#i can barely use html

[inorganicorgan]

Web design is my passion

[snuuyfanged]

ok out of curiosity i wanna put up a poll to see people's thoughts bc we don't normally put up polls but we've never posted something like what we're gonna bring up before so

would anyone like it if we put up our artfight bbcode profile up on toyhouse or something like that? idk how many people following us also do artfight but we did touch up our profile today with more bbcode and we know bbcode on artfight is . well it sure is (why does it not have [div] containers that's literally a basic container tag like bbcode is annoying yeah but artfight's bbcode editor is Uniquely annoying and Bad). we ask bc we're curious but haven't put up any of our own coding stuff in Years since we haven't practiced since we left the wof wiki </3

for reference. the code looks like this it's just probably not very mobile friendly unfortunately since we do our coding on our laptop </3

i will. probably do it anyways at some point but i'm curious to know what the masses (people following this blog) think

[gothicwax]

i haven’t checked my desktop theme in ages i wonder if i reset it to the normal one or just kept that one i set up ages ago

[bogleech]

Going to put all this in its own post too by popular request: here's how you make your own website with no understanding of HTML code at all, no software, no backend, absolutely nothing but a text file and image files! First get website server space of your own, like at NEOCITIES. The free version has enough room to host a whole fan page, your art, a simple comic series, whatever! The link I've provided goes to a silly comic that will tell you how to save the page as an html file and make it into a page for your own site. The bare minimum of all you need to do with it is JUST THIS:

Change the titles, text, and image url's to whatever you want them to be, upload your image files and the html file together to your free website (or the same subfolder in that website), and now you have a webpage with those pictures on it. That's it!!!!! .....But if you want to change some more super basic things about it, here's additional tips from the same terrible little guy:

That last code by itself is: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=001.html"> Change "001.html" to wherever you want that link to take people. THIS IS THE REASON WHY when you go to bogleech.com/pokemon/ you are taken instantly to the newest Pokemon review, because the /pokemon/ directory of my website has an "index.html" page with this single line of code. Every pokemon review has its own permanent link, but I change that single line in the index file so it points to the newest page whenever I need it to! While I catered these instructions to updating a webcomic, you can use the same template to make blog type posts, articles or just image galleries. Anything you want! You can delete the navigational links entirely, you can make your site's index.html into a simple list of text links OR fun little image links to your different content, whatever! Your website can be nothing but a big ugly deep fried JPEG of goku with a recipe for potato salad on it, no other content ever, who cares! We did that kind of nonsense all the time in the 1990's and thought it was the pinnacle of comedy!! Maybe it still can be?!?! Or maybe you just want a place to put some artwork and thoughts of yours that doesn't come with the same baggage as big social media? Make a webpage this way and it will look the same in any browser, any operating system for years and years to come, because it's the same kind of basic raw code most of the internet depends upon!

[neilgaimansbff]

[valeriehalla]

I have gotten a lot of messages saying that they really love the presentation of CURSE/KISS/CUTE. Often the commenter in question can’t say what exactly it is about the formatting that they appreciate, but that it just reads well and looks good. Well!!! Allow me to bare my wealth of secret knowledge for you once and for all:

I sorta just did some research into book typography...?

Here’s something you should know about web development, alright: typography on the web is really, really bad. The tools we have at our disposal—HTML and CSS—are incredibly powerful, but they are set up to fight you every step of the way towards Good Typography. When you know what you’re looking for, you can fix all the common issues quickly and easily. But it’s not easy to know what to look for, because

problematic typography is overwhelmingly the norm on the web, and

good typography is invisible.

Here’s a screenshot from CURSE/KISS/CUTE episode 0:

Now, I don’t want this post to come across as prescriptive. It is not my intention to tell you, “This is what good typography looks like, so follow my lead exactly.” I made a lot of choices with the typography of my web novel: many of those choices would not make sense in other contexts. What I want to convey to you is what those choices are, so that you will know they’re available to be made.

I mentioned that the web “fights you” when it comes to good typography. What do I mean by that? Well, check this out:

This is how that passage of text renders “by default.” In other words, this is how a web browser would render that text without any input from me about what styles to apply. It kind of sucks ass! But it also looks pretty familiar, right? This is not that far off from how a lot of websites—even websites full of prose (looking at you, AO3)—render text.

I think the most illustrative thing to do here would be to walk you through my thought process and show you, step by step, what decisions I made to turn this unstyled text into the styled version you see in the novel.

So, first things first:

1. We have got to shrink that text column.

Computer monitors... are wide. They are wider than they are tall. They are so wide, and they have so many pixels. This means you can fit a lot of characters on them. If you wanted, you could just have a wall of characters from the left side of the screen all the way to the right side. Talk about efficient!!

You should never, ever, ever do this.

This is one choice that I actually will make a prescriptive statement about, because it’s supported by quite a lot of research: fairly narrow text columns are more legible. Specifically, research seems to support the idea that a width in the range of 50 to 70 characters per line is the most comfortable for people to read*. Every font is different, so it takes a little doing to turn that “characters” figure into a pixel measurement; I went with 512 CSS pixels for the maximum width of my text column:

Isn’t that just so much nicer to read already?

*A commenter reminds me that I’d be remiss not to point out that the research on column width legibility isn’t completely conclusive. You do want to limit the width of your text columns, but going over the 70 character-per-line recommendation isn’t necessarily the end of the world, and you might have good reasons to do so. I did not: as mentioned, one of my goals was to mimic book-style typography, and books by nature have fairly restrained column widths, on account of they’re books.

2. Picking a font.

I’m not going to give you the blow-by-blow on how I decided what font to use. The short story is that I asked some designers, and one of the recommendations I got was the free font Crimson Pro, which I took a liking to immediately:

It’s just an all-around attractive serif font, but one thing I really like about it for use in a novel is its highly-visible quotation marks. They’re just kinda jumbo! They’re real big! Easy to see! In a novel, those things aren’t just ornamentation. It makes a great deal of practical sense for them to stand out just a bit. It also has a fairly large x-height, unlike a lot of the more traditional options, which is good for legibility on a computer screen.

3. Adjusting the line-height

Web browsers default to a line-height of about 1.2em, which, as you can probably tell, is quite cramped. If you go and Google “optimal line height for legibility”, you’ll get a number of results right off the bat suggesting 1.5em. Sounds good! Let’s do that:

Well... hmm. That’s definitely an improvement, but between you and me, it actually looks a bit too spacey to my eyes. I wonder why?

I’ll cut to the chase: the 1.5em recommendation makes some assumptions about the font you’re using. In Arial, the letter ��A” is about 0.6em tall; in Crimson Pro, it’s about 0.5em. That means that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to spacing your lines, because different fonts have different amounts of empty space baked in. How annoying!

Let me tell you something about the kind of nerd I am. When I had this realization, I grabbed some books off my shelf and pulled out a literal micrometer. I started measuring the line-heights against various font features to see if there were any patterns I could spot in professional typesetting. Here’s what I found:

Almost every book on my shelf spaces lines such that the distance between one baseline and the next is about three times the x-height. How cool is that? I clapped my hands like a seal when I put this together.

Adjusting the line-height to match what I observed in the wild gives us this:

It’s a subtle difference, but to my eyes it feels just right. It’s almost like magic!

4. Paragraph spacing...

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Probably the most controversial choice I made with CURSE/KISS/CUTE’s typography was to opt for book-style paragraph indentation rather than web-style paragraph spacing—like so:

I did this for a few reasons:

It’s what I’m used to. I’ve read a lot of books, and this is just the way that books are formatted. I think for something aspiring to the title of “novel”, there’s value in making it look the way a reader probably expects a novel to look.

A novel has a lot of paragraph breaks in it. A paragraph in, say, an encyclopedia entry might go on for half a page or more; whereas it is unusual for a paragraph in a modern work of narrative prose to run for more than a handful of sentences, especially in any scene with dialogue. Because paragraph breaks are so common, spacing between paragraphs in a novel results in a lot of wasted space. Also, subjectively speaking, the additional space seems to me to lend an undue amount of weight to paragraph breaks. I’m just starting a new thought; there’s no need for a 21-gun salute, you know?

Having said that, here are some good reasons you might decide not to do paragraph indentation anyway:

Doing it right requires a bit of extra legwork. Notice how the very first paragraph in the image above has no indentation. That’s because it’s the start of a new section, and the first paragraph in a section traditionally goes unindented. This is an easy detail to miss, and it can be difficult to wrangle CSS into doing it for you automatically.

Web users don’t expect it. For the first decade of the web’s existence, there was no good way to do paragraph indentation; by the time CSS rolled around and made it easy, paragraph spacing had already become the norm. And while CURSE/KISS/CUTE may be a novel, it is also, specifically, a web novel!

But it’s my house and I get to make the rules, so I went with indentation. Incidentally, there seems to be a dire lack of research into the question of whether indentation or spacing is more legible for readers—but the data that does exist appears inconclusive at best. So, the choice really does come down to vibes.

5. The tragedy of justification.

You’ll note that one way in which I did not make my web novel look like a paper novel is the text alignment. It’s un-justified: the right margin is ripsaw-ragged.

This is because it is not possible to justify text on the web.

Oh, you can try. Look right here: there’s a CSS property for it and everything. Just turn on “text-align: justify” and...

Nightmare! The interword spacing on that first line is almost as wide as the indentation!

Reader, I’m afraid that your web browser is simply too dumb. That’s not the browser’s fault: robust algorithms for justifying text without creating these distractingly huge gaps between words have existed for many decades, and modern computers are powerful enough to run them in real time with little performance impact. It’s just, uh—nobody has ever bothered to implement them into web browsers. It is the damnedest thing.

I tried, I really did. You can mitigate this problem a bit if you enable automatic hyphenation, but browsers are unfortunately also kind of dumb at hyphenating. Firefox, for example, will refuse to hyphenate any word containing a capital letter, so any sentence with a lot of proper nouns in it is a lost cause. I tried manually inserting soft hyphens with a text preprocessor I wrote myself, but still these overjustified lines plagued me: when the text column narrows, for example on a phone, even hyphens can’t save you. The line-breaking algorithm is simply too naïve to optimize for well-justified text, and that’s not something you can fix as a web developer.

As a result, my heavy-hearted recommendation is to never use text justification. It’s just too distracting.

6. And then some extra stuff just for me

I added drop-caps because it looks neat and I made the ellipses spacier because I think it looks good when it, uh, when they are spacier. I think that looks pretty good that’s just my opinion though.

That’s all! Hope you learned something bye!!!

[all-the-fish]

Oh, you know, just the usual internet browsing experience in the year of 2024

Some links and explanations since I figured it might be useful to some people, and writing down stuff is nice.

First of all, get Firefox. Yes, it has apps for Android/iOS too. It allows more extensions and customization (except the iOS version), it tracks less, the company has a less shitty attitude about things. Currently all the other alternatives are variations of Chromium, which means no matter how degoogled they supposedly are, Google has almost a monopoly on web browsing and that's not great. Basically they can introduce extremely user unfriendly updates and there's nothing forcing them to not do it, and nowhere for people to escape to. Current examples of their suggested updates are disabling/severly limiting adblocks in June 2024, and this great suggestion to force sites to verify "web environment integrity" ("oh you don't run a version of chromium we approve, such as the one that runs working adblocks? no web for you.").

uBlockOrigin - barely needs any explanation but yes, it works. You can whitelist whatever you want to support through displaying ads. You can also easily "adblock" site elements that annoy you. "Please log in" notice that won't go away? Important news tm sidebar that gives you sensory overload? Bye.

Dark Reader - a site you use has no dark mode? Now it has. Fairly customizable, also has some basic options for visually impaired people.

SponsorBlock for YouTube - highlights/skips (you choose) sponsored bits in the videos based on user submissions, and a few other things people often skip ("pls like and subscribe!"). A bit more controversial than normal adblock since the creators get some decent money from this, but also a lot of the big sponsors are kinda scummy and offer inferior product for superior price (or try to sell you a star jpg land ownership in Scotland to become a lord), so hearing an ad for that for the 20th time is kinda annoying. But also some creators make their sponsored segments hilarious.

Privacy Badger (and Ghostery I suppose) - I'm not actually sure how needed these are with uBlock and Firefox set to block any tracking it can, but that's basically what it does. Find someone more educated on this topic than me for more info.

Https Everywhere - I... can't actually find the extension anymore, also Firefox has this as an option in its settings now, so this is probably obsolete, whoops.

Facebook Container - also comes with Firefox by default I think. Keeps FB from snooping around outside of FB. It does that a lot, even if you don't have an account.

WebP / Avif image converter - have you ever saved an image and then discovered you can't view it, because it's WebP/Avif? You can now save it as a jpg.

YouTube Search Fixer - have you noticed that youtube search has been even worse than usual lately, with inserting all those unrelated videos into your search results? This fixes that. Also has an option to force shorts to play in the normal video window.

Consent-O-Matic - automatically rejects cookies/gdpr consent forms. While automated, you might still get a second or two of flashing popups being yeeted.

XKit Rewritten - current most up to date "variation "fork" of XKit I think? Has settings in extension settings instead of an extra tumblr button. As long as you get over the new dash layout current tumblr is kinda fine tbh, so this isn't as important as in the past, but still nice. I mostly use it to hide some visual bloat and mark posts on the dash I've already seen.

YouTube NonStop - do you want to punch youtube every time it pauses a video to check if you're still there? This saves your fists.

uBlacklist - blacklists sites from your search results. Obviously has a lot of different uses, but I use it to hide ai generated stuff from image search results. Here's a site list for that.

Redirect AMP to HTML - redirects links from their amp version to the normal version. Amp link is a version of a site made faster and more accessible for phones by Bing/Google. Good in theory, but lets search engines prefer some pages to others (that don't have an amp version), and afaik takes traffic from the original page too. Here's some more reading about why it's an issue, I don't think I can make a good tl;dr on this.

Also since I used this in the tags, here's some reading about enshittification and why the current mainstream internet/services kinda suck.

[moonlightdistractions]

I recently re-read a few runedgirl fics, just aglow in nostalgia and how she can really gut a person with *feelings*. I get emotionally compromised. There's one I hadn't read before and it's the only ao3 link; a post Carry On one with an absolutely wrecked Sam sporting a wild man bun!

So here you go, some runedgirl wincest with lots of delicious wanting.

123 Alice Grim Lane - livejournal, 51,700, NC-17, canon before pilot then AU.

Sam Winchester changed his name before he got to Stanford. Samuel Wesson is a rising star at a California law firm. He and Jess have a neon blue hybrid with a bike rack on top, and a cozy red stucco house. Sam Wesson has everything he ever wanted, except for the one thing he knew he shouldn’t. Dean is still a Winchester, still a hunter, still in love with Sam and determined not to admit it. Years of avoiding each other have left Sam and Dean strangers. But when Sam’s luck changes and tragedy finds him, he turns in desperation to the older brother he walked away from years ago, hoping that the bond forged between them in childhood will prove strong enough to bring them back together.

Their Bruises on the Inside - livejournal, 21200 words, NC17, multiple pairings, outsider pov

Sam and Dean through the eyes of the people they meet while Sam is at Stanford – strangers, friends, lovers – as they make their way back to each other. Outsider pov for most of the story.

The Ties that Bind - AO3, 26842 words, that sweet spot between 15x19 and 15x20 to after the Barn Scene and beyond.

"The story of Sam and Dean Winchester doesn’t end that day in the barn. Sam keeps his promise to keep fighting, but with a Winchester twist. He uses the resources left to him by Rowena to become a powerful witch, with one goal"

City of Brotherly Love livejournal, 21400 words, NC17, de-aging spell, first time

No one is more surprised than Sam and Dean Winchester that they’ve managed to survive long enough to settle down. Sort of. Sam is maybe a little more okay with the whole aging thing than Dean, so when Sam is hit with a spell that makes him younger and younger until he’s about 20, Dean doesn’t cope well. When the same spell turns Dean into a twenty-year-old, both of them have to cope with all those forbidden feelings about each other that they never acted on at that age. If the de-aging spell is going to keep going until they don’t exist, which could happen in a matter of days, what’s stopping them from acting on those feelings now – especially when they look like that?

and the one I've reread the most:

The Year of Letting Go livejournal, 37,500 words, NC17, this one keeps building and even gives us a bit of powers!Sam

A hunt gone wrong leaves Dean Winchester barely alive, and helpless for the first time in his life. Can Dean let go of his need to be the big brother and let Sam help him heal, or will the complicated feelings both brothers have been hiding from each other pull them further apart than ever? As Dean’s deal comes due, both Sam and Dean will have to let go of their fears, or face losing each other forever.

livejournal tip: if the chapter link opens a new tab + it won't scroll, edit the url by inserting ?format=light extension after the .html - no spaces

[sofia-d-asb]

Hello. I noticed that you said you were using Ren'py for your new game. What made you come to the conclusion that this was the best option, if you don't mind my asking? I am looking into developing something, but I'm unsure which program to use. I thought the point of Ren'py was more for visual novels. I am interested in making something that isn't as visual heavy. Do you think that's possible with Ren'py? Sorry for the randomness. Thank you for taking the time to read. Have a wonderful day!

Hello!

It depends on what you're looking to achieve.

If you want the bare minimum of functionality and the bare minimum of coding to learn, you can go with ChoiceScript. Which, fair warning, is a proprietary language, so if you want to monetize/publish your work without having to adhere to their opaque content rules/cede 75% of your sales, I'd suggest you steer clear, but YMMV.

Twine is a little less easy to use, but comes with higher customization. It supports HTML/CSS/JavaScript, so what you can do is much broader than ChoiceScript. Plus, monetizing your game is fine. I find that Twine is more meant for short-form IF than long-form, but it remains usable. Deploying your game in any other form than HTML (a web game) is a hassle though, and not supported by Twine directly.

Ren'Py comes next; here you must make your own user interface (or you could just use native NVL-mode with no edits, which... it'll work for sure, but the presentation will be questionable), but I find it much more flexible than the other two options. And it comes with the added bonus of making it much easier to deploy your game to multiple OS and platforms including web and mobile.

There are other tools (Ink?) so my advice would be to try them all and settle for the one that suits your needs.

Good luck with your project! And have a wonderful day as well.

[rc-catalog]

It’s that time again—our Creator Of The Month celebration is back, and this month’s spotlight is glowing brighter than ever!

Please join us in welcoming the endlessly talented Lola, @malbontesmrs, to the COTM hall of fame! 💗

From Procreate to her keyboard, Lola is a true architect of imagination—and we’re thrilled to celebrate her work all month long! To help you get to know the magic behind the masterpieces, we’ve put together a short interview where she shares her inspirations, her process, and more! 🌸

💬 1) INTRODUCE YOURSELF! 

Hi, I’m Lola. And to be honest, I’m terribly boring.

💬 2) WHEN AND HOW DID YOU FIRST DISCOVER ROMANCE CLUB! What drew you in, and what made you stay? Were there any particular characters, stories, or moments that left a mark on you?

I discovered RC in April 2021, and played enough that when I re-downloaded the app after deleting it, I still had a profile. I actually more or less forgot about it, HS1 JUST finished fully releasing, and I remember reading up to where Vicky gave Bont the food from the school kitchens at least. I think I may have deleted the app shortly after that because of the CY Alexander scene . It’s also entirely possible that I just got too busy and didn’t put it on my new phone. When I redownloaded it in 2023, it was because an acquaintance suggested it, but even then I barely touched it until HS2 started releasing (though I did love SoS and probably played it like 3-4 times before then). I didn’t remember playing HS1 at all until after I played it again, so when I started HS2, and encountered Malbonte and Lucifer for the first time, all I could think was “omg, how could anyone like these jerks”. …anyway, that’s my husband and my other husband now, so I guess I figured that out. I guess all that is to say Alice’s HS brought me, kept me, and continues to keep me on this app.

💬 3) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN CREATING? Can be both RC related and in general! What first sparked your passion for it?

I’ve been creating (in general) for a long time. I won’t say how long, but I’m probably older than most of those who know me realize 😂. But for RC, I only started in early 2024. I also only somewhat recently started working with digital painting (late 2023). I’ve been writing since forever, but I only recently started publicly posting my work as well. I’m generally not very social 😅

💬 4) DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST EVER CREATION? Again, can be RC related or in general! What was it, how did it feel to bring it to life, and looking back now, how do you feel about it?

The first creative thing I did for RC was the first three chapters of my long fic, Lux in Tenebris. I’ll talk about it in question 7 though, because I don’t want to get too repetitive. The first piece of art I posted in the RC fandom was a picture of Bont that I posted from an old account. I loved, and still love that piece. It was the first time I moved out of a more cartoony style, and inspired the HS2 portrait series I ended up doing later. link

💬 5) DO YOU HAVE ANY RITUALS OR HABITS WHEN YOU CREATE? A playlist you always put on, a time of day you prefer, snacks or specific tools/software?

I’m still working on my HS long fics, and I have a playlist I use for those (mostly Rok Nardin songs because they feel very applicable and they’re instrumental, so random words I’m hearing don’t end up in my writing). I write on my iPad with the keyboard attachment because I’m more likely to carry it around than a laptop. I use Word (bleh) because I need it for work anyway, but Word isn’t really friendly for HTML markup and that’s how I write my fics, so I have been considering other options (Rok Nardin Spotify playlist for those who might be curious). I also keep my fics in the cloud so I can access them on my phone in case inspiration hits while I’m at the doctor’s office or something. I save each chapter as an individual file, and for these fics I’ve been posting them as I write them. If I ever do another series like this again though, I may consider a different course of action because it does get a little stressful when writers block hits. My fics are long, and I try to post chapters every week or two, so I’m writing a looooot these days. If I have writer’s block (which has been happening more and more lately), I use different strategies. My bestie isn’t a RC fan, but she’s happy to let me run thoughts by her (which has come to some entertaining results from time to time). Sometimes I’ll just put on that same Rok Nardin playlist I use when writing and go for a walk, because it helps keep me in the mind of it so I can brainstorm. If that doesn’t work… I step away. Close my iPad and don’t even think about it for a bit, or move onto a drawing for a while. For art: No rituals, no things I do every time. I draw when the inspiration hits, and draw until I’m bored of drawing 😂. I have surprisingly very few abandoned WIPs despite this though. I use Procreate, iPad and Apple Pencil. Sometimes I listen to audiobooks while drawing. Sometimes I don’t. Drawing is a very, very casual thing I do. Fun fact: most of my art only uses two brushes and a heck-ton of smudging. Any additional brushes are stamps. I wish I could tell you which brushes they are, but “Brush 4” probably doesn’t help 🤷🏼‍♀️

💬 6) IS THERE A PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WOULD GIVE TO YOUR YOUNGER CREATIVE SELF? Or readers in general?

1000% it’s that practice makes perfect. My art feels like a huge testament to that statement because (I think anyway) you can see the major improvements I’ve made in the last year alone. I have one CG that I like to practice new techniques by redrawing it, and I keep them in a row in my procreate folder so I can see the progression and my own improvement. It helps with motivation, but I find it also helps because I can take things I like from different versions to incorporate them into my style. I picked up a lot of technical skills and techniques by doing that. As for writing, I know it’s the most cliché advice ever, but write for yourself. Write what you want to read; chances are there’s someone else who wants to too. The nice thing about doing that, is that you can do whatever you want. And for both, don’t value your work based on its engagement. That was a tough lesson for me to learn, especially with my art, which hasn’t been getting very much engagement at all these days, and my new fic, which isn’t getting nearly as much in the way of comments as Lux in Tenebris did. What I’ve found though, is that every time I start to get bummed about the lack of engagement on BO&BR, someone pops up out of nowhere to tell me they’ve loved my stories and have been reading them for a while. The point is, just because I’m not seeing engagement, doesn’t mean it’s not there; sometimes people just don’t know what to say, sometimes they’re too shy to say anything, sometimes they mean to say something and it slips their minds. Either way, if you work on something you love, it doesn’t matter what other people think.

💬 7) CHOOSE 3-5 OF YOUR FAVOURITE WORKS AND RAMBLE AWAY! We want all the behind-the-scenes thoughts: What do these pieces mean to you? What inspired them? Were there any struggles you faced while creating them? What emotions or memories are tied to them now?

Lux in Tenebris – Malbonte x MC HS1 (long) fanfiction (Posted on AO3, rated E for occasional smut and canon-typical descriptions of violence / death)

I chose this one first for a reason, because it is by far the most meaningful project I’ve ever done (and to be honest, hopefully the most meaningful I’ll ever do). Lux in Tenebris is my entire 2024; I started it in January, and finished it in December— it’s over 255,000 words (1100 pages). I was (am? but it’s much better managed now) very sick in 2024, and I ended up in the hospital for over a month. Lux was my main project through the year, and it helped me get through the harder times; it is a tangible representation of my struggles that year. I love Lux, and I hope I always will. I know it’s not perfect, there were a lot of chapters I wrote when I was extremely unwell and could definitely use some editing, but I’m not perfect either. It was the first long fic that I ever fully completed, and it was the first project I’ve ever done that I legitimately made for myself and my own enjoyment; other people liking it was a very unexpected, and pleasant, bonus. (Though admittedly, I did at one point think how nice it would be if a non-Malbonte fan read it and became a Malbonte fan 😂. That didn’t happen to my knowledge, but I had a non-HS1 fan read it and enthusiastically love it, so I’m counting that 😄). It also wasn’t the story I planned in the beginning (I completely changed course around chapter 3, then totally committed to that change by chapter 7). I’m happy with the direction it took though. I poured my whole life into that fic, and I’m still working on the sequel. So yeah, it’s pretty important to me. I loved writing it, I love reading it, and I love talking about it. This fic is my baby.

2. The HS2 LI series

Similar to Lux in Tenebris, I worked on these portraits to distract me from being sick, and I wanted to work with a bit more variety of people. HS2 is (probably obviously) my favourite story on the app, and I wanted to honour it somehow, I guess. I actually want to do the series over, because I feel like I’ve learned a lot of new techniques and improved my art since then, but we’ll see. I have to finish the ABH series first. I actually find Dino and Lucifer to be two of the most difficult people I’ve drawn to get “right”, and those two portraits took the longest by quite a bit to do (Luci with his tattoos especially. Tbh, the more I look at it, the more I reeeeeally want to redo War and Astaroth too…) Anyway, yeah, it was a fun project that I did because I love HS2, and it was a lot of fun to work on. Of course with practice, as I’ve improved, I can see a lot more issues with these pictures than I could when I did them, but I’ll always love the project itself because it was a nice distraction from the things going on at the time. Dino / Lucifer / Mimi / Astaroth / War / Hunger / Malbonte

3. Black Obelisks & Blood Roses (Malbonte x MC HS2 fanfiction) – in progress sequel to Lux in Tenebris (Posted on AO3, rated E for occasional smut and canon-typical descriptions of violence / death)

I debated choosing this, but decided I can’t promote Lux without promoting the sequel I’m currently writing, Black Obelisks & Blood Roses. It’s only about 1/3 of the way done, but it’s already over 164,000 words (650 pages). I’m actively updating at least twice a month, but often more than that (and never less). I grieved Lux in Tenebris when it was finished. It literally felt like a piece of me died or something. I had started planning BO&BR very early into writing Lux, so I knew I was going to write a sequel, but I had every intention of taking a month or two between the two. I did not. I started this one earlier than I planned because I was so sad about finishing Lux that I had to. It’s been a lot more of a struggle to write, especially lately. I’ve got a lot going on in my life, and honestly, the subject matter is kind of a bummer sometimes. I’m only JUST coming out of Season 1 now in the fic. BUT, I still love writing it, and going back to my little world with Malbonte and Antigone. I just revealed my first major divergence from canon (and not-so-secret crossover), and I’m simultaneously nervous and excited. I’ve been planning this for months and I’m kind of freaking out that it’s already here. Anyway, my fics take a lot more of my time, so I tend to have a lot more feelings around them. I plot and plan constantly, readjust and rework plans as needed. Even still, I go with the flow while I write, and sometimes things happen that even I didn’t expect but they feel right, so it becomes part of the story. That’s my favourite part to be honest, when I write something and I’m like “damn, that wasn’t supposed to happen yet but it’s SO GOOD here”.

4. Raphael Portrait

I’m two characters (David and 🥰Cassiel🥰) away from finishing the ABH LI portrait series, but Raphael is the latest art piece I’ve completed, and definitely in my top 3 best pieces ever, I think (it could be #1, but I’m biased so clearly my best piece is Malbonte 😂). I’ve started experimenting more with open mouth smiles, which has been fun. I love Raphael’s smile, it’s just… ugh, so cute. I started working on pictures recently where I do the parts I don’t enjoy doing first, so that I don’t just kinda say “eh, it’s done enough”, aaaaand I’m pretty happy with that decision looking at this final piece. I’m really happy with how he turned out (especially his hair, haha and the light fixture in the background 😅). Unfortunately I’ve also been finding him a bit intimidating because I feel like he’s pushed the bar up. I haven’t even started the next portrait in the series (though I probably will the second I put this down because I’m suddenly feeling inspired) (update: I did in fact start it, but I’m still feeling intimidated by Raphael, so it didn’t get done by time of writing 😅).

5. Malbonte Portrait, CG Redraw

Last one! I wasn’t going to add this piece, but I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t because this is my practice CG! I have many, many, versions of this CG in my procreate folder, because I use it to practice, play with brushes, and teach myself new techniques. I keep them in a row at the bottom of my folder so I can see my progress, and refer back to things I like and don’t like about the ones I’ve done. This one is my favourite so far. I love Malbonte, so I’m always happy to complete Malbonte fan art. I think when practicing, especially if you’re going to do the same drawing over and over again like I do, it’s important to draw something that you enjoy doing. This CG is one of my favourites, and it’s a fantastic face-front portrait for practicing faces. I love it.

A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to read Lola's feature and celebrate her incredible work with us! And of course, thank you to all the amazing creators who submitted this month—we’re constantly in awe of your talent and passion.

Here’s to you, Lola—you paint stories we can’t stop reading and write pictures we can’t stop staring at. Congratulations, and thank you for sharing your gift with us! 🩷

[featherwurm]

If Tumblr ever actually goes tits up you can always find me at my personal portfolio website, www.featherwurmgraphics.com, where I link my other active social media accounts or wherever else I can be found.

And hey, while I'm here, setting up your own site on the web is always a great idea to have a home base that isn't beholden to advertisers, app stores, or having a successfully funded social-media server. I pay for my site through OneWebHosting but Neocities is free, if more bare-bones in what you can make. Basic HTML and CSS are very simple to use, and there's tons of tutorials out there.

Twenty years ago artists used to consider having their own website portfolio a critical part of their online presence, and while that's given way to a lot of social media posting without a 'home base', with the way advertising and legislation have gone - having your own space online seems still pretty important to me!

[sparklingself]

Hello, i just discovered you and I'm instantly hooked, honesty you're the state i wanna be. so i came here to ask where do you exactly study Neville's law? Is there websites or books?? cause i really wanna understand and get deep in his teachings

hi!!! welcome!!!

my favourite resources:

all of neville's works indexed - i've been just going through everything from the beginning since june from last year (and i'm only at "The Power of Awareness", so there's A LOT). if you're new here, though, it might be a bit difficult to understand his works going from chronological order (i remember when i first discovered neville, i could barely understand half of it lol), so i'd start from "Feeling is the Secret".

neville's books - this is where i like to read his books, the format is more comfortable for me compared to other sites.

he has a TON of lectures and for those i don't have a specific site, they're mostly available on the first page, but you can also find other formats and websites which might be more comfortable for you. you can pretty much find everything in pdf, audio, html and epub form.

the YouVersion Bible app - i like that it gives you daily verses and i love contemplating on them every day. this is definitely not necessary as neville showcases so many bible verses in his works, but i just like to use it as a daily reminder.

edward art subreddit - this!!! i really recommend, especially if you're a beginner. if neville becomes too dry for you or you feel distanced from the law, edward art's works will help TREMENDOUSLY. he's just spot on every time.

[commehter]

The current cover art for The Spirit Tale of Fire Lord Ozai.

The 1st attempt before going back to tweak colors (especially on the background gradient) and a second round of highlights.

Clean close up of the crown itself without the foreground flames obscuring it.

A closer-to-canon version of the crown, removing the scorching/scar and embroidery on the band.

I've used this image in a few places now (Royal Road, Spotify, Discord. Should probs add it to AO3 as SToFLO's main home. See below edit.) for SToFLO, but I haven't really talked about it. So, let's do that!

First, white fire is HARD. (Especially in ATLA's style, which doesn't seem to keep to a brightest/hottest flame near the source pattern, so much as a bright spots where they look good until the flame shape abruptly ends method.) It's ridiculously difficult to keep the flames from looking ghostly (adding some yellows and reds buried under the white so they can just barely be seen helped with that) to say nothing of trying to keep them bright without turning them into a blob of white. I kinda hated myself for making that a plot point while I was working on this. Worse, depending on monitor/phone settings, this image can be either blinding or a dingy gray. I eventually had to accept that I could either scrap them (which I clearly did not do) or make my peace with the situation.

I really like how the reflections on the gold came out on my second attempt. I waffled over doing them the first time because the canon images I found for reference (They were surprisingly hard to find. Everything is either an establishing shot too far out for good detail, or a close up on the face that cuts out the crown.) don't seem to put any special shine on the crown at all. Some feedback encouraged me to at least try it to help tie the foreground and subject into a cohesive image. I'm glad I listened! It looks so much better than the first version for that factor alone.

It's not literal to the fic (barring sudden inspiration -- Agni might enjoy tagging along as a tiny sphere cradled in the crown, just because?) but I effectively slapped Zuko's scar on the crown and amused myself thoroughly doing so. I probably should have gone back and tweaked the background colors again to up the contrast between the two elements. (Maybe if there's a third version I'll remember to alter that.)

The band looked very plain as it was, so I added some embroidery. Flames and waves seemed Fire Nation appropriate, so that's what I ended up adding.

The finished piece is by no means perfect, but overall I'm quite chuffed with how it turned out. I learned a good bit making it, that's for sure.

Edit: I tried adding the image to AO3 in a few different ways, but failed to find any I liked. Doubly so when taking into account the differences in display size/dimensions for desktop/mobile. Formatting across systems is a pain.

Rejected options included: in the summary (couldn't make it look nice with AO3's limited HTML -- no float, table was a clunky workaround at best), in the opening notes (crowded, edging toward bloated), and above the text of the first chapter (same crowding problem, but uglier for being below the horizontal break). Oh well. It was a nice thought.

Edit2: Might go back and try adding it to a later (but still early) chapter, if I can find a place it would make sense to insert it. It should be a complementary addition to the story, not a distraction, ya know?

Edit3: Stuck it at the beginning of chapter six. Not totally happy with the placement, but it's the best I've come up with. We'll see if I stick with it.

[goblin-social]

Well, hello word, @jv here.

This is the blog for throwing some news about Goblin, the fediverse-based tumblr clone I'm working on.

The idea is to develop an open-source platform that replicates some of the most peculiar intricacies of tumblr, that anyone can upload to a server, and become part of a federated network that works, in a way, as one. A tumblr-owned tumblr, if you will, that is much more resilient to financial woes than our current beloved hellsite.

None of the current platforms running on the fediverse offers an user experience close to tumblr. And more important: all of them lack the features that make the magic of tumblr happen: Reblogs, html posts, talking in the tags, etc.

So ... let's make one ourselves. The idea is to take one of the mastodon clones and, add the missing features and launch it to the world to use. For purely personal reasons (I know javascript/node much better than any other language) I have forked Firefish, which is itself a fork of Misskey.

The development is being done at https://github.com/johnHackworth/goblin, and yeah, Goblin is the working name of the project.

I have an instance running at http://goblin.band/ . It's closed for new users, and it's extremely unstable at the moment, barely anything more than a very badly configured firefish server, but if anyone wants to poke around let me know and I can allow you to register.

So what it's in the plans for a version 1.0 that I feel confident doing myself (though any help is also accepted, of course)?

[done] Add support for reblog chains

[done] Add support for html posts

[in progress] Change the default editor for a block editor that allows to add content without having to write HTML

Manage notifications (especially what happens when someone reblogs a reblog, which is not supported by Firefish)

Review all the UI to remove any firefish or misskey references, remove unused sections.

Add tumblr-style tag system

Review the UI and polish it a little bit

What's in the plans for that 1.0 that I have no idea how to do / I know I'm terrible doing it myself?

Find a way to package everything so it's easy to install on a server without having to manually install a bunch of dependences.

Actually make my goblin.band server ... a proper server. With HTTPS and all the fancy stuff, you know.

Figure out if this thing actually federates with other servers out of the box or if I have to do anything to make it happen.

Figure out what's best for file storage. Probably disallow uploading anything that's not images, but see what to do with uploaded files and such.

So, if anyone wants to help, as we devs say, Pull Requests accepted!

/cc @echo @analytik2

[thousandsun]

My favorite client (Sanji x fem reader)

Warning:None

Genre:Fluff mostly

Words: 1.7K

Author's note:Watch me realize I know how to code in HTML and I don't need a site 💀

You are a marine,a powerful woman who lives for justice. After your last fight, with a crew of powerful pirates,your subordinates have gotten severely injured. That made you spend a few sleepless nights thinking about what you should do. Your doctors are barely holding up and your supplies are running low.

Finally,one of your most trusted men came up with an idea. "Ma'am?" He asked approaching you.

"Yes?" You turn to look at him. It's currently 1 am and the only thing that seems to be on your mind is your current problem.

"I found this map that indicates there's a sea restaurant. It's actually close to us" He remarked showing you the map, pointing with his finger at the destination.

Your eyes widen as you realize there is hope for your subordinates. You keep your professionalism on the outside as you reply to him in a calm tone "Then we're heading there."

The few men that seem to be alright gather to change the course of the ship. You make your way into your room. The moment you close the door,you feel tears in eyes,running down your cheeks. There is hope. There really is. You thought to yourself. You grew quite attached to your subordinates in the past years. You didn't want to lose them. You know it's wrong. It's wrong to care about those people so much. It's the marine,you are all destined to die for the government. You must accept it.

You lay down on your bed looking at the ceiling thinking,and thinking about everything.

The time flies by faster than you expected and the morning comes.

Of course you couldn't sleep all night. You are up,on the deck, waiting to get to the sea restaurant.

"We are expected to reach the destination in the following minutes,

Y/N-sama" The navigator informs you. You nod as you begin to notice the Baratie. You are the first one to step on the sea restaurant.

You enter the restaurant as some stuff welcomes you. "We need food. I have a whole ship,full of people, wanting to eat something. We have all the money you want" You hand him a suitcase full of berries. "I'll be sitting at one of the tables. Please bring me some food as well"

The man in front of you gives you a confused look. You choose to ignore it since you feel your stomach arguing with you for food. You take a seat at a table patently waiting for someone else to notice you.

A blonde man with curly eyebrows, wearing a suit notices you. His eyes are sparkling with passion. He quickly gets closer to you,to take your order and admire you,of course. "Good morning, mademoiselle. May I take your order?" His smile is brighter than the sun. He can't help but analyze you.

"You were fast to notice me." You remark. Your instincts are telling you not to trust him. Being a marine is tough,of course you can't just talk to anyone. Everyone can be dangerous. At least that's what the marine told you."Yes,you may,sir. I would like a steak with a salad." You reply politely.

He quickly writes down your order. He looks at your uniform and realizes that you're an officer. A beautiful and dangerous woman? Exactly my type. "So what's such a beautiful lady doing here,in this humble restaurant?" The blonde asks. Such a beautiful officer,like her, should have a private cook.

"Don't you ask too many questions for a waiter?" You raise your eyebrow giving him a cold gaze. "Know your place, waiter. I am not here to chat."

"Oh,my apologies, mademoiselle!" He turns around leaving her at the table. The waiter can't help but slightly bite his lower lip. Whatever was that,it was damn hot.

"Why are you smiling like an idiot,Sanji?" Patty,a muscular cook,with oversized forearms asks him.

"There's this beautiful beautiful lady sitting at the table 5!" Sanji makes a little dance out of excitement.

"Whatever. Just focus on the food." Patty easily gets angry, however he maintains his calm this time."We have a lot of people to feed. A marine ship stopped by. Those people are hella hungry"

Sanji takes a few moments to think about what Patty said. He realizes you were there for help. He realizes you're probably stressed out since your subordinates are starving. I'll cheer her up. I will bring her the tastiest food! I will sure impress her this way. He begins cooking. He chooses fresh ingredients for you. He pre-heats the oven so he will finish the steak faster. The blonde spreads the pepper,the salt and the garlic powder on the meat. He carefully adds the oil to get just the right amount. As for the salad,he isn't going to make anything easy.

You wait at the table thinking about your waiter. Maybe you were a little harsh on him. After all he is helping feeding you and your subordinates.

You sigh thinking about a way of returning him the favor. He was nice and trying to help,yet you were too frustrated to give him a nice smile.

Sanji brings the food to your table, waking you up from your overthinking. "Here's the food" He smiles once again.

"Right..." You look at him a bit ashamed by the way you behaved "Look,I am sorry. I have been really stressed and... I know I shouldn't have been so hard on you" The blonde lights up a cigarette. "Don't worry, mademoiselle. I don't get easily mad."

You're surprised by his patience. He works in a restaurant after all,he must have experience with rude clients. "Even so,I am really sorry. If there's anything I can do to-" He leans closer to you placing his finger on your lips.

"Shh. I said don't worry." You feel your cheeks burning. You nod,not being able to talk.

Sanji moves away his finger from your lips. "If you really want to do something to atone your mistake,you can come here again." He smiles giving you a little wink. "I'd love to see you here more often"

You finally realized what's happening to him. He has a crush on you. Unfortunately,you have always been lonely. You had no time for relationships since you were in the marine. "Sure" You smile back. You take a look at the food he just brought you. The way he carefully arranged the food makes the plate look bigger and tastier. You take a bite from the steak. "Oh! Wow!" Your taste buds are begging you to eat more.

Sanji sees your reaction and his eyes quickly filled with joy. "I love to see people enjoy my cooking. Especially you"

Your cheeks are burning again. You struggle to respond without stuttering. "My name's Y/N" You say hoping he doesn't see your red cheeks. Maybe changing the subject will help?

"What a lovely name." He grabs your hand kissing it gently."My name is Sanji" Of course he noticed how red your cheeks are,yet he seems to wonder how shy you can get.

You feel your heart beating faster. "N-nice to meet you..." You stammer out the response. As much as you try to focus on the food the only thing in your mind seems to be the man in front of you.

Sanji chuckles seeing you like this. He leaves you to eat your meal as he has to feed your subordinates too.

Soon enough,you visit him again and again. You find yourself seeing him almost everyday. You find yourself enjoying when he talks to you so passionately about cooking. You find his silly compliments heartwarming.

One day,you enter the Baratie, taking a seat at the usual table. Sanji knows this is the time you usually show up so he was there waiting. He comes up to you, with his usual bright smile "Hello! What can I do for you,my favorite client?" He asks excited to see you.

"Actually... I am not looking for anything to eat" You could see his expression changing from excitement to confusion. "When is your shift over? To maybe...test out my new ship?"

Sanji is surprised to hear you ask something like this."In 1-2 hours I am free."

"That's perfect!"

"Is this a date?" He couldn't contain his curiosity on this matter. He wants it to be a date. He has been craving your touch.

"I guess so" You smile feeling shy again. You get up from your table. "See you soon,Sanji." You walk away leaving Sanji burst out of excitement in the middle of the Baratie.

"Get back to work!" Zeff yells from the kitchen.

After Sanji finishes his shift,he waits for you at the Baratie, knowing you'll probably come pick him up. You show up in a small ship,one you purchased recently mostly for undercover missions. You invite him on your expensive ship. There is only one navigator that was instructed to not bother any of you.

The sea seems calm and serene. You two have the pleasure to see the sky's different shades of pink,orange and yellow of the sunset. The sun looks like it's about to fall asleep, leaving the moon to do it's job.

"What a beautiful sunset" Sanji remarks gazing at the sky."Yet,it doesn't compare to your mesmerizing beauty" He grabs your waist, pulling you closer to him. You blush hearing his compliment. You gaze into his beautiful eyes noticing the love for you overflowing from his gaze. He has so much love for you that he can't keep it for himself,he needs you to feel it,to feel it all. "May I steal a kiss?" He can't stop thinking about your lips. You don't reply,yet the answer is in your eyes and he sees it. As he leans closer to you,his warm breath caresses your face. Finally,his lips are against yours.

The sun rays are gently hugging your figures, warming you and Sanji just like the passion running through your bodies. You brush your fingertips on his left cheek.

[herearedragons]

i think i fooled myself into believing i sent an ask before whoops can i get 5, 7, 17, 25, 31, 33, 39, 40, 43, 45, 50!!!

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

well honestly Selene is already what I would consider a popular oc because like. more than a handful of people know who she is and have said nice things about her and people have ??? drawn her ??? unprompted ??? which is WILD shoutout to the Selene fandom once again. so if I had an option to make one (1) oc popular on a larger scale it would probably be her because I already know she'd click with people (and also she's my favorite and I'd never get sick of talking about her/seeing other people talk about her).

but also as a secondary option, Aqun and/or Adina because I feel like they have some fun nuance to them and I'd be kind of curious to see different people's takes/opinions/interpretations of them

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

BDJDBSJSHSJSBSJDJDKS well?????? yes?????????

most of them are part of the story of their associated videogame, and then there's all the fic I'm writing. I do also have some non-fandom characters/settings rotating in my brain, but it's nothing concrete enough to talk about

17. Any OC OTPs?

no OCxOC ones, but a lot of OCxcanon ones tbh. if we narrow "OTP" down to One True Pairing as in "I can't envision them with anything else" then it's Selene and Edér (surprising no one) and Mae and the Devil of Caroc (which also shouldn't be surprising). if we interpret it as "favorite ship regardless of whether this PC has other ships", then I'm adding SolAqun to the list bc they've also been on the brain lately. the holy trinity of Doomed Yaoi, Undoomed Yuri and Impending Doom Het Ship

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

funnily enough probably Aqun. we look nothing alike but Aqun🤝me (multicultural, multilingual, single child, STEM, Logic and Rationality as a coping mechanism, inclined towards Making Things, burning hatred of Social Overcomplication)

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Adina would 1000% be on here and her blog would be red-themed with yellow/blue/green accents, have a custom HTML theme she edited herself with artwork BY her, and it would be just all of her interests in one big pile with a barely functioning tagging system. she posts her vitaar designs a lot and her pfp is Her Actual Face with her favorite vitaar design up to date. she uses all caps/keysmashes a lot and vibes perfectly with tumblr's more absurdist kind of humor. Funny Nonsense comes to her effortlessly

33. Your shyest OC?

LORENZO. he's trying so hard to figure out how to People and having the physique of a Death Omen + an evil voice in his head is not helping. also he was a slave for the first 24-ish years of his life and old habits of Be Quiet Be Helpful Don't Speak Unless Spoken To die hard

39. Introduce any character you want

making you look at: the guy from the previous question. he's a runaway slave. he's a Ghost Bard. he was briefly possessed by the god of death and killed everyone in his master's estate with a song. he can sing ghosts into existence. he's haunted by his evil past life. he doesn't speak Aedyran (Eoran English) that well yet. HE'S SHY.

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

@curiouslavellan I have to shout you out again because brainstorming Selene and Helaine plotlines in real time in DMs has been one of this year's highlights for sure. the people don't even know about the soul merging in POE1 and the Selene Is Dead drama in POE2. they don't even know about the werewolf au (well. one other person knows about the werewolf au)

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

I'm going to be real, my OC creation process IS just like. *spins wheel* so what's the source of YOUR deep set feeling of alienation

45. A character you no longer use?

shoutout to this girl who is an old creepypasta OC of mine. I still care her

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

subjecting you to the mental image of Aqun and Eldritch Wolf Solas chilling together in some nice scenic place. they never got to do that but I think they should have