#i DO plan to purchase it when i'm able. the art in it is so so so good and i want to hold it in my hands.

[papika]

i've been looking through some scans of wada arco's most recent art book, and. oh my god. oh my god. from the fate/extella link chapter.

oh my god. oh my god??? oh. my god.

[solarisfortuneia]

— 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬.

diluc is hopeless with grocery shopping. luckily, a kind stranger is more than willing to step in and help.

✦ info: diluc has no idea what he's doing and neither does the author, modern au, strangers to lovers kinda, possibility of ooc-ness, grammar mistakes may be present, there is absolutely no logic here, 2k+ words.

✦ warnings: none.

✦ notes: well, it's this fic again! thought i'd repost it because i'm in the middle of working on a sequel. though with my time management please don't expect it to be posted anytime soon lmao (and don't worry! i still have the original taglist saved.)

would it be far fetched to call grocery shopping an art? and to call one able to navigate the labyrinthine aisles efficiently nothing short of a master? 

perhaps it would be. 

though, if it was an art, you'd be but a mediocre artist. not horribly unskilled, but no one would be in awe of your nonexistent prowess at brandishing coupons at cash registers. 

you shake your thoughts away. what are you thinking? who made you so eloquent in the middle of aisle seven? you ask yourself, gaze scanning the various items on the shelves. focus on your groceries, dummy.

okay, let's see, now. you stop in the middle of the condiments aisle, recollecting the items you need.  ah yes, ketchup and mayo. hmm, where would they be? 

aha! you see two familiar bottles on the second shelf, and you carefully place them in your cart. a glass jar with a green label and a red lid catches your eye. chili paste? you consider your potential purchase. eh, i'll get it. it's on sale.   

now, let's get some rice.

you round the corner to get to the grain aisle when you see a man, clad in a brown coat and incredibly polished shoes, with hair so red you'd think his head was on fire, just. glaring. at a bag of rice. you sneak a glance at him, wondering if the rice had wronged him in some manner.

deciding to ignore him, you pick up a five kilogram bag, then heave it into your trolley. and as you prepare to push it with the extra weight, you spy the man picking up the exact same bag, brand, weight and all. huh.

thinking nothing of it, you continue on your merry way, hoping to get your shopping done as quickly as possible, assuming that it'd be the last you'd ever see of the man.

but it appears fate had other plans. you spot him once again in the canned foods aisle, glaring at another innocent, harmless grocery item. the victim this time, you ask? a can of baked beans. 

you throw another sideways look at him, lightly tapping the pads of your fingers against the handles of your trolley. who even is this guy? you silently watch as he picks up the same brand you've put in your cart moments before. ah, he was probably just confused.

however, you’re still a little concerned about the man. does a grown man truly not know what he's doing in a grocery store? you scan the shelves for a random item, and your eyes land on a can of baby food. a light bulb goes off in your head, and you decide to test something. quickly, you grab two of them.

you open your mouth the second after he moves to get the same thing. “can i help you, sir?” he freezes at the sound of your voice, hand halfway between his body and the shelf with the exact thing you just picked up, baby food in hand. you raise an eyebrow, "are you aware of what you're buying?" 

he sheepishly rakes his hand through his hair and shakes his head. "i'm afraid i'm not." he clears his throat, color beginning to creep up his neck. 

you grin at him. “check the label on the can.” you watch as this giant of a man turns the can around, and slowly turns into a human stop sign with the way his face blazes. you know you probably shouldn’t find the sight of the man with such an intimidating expression turning to a flustered mess so adorable. 

“my apologies,” he clears his throat again, then rubs the back of his neck, eyes averted. “i’ve never been shopping before.” he sets the can back, refusing to meet your eyes.

“oh, don't tell me.” you tease, lightheartedly. “is it a case of a rich boy living on his own for the first time, without anyone to do things for him?”

the look on his face answers for him. his eyebrows nearly climb to his hairline, and he blinks. you laugh, incredibly surprised at your assumption being true. “in that case, let me help.” you hold out your hand, taking pity on the man. “do you have a list?”

he fishes out a hastily scribbled list from the depths of one of his coat pockets that simply says bread, milk. 

sigh. “it seems i have my work cut out for me.” you take a gander at the items in his cart and spot the rice, the beans, along with three varieties of bread and a two liter bottle of milk. well, at least he got the items on his list.

you pick up the bottle, skimming over the other details to find the production and expiry dates. “just out of curiosity, did you check the dates on the milk?” 

he slowly shakes his head. “i figured as much.” you gesture to the numbers, and motion for him to take a look. “this expires in two days. i doubt you’ll be able to finish the whole thing by then, so you should probably find a bottle with a more recent production date.”

—

if there ever was a god of grocery shopping, diluc ragnvindr would be the bane of his existence. 

why were these stupid stores so confusing? why were there so many brands of everything? why in the hell were there so many types of oranges? and these trolleys, good lord. just why were they so difficult to maneuver?

all the aisles blend into each other, and all diluc can do is stare emptily at each product he finds, unable to make a decision. 

he'd have better luck finding his way around if he was randomly dropped in a venetian calle.

diluc has no idea what he's doing— in the store, at home, even in life. 

living on his own for the first time since his dad passed away, in an apartment much tinier than the lavish mansion he was used to, struggling to keep his head above water, the young ragnvindr only knew ingredients once they'd been taken home and properly organized in containers and shelves. 

he'd rather the world not see him fumbling, though. so he decides to do the only logical thing one can do in his situation. he picks a person and does exactly what they do. 

after all, when one is in rome, do they not do as the romans do?

in hindsight, he should've just researched online. he should have decided his purchases earlier. or ordered the damn groceries online. because then he'd be able to avoid the embarrassment of being tricked with a can of baby food. 

baby food, of all things! why couldn't it be something a little more dignified? 

he watches you quickly replace the offending item on the shelves and push your cart in another direction before he could react. “come on, then. off to the dairy section we go.”

not wanting to be left behind in this headache inducing location, he hurriedly pushes his trolley too in an attempt to keep up with you. kaeya would never let me live that down, he thinks as he does. 

with a pang, he shoves down the memory of his brother as far and as deep as he can, choosing to focus on the present, lest he end up in another spiral.

you lead him to milk he was supposed to get, and he watches you carefully as you examine the dates on the bottles for him. moments later, you beckon him close with a curl of your palm. leaning slightly, he peers over your shoulder. 

“always try to get the one most recently produced,” you tell him, and he nods. he follows the movement of your finger tapping your chin, clearly pondering. his gaze travels a bit higher, and as he sees your lips move, he realizes that he completely missed what you were saying.

“pardon?” he stumbles ungracefully on the initial sound. 

“what's your favorite fruit?” you repeat. “that'll be first on our list on what to get for you.”

his favorite fruit? he didn't think he had one. “peaches,” he blurts, finding himself unwilling to disappoint you with his lack of proper response, his eyes falling on a peach milkshake drink. 

his ears note your change in tone, voice turning excited. “oh, they're one of my favorites too!” warmth engulfs his gloved hand and he finds himself being dragged to the produce section. 

“what about the trolleys?” he asks, mind still reeling from the sudden hand grabbing on your part.

you wave off his concerns. “oh, they'll be fine parked to the side.” you all but drag him to the peach display. “now, pay close attention, okay?”

as if he needed you to tell him that. “i'm listening,” he says. 

you pick up a peach with bruising. “when you're sorting through peaches, look for the ones with no blemishes. they don't spoil as fast. same with apples and pears and such.” now this, he knew. but he still nods along, a picture-perfect student. he sees your eyes and wonders how anyone's could be so gorgeous.

later, he dutifully nods a little more as you explain the specifics of choosing potatoes. 

“the potatoes should be firm, and there should be no signs of green,” 

should he be taking notes? he stamps the involuntary urge to hunt for a notepad in one of his pockets down, deciding he did not want to embarrass himself any more in front of you.

you seemed to glow even under the unflattering light around you, hair lit by it as you tell him about how to look for the right cauliflowers and broccoli. 

how could someone look so ethereal while standing next to onions? 

diluc ragnvindr. get. a. grip. they're only talking about vegetables. 

you ask him to tell you the price of the eggs while you sort through carrots for both him and yourself. he walks over a couple of yards, carefully examines the label and returns to report the number. 

“that much?!” you eyes widen. “my goodness, that should be considered robbery!”

...was it? he thought it was a reasonable price for a carton of eggs. still, he blindly agrees. you smile, having caught on to the fact that he had no idea what the price should be, and he can't help the pride that spreads its wings in his heart. (though he probably shouldn't be, considering why you smiled, he was glad that he was the cause of it.) 

the rest of the shopping goes in a similar manner. you tell him things. he nods, he observes another one of your features, then notes down whatever you tell him mentally. 

by the time you reach check out, both of your trolleys are filled with the exact same items in the exact same quantities. except for two items in his cart that he reached for out of instinct when he saw them on the shelf: a chocolate his brother liked, and a snack his father used to eat often. 

he contemplates leaving them behind, but decides against it at the last minute just before the cashier scans them.

he sees you reach into your pockets for a wallet, and sees an opportunity to repay you for your help. 

he's quick to pull out his own and hands his card to the cashier before you can say a word.

“i insist,” he says, when you protest. “it is only fair i do this in return for you helping me,”

you sigh, giving him another one of the smiles he had started to adore. “alright, thank you.”

the two of you walk outside the store together. cool wind ruffles both of your hair. “well, i guess this is where we part ways,” you say with a laugh and a wave. he manages a soft smile in return. 

“farewell, then.” he watches you walk away, still standing at the entrance, shopping bags in hand. "dammit." he curses under his breath.

he'd forgotten to ask for your name.

[thescribblings]

Long post ahead! I type a lot .^.

Here's a lil something I've spent some time on! I'm definitely nearing my goal of being able to draw comics! .^.

However, keep in mind that I'm very much an amateur artist, so there will be imperfections😅.

Here, I've drawn a lot of new (and scary) poses, expressions, perspectives, and clothes! I never draw clothes! I've also never even tried to draw them in the same clothes from different perspectives like this before. I also mainly draw without references

And i know i know, it's always better with references but i always just get distracted while looking for a good reference and most of the time i give up before i even find one and just draw it without anyways, lol

Rant over now! Promise

Here's a page I've been working on non-stop for literal days. It was a lot of fun! And it helped me try out a new art style :]

Individual pictures and context under the cut! i will be referring to future leo as nardo or leonardo, and present leo as, well, leo!

Here we have the doodle that started it all! I did use a cat as a reference, and i personally found that hilarious

Anyways, leonardo is being held like the cat that he is. Meanwhile, leo is held next to him vibing, not a thought behind those eyes

✨️co-existing✨️(with iced coffee)

They decided to have a day of leo to leo Bonding and got iced coffee for the occasion, probably spending some time clothes shopping and going equally crazy over a random article of clothing with a unicorn on it

This one has a bit more story behind it, they went on a day outing with the fam, nardo had grabbed a map of the city and they decided to stray from the group to explore, and they quickly got lost.

Leonardo helped leo get on his shoulders to see if there were any familiar landmarks around, and while leo enjoyed being roughly 12 feet tall, nardo texted the others asking where they were and looked around the area.

(Shirts lovingly made by mikey)

Entirely lost, leonardo decided to ask a pair of yokai ladies for directions. They turned out to be extremely helpful, one of them pointing out where on the map they were and where the landmark raph had sent them is.

Meanwhile, some backstory here: ever since leonardo had stopped staying in the lair 24/7 and actually started coming with when the others went out, leo had become an expert at keeping flirtatious yokai of all shapes sizes and genders away from his eldest brother

Leo noticed one of the yokai women was trying to make a move on him and stepped between her and nardo, making for a hilarious scene when he told her to stay away from his clearly adult brother

Leonardo is entirely oblivious as to the amount of yokai that find him attractive, which is exactly how leo wants it to be, for some reason

It's even funnier with the fact that leonardo is, in fact, very gay.

They thanked the yokai (leo doing that gesture where you point at your eyes then at the person as an unspoken "i got my eyes on you" behind nardo's back) then stepped away from the crowd and planned when and where everyone would meet up (they quickly decided on a food spot that accommodated everyones needs, and they had often gone there for lunch or early dinner in the past)

While they waited, the two decided to browse some stores, window shop etc.

Leonardo bought himself a backpack and proceeded to purchase knickknacks, snacks, and gifts for the fam, including some that he snuck in there for leo without the teen noticing (he was the greatest ninja the world had ever seen, once, after all)

While nardo walked, leo was chatting away happily on his shoulders, the elders tail wagging along as well, especially when leo told a pun or two, once a leo, always a leo. (Leonardo chipped in with some puns as well)

(leonardo personally believes his tail is pretty damn useless since it's so short. He has stated, "The only thing it's good for is waggin' " in the past. However, the rest of the fam think that's a perfectly adequate reason to have a tail)

They spent the entire day out having fun and walked around with just a handfull of breaks, so i think it's safe to say they'd be pretty drained by the time they got home

On another note, nardo being a war veteran and all that, I'm not 100% sure how that works but i like to imagine he'd get rather overwhelmed by all the crowds, different smells and loud noises (in other words overstimulation) so i think he'd be WAY more drained than everyone else by the end of the day (save for maybe mikey, i bet he'd be pretty drained too)

Either way, nardo basically just flopped onto the nearest plush surface and went out like a light while everyone else went to bed like regular people. This is a common occurrence after long, exhausting days

But sometimes...

Sometimes he dents the floor

(Bonus doodles)

I don't even know why this came to be, but it did

Thank you for reading!

Have nice day

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

By the way, I don't know if anyone has shared highlights from the Maghni AI stream yet? I caught the beginning when it came out but it was 2AM and the demons told me to go to sleep. I decided to watch it now, and I thought I'd do it over multiple sessions because livestreams can be a little stressful for me but honestly everyone in the team seemed really friendly and I didn't mind watching the entire thing (at 1.75x speed of course,) but either way, here are my notes:

Natalia's cats are named Chip and Pancake.

Third parties will reveal their voicebanks at their own discretion. First party voicebanks will be revealed/demo-ed, if I understood well, whenever they're ready; especially those that should be available on or near launch.

No set project timeline yet (for features, voicebank reveals, and such); maybe in a few months when they're more certain. It should be revealed around March or April.

They are planning to share weekly updates for the crowdfund and to host monthly livestreams.

Re: "when are we getting Aurum and Audine demos?" Demos will come out as time goes on; it seems the VPs aren't done re-recording yet. (Oliver will have his own demo over the time of the CF too, most likely with more recordings than what was shared so far.)

Oliver's old recordings are owned by YAMAHA. Vocatone hired a new voicer; Natalia mentions he is an adult. They chose to work with an adult for ethical reasons. He, as well as other voice providers, made the decision to remain anonymous.

No plans for free voicebanks à la SynthV Lite. They are looking for ways to have people test voicebanks before they make their purchase, but they're worried about having a version that isn't an accurate reflection of the finished project.

Languages such as Spanish or Portuguese, which can vary largely depending on region, should have separate support. I'm definitely not wording this well AT ALL but basically, Maghni AI is ready to deal with European Spanish sounding different from South American Spanish. Canadian French and correct French will also be separate. (<- I'm French and a little jokester)

There are no plans for Standard voicebanks. However, Caleb Long has been working on a """robot mode""" meant for people who preferred the sound of their previous line of products.

They are not ready to show off the program's crosslang abilities, because they don't feel like it's up to their standard of quality yet. Hopefully in the next few months.

Some items are going to be CF exclusive, but others not, such as Library Physicals, which will be available to purchase later.

Base program is going to be free; libraries should be about USD$85 each, give or take, with potential differences for third parties. Vocatone's voicebanks should be $85.

Crossy (art designer) will post artworks on Bluesky, not Twitter.

No TTS plans for now; it would be in the very distant future.

The ability to create your own plugins would also be in a fairly distant future.

tl;dr: while singers are meant to keep their "native" accent, if a voicebank was recorded in multiple languages, it should have a dataset for each accent. For example, Oliver, whose languages are English, French, Japanese and Mandarin, will be able to sing in French with a French accent. When it comes to other supported languages, he would be able to sing in, let's say, Norwegian, but not with a Norwegian accent (or, if he can, it will be generic and not native to his voicebank). You could choose to give him a British, French, Japanese or Mandarin accent in Norwegian. Makes sense? No? Watch the livestream I'm just a girl

Oliver wears shoes in some languages. Do with that as you will.

Merch will be shown very soon.

You will be able to import MIDI, VSQ, UST, SVP files and such into Maghni AI.

Voicebanks will be linked to an account, not a number of activations. You will be able to log onto two devices at a time.

Maghni mobile is in the plans for the future, but it'll require more resources so not for now.

Oliver is slightly older! He's 13-ish.

Ref sheets soon.

The editor will have many different themes, some character based, some based on different accessibility needs, and will be customisable. (The character based themes were inspired by VOCALOID1.)

Customisable phonemes

They really said "vocal synth fans are largely minors" (or basement dwellers?) (would they be wrong?). Either way, in order to avoid piracy, with the knowledge that their fans may not have their own source of income, they're looking to make their product as affordable as possible and are considering Free Limited Trial voicebanks, although I mentioned their hesitations above.

You should be able to input breaths as their own phoneme (assumedly the way "br" works in SynthV).

Vocatone's characters don't have official genders. But in related properties, Oliver uses he/him, Aurum uses they/them and he/him, and Audine uses she/her and they/them. For example, in narrative-led projects, Aurum is non-binary, but as a voice library, he is genderless.

No VST/i support planned for launch, but in the future.

There will be tutorials.

They're planning to have less expensive vocals too; read "lower quality so the price can be decreased, but of course still up to their standard."

I think that's about it. If anything is unclear I'd be happy to try to clarify - that is, if anyone cares about this post. 😎 How did I get famous in my previous fandoms again . Was it the youth? It was probably the youth

They've also answered some questions in the comments of the crowdfund, so feel free to double-check that!

[rohirric-hunter]

Okay so I was going to do a really involved review of the Unhinged LotR Mobile Game (otherwise known as LotR: Heroes of Middle-earth) but I'm tired and don't have energy for that, so here are the quick hits:

It's a gacha game, and it's published by EA. Draw your own conclusions.

This review is based off of 100% free gameplay. I have paid $0 for this game.

Lore: Good. 8/10. Game is based on the book and plot elements were clearly designed by someone familiar with the source material. Hero lineup consists of characters from the book, characters that were mentioned in passing in the book but have been a little bit fleshed out and expanded upon, and completely original characters. The latter fit in well with the lore and have convincing names that are, for the most part, based in Tolkien's actual languages or borrowed from elsewhere in the legendarium. Dialogue is lifted directly out of the book in general; when it deviates from these the language used is noticeably different. Minus one half point for that, minus one point for using a ring of power as a leveling mechanic, and minus one half point for female dwarves not having beards.

Gameplay: Typical. It's a gacha game. 6/10. There's never enough energy to actually get anything done in one sitting, as per usual, purchase packs are WAY overpriced, and no particular effort has been expended to make plotlines coincide with the combat mechanic especially well. There has been one special event since I've been playing, where they released Arwen as a hero. There were six stages to the event and I was able to complete five. The sixth required me to have leveled Arwen to five stars in order to complete, and in order to do that I would have had to have either paid $20 for the real world money Arwen pack or got incredibly lucky with the RNG on the in-game gems Arwen pack. However, I am not torn up about this as there was no plot to the event and the rewards were gold and upgrade materials; nice to have, but easy enough to get elsewhere. I am unsure if there are any plans to repeat this event or whether Arwen and other event characters will be available after their events have ended, and this information does have a significant impact on my final opinion of the game. However I'm overall satisfied; it seems to me that the highest levels of this character are locked behind a paywall, but I got a good solid hero that I'm actively using on one of my teams. Points added back for not locking auto-battle until you've manually completed the battle already and for forwarding uncollected daily rewards to your in-game inbox, great quality of life features that other gacha games would be wise to take note of.

Graphics. Fine. 6/10. This rating will doubtless go up over time, as the game is currently plagued by graphical glitches. No apparent impact on actual gameplay but there's quite a bit of A-posing (Frodo and Sam have a combo attack that seems to cause all goblins to A-pose), the Mordor Taskmaster/Úzhan occasionally interacts with the wrong character during one of his skill animations, sometimes when closing out a gear inspection window and going back to a hero's main page will cause them to sprout a second head, which is a bit terrifying, and a few other minor gltiches that are really weighing down the score in this department. But as I've said before, the art style is really fun and unique, I love almost all the character designs, and there are a lot of really good artistic choices (for example: the homepage link to the events page takes the form of a stained glass window, with a really pretty image of whichever character is in focus in the current event). The only probably permanent issue that drags this point down is that some of the combat backgrounds are a bit silly; the heroes are standing on water, or obviously about to run into a wall as they run from one combat stage to the next. But overall the game is really nice to look at. The music is nice too.

Plot. I'm not gonna give the plot a number rating because I like it, but it's not for everyone. You, the player, find a random ring on the ground and put it on because you're not genre-savvy I guess. This ring gives you the power to influence characters from LotR in order to direct them as heroes on the battlefield. How this works is not expounded upon, and it doesn't matter because it's a leveling mechanic. But some other nefarious person is also influencing characters from LotR and they're trying to change the plot, and you have to stop them. Or at any rate, that's what I was told? It seems that sometimes I'm also helping them -- but as this is all just an elaborate excuse to pit completely random teams of heroes together I expect it wasn't thought out quite as thoroughly as it it should have been. Or maybe I just haven't got far enough in the plot to understand it yet. I'm always open to that. Anyhow, I've gotten invested in the subplots mainly through the mechanics of 'it's really mean to Aragorn' and 'they made Uglúk really funny.'

Overall I'm not gonna give it a number rating. Would I recommend it? If you like gacha games, yes. If you like that kind of plot, I'd recommend it just to run through the light and shadow campaigns and look at the pretty graphics.

EDIT: forgot to mention before that this game has been out for roughly one (1) month so that's why I'm so forgiving of the graphical errors.

[thelocalmuffin]

Hello everyone! I wanted to share my accomplishments in 2023 before the year ends with a little bit of self reflection notes. You can enjoy everything in the read below.

Some fandoms highlighted include DGS, nintendo, and pokemon.

First off, this year has been hard for me. It's been a lot of self reflection and figuring my goals out after some became unattainable.

With that being said, I did accomplish a lot this year. I published my first recipe in a zine, finishing my first zine, improved my writing a lot, and picked up drawing once again. I also was able to get some actual help with some issues I have struggled with for years.

I want thank you all for your support. It means a lot that you enjoyed my artworks, writing, and ambition. Now here are my highlights for each month.

January: Foxtrot - An Asoryuu kitsune AU. One of the stories I took in when I was at my lowest last year and sparked a lot of my interest to keep writing. Plus Kitsune Kazuma.

February: Encore - A hassius story about motivation and being patient about the creation process. Though this was more or less my thoughts on this topic in general, this story literally inspired me to take my own advice and pick up drawing again.

March: The Memories that Lie - This was one I actually finished, but am glad I did. It's an asoryuu vampire story I was actually planning on scrapping, but ended up finishing anyway out of sheer stubbornness. To finish it, it took me completely restarting five chapters, but it came out a lot better than the original draft had mapped out.

April: This is when I took my hiatus and started to draw again in my free time. I was worn out, stressed, and collapsing under the pressure. This was my first piece that I posted.

May: Was a huge month for me. I launched the @blossominglovezine that you can enjoy here and published my first recipe in The Grand Adventure to Make the Perfect Cake for the @tgaacspringzine

June: I made my first icon! I was really busy this month planning for the trip of my dreams and doing some irl side work that ended up being permanent employment.

July: So I went to Las Vegas for a foodie tour. When I had a moment, I decided to draw the lovely Unicorn Goddess outfit.

August: This is when I did the Timmverse art study. This month was more of finishing up some logistics of zine work and getting a story out in the wild.

September: Goes to the Princess Peach Showtime piece I did! This piece really cemented my current style. And yes, I keep calling it Princess Peach Spotlight. Also wanted to mention I helped successfully launch the @dgscrimezine

October: Goes to my OC piece. CW for blood, but this piece was made for Halloween and the shading was really on point. I love this design for this OC.

November: I'm going with the fact I completed a ship week, asoryuu week. I got everything done at a reasonable time and was able to create so many fun pieces. 1 2 3 4 5 7. I had to skip day 6 because I ended up having an emergency. I also started pre-orders for my first for purchase zine, @desire-asoryuu-zine. This is still in pre-orders, so I wasn't sure if I was going to add it, but this is a big accomplishment for me.

December: I actually haven't been able to do much this month due to the holidays and getting distracted by Pokemon DLC, but I did draw this super cute Yuma!

Other highlights do include being accepted to multiple zine projects as a mod and contributor, which has been very exciting for me. You can check out that list here.

This upcoming year, I'll be helping with more projects and the @aawlwminibang events! I really want to do a personal project that I've been building up my skills for before pursuing, but now I think I'll be able to handle it. I won't announce it yet since it's still very much in development, but I hope I can in 2024.

Thank you all for your support this year. It has meant a ton.

[chierafied]

December Drabbles Day 8 - Curiosity Caught the Cake

Read on AO3.

Banner fan art by the amazing @sayuri-liu

For @cakeit0n. Cake for Cake! (Haha I'm hilarious.) You're such a great, talented person and I love seeing your blog on my dash! Thank you for everything you've done for the fandom! 💙

Day 8 - Curiosity Caught the Cake

Sesshoumaru frowned at the sorry excuse of a cake he’d just pulled out from the oven. He pushed back his hair and growled in frustration. He didn’t understand what he was doing wrong, couldn’t figure out how, even at this third attempt, the results he’d produced were so far from the magnificent creation he’d envisioned. He had followed the steps from the instructional YouTube video precisely. He had made notes and studied those, as well. He had meticulously measured each and every ingredient, triple-checked the settings of his oven and taken the utmost care mixing in the various ingredients. 

So where had he strayed? Why was he presented with this lumpy disaster? Sesshoumaru sniffed in disdain and gave the sad mess of a cake a dubious poke with a single claw. 

It was better than his first attempt, that he was willing to concede. He’d never fathomed that baking could be so hard and time-consuming. It had seemed so simple in the video he’d watched several times. And speaking of time, that was a precious resource he was rapidly running out of.    

He couldn’t surprise Kagome with a cake like this. She deserved nothing short of perfection and he would not fail as a provider. He refused to concede victory to a cake. 

He tossed the cake into the bin to join its two older egregious siblings and rolled up his sleeves. It was time to start a new batter. 

*

Kagome shuffled her various bags aside, digging her keys out of her pocket. She’d left work a bit early. It was Christmas, after all, and she had a date night planned with Sesshoumaru, featuring a dinner and a movie. She had other, more specific plans Sesshoumaru had no idea about. She loved to surprise him. She had a gift to wrap, a bunch of groceries to whip into a dinner, candles to light and new, special lingerie to slip into. But she’d have plenty of time to get everything ready for that evening. Sesshoumaru, ever the workaholic, would probably stay overtime, date night or not. 

Kagome unlocked the door and shuffled in. With a huff, she let all her bags slide down so she could unzip her ankle boots. Sans shoes, she was about to start gathering up all her purchases again, when something in her eyeline made her freeze.  

Sesshoumaru’s shoes, all polished black leather, neatly waiting in their usual spot in the entranceway. Kagome frowned at them. Was he home this early? Surely not! 

Her plethora of bags forgotten, Kagome let her curiosity lead her deeper into the vast labyrinth of their house. She poked into several rooms before at last she was able to locate her spouse, in the least likely place in the whole building: the kitchen.  

He snapped to attention, a vaguely guilty look in his eyes, as if occupying his own damn kitchen was a criminal act. 

“Welcome home,” he said stiffly, clutching the mixing bowl to him like a shield. 

“Thank you. Why are you at home, exactly?” Kagome tilted her head. “I thought you’d still be at work.” 

“I took the day off.” 

“You did?”  

“Yes.” 

Kagome blinked because Sesshoumaru’s reply didn’t compute in her poor brain. Her husband never took a day off. Not randomly and unprompted like this. He had to have a reason, and that only piqued her curiosity more. 

“What are you doing?” she asked, tiptoeing closer. 

Sesshoumaru’s shoulders slumped with his sigh of defeat. 

“I am working on your surprise, which now has been ruined. Failure has been the theme for today.” 

Well, that sounded uncharacteristically morose for Sesshoumaru. Kagome stopped next to her husband and nudged him with her shoulder. 

“Want to talk about it?” 

“Not particularly.” He scowled at his mixing bowl. “I just wished to do this one thing for you, but all my attempts have been to no avail.” 

“May I?” 

Sesshoumaru shrugged. Kagome took that as a yes and dipped her finger in the batter he was working on. She brought her finger to her mouth and, as she was deliberately maintaining eye contact, saw the exact moment Sesshoumaru’s pupils dilated as her distraction hit home. And then she had to close her eyes in bliss. 

“Yum,” she sighed. “Whatever you’re making is absolutely delicious.” 

Sesshoumaru gave her one slow blink. “It is?” 

He sounded adorably baffled Kagome couldn’t help smiling. 

“Yes. I can’t wait to eat it.” 

He was silent for a moment, studying her intently, his nostrils flaring. Then, his voice quiet and edged with a hesitant vulnerability, he asked: “You do not consider it ruined?” 

Kagome cupped his cheeks, her heart swelling at her chest as she pressed a soft kiss on his jaw. “I think it’s going to be perfect.” 

[mamamittens]

Time isn't fucking real istg

Got home and pulled my laptop out, fully intending to write and what happens????

What fucking happens????

I eat dinner and open animal crossing up instead of lofi jazz.

A game I haven't played in literally 1 year and 5 months, per one of my villagers (shockingly not overrun by weeds, guess Nintendo laid off the guilt tripping). And then what happened??? I only played for less than an hour.

Haven't a single damn clue. 11 hour work days for the second 6-day workweek in a row is really fucking with me lmao

Next thing I knew, it was time to shower if I wanted my hair reasonably dry for bonnet time without it being soaked when I gotta get up for work. And my weekend is definitely shot cause no way in hell are we not working Sunday and my brother is graduating this Saturday with the degree he needs to be a licensed therapist. So we gotta get up early to drive there and damn is this month a bitch already lmao

At the very least, if memory serves, I'm only waiting on two more folks to tell me what they want for their event gift/slots. Everyone else is spoken for and in theory I should be able to actually work on them soon without worrying about stopping and waiting for anyone.

In all fairness to myself, I've got 4 hours of free time when I get home and I don't sleep nearly enough as it is. Still gotta eat and shower too...

If only those self help books didn't feel like more homework for myself....

Lets see, what's my to do list?

8 fics between Tumblr and AO3 to be completed

6 December event fics

1 October event fic (2 if I count year before)

5 December art pieces

Plan and execute gift art piece for friend who did not enter event

1 zine fic

1 zine art piece

2 zine art pieces on other zine fics

Continue reading OP from chapter... 34?

Continue Apothecary Diaries from volume 7 (great read btw, quite fun)

Continue watching OP from Baratie introduction episode

Finish reading book on Satanism

Start reading grief and death guide

Sweep and mop my floor (should be higher up list, cats keep kicking litter out of box like rude bitches)

Buy new microwave

Buy new garbage disposal

Start watching Sailor Moon or at least one of the other 8 anime seasons I have, why do I keep collecting these but opening YouTube???

Oh! Wrap gifts I do have purchased but not distributed.

Find good dirty Santa gift.

Sleep forever until not tired

Write those passion fics (untold number, I keep putting them down and forgetting about them until 7 months later)

Damn, listing everything out makes it seem both unwieldy and more manageable somehow... I don't think it's in the order it should be tho lol

Anyway! Time to at least try number 20! Ya know! For work!

✧⁠◝⁠(⁠⁰⁠▿⁠⁰⁠)⁠◜⁠✧

[tamelee]

Hii, when are you uploading your next art? It's been like ages lol. Also how's your progress on manga going? And can you suggest some other artists you know, artists like you? Since you also started from 0 followers at some point and your progress on your art is also very inspiring and i guess you know many different artists. I'm searching for inspiration and looking for some Low key artists from other fandoms. I'm slowing trying to improve on my digital painting skills. Still at level 1. Who do you look up to for your inspiration? Sorry, this became a pretty big ask hehe.

Hi~ 💕

Ages? Yeah, ... a little over a month now. I know that because I keep track on it. I pretty much keep track on most things. I do this thing where I plan a few weeks ahead and it is supposed to make sure I have more time left because of the planning but it doesn't account for roadblocks such as wrist pain, technical issues with tablets etc-, mental states, stress, health declines or others. So.. I haven't uploaded anything in a while but I never stopped creating ^^! In fact, I'm learning every single day so that I can create more, "better" (subjective) and build a skill-set that will help me be able to make what I want. I felt like I was making art aimlessly, but having a goal helps. Though, by chance, since you're wondering- this week for sure!

And within that planning is of course the Manga! The process is a lot of fun, but also there is science behind Storytelling and I'm using what I know and learning during my graduation process as well in order to create it. That's why I didn't start drawing until I am completely happy with the story (...and now don't mind so much that my previous draft got lost even thought that was so painful lol). I was so ignorant about it though, thinking I could just... create a Manga. Like c'mon. I knew so much time and dedication went into it and yet I thought I could just... do it 😆 but also, it is this dedication that made me able to do most crazy things in life so why not. If I'm going to spend idk how many hours on this then it better matter to me. I don't want Naruto and Sasuke to just drown in some plot, I want them to actively pursue something they care about and struggle, have dark moments and conflicts... heh.

When I first started drawing.. surprisingly I didn't have that many inspirations. I had no clue what I was doing and so what inspired me was the little art-community around me on Instagram because our goals were similar. My goal to finish Inktober, a wish to "someday create a webtoon" and seeing artists around me upload their art was what inspired me. Then, talking about art, each other's uploads, our obsessions- it was all a lot of fun and helped me improve and so did they! Of course you don't have to go there, you can find artists at any stage of their journey anywhere but really try to find artists and art that you like because your style will grow from that and eventually become your own.

I guess a few artists really stood out to me then, but they're literal gods and nothing like me 🥹..they're; wlop, Z ed, Ruan Jia, Zeen Chin, Guweiz and Dao Tong Le. I had a splash art phase where I fangirl'd (still do) so hard over Bo Chen, Sean Tay, Alex Flores, Cheng Du (crow god), Foritis Wang, but there's also Paul Nong, Ley Bowen, Inhyuk Lee... and for storytelling art there's Kan Liu which art I love and Toni Infante and ooooh Astri Lohne's brushwork is amazing as well. Song Nan Li has a few artworks that I've stared at for days and would love to study someday. Jaz Chiang too. Krenz Cushart has a course that I want to purchase because those colors are sublime... and oh, I'm probably forgetting SO MANY right now but I could go on forever tbh. Lemme talk about artists and their art and I won't be able to stop. There have been many Instagram artists that I've followed but I'm not currently active on there until I graduate so I don't really remember but if you're looking for Twitter/SNS/Naruto specifically then you can look through my following-list or my reblog account here @re-tamelee. Nsfw-warning on Twitter (@ tam_e_lee) though. I think currently a few that inspire me regarding story/expression are helenpeanut, velinxi, Kishimoto, Ramón Nuñez, Moryo, Ryo Yambe, Rias Coast, Yusuke Matsumoto, Bengal, Hong Soonsang, Horikoshi- and still a few others... I'm not sure what you mean by 'low-key' or if this is not what you're looking for but I hope you can find some inspiration from this post and have fun looking at these amazing artists' art! ^^ Thankyou for your lovely ask, have a nice day 🌷 Happy drawing!

[obeyme-lost-thought]

The regret of a Father

A confront between Lucifer and Aurora? How will it go

What if Lucifer had a child with Mc, and for some reason he neglects them ? And if the child die? What will do Lucifer?

Always remember: the ending isn't what we want, but what she need.

Good reads

1630 words all chapters , previous part

Chapter 3: Proud ?

???’s POV:

There is a condition. When an existence cannot be judged by their actions and consequently know where their soul must be placed; they will be granted a second life by which they can be judged. Previous life memories will be granted at God's discretion.

Chapter 7 - Is it possible to be reborn?

I had no reason to read this book. It was one of many purchases that lay in the library without anyone bothering to read them. Yet I did, I read it. Perhaps it was this that completely ruined me, taking away any possibility of being able to let her go. Only sin made me think that she was the exception of the memoirs.

----------------

Aurora’s POV:

Nothing about this 3rd day of preparations for the festival seemed to promise me a positive ending. Especially the task that has been entrusted to me.

This morning the principal entrusted me with the task of having to spend the afternoon with one of the 2 representatives of the schools, guiding him through the various projects that the clubs or autonomous students were preparing (to compensate for my failure to fulfill the first task that was assigned to me, even though the cause was my health). Every sound of the bell was like a knife stabbing me, increasing the terror of which of the 2 I should drive. And this time fainting is not a possibility.

Fate is not kind to me, especially when the one who commands human fate is the father of the father who brought you into the world in your first life. That means my 50/50 went bad, if you can sum it up like that. This is how it is for more than 1 hour I've been walking around with Lucifer in the classrooms of the school. We saw the plans for the food stalls, the face painting stall, the photographs and drawings that will be shown by the art and photography clubs. We are now moving away from the garden club that was tending to the flower beds. The girls here have the reputation of being the gossipiest in school; in fact, when we arrived, they were talking about the girl who had gotten pregnant. I was very annoyed by the viciousness with which they criticized her choice to keep the child and for this I brought them into line with the power of be a student council member. What I didn't expect is that all this, sparked a discussion about children and family between the 2 of us. Until now we were talking about the history of the school and the weather.

I'm not surprised by this discussion, having started it. In these 2 days I passed out; escaped; I cried; i ignored. I did all the things I did in the early days of Devildom. All that trust I had built up while trying to rebuild my life, he had managed to destroy it with a few looks. For this I want to redeem myself and find the answers for “Aurora Lilith Morningstar”.

Aurora: "Sir Lucifer, do you have a family?"

Lucifer: “Yes, I have 6 brothers, a sister, a wife… and a daughter”

I don't know how to interpret the pause to refer to her daughter, but already the fact that he has accepted her existence is a step forward.

Aurora: “Ahh, how nice. And what's the girl's name?"

Lucifer: “To your surprise, you have the same name. In Greek mythology Aurora was a goddess with whom the dawn was associated. She is often confused with Apollo, who is the god of the sun in general”

Aurora: “Wow, I didn't expect such a deep meaning for my name”

Lucifer: “My wife did a lot of research when choosing a name for our daughter. I'm sure she's loved her ever since she found out she was pregnant with her, deciding to even give her life for her."

Aurora: "I'm sorry for your loss"

Lucifer: “Thanks, it's happened 35- …. many years ago."

I never expected so much willingness to answer questions. And to be honest, his answers leave me speechless. All the information I have about… Mc came from the stories of Simeon and Luke, plus some anecdote given by Solomon. I have never heard from his mouth.

Aurora: “Tell me about your daughter. How old is she etc. We have a little way to go before we get to the courtroom we're headed to."

It doesn't seem to make sense what I'm doing. Asking about someone I know better than anyone else but my goal is not to know who she is; but who he thinks she is. Or maybe I just want to see him having trouble answering such a simple question.

Before starting to speak, he turns to meet my gaze. No emotion seems to pass through his unreadable face, but a careful look can tell that he feels slightly uncomfortable (or sad, but of the two interpretations the first is more plausible).

Lucifer: "My daughter..."

I hear uncertainty in his voice which confirms my expectations even more. But only briefly, as that ice-cold face he had until recently turns into a wounded smile. Did Lucifer just show his emotions? And then what kind of emotions are they?

All my questions are answered as soon as he starts talking again.

“She's about your age. She can play the piano, in fact she has won several awards. She also wrote a composition which I saved as a ringtone. She is intelligent in many respects and has excellent physical performance. She took lessons in fencing and hand-to-hand combat, winning prizes there as well. I can assure you her room is filled with trophies and medals. However, her main passions are drawings and art. On the walls, where there are no photos or shelves, all of her works hang. Digital and paper drawings, paintings, unfinished sketches, even series of 2-3 sheets that tell some story. I'm convinced that her dream was to become a painter, even though she never told me."

Silence falls between us and it probably would have lasted forever if Lucifer hadn't kept talking.

“My daughter died a few years ago. It almost seems like all the girls in my life are destined to leave me. But the loss of my daughter was more painful than my sister or my wife. She is my greatest pride. But enough about me. You instead-"

Aurora: “We have arrived. After this the round of preparations for the festival is over and I still have to rehearse for my show, so I'm sorry but we have to part ways here."

Lucifer: “I see. Go ahead, I remember exactly where the music room is, so I'll come and see you later if I can."

Aurora: “Of course you can, but I don't recommend it. We're not as good as you might think."

Lucifer: “You should give yourself more credit, you are very good.”

After these words, he enters the classroom and closes the door, leaving me outside alone. I walk away as far as possible and try to understand how I managed to hold back the tears. Now, my vision is totally blurred by the water in front of my eyes. How did he know so much about me? From victories to drawings, even my dreams that I never told anyone. It seemed as if he really knew his daughter. Like he was there at the races to cheer on her or help her with her homework. His face so happy as he talked about my merits or his sadness at mentioning my death was something I couldn't fully understand. And then "Proud"? Is he proud of me? I spent so long hoping to hear these words and now he said them so naturally. But it's easy to say them when referring to someone who isn't there, so much so that part of me almost wishes to hear them say it directly to me. But this is a dream that no longer has any value for me.

I get up on the ground and go to the others. My best hope was not to see him again for the rest of the afternoon, but as I said, luck is not on my side.

He remained until the end on the edge of the door for all the time we rehearse, with his eyes turned straight towards me, as if he wanted to take my soul and take it to the darkest meanders of hell.

Memory Fragment 2: Gift

Everyone knows my father's passion for music, especially the classical and cursed ones. This is why I started studying piano 8 months ago. The instructor says that I have an innate talent, as if I have been playing for more than 10 years. It seems impossible such a thing, yet it is true. I was already studying music when I lived with my grandparents, so I could read sheet music and also write musical pieces. I put all my energy into composing this tune and worked 2 weeks part time to raise the money to record the song. That's how I ended up with this record with my music and my name on it. It's not cursed, but I hope he likes it. I leave it on his bedroom desk, wrapped in black wrapping paper. I hide outside and my happiness reaches the stars when I hear him listening it. The end comes and I watch his reaction through the keyhole. He takes the record off the turntable and looks at it carefully. He seems happy with the tune. He keeps turning the disc in his hands until his gaze darkens and he throws it in the trash. He probably he had read my name.

What do think of Lucifer for now?

Next chapter

[dreamgrlmoon]

🌿 Success Story 🌿

I manifested an Ipad.

So I'm an artist and I love creating digital art, I would usually use my laptop along with a drawing tablet with wires etc but it was such a hassle everytime and because of that I wouldn't draw as much as I wanted to. I realized if I had an ipad I would draw soooo much more and I would finally be the world renowned digital artist I was destined to be. So what i did??? I looked up the price and guess what??? it was sooo expensive... like, I literally couldn't imagine how tf I would've been able to purchase that with my own money so I literally said "I'll just manifest it!"

I went about my days just acting as if it was already ordered from amazon: just thinking about my ipad, planning what all I'm going to create and do with my ipad, visualizing myself on my ipad, talking to people (my husband and my family) about my ipad and all my great plans for it.

🎉 The Day 🎉

I went about my day normally, in the evening my husband had a meeting so I went but just waited in the vehicle. So yeah... I was just waiting waiting and literally thinking "if I had my ipad RIGHT NOW I could be doing *this and that*".

Somehow I ended up falling asleep and into the void (without even trying) I was seeing some sort of a split screen, in one I could see myself sleeping in the vehicle and another, I was sitting with a rose gold ipad, drawing (I would describe it as Me Now and then My Desired Self or 3D and 4D). After that screen/visual played for what felt like a few minutes, I was still asleep but I was seeing a visual of like my aunt driving, on her way to me, where I was right now (asleep in my vehicle) --- She was calling my phone but I never heard it ring, cuz I was asleep but yeah anyway I watched her drive straight to me and pulled up along side the vehicle in my sleep/dream/void state. She came up to the vehicle, called my name and kinda shook me... that's when I woke up. I woke up to see her just smiling then she walked back to her vehicle, went in the backseat, pulled out a brand new rose gold Ipad and just handed it to me and stood there smiling.

I was just there like

😲😳😦🤧😭😭😭😍☺😀😛

jawdropped af

confused af

grateful af

shook af

feeling blessed af.

🌻 I really feel like this was my most effortless and easy manifestation and i'm trying to get back to that place.

[lunashiba]

Accepted into SSF06!

Hello everybody! I hope that this is a good time to autopost in America… I was recently accepted into Shiny Star Festiv@l, held in Tokyo (SSF06)! It will be my first convention, so I'm very excited, but I'm also very nervous. Thank you for accepting me!

Wow! Seeing my name on a list of participants for a convention is quite a heart-pounder (Is that correct?). If you would like more information, I have embedded the site in the image, so you should be able to click on the image to go to the event page's list of participants or view more info.

I will be drawing a yuri book of Tanaka Mamimi and Shirase Sakuya! This work will be an adult book, which would include nudity and adult intimacy. In addition, I will also likely be creating acrylic charms, stickers, and prints to sell at the event.

In addition, I am planning to release this book in English, depending on interest. I will likely gauge for interest again once it is completed, but feel free to let me know if you're interested in purchasing either a physical copy or a digital copy of the book. The digital copy would likely include commentary, sketches, processes, and various artworks relating to the convention (full-resolution art of any stickers, charms, or prints).

To continue the previous point, I am thinking about using pixivFANBOX and Patreon in the future. First and foremost, I would absolutely never permanently lock content behind a paywall, meaning that anything on those sites will eventually release to the public in some way, shape, or form. Secondly, both sites will have the same content, so that if one site is more convenient for you to use, then you may use whichever site you prefer. It will be in both Japanese and English, so please do not worry. This is just a way of supporting me if you would like to.

Currently, I am posting WIPs to Twitter Circles and to this blog when I remember to. A majority of the work I draw is relegated to only my sketchbook, or personal Discord servers with just my friends. I apologize if it seems as if I disappear. I will again, try to post more often. I think the hardest thing is that I often draw, take photos, and experience so much that it's hard to write it all down. Because of this, it gets a bit scary to try to write and post everything all at once on the blog. A lot has happened since the last post, but it's a bit hard to get all my thoughts together if I don't post regularly.

Finally, thank you for reading everything. I have tried to bold things to make it easier to skim, as I know these posts get quite long. Some people like long and detailed posts though, I've heard. I will try to quickly send another post when I wake up regarding Twitter and art. I've created a poll below regarding support sites, so please check it out when you have a chance. Again, thank you to everybody who has read this much. Have a nice day! Luna

Without trying to spoil too much, I have finished all of the sketches of the separate gyaru comic. I actually drew this because I was sad and didn't think that I would be accepted into the convention, so it was to cheer myself up. Looks like I made it into the convention anyways- oh well. Looks like I will draw two comics.

[natedraws]

Hi there!!!! I've seen on some of your other socials pictures of the Steiff Snorry wolf. I'd love to hear more about him (if you're comfortable sharing, of course!) like how you got him, and how he's changed since you've got him and whatnot. If you ever made a blog just for plush stuff, I would definitely follow :^)

Hello!! It was actually requested so much that I make a blog just for teddies I did just recently. I used to post them to my personal blog but figured it would be better to seperate it so people didn't have to see my reblogs if they're there just for my teddies. It's @rainbowredcrayon

And thankyou so much for taking the time to send me a message, especially about teddies because they are my favorite thing and I am so excited to talk about my best friend with you!!! I'm gonna answer this under a cut since it's not art related and will probably be long haha.

I had wanted Snor for a little while before getting him. I actually discovered him / the Steiff brand because one of my friends is really into Charlie Bears and she was saying I should get one. My partner and I were on holiday in London and went into Hamleys there where we felt the Charlie Bears and I determined that they were just too hard for me ( I like to cuddle my guys ). I never knew Steiff as a brand before then but they had a large display of guys there and afterwards I went to look online to see if there was any that might take my interest that I could save for in the future and that's when I saw Snor!

Fast forwarding to January 2022 and I was feeling very sad over having not seen my parents ( or any of my family / friends ) since immigrating to Scotland. It was planned for us to go over for my birthday but due to Covid it ended up being cancelled and that made it much harder too. A couple of my followers on Twitter sent me donations in return for art so that I would be able to afford this new special wolf friend.

The purchasing process of him was also it's own adventure! I originally purchased him off of Amazon, but the next day devastatingly they cancelled my order due to there being no stock of him. I was very upset because all the other websites online had him listed for well over the price he was supposed to be. I was already very attached to him despite not owning him yet and I honestly thought that I was just out of luck. But my partner found a very small pharmacy here in Scotland, that just happened to have a small selection of Steiff teddies for sale, and I purchased him. The website was very old, I honestly wasn't even sure that I would get him. It was a big risk to take!

On January 17th he arrived. I originally told myself that I wouldn't open him until my actual birthday ( the 30th ) but I opened him that day. The place he was ordered him had him wrapped in rainbow birthday wrapping paper and it felt so special like they had picked it just for me! When I took him out of the box it was very clear he had been in this shop for a long time. He was dusty, his original tag was crumpled up, and the little Steiff "collar" tag had a bit of a stain on it like someone had spilled something on there, his yellow ear tag was frayed. It really felt like he had just been forgotten about in the shop until the universe brought us together - and I know that sounds so silly but I do truly believe that!!

Here are pictures I took of him on the 21st of January 2022, so not so long since he was fresh out of the box.

To be completely honest when I first got him I wasn't even sure if I liked him! The whole process was kind of stressful and I felt a lot of guilt over having spent almost £100 on a teddy. At first I really didn't like the texture of his fur because it felt so "real" and he is much thinner than what I like normally. I'm super glad that I took the time to bond and hang out with him though.

Until I look at old photos, or of other peoples photos of their own brand new Snors I don't even recognize that he's changed at all. Even since before I had him I felt as though he was my soulmate just in the form of a teddy ( I don't care how weird that sounds!!!! ) and he just fills me with so much love in my heart. He means the world to me. He has also helped me a lot in coming to terms with self-acceptance of my body, Therianthropy, and just being happier as a whole.

Anyways I hope this answers all that you want to know!! If not you're free to send another message in, I am always down to talk about teddies haha.

[charlidrawz]

Her Tears Were My Light | .:Review:. | Trying Something New!

For a long time now I've been scrambling to find a way to stay active as well as continue posting more frequently online, and I think I've settled on writing reviews, Top Ten+ Lists, and the like!

For those who don't know me, I'm Michael (Mike/Mickey/Mika), also known as "Charli" online! (He/They pronouns)

I am a mega nerd, as well as an artist and gamer who loves to make playlists and bracelets in their spare time, as well as voice over work when able! (Reading, voice acting, singing, etc...)

I might make videos at some point, I'm not sure yet, but I have been working on a script for one at some point!

This is just a quick review I wanted to try my hand at, and I apologize in advance if I'm still fiddlin' around with Tumblr to figure out how it works after all these years, haha;;

Tl;dr: This is my first review (via Tumblr on my "main" account) I'll be posting!

Today I will be reviewing her tears were my light by NomnomNami

her tears were my light by NomnomNami is a visual novel available for purchase on Steam, Google Play, and itch.io.

You can see on the itch.io site that it has a word count of 6k, as well as 3 notable endings.

It's a quick playthrough, as well as a pleasant read, and the endings are rather easy to get.

I, personally, took my time reading and processing the story and artwork, so it took me around 20 min to about half an hour.

I am an achievement hunter on Steam, so I'll mention a couple of noteworthy bits of information for my fellow completion scavengers:

There are achievements, but I believe they're in that inactive state where the game won't show as a "Perfect Game" on your account.

There are options and settings you're able to fiddle around with to speed up the dialogue and skip through it, so that helps for folks who just want that 100%;

though I will say, this was one of those games I actually sat down and enjoyed, so please take your time if you're not in a rush to have the best experience possible!

The writing was stellar with brilliantly designed characters and gorgeous yet simple art, perfectly complimented by Nami's beautiful ost for their story.

I don't want to spoil too much of the actual content in the game itself, but it was wonderful enough that I left a review on Steam, wanted to attempt a more in-depth one here, and found myself unable to resist the urge to create a playlist for it.

I mentioned on Steam as well that I also plan to share this with my fiancé later, and I might draw some fanart for it at some point.

Spoilers Beyond This Border!

｡･:*˚:✧｡╔═*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═╗｡✧:˚*:･｡

Now that all of that's out of the way, I wanted to actually talk about the characters and some topics in the game themselves!

her tears were my light nearly had me crying; it was a touching and emotional story.

I love Space's design, Nil's writing, and Time's concept especially.

Making use of the save files was rather brilliant in my opinion, which I've rarely seen used, appropriately and well, in games- especially visual novels.

I won't include the Life is Strange franchise; it's not a mere "visual novel", and has a different tone and aesthetic.

If you like time travel and lgbtqia+ friendly stories with deep and excellent writing though, I do highly recommend it.

I actually felt disappointed that it was so short- when usually I'm nearly complaining that the viznovs I play, even the ones I like, cough Danganronpa cough are so long.

There was so much heart and soul put into these characters you only know for such a short period of time that it feels so abrupt having it end so quickly... after having made such a fuss over how long Nil waited for Time.

I can't stress enough, this isn't a complaint about the game- quite the opposite, honestly.

This feels like the perfect transition that could be used to go over a different review for another game by the same creator which I've considered doing, and I wasn't able to leave one for it on Steam because I had borrowed the game via Steam Share with a close friend of mine.

The game was the perfect length, honestly.

I had just enough time to complete it without stressing about finishing it; but it also still had enough content, good and interesting content, to leave at least me with a desire to play it again.

her tears were my light leaves the player with enough of (aforementioned) content to consume that they can create their own ideas and headcanons, aus, fanart, songs, and the like with their own creative minds.

Before I head out, I will say:

I personally prefer the ending where everyone is happy. Ɛ':

Hi, there!

I'm Michaela! Aka Michael, Mickey, Mike, Mika, etc... or Charli, as I go by online!

I'm an artist and gamer who loves cosplaying and voice acting, as well as making playlists, bracelets, and props in my spare time!

Wanna support me and/or see more content from me?

I do commissions, and occasionally requests!

If you have any ideas for a game, movie, show, anime, manga, comic, book, etc, that you want me to check out and review, lemme know in the comments or hmu via dms, Discord (CharliDrawz#9544), or my email (katyzworkz@gmail.com)!

as for commissions, you can contact me the same way if you're interested in an art piece or hiring an artist to help with a project!

I have a carrd for that (which might need to be updated) with info on what I do and don't do!

I am open to ship/pairing drawings, fanart, backgrounds, etc...

I don't do overly explicit NSFW or gore, nor do I do anything too overly detailed, realistic, or mecha.

I can do cartoony styles, furry/anthropomorphic art, 2d drawings, etc... but I will not draw a character without a reference.

I don't do full complete animations, but I am up for trying short moving avatars for a price.

I also do Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube playlists!

(I haven't used SoundCloud in a while, though; I apologize if it's a mess in there.)

These are a lot cheaper, and are easier for me to make!

Prices start from around 50¢ for super short 5-10 song playlists, to $10+ for a full hour/100+ track playlists.

(Whichever is reached first. The price depends on the length and how long it took to make it.)

‧˚₊꒷꒦︶•☽────✧˖°˖☆‿୨♡୧‿☆˖°˖✧────☾•︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

Did you like this review?

Feel free to share it with your friends and repost!

(with credit, of course~)

[alicenpai]

hi i stumbled across your art and haven’t been able to stop thinking about your one piece sticker sheet 🥰🥰 but I saw it too late and your store is now closed :(( do you have plans on restocking it when your store opens up again? Ty in advance hehe

Hey! a lot of people have been asking me privately for shop goods around this time for private orders so.. I've revamped the listings slightly and it's now a soft opening!!! 😻👍👍👍👍👍 i'll probably close it around christmas day or whenever i feel like it (I reserve the right to close the shop with/without notice)

it's just open casually so like. it just means I'll really only ship orders in time with outings or errands and if I happen to be close to the area of the shipping facility. I'm doing a shipment early next week, and maybe the week after, depends on when I have time.

had to downgrade though so the listing options are limited (can only have 1 picture & 5 products) so if you guys have questions or need more pictures just lmk!! (prints can also be reprinted easily so if you have requests for certain designs at certain sizes just contact me)

please keep in mind that any orders purchased now may not come in time for christmas or new year's. I am not responsible for any shipping delays due to the holiday season.

✨ SHOP IS HERE 🌠

[stardustjessie]

JESSIE'S 2024 ROADMAP

So, I just wanted to ramble about the projects I have planned out for 2024. I've been very ambitious about some due to being able to afford to invest in them. Of course, art will forever be my #1 ambition and will continue to improve my craft. I'm always finding new ways to improve and exploring new ideas. However; I do have various non-digital art related! And I want to tell you all on my own personal blog about them and what you can look forward from me in the future!

MUSIC PROJECTS

I've actually been taking my time to figure out how FL Studios work, and how to work with it with Audacity. I've been attempting at voice training, so once I'm satisfied with my voice, I'd really love to do lyrics. I'm planning on working out something special for the first quarter of 2024. An EP called "Hear my Voice! (Existence)". I want it to be focused on the progress of HRT and Voice Training and just the idea of artistic freedom and the great feeling it is to be able to create things the way I want after being so long unable to. I don't know, 3 songs sound good for an EP. I want to be crafty and creative with them. I'd love for it to be Lo-Fi Pop Punk. As in, actual Lo-Fi, not the Synthwave kind of Lo-Fi. I want it to be the classic lower quality and lower frequency sounding music. I have a grudging respect for Lo-Fi and what it can represent, so I want to have my own take on it. The other project would be a proper album for once I get the hang of it all. I plan to call it "Celestial Wishes". I so far only have the plans for it to be Pop Punk and be very angelic sounding. I want it to be like heaven answering my wishes to finally do music. Obviously I won't sing about that-! I want it to carry the story of Ponies living life and miracles happening in various ways. How many songs ? God knows! It's only an idea thus far, and will take shape later. Right now I want to focus on making a couple of singles, maybe having one done in December still even. That and focusing on the overall theming and style I want for "Hear my Voice! (Existence)". I'll post all of these on a new Youtube Channel I've created, StardustJessie Music! Subscribe for when I start posting some!

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

I don't know how aware you are, but I do have a Youtube Channel. I primarily post Video Game Analysis Essays. I'm extremely proud of the ones I made this year, those being Deus Ex 2 and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Well, I have two more videos planned out! The first, POKEMON SUN & MOON ARE GREAT AND HERE'S WHY; Which I'm very ambitious and passionate about this idea. Everyone was very quick to defend Sword & Shield, Sun & Moon didn't get that same treatment. I want to be one to defend Sun & Moon, which I have a lot of argument for, and have a lot to say about its history and the state of pokemon in that age. I actually really hated S&M when I first played it and deeply regretted buying Ultra Sun (Which I still do.), so it's almost like a redemption arc for me! I'll have to gather up a shitload of footage though. Pokemon Red, Silver, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond, Black, X, Alpha Sapphire, Red Team Rescue, Explorers of Sky, Gates to Infinity, Super Mystery Dungeon, Sword, Violet, Rescue Team DX, Sun, Ultra Sun, and more! These are just the pokemon games I'll have to record! Not to count other games I bring up as a precedent and examples like Persona 4 which is some 60 hours of gameplay! So yeah. It's a lengthy project. Thankfully I'm purchasing a 4TB HDD this week so I should be able to gather that much footage without a worry. I imagine I'll only have this done in a year or even 2025! It's a tough project. However; I want to also work on another video! MORROWIND WALKED SO SKYRIM COULD RUN (AWAY WITH MY MONEY); I really despite Skyrim for a lot of reasons. But I really love Morrowind. A lot of the things I see people praise Skyrim are things I genuinely believe they'd have a better time and enjoyment of those aspects if they played Skyrim. I believe I can actually get this video done in 2024 as these games are waaaaaaaaaaaay shorter than all the shit I have to play for a Pokemon project! But even then, Skyrim would be some 30 hours and Morrowind some 15, not to mention any other games I talk about. It's a great topic to analyse and I'll be very ambitious. I should get to write it sometime and have a W.I.P project in mid 2024 so it'll be my annual essay.

BOOK PROJECTS

I'm very interested in writing my own book honestly. Ever since I read Dracula I've considered writing a story that touches on similar themes and ideas and can evolve them further through the lens of 2024. I'm slowly taking shots at it. Sometimes I write a sentence or two. As any Tumblr Writer knows, it's very tough. Be on the look out! Once I have anything concrete I'll definitely post!

I believe this would be it! I don't have many individual projects, but they are ambitious and time consuming projects that I want to have done next year or have something substantial to show in 2024! There are more projects, like my Game Project which I'm very passionate about and have 74 pages of documentation of and still working on it! Since it's on very early planning stage I rather not talk too much. But maybe 2025 roadmap ? Thank you for reading this if you have at all! I just want somewhere to put all my ideas. Who knows. It'll be interesting in 2034 to look back to 22 year old me being so ambitious, while 32 year old me has those ambitions fully realised and onto new projects. This is almost like an archival of my personal artistic ambition and my passion for the crafts of Writing, Visual Arts and Music.