks in the latter. The game overall, looks and sounds nice and it’s definitely a point in Sticker Star’s favor.

Overall, I wouldn’t call Paper Mario: Sticker Star a good game as it has too many flaws and inadequacies to push the overall product beyond okay. The game was rejected by most Paper Mario fans for fairly good reasons with its lower emphasis on writing and a poor battle system that gives the player very little reason to battle. But I think that the game does have some potential as an action-adventure sort of game. If the people at Nintendo are really that insistent on this direction for future games then I think that these are some of the things they should take into account if they really want to go in this direction. Perhaps The Origami King could take those criticisms into account?

[legobiwan]

Master and Apprentice: An Overview of Themes

Okay, so as many of you may have surmised, I adored this book. There’s so much to talk about in it and the ramifications of some of the themes play all the way up to the Sequel Trilogy. 

To be honest, I’m not even sure where to start with everything I want to talk about, but I’m going start here with this basic outline of things I noticed and will dissemble from there over the next few days, weeks, whatever. 

Lineage

“You inherit your parents' trauma but you will never fully understand it.”

So I will preface this part by saying that I am a huge fan of Bojack Horseman and this theme comes up again and again and again in this show. (As does the difficulty, but possibility, of breaking that cycle.)

This book is heavy on the behaviors and prejudices and patterns that get passed on through generations, or in this case, lineages. Dooku’s preoccupation with prophecy touches Rael, which touches Qui-gon, which touches Obi-wan, and of course, ultimately plays a huge role in Anakin’s life. Not only that, but Dooku’s restrained, demanding manner seems to have  rubbed off on Qui-gon, who seemed to be constantly measuring up Obi-wan to an impossible metric and thinking it in his presence, which meant Obi-wan likely felt all of this and presto changeo we have a talented young Jedi who feels he is unworthy. This book really illustrates how Masters are as much parents as teachers, and how whatever issues the parent is dealing with gets passed down and processed, whether it be through rebellion, imitation, or a host of other reactions. Hell, the book mentions Yoda’s master (albeit not by name). I am *dying* to know who they were and what happened there. 

Performance Art

Okay, so one of the initial main culprits is a group of performers who end up being branded as terrorists. First of all, this made musician-me CACKLE, period. But beyond that, there is a running theme of a performative aspect to government, to ceremony (Fanry perfects this), even to the Jedi themselves with their rituals, with their idealistic Code versus reality. Sidious was perhaps the best performance artist of the entire GFFA. And prophecy, to a certain degree, requires performance, requires actors to ingest a script and accept it as truth, and finally meet its demands of life’s stage. Is it foretold because the events must happen or because the actors choose to make them happen?

Prophecy

Which leads me into the thorniest topic of this book. Dooku was obsessed with prophecies. Qui-gon became obsessed with prophecy, to the point of breaking a thousand laws to get Anakin to Coruscant. And then Obi-wan was so devoted to Qui-gon, despite everything, that he told himself he had to believe in the prophecy, for Qui-gon’s sake (back to family issues there.)

How many of these prophecies ended up being self-fulfilling because of the actors involved? (Namely, Qui-gon.) Even when Qui-gon realizes his mistake is trying to control the future instead of accepting it, he goes ahead years later to manipulate circumstances so Anakin can be a Jedi. That’s not accepting the future, he cheated at dice to change the future, to control it. And that action set off an avalanche of consequences I doubt Qui-gon prepared for. In short, Qui-gon is a very fallible character here and shows a fair amount of egotism in terms of his relationship with prophecy. 

I mean, the Force showed Qui-gon that he was “meant to misinterpret” his vision? I don’t even know where to start with the sheer audacity of that statement. Qui-gon doesn’t report his vision to the Council, because he thinks they won’t understand, thinks they’ll get mired in some minutiae of governance and not do anything substantial. And yes, the Council does dither, even Obi-wan notices it, but those controls are there for a reason and Qui-gon just runs roughshod over them, because he thinks he alone has the answers, that he alone can change the future. 

And it kind of comes back to this whole Lineage issue where Dooku had this attitude that he alone knew the truth. I mean, he defects to the Sith partially to rid the Republic of corruption, and look at his Padawans - Rael and Qui-gon, both iconoclasts, both skirting the edge of...something, and it’s almost laughable that Qui-gon gets so upset with Rael’s disregard of certain parts of the Code (the killing of his Padawan part, of course, but also the celibacy part) because Qui-gon lies and cheats and pulls cons across the galaxy and disregards swaths of the Code at will. And you have to wonder, is this because Dooku was too independent, and if Dooku was that independent, how did Yoda’s training of Dooku play into that? 

Then again, while family and upbringing play a huge part in a person’s actions and personality, they are not the only thing, they do not dictate the future. Nor do prophecies. And Qui-gon clings so much to these prophecies, just as Dooku did (and Dooku’s prophecy of choice, he who learns to conquer death will through his greatest student live again is just...it explains a lot as to why Dooku was so devoted to teaching, was so exacting on his students ((although I will never let go of the headcanon that Dooku actually enjoys teaching, because I feel that a personality like his needs someone to impart knowledge to)). 

Prophecy, more often than not, becomes self-fulfilling prophecy, which is an interesting paradox. Prophecies are read, believed to be true, and are enacted by the actions of the very people (beings) who read them in the first place. 

And thus they become prophecy. 

I mean, no wonder Yoda wanted to burn the “sacred texts” by the time The Last Jedi rolls around. Prophecy becomes a way to abnegate responsibility for one’s actions, to deny, whether it’s Dooku seeking to avoid death, Qui-gon proclaiming he is a vessel for the will of the Force, or even Obi-wan claiming Luke as the Chosen One in Twin Suns. (Although, I wonder about that last one, as Obi-wan is naturally skeptical of prophecy. I mean, the Jedi do have the Force and are granted visions, but then again, they make decisions. They choose to turn to the Dark Side, choose to bend to the will of a hazy future which claims no specific actors...and I feel like Obi-wan’s references to prophecy are more an expression of familial love, of tribute to Qui-gon rather than a true belief that Anakin was "the” Chosen One. Obi-wan believed in Anakin himself above all else, even his better judgment.)

The Jinn-Kenobi Express

So...what is going on with these two?

In many ways, this is more of a Qui-gon book than an Obi-wan book, although we get plenty of insight to Obi-wan’s character. And one of the things I really appreciate about Claudia Gray is the fact that she seems aware of the Jedi Apprentice series, the kind of dynamic that created, and weaves this story in a way that does justice to those interactions and the limited time we see Qui-gon and Obi-wan together on screen. 

And the thing is, Qui-gon is kind of a jerk to Obi-wan. From page two of this book, his is questioning Obi-wan, wondering why he hasn’t reached a certain point in his abilities yet (all while deliberately holding him back in areas like lightsaber combat, which is an astounding illustration of Qui-gon’s complete obliviousness to his own actions and ramifications of his actions). And, let’s be honest, Obi-wan is an empath - he wouldn’t be such a talented negotiator and diplomat if he weren’t (because, before anything else, you need to be able to read people, to know and feel their emotions in order to succeed at deals, treaties, and diplomacy). Obi-wan knew Qui-gon was questioning him, could feel it and this harkens back to those JA books where Qui-gon is kiiiind of a total douche, at times. And Obi-wan - rebellious, independent, self-esteem-lacking, so wanting someone’s approval Obi-wan...just falls right into this. It’s kind of an unhealthy dynamic, which resolves itself after Pijal, only to relapse all over again when Qui-gon finds Anakin and pulls his BS on Tatooine. 

Here’s the thing. Qui-gon is not a bad person. I don’t hate Qui-gon, he has good motivations, he wants to make things better. He cares about Obi-wan, seeks advice from his old Master (not knowing Dooku has fallen, my god), tries to free all the slaves he encounters, wants to buck every piece of Jedi and Republic law in order to make the galaxy right. And, you know, I get it. I really do. But there’s idealism and then there’s trying to do the right thing within the systems (no matter how terrible) we have created and inching forward to change because to do otherwise would be to fight yourself in a paper bag. 

Qui-gon is the living embodiment of the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

And Obi-wan knows this, knows Qui-gon is fallible, knows that his devotion to idealism, to prophecy is dangerous and yet he goes along with it anyway because Obi-wan’s greatest failing is his attachment. Obi-wan (the empath) cares too much and he can’t let go - not of Qui-gon, not of Satine, and certainly not of Anakin. 

"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.“ I mean, I’m not a Kylo Ren-stan by any means, but he’s not wrong. At least, not in a broad sense, not in the way that might have allowed Obi-wan to make some clearer-headed decisions about everything from his relationship with Qui-gon to Anakin to the Council. 

In Conclusion

Dooku cared about his students but possibly feared death and thus possibly made his students his vessels to achieve the goal of immortality, despite enjoying teaching.

Qui-gon cared about Obi-wan as much as he did the betterment of the galaxy but was terrible at expressing it and put too much faith in himself, the Force, and prophecy. 

Obi-wan cared almost too much about everyone but himself, replacing self-esteem with rules and the Code, devoting himself to the memory of Qui-gon and his wishes in his guilt over his survival of the encounter at Theed.

And this writer cares waaaaaay too much about these characters and will most definitely be writing more about this book because, to quote Obi-wan flying a ship in the middle of a ship: AAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGHHHH

[mysticsparklewings]

Something of a Story String

romping through rose rows the rouge holds roamers ransom re-writing their wrongs out yonder, they yawn yearning for youth yanked from them you yearn for them, too grave group, so it goes much greatness gone to the grass, a goodbye garden but the "byes" come back they blow in on brisk breezes blooming in balance ____ What's this? It's not Inktober yet, what are the mini-magnets doing out and about?   Over on deviantArt, I was encouraged by AlinaLeeArts to enter the String Me a Haiku Contest! hosted by HaikuWriMo, and while I have only basic knowledge and understanding of Haikus, I've been really wanting to play with the mini-magnets lately after reorganizing them into some new tins, and it sounded like fun. (And like a good way to fill out my upload schedule since the bigger projects I'm working on still aren't quite finished yet. ) So I decided I'd take a stab at, or at least see if I could come up with a concept I was happy with and take it from there. The contest rules state that an entry has to be made up of a string of at least four haikus, a Haiku for the uninformed being, according to Google, "a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world." And that the haikus should use heavy alliteration, which also for the uninformed is, "the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words." This would pose a unique challenge for me because, as I said, I'm not very familiar with writing Haikus. I've read plenty of them, sure, and I think I had to write one at least once or twice back in K-12 school for English class or something, but other than that, if I've ever constructed one, it's been completely by accident. That said, I used two different syllable counters to check each of these before I ever arranged the magnets, so hopefully, they do indeed follow the 5-7-5 pattern properly, if nothing else! Alliteration is also not something I intentionally use super often, and that combined with the limited syllables and structure I think makes for a unique challenge even for someone more familiar with the haiku form. Something I learned very quickly while trying to do this: Every syllable counts, you don't want to waste a single one! Before I could get to actually writing the haikus, though, me being me, I needed a concept/theme to work off of. How would I pick letters to alliterate? What would the haikus be about? Since I want to use the mini-magnets (as is more or less my standard for short-form poetry) what should the background(s) look like? Will all four tell a continuous story or four short stories that go together? I have to have at least four haikus, but am I just going to do four, or will I maybe do a few more than that? I decided the easy way to break it down would be to have each haiku dedicated to a specific letter for alliteration, then make a poem based off of whatever I could come up with within that letter alliteration, as I worked I could go back and forth between the separate haikus to develop more of a story, and then once they were done or mostly done, I could decide on what I would do for the background(s) based on the poems themselves. This process did change a little bit, as I started off using a haiku generator to help me get more in a haiku-writing mindset. I did through that pick up one line, "seeing a balance," that obviously got translated a bit differently into the final version ("blooming in balance"), but other than that I really was still largely on my own. I'd toyed with a few other concepts, but none of them felt right or were really sticking with me. Then I got the idea to pick each letter for the haikus based on an acronym; a well-known combination of letters. That would also potentially give me a theme to work off of.   Initially, I thought of ROYGBIV, the acronym for the basic seven colors of the rainbow. And I actually started working on trying to make my haikus based on that, but the letter "O" stopped me pretty short because once I had the letters, my idea was to do word-association like I normally do for the Inktober prompts; I'd list out some potential words to use that I felt somehow connected with the color and started with the same letter as the color. Frankly, there just aren't a lot of letter-O words that I could also connect back to the color, and the few I did come up with just didn't seem like they had a super compelling story hidden within them. But I did really like the idea of the colors because that gave me a good launching point for the backgrounds; I could just use the same color the haiku was based on within the background for it. It sounded like fun, even. So I didn't want to just totally ditch it. After giving it some thought, I figured the best thing to do would be to try using the four main colors everybody knows: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. If I still couldn't come up with my haikus based on those four letters, then it was time to pick a new acronym. Fortunately, even though I had my concerns about the Y in particular, I had a much easier time after that. (I mean, I already had most of the one for "Red," from the ROYGBIV stage, but still.) It's funny though, I thought "Blue" was going to be the easiest, based on my knowledge of "B" words, but that one was actually the one I ended up tweaking and re-writing the most. Probably because it was also the last one I did, and I had started to develop a vague story about yearning for life and visiting a grave in a cemetery, so I had to work within that theme. Though, that said, I think "Green" is actually the weakest of the four, as far as impact goes, despite it being the one that kinda hammers home the life/death theme the most. It was the most difficult one to balance my syllables appropriately because of the words I really wanted to use.   Obviously, this "story" developed as I worked, so it's a bit more on the abstract side, but this is how I see what these four haikus say together; They're talking about someone, probably a young someone (I picked a girl for the background, but the poems could go either way), walking through a field of flowers and stumbling upon a nursing home, maybe with a couple of residents on the porch, and a cemetery nearby. Maybe connected to the home, maybe not. And the young someone stops and reflects on life, and how even once someone passes away, oftentimes we can be reminded of them, or almost feel as if they're still here, in the small things and little fleeting moments here there, like the petals of a flower or the whispers of a seasonal breeze in the air. They come back in those small ways, completing the circle of life, that essential balance of the universe. Of course, that's just one way to interpret it, and even then there are still small details that could be changed while still keeping the sentiment the same. Personally, that's one of the things I enjoy the most about poetry and the mini magnets--you don't always know what you're going to end up saying until someone else reads it and tells you what it says to them. As for those backgrounds, they're all fairly simple watercolor paintings. Once I had the poems and this vague idea of a story, it was fairly easy to come up with a background concept for each one to make them a little more interesting. Normally, I'd use sponged-ink backgrounds during Inktober, but I've been toying with the watercolor idea in the back of mind and this seemed like a good time to experiment since I was already pushing the envelope in various other ways. You can see pretty much exactly what I had in mind for each one, though I will clarify the green one is supposed to be a tombstone in the grass since it's the only one that I think might not be super clear right away. It could just as easily be a rock.   For each of them, my process was very simple; I just picked 1-3 shades to make a gradient from the appropriate color, alternating each one slightly depending on what I wanted for the sky, and then I added the grass and silhouettes on top using a combination of watercolor and black pen. And then the very last one, "blue," got the added moon, stars, and some fireflies using gel pens (and a little bit of pastel for glow). It was the most complex, but "yellow," was actually the trickiest because I have not yet mastered the ability to free-hand a human silhouette. I had to sketch it out separately and then use my lightbox to transfer the outline and fill it in. And, funnily enough, the backgrounds you see here were actually meant to be smaller test-runs before making bigger ones and actually physically setting the mini-magnets on them to photograph. But I was so happy with how these small test ones turned out, I honestly didn't feel like I needed to make the bigger ones. So I pivoted a bit; I formed each mini-magnet poem on a plain blue piece of paper (a "blue screen" if you will to make it easier to separate the words) and photographed them, then used Photoshop to get each haiku onto its respective background. This ended up working to my advantage, as I could just focus on arranging the words to make the words properly and not working around the paintings underneath, and then once I had everything in photoshop I could move things around as necessary much more easily. I'm not super sure about the haiku part, but I'm really pleased with how the overall result looks, and especially happy with 3 out of the four backgrounds.  So much so, I will be posted a wordless version of just the backgrounds to go along with this one for your viewing pleasure! fav.me/ddrqj28 I don't think I'll be placing in the contest (I could be wrong, but I'm aware I'm a little out-of-my-element here ), but I enjoyed the process and the end result, so it was still worth it in my eyes. It was really nice to have the mini-magnets out and put them to use again, especially since I've been having a craving to do so lately. And having them all freshly re-organized made using them all the more enjoyable. Though I'm still not quite sure in what form it'll be, I am very much thinking of doing more non-Inktober stuff like this with the mini-magnets going forward. I have so many of them and I enjoy using them, even when it's a daily challenge and running me a bit ragged.  You might say I'm a bit of an addict. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[yourmomisastrongwoman]

How Science Fiction and the Theoretical coexist Within Feminism.

My first piece of writing that I’m submitting to this blog, journal, log (what ever this collection of my thoughts and opinions should be called), is a comparison of two texts. Over the span of a couple of weeks, my First Year Seminar course was assigned to read author James Tiptree, Jr’s: “The Women Men Don’t See”, as well as a collection of writer and poet, Audre Lorde’s work. From Lorde’s essays, I decided to focus on “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” in order to think and to discuss how different themes of feminism overlap with Tiptree, Jr’s “The Women Men Don’t See”. 

The texts differ in genre - In Tiptree, Jr’s story, we’re brought along on a journey from the perspective of Don (your token, small minded, white man trope), as we read how he goes about reluctantly coexisting, let alone surviving, with three other victims (Ruth, Althea, and Esteban) through a spontaneous plane crash in Mexico. Tiptree writes an engaging story written from her take on a cis, hetero, white male perspective, that dives into the subconscious snap judgments made on women in society everyday. Lorde, on the other hand, writes a powerful essay on her feminist beliefs, more specifically how she believes that art - even more specifically - poetry, is a means of emotional communication that is too often ignored, or put on the back burner. 

In both Tiptree and Lorde’s texts, the authors explore the process of finding stability in things that are alien (literally in Tiptree’s) in relation to the #strongindependentwoman - more eloquently put: the female autonomy. One wouldn’t immediately think that these two pieces of writing are similar due to the obvious fact that, on the surface, they’re wildly different from one another. However, the two unite/communicate surprisingly cohesively. 

I was reluctant to love Alice B. Sheldon’s (more commonly known under her pen name “James Tiptree, Jr”) story, “The Women Men Don’t See”. Initially, I was slightly hesitant to read on as I, a 17 year old self identifying feminist, was caught off guard by the irritatingly familiar “mansplainy” tone in which it was written. Within the first page of Jr’s story, we get Don Fenton, our narrator’s, descriptions of female characters which include, but are not limited to: “small, plain, and neutral-colored”, as well as “I see the girl has what could be an attractive body if there was any spark at all” (1). Right off the bat we’re coming in strong with a problematic approach to merely existing with women. Don’s character doesn’t stray from comments like these throughout the story; it’s his point of view, it’s constant, and it’s annoying. (Yet, also simultaneously a little funny because the female reader understands that some people actually do think this way, and that is … ridiculous). What enables (and heightens) Don’s line of thinking, is his current situation and the equalizing of powers. Don is a white man; his privilege protects him on a daily basis. However, he’s currently just experienced a plane crash, accompanied by two women (Ruth and her daughter Althea), and their Pilot, Esteban (who is routinely referred to by Don as “The Maya”, unpacking a whole host of other problematic things). It’s clear that he can not stand the fact that all previous structures of a gender/racial social hierarchy have been stripped from the four, and now all are equal in survival mode. 

As the story continues, Don and Ruth end up leaving camp in search for fresh water. On their separate journey Don becomes increasingly annoyed that Ruth doesn’t seem to uphold a woman’s “typical characteristics”, while his thoughts regarding her become more and more sexual. “Mrs. Ruth Parsons of Bethesda, this thrumming, private woman. How crazy can I get? … I blink away the fantasies and see a scared little woman in a mangrove swamp … she sits obediently, like a kid in a dentist chair … she nibbles her lip” (16). 

The culmination of Tiptree’s story ends with literal Aliens arriving at Ruth and Don’s camp. Within the alien’s presence, Ruth’s instinct reaction is to empathize with the agitated creatures, while Don’s instinct reaction is conquer them (colonialism at its finest). 

NOW HOW DOES ALL OF THIS CONNECT TO THE WONDERFUL AUDRE LORDE, AND HER INCREDIBLE ESSAY ON HOW ART IS A MEANS OF ENHANCING OUR WOMANHOOD? Well, I’m so happy this finally got brought up! Lorde spends “Poetry is Not a Luxury” detailing how by devoting time and energy into poetry, the woman equips herself with a multiplicity of tools, helping her dismantle the patriarchy that affects her everyday. 

One of the biggest ways in which Lorde and Tiptree’s texts overlap, are the overarching themes of devoting oneself to something alien in order to distract. Lorde writes: “As we become more in touch with our own ancient, black, non european view of living … we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and therefore lasting action comes” (1). This quote exists in harmony when paired with the culmination of “The Women Men Don’t See”. Ruth’s character doesn’t reach to find her “ancient, non european” roots, however, she does reach - metaphorically - and ends up exhibiting her inherent character values which include empathy. Ruth’s been so caged by Don’s male presence, when the aliens arrive it’s clear that she prefers the company from strange, extraterrestrial beings, to the white man. “‘Ruth, get over here behind me!’ She doesn’t look at me, only keeps sidling farther away. My terror detonates into anger. ‘Come back here!’ … she doesn’t turn but straightens up warily, still hugging the thing … is she actually trying to talk to them? ‘Please…’she swallows. ‘Please speak to me. I need your help’” (23). Through the natural act of empathy, Ruth is able to easily connect with the creatures through “the hidden sources of power from where true knowledge and … lasting action comes” (to quote Lorde). 

Another connection between Lorde and Tiptree’s texts are the effects of power on women, and how we survive experiencing them everyday in society. Lorde writes: “As we learn to bear the intimacy of scrutiny, and to flourish within it, as we learn to use the products of that scrutiny for power within our living, those fears which rule our lives and form our silences begin to lose their control over us” (Lorde, 1). We know as women, that even though Don in “The Women Men Don’t See”, never flat out says the diminutive things that he thinks about Ruth, and frankly, women in general, it’s clear that his demeanor and overall (and I’m putting this in what I feel is best described as) “aggressive manly man white male trope’s” presence, has an effect on Ruth that she’s all too familiar with. It’s obvious that if this story was written from the perspective of Ruth, or truthfully any woman, his mannerisms would be picked up on immediately, and we would have insight on why Ruth’s character acts the way she acts. We, the female reader understand her soft, non intrusive demeanor, because everyone of us has experienced the looming presence and energy of an overly confident, stubborn, male. We sympathize with Ruth’s thoughtfulness, and end up relating to the strength that she displays by the end of the story. Lorde’s words perfectly summarize the way in which women (in this case Ruth), become accustomed to the sexist and demeaning language, portrayed through tone and energy. However, through patronization Ruth flourishes, creating bonds with the creatures, as well as ultimately escaping with her daughter to another universe. As Lorde promotes, Ruth literally devotes herself to an alien idea to distract herself from the white patriarchy, and only until she does that, she becomes free.

Through Lorde’s theoretical, and James Tiptree Jr’s sci-fi/fictional texts, we as women can learn, as well as relate to the ideas and the strategies that these authors spell out for us. Tiptree paints a character that every one of us, in one way or another, is familiar with. While Lorde stresses the importance of experiencing as well as identifying emotions along with what enables them. Both are thought provoking works that every woman is able to absorb and connect with. 

[fyrapartnersearch]

✦ —Roleplay Request [ ALWAYS OPEN ]

table of content

Introduction

What I’m looking for

Types of Roleplay

Rules and Regulations

Fandoms/ Originals

Abandoned Plots

FAQ

Final Note

Contact Information

introduction

Hi, you can call me Reece. I am a twenty-seven year old university student, who is studying psychology and english literature. A lot of my time is spent studying, thus the lack of a social life, but in my spare time I like to read, write, play video games, and watch movies, among other things. I have a variety of hobbies and love making friends with like minded individuals. Admittedly, I can be a bit shy in the beginning, so forgive me. I have been writing since I was ten, and discovered roleplaying when I was fourteen. I started out in chat rooms, bounced around forums, and was even a member of the now defunct Quizilla. I’m trying to make a comeback within the roleplay world after having to take unforeseen hiatuses due to ongoing health issues. At this time I am looking for something casual and relaxed; nothing stressful. I will list my rules and such, in addition to what I'm craving below.

what I’m looking for in a partner

Someone willing to take the time to sit down and plan out a story we’ll both enjoy.

Someone who will respect me in the same manner as I will them. It’s a two way street and I’m tired of being disrespected and harassed.

Someone who will take the time to read my rules and regulations. There have been too many instances where I’ve discovered people have either disregarded my rules or simply glossed over them. In exchange if you have any concerns please bring them to me.

Someone who understands that I won’t be able to respond every day. I’ve been dealing with an ongoing health issue since back in June and every month it’s been constant trips to the doctor. It will take me a bit, have patience with me, please. There are some days where I might only be up for talking OOC, then there are others where you might not hear me because I simply don’t feel well.

Someone who doesn’t mind that I’m that person who adores our roleplay so much that I will make everything from mood boards, edits, and playlists dedicated to our characters, ships, etc.

Someone who doesn’t mind talking outside of roleplay. Another perk of roleplay is finding friends and that’s what I seek. I would like to find someone who I can build a friendship with. We can fangirl over our story and our ships, talk about our day and slowly get to know one another. ❤

types of roleplay

basic:  Contact me with what fandom(s) you’re interested in, we’ll make a mutual decision on the choice, before exchanging oc information and discussing plots. The format is what we’re all used to: portraying our oc’s, each other’s love interest(s) and side characters.

doubles:  More or less the same as above, except if there is more than one thing you’d like to do  and are up for doing more than roleplay, than we can. I will probably only accept 2-3 per person, due to time management.

split:  The format is similar to the basic formula, we both choose one fandom of our respective sides. Then, we exchange oc information, love interests and plots.                      

split 2.5:   This is similar to the former, but different than the ones before it. Normally, a split roleplay is done where we choose two separate fandoms; but I can make an exception for a basic format if that is what you wish. Now, here is where it’s different after we choose our respective fandoms, along with our oc information we will include a big or small write up of a plot for our character and their love interest(s). Now, I will give my partner full-rein in regards to what kind of plot they want. Want a storyline filled with drama and mayhem? Go for it. Want a reverse harem storyline with four characters vying for your character’s heart? Fine with me. This is your opportunity to play out any kind of headcanons and storylines you wish. I only ask for nothing that violates my rules or limits, otherwise sky’s the limit. I will may accept 2-3 per person. If you need help with a storyline, let me know.

rules and regulations

length:

Normally, I will write one to two paragraphs on both sides. However, that is not my limit for I can write anywhere between one to five paragraphs per sides. Length for a single paragraph can range anywhere between 200-500+ words, whereas each individual side usually equates anywhere from 400-800+ words. I like to consider myself a paragraph|multi-paragraph writer, although I know a lot of people are converting to novella writers, I can accommodate to a novella partner just beware that it will take me longer to reply to you as opposed to someone else. This is due to how much time and effort that goes into novella responses. I am the type of person who likes to take the time to construct a quality response, rather than rush and send someone a response for the sake of replying. Which is why I ask, please give me time to write your response.

format:

I can write in either first or third person, despite preferring first because I can connect with my character more; I will do whatever my partner feels more comfortable with and if that’s second so be it. Also, don’t forget that roles between the two of us should follow accordingly; I play my OC, your love interest(s) and additional side characters. While you play your OC, my love interest(s) and additional side characters.

love interests, mary sues, and spotlight:

I’m lenient when it comes to love interests, as I allow more than one suitor for our characters because love triangles make the story more interesting. However, I would ask that if we just so happen to have the same choice(s) for a love interest that we don’t fight about it; instead try to sort things out. I’ve literally had someone threaten me, simply because I liked the same person as them (I’m not kidding). Second, I’m not an extremist when it comes to characters; meaning I won’t knit pick about every little thing. All I ask is no Mary-Sues and no hogging the spotlight; this is a storyline created between the two us. Let’s share it please.

spelling and grammar:

There are a lot of people who tend to knit pick about this; but rest assured I will not. All I ask is that you have a decent grasp on both spelling and grammar. Do this and we’ll get along fine; this is something that I can and will promise you.

manners and etiquette:

This should be common knowledge, but all I ask is that during our time writing together that you treat me with respect and courtesy; I will return the gesture as it is only right. I’d like us to get along, I would hate for a disagreement to ensure and there was bad blood between us due to something frivolous.

patience and commitment:

I am a full-time student, attending college and leave for school early in the morning and return home later in the afternoon; I am usually quite tired when I return home, but I try to reply to my partners as frequent as possible. However there are times, unfortunately when I cannot reply when I’d like due to an abundant amount of assignments, health issues which can lead to me becoming sick or an emergency at home. I try to inform my partners of these occurrences, but if you don’t hear from me in two weeks time don’t be afraid to send me a message and ask me about it. What I won’t accept, is being spammed every five seconds with the same message; again and again because I’m not replying like you’d like me to. I do my best to get to you all, roleplay is supposed to be fun and enjoyable; an escape from reality for both of us. It shouldn’t have to feel like a job. I will do the same for you because I understand everyone here has different lives and schedules to attend to; but please don’t ditch me half-way through the roleplay. If you need to take a break or something; then please tell me. I don’t bite- I’ll understand.

limits:

Upon sending a request please include your limits; the last thing I wish is to make you uncomfortable. My own limits include but are not limited to the following: male x male,  female x female, incest, paedophilia, and bestiality. This is where my limits stand as of now and may or may not change depending on future roleplays. If you’re unsure about something please don’t hesitate to ask me. In regards to what I will do well I am open to mature themes within my roleplays; actually, I would prefer if my partner was as well. These themes are but not limited to: foul language, violence, blood/gore (but not too heavy, please), smut, sex, alcohol, drugs ( prescription or not), mental illness, psychological themes and more. However, please be advised that I would like to keep everything to a certain level; this means while I do allow cursing, please do not have your character do so every other word. Also, I will not engage in a roleplay that is dedicated solely to sexual activities, alone. I believe that there is more to a storyline than this.

canon, crossovers and au:

I can do strictly canon roleplays or an alternate universe roleplay. Alternate Universes can range from ‘what if’ situations, different settings and scenarios. If you have an idea let me know, or we can brainstorm ideas together; I also have a list of AU prompts so let me know if you’d like to take a look at it. I am also crossover friendly

location:

I use mediums such as Skype, Discord and Kik to talk ooc, but tend to roleplay through Google Docs, Email (preferred) or Tumblr.

ooc chit-chat:

I’d like to chat on the sidelines with my partners, as it allows the two of us to get to know each other; thus making things less awkward for the both of us. Plus, I like to make friends with my partners and would enjoy the extra person to converse with.

roleplay subjects

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g-NIA7WE3wyKf6H9bVQSeBcaYR8GpeEvbxtAJF3jvSQ/edit?usp=sharing

The link above will provide my full list of fandoms (cravings included) and original prompts. Please be sure to visit before contacting me.

final checklist

Respect my limits and I’ll respect yours.

This list will be updated when I see fit

If it’s not on my list, don’t ask me about it, no offence but you’re wasting my time and yours.

Please acquaint yourself with my rules before messaging me. Failure to comply with them or in the instance of repeat offences will result in the termination of the roleplay.

Love interests are written in order of preference. If there is only one listed then that’s the only one and I won’t change it.

Listed above are the fandoms I would be interested in writing for, with them are characters who I wished played against my OC. In return, I will play a character opposite your own OC.

Please try to have at least two choices when contacting me. I will be thrilled if you have more than that.

In all seriousness don't contact me if you're going to ditch. I'm just tired of getting excited over requests and then get dropped. It's even more disappointing when it's something I was looking forward to or spent hours writing a starter. If there's something you want to be included or omitted let me know. If you need to step away from the roleplay, let me know. Please don't just stop replying or delete me or whatever. Now, if you haven't heard from me within a week or two send a follow-up message; I cannot stress this enough. Sometimes it's school, other times it's my health, there will be days where I don't have the strength to reply. Then, sometimes it's simply something as simple as an email being misplaced or a technical glitch. Regardless, I will always get replies to my partners; it just might take me longer. If you cannot understand this, then I am not the partner for you.

As mentioned at the beginning of this request I am looking for something casual and stress-free. I'm not the quickest replier due to school and health problems. Which is why I ask that you not harass me. I don't mind if it's been a few days or more and you give me a soft poke (i.e. ”Hey, I'm just checking in, etc). What isn't appropriate is sending me a string of messages in pursuit of a reply, getting angry with me for not responding, threatening to end the roleplay, or assuming that I've ditched because I haven't replied in a few days. When someone harasses me, I become stressed, when I become stressed, I will no longer want to continue the roleplay. I will simply end things altogether. Again, I don't mind a light nudge or friendly ask. Most days I'm up for OOC talk, even if the roleplay is on pause, but anything else will not be tolerated. I'm tired of it.

Be prepared to plot.

Split roleplays are an option

Double roleplays are an option

Plot Candies: Fandoms, Canon, Real world meets the Fandom world(aka: Characters from a fandom transported to the real world or vice versa), Action, Adventure, Superhero fiction, Crime, Fantasy, Supernatural, Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Epic/High Fantasy, Magical Girl, Alternate Universe, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Slice of Life, Thriller, Psychological, Drama, Mythology, Fiction, Tragedy, Time Travel, What-If (prompts),Married-Life, Pregnancy, Family, Crossovers, Reverse Harem

Genres and Themes that are a no-no: Science Fiction, Western, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Historical, Mecha, Zombies, Canon/Canon

Upon contacting me please make sure to do the following. First, I believe that first impressions matter and therefore would appreciate if you could please introduce yourself to me. I find when people contact me with simply “Want to RP” or “RP?” to be very off-putting and therefore leave me with no desire to return the message. Second, please include the following information: what you’re interested in writing for, any limits that you may or may not have (this one is important because I know everyone is different) and what type of roleplay you’re interested doing. Lastly, it would be nice if you could include any ideas you may have. If you don’t have any that’s okay, if you do don’t be shy to share. Thanks. ❤

contact information

email: x_heavenly.aura_x@yahoo.com

skype: x_keyblade.princess_x

kik: Sailor.Nyx

discord: Stray Cat #6885

tumblr: miss-mischievous-minx.tumblr.com

[sargenthouse]

Earth Premiere "The Mandrake's Hymn" & Interview / Guitar.com

via guitar.com

Earth’s trajectory is not so much of an orbit as it is a deviation. For the past three decades, the only constant for the band headed by Dylan Carlson has been change – which is ironic for a group whose music relies heavily upon repetition.

Earth started out with ground-shaking seismic drone metal on 1993’s Earth 2, then took a left turn in 2005 into the arid West with the Morricone-inspired Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method. Almost a decade later, they ventured into meditative rock with Primitive And Deadly.

Now, the band have purged themselves of any embellishments, stripping instrumentation down to Carlson on guitar and bass and Adrienne Davies on drums and percussion. The upcoming record, Full Upon Her Burning Lips, is a lesson in austerity, and spotlights the duo’s sonic symbiosis.

Ahead of the release, we speak with Carlson about the record, his fascination with Telecaster pickups and his favourite collaborations thus far.

Dylan Carlson (left) and Adrienne Davies of Earth

The new album sees Earth stripped down to the core duo of you and Adrienne Davies. Can you shed more light on this decision?

Well, I’ve been playing with Adrienne for almost 20 years now, and on previous albums, I’ve been fortunate enough to play with a lot of amazing players, but I really wanted this album to focus on the two main members at this point. Just because we really haven’t done that since, probably, Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method.

I also felt like live drums have always been a big part of what Earth does, but that has never come across as fully on record. You know, because when you’re recording a bunch of different instruments, you need to leave room for stuff, and I always felt like the drums didn’t show the full potential that Adrienne’s capable of.

And then also, I’ve always sort of been the guy that holds everything down with my guitar and let a lot of other instruments carry the melodic work – whether it’s cello or keys or stuff like that. So I sort of wanted it to just be the two of us showing off the best of our abilities.

The previous records, they’ve all been very lush sounding and I wanted this one to be very present and dry, and upfront. Using the 70s style, you know, where I was running two amps for the basics and hard panning guitars left and right – the kind of stuff that you just don’t really hear any more on record.

Can you tell us a little more about the title Full Upon Her Burning Lips?

I’m always trying to find titles that I feel are numinous and open to multiple interpretations. Many of them, I don’t necessarily see and people tell me about them later. Like someone recently asked if [the title] was about the moon because of the “full upon” bit – which I hadn’t thought of.

I feel like music is a sensual and sensuous experience, so I wanted a title that could evoke that. Originally, the cover idea I had for Primitive And Deadly was going to be much sexier than it turned out. I was sort of on a Scorpions jag at the time [laughs]. I think a lot of music now is missing that element. There’s so much music that’s hyper-male. To me, Metallica is a perfect example – nothing in their music or lyrics reflect the idea that there’s a feminine principle to the universe. So, I guess that’s where it came from.

You mentioned in a statement that you like the “limiting of materials to force oneself to employ even more creatively”. How did that reflect in terms of guitar tone for this album?

For this one I basically used a limited number of effects. I used my live rig, which was like a compressor, an overdrive, a Uni-Vibe and a delay. I mean I used one other overdrive for some cleaner textures and an auto wah on one track, but I pretty much tried to limit it to just the pedals that I use live.

I tried to get the most out of them. For example, I’ve used the Uni-Vibe for a long time, but I’ve always just used the vibrato setting. I never thought the chorus was very useful, and then on this album, I figured out a bunch of really cool sounds with that setting. So that was fun to use in a different way than I normally do.

Image: Sean Stout

A lot of artists tend to compose instrumental music around tension and release. Is that an approach that you take as well?

I guess so, but I don’t know if it’s a conscious one. I feel like all songs should have some kind of arc – I call it a “narrative arc”. Although [with instrumental music] it’s very loose, as there’s obviously not any lyrics telling you what the story is. I sort of – in this very abstract sense – feel like songs and albums should still have a narrative arc. And I hope we convey that in the way that I put stuff together.

Again, it’s a sort of an abstract notion of a narrative, but you know, a song should start somewhere and then go somewhere, in some sort of rudimentary sense. I think that’s why, with instrumental music, the song titles become important. It’s the only way of conveying some kind of narrative with language.

I feel like music is a language in and of itself, and [communicates] in a different way. Music is simultaneously more immediate and more abstract in its meaning. With instrumental music, the audience is also participating in the creation of the meaning or the narrative or the imagery.

It’s not like songs with lyrics where it’s like “Oh my baby left me” or whatever. With instrumental music, it’s more challenging.

This album has a lot of minimalism and repetition. How do you make repetitions sound like progression to the listener?

With repetitive music especially, be it like the riff or the melody or whatever, it should be something that you want to hear again. So I think crafting really memorable riffs is key. They should be something that you want to hear again, and the riffs themselves should have some kind of arc to them as well – so that you’re getting mini arcs that build up to a bigger arc.

That’s one thing I’m constantly trying to do. When I come up with a riff it’s like “Oh, is this something like worth repeating?” There’s that thing that great riffs have where they make you want to hear them again. Whether they’re catchy or whatever, I feel like they should be strong enough – and interesting enough – that they bear repetition.

Image: Holly Carlson

Folklore is a major theme of this album, as it is with much of your work. What draws you to it?

To me, with the music I make, I want it to be timeless and feel like it’s always been there. Folklore has stories and knowledge that have been around forever, transcending cultures. I also feel like, especially with rock music – for lack of a better term – and American music, are all originally from folk sources. You know, blues, jazz, country, rock ’n’ roll – the music is not “high culture”. It’s not like classical music in that it wasn’t created by rich people for other rich people.

It’s popular music from the people, embedded in the salt of the earth, and it’s the same with folklore. It’s interesting and it’s numinous. It’s got a quality of timelessness, like something that’s always been there and that goes along with what I try to do hopefully musically.

Has your gear changed much over the years?

Yeah, I would say so. When I first came back to guitar playing, I hadn’t had a guitar for at least four years. So when I came back to guitar in 2001 or 2002, I was really into gear and was always buying petals. I guess you could call it GAS. But along the way, I realised that it didn’t really matter what I played, it was going to be me like regardless. And so I got a lot less gear-obsessed.

I like gear obviously – I mean, I love guitar – and I’ve found things that allow me to translate what’s in my head better, but I don’t feel like they’re necessary. I’m going to sound like me regardless of what I’m given. I think a lot of people are always looking for that “magic box” or this amp or that amp. At the end of the day, it’s you, you know?

The gear I do get now, I get it because I like how it sounds – which is the most important thing – and then whether it’s functional and helps me with touring. Number one is the sound and number two is functionality and whether it makes my life easier. Those are sort of two of my guiding principles.

Right now I play my live rig which I’m very happy with because I discovered these Trace Elliot Elfs, 200-watt heads that weigh like a pound – I’ve got two of those. And then one has a 1×12 Dietz cab, which I love. The Jesus Lizard guys use them, and Buzz [Osborne] has one. I didn’t know about them before, I was just in Austin and I needed a cab. Yeah, it weighs a shit-tonne, but that’s the only downside to it. It’s got wheels, but it’s a little monster. Then for the other one, I have a 1×12 Mesa cab that’s semi-open.

And then I recorded the album with and did my solo tour with a Burman – it’s a British amp from the early 70s. They were a company out of Newcastle and they basically built these 100-watt power amps called the “Slaves” which ran for either KT66s or EL34s – mine’s got EL34s – and then they did various preamp modules. So they were kind of ahead of the curve, in a certain way.

Image: Sean Stout

You’ve obviously played a lot of guitars over the years. Do you have any favourites?

Yeah, my favourite guitar is the one my wife Holly bought. It has an alder Strat body, and then we had our friend, this artist Jason Borders, carve and stain it. It has no finish. It’s got a Fender neck, the classic player one, with a 12-inch radius pau ferro fretboard, and then I’ve got a brass tremolo. I love brass, I’ve had brass on pretty much all of my guitars that I can. This guitar’s also got a brass bridge and a brass nut.

And then I’ve been running a DiMarzio Fast Track Tele bridge pickup, DiMarzio Cruiser in the middle position, and a DiMarzio Air Classic in the neck. I’m a big DiMarzio fanboy, as you can tell [laughs].

Oh, and this guitar has a little thing called the StratoBlaster which was made by Alembic. It’s a little boost switch – I have mine set for about plus 7- or 8dB, but you can go all the way to 14dB. That’s nice if you want a little bit of oomph.

I have a Tele, it was one of the Roadworn ones which I guess came out in the mid-2000s. That’s got a DiMarzio Tone Zone Tele bridge and a Seymour Duncan Little ‘59 in the neck.

In Europe, I have two guitars that live in a warehouse. I have an Epiphone SG. That one’s got a DiMarzio Tone Zone Tele bridge pickup and a Super Distortion in the neck. I was in a big Jerry Garcia phase then so I got a OBEL (or On-Board Effects Loop) on it, although I very rarely used it [laughs]. And the other’s an Epiphone Explorer that has a DiMarzio Super Distortion Tele bridge pickup. I basically put Tele Bridge pickups in all my guitars.

Some of my guitars have names. Like my favourite one – the Strat or Hollycaster – I call “The Fox”. Tele is “The Cat” and the SG is “The Goddess” because it has a big sticker of Tara Guanyin on it.

Image: Sean Stout

Do you achieve noise through the amps?

I use a lot of gain. Well, maybe not a lot of gain but I push the amps with the compressor and overdrive. With the 200-watt headroom, you’re not going to make it break up, so the tone is really a combination of pickups, overdrive and my hands. It’s not the amp. Same with the Burman – it’s a 100-watt – so the headroom’s massive.

If I’m playing a smaller tube amp, like when I had a 50-watt Plexi for a while, I didn’t use overdrive. I just hit the front end hard with the compressor. That was still like, loud as fuck. Over the years, I’ve come to understand headroom and the fact that no one really needs anything more than 50 watts. Even that is overkill, really, for most venues. Back in Earth 2 days, when I didn’t know any better, and I was young and could lug a shit-tonne of gear, it was like, “Oh yeah, let’s have, all this ridiculous amount of equipment!”. Back then most soundmen didn’t even bother mic-ing us, you know? Now I understand to let the PA do the heavy lifting.

I understand we all grew up on the cool pictures of [Jimi] Hendrix in front of a wall of Marshalls. But there were no PAs and they were playing outdoors half the time. Of course, you need like 25 Marshalls or whatever! It was a different time, with a 100-watt head now you’re never going to get to that sweet spot at a volume that’s not going to kill people.

Let’s talk about collaborations for just a second. What would you say has been your best experience so far?

Well, I love working with Kevin [Martin, aka The Bug]. It’s a whole different world than the one I am used to inhabiting. So it’s very fun for me in that way because I just get to be the guitar player and be creative.

I also love Emma [Ruth Rundle]. I think she’s an amazing musician and a wonderful human being, so that was enjoyable. And with Maddy Prior, that was super because obviously I was really into English folk. Yeah, so getting to meet an OG [laughs] and she was a lovely, lovely woman and really easy to work with. She had written a song and asked me to play guitar on it and I got to just come in and do it.

They’re all incredibly talented and really lovely people, so they’ve all been a real pleasure to work with.

What was recording Concrete Desert like? Would you do something like that again?

Yeah, I’ve been talking to Kevin about it! [Concrete Desert] was our very first collaboration, and he basically sent me the tracks and I played guitar and sent them back. So we actually hadn’t even met in person at that point. I actually just ran into him in on the street in Krakow because we were both playing the same festival.

Then Ninja Tune wanted us to play this anniversary party in LA together, and he had this material and was like, “Hey, why don’t we do this again?” and we were actually in the studio together for a couple days. I mean, he’d already generated much of the material but then after I put my guitar on, he went back and changed it a bunch. He told me he got new ideas from the guitar parts and kinda tweaked it.

But yeah, hopefully the next time we work together we can do it with both of us in the studio, building stuff from the ground up. I don’t know when that’ll happen, but we definitely want to do something together again.

Are there any other guitarists you feel are pushing the instrument to the bleeding edge?

I think Oren Ambarchi is pretty amazing. There’s probably some guys I’m not aware of, but I know Oren and think he’s a pretty good dude. I’m a rock dude and like the fact that he still manages to inject rock into [his music] in some weird way, like with that album he did with the Ace Frehley cover, for example. I think he’s got a lot of swagger to it that others don’t have.

The Rig

Main Guitar: The Fox aka Hollycaster (see above for details)

Amp: Live – 2 x Trace Elliot ‘Elf’ heads (200w solid state) each with 1×12 cab (a Dietz and a Mesa). Recording – Early 70s Burman (100w power amp w/ EL-34s) and a pre-amp module and a DV Mark Micro 50 (50w solid state)

Effects: MXR Custom Comp, MXR Shin-juku Drive, Dunlop Uni-Vibe chorus/vibrato, Dunlop Echoplex Delay, Korg Pitchblack tuner (1st version)

Strings/Accessories: Dunlop Performance Plus Nickel .09-.42, Dunlop Primetone 3mm picks and various other Dunlop picks all around 2mm

Full Upon Her Burning Lips is out 24 May. More information at thronesanddominions.com.

[bonepranks-a]

. OUT            * MEGALOVANIA ANALYSIS!            so i mentioned the other day that i wanted to do a breakdown of megalovania -- this is the first part of that. i identified the unique leitmotifs and how they come together to form the actual structure of the song. then i talked about the actual themes from a character/story analysis viewpoint. 

           disclaimer: while i do have a musical background and some training in music theory, it’s pretty basic and was a few years ago. i’m not the best at identifying every unique pattern or instrument, but i do have a pretty good ear for it. that being said, please forgive any technical/terminology errors. everything is based on how i perceive the song based on my limited knowledge.

           and with that being said, enjoy! (i’d prefer if this didn’t get reblogged, just for the sake of my activity rip)

              a few notes to start out! this is the version of the song i’m working from -- it’s the shortened version that’s released in the ost -- not the common extended version that repeats as in the game itself. you can listen to the full thing at the link above, and each sub-theme is tied to a timestamp in the song. please note that the sheet music referenced below is from an arrangement by jester musician and can be found here -- it is not an official version, and is scored for piano, therefore it does have some variations from the game track.

THEME A (main theme) A1 - 0:00-0:08 - no additions A2 - 0:08-0:16 - with bass line A3 - 0:16-0:32 - with full synths A3 - 0:24-0:32 - with full synths 

            sooooo, the main theme. this is what you think of when you think of the song - it’s 100% the main motif, which i feel comfortable saying because it both opens and closes the song, and it appears the most times throughout. it’s also the part of the song that’s sampled the most in other works. this theme has three variations - the basic one, the one that introducing the bass line, and the one with full synths. each of these variations lasts for 8 seconds (or 4 bars/16 counts, if you’re reading the sheet music). A1 is rehearsal A, A2 is rehearsal A’, and A3 is rehearsal B.

THEME B (second theme) B1 - 0:32-0:40 no additions B2 - 0:40-0:48 with synths and variations

               second theme! i actually really love this one, and i'm sad it doesn’t make another appearance in the song. it’s actually one of the more memorable ones in my opinion. the variations in B2 are really cool, with the synths harmonizing with the melody and bass line. both versions last 8 seconds (4 bars/16 counts), and appear in the sheet music as rehearsal C and C’.

THEME C (hero theme) C1 - 0:48-0:56 - part 1 C2 - 0:56-1:04 - part 2 C1 - 1:04-1:12 - part 1  C2 - 1:12-1:20 - part 2 

                  alrighty, so the third one is what i call the hero theme. i’ll touch on this later, but this motif stands out to me from the rest as being more heroic than the others. with the main theme and second theme both are forward and driven, this one is more celebratory. this may be because the synths are reminiscent of horns, which typically play after a heroic victory. the difference between theme c and the others is that C1 and C2 are not variations of each other, but simply 2 parts to one longer melody. each part, however, is the consistent 8 seconds/4 bars/16 counts. this whole theme is rehearsal D (which repeats). C1 is measures 21-24, and C2 is measures 25-28. 

THEME D (bridge) D1 - 1:20-1:28 - variation 1 D2 - 1:28-1:36 - variation 2

                alrighty, the bridge. there’s nothing in the notation that specifies that theme D is the bridge, but i’ll explain. citing wikipedia -- “a bridge is a contrasting section that prepares for the return of the original material section”. theme D is the most contrasting to the others, as it does not have a fast melody. although the bass line drives it, the leading line slows down to quarter/half/whole notes/etc. only in the second variation with the run at the end (shown below) does it start to pick back up again to lead into the next section. once again, each part is 8 seconds/4 bars/16 counts, and appears in the sheet music as rehearsal E (D1 is measures 29-32 and D2 is measures 33-26).

THEME AD (main theme + bridge) A1D1 - 1:36-1:44 - main theme + bridge variation 1 A3D3 - 1:44-1:52 - main theme with synths + bridge variation 3

                  this next section is definitely the most musically complex in the song. it starts to bring back the main theme again, overlapping with the bridge melody. it’s actually really difficult to break apart every little variation that happens here, so i’ve simplified it into what we already know -- the only notable new variation being a third version of the bridge. i don’t think the sheet music captures everything going on, but it does give you the basic structure. as usual, 8 seconds/4 bars/16 counts. (Measures 37-40 and 41-44 in rehearsal E’). 

THEME E (guitar theme) E1 - 1:52-2:00 - variation 1 E2 - 2:00-2:08 - variation 2 E1 - 2:08-2:16 - variation 1

                and.... here’s where things get a little crazy. the guitar theme is reminiscent of the bridge, but has an entirely different sound to it. the actual notes from the bridge in their original sequence are not present in the guitar theme, but if you were to hum that melody along with it, you’d find that they slot right in perfectly. all sections of the guitar theme contain the same 8 second/4 bar/16 count format. when it repeats, the arranger of this sheet music actually took the time to notate two different endings. 

               so rehearsal F, measures 45-48 is E1 (both times)

                then measures 49-52 is E2 (note the 1st ending notation):

THEME EA (guitar theme + main theme) E2a - 2:16-2:20 - guitar variation 2 (part 1) E2bA1 - 2:20-2:24 - guitar variation 2 (part 2) + main theme

                     theme EA is when things start to change. E2a is is the first part of variation 2. seen here in measures 49-50 again, this is only half of the variation.

                     the other half, which i’ve called E2bA1 completes variation 2 while tying in the main theme again. this is the second ending of rehearsal F, measures 53-54:

                      each of these parts are only 4 seconds/2 bars/8 counts. they all add up to the same total, but this is the first time that we don’t see a 4 bar phrase completed before introducing something new -- resulting in the feeling of the song picking up speed as it drives toward the ending. this merging of the two themes could very easily be called the climax of the song, especially as it leads into the final section.

THEME A (main theme) A1 - 2:24-2:32 - no additions A1 - 2:32-2:36 - no additions (cut off)

                        theme A, the main theme, returns! we first hear the bare bones (ba dum tiss) version for the full 16 counts first, and then it begins to repeat -- only to be cut off midway through. now, this only happens in the short version that does not repeat. in this extended version it loops back to the beginning immediately after -- if you listen closely, you can hear where it was cut (at the 2:36 mark). in the actual game, it’s a seamless transition that actually completes the phrase before returning to the beginning. now, i try not to read too much into why it was decided to cut the song halfway through the phrase rather than letting it complete, or fade it out as is what happens in the game when sans stops his attacks. so, i won’t try to offer an analysis of that, but it’s something to think about. for your reference, you can see these last two instances of theme A in rehearsal G, measures 55-58 and 59-60):

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

                      alrighty! so, now that i’ve thoroughly bored you with my motif breakdown, let’s talk about story themes and character analyses! of course, this is all just my opinion, but i’ve thought a lot about it. 

                      so, the basis of what i want to talk about is that megalovania was meant to be a hero’s song. now, in the game, we only see undyne referred to as the hero (in neutral/pacifist in the flavor text and in genocide with her theme song battle against a true hero). i’m not here to analyze undyne’s songs, but i will say this -- battle against a true hero is NOT an upbeat, driven song the way spear of justice is. it’s calmer, more melancholic, and even slows down in the middle. it is a representation of undyne’s pain and sorrow. 

                    we see something similar with mettaton’s songs. death by glamour is upbeat and positive through the end, whereas power of neo is a lot more tense and not as happy-go-lucky. both battle against a true hero and power of neo share some musical motifs as well -- again, an analysis for another time, but important to keep in mind. 

                    with both of these boss monsters, their songs are intense and driven in a neutral/pacifist route. i would argue that this is because while they believe they’re doing the right thing, so does frisk. you have a face-off between a human who only wants to befriend the monsters and get home, and two defenders of the underground who seek to protect their home. they are, primarily, obstacles to get past to continue your quest, and these songs are representative of that. 

                   so what happens with sans? well, you don’t fight him in neutral/pacifist, but a song was written that theoretically would play if you did fight him (it goes unused in the game itself). song that might play when you fight sans feels very much the same as the other two neutral/pacifist boss fight themes. it’s a little cheesy, it samples his theme from earlier in the game, it’s short and repetitive and fits the vibe of the other music you’ve heard thus far.

                  in genocide, it’s completely different. you fight sans at the end of your genocide run -- he is the last line of defense between frisk and the barrier since asgore is killed instantly. all you’ve done up until this point has been to slaughter everyone in your path, and the further you go, the more the monsters seem to recognize this. in fact, i would argue that their genocide battle themes are from their point of view (explaining the melancholy and sadness that frisk by this point does not feel). so then how do you explain megalovania, a song which turns those other battle themes on their heads and stands apart in every way? it’s longer, it has more unique elements, and most importantly it is intense, driven, and determined to the end.

                 what is sans feeling now? sadness yes, but it’s more than that. he’s angry. he knows more about what’s going on than the other characters. he knows what comes next if he fails to stop frisk. he wants justice, he wants vengeance -- he is the underground’s hero. or at least that’s what he intends to be. what he tries until the end to be. it’s the song you’d hear at the climax of a movie, in the part of the final battle where the protagonist stops getting their ass handed to them, unlocks their inner strength, and defeats the villain. this is why in the battle, frisk gets pummeled (assuming the player isn’t a good dodger) and sans takes no hits. this is HIS moment of glory, and the player/frisk is existing in it, but you’re his adversary. it’s kinda the point where you’re forced to realize that you are the villain of this story, you’re the bad guy, and this is not your time to shine. 

                       and yes, he fails in the end. you beat him and he dies. but there’s no triumph. you only win because he falls asleep and lets hi guard down. you have to literally push the bullet box to the fight button. you spend the entire fight just running, while sans attacks you over and over to stop you from destroying the world. and the song... well, the song is simply emphasizing that there are heroes in the world -- you just aren’t one of them.

[ultinath]

Class Notes: Vampire Magic, Charmed 2019

Welcome to my class on the subject of Vampire play. Previous hypnocons have seen classes on the subject of robot play, bimbo play and other forms of roleplay enhanced with hypnosis, so I thought it would be time for a class on vampires. Now there are many fandoms and stories about vampires, let's name a few different ones, what kinds of vampires do you like to imagine when you're doing vampire play?

Personally I prefer World of Darkness vampires, and for this class, my thrall and I went through the World of Darkness book of vampire powers to design some triggers and command words that would give me vampire magic, and we will be showing off these powers and explaining how they work. Then, at the end of the class, you will have the opportunity to yell powers at me, and I will tell you how I would go about using hypnosis to make this power usable for vampire play.

But first, a word about consent and negotiation. Keep in mind that both of you, or all of you, because the more, the merrier, right? Keep in mind that all of you have preconceptions about vampires. Make sure you are all on the same page about the powers you think a vampire should have and how they work. It would be jarring to run into a preconception, like for example a vampire's reaction to sunlight or a cross, in the middle of a scene.

But that's not the only thing you need to negotiate. Let me get back to the powers later. If you are going to do vampire play, you need to talk about boundaries concerning blood, marks, pain, fear and CNC.Talk to each other about these things, it's ok for either partner to set limits about this. I personally as the vampire, do not like blood and marks and heavy CNC. I know vampires can be a really dark theme, and I totally respect your preferences if you want to go into fear and horror and grimdark. But personally, I just want to say: it's ok if you don't like it dark. Kink is not a contest in who likes the scariest, darkest stuff. You get to enjoy corny, pearl-clutching "Oh no! I cannot resist!" moan! swoon! kind of vampire play. It's all good. Just make sure you are both on the same page.

One last piece of advice I want to give you before we get back to the vampire powers is about the flavour of asking for consent, checking in and safewords. It doesn't need to be jarring to do any of these things. A small demonstration:

bedroom voice "I would like to grope you until you are a whimpering mess in front of all these people, is that ok with you?" Minddiver whimpers...

You see how asking for consent can be sexy? I laugh in the face of people who say asking for consent breaks the mood. And the same goes for checking in with your partner, to see if they're still ok. Together, we developed a vampire power to check in, for example. Let me just demonstrate.

moment of intense eye contact "Soulgaze. How are you doing?"

Minddiver, in a mechanical voice: "He is doing good, looking forward to the demonstrations of the other powers, and eager to please."

"Thank you, Lekker Ding. That is all."

He slumps over and wakes up soon after

So our vampire powers consist of a command word that we stylised to make it feel more vampirey, and an automated response from my lovely thrall. In this case, his subconsious describes to me how @Minddiver is doing, without really bringing him out of those feelings, so that we can continue playing. But before we show off all the vampire powers, let me first say something about using hypnosis to get into character.

Hypnosis is a wonderful tool for the victim or the thrall to get into character, it can be used to make you feel weaker than the vampire, or overwhelmed by their supernatural charisma, and to make you feel like the vampire has been stalking you for days, to get that predator/prey feeling going. A little bit of memory play can really enhance your kidnapping scenario.

But, what many people don't realise, is that hypnosis can also be used for the vampire to get into character. To feel more powerful than mere mortals, overconfident and perhaps a little cruel, less inhibited to put on your billowing cape and behave like you think a vampire should behave. I highly recommend his use of hypnosis, and I want to demonstrate my vampire persona.

Minddiver calls forth Audrey, Nath's vampire persona, and she proceeds to intimidate the class and Minddiver until he manages to call her away again. Nath apologises

As you can see, once you anchor or trigger your persona like this, the change becomes slightly more dramatic than it would be if you just let your character grow over the course of a scene. And you can add in little mannerisms or tweak the personality using hypnotic suggestions. And I do recommend tweaking. I recommend thinking about why you want these vampire powers and how exactly you want them to work. Design them, test them and then when the results are not exactly what you had hoped for, adjust it. Let's show off a couple of powers now.

Mesmerising eyes

All the vampire media describe these mesmerising powers that make the victim helplessly drawn to the vampire, overwhelmed by their power. So we wanted to create a trigger that would cause my thrall to be helplessly drawn to stare into my eyes and lose the ability or interest to do anything else.

Fear me

This is a trigger that I find really interesting because I want to have that power trip of seeing that my thrall is actually very afraid of me, but he will obey me anyway, or perhaps because of that. Fear play is attractive to many people, especially people who struggle with phobias or anxiety in real life, in the same way that masochism can be attractive: because it gives the sub a controlled environment to experience these feelings safely. It can be cathartic and empowering to play with something that bothers you in daily life. If you struggle with anxiety or hypervigilance, you have a wellspring of experience to draw from in fear play, and you can use your intimate knowledge of fear to precisely craft the effect of your fear trigger.

Enthrall

Similar to the mesmerising eyes power, I wanted a way to make him my mindless thrall, who knows nothing, thinks nothing, all he does is repeat my words back to me to create fucking hot affirmations, like: I am your thrall, I have no will, et cetera.

The Bite

Vampires will end up biting their victims, but what does that mean to you? Do you want your victim to become a drained puddle of flesh? Is the bite pleasureable? To the victim, or the vampire, or both? These are things you need to discuss right along with the whole bitemarks and blood discussion. You can use hypnotic suggestion to tweak the effects of the bite to suit your preferences.

So, throw a couple of ideas at me. What kind of powers would you want as a vampire, and I will tell you how I would go about using hypnosis to make that happen. (most powers are best done by hypnotising the victim, but some can be achieved by hypnotising the vampire to achieve the desired effect)

Thank you and I hope you realise that I am in no way an expert or an authority on this subject. I am just another kinkster who has opinions and ideas about how to kink. Please consider helping me travel to another hypno con in the US: http://ko-fi.com/ultinath

[pomegranate-belle]

11 Questions

Tagged by: @zeesqueere, thank you, and sorry this took me so long!

Tagging: @rawkhawkjock, @chessanator, @teashadephoenix, @returnsandreturns, if you guys want — and anybody else who wants to answer these!

1. How long have you been writing?

Uhhh since I was literate probably lmao — I was a very angry, repressed lil bby that got picked on a lot and my Kindergarten teacher nudged me towards expressing myself via the written word rather than with what little violence I could accomplish as a tiny six year old. And that, as they say, is history.

2. What are the major themes of your current wip(s)?

Courting the Sun-Dancer(?) (aka the one abt Alma and Navata): Regaining identity, cultural exchange, choice over fate, courage, loyalty, and the responsibilities of ruling

The still untitled story about Algernon and Tyderias: Homecoming, revenge, what it means to be alive, accepting your talents, learning to love others as they are, sacrifice, and true love

3. What do you want people to take away from your story once they’ve read it?

I don’t know, hope, I guess? It’s not the reason I’m writing them or even the point behind the plots but I wish I’d had stories like this (read: Not Straight Ones) growing up. Mostly I just want people to enjoy reading the things I write.

4. Would you be excited if people write fanfiction about your wip(s)?

I’d be honestly startled given the lack of information to work from right now lol, but I’m super jazzed any time something I write spurs other people to create. :)

5. What’s your go-to writing beverage?

I don’t think I have one but I will say I really had a productive night that one time I went out and drank like three vodka lemonades while working on a character, lmao

6. Who is your favorite oc? Tell me about them!

Ooh, playing favorites is mean... But yeah ok it’s definitely Mauve Sebella (incidentally, she’s also the character from the previous answer—)

She’s gone through about three different iterations as I tried to find a story for her. At first, she was a main character and much more whimsical — a burglar looked after by the remnants of her mother’s iron-smuggling operation. So she was kind of this happy-go-lucky gentleman thief type character with One Million Dads. The plot of that story fizzled out pretty quickly, and I set her aside for a while, but eventually I found use for a character with her specific powers so I dusted her off and gave her an unhappier backstory and an attitude adjustment.

As she stands now, there was no one decent to look after her and keep her safe after her mom died, so she was in a bad situation where everyone was either trying to murder her or use her powers for their own gain. She ended up as a child soldier due to her “magic-eating” eye and became the most infamous assassin on the continent. It’s the perfect conceit for the world she’s in because it means she travels a lot and I can use her as a side character in almost any story set in that world.

7. Do you feel that mistakes are important learning tools in the writing journey?

I guess? I don’t really think about things like that, lol

8. Rank your ocs by their capability in a footchase (either running after or from smth, your choice)

Navata is dead last for the obvious reason that she spends 90% of her time on land in a wheelchair. Then Charles DeWitte, then his younger sister Lucille, then Algernon Parson, then Alma, then Tyderias, then Mauve. Prince Balthazar is the fastest because he’s A Literal Werewolf and his running stamina is totally wild.

9. Does your wip have romance? tell me about it!! if not tell me about a friendship/important relationship in your wip!!

So many romances. So many.

Algernon/Tyderias: my Fake Married boys!! They’re a little suspicious of each other at first, but get over it pretty quickly. Algernon is a natural caretaker and he has an instinct to protect Ty pretty much from the beginning. Ty, who’s a bit jaded from, you know, being an exiled prince and unable to stop his father’s killers from taking over his kingdom, is intrigued by Algernon since he’s just a genuinely good person. Both of them are hiding parts of themselves at the beginning and it causes trouble when the truth comes out, but they pull together when it counts. They take interest in each other’s hobbies and it leads to some self-discovery along the way. Both of them try very hard not to fall love while they have to pretend to be married but uh, it does not work at all.

Alma/Navata: These two are definitely an “opposites attract” couple! Navata is a queen who cares more about being approachable than being unquestionable. She has chronic pain that limits her ability to do things, but she’s fun-loving and doesn’t let her limitations discourage her. She’s a terrible artist and not really what anyone would call graceful even if she’s beautiful. By contrast, Alma is closed off with a solemn, cold image that discourages people from disrespecting her. She looks tougher than Navata, with lots of scars, but she’s much more elegant. They’ve each given things up for the sake of their position, but together they are able to recapture parts of themselves that have fallen by the wayside. They learn about one another’s cultures as Alma competes in suitor trials to win Navata’s hand.

Balthazar/Charles: These two are the original romance plot from the world Alma, Navata, and Mauve are from. Their story is on the back-burner right now but I still love them. Bal is rough around the edges but kind and earnest. Charles is kind of a flirt and he’s good at being charming; he’s knowledgeable, but he can also be a little naive, especially when it comes to his own family. Charles and Bal are childhood best friends who have been nursing crushes on each other for years and years. They share pretty much everything with each other — for example, even though Charles is very close with his sisters, it’s Bal he goes to first when something’s troubling him. And Bal is very protective of Charles, because he knows Charles’ dad treats him badly. However, Bal is unwillingly betrothed to Charles’ younger sister, Lucille. He plans to fight it and express his feelings to Charles, but his plan gets derailed when, during Bal’s coronation ball, Charles is hit with a curse that freezes him in ice. Bal spends the next five years doing everything he can to break the curse while the ice slowly overtakes his castle.

10. Do you believe in the advice kill your darlings?

Umm probably not?

I think needlessly making your characters suffer is just an exercise in sadism, lol, but I do think you’ll get a bad story if you helicopter parent as well and don’t let your characters make mistakes and suffer consequences.

As for “killing your darlings” in terms of getting rid of scenes or plot lines that you love... I think it’s stupid. If you remove the parts of your story that make you happy just so it will be nebulously “better”, aren’t you destroying what makes it yours instead of just some stupid formulaic “best seller”? I don’t know, that’s just how I feel about it.

11. Do you prefer plotting or worldbuilding? Why?

Plotting, definitely. Worldbuilding can be fun when it comes easy but other times you’re staring at a blank page trying to come up with fantasy names or mindlessly researching which fruits grow in what climate and you just want to stab yourself with a pencil. Don’t even get me started on dealing with how to represent different languages without having to actually Tolkien it and spend fifty years fucking inventing them. I’m not a linguist, dammit, I’m an author.