#figured I should post the background image that's been on my blog. I promise I didn't steal it! It's my work!

[roukabi]

how i wish i had hair like yours!

(Part of my AP Portfolio on the transmasc experience)

[ID: A symmetrical digital painting of a lion's head against a black background. The lion has his head lowered and eyes closed passively. He is colored in vibrant golds, reds, and oranges. Four red, floating, graphically-rendered hands hover around the lion's mane. One hand is cutting the mane with shears. Two hands are running their fingers through it. One pair of hands in the bottom corner brushes it out. End ID]

[whimsical-westbrook]

Okay yep yeah mhm okay I have woken up twice now to this being real. I'm going to make an intro post to get used to writing with a stylus and without thumbs.

Hello, my name is Lily Westbrook. Hopefully. I don't know how this works. I definitely still go by she/her.

I used to live in Eterna City. I wanted to meet my first ever pokemon buddy, so I went into Eterna Forest last night. Something happened, and I think someone had my phone while I was out?

If I take a photo maybe y'all will believe me, but I'm a Buizel now. Hold on, maybe I ca

[An image is attached.]

[Image ID: A poorly angled selfie of a Buizel, wearing a flower accessory. The Eterna Forest's Old Chateau can be seen in the background.]

n add a photo oh gods why did it put it in the middle like that I'm not fixing that

I still don't know why all my writing is orange. Is it because I'm a pokemon now? Is my phone playing pranks on me is that a thing that can happen

UPDATE: Turns out I'm a girl buizel and this was the best worst thing to ever happen to me. I still don't know if anyone in Eterna City will be able to figure out what happened to me, or if they'll even believe me, but I just. I'm so happy, guys.

Double UPDATE: I kinda feel like how I feel about life is going to keep drifting away from the tone of my original intro post but like. It feels weird to make a new one so I'mma just... leave it like that I think. For now. Important note: I'm no longer in Eterna, but headed to live in Goldenrod.

Triple UPDATE: I was able to figure out why my text was getting orange'd, and also was told that it was messing with some people's ability to read things I wrote, so I was able to apply that fix to the text. Though uhhh. I'm still leaving that mess in there. It's funny to me.

//OOC under the cut

//Hello! This is Astra (she/they) from my main (NSFW) @astralikacastle. This is a character I've had in my head for a long time, though my kinda fucked up brain doesn't quite know where to take it after the prologue.

//But basically, forever in my head I've had 'what if someone got turned into a pokemon and they had to deal with that and how it made them feel about gender' and now it's here. =3

//I do prommy to try to keep this blog as SFW as possible, though where the line between Mildly Suggestive and NSFW lies isn't always the same for everyone (especially with how Tumblr's been treatin' trans folk lately) so I'm not making guarantees, just promises to try.

//I should like. Keep track of Lily's 'inventory' huh

Lily's old human clothes

Buizel-sized Ballgown

Comm-Everstone Choker (See Below) (Worn)

Phone (obviously)

Book about Legendaries for Studying

Flexi-grip phone tripod

Poffins and berries

Trans flag bandana (Worn)

Hoopa-Ring-Alike Bracelets (Worn)

Thigh-highs (didn't decide on a pattern for these oops) (Worn)

Lily-flower pin (Worn)

Pink Ribbon (Worn under above pin)

Sunglasses! B3

Sylvie (Sylveon Plush)

Toki (Togekiss Plush)

Blahåj (Blahåj)

6" Buizel Plush!

JigglypuffPikachu Hybrid Plush!?

Large pink bag (where plush friends live) w/ Waterproofing

Waterproof Backpack (Where non-plush non-worn items live)

Wheely-Cart (Where everything rides on) w/ Floaty

Weighted Blanket

Keychains (Mew, Meloetta, Hoopa, Victini, Celebi, Darkrai, lotus)

Box o' Buizelnip (Lovingly referred to as Bui-Weed)

Always kept in Lily's room at Gen's home:

Figurine of Lily and Gen

Buizel-sized Piano

//And her moveset!

Protect

Agility

Water Gun

Surf

Baton Pass

Rain Dance

Aqua Jet

Aqua Ring [Glitch?]

Thief

Minimize [Glitch!]

ABILITY: Rattled

//What is the Comm-Everstone?

The Comm-Everstone is an Everstone, small enough to act as the 'gem' of a choker, and enchanted by Laplace to duplicate the effects of a sci-fi Translator. The stone translates Lily's buizel-chitter Poke-Speech and emits an ethereal voice that repeats her words in Human Speech. Whichever voice the listener best understands is brought to the forefront of their perception, preventing any 'cross-talk' from obscuring her words. Notably, it is still quite obvious to the listener that these words are being translated, and not simply Imparting Understanding. (Though, it being magic may be a little unsettling, still.)

[sparkingstoryinspiration]

Outlining and plot development

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of pantser to plotter to throwing pens at your computer and hoping your story will write itself (that’s a self callout) here is a guide (that no one asked for!) to plotting your story! 

Is this going to be an exhaustive list of everything you have to do to write the next NYT bestseller? no. This is, like everything else on this blog, a summary of ideas. They won’t all apply, they won’t all work for everyone, they won’t cover everything, but it’s a start. That’s the best part of the writing prompt business, you supply the inspiration and other people do the hard work! 

Okay, let’s get into it 

1. What story are you telling? 

Now, I’m going to be really honest with you here. If you don’t know this, you have a lot of work to do. And that’s okay! 

Take some time to flesh out your idea. Wherever you start, I promise you there’s more in your head waiting to be discovered. Take out a piece of paper, open up a new document, write it on your walls! (we will NOT be covering lost security deposits!) and do some brainstorming. 

The basic elements of a story are 

- characters 

- conflict 

- resolution 

- plot twist(s) 

- setting/background (think physical setting where the story takes place and informational setting, worldbuilding, context, etc) 

We have a post on developing characters here and posts on the other elements are in the works! I wish I could say they’ll be posted in a timely manner but . . . they won’t, they just won’t lmao I’m sorry 

You don’t have to have all of these points completely figured out before you move onto plotting! In fact, you shouldn’t! Or, if you think you do, be open to change because it’s important to remember that all these points, especially characters, are heavily affected by the plot! 

2. How are you telling this story? 

This is for the technical stuff. 

What does the formatting look like? Are you breaking it up into chapters? Parts? Not everyone writes drafts like this so that’s okay, maybe you’re going to write out of order, maybe you’ll break it up after, whatever works for you though I highly encourage you to switch it up every now and then and see if anything works better for you than what you’ve been doing. 

3. Consider the usual structure of a story 

There are a lot of these, try not to get overwhelmed or too snagged on any of them but here are two interesting ones! 

The first is the three act structure, we’re all pretty familiar with this. 

Think of an action movie, it starts with a small introduction, it introduces a main character, side characters, stakes, a setting. Then the conflict happens! 

BAM! the beloved spy is thought to be a traitor, their family is being held hostage and they have to betray everyone they work with to save them, they have a horrible secret that’s coming back to bite them in the ass. Whatever it is, this moves us into the second act, the journey, the trials, whatever you want to call them. 

This is the largest part of the story and the tension continues to build until we reach the climax of the story. They save they world, or their family, or themselves, or they don’t. Whatever it is, this results in the final act where the action falls, everything is resolved, and the story is over (unless a sequel is set up but that’s a whole other issue), you get the idea. 

(image found here) 

Another popular structure is the hero cycle which echoes the three act structure but focuses particularly on, you guessed it! Heroes! 

(image found here) 

Let’s take a popular storybook hero as an example here, Percy Jackson. (Needless to say, there will be spoilers if you, for some terrible reason, have not read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief) 

All of these milestones are a little debatable but I’ll pick a few to use as examples. 

Percy begins his story, he is introduced as a character, I could write a whole essay on Percy’s development and the incredible writing of Rick Riordan (lmao, I have) but I’ll try to keep this brief. 

When his mother is kidnapped, he has a call to action, a goal: to save his mother. 

He crosses a very literal threshold into Camp Half Blood and his story begins. 

He goes through many trials and tests, Medusa, St. Louis, Waterland, the Lotus Hotel, and so on. 

It’s called abyss here but I learned it as the final battle, in PJO Percy faces Ares. This is very similar to the climax and falling action of the three act structure. Following this, loose ends are tied up, characters complete their journeys and their arcs, and the hero returns. 

It’s very fascinating, I highly recommend reading up on it. Again, you’ll find many many stories you read follow this structure. 

There are literally so many of these and if you’re interested, here’s a link to some more. Keep in mind, your story doesn’t have to fit these perfectly but even if you’ve planned out a story without these in mind, you’ll probably find most, if not all of it, fits pretty well within these lines. They can also help with pacing, if your first act is most of your story, you may need to move your conflict and stakes up earlier in the story to maintain interest. 

4. Now you outline 

Obviously not everyone outlines. Personally, I cannot understand this at all. Now, since this entire post is about plotting and outlining, we’re not really going to talk about pantsing because . . . that kind of defeats the point of this post. But! If you have anything to say about pantsing, tips, tricks, personal experiences, by all means, reblog this and add them! I don’t have any experience with pantsing so I really don’t have much to say on the topic. 

There are lots of different ways to outline a story. Personally, I recommend starting big. Think acts and parts, find your conflict and your stakes, you know you have to introduce your character and the world, how are you going to do that? That goes first, then stakes, so we care and then conflict, so the thing we care about is, well, at stake. 

Chronologically, you have the journey now, but let’s take a minute to talk about the end. 

4.5. How does it end? 

Even if you’re a pantser, I really, really recommend that you know how your story ends. Having a point you want to get to can make a world of difference in the process of planning and writing a story. Sure, you can run a marathon without setting an end point, but it’ll slow you down if you’re always checking to see what mile you’re on. 

So how does it end? Happy? Sad? Who is there? Logically speaking, your antagonist and protagonist should usually be present, supporting characters? How does it end, does the protagonist prevail and save the day? Is it a cliff hanger? If it’s a race to an end, who gets there first and what does it mean? 

Find your ending, and then work on your middle. 

5. The smaller picture 

If you have the main points (a beginning and an ending, the conflict and the stakes, your characters), now you can start thinking about the smaller details. 

You have an ending so what needs to happen to get your character(s) there? Consider your minor characters, where do they come in? Make sure they have a purpose! 

Keep in mind, in the first draft and even the second and for as long as you need it to be, your outline is fluid. You may very well be writing your project and realize the pacing isn’t right, or that something needs to happen later in the story, or that you need to add a scene. Then, when it comes to editing and redrafting, it’s likely that you’ll change it even more. 

Try not to get caught up in it being perfect, that’s not what first drafts are for. Make it workable and approach it with an open mind, things are going to change, that’s a given. 

6. Write your story! 

A few notes on this. As one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman says, “the process of doing your second draft is the process of making it look like you knew what you were doing all along.” 

So once you’re done with your first draft and the time comes to redraft it and you’re working on your outline, now is the perfect time to add your foreshadowing and rework your plot twists. This isn’t to say they don’t have a place in your first draft, they do, give it your best shot! But your story is fluid and your outline and plans are bound to have changed and your editing stages are the best stages to really make sure foreshadowing, plot twists, and all or acts or hero cycle, or whatever you want to call it, works together. 

And this concludes another guide that no one asked for. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any suggestions for ones you’d like to see we currently have plot twists, endings, motivation, and more in the works! 

Happy writing! 

- Mod S 

p.s. these can be found on our blog under the tag story development series! 

[gleekto]

Summary: College AU/Famous!Blaine and Fanboy!Kurt - Kurt POV

Kurt really doesn’t have time to figure out the dating world between being a freshman at prestigious theatre school, LAADA,  and his active but secret blogging life in the Sing!Fandom. So what if Sing! ended last year? There are still fics to read and actors to follow. Especially the uber talented heartthrob lead, Blaine Anderson. He can act. He can sing. He can even dance. He’s gay. He’s out. And he’s only 24. Kurt is willing to twiddle his thumbs and click refresh until Blaine Anderson’s next project.

He just didn’t expect the next project to be on his roommate Rachel’s new TV show.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9

Even Better than the Real Thing (10/13)

Kurt drops the phone as his heart starts to race and panic takes over. He feels like he’s going to throw up. No. He doesn’t have time to throw up. He immediately signs on to tumblr and deletes his blog. Gone. But it’s too late anyways. He calls Mercedes on autopilot. 

“It’s over, Mercedes,” Kurt shakes as he says it. “He knows.”

“What? Who knows what?” But he can practically see the information dawn on her as she says it. “He knows you were a fan? Shit.”

“Yes, specifically, he knows that I was LimaBlaineFan - and I say was because I just deleted.”

“Oh my god, Kurt. How did this happen? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay. And I don’t know. Or I can guess. He surprise visited me and I forgot to close my laptop screen and I must have left him in my room while I was dealing with Rachel and her oat milk,” Kurt puts the pieces together. “Fucking oat milk.”

“So he ended it on the spot?”

“No. God. He didn’t even say anything. He must have  seen something but not much, gone home and read the blog, and then texted me 24 hours later with a terse goodbye.”

“So what did he say?” Kurt sends her the text. “It’s not great,” She agrees. “But that’s not exactly closure.”

“I don’t think I get closure after what I did. Just memories of our night together and of what an idiot I am.” Kurt goes over the whole story with Mercedes - how he obviously wanted to be chill when he met Blaine, didn’t want to seem like a desperate fanboy but just a friend of Rachel’s - which he is! That wasn’t a lie. And he always made sure to give Blaine an out, not to talk too much, but Blaine kept wanting to talk and flirt and - well, as soon as he really started to believe that they were more than friendly acquaintances with a mutual friend, he stopped blogging. But it was too late by that point to say ‘Oh by the way, I was such a big fan of Sing! that I have a blog about it and your name may feature.’ But he knows it’s all an excuse. Blaine told him the first time they met that a fan is not a friend. And he didn’t heed the warning. Or tell the truth.

Mercedes listens to the story she already knows, and affirms and agrees, but unfortunately, can’t really fix a situation that can’t be fixed. Kurt spends the night staring at his ceiling and the next day moping around the house, tired and cranky. He binges Gossip Girl and eats popcorn and texts Mercedes sad face emojis.

Even Rachel notices that something’s wrong when she comes in that evening.  “You’re still in pajamas?” She looks at him quizzically. “And you look like hell.”

“Thanks?”

“And I only point that out because it’s very unlike you.”

“I guess that is actually a compliment.”

“What’s wrong?” Before he thinks of what he’s going to say, Rachel interrupts again. “Wait. Blaine was a wreck today - bags under his eyes, forgot all his lines. Just said he had a rough night. Okay, Kurt. What is going on with you two?”

“Nothing now.”

“Now?”

“It’s not working out, okay?” Rachel starts to say something again but thinks better of it.

“Okay,” She seems to clue in to the fact that he does not want to talk about it. “I’ll go out later to get you a piece of cheesecake from Henry’s.” His favourite cheesecake place. 

“Thank you,” He says sincerely. “Best therapy.”

...

After his cheesecake, which did take his mind off the mess of his life for at least 15 minutes, he moves back to his bedroom for night two of ceiling gazing, when his phone buzzes.

Blaine: So you didn’t respond.

He stares at the message, willing the right response to come to him.

Kurt: I honestly just don’t know what to say. Other than I’m sorry. I guess that’s what I should have said.

Blaine: So you are LimaBlaineFan, right?

Kurt: Guilty. Very guilty.

Blaine: Shit.

Kurt: I know we’re done - it’s my fault. You don’t need to say anything.

Kurt can’t actually bear the idea of Blaine lecturing him on honesty amidst crushing his heart.

Blaine: It is your fault. But we should talk.

Kurt: We should?

Blaine: Meet me at the Coffee Bean tomorrow at 3, okay?

Kurt: Let me check my calendar.

Blaine: Cheeky.

Kurt knows he made him smile despite himself.

Kurt: I’ll be there.

...

Kurt gets to the Coffee Bean half an hour early so he can be sure to be there first. He buys Blaine his favourite medium drip and adds a vanilla almond biscotti. 

“These for me?” Blaine says as he sits down across from Kurt.

“The least I could do.” Blaine rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but he accepts the coffee and cookie. “I’m really sorry. I should have told you.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” Blaine says and pauses, sipping his coffee. 

“Can I ask you a question?” Kurt starts.

Blaine shrugs. “Go for it.”

“Why did you ask me to meet you for coffee? I mean, after finding out the guy you just -” Kurt gets red despite himself.

“Got naked with,” Blaine fills in.

“Yes - was actually a fan following your career-”

“And my body parts,” Blaine adds and Kurt gets much redder.

“I mean, I think that gives you license to fully ghost me without another word.”

“True,” Blaine nods his head. “But for one, you are my co-star’s roommate-”

“At least that’s true,” Kurt sighs at himself.

“Also, I’m not an asshole.”

“But I probably gave you reason to think that I am one.”

“No - which is the real reason I wanted to talk. The timeline.” Kurt looks at him confused. “Your blog on tumblr. It seems like once we met, you only blogged a few times. And by the time I was interested in you, you stopped posting.”

Kurt nods, giving himself an internal high five for at least one decent choice. “I did. Right after we-”

“Made out all night?” Blaine has got to stop putting these images back into his head in the midst of a break up conversation.

“No. It was before that. After you  - you know we talked in my room-”

Blaine remembers, smiling.  “When I got you to tell me you had never been kissed so I could tell you that you should be.”

“You’re so calculating,” Kurt shakes his head.

Blaine raises his hands in defense. “My intentions were pure, I promise. Besides, I could say the same about you.”

“I wasn’t calculating! I wasn’t even trying to be your friend, let alone your, you know. I am definitely not sophisticated enough to try to deceive you to get you into bed, god. I was just trying to seem reasonably normal and cool around my roommate’s new co-star who by complete coincidence was my celebrity crush of the last four years. It was way too uncool to reveal my alter ego to you.”

Blaine smiles, probably despite himself. “Can I tell you some of my favourites?”

“Oh god.”

It seems Blaine spent the better part of his evening delving deeply into the fandom mind of LimaBlaineFan, because he had screencapped some of Kurt’s oldest, and cringiest posts.

-Why isn’t he shirtless in that scene? The other guys are shirtless. Roy is hot. And no, I don’t think he’s embarrassed. 

“Well, you are right about that. I’m not camera shy.” 

-Thank God Blaine Anderson has a better fashion sense than Roy. Roy and his loose jeans and sweatpants - how would I even catch a glimpse? But did you see Blaine on that red carpet? Maroon suit, pants so tight. His ass is perfection.

-Blaine’s interview for Pride was perfection. He says we might even catch him out on the dance floors, dancing with some hotties. Maybe then he’ll be shirtless.

And of course, Blaine appreciated Kurt’s hard work on one of his most recent posts - The privileges and pitfalls of playing straight for an out gay actor: Quotes from Blaine Anderson’s interviews.

Kurt lets Blaine read each one, sitting silent in embarrassment and biting his lip through it all. It’s the least he deserves. Just as Blaine finishes his list and Kurt is about to go into profuse apology once again,  they’re interrupted.

A young woman who looks about seventeen scurries quickly up to their table. “Hi. I’m sorry. I know you’re busy. I’m just such a huge fan of Sing! And now That’s So Rachel-” - If that was a fan test, she passed. She knows both shows. That’s a minimum. “Can I get a pic with you?”

“Of course. Thank you so much for watching.” Blaine takes her phone like a pro and angles it so he and the girl are both in it, Kurt trying to avoid being the photobomb in the background. Blaine turns back to him as the girl leaves. 

“I guess that would’ve been me a few months ago.”

“For you, I might have even given a hug. Or the coveted kiss on the cheek. I always try to connect with the gay guy fans.”

“You succeeded?” Kurt tries and Blaine laughs. At least the energy between them is better. Much better. Like he won’t have to hide in a corner if he’s ever at an event with Blaine again or anything like that.

“I guess I did.”

“The first time I met you, you told me that a fan is not a friend.”

“I did.”

“Would you have asked me out if you had known from the beginning?”

“Probably not. Against the rules.”

“That’s what I thought.” There’s an awkward pause - Kurt’s not sure there’s anything else to say and apparently Blaine agrees because he switches the topic to the latest script and his excitement about working with Patti Lupone - who apparently, even gets to slap him. By the time they leave the café, Kurt feels relieved. He’s survived his first break up. Not that they were really together. He doesn’t have the energy to grieve the loss of kissing, and touching, and ironically still not having seen Blaine shirtless (pantless, yes). He’s sure it will hit him like a ton of bricks after he finally gets a real night of sleep, and then he will have Rachel prepare the cheesecake. Again. 

He crawls into bed early that night, grateful the shock and awful adrenaline of the last two days has finally left his body. His phone buzzes as he closes his light and he plans to text Mercedes back to tell her he’ll update her tomorrow. But it’s not Mercedes.

Blaine: Some rules are made to be broken.

[stry-someone-to-remember-you]

Plan(ed) to Have Something Ready, By The Ball Drop &/or Tomorrow!!! If Everything Works out...

Hey Everyone, 

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!!

Wow, this is the second message without any art added or anything... LOL... Seems odd really to do this without having something up by now... By the way, yes the current avatar pic is related to the comic as you’ll come see soon. It’s and early sketch so some kinks aren’t worked out in the current image. But it was the one I was ready to have when I made this blog so there was at least something...

So as you probably can see by this title, I do plan on having something posted... I just don’t know to what extent. Due to some family drama, and continually piling on work I wasn’t able to get my Christmas Pic out to you guys, which was just a static scene with a few of the characters to get us started here. But... well family got in the way, continually decorating till Christmas day... a lot of things going on, bickering (though we all love each other) it’s just... you know life. I fully expected this as well, which is why I promised something before New Years, but didn’t specify as to what.

I postponed that idea to be released today or tomorrow, after seeing how I was completely unable to get to the work by Christmas Eve. But, by the looks of the progress I made on it and my families continually need of me till we get some things done in this house (that always has something to be done in it... LOL, at least things are coming fairly together).  So lets just say, I may not have anything out by tomorrow. But with hopes I want to have something out. So We’ll see. I could release early the character sketches. But I want to keep this blog clean as possible, so I feel releasing the character profiles, cards and blogs together prior to the Prologue, would fit better and keep this page having a cleaner look to it at the start.

 Maybe even by midnight tomorrow PST I could have something... But that again depends. I need to clean stuff for the internet/cable guy and I’m seriously allergic to dust... So the next few days I may be in an almost sickly comatose state regardless of the precautions I take. If dust gets kicked into the air at all and isn’t properly vacuumed up, than I’m often sick for days... I feel like all I’ve been doing the whole month is cleaning or working story wise on this comic... Mostly cleaning if you ask me, but at least after Saturday things should be more relaxed and I can have a better work schedule planned out. So yeah, that’s my life...

But DIDNT’ WAN TO LEAVE YOU HANGING with this Negative Nancy Talk ;D ;P ;D lol....

I want to tell you what I have so far:

I have the Christmas Image at least with the basic building blocks to complete it. Like I’ve drawn where I want things, but not detailed anything... So that’s why it may be a day or so... Technically its a Happy Holidays and New Years piece, but with the Christmas Tree in it I have the habit of calling it such...

I may have plans to detail it a bit more then I plan on having the comic, but that also depends on things. I may just leave it in the same style and not fully decked out to make it easier to finish...

~Several Characters for the beginning have their final forms created. These are major characters that will be scene in the prologue. I’m just having to figure out out little things with background characters in some instances.

~The prologue is almost completely written out. I had a change of heart a week ago on some things and had to change it around, which is why the written format for the prologue isn’t complete as it initially was. I just felt some things didn’t fit, so I added and took away some things so it flows better and also works both fanfiction wise for the story, but easily mixes for the Ask AU... I also have at least the beginning portion of the Intro script written, the parts unaffected by the changes. However, parts of the intro will be written out, depending on the questions you ask the characters in this prologue so these portions I’m leaving open on purpose. It’s the plot driven portions I’m mentioning that I’ve changed slightly. ;) I have fun plans for the prologue. Remember this story has a clear direction I’m taking it with plot. But the Ask portion will be a part of it, I have such a fun way of Ask’s being tied into the plot driven story, and it will change depending on the context, person and setting which makes this really fun to plan out. 

                   -With that said, here’s an early heads up, that for Ask Questions, I will allow any sort of asks, but if it has potential to spoil a part of the story, then I won’t answer it. Alongside this, I’ll allow Anon magic to a small degree. I won’t include Asks that like spoil something for a character, or tell the character where someone is, give away what someone else is doing to another character, etc... Unless it may fit the context, but generally I won’t use these types of asks. I will allow Anons to appear occasionally rather then just be unseen voices, as I have fun ways of incorporating Anons into the story that also works with different points in the plot. I will accept things like... say a dog or cat to appear for ex. amount of asks. I already know who they’ll be and have been planning out their designs, but I may draw the line at other animals (e.g. horses, fish, racoons, squirrels, lizards, etc.) Although, I do really love rabbits, I chose to make it concise to just two animals that if asked could appear. It’s not because I can’t draw them but I don’t want things getting out of hand. Types of anon magic I’m not going to use if put in the Ask portion, are things like giving people certain powers or items that may completely effect the tone or plot of the story, accept maybe if I did a non-canon AU to this au for fun one day. I will go more in depth in the general rules later. In no way is this to discourage anyone from asking such things. I may set reminders at times if I get to much of something. But, in general I’ll do what I can to make this a fun Ask blog all the same.

~The Larger Summary, I promised like a trailer would be in the comic form I have rendered the Script for, and have two slides so far drawn out, just not completed. (for the time I didn’t have around the Holidays compared to normally I actually surprised myself with this)

~The story itself is really coming together, I already have a starting and stopping point (which I had prior to this blog) as it will have several Acts and Arcs, some which have greatly changed and take on new depth since the point I started this blog. The themes and story in general are drawn out pretty well.  I don’t have all the chapters I’d want fully written. As I have my plan, but I also want to get the prologue in first, just to see if there’s anything I should change with my concept. It’s just a precaution, something I’ve learned well when taking on something new. So I don’t have things that are written in stone and hard to change if the form I’m hoping to take doesn’t work out and needs to be retooled or something. But these are minor and shouldn’t change the overall scope and plot I’m taking this story on either.

~I’ve created several of the character bios, many in fact are already written in true Henry Stickmin fashion. But as I took inspiration to make this into a AU as well, I will possibly make both the bio cards and show a static shot of the characters alongside it or something... It’s an idea, but I want this to also be the easier comic. But, considering that I’ll always have a static shot I use as reference for any character I make, this is what makes this more realistic to occur as well. ~I’ve nearly drawn out all the characters for the intro portion. And already know how I’ll handle Anon’s in the story. In the Prologue itself, I’ll actually have you Anon’s being referenced as audience members in a conference of sorts. Think of it like those conferences when a new Apple or Microsoft product is first advertised as something new to the news conference, those big rotunda’s where someone's being interviewed and presenting the hot new item. Think of the opening to the prologue being something like this scenario. So the questions directed at the character in there, who... *cough* I will introduce later after I fully render both their character profile and have their character bio(s) fully done. Which considering how fun and easy it’s been to do this so far shouldn’t be to long now... Although to keep from getting questions to soon on them, I may hold off on posting the Characters and Bio’s till I have that Intro/Trailer completed... I’m still considering which to do first actually. But top on my list out of all of these is having my cover art for the top completed. That’s something I admit though I have the layout I have hardly started on and should focus on first.

~I’m also taking close looks at how to properly make the rules for this group. When I posts either the Character Bios, Holiday Pic, OR the Trailer Comic... Maye even just the cover art... Then I will try to have out an official Rules list. The one I have on the group posts is just general stuff... But I’m reconsidering some rules I already wrote... Basically keep things family friendly, be kind an courteous, nothing vulgar or disturbing. 

I may change this from a PG-13 comic to maybe PG-15. I’ve realized recently, there are some points that some characters do swear... sometimes more then once. I’m not someone who talks with vulgarity myself, but I sure can write characters with it.... Let’s just say I’m going to see if in those scenes I might just bleep out words and see if the dialogue still comes through. But, I dunno... LUCKILY, we don’t have to worry about many of those scenes till way further into this comic. So lucky for either of us, this isn’t a major concern at the moment. And on the plus side it’s not the crudest words I could have chosen so... it may still work as a PG-13 work... I’ll make this decision soon as possible. 

Another reason for the sudden change, came as I realized as the story goes, and even in early chapters there will be scenes where blood is shown and physical mortal danger and peril is experienced by the characters. I do have heavy theming sometimes, later on it may seem constantly about. As this story is heavily Drama/Mystery and some suspense based. As the story progresses it will become less Drama/Mystery and more based around the drama/suspense itself. This will obviously be some more intense scenes that showing less blood would allow me to make PG-13, however I also don’t want to undercut the certain tones using representations of a mortal wound would bring. I also want to look at things like these future scenes realistically. Which is why I’m mostly considering changing this story to a PG-15 or at least more certain I am. I just don’t want people shocked that I’m doing this. I don’t feel this story will be R, there was a time where I heavily considered it. But for once I decided no, I didn’t want that. I just didn’t want to open the door for scenes I didn’t intend to have in this story. There will be heavy themes that my have TW for some people. But I didn’t want some TW’s  that having a R rated story could potentially have. I mean certain themes people are free to write fanfictions for, and depending on the content can make art for. But again this will be family friendly group... As You can see I’m considering more then a little here when it comes to the official rules. These details will be followed up on the official rules post.

~~~~~~

Now I apologize for the length.

The structure of this and the previous Authors Notes will probably fall under their own category for length. I’ll work to make sure posts in the future won’t be so long and hard to read. It is early morning for me when I woke to write this, and I found once much of the day passed that I still wanted to include the stuff I did into this update.

I have more to tell you, but I think this post has spurned the energy in me out. Anything that I missed in this post, I’ll try to remember to update in the next post (hopefully after I get some art on here). What I can’t do at the moment is promise dates right now till I’m more certain of schedule to work on this or can promise that my general allergies won’t cause me to delay this at all. But I can confirm that I should have several things coming out this next month, including the comic Prologue I hope. Depending on the traction the comic and fanfic gets, I may try to work on it quickly, or take my time with it. I may do a mix of both as my perfectionist self won’t let me just shoot something out without giving it my all first. I’m shushing that side slightly so this comic will be easier on me then the more detailed one I have planned. All the same, I’m planning to work on this one more at the moment till I can get an idea of my work flow. Sometimes the easiest route of work is better for planning, rather then diving head first into the deep end right away. You don’t learn to swim by jumping head first into the ocean. Piece of advice that it took years for me to learn myself ;). Anyways, I figured since I did promise something hopefully by today or tomorrow, I’d give you a formal update... Also... Well I can’t promise that updates won’t be like this in the future. I’ll try to keep them concise. But as people who know me, well have learned when it comes to personally talking I tend to write or talk out epistle. So... When I give updates, I may have lengthy ones... I’ll try my best to keep this side of me out of updates, if I can help it. Anyways Happy New Years Everyone!!! I hope everyone's Christmas and Holidays were extra special, despite the state of the world!!! 

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE AND DAY!!! Sincerely, <3 (Mod) Sweet Heart Blaze

[chaoticspacefam]

undefined

Song: Braille - Regina Spektor  (which is not owned by me, this video is not made for profit and I earn nothing doing so. Do not copyright me pls JSGYUDGDYTFG)

I don’t own SWTOR but I do own the art and my characters. Don’t trace, copy, or repost. Reblogs are appreciated! <3

This is why I’ve been quieter this week, I’ve been working on a thing! :’ D

Let’s hope [tumblr] doesn’t cancel me for the lyrics having the V-word in them 😐

Anyway ~ Some actual content/illustration for part of Saarai, Ty and (eventually) Ni’kasi’s shared backstory ✨✨ It’s a little heavy/depressing, but a defining moment for both of the twins so I really wanted to start with this one!

Baby Ty was my favourite frame to draw, hands down. Look at the little pink potato. He’s adorable. Precious babey.

Yes, baby Purebloods are born pink. I headcanon they don’t darken out/develop their full pigment until late childhood to early teen years ;)

“So she named the baby Elvis” - this is semi-literal. Saarai wanted to choose a good name for him as opposed to naming him something negative, so neither of them would be weighed down by what his father had tried to do. So she named him “Tyûk” which is the High Sith word for “Strength” :’D

I didn’t mess up the proportions in the last frame, I promise (I’m sure they aren’t 100% perfect, my style never is XD)...Ty was a very, very tiny baby (and he’s still pretty small by their species’ standards. Side effects of the stress etc. that Rai was under while she was pregnant with him

“To make up for the royalty he lacked.” - The broken crown is a sledgehammer-worthy “subtle” hint that should be pretty obvious to anybody who’s been on the blog for a while and/or read my other Pureblood lore/worldbuilding posts! Go have a look if you don’t know, should be pretty easy to figure out 🤭

“But Elven what happened? Why is she a single mother?” - You’ll have to skulk through the rest of the blog for lore tidbits and/or wait for the next animatic to find out mwahahaha

I don’t know when I’ll finish the full thing, I have another minute or so worth of song to make images for, but hopefully sometime soon! I have a lot of art stuff planned for the future so hopefully you should see stuff like this (and/or more coloured, or coloured/shaded and backgrounded artwork) popping up on my blog from now on!

Boy it feels good to have my art mojo back :’3

[scrumptiousalpacadeer]

Post Covid joyfulness; vole death; and why I love my Frida Cagnolino

Good morning dear reader(s),!.. indifferent universe, loving universe...

I hope you are very well this Tuesday. Things have been rather eventful since my opening post; yesterday I staked my row of snapdragons; planting sticks like crutches for them to lean on so they could bloom to their full potential, on Sunday I went to my FIRST OPEN AIR CAFE FOR THREE MONTHS!!! (that's a whole other story)  

This morning my daughter very nearly saved a vole’s life; she shook our murderous cat Laura down by the swing until she released the vole from its jaws before yelling at me through the kitchen door that she needed a Tupperware container IMMEDIATELY. We both kind of knew the vole wasn’t gonna make it; it was in full shock, quivering in the corner of the container, in that way that humans do after a car crash or some terrible news... the last energies go into the death shake - the ‘crossing over’ between life and death. However, vole didn’t give up without a final adventure - it escaped the container and dashed to the bathroom for one last foray in this world. Minutes later my daughter said; ‘I was wrong mama. He died. One minute I looked up and he was alive. And the next minute I looked up and he was dead.’ I resisted the temptation to say, ‘well, that's just life, kid!’ and instead told her she’d given him the best death a vole could ever ask for; passing away in a girls den along side her collection of Jacqueline Wilson books; if it hadn’t been for her interception he would have been de-bowelled; torn limb from limb, departing this earth is a chaos of blood and terror. ‘Can I bury him?’ she said. 

Vole is buried along with two of his brethren and a few mice down by the Camelia tree.   

However, the strangest thing that has happened since last waxing is that according to my daughter I said the words ‘Spicy Man’ in my sleep last night.....! Now that's funny. ‘Spicy Man’....!??????? Sometimes words fail. This is one of those times.                                                                                That's the gap where words fail. 

OK, so I promised you the story behind my background picture. Here it is in all its glory; it’s called ‘Frida Cagnolino’ - oil on Gesso - and was created by a lady called Kate Milson in 2015. 

I purchased it at the Battersea Affordable Arts Fair in April 2017. As with any creation there is the story of its creation and the story of its procurement; how it passes from the creator out into the world and lands, lovingly, into the hands of its receiver. And the story of how I came to buy a collage of the Virgin Mary with an owl on her head is quite something. 

First off, this original piece of art cost £1500. I want to be less of a twat about money Post Covid - there’s too much weirdness and shame attached to coins and notes - so there it is. I paid £1500 for this work - much more than I pay in a month’s rent now; far more than I could ever afford to pay for anything right now - but back then, in this other life, I was RICH BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS... I had come into a very large amount of money, having been furnished with half the assets of the sale of my father’s house following his death. In short; it was ‘sad money’; ‘dad’s money’ - and the story of ‘how I sp**ked my father’s inheritance up the wall on facials in exactly the same way he sp**ked his life away on a bullshit suburban life that he never believed in for one second’ is a whole other BLog post entirely. 

So anyway, at the Battersea Art Fair 2017 I have money to spend and I’m giddy on the freedom of it. That day I spend £2500 on three pieces of art. What’s interesting and highly significant is that I was also in a wheelchair that day; my beloved *David are *Boo are wheeling me around the various collections at Battersea Evolution Venue,  because, at that time, I was pretty much immobile due to having contracted six blood infections courtesy of some rank and highly illegal black mould in our basement Richmond flat. I was helpless; powerless; hopeless; but I had money to spend and it felt so damn good. I knew deep down that that I’d been corrupted entirely by my father’s fat wad; that I should be shelving it responsibly for my daughter’s college fund or some such; but screw that - I was gonna blow it on art.  And I could pretend I was an arts aficionado. I might not be able to walk 100m straight but I could converse with artists’ agents and immerse myself in astonishing beauty.   

And then it happened. I’m wheeling past a collection, about to turn down the next aisle, and all of a sudden Mother Mary catches my eye. I am drawn like electricity to this burst of read crazy colour, and a blue cloaked magnetic woman just looking at me... I instruct *David to put the brakes on and move towards this glorious work, basking in it for a while. I think I knew I was going to buy this thing from the very first second I laid eyes on it. I felt like Mona Lisa was looking into my soul but at the same time reminding me that life was a gas. 

Its largely a mystery as to why we’re drawn to particular objects. Why do I love this piece of art so? Let me count the ways. Well, it manages at once to be subversive, heretical, beautiful, chaotic, surprising, highly weird, spontaneous, and deeply joyful all at the same time. I love the singularity of ‘her’ - this figure; and I realise now that she represents this beautific mother figure - with infinite love, understanding and kindness - that I’ve been searching for my whole life. Even now as I look at the picture, hanging on the wall to the left of my bed, it’s her blue blue eyes I must meet first. I love her wild and free relationship to animals;  she has an owl on her head but manages to not only retain her dignity, but somehow embrace and be in partnership with this wild gesture. She’s composed, wholly and entirely a woman, but entirely humble and at one with nature and her environment. Somehow, even though she has inherent grace and a natural regality, she doesn’t stand on ceremony. This woman is all knowing; entirely free; a true punk. And I get to hang out with her every day.  

I love the unspoken bond between her and her beloved dog (a Bichon Frise?). ‘Cagnolino’ means ‘lapdog’ in Italian. They both challenge the viewer, inviting us to the party. I like to think the Post-Covid world we’re being asked to form is something akin to this; we have a chance now to choose punk joy and reverence to wild nature over stifling rules and dank conformity.

I love the fact that its a collage - bit and pieces from here and there brought together in one woman’s determined imagination.

 I love the way the brightest yellow surfinia bursts out of  pure blue sky of the most gentle hue, and how this sky in turn bursts out of the blood red streets of Venice; I love the way butterflies flitter all over the place. Perhaps most of all, I adore the purple crown sitting atop the dogs head - and how he wears it so well. 

I love the violent effrontery growingness of it. I love its revolutionary impulse. I love how it reminds me to be free and brave and enjoy the moment; and that when things get really hairy and scary, as they are prone to do from time to time, that there will always and forever be butterflies and surfinias throbbing into life, and if you’re really lucky, you might just get an owl landing on your head, bestowing upon you a scratchy blessing with its razor claws.  And I love the fact that I am the only person in the whole world who has this treasure.   

The artist Kate Milson wrote to me most generously days after I’d settled her art in my house. This piece, she told me,  was largely a collation of images from a bundle of old art magazines bought from a second hand book shop in Venice some years previous. The name Frida is a nod to Frida Kahlo - a woman who created art from a state of paralysis - having survived a near fatal bus accident in her youth. I like this nod to a woman who despite physical confinements, drenched herself in colour and beauty. 

She wrote that she recalled surfinia plants  in her garden when she was a child; how they ‘seemed tough, but once picked die almost immediately’ - and how there seemed to be ‘this combination of strength and fragility to everything in the natural world’. 

I like being reminded of this each morning; that being strong can come directly out of fragility - that they’re intertwined. 

So...there we have it. That’s how Frida came into my life, and actually, even though she felt very ‘costly’ at the time, and I was kind of basking in a wealth I knew couldn’t last, it is of great comfort that this piece will last through my lifetime and maybe beyond. And actually, considering all the hours that went into her making, considering that I may have, in my small way, contributed to an independent artist continuing her craft; and considering all the hours I’ve spent with Frida Cagnolino’s loving gaze  on me, well......she was worth every penny and much much more. 

[joesbbqandfootmassage]

Jane and Carlos in D3:

A Thanksgiving Feast

So I have already made my obligatory Janelos defense post that every blog on this website owes them, and I will link that here.

But I kind of barely touched on just how good they are in D3. Like, insanely good.

Devie and Janelos are the God tier Descendants ships and somebody had to say it.

It figures that Disney would choose to focus on the basic dynamic that is Bal even though they have two amazing VK/AK pairings to work with.

I ain’t saying they needed to kick Ben and Mal from the series because I do still think they’re cute, I’m just saying that Devie and Janelos also deserved their own Enchanted Lake First Date Scene.

Now in D2 both ships were given roughly three major scenes to work with and then of course all of their background dance scenes in You and Me.

Both Janelos and Devie doing different variations of the hug and spin number. (Holy fluff the Devie one was fantastic)

And they both had pretty good character arcs as well.

While Bal pretty much have the same character arc every movie, Janelos and Devie approach one thing at a time. In D2 that was Evie reaffirming to Doug that she wants him, not a stereotypical prince. Strengthening their relationship.

Meanwhile Janelos was giving both Carlos and Jane the chance to step out of their bubbles and explore this new sensation called love.

And you can really believe the time that has passed between these relationships when D3 finally rolls around.

Naturally Jane and Carlos are a touchy-feely kind of couple, linking arms and wrapping arms around shoulders and a lot of background hugs that were cut from the film.

Normally this would probably annoy me, but in this case it makes sense for Carlos and Jane because of his touch starvation.

Jane is able to hold onto him like it's just something normal for her to do with him, unlike any person on the Isle ever.

So in D3 you can see how comfortable they are with one another and just with affection in general.

But that's not all D3 has to offer for them, oh no.

Because D3 is also the movie where Carlos' evolution to Hero of the Isle is the most evident.

It's something you can finally see in every little action.

I'm gonna be honest, D3 should have been Evie's movie.

My sister and I pointed this out as we read all of the VK's posters and saw that Mal's had her’s as, "The Liberator."

To which we both went, "That is a bunch of fluffing BS."

Because everybody knows that it was EVIE'S idea to start transferring kids over to the Isle.

I can't even imagine how many meetings she had to attend, presentations she had to give and trouble she had to deal with from the higher ups.

Because D3 is when they are finally able to bring Dizzy over to Auradon and they've already graduated high school at this point.

And yet, Mal gets the praise.

Mal gets the credit.

And when they encounter their first bump in the road, it's Mal who shuts down the program. Destroying all of Evie's hard work.

While it’s not an official term used, I’ve been calling Carlos, Evie and Uma all “Heroes of the Isle.” Mainly because most, if not all, of their most prominent actions in the films (when actually given any) have been for the sake of the Isle and the children they wish to protect and save.

And it can switch from Heroes of the Isle to Heroes from the Isle, mostly depending on what stance my argument has.

This stance being tilted toward Janelos, though I will probably post another rant talking about how Evie should have been the main character of D3.

Now this is the first time we see Carlos actively having someone to protect since Dude in D1, the second he returns to Auradon from the Isle he calls Jane several times. He then spends a good deal of the movie before Jane comes back being mopey. Which is something you notice if you watch a movie three times in a row and those two other times all you do is look at Carlos.

It’s an interesting thought to have in your head, Carlos - A Protector. 

While interesting, it never surprised me.

You can see a lot of his protectiveness in D2 when they return to the Isle, with him usually being the first one to charge.

And it only took me so long to notice that because I’ve had an image of Carlos built in my head.

Nothing can ruin your outlook of a character faster than the fandom’s perception of them.

If you listened to all the people going on and on about how Shaggy from Scooby-Doo is clearly coded to be a stoner, you might miss that he was a star gymnast and a pro-golfer. How many of y’all knew that Daphne was a straight A student?

The Descendants’ fandom has usually painted Carlos as the obligatory, “Smol bean, too precious for this world. Must protecc.”

Which is fine, if the character is clearly supposed to be interpreted as those things.

Carlos, while definitely too good for both the Isle and Auradon, is not a weak and helpless character. Sure he’s soft spoken and really really nice, like omg there is no way him and Cruella share the same DNA, but he also did really well in tourney and fencing.

He’s perceptive and quick to adapt.

And on top of all of that, he’s hurt.

So many years of being a doormat on the Isle, not only for his mother but every other person that looked down on him.

Despite all of that, he still cares about people.

He still has so much love to give to people he knows need it.

And in D3, Carlos seems to finally know who he is when separated from the VK or AK title.

He wants to help VKs transfer onto Auradon.

He wants a place to house lost boys and girls who were like him, no safe place to go.

He wants to be a vet.

And he wants to love Jane.

When he reunites with Jane in the second act of the movie, you can see that it’s not just Carlos that feels this way.

Once again, just like in D2, Jane fully reciprocates all of his feelings maybe even more so with the way she always renders his breathless every time.

Jane and Carlos give and receive love with no counter or limit in sight, they snuggle and hug and just... touch.

They make promises to stay safe, to keep each other safe, to stay together.

Always surprising the other with the reminder that they do indeed love each other.

Because they were two lonely kids that needed to love and be loved.

And the trilogy ends giving both of them exactly that.

And this is all just whatever I can glean from the movies.

When Amazon finally decides to send me all of the books it’s over for you hoes.

[linoholic]

Poly!Jaepil

Requested: @skylions-den asked: I saw that you write for Day6! Hehe I didn’t know, may I have poly Jae and Wonpil?

Pairing: Day6 Jae x Wonpil x Reader

Genre: poly!au

Warnings: I mean, it has Wonpil so major fluff warnings (though not as bad as a Dopil fic would be)

So I has almost finished this when I accidentally deleted it instead of posting it last night because it was like 3am and I was dead. And so I had to rewrite it, hence why it is pretty short and not all that great. But I hope you enjoy my dear, since you have been supporting me so well ^^

I was going to make this a college

Until I realised that literally everything would be the same except for the fact that, ya know, they were in college

Anyway

So!

You have been friends with Amber for a while, being one of many in her friendship circle

You got to know her when you moved to LA

You had bumped into her in a store while she was filming a blog, not knowing who she was or anything

She was making a joke to the camera, and you, being the outgoing and self proclaimed funny person you are, decided to turn around and answer back with a joke of your own

Which was successful in making Amber burst out laughing, immediately introducing herself

You were fast friends, with you often showing up in her videos considering both her and her subscribers loved your sense of humour

You even got blessed with the nickname ‘Chickpea’ - the subject of that first joke

As a result, you quickly got blessed with the chance of getting to know her other friends, famous or not

About a week or so after you met her, she made you react to f(x) music videos

The world thanks God that she got your reaction to finding out she is a part of one of the most loved female kpop groups (this was your descent into the madness that is kpop)

But alas, this isn’t an Amber scenario despite my deep love for her

Amongst all her friends, one of the ones you immediately clicked with was a certain person who went by Jae

You met a few years after you first met Amber

You had moved to Seoul at this point

You had worked basically running a pretty big companies social media for a few years, and after being encouraged by Amber, had applied for similar positions at a few companies in Korea

And you had fallen in love with the idea of living there after hearing stories about the food and the people and the culture from Amber, and had decided that you needed a change from LA and it’s constant sun, a place with four seasons perhaps

So after a crash course in Korean and an acceptance letter from a company, you got a work visa, a plane ticket and long term hotel room booked and off you went, with promises to visit all your friends in California

Sadly, Amber couldn’t be with you, still having stuff to do in the US, and so you had to settle in alone, not that you had much to do yet since you were living out of a hotel room while you found an apartment

But she didn’t leave you completely alone

She had told Jae of your arrival and asked if he would check up on you for her, to make sure you weren’t lying about settling in well

Turns out he didn’t have to go far to find you

Just down the hallway of his workplace actually

Because yes, you had managed to snag a job at JYP entertainment

Despite picking up the language pretty quickly, you still defaulted to English at first, having to remember to switch to Korean for most conversations

So imagine your surprise when you bumped into someone and they answered back in English when you said “Oh, sorry!”

Looking up from the papers that had you distracted, you see a pretty tall, bespectacled guy standing in front of you

And of course, in a country full of people speaking one language, your going to be drawn to someone that speaks your own language, in an accent you recognise no less

So you shift the papers under one arm, holding your other hand out for a handshake

“Hi, I’m y/n, a new employee here,” you say, smiling widely

Taking your hand, Jae replies with, “Nice to meet you, I’m Jae - wait, Amber’s y/n?”

“…I guess so? You know Amber? Wait, Jae as in Day6 and JaeSix? How the fuck did I not recognise you?”

“Yep. That’s me. I guess I’m pretty famous then”

“Nah, not you, just your resemblance to a certain character”

“I’d you say the name I will tell Amber that I found you crying your eyes out in some random back alley and you’ll have to put up with her mothering you”

“…Chicken Little…” is all you say before zooming out of there with the Sonic music running through your head

That isn’t the last time you see Jae

You see him pretty often in fact, considering you work in the same building

And with your similar senses of humour, it doesn’t take long for you to consider him a friend, and him you

Phone numbers are exchanged quickly, memes are sent, you roast him and he roasts you

You even end up cameoing in a JaeSix video, which excited the viewers who knew you from What the Pineapple

And he was kind enough to help you out with your Korean, after teasing you when you said something completely wrong in a certain context

It’s a sweet(?) friendship

And with Jae comes the rest of Day6 behind him

While Jae remains your best friend out of the group, you become close with the others as well

They all come to love you and your high Jae tolerance

One person in particular takes a special liking toward you

When Jae first introduced you to the band, Wonpil thought you were cute

Scratch that, he found you straight up gorgeous

And when you talked more, it was obvious he had started crushing on you

Whenever you came round with Jae, his ears would turn red and he would turn especially shy, you all know how I mean

The rest of Day6 knew of this crush, and of course they all teased him about it

Usually they spared him and did it alone, but sometimes they teased him in front of you, not that you ever really caught on

Jae was the main perpetrator at first, doing the whole “you like my friend” sort of thing

But as time went on, and Wonpils feelings got more serious than a simple highschool crush, Jae started getting confused

All he knew was that he loved when you smiled at him, and hated when you smiled the same big smile at Wonpil, or cooed over how cute the younger boy was, or praised his singing and talent on a piano

What made him confused, was that on one hand, he wanted you to praise him instead, call him funny and handsome and all that jazz

And on the other hand, he felt a little protective of Wonpil

There was one time he thought “But that’s my Wonpil”, which ended up with him standing in the shower having an existential crisis

He ended up ranting to Brian about it all, who just said, “Bro, you like them both. Ask them out.”

And then Brian decided to be a snake, and go to you and tell you everything

Jaes feelings, Wonpils feelings, your feelings that he had been figuring out and gossiping about with Sungjin

Because he knew Jae would avoid asking anyone out, especially if it meant losing his “I hate Wonpil” image, and instead just sulk around

And there is no way Wonpil would have the balls to do so, at least according to Brian

After talking to you, you had an epiphany

You had always lowkey had feelings for Jae, but you had written them off as the fact that he was your first friend in Korea

And how could someone not love Wonpil?

You knew you should probably confess to them, and so you did

You were thinking of doing something a little extra, like singing one of their songs to them or something, but decided that you’d rather not die of embarrassment when Jae inevitably teases you over it

So you simply took them both out to a barbeque place before randomly confessing to them in the middle of eating

To put it simply, you created two wraps and fed them to the two boys while saying “for you because I fancy you, and for you because I fancy you too!”

And then you sat there as what you said sunk in, and their eyes widened as they both struggled to swallow the food in a hurry

(to this day Jae makes fun of you for almost killing your boyfriends before they even became you boyfriends)

It was completely spontaneous and really caught them off guard

Somehow both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, Wonpil was the one to speak first, confessing his own feelings with a red face and small voice

Leaving Jae sitting more flustered than you had ever seen in his life

(You lowkey wish you had a camera to capture the sight)

After a bit of poking and prodding he came out with an “You two are alright I guess”

Which is basically Jae talk for “I am hopelessly in love with the both of you”, something you and Wonpil know

And so that meal the rest of the night is officially your first date

It’s a bit awkward at first, the transitioning into a romantic relationship

But pretty soon you all settle into your new roles as significant others as things are talked through and you all get used to different boundaries and such

At first you all keep it quiet, unsure of how it would affect the band and everything

But when the Wonpil starts sneaking into Jaes bed more than others at nights in the dorm; when Jae starts teasing Wonpil and you the tiniest bit less; when you start showing up at band practice and pay more attention to the two than them, they start catching on that something may have happened

They once confronted you all about it, to which the two boys vehemently denied it while you sat in the background snorting at their antics, sipping apple juice and watching Dowoon play WoW on his laptop (cuz he already knows thanks to Wonpil gushing to him as soon as he got back from your first date, and he would prefer to stay out of that mess thank you very much)

Young K and Sungjin were proven right when you started getting hungry and called out “Babe!” and both Jae and Wonpil turn to face asking “Yes?” only to immediately face Sungjin and Young K with fear in their eyes who both have their arms crossed with a 'we knew it’s look on their faces

Though, the two of them regret exposing the relationship when the three of you start showing affection in front of them

Although, they are glad that it means they are now lower on the list of people Wonpil is affectionate with, especially Sungjin

Because you better believe that Wonpil is always clinging onto you or Jae if either of you are within 100m of him

As much as Jae pretends to hate it, you often come home to find the two snuggled on your couch after a long day spent in the recording studio or at concerts, Wonpil lying happily in Jae’s arms as the elder runs his hand through his hair

Or you see Jae leaning down to press a kiss to Wonpils forehead when the younger is stressing out about things

And it warms your heart because there is nothing you love more than seeing your boyfriends in love

You can be sure that as soon as they notice you Wonpil is dragging you over and soon it is just a mess of limbs and hair colours

Unknown to you and Wonpil, Jae secretly goes to the big man JYP himself asking for permission on the relationship and such because he does want to show the two of you off

And when he gets the go ahead to reveal the relationship

You can bet that he is vlogging dates and such for JaeSix, which is how he reveals he is dating you and Wonpil

And my god do the MyDays celebrate

The amount of tweets Jae gets sent his way saying stuff like “I knew JaePil was real’ and 'I did ship y/n and Amber but you cute I guess’ (yes that was from Amber herself)

You often end up scolding Jae because he uses the fact that he is in a relationship to tease all his single friends

And even his not so single friends

"You only have one significant other while I have two (2) whole people who love me unconditionally…not counting all my fans of course I love you MyDays”

Sometimes people do question the relationship

And not over the fact that it’s a polyamorous relationship, but because sometimes it seems like your relationship hasn’t changed from your friendship at all

Because Jae still teases and makes fun of you both, Wonpil has always been a clingy, cuddly baby and things like that

But it’s mainly because you are all super comfortable with each other and hyper aware of how each other feels about various things 

For example, you and Wonpil know Jae isn’t too big on PDA and so you and Wonpil make sure that he is comfortable with anything you do, asking before you so much as hold his hand

Though in private you and Wonpil will most definitely just glomp him at random whether he likes it or not, usually as revenge for him eating your leftovers or for calling Wonpil a snake the hundredth time that day

Now, our boys are musicians, and so you better get ready for songs dedicated to you if you ever go to their concerts, which is often because you want to support your boyfriends in their career (though you also go cuz their concerts are lit and MyDays know how to get lit)

And some songs may even get written about you

*Cue Young K in the background whining about how the songs are getting sappy and not heartbreaking like usual*

If you don’t already know how to, be prepared to learn how to play the guitar and piano

Because there is no way Jae is giving up the chance to be greasy and cliche and do the whole 'sit behind you guiding you hands’ thing

Not much gets done during these sessions as Jae ends up being easily distracted by your closeness

I’m not saying makeout sessions but that’s exactly what I’m saying

And when Wonpil tries teaching to use the keyboard, not much gets done either

Mainly because you just love watching him all concentrated, his pretty fingers dancing over the keys and so you pout to convince to play you “just one more song”

If you’re lucky he’ll sing as well, blessing you with his vocals

Though he often ends up a blushing mess because you sit beside him staring intently at him with total hearts in your eyes (as Jae gags in the background acting as if he isn’t also enamoured by Wonpils voice)

Wonpil is always raiding yours and Jaes closets for any clothes he can wear, which you can’t complain about because you do the exact same thing

Jae on the other hand likes to complain whenever he sees one of you wearing his clothes, though secretly he absolutely loves it, he just wants to keep up his cool image

And both of them are constantly bringing up the Pink Sweater™ debate, trying to bring you to their side

Jae takes it personal when he goes to your apartment one day to find you chilling in said sweater; he acts all offended and refuses any and all affection til you and Wonpil bribe him by taking him out to dinner

There is a group chat the three of you have which is a complete mess

It’s filled with Jae’s memes, Wonpil selfies and exclamations of love and you worrying over whether they are eating and sleeping enough

Especially when the two are away on tour and you can’t go with them

Though on those occasions you’ll often get voice notes from them, alone or together, of them singing for you

Because they know how much you love their voices as you often get them to sing you to sleep whenever they spend nights with you

Well, to be honest, you get them to sing as much as possible because why wouldn’t you?

Basically, your relationship is as much fun as it is soft, and you are most definitely not starved of memes of cuddles

[hetaliaindie]

Going down memory lane

Just a little photo post.

June 9th 2017

I come back after more than a year, ready to try this out again.

I love how I'm always straight with ya guys in the tags yeesh.

July 4th 2017

The start of my first proper event, the Gandharva Event! (Though I've revised his design greatly ever since- there's no trace of Shiv in this anymore!!)

July 24th 2017

My first interaction with @grandparomeaskblog !!! When will I stop drawing your son in compromising situations-

August 28 2018

The very very first glimpse of Mr. G!

Also August 28

The day I started lowkey introducing the world to Shiv's 2500 year old crush.

September 1 2017

Young Shiv art!

September 9 2017

The most cursed artwork in this entire blog, thanks to aforementioned Grandpa Rome and Mr. Camel ( @de-beste-persian-empire) 

September 16 2017

I think, this is the first sridevi we got on this blog. No introduction, nothing.

Same day and we have Sridevi being as demanding of sweets as she always is, and our lovely Aarya! @ask-ladylotus​. The world deserves more india wamen.

September 21 2017

One of my favourite answers to date: Jugaad

September 24 2017

Gosh I don't like the art here at all, but here's the start of the lotus/god angst.

Same Day

The cutest darn Shiv ever. I hope I've kept this side of him alive.

Same Day

I think this is interesting because it seems that I was really fond of a more metaphorical approach to some questions and I'm still like that today: Jealousy

Same Day: Start of the God (dream) Event

September 30 2017

Yeah that's really what they looked like then.

October 5 2017

This may have happened nearly 2000 years ago but I do keep referencing it so here, boys and their issues.

October 24 2017

Same story, more details

October 26 2017

This is truly one of the most beautiful works I've made, and this is when I start getting very fond of this kind of storylike narrative, bright colours and literal metaphors.

November 3 2017

Jerks.

November 5 2017

Mr and Mrs. did have their casual pretend intimacy. Now she's alone but Mr. Gold has Zar. I hope we see her grow now that her fake love partner's dead and reborn.

December 19 2017

This is about when I fell in love with both of them tbh. Btw the baby was carefully delivered to an orphanage and quickly adopted by one of Mr. G's workers.

December 28 2017

The start of a legend. The Highschool AU. Would you believe me if I told you that Gypty and I still work on it casually or see various futures spawned from it? 

January 15 2018 (Welcome to 2018 my good folks, we made it)

This isn't important content but artwise, It's when I really started pushing for dynamic stylistic choices for my art.

January 16 2018

You really really see it here, and also I start indulging more in patterns to brighten up the simplicity of everyday life. I'd also say this is where the general body differences are most exaggerated between them all (even with sridevi as a child).

January 22 2018

A comment on Arthur Kirkland.

January 23 2018

A memory of the Sack of Delhi. It may strain your eyes (unfortunately I can't say that was on purpose), but it's a tribute to a nation who's heart has been stamped on by circumstances that no one can predict, yet its spark still lights. From an art standpoint, I was very proud of the expression I felt I conveyed well in this panel.

January 28 2018

Listen the amount of research I put into giving you a culturally intriguing gag response- 

February 2 2019

Mrs. Gold, I definitely improved a lot with colour usage here.

February 1 2018

This is where I have truly tried too hard on colours but I'm really warming up to it. (Oh nu is my icon that old- i'll get a new one soon I promise)

Please just take a moment, if you're someone who is an artist and is on a journey, to compare this piece with some of the earlier ones in this post. This improvement wasn't completely random. It started with looking for stylistic changes in the way I drew- in my case, really exaggerating the flowiness of my strokes and sharp points (messing around with a grittier brush, helped me a lot too, if you're someone who sticks with soft brushes or mechanical pencils, I couldn't recommend trying to use a textured brush or irl charcoal to get a grasp on the type of mood you want to evoke). At some stage it became a love story with color too, but colour takes time and lots of adjustment, which is why you won't see much of it in my blog.

March 5 2018

This is where I really start pushing the exaggeration on Mr. G, but only to get a feel for him. He evolved from a chunky nosed, physically imposing figure with a laughable quantity of gold, to something more desperate and dependant on money, something lean and mean with a nose that could poke an eye out. And here, most prominent is the shape of his lips, which had grown more prominent than before and very good for emphasizing his frown (and hell to work with when trying for his dimpled smile).

March 11 2018

I drew this for an rp starter since words couldn't describe what was in my head. I think it's a fine example of my adoration for patterns- but not just patterns, the idea of luxury beyond compare. It's prominent in my blog but only because I have the brain of a magpie and am constantly like ‘ooo shiny’. But really, I drew what I liked, so I improved. Find something you like drawing if you haven't yet. It can be skulls, it can be leaves, feathers, find your motifs and everything will honestly follow along.

May 17 2018

Post exam-hiatus, I am back with the gang, my art style is a bit rusty but boy have I got intimately involved with colours.

May 22 2018

I can't get colours out of my head, I'm thinking about them day and night, I need to create, I need to and so I do. (In all honesty I am certain that something greatly inspired me to do this but I cannot recall what).

June 12 2018

The Kill Cindy 2k18 movement is born. I can finally show you the Mr. G I have been hiding from you all.

July 1 2018

Something I can point out now is that while I think my colours work (honestly i was making use of patterns to distract you all at this stage- before I returned from my hiatus, I'd been rejected in an interview for an animation course and the key point my interviewer made was that my sense of colour was jarring, so I really was sensitive over it but seeking out improvement), what I would change is that adding a clear light source and allowing an atmosphere (by adjusting the main figures’ hues slightly to match the background) to emerge in my art would make it a lot better. And I start to grasp at this knowledge.

August 19 2018

The start of the bodyswap event, I swear I'll get back to it. I just want to use it as a stepping stone to get some meaningful character development out of it, thus it's ongoing.

See here, this is where I just stop caring about skin and character colour as something that should more or less be constant. Now it's vibrant and blinding for no other reason than I want to make you feel (granted, I did that too much here and it makes things hard to understand much less appreciate).

September 8 2018

Here I'm really just feeling the colours, Shiv's home is easy- everything is luxurious but at once welcoming (or at the very least, pampering), Sridevi's home on the other hand was shown to be neater and almost less personal, there isn't much immersion allowed in her place but in Shiv's..oh man.

November 2018

As you can see, activity has been dwindling what with rigorous college days and having moved to a new city. It should pick up eventually, but let me close this off with some new art.

Do I have something to say about this piece? Yes, I do! The point of view is Shiv's, thus the warm colours and the way he blends into the background. The main figure here is not himself or his 2nd player, but the vibrant peacocks, that exist in a shade of blue too vibrant to be real. In between the two sentient figures, is our young Mr. Gold, clearly he has the favour of these birds but he doesn't seem very affected by them- unlike the jealous Shiv. He's the dullest colour present and he wears the blandest clothing, the matters of peacocks (be they blue or orange) do not apply to him and he is at once alienated. 

Today, November 14th 2018

So after everything, here we are. Is this what all my art was moving towards? No it isn't, it's really just me playing around with photoshop brushes, but the mood of this image is something I feel that I've conveyed with integrity. That's what I want to keep striving for. Thank you all for staying with this blog as long as you have, thank you to all my newer followers, I've linked most of these points to their original posts, I hope that Tumblr does not break them. Love you all!

[83gigsof90semocore-blog]

An introduction, plus 0-9 review

Part 1: background

The idea behind this blog is to listen to all of the long live emo google drive, a drive containing “emocore” music from the “90’s” (more on this later), and comment the process. I found this archive while browsing some semi-obscure facebook group dedicated to emo music and decided to listen to all of it. I did this in part because I wanted to learn more about music, in part because it seems interesting to not have as much of a filter when listening to music as I’d only ever hear the most popular 90’s emocore otherwise but mostly because why not??

The E-word

(Feel free to skip this section if you already have a solid idea of what the hell “emocore” means)

(The rest of the section is basically just emo 101)

I like trying to categorize things, even though I’m aware that every categorization falls apart when you start really pushing it’s boundaries. I like strange cultural artifacts. Because of this, I am fascinated by emo. Emo is older than most people expect with it’s roots in the 80’s and that has meant several very different things both to different people and in different points in time. The part of emo that most people are familiar with is the one that was commercially successful maybe 10-15 years ago, and that is not even considered to be “real emo” by most people immersed into the subculture.

Emo started as an outgrowth of hardcore music in the 80’s and was pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring, Moss Icon and Embrace. At the time it was referred to as “emotional hardcore” which was later shortened to “emocore” and finally just “emo”. During the 90’s a different style of emo was developed known as Midwest Emo which was much closer to alternative rock or indie rock while only maintaining some of it’s hardcore roots, with bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, the Promise ring and american football. During the 00’s there was more of an effort by record companies to make money of emo music which lead to more listenable and widely market music being created often closer to pop-punk and sometimes post-hardcore. Notable examples are The red jumpsuit apparatus, My chemical romance, Fall Out Boy, Taking back Sunday, Brand new and Jimmy Eat World. For a lot fans of more underground emo, most or all of these bands are considered fake emo. I’m gonna call it scene emo instead because that is a less loaded term. During the late 00’s, the so-called “emo revival” movement began to make more underground music with a more 90’s midwest sound. Some important revival bands are Snowing, The World is a Beautiful Place and I am no Longer Afraid to Die, Empire! Empire! (I was a lonely estate) and the Hotelier.

Basically, for some reason people consider Orchid, american football and Panic! At the Disco to be part of the same genre. To clear up any confusion, I’m using the word “emocore” to indicate that I’m talking about the more traditional “emotional hardcore” definition of emo. Note that the most common definition that you see in emo communities on the internet, or among more recent bands that call themselves emo is one that includes emocore (although this aspect is somewhat downplayed), 90’s midwest emo, a select few scene emo bands (specifically Brand New, Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World) as well as emo revival. This is also the kind of emo I am personally most familiar with.

There is however a contingent of people instead use the emocore definition, which you might recognize if you’ve ever seen the infamous real emo copypasta. The author of the long live emo archive, Лобынцев Артем, also seems to use this definition, although they probably actually know what they’re talking about.

“90’s” “emocore”

So some of the music on this drive isn’t actually from the 90’s, there’s also music from the 80’s and the early 2000’s. I’m calling it 90’s emocore because it paints a better picture than just emocore, even if it technically isn’t true. On a similar note, I’m calling it emocore even though there may very well be music that some genre nerd might argue isn’t actually emocore. As previously discussed, emo is a hopelessly broad term so I’m using emocore to give people a better idea of what to expect, not because it’s necessarily 100% accurate.

Part 2: The archive

The entire archive is 83.8 gigabyte which is more than 10% of my harddrive. I’ve spent several hours just downloading files, and I’ve only gotten up to the letter D. In the root of the folder there is a file called “List of folders.txt”. According to it, there are 1671 albums, 69.76 GB (this is presumably just the music without the image files also included? Maybe that’s what I should have called the blog) 12496 songs, and 19:00:26 hours. That’s in the format DD:HH:MM by the way.

This is an absurd amount of music. My plan is to try and finish it within one year, or before 2019/7/20. To do that, I would have to listen to an average of 4.6 albums, 34.22 songs or 1.25 hours a day. We’ll see how that goes.

Part 3: The review: 0-9 (finally!)

So this is the format: The drive is divided in to folders based on the first character of the band name. Every time I finish one such folder I will post a review like part 3 here (don’t worry, I wont spend hundreds of words talking about emo every post). I will talk about my favorite artist under that letter, my favorite band name, my favorite image (as I said, there are images included under some of the bands, mostly of their album covers and such) as well as anything else I find interesting. I might shake up the formula a bit as I go, who knows. Before writing this post I’ve listened to the first folder, titled “0-9”. This is one of the smallest folders in the compilation, despite technically containing ten different characters, with only 160 songs. For comparison, the letter a has 831 songs. A careful start in other words.

Here are all the songs, albums and bands I've been listening to: https://pastebin.com/Xm5b4ZN1

My favorite band

125, Rue Montmartre

So after all this talk about emocore I ended up picking the maybe least hardcore band, figures. Commenter Kyle Cornwell on Sophies Floarboard says that they’re emocore at least so we’re still good.

125, Rue Montmartre is a German band named after a street address in Paris. They where active between 1998 and 2000 and they released 1 EP, took part in 1 split with Maggat and appeared on 2 compilations. They have a female singer who not only sings but also speaks and whispers. The guitars mostly play short, catchy riffs or arpeggios with some occasional chords during more explosive parts. The bass is comparatively loud and often contributes to the melody of a given song more than the guitars. Their style is clearly closer to the Midwest style of emo with it’s arpeggiod guitars, more indie sound and more melancholy mood. Here are the lyrics to their song Disco Hijack along with it’s English translation, which are very emo:

My favorite band name

30 second motion picture

I didn’t really find any name that was all that interesting under the number category (although I expect to find a lot of good ones down the line) but this is the one that spoke to me the most for whatever reason

My favorite image

This is from 309 chorus’s 1994 demo.

There’s just something really endearing about this grainy picture of this nerdy-looking dude with arm tattoos playing in front of a sign that says “haymarket collective” and has a fist and a circle E. Makes me happy inside.

Expect a new post in maybe two weeks? I’m not sure exactly how long time everything takes yet

[attract-mode-collective]

Just Another Late Night At The Game Center

And just another massive dose of game culture, as originally shared on the Attract Mode Twitter account, (most of) everything that was shared in the latter half of February. The first half was covered here.

Before I forget: the above is courtesy of erickimphotography.com.

Again, given how short Feb is supposed to be, I figured this post would be too... and it's not. So am wonder if going weekly might best going forward?

Anyhow, where did I leave off last time? Oh yeah; Valentine's Day. And here’s Amy Rose, from the day after, reminding us all that, as great as love can be, it also hurts (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

Check out this devastating big boot from Mario, one that would make the WWE's Undertaker or Kane proud (via suppermariobroth)...

You're no doubt familiar with Julie Bell's work, but are you aware of the close resemblance between her art & the artist herself? (via slbtumblng)...

Some nice, pixelated sukajans we have here (via kauzara)...

Look at these hipsters...

Look at these hipsters standing around, on a Brooklyn rooftop...

Look at these hipsters standing around, on a Brooklyn rooftop in leggings based upon the interactive menu for the Super Famicom's satellite modem peripheral. (via minusworld.co.uk)...

Am legit thinking of getting this shirt covered with quotes from people trying to figure out which Metal Gear character is gay (via kotaku.com)...

Am rather fond of Data Weave, which has more than a passing resemblance to the Eliss scarf that helped put the Attract Mode shop on the map (via prostheticknowledge)...

When you go to bed, don't forget to never use your Dreamcast as a pillow (nor should you ever place it on a bucket filled with leafy greens either, but you probably already knew that one; via posthumanwanderings)...

Not sure which SNK 40th Anniversary shirt I like more (via miki800.com)...

It's just Hidetaka Suehiro, playing... I think The Last Blade? Criminally underrated Neo Geo game btw (via nintendu)...

And the late, great Robin Williams playing Ground Zero Texas for the Sega CD (via celebgames)...

Plus the President of Turkey, circa 1990, playing Galaxy Force II for whatever reason (via historium)..

Pro-tip to any & all custom arcade cabinet sellers: if you're going to photograph someone playing a game on your thing, have said person actually play the thing (in this case, Robotron utilizes dual sticks and no buttons; via arcadephile)...

Today's recommended reading is a follow-up to another older post, one that's all about Willie Williams, who not only inspired Virtua Fighter's Jeffry McWild but also Tekken's Paul Phoenix (via lordmo)...

After seeing this gif of a young woman punching a dinosaur (or possibly a dragon) in the crotch, I may have to give Capcom Fighting Jam a second look (via kazucrash)...

Sticking with the subject of crotches for just one bit, everyone out there's familiar with PuLiRuLa, right? (via kazucrash)

Just a friendly reminder of how wacky commercials for the PlayStation 2 were back in the day (via kurhl)...

Back to the subject of dinosaurs... yet still sticking with fun under the sun (via sidestorygaiden)...

If I'm gonna share fan art of unofficial PlayStation 1 era mascots, then I have to pass along this rendering of Abe (via it8bit)...

Seen countless folk play music with a Game Boy or a NES... but a Dreamcast? @slowmagic is the very first, and with a Hello Kitty edition Dreamcast no less...

Does anyone know if these figures of Dorimukyasuko & friends were commercially produced or if they were just made for the Sega no Game wa Sekai Ichi~i~i~I ad that the image comes from? (via vgprintads)...

We've gotten snowfall here in NYC over the past few weeks, once during during sunset, but alas it wasn't nearly as pretty as this (via kirokazepixel)...

It's been ages since I've posted any Game Culture Snapshots, despite countless promises that I'd fix that. Well, until that finally happens, here just one, from IndieCade East 2018. Which was an epic bust, but hey, at least I finally got to play that Bill Viola game I first encountered at GDC 2008...

PLEASE tell me that GBA Video carts are the new hot means of distributing bootleg Hollywood flicks (via @katribou)...

This part from The Thing always reminded me of Asteroids on the Atari 7800 (via pixpunk)...

I posted this on Twitter, not realizing that I had shared it on the blog once before. But since I can’t find that original post, and since it's so damn nice, plus totally worth looking at again (via humanoidhistory)...

I also need to re-share that Tron movie poster cuz it's the first lead up to this Blade Runner-related spread from Joystik Magazine (via mendelpalace)...

As someone who fetishizes old video game magazines, I'm legit ashamed that I didn't know about Joystik sooner (via here & here)...

Please enjoy a healthy helping of scans from Lovely Sweet Dream, the dream journal that would become the basis of LSD for the PlayStation 1 (via here & here)...

Sorry, but I still think the idea of a multi-billionaire sending his sports car into space just cuz he can to be kinda cringey, yet that doesn't mean I'd don't think this pixelated recreation is any less pleasant (via it8bit)...

I've never been to Beverly Hills, so I have no idea if this portrayal according to Super Chase: Criminal Termination is accurate or not; maybe it was when the game was produced? (via obscurevideogames)...

Meanwhile, closer to where I am (somewhat; am not all that far from Long Island) is Mario & Yoshi & the Book of Revelation (via greathaircut)...

Are you playing Mario? Or is Mario playing you? (via suppermariobroth)...

Game Boys. And Game Girls. Mostly Girls. (via contac)

Before anyone asks, no, I do not have a bigger/wallpaper appropriate-sized version of this super sexy image of a couple of Wiis (via klaus-laserdisc)...

I think I kinda need to do this to my PlayStation (via dreamcast.tokyo)...

... Which reminds of those fancy, souped up by audiophiles PSXs I mentioned a whiles ago...

I celebrated Cat Day in Japan by posting this fave official King of Fighters illustration (via videogamesdensetsu)....

... along with this Monster Hunter fan art (via kerriaitken)...

... plus this highlight of a fave WarioWare: Twisted micro game (via suppermariobroth)...

So yeah, Flash sucks, I get that, but as the platform fades away, so does the opportunity to play games like Fear Less! (via zombie-chaser)...

Thankfully, WORLD OF HORROR, "a love letter to the cosmic horror work of Junji Ito", is something that's much more accessible (for now at least)...

I don't know much about Dujanah, which has you assuming the role of a Muslim woman with grievances against a military force that's occupying her Islamic homeland, other than it looks extremely compelling...

Yet another game I need to check out is CONTINUUM, which is a shmup that combines time manipulation and Tetris? (via alpha-beta-gamer)...

It's a legit shame that Jetpack Squad has seemingly fallen off the map (via shmups)...

Another shmup that I really, really want to play (though it's starting to feel increasingly unlikely) is AEROBAT, which looks just as gorgeous (and insane) today as it did the first time I laid eye (via shmups)...

Yet another game that was never meant to be, and the only thing we have here is some incredible looking concept art; if it ended up happening & was any good, I wonder if I'd be a PC-FX owner? (via videogamesdensetsu)...

If a Tokyo Dark Souls was ever to happen, which artist's take do you prefer; this one (via visor-visual)...

... or this one? (via mendelpalace)

You know about celebrity roasts, right? Well, a comedy club in Long Island City had one for Mario, though I have no idea how it went; I had kung fu practice that night...

Me, when the coffee kicks in (via anthony10000000)...

I had no idea that Typing of the Space Harrier was even a thing (via posthumanwanderings)...

It's a bit unsettling how some of Dreamcast Magazine's advice on how to survive Y2K are still useful today, in particular their words of wisdom regarding Seaman (via posthumanwanderings)...

Megadora Man, a Tokusatsu-esque take on the Mega Drive, for Beep! Mega Drive; am assuming his foes are inspired by the Famicom and PC Engine (though am not totally sure which is which; via obscurevideogames)...

Question: how hard would it be for someone in the US to get the first three issues of Famitsu from the Japanese Kindle Store? (via miki800.com)

Been well over a decade since first laying eyes and I FINALLY know the identity of the artist behind a series of Mario illustrations that has long left me stupefied: his name is Ishihara Gōjin (via videogamesdensetsu)...

I woke up the other day with a sense of purpose, with the knowledge that I finally have a mission in life: to do whatever I can to make this dancing kid from Sega Splash Golf a viral sensation (via sonicthehedgeblog)...

Though speaking of morning, been feeling run down as of late, though it's my own damn fault for not having breakfast. Which is why I can't wait for my Persona 3 toaster has yet to arrive (via gasp-theenemy)...

Had no idea that MAME can also emulate those crappy, Tiger handheld games; naturally there's not much to look at, since none of the background is part of the game's code (via lanceboyles)...

Eggman has a sense of humor (via voidirium)...

Eggman also has aesthetics (via posthumanwanderings)...

When you mess with the textures in Wind Waker for the sole purpose of making Vaporwave Link (via pmpkn)...

Man, I really wish each and every mech in Tech Romancer actually had its own anime (via ultrace)...

Before Mappy was a video game, it was a physical game involving real deal robots (via namcomuseum)...

And I swear, one of these days, we'll make available online Zac Gorman's print from Comics Vs Games 2...

In my time I've encountered lots & lots of BMO fan art, so much that it has become increasingly difficult to take notice and be impressed, yet this one managed to do so regardless (via it8bit)...

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the instruction manual for Cubivore, shall we (via skincoats)...

Cubivore's Japanese box art is also very nice (via gaygamer)...

An important message for all parents out there, concerning Minecraft (via reddit.com)...

When you can't afford the licensing fees for Miami Vice, Ghostbusters, Barbarella, I think... and maybe Logan's Run? (via mendelpalace)...

Given how Platoon ended up as a NES game, the idea of the Terminator on a Tiger handheld isn't totally far-fetched (via rewind01)...

And finally, PUT THAT CONTROLLER DOWN, NOW! (via fuzzyghost)

[subetei-noykin]

I Am Livid

So, I've been off XIV for a few days, RL's been rough, etc etc, blah blah blah. Life happens, we all get it. To be honest though, the thing draining my muse lately has been something very personal that has today boiled over in the absolute worst of ways.

I'm going to be losing my veneer of reasonability and friendliness here. I promise you, how I am about to sound is not how I normally react but this is a situation I hope and trust people can understand, perhaps relate to. If you want to avoid drama and want to keep out of a personal rant, please avoid reading past the cut. 

@tarot-dancer​ (aka Neyuki)  is my RP partner, best friend and girlfriend of roughly 9 years at this point, perhaps 10. It's been a long time. I know her, I love her, I have seen what an amazing person she is. How anxious she is to play her character and just be left alone, how sweet she is and how open to the community she has been. She's not just an amazing person though, but everything I do? All my writing skills, my talent for creation and development of stories? I learned it from her. She has notepads where she writes ideas down, she frets over every little detail and inspiration she had. She has a love for roleplaying and creating that is nearly boundless.

Except lately.

As some of you may know, or may not considering her private stance over it, Neyuki has been recieving anon hate. It has been going on for a period of likely at least a month, longer perhaps, but even to me she is reluctant to go into full details because this is absolutely -mortifying- for her. The anon hate, in summary, alleges the following;

Neyuki is a character who is 'fake' and 'stolen' because of her design elements

Neyuki's player, my BEST FRIEND and LOVE OF MY LIFE, is scum, worthless, uncreative, a hack, etc, because of these 'stolen'/'fake' elements.

Neyuki's player, once again my best friend and love of my life, should completely abandon Tumblr and the XIV community, because this anon doesn't think they should be on it. Or die.

Yes. Wishing death has been involved.

The elements Neyuki has been accused of stealing are her dancer-like clothing and design choices and her off-model horn colors. To be specific, she uses lighter Thavnair inspired design clothing because Neyuki is canonically from Thavnair. Her off-model horn colors are a prismatic/opalescent color. This anon feels Neyuki stole both these and other elements from her.

So Neyuki has taken these anon hate blows as best she can. Trying to figure out who would accuse her of such a thing and then send her such vitriolic messages instead of speaking with her like a sane, reasonable individual. She's endured and tried to move on, but it hurts her. It has been emotionally and creatively devastating to her and I've -watched- her. Watched her slip further and further from a community she loves being a part of and further from a character she immensely enjoyed, that she poured heart and soul into.

I'm going to state, for the record, that Neyuki has a -fairly- good idea of who this anon is, but because we cannot prove it aside from a circumstantial trail and some evidence that may-or-may-not be definitive, I'm not going to name names here. I will say that Neyuki has spoken to others in this community who have confirmed this person has caused issues before, but again, without proof I will not directly call them out. Why? Because in this community, even if I'm -dead on-, without literally their name signed on this anon hate and screenshots of every interaction (and hell, -with- that kind of evidence), someone will turn this around on Neyuki to drag her even more through the mud.

Fast-forward to last night. Neyuki is trying her damndest to get over this and sends a nice, polite message to a fellow user on tumblr. Name omitted because this isn't their drama. This person reblogs the ask Neyuki sends and as soon as they do, THEY recieve hateful messages. For even posting a message Neyuki sent them on their dash, they were now the victim of this person's misdirected bullshit.

To say Neyuki is hurt is an understatement. To say she's devastated is much, much closer to being true but that doesn't even cover it. Neyuki now feels like she can't even participate in the Tumblr community without this person hounding them. Stalking their friends and associates, bringign their hate and bitterness to bear on anyone she dared associate with publically. It's pushed her to the point she's seriously considering leaving the community and XIV in general.

So why am I posting this? Because as a rule I don't care about my public image on Tumblr. I don't care that by posting this I'm opening myself up for attacks and hate and once I post this, I'll return to my position of refusing to post drama or personal junk unless I feel it's necessary. What I care about is that someone close to me is suffering so deeply that she is considering abandoning something she absolutely loves and enjoys doing.

Because of a coward.

I won't defend Neyuki's design choices or inspirations here, because I don't feel these baseless accusations from such a hateful coward -warrant- defense. The character Neyuki Utaura has design elements inspired by real life aesthetic, her cultural background and what her player liked. Prismatic, different or pearlescent horns are not so special as to scream 'stolen' the moment someone has them. So jumping to the conclusion that someone knows about, much less cares about, a character's design choices enough to out and out steal them is an act of SUPREME ARROGANCE on the part of this hateful, disgusting coward.

What I will defend is Neyuki. Who has never held herself to anything but the highest standards when it comes to her roleplaying and creative choices. Who is the mother of my child and an amazing, warm person who puts faith, trust and love in others because she genuinely wants to enjoy her time in this community. I have never seen her do a single thing I would consider wrong, or theft, or anything but working her character concept to new places on her own experience. I have never seen her steal, never seen her follow a blog and suddenly change her character, we've never discussed how she likes x from y and wants it on Neyuki. What I have seen her do is have an idea, find someone else popular has that same idea and shyly decide to drop the idea rather than risk THIS. EXACT. SITUATION.

My final word on the matter is this.

I don't expect anyone to care. Or come forward about this, to apologie or to try and back themselves up with some kind of proof. I don't even expect anyone to take this as seriously as I do, because they can't SEE the physical and mental effects. They can't see how heartbreaking it is. They don't know. What Iwant is to remind everyone to consider the human on the other side of the fucking computer before you do things like this. Defend yourself, protect your ideas if you feel they're being stolen, but have the fucking stomach and maturity to handle it directly instead of hiding and tearing someone down in a way they can't defend.

And to you.

The person behind this. If you happen to read this. If you happen to have taken the time out of your undoubtedly busy day of stalking someone I care about and tearing them apart for the sake of your own bloated, selfish egotism.

You are disgusting. The words arrogant, self-involved or even paranoid float by, but do you no justice. What you are is a psychotic, cowardly narcissist. You have attacked, belittled, stalked and threatened, WISHED DEATH UPON, another human being for the supposed 'crimes' of their character reminding you of elements of your own. If you were so confident of your case and evidence, you would present it and directly confront Neyuki, but you do not because you have nothing.

ARE. Nothing.

I have my suspicions who you are. And you've already slipped up and played your hand to people who know and are friends with Neyuki. One day you'll push the boundary just a little too far and give me just the last bit of evidence I need to drop this tidal wave of bullshit on your lap where it belongs. All the anons, the death threat, the 'please don't draw this character' snide shots to artists, the attacks and stalking, I'll pile it directly on your head where it belongs and on that day I really hope your toxic little ass has friends to support and comfort you. Because you will find no mercy in myself and those who care about Neyuki, no 'all is forgiven' after the inevitable half-assed apology you'll squeeze out to save face and no amount of victim playing or whining will make me think better of you. I have no pity on your obvious shortcomings and emotional instability, no tolerance for whatever you'll try to hide behind.

You are, in my eyes, nothing more than scum that has hurt the woman I love. I hope one day I get to return the favor unto you.

[bookcoversalt]

I Fixed it For You: Dark of the West

So this cover was sent to me by multiple people when it was revealed five days ago, on account of it being terrible, but in terms of stuff we cover on this blog, I consider it kind of unique case. It’s bad but it’s not garishly so; it’s fairly, though not entirely, Technically competent, with a straightforward hierarchy, no weird spacing, and photographs that are attractive and highly edited but not too artificial-looking, taken on their own. But all of the individual choices here contradict each other and are executed in a bizzare pastiche of moods, eras, and imagery that is super, super not working together, especially not when we consider the contents of the book. So before we get into my version, we have to like. Break this down. And we’re gonna use numbers.

OVERALL CONCEPT/ COMPOSITION: 2/10

This is a fantasy world war II book. That is extremely marketable. Also it is the year of our lord 2017 and we are gripped by tracked-out type and object covers. Yet this book decides to go with a GIRL IN PROM DRESS RUNNING AWAY FROM SOMETHING AND ALSO NOT LOOKING AT YOU cover like it's 2011, nary a narrative element in sight except the pathetic attempt at planes in the distance that we'll get to in a second. Why??? Did this happen ?????

I want to be clear that I don't hate GIRL IN PROM DRESS covers on principle. They were extremely popular for a while and thus there are many, many examples of them being done badly, and yes, they tend towards the generic, often sort of a cheap bid for visual Romance with minimal reflection of the story itself, BUT ALL THAT SAID, there's a reason they're appealing, and when done well they promise a specific sort of female protagonist oriented drama with a Sexy, often Dark aesthetic. And if you know me, you know I'm all about that. But WHY in the world would you not SELL THE FUCK out of your extremely marketable premise here? WWII planes attacking a fantasy castle is the important imagery, not a generic princess and the twenty-odd miles of wildly unthreatening landscape that stand between us and being interested in this book.

But even if, for some crazy reason, the princess really was the only viable central image for this book, this composition is still stiff and dull. A small lone central figure, paired with oversimplified type and nothing else with any visual weight to speak of, is super fucking boring; there’s also something a little weird about how far inwards everything sits, like it’s afraid of being cropped off?

If I had to say something nice about it overall, there’s a very dreamy, unreal feeling to it-- but not only is it ruined by the type (which I’ll get into) but it feels inappropriate. I want drama from this cover, not dreaminess.

GIRL IN PROM DRESS: 3/10

So setting aside the fact that I take issue with its very presence/ centrality, the image is well-edited, but loses big points for the costume, which looks like something I could pull off a Macy's juniors formalwear rack right this fucking second instead of, i don't know, SOMETHING ANALOGUE 1940S AS IF TO REPRESENT SOMETHING FROM THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK. I'd forgive it if the dress was at least romantic or super pretty and thus contributing to tone, but it's not; the color isn't complimenting anything else on the cover and the style is more anachronistically modern than anything else.

Points are also lost for the weird contradictory lighting on her-- the backlight on the skirt is TECHNCIALLY correct or close enough to it, since we can see the sun there on her far left, but it's so bright on the bottom half of the dress that it's super distracting, and feels incongruous with the lighting in her face. And that's an easy fix? Just trim the image a little and cut off the tulle? She's clearly not actually embedded in the background. We also know this because of her 40% opacity feet, which, lol:

Also, someone was clearly like ROYALTY IS HOT WE NEED TO GET A CROWN IN THERE so it's... just chillin? I'm not at all against metaphorical imagery or crowns in general, but compositionally it looks silly and tacked-on.

WWII PLANES: 0/10

YOU DIDN'T TRY AT ALL.

I’M LITERALLY SO EMBARRASSED  FOR THIS COVER RIGHT NOW.

PASTORAL LANDSCAPE WITH CASTLE: 5/10

There's nothing wrong with this landscape except some overenthusiastic correction of of the dark values, presumably so it doesn't compete with the girl for attention. This just backfires and makes it overwhelmingly clear that the girl has been pasted on top of it, and turns the potential visual drama of a cloudy sunset into a sort of vague murky pastel thing that makes me want to take a nap. Other than that, this would look lovely on some other less terrible book cover.

TITLE TYPOGRAPHY: 2/10

When I said this cover is mostly Technically competent, this (and the planes) is the exception. This is the saddest attempt at grunge texture I've ever seen in my life. It's so depressing I want to start a nonprofit for it. Please attend my charity gala so that this poor plain type can afford to look properly distressed and not like someone blotted a dishwater-soaked tissue on the corners.

But regardless of the texture, heavy photomanips in particular need a strong typographic hand to tie them together tonally, so it is a massive disappointment to have such WILDLY generic letterforms taking up HALF OF THE COVER. It literally looks like a mockup, a quick comp just to demonstrate the idea to the creative director and you'll actually go back and use a REAL font and REAL grunge effects later, but oops, you forgot to edit it before it went to the printer. Also, what's with that color? If you want it to look gold, use a metallic effect or a texture. This is just ORANGE. At least it could have been the red of the dress and then something would have worked together?????

Additional Design Elements: 4/10

Inoffensive but WEAK use of Flourishes and dividing lines. Author name sitting on a weird place on the girl; why the choice not to nudge it down to hide the weird foot I called out earlier?

Overall median score: Bad, needed fixing.

Now we can talk about my design.

I don’t want to make this post much longer, so I won’t go too in depth in defending it, but it’s not immune to the inherent cheesiness of vast photomanip landscapes. That said, I went a lot Deeper than I generally do for fixes because I knew that somewhere, deep down, was a good composition waiting to be unearthed, and i totally think it was worth the effort. 

Focus is split almost equally between FLEEING (?) PRINCESS and the planes attacking the castle, with vast differences in depth generating interest and the overall composition sloping upwards, creating energy and a sense of action. The type had to be something heavy and solid enough to carry a grown-ass grunge texture (because i was determined to show how it should be done), but whimsical enough to keep us within the realm of princessey fantasy, and I added the floruishes on either side to that effect too. (the only Caveat to this redo is that I didn’t intentionally do away with the idea of the girl in a pricess dress, I just couldn’t find any images that worked, and this girl’s grungey jacket ends up suiting the mood, so.)

And I made it, uh, Dark. Because it’s in the title. it just seemed obvious.

Moral of the story: don’t forget the full potential of your type, lean into the inherent artificial nature of photomanip landscapes to max out your composition, and for fuck’s sake, don’t use pixellated planes.

If you like what I do on bookcoversalt, consider buying me a coffee?

[todokori-kun]

Ok:

Luna, you’re the best. You’re smart, you’re talented, you’re dedicated, you’re creative and caring, a wonderful listener, so much fun to debate with, and the best friend anyone could ever ask for. I’m so grateful for everything you’ve helped me with ever since we started talking; I respect your resolve. You’re unique and amazing, and I’m so, so sorry this is happening to you.

I won’t go into detail because it’s a complicated story that’s also way too long, but I’ve sort of felt that way before too (thinking it might be better if I just disappeared/wishing I didn’t exist/feeling worthless). It sucks.

I don’t know if this’ll help, but just know that I’m always here to listen if you need it. You can Email me (though I guess that’s probably not an option lol) or just, like, I don’t know, maybe post something on the blog like ‘Evans can we talk’ and I’ll definitely see it and respond because I stalk this place 24/7 (Evans is a creep please don’t encourage her). I’ve also been considering finally getting a tumblr so maybe we’ll be able to PM each other sometime.

There’s absolutely nothing to apologize for. It’s really brave to talk about stuff like this (I never can). And if there’s any way I can help, please, let me know.

  (Also, funny story (it’s actually gross and is basically just Evans whining about stuff):

I know from experience that stomach-related sicknesses suck. When I first started taking swimming lessons I was an idiot with zero stamina who could barely swim halfway across the pool without coming up for air, so needless to say, I ended up gulping a ton of water (especially since my teacher didn’t go easy on me; mom told her not to because I’m a sloth and I usually won’t do any exercise on my own besides simple stretches and some walking/running). I mean, the water in swimming pools is usually a bit disgusting, and it’s even worse where I take lessons because it’s a pretty old place and I don’t think it gets cleaned that often… so not only did accidentally swallowing it trigger my clean-freak senses, I also ended up with a terrible stomachache. I thought it was fine, that it would pass. But then I got a fever and every other thing I ate made me feel like someone was twisting my intestines from the inside, I couldn’t even lie down and rest for a sec because whenever I moved or tried to change positions it got even worse ;p; (also my mom never let it go, she kept jokingly 'reminding’ me that water from a swimming pool is not something you should drink after I started swimming again. I guess I kinda deserved it, though. I was an idiot))

That sounds so lovely <3 I’d really love to go visit Norway myself sometime, though I’ll probably have to wait a few years (my mom has back problems that make it painful for her to stay in one position for too long, so long plane/car rides are a huge no). And oooh if you have any good pictures I’d love to see them :D

Thanks, I’m glad I managed to explain my shipping reasons (like it’s so hard to properly talk about why I ship stuff sometimes XD)! I would give anything to have you join me in Stoki hell so let me just recommend basically the entire Remember This Cold series (it’s angsty as heck so proceed with caution…there are bits of humor and fluff in there, though, and then some extremely rare (almost) pure fluff fics. Like the one where Steve wants to propose but is a nervous bean because Loki’s a PRINCE and he wants to make it perfect). I’ll also try to find some more good fics later becase I can’t remember any titles right now ^^;;

YES ANOTHER T'CHALLA FAN I adore this guy (also I feel like he has a really cool voice. Not really sure why, it just sounds so nice). I really respect him for his attitude towards Steve and Bucky after he figures out Bucky’s not the real murderer, and how he later stops letting his anger towards his father’s killer consume him.

We’ll fangirl over the Black Panther movie together when it comes out, won’t we *schwing*

(right after I wrote 'schwing’ I got this mental image of Hisoka having his glowing, expolsive schwing moments after seeing T'Challa. And then Hisoka schwinging in theater while watching MCU movie fight scenes. Why am I like this)

I can draw, but I don’t know how to animate so these memes will never be a thing ;-; it’s so sad, I’ve got everything planned out…everytime eyes are mentioned the screen zooms in on Illumi’s eyes (yes even when Illumi’s not in the song because he’s a Zoldyck assassin, you can’t keep him out) and the word 'eyes’ gets the weird treatment where all these high/low/metallic(?) voices get layered so it sounds like the creepiest thing ever

('History has its eyes on you but it’s actually Illumi’ is both the animatic I want to see the most and the animatic I hope will never be created)

Fun HxH facts I want to let you know about:

Kite (AKA Ging’s student and Gon’s big brother figure) is dead and has been brainwashed into being a weapon/punching bag for his captors. When sunshine angel Gon meets the new Kite he lets Kite beat him up and then hugs him, promising to save him (THE FEEEEEEELSS)

Forgot to mention this about Chrollo, but when Kurapika killed one of his troupe (a guy named Uvogin), Chrollo acted all cool and never really talked about Uvo…

but then he had the rest of the troupe murder 2000 mafiosi guarding a building they were trying to get into, and while watching the chaos from afar, listening to their enemy’s screams, he started waving his hands as if conducting an orchestra…

“Uvogin-san. Can you hear it? This requiem we’re dedicating to you.”

(jeez Chrollo we know you’re extra but you can’t just murder 2000 people and play a funeral march with their cries of horror every time you lose a subordinate)

Lastly: There’s a new character named Knuckle who’s like the HxH version of Metal Bat. He is the sweetest cinnamon roll. I love him. I’ll send you a pic later

So um did you hear the news about Hinami

(Queen Luna cosplaying Maka(? or any of the other three MCs)…omg that sounds so awesome)

*facepalm* ok WHOOPS I actually read about that on the SE wiki a while ago. How did I forget about it

Yep! It was so good <33 (Lizzy looks so graceful and pretty I can’t even) I actually found the whole movie on YT but just watched the parts I was really looking forward to seeing animated, like UT’s fight scene, Seb getting stabbed, the rest of the Midford family…(Francis’ hair shocked me. Idk how to feel about it. At first I thought it made her look like an old lady, but then, the more I look at it, the prettier it gets…like, it’s actually a really nice design, but I guess I got too used to manga!Francis lol)

Light is the trash GOD.

(hope you get to read the light novel! As far as I know it’s got a TON of L and Naomi in it so it might make you feel better :D)

Oh yeah, I get what you mean. Light’s reasoning/views on the justice system probably connects a lot to the culture and social issues of Japan at the time.

DN’s probably still one of the easier-to-adapt mangas out there, though, since the themes of justice and questioning the idea of 'greater good’ is something anyone can relate to (and they still botched it, I’m very salty about this and you can’t stop me ;-; even with how terrible Ryuk and Rem looked in them, the Japanese movies were WAY better, and it’s actually pretty rare that Japan makes a good live-action movie from a manga or anime. Apparently the TG movie that came out this year was pretty good too, though :D).

(I apparently somehow accidentally erased the part where I mentioned I actually read HCs/theories about Japanese-American Light on tumblr somewhere….that’s what got me thinking about it.

I agree though, seeing how different cultures would change Light’s character would be very interesting.)

The lack of potato chips doomed the entire Keikaku from the start.

I can see you being similar to Pearl too! I think I’m maybe a bit like Lapis…or possibly Connie. Or maybe Blue Diamond because I also cry way too much (but then again BD actually has a reason to be miserable so)

Those are both cool gems<3 and yeah, they’re both really pretty :D

I was talking about gem 'roles’ back on Homeworld, though ^^;; like, how Pearls are considered servants or pretty accessories, Diamonds are leaders, fusions like Garnet are outcasts, Rubies are 'dumb muscle’, Sapphires are valuable prophets, Peridots are tech experts, Jaspers are soldiers…sorry, I should’ve been more specific OTL

I’d probably be a Pearl lol. I could see myself being a Peridot and being scared to death without a Quartz soldier to guard me but I’m not good with any kind of technology so nah.

And sorry for asking weird questions, I forgot it’s been a while since you watched the show ^^;;

Hey, don’t feel bad about slow replies! Like I said before, I seriously don’t mind as long as you’re ok :D and I’m so glad I’ve managed to help.

('a friend I appreciate’ *ugly sobbing* thank you)

Did someone say suffering?

*'Remember That We Suffered’ plays in the background*

DID THE QUEEN JUST SAY 'Goals’ ABOUT SOMETHING I MADE OMG I’M FREAKING OUT TYSM

Ayyy I’m so glad you liked them! (The Hide pic was painted with the intent to kill)

(last thing:

I’m sorry, this is probably really creepy, but I ended up telling my mom about you because she asked who I was talking to (she knows I have internet friends and has seen me writing messages before). Since I’m only 13 she worries about the people I talk (she knows all my friends on ao3) so I told her some small things like your age, that you’re from Croatia, that you play the piano too and that you mentioned having a sister.

I’m really, really sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, mom just worries a lot and she likes to hear about my friends (like, she worries for my safety on the internet so she has to ask me some basic things about the people I talk with, and when she knows I have a good friend on the internet she sometimes wants to hear if my relationship with them is ok). I’d never tell her something really private but sometimes she wants to talk and I know she worries for me so I do tell her small, random details from our convos.

if you’re uncomfortable with that, though, I’ll stop. Again, I’m so sorry about this.)

And after two weeks of silence, the species finally shows some signs of life.  ;-;

I’m totally not crying.  I’ve said this so many times and you’re probably getting annoyed, but I have no idea what I did to deserve you in my life.  You’re actually the only person I’d told about my current mental state at that time, and I’m so glad you didn’t freak out or just write it away as me overreacting (like my mom did), and it means so so so much to me. Truly, thank you for being here for me. (And not giving up on me, considering how long my replies take ;-;)

I’m here for you as well, though, so if you’re ever feeling down, you can message me ^^ 

Oh, it’d be cool if you’d get a tumblr! I can guarantee my replies would be faster then, since the messages would show up in my notifications...

Also, to brighten things up a little, this is how I picture you at the beginning of the message:

Oh  god that sounds disgusting XD And perfectly describes why I don’t wanna do swimming as a sport. Are you still swimming? It’d be cool if you were, cause it’s a really beautiful sport imo. 

That’s unfortunate... Hopefully you’ll be able to visit it someday ^^

Tbh considering the shit I unironically ship sometimes, no ship is weird enough to be unexplainable. Name a single reason why you ship it, and it’s valid in my eyes. Heck, it can be ‘they look good together’ and I’ll say ‘makes sense’. Y’know why? Because I’m one of those ppl who will ship it if they so much as look at each other.

ok fun fact: I’ve loved T’Challa since I was like 8, because every summer, there would be a weekly publication of superhero comics, and Black Panther was almost always there, and I was a nerd even then, so I’d always buy them. Other than Spiderman, Black Panther was my favourite superhero. 

Lololol I need the HxH Cast watching MCU movies. Oh yeah, I found this a while ago and immediately thought of you:

Amazing... If you ever learn to animate, please send me a link, because I will pay money to see that. Just. I’m not even into HxH, but I’d give up a lot to see the crossover XD

Ouch, that seems like a lot of feels... Seriously I have no idea where you get the mental strength to read to many angsty moments...

um, yeah... i have actually... but um, she’s alive, right?

Turns out I gave my skirt I’d used to charity, so until i find a replacement, I can’t take any pics... well, at least i can grow my hair out to Maka’s length till that happens XD

I adore the movie, seriously, the animators did such an amazing job with it, especially the most important scenes. BUT HECK; WHEN WILL WE FIND OUT WHAT OUR CIEL’S NAME IS?? It’s been hinted that it’s quite unusual, BUT THAT MAKES IT EVEN HARDER HNNNGH

Oh yeah, I’m gonna find that novel even if it kills me, because I need the L. 

lol I still haven’t forgiven the movie adaptation of Avatar the Last Airbender. It was so bad that most people (including me are denying its existence). I might watch Death Note some time soon, so I can judge it for myself tbh... 

Of course, the chips were a vital part of the Keikaku... No wonder it didn’t succeed...

No worries! It’s not your fault! Tbh, i dont think id even reached that part when I was watching it, so it’s interesting to hear all the roles...  Aw, you’d be an adorable Peridot ^^

Tbh ‘friend that I appreciate’ doesn’t even begin to describe how precious you are to me. You’re the first online friend I made and the first person I told about my mental state, so honestly, you’re one of the people I feel closest to...

Nah, I don’t find it creepy at all!! Seriously, I sometimes tell my parents about people I talk to, so I’ve mentioned well ^^ It’s your choice what/who you’ll talk about ^^

[broadwaybydesign]

Back On Top: Costuming Patti Lupone in “War Paint”, Part I

My post about Roman Holiday earlier this week should give you some idea of the admiration I hold for Catherine Zuber as a costumer and as a designer. This season, she was nominated for a Tony in one of my favorite productions of the year, War Paint. This is a classically structured musical that uses jazzy numbers to tell the story of Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden, the two fierce rivals who basically invented the modern cosmetics industry. Costuming each of these women required a unique take, and  as such I’m going to devote two posts to the main characters in the musical, one apiece.

The first up (sure to please fellow Patti Lupone fans like @sadgirlz4patti ) is the indomitable Helena Rubinstein, who built an international cosmetics empire in the first half of the 20th century, battling anti-immigrant and anti-semitic sentiment, let alone sexism, to find her slice of American success. For a spitfire personality like her, there was only one choice the casting director could make: the divine Patti Lupone. But costuming one of Broadway’s most famous (or even infamous!) divas is a major challenge, not only because Ms Lupone has (well-deserved) high standards, but because she has a petite figure that demands special consideration by the costumer selected for the production.

Catherine Zuber was clearly inspired by the era during which Madame Rubinstein was most active and in which the musical is set: the 1920s through 1950s or so. As such, there are a number of wardrobe changes, and we can see the evolution of fashion in them. Because this is not a general fashion blog, I’m going to present these images and analyses thematically rather than chronologically; this is about the skill and artistry of Ms Zuber, not necessarily a history of the fashion industry.

The first costume I want to look at is one that has already become an iconic representation of the Rubinstein part in this musical, her purple outfit with matching hat:

The first word that comes to mind when I see this costume is “dramatic,” and with good reason. When dealing with a personality as big as Madame Rubinstein, the costumes have to match--but at the same time, they need to make sense with the actress and the part being played. Here, we see Ms Zuber using a variety of fabrics in order to make a maximum impact, and doing something we didn’t see a lot of in my other reviews: accessorizing! Yes, when dealing with costumery, a lot of attention has to be paid to the accessories, and we’ll look at those shirtly.

This outfit is a kind of skirtsuit when looked at from a distance, designed to look formal but businesslike, and still intended to leave an impression. For that reason, Ms Zuber has used three varied shades of bright purples: one for the body of the jacket, one for the satin blouse underneath, and a third shade for the hat which is close to that of the jacket, but different enough to allow it to be worn with a different colored outfit. The jacket is the most prominent piece of the ensemble, and is designed to stick out. Have a look at this other Playbill with some greater detail:

The jacket has some gold braiding and filigree work, which is a distinction we can draw from Linda Cho’s work in Anastasia. The braiding work is heavier, thicker, and designed to look visually impressive, putting one in mind of curtain ties and grand cords at some luxury hotel, holding back heavy drapery. While elegant in styling, they add some heft to the jacket and allow it to lay flat on Ms Lupone, especially given the jacket appears to be constructed from a rather light fabric; this is not unusual for pieces that are designed to be worn as part of a layered costume, since a heavier fabric would run the risk of the wearer overheating under stage lighting--not a good situation for any performance!

The jacket is unusual to the modern eye, as we can see from the first still: it’s meant to go below the knee, almost in a robe-like fashion. This is not unexpected with Madame Rubinstein’s character; a native of Eastern Europe, she would have preferred something that flowed even once she was an Australian and later American success. But the decoration doesn’t continue below the bust, unlike in some other costumes I’ve reviewed. Is that a feature or a bug?

To my mind, it’s a feature. Ms Zuber wants attention to be directed upwards on Ms Lupone’s body--as I mentioned earlier, she is quite petite, which means that you do not want people to be looking up and down the entire time (especially, as I’ll explain in a future post, when she is next to Christine Ebersole, her co-star for the production). By only accenting the top of the jacket, Ms Zuber keeps the audience’s attention where it belongs: near the actress’ face, while still giving off a wealthy, flashy feeling through the accents. This is furthered by the satin blouse and skirt underneath, which are a simple cut designed to allow the jacket to be the defining article of clothing in this scene.

As promised, however, we have to also look at the accessories. I’ll start at the top, because the hats that Ms Zuber produced are truly par excellence. Millinery (the formal term for hat-making) is a notoriously tricky art, all the more so in a theatre setting. Costumes have to be designed to take some abuse given the number of changes that are gone through in the course of an average show. Hats often suffer the most, so they need to be made to be durable. 

This one is relatively simple, as compared to the one I did a mini-review of earlier. It’s a simple velvet semi-conical cap designed to give Ms Lupone a bit more height on the stage, as well as match the outfit, and looks like something you absolutely could have scene on a fashionista of the Second World War era (as I’ve noted before, I could see this also being in my grandmother’s closet around that time, were she in a position to buy something this fine). The decoration of the hat is simple and understated: a simple gold fanned badge which matches the roping and accenting on the jacket, as well as the brooch on the right shoulder. It’s understated, but I think that it works here. When you costume a presence like Patti Lupone, you need to be cognizant that your costume can’t outshine the star. And here, Ms Zuber has succeeded.

Other outfits worn by the Madame Rubinstein character throughout the musical also display some of Ms Zuber’s eye for color and design. Here is one that is relatively simply colored, but complex in terms of texture and fabric:

Blue and white is a classic combination, and the choice to use an extremely light, almost gray blue to offset the white here is an interesting one. I’m not entirely sold (for once!) that it was the right way to go, but I can see why Ms Zuber made that decision. It blends with the background and scenery in the scene where this costume is featured, so it’s defensible, but I tend to prefer costumes where the accents are just a bit more pronounced. I do see that the under-layer of the dress is also a pale blue, but in this case I think a stronger accent color might have been a better contrast.

The body of the dress, however, is absolutely gorgeous. I’m not entirely sure on the fabric here, but it’s wonderfully light and sheer, with a lacy pattern throughout that puts one in mind, perhaps, of a spider’s web--in a good way. After all, this is a musical about figures who voraciously consumed their competition and built something remarkable. The weblike pattern on the gown itself is done with a delicate touch, which gives it the appearance of expense and quality without being overdone. What I really like is that, from a distance, the detail work would not be instantly apparent; instead, it would appear to help the dress float in air as Ms Lupone moves around, either on the settee or as she entered or exited the scene.

Given how long this post is, I’m going to close it here with some general commentary on the costumes worn by the Helena Rubinstein character, and I’ll do a separate post on the jewelry and the Blue Outfit I teased the other day; I think it’s better to break it up a little bit and give everyone a reason to keep reading!

Overall, costuming a star like Patti Lupone is not an easy task, but Ms Zuber’s choices are almost all perfect from my perspective. She has a happy talent for color matching and mixing as well as a masterful knowledge of color and an ability to balance the figure and stature of the star with her designs. Overall, I have to say that the Tony nomination was extraordinarily well-deserved, and I think that in another year, Ms Zuber would have added another award to her trophy case.

Next up for the blog: Ms Lupone’s jewelry and accessories, including a look at the Blue Hat and outfit in more depth than I was able to give them in my comment earlier in the week.

Watch this space!