#i put a filter on it because the colors looked really bad without it

[pristine-rose]

✧ LILAC FUMES

⊹ characters : albedo, ningguang, kaveh, la signora

⊹ synopsis : bad habits ( in which only you can see )

⊹ warnings : all sfw :] , smoking ( ningguang )

⊹ female reader, not proofread, sry for writing albedo again

minors can interact, but do not follow. this is just more sfw to pass the time! will hopefully return to n.sfw soon

⊹ ALBEDO

self-doubt

He doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

Brush strokes race rapidly across the canvas, but somehow even quicker than normal. He used more colors than he usually does; He puts in more care than he usually does, too. He paints you so beautifully. Perhaps even a little too perfect, as well. But that’s the way he sees you—no flaws, but in a way that ms so perfectly human, that you’re practically perfectly imperfect. And Archons, he loves that about you.

Is he allowed to say that? Allowed to even think it? Loving you? This is why he paints you—because he can’t show these feelings any other way. And he hates this about himself. Why can’t he kiss you the way other couples do? Why can’t he hug you without being so tense? Why, why, why did he have to be created without a heart?

You deserved someone more human than him, he feared. Someone who would pour his heart out to you so emotionally correct, and not towards a painting like he is doing now.

“Albedo…” He felt his body jump in horrific surprise. “This is…”

Ah. He forgot to lock his studio door. He was so stupid—he could never think logically when it came to you. And now you were here, seeing something he didn’t want you to see. “Albedo,” you called again with your hand over your mouth, “you’re so kind���”

Kind? He could almost scoff You were calling him kind? He was a disgrace here, he could not even understand the basics of love in a way to show it to you physically or verbally; And here you were, staring at him like he was the most thoughtful of lovers. He didn’t know how to show love. In fact, he didn’t even know what he was doing.

And yet, when you ran up to hug him so tightly, he thought, perhaps you knew him better than he knew himself.

☁️ —

⊹ NINGGUANG

smoking

Smoke-lined silk screen, glass room, bed frame, light post.

A huff, clouds filtered between red lips.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough of that?”

When she looked up at you, her pearly whites were playing with the wooden tip between her lips, toying with it as if it were like secondary skin. She looked unbothered—genuinely confused, even—as to what exactly you were asking of her in the first place.

“Enough of what?”

You gave no verbal response as your eyes glanced down at her mouth for just a second. Oh. “My pipe?”

“Your smoking problem,” you told; only to, of course, garner a response along the lines of ‘I don’t have a problem’. You could only scoff, really, and the Tianqian wasn’t sure if she liked that. To be almost belittled and scolded like a child ( which, in truth, was not happening at all—she just conditioned herself to see such a false reality ) was not a setting that Ningguang took kindly to. And if you were any other subordinate telling her what to do, you’d be a dartboard by now.

She blew out slowly. Secondhand smoke hit the tip of your nose and your brow raised. “You’re being dramatic,” she rolled her eyes. “Come. Grow up, and give me a—”

“I will not be kissing you with your smoker’s breath.”

She almost cracked the wooden pipe with the clench of her hand from annoyance—but that would be giving into you, wouldn’t it? She almost didn’t like the winning smile that crossed your lips. What she didn’t like even more, however, was being put into place right in front of you.

☁️ —

⊹ KAVEH

overworking, worrying

“Love you so m— Oh, wait! Do you think you can make another coffee for—?”

His words died into mumbles when he saw the hesitant look you gave him. “Coffee?” you questioned, leaning at the doorframe in a way he didn’t like. A lean like that meant you’d be questioning him. He got nervous when you did that. “At this hour?”

His fingers fiddled with his pen. “I have this big project to hammer out tonight, I fear…”

You only sighed. So simple, yet he could not take his eyes off of you. They were widened with a stir of caffeine and sleep deprivation both simultaneously—the bags under his eyes only causing even more concern. But he stared at you out of habit, for a large part of it was fear and insecurity. His eyes were always, always widened, searching for any trace of disappointment in your gaze. He didn’t like it when you were concerned over him; Not because of annoyance, no.

But over worry you would leave him for his self-sabotaging habits.

“Sorry,” he muttered when you pushed yourself off the doorframe, beginning to make your way towards his desk. “This project is really important to me.”

“You said that all your projects are important to you,” you remarked. The way you tiredly slouched yourself over his back and rested your chin on his shoulder made him only feel worse. “And I can see that,” you continued, “they are your life’s work.”

Kaveh stayed quiet. He stared down at his work-in-progress blueprint, trying his best to look like he was working. And truly, he was working fine just a moment ago—But how could he continue that focus now, when you’re making him self-conscious? He didn’t deserve such concern. You should’ve just left him by now.

“You’re shaking.” He didn’t notice that until you placed your hand on top of his, which was gripping his pen so tightly. “You can continue your masterpiece when you have enough sleep, okay?” you muttered as you kissed his temple. He sighed, melting in his seat. Perhaps he could spare to continue in the morning.

☁️ —

⊹ LA SIGNORA

secret keeping, overthinking

“Hey. Hey, look at me.”

Her lips landed under your own once she felt the pull of your fingers on her chin. She was seated, feeling your presence loom over her like a sense of warm security that was so reachable in this palace of ice. And yet it left her breathless—she, who was never surprised by anything. She, who was so cautious and careful about who she adored.

“Was there something you needed?” she whispered, feeling small as her breath brushed your lips.

“You were heating up,” you said with such concern, “worryingly so.” Her head slightly tilted back with a widened eye, looking up when the back of your hand gently pressed against her forehead. She could almost smile—you cared so much, and it almost made her hopelessly romantic again. “Are you developing a fever, Signora?”

Her brows furrowed together. No, of course she wasn’t.

“Perhaps I am.”

But she couldn’t tell you that. She couldn’t tell you of the scorching, liquid fire that coarse through her veins. She could not explain the self sacrifice she committed centuries ago, or how she was prepared to die.

“Do you mind walking with me to my room?”

Because why would she tell you, when you would probably become scared of her? You—who was just like everybody else—thought she was perfect and ruthless. But also you, who she could not afford to see the disgusted face of.

For now, you only smiled; And she planned to keep it that way.

[sunny44]

A Day of Reflection and Renewed Bonds

(Ruin it pt.4)

Pairing: Max Verstappen, journalist!reader

Warnings: none I guess.

Summary: You and max were always teasing each other and over the years it turned into a huge sexual tension, until the fights of all the years and the accumulated lust turned into one long night of great sex.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

The next morning, the warm sunlight filtered through the curtains, gently waking me up from my slumber. As I opened my eyes, I found myself still cocooned in Max's arms. His peaceful expression made my heart flutter, but the memories of the previous night quickly rushed back, reminding me of the conversation we needed to have.

I carefully extricated myself from Max's embrace and went to freshen up in the bathroom. As I splashed water on my face, I couldn't help but feel a mixture of excitement and trepidation about the upcoming talk.

When I returned to the room, Max was already awake, sitting on the bed and scrolling through his phone. He looked up as I approached.

“Morning. Sleep well?”

“Yes I did, thanks.” He smiled. “I don’t want to ruin the day but I think we need to talk.”

Max put his phone aside and gave me his full attention.

“I know. I'm ready to listen.”

Taking a deep breath, I began to speak, trying to find the right words to express my feelings and concerns.

“Max, what happened last night was... unexpected. I want you to know that I really like you and I would be stupid if I didn’t but we can't just ignore everything that's happened between us in the past. We need to address the complicated situation we're in.”

“I understand, and you're right. We can't sweep things under the rug. I know I hurt you before and I regret that deeply. But I want to make things right now.” He gets up. “I was stupid to not realize that I liked you this hole time and I want to do this with you if that’s what you also want.”

“It's not just about what happened in the past because I know I’ve hurt you too with my harsh words and cold treatment. It's also about our careers, our lives, and how they intertwine. It's the fact that us being in the public eye specially you and how that can affect our relationship in a lot of ways.” He nodded. “I’m not saying I don’t want this because I do, it’s just that I’ve seen you relationship with Kelly and how they hated her just for the fact the she was your girlfriend and I really don’t want this to myself. I don’t want people saying bad things about me and about you too.”

“I know it won't be easy and I know people can be really mean and I don’t particularly care what people think about me but I don’t want you getting hate because of me.” He puts a part of my hair behind my ear. “I don’t care about anything but you right now and I'm willing to face those challenges with you. I want to be by your side, no matter what it takes.”

“You know what? Let’s enjoy our first va nation together without thinking about those problems. We like each other and this is very clear for both of us I guess.” He smiled. “We both want this and we’re both willing to face our fears so let’s get ready for the day and after this trip we can decide what we are after.”

“Well I think it’s a very good idea and I agree with you.”

“For now let's enjoy our time in Mykonos, without any expectations or pressures. We have our friends here and the best we can do to enjoy our summer break is relax and when we go back to our normal we figure it out.”

Max nodded, his eyes filled with understanding and determination. We spent the rest of the day exploring Mykonos together, trying to put our conversation aside and simply enjoy each other's company as friends or whatever we are.

As the sun began to set, we found ourselves sitting on the beach, watching the colors of the sky change, I was sitting in between his legs and he was hugging me. The moment felt peaceful, and I realized that despite the complexities of our situation, I was grateful for this time we spent together.

“Thank you for being honest with me today and for sharing your fears with me, this will make me understand how you feel and how can u deal with it.”

“And thank you for understanding and for being patient with me.”

“Always.” He kissed my forehead and I smiled.

As the evening turned to night, we returned to our hotel room. We didn't talk about our conversation anymore; instead, we laughed, shared stories, and made new memories together.

As I lay in bed that night, I couldn't help but feel hopeful. Although the path ahead was uncertain, I knew that Max's presence in my life was something special, and I was willing to explore it further, step by step. In Mykonos, surrounded by the beauty of Greece and the warmth of friendship, I realized that sometimes, the most profound connections are worth taking a chance on, even if it means navigating uncharted waters.

Bonus scene!

Yourusername stories

“Lovely summer brake in Mykonos”

Maxverstappen stories

“Mykonos is amazing at this time of the year”

Tag list: @44-ilton @babyvinnie @hockey-racing-fubol @xjval @xcinnamongirl @dudenhaaa27 @evans-dejong @chilwellspulisic @rossylightwood @rm25711 @imperfect-paragon @formula1mount @flwr-stella @sarahedwards16 @stylesxmunson

[itsmeyaspider]

A midnight encounter with the devil~

Hector Doyle x female reader

It's a rainy night in Tokyo, the wind is blowing harshly, and the only thing that shines brightly are the lights of the old, flickering lanterns that illuminate the streets. Very few people would even consider about going out in such a bad weather, especially at such an hour, but for the young (h/c) haired woman, there was no other option.

She once again had to work late into the night, even if she didn't like it, she had no other choice but to work in the late shift. After all, she gets paid for it and she definitely couldn't afford to make a fuss about it. A small sigh escapes her lips as she tries to fight against the wind. Her hair is flying wildly around, so that she could barley see the streets and her clothes are already soaked. God, she hates this weather. She feels her clothes sticking to her already cold body. It really couldn't get any worse, all she wants to do is to come home, put on some dry and comfortable clothes and snuggle up in her bed. Was that too much to ask for?

She moves towards the sidewalk, where she tries to cross the streets, when suddenly something catches her (e/c) colored eyes. No, it's not something, it's someone. Who is crazy as she is to go out at this hour? Maybe it is just a homeless person trying to find some shelter. She didn't really want to stare, after all it wasn't proper, but there is something strange about this person. On a closer inspection, she realizes that it is a man. He is standing there under a lantern without moving.

What the hell, she thinks to herself as she notices the man moving towards her. Her instinct screams at her to run, run as fast her legs could bring her, her heart begins to pound and her legs start to tremble. Anyone with a survival instinct would be gone now, but she again doesn't move. She just can't, something is stopping her. Is it fear?

The man comes closer and closer as he suddenly stands in front of her. He is tall, much taller than her. His body looks muscular, even though it is hidden under a black turtleneck sweater with black jogging pants. Now she also notices his face, which contains feminine features. But the thing she notices most are is daring red eyes. These eyes shine with superior.

She knows him, she is very sure of that, but where the hell does she know him from? She can't remember it. After all, she is standing opposite a man who doesn't exactly look harmless. Damn it, if only she had run away. She pulls herself together as she speaks up with all her last strength. Her voice sounds anxious. "C-Can I help you?" She stutters out when the man just grins. He is clearly enjoying it how helpless she is.

Now he speaks up too, his voice sounds arrogant. "No, you can't help me archive my goal." The woman thinks she could hear a Scottish accent out. "And don't worry, I won't kill you." For a moment it is quiet, but for (Y/n) it feels like long, torturing minutes. Her thoughts skip over and over again as her entire body shakes. Did he just said kill? How the hell did she get into this?!

And then it happens, it's like an accident, she remembers who he is. It's Hector Doyle, the man who survived his death sentence and escaped from prison yesterday. It was all over the news and even she couldn't avoid it. But why did he came to Japan? It didn't made sense.

The grin from the death mate widened as he realized how her gaze become more fearful. "I see you know who I am." He grabs a cigarette and a lighter from his pocket and puts the filter into his mouth. Apparently, the rain didn't bother him much because he still manages to somehow overpower it and light up his cigarette. The woman suddenly smells the nicotine in her face, which makes her cough.

"You should be more careful, you never know who you meet in the streets" his voice doesn't sound as arrogant as before, did he.... pity her? No, that couldn't be, someone like him would never feel something like that.

Suddenly, loud police siren can be heard, which rang out all the empty streets of Tokyo. (Y/n) used the moment to turn around for a short minute of time, to see where the sounds come from. As she turns back to Hector, he was no longer there, he disappeared without making a sound and any clue where he could go.

Huh? Where the hell is he? She thinks to herself. It didn't feel real, more like fiction. Who could ever tell anyone that he met an assassin? But deep inside, she is really grateful that she is alive, if he wanted, he could have killed her with ease, but he didn't, and this made her glad.

After a few minutes of standing still, she starts to go home again. Her body is still shaking, due to all the adrenaline she had released. But she also knows that she couldn't tell anyone about this strange encounter, because who would ever believe her?

[with-love-from-hell]

I am begging you all to stop supporting AI. Not the AI chat bots, not Art, Not the song covers on youtube, not the filters, not writing. NONE OF IT. I am already starting to see advertisements using AI art in their marketing. This shit takes jobs and income away from artists, you fucks.

Look at this ad and tell me an artist or photographer could have done it better.

The toes are fucking backwards. They're all big toes. The right foot is smaller than the left and the skin on the leg is a different color. The socks look fucked up. All of this is bad.

And what's worse is that the people in marketing are having their livelihoods threatened because of this shit. Freelance artists are already struggling with getting commissions, and are being replaced by a shit generated image where the character you like has 6 fucking fingers on each hands because it doesn't cost anything. Voice actors are losing out on gigs because people can use their voice to say or sing *whatever they want* without their consent. Photographers and photo editors are struggling with getting people to hire them to restore and fix photos, because anyone on tiktok can just slap an AI filter over it and make it visibly worse, but now I look like I'm in star wars, right? Writers are struggling to bid for columns or get commissions because people would rather use a text generator to do the work for them easily and faster. And for why?! It's hurting people! It's stealing from people who are already struggling! People arent griping for no reason- it's purpose is to make artists obsolete so they wont have to be paid. It's happening in real time. This isn't a damn joke. STOP USING IT

And even if it wasn't hurting people now, it has the potential to! just think of the consequences of being able to generate images of people at any place at any time, or being able to make someone say -anything- at all, and claim it as real. This is horrifying, and people decide to ignore posts like this because haha they can make themself look like a barbie doll! Or put their fav in a situation! or personalize a song from their fav! Are we really so impatient and greedy for content that we're willing to destroy the livelihoods of the people who also enjoy our fav content and are generous enough to make it come to life because there's a free way to get very poor quality content pumped so rapidly that it dulls our appreciation for the content itself?!

[le-panda-chocovore]

Can I ask from this ask game : https://www.tumblr.com/toomanyfandomsthings/749729499738996736/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-tell-you?source=share

No. 2, 10, 11, 12, 15 for SuguSato, BokuAka, AziraCrow, and Karushuu.....Thanks 🌻

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

2. What do their love letters look like ?

SuguSato : Suguru is chill and poetic, he writes normally and puts some cute sentences here and there. He also has to remind his boyfriend to not make a mess while he's away. He signs it with "Love, Suguru" and his writing is super neat. Satoru rambles too much and writes completely irrelevant things and probably signs with "XOXO" and a ridiculously cute thing like "your babe" or "the person you love the most", he changes often. His love confessions are overwhelming because he just says what he's thinking without filter and he really loves Suguru very very much.

BokuAka : Bokuto doesn't know how to write a love letter. He talks about his day and describes everything that reminded him of Akaashi. He also compares Akaashi to random things like a dishwasher or a curtain (it makes sense in his brain, but only his). Akaashi is confused but finds that cute anyway. Akaashi is a bit more poetic, he writes pretty things and says I love you and I hope you're doing fine.

AziraCrow : Aziraphale's love letters are 10 pages long and full of metaphors and poems and comparisons and adoration. He sometimes sends an entire book or a collection of texts with his letter, saying "this represents how I feel about you" Crowley's love letters are 1000 words max but he's very clear about his feelings. It's easier for him to write down things than tell them face-to-face. Sometimes he just writes "Thinking of you. I miss you. Take care." and that's all. Aziraphale loves it.

Karushuu : Gakushuu writes like a general sending battle directives during a war, he signs it with "do not die until my return" or something like that. Karma's letters are... messy. Full of hearts and emojis and petnames (mostly to make fun of Shuu), he's purposely exaggerating to embarrass his boyfriend, he shares random anecdotes then says "are you missing me ? 😔❤". One time he put glitter in the envelope and Gakushuu still holds a grudge against him.

10. What TV shows do they watch together, and which ones do they hide from the other ?

SuguSato : Satoru made Suguru watch Digimon. Suguru secretly likes Barbieverse while Satoru pretends to not like Beauty & Fashion TV shows.

BokuAka : They watch Avatar: The Last Airbender and Percy Jackson & the Olympians together. I don't think they particularly hide anything from each other but perhaps Akaashi enjoys some chill shows on his own.

AziraCrow : Aziraphale watches BBC Sherlock when Crowley's not here, and Crowley watches house decoration or prank shows. When they're together they watch Cooking Shows.

Karushuu : They watch those Quiz Games and compete with each other on their couch, they try to find the answer before the participants. Alone, Gakushuu watches documentaries, and Karma watches telenovelas or reality shows to laugh at dumb people on TV.

11. What was their first impression of each other ?

SuguSato : Satoru -> "Bangs. Earrings. Baggy. Is he... a delinquent ?!" | Suguru -> "Pretty... Is this his natural hair color ? How can he be so pretty."

BokuAka : Bokuto -> "I wanna play with him I wanna play with him I wanna play volleyball!!" | Akaashi -> "Bokuto-sempai... I can't believe I'm going to play with him. He seems cool, I don't want to make a bad impression."

AziraCrow : Aziraphale -> "What are they doing.... Are they talking to me . . ?" *then after Crowley lighted up the stars* "Oh ! Oh that's really amazing and wonderful, they're a genius !" | [angel] Crowley -> "Nice lad" (was too focused on the nebulae to think anything about Azi)

*meeting in Eden Garden* Aziraphale -> "Oh that's- wait have they always been so beautiful ? Wait no I'm not supposed to think of that !" | [demon] Crowley -> "Oh wow they aren't a simple obedient angel at all, they're so daring and unpredictable ! Amazing."

Karushuu : Gakushuu -> "He looks so arrogant, but he never going to reach my level, I won't need to worry about him." | Karma -> "Fucking Nerd, he seems so annoying, I can't want to steal his first place and see his crying face."

12. What do they do for their anniversary ?

SuguSato : Vacations on the beach and long talk about how much they love each other.

BokuAka : Chilling day, staying at home to watch a movie and eat pancakes, perhaps a breakfast in bed.

AziraCrow : Dinner at Ritz and a long night walk under the stars.

Karushuu : They change for every birthday, they have a competition for the one who gives the greatest gift. Gakushuu won by proposing to Karma when they were 24. (Gifts included : Shuu stealing his father's credit card and walking through the town with his boyfriend, buying him everything he wants ; a weekend trip to a hot spring ; a serenade at 5am (Gakushuu almost killed his boyfriend) ; and other things.)

15. What would they change about each other ?

SuguSato : Canonically ? Nothing, they would change themselves for the other. In the AU where everything is fine ? Suguru would like Satoru to be more considerate toward others and Satoru would like Suguru to take better care of himself.

BokuAka : They're married, what is there to change about them ?

AziraCrow : Nothing. They would pretend to but actually, they wouldn't change a thing. (they would just like it if the other recognized being actually nice/a bastard out loud). Okay I changed my mind. They would make the other stop pretending to not be who they really are.

Karushuu : Karma wishes Gakushuu would break more rules and Gakushuu would like Karma to break way less.

_______________________________________

YAY IT'S OVER AND I DIDN'T TAKE 3 WEEKS TO POST IT THIS TIME !! Be proud of me :3

I'm mostly talking about High School BokuAka here, not the post-timeskip where they're both adults.

Next time send me just 1 ship at time because I'm losing myself trying to figure out how to do everyone LMAO

[rathologic]

Hi! I was watching your stream the other day (didn't have a Twitch account so I didn't talk about it at the time) but your Pride Polyhedron has me captivated and hasn't left my mind since... Is there any possibility of uploading her online? Thanks for your time!

aw thankyou! I have a couple variants of this, but it's only one texture affecting a single part of the Polyhedron and all versions aren't really up to my quality standards, so I've never published it as a formal mod & don't plan to until maybe next pride month...

Fortunately now that we know that P1 can load unconverted .png files it's a lot easier to distribute small texture mods. I've uploaded three versions of Gay Polyhedron here:

Badcore this was my answer to the question "what if I made gay polyhedron... but bad", using GIMP builtin image filters on image #2. it's the version I used in the last stream because I forgot to change it and it's bad!

Normal the original I've carried around since my first days of playing patho on a borrowed macbook :-) each facet of the polyhedron is a different color. it has a couple spots where the colors don't line up perfectly with the angles, which I've just never gotten around to fixing due 2 working on larger and cooler projects

Goodcore this was a failed attempt at making the gay polyhedron look bad it looks GOOD it's very pretty it's the version I have installed in my copy of PCHD. there are a couple transparent pixels that appear black in-game but that's not even a problem honestly

To install any of these, save an image, put it in your (Pathologic)\data\Textures folder, and rename the file to mgg_razv_011_DXT1.tex without converting it at all (you'll likely need to use Command Prompt's "rename", or Bash's "mv", etc, to change the extension). then launching the game should cause the new tex to appear 👍

[x0401x]

Hi there! I wanted to ask, what were your impressions/thoughts of Tsurune season 2 episode 1 so far? And the colors symbolism in the opening song with the ribbons? Just curious about your thoughts, thanks and have a great day!! :D

BRUH. I LOVED IT??? FUCK YEAH, THAT WAS AMAZING.

I really wonder how all those annoying Anons who filled my inbox with garbage back in 2019 are feeling right now, because just in this one episode, KyoAni has fixed literally every defect that I had pointed out in S1. The amount of improvement is just surreal.

First of all, the storytelling this season. The freaking storytelling. You can tell the difference between works that a studio actually places their bets on and the ones they don’t by the amount of effort that the animation team puts into the flow of each episode. S1 was an ungodly mix of slow pace that suddenly went too fast at punctual moments without any warning, bad humor, boring tone, missing information, inconsistencies and shit that the animators pulled out of their asses to cover up plot holes. This one, though? Smooth as a feather. Full of well-thought details. Scenes and events connecting properly with one another. Flashbacks very nicely timed. It was entirely an anime-original episode, 90% non-canon content, yet there’s canon info at every single second. I love the little things, such as the way that we’re led to think that the MVP of the sports event is going to be Rika and the show makes use of every possible hint that it’s going to be her, until the very last second, where it turns out that it’s Ryouhei. Awesome screenplay right there. This episode was meticulously planned and it shows.

The changes in visual. The upgrade in the artstyle is the most easily noticeable thing about the animation of this season, but the quality is a million times better too. The characters also have a lot more facial expression now. I once talked about Morimoto Chinatsu’s incredible talent for character design and the way that she goes as far as giving not just different hair and eyes, but also different eyelashes, eyebrows, ears, noses, mouths, chins, jawlines and even fucking wrists to every single character that she drew for the novel. And seeing S1 doing the opposite and giving every character a base face was just... no. So now that there’s been a turnaround and the characters externally show what they’re feeling and thinking, following their journey is a whole new experience. That moment when the team stares at Minato after he answers Masaki’s question is pure character study right there. And it’s probably the most blatant example of this season’s improvement, given that we never had this in the previous one. I also love how the expressions are not just there, they’re on-point. On par with what the novel tells us about them. My biggest peeve with S1 was that I’d look at these kids and a voice at the back of my head would go “who the fuck are you people”. Those weren’t the characters I knew. They didn’t look like them and didn’t act like them. But now I recognize them. These are the kids I read about. They finally feel like themselves.

The symbolism of the series. By God, so many treats in this episode in that regard. The yesterday-today-tomorrow blossom splashed with watercolor in the team’s theme colors. The intimist approach of the shots. The way that Minato and Shuu’s positions oppose each other on-screen. The lighting, the colors, the smear filter… literally everything is more vivid and lively. One of the things I recall commenting about S1 is that it didn’t feel like a KyoAni anime because KyoAni’s works are very immersion-based. You can feel yourself being inside that world, together with the characters. But I couldn’t feel that from Tsurune’s first season at all. With this one, I was able to dive head-first into it. It was absolutely magical. I also love that the leaves that fly out of the targets whenever the characters hit now don’t look so obviously like CGI.

Personality traits. They’re fucking everywhere. Like I said, this was entirely an anime-original episode, yet there’s canon info at every single second. Even better: information that clearly contradicts S1 but that matches the novel. Seiya being a smartass little shit full of wit instead of a Minato-obsessed yandere. Kaito being a team-driven hardworker instead of an obnoxious asshole who wants nothing but victory. Ryouhei actually acting upon his lack of experience in archery to catch up to everyone. Nanao being charismatic and having screen-time of his own instead of being pushed to the background while all his personality and lines are used on Seiya. Minato expressing his thoughts and feelings instead of just being an emotionless doormat who never really does anything. We learned more about the characters in just these 20 minutes than the entirety of the first season. It feels like KyoAni has finally taken a step back to look at the material they had in their hands and truly took in what the novel was about and what each character had going on for them. Even the girls’ team was fleshed out in this one, which was honestly a great surprise. I think we’ve gotten from this episode all the little things we didn’t get from S1, such as the way Noa and Yuuna are fangirls of Rika. The way Nanao shines better as support than as main even though he’s so conspicuous. The fact that Kaito is good at soccer and Seiya loves soccer tactics. The way Ryouhei, who doesn’t know much about archery, is used as the eyes of the viewers, and how unpretentiously the lessons he is taught are presented to us as something that we should also keep in mind (for example, that the target is the archer and the archer is the target, and when you’re at the stage of the draw, you’re aiming at your very own self). And the way that Minato is something in this season. We finally see the inner machinations of his mind here aside from his struggles with target panic.

Lastly (and what I consider to be most important) is that the roles of each character and their relationships with one another seem to be in tune with the novel now. Well, okay, almost. Seiya is still being weird around Masaki, but I guess that’s because it’d be too sudden if Seiya started acting the way he acts in canon (y’know, like a normal fucking person). However, the difference is that the narrative is clearly pushing towards Masaki instead of Seiya now, as it should be. Kaito, Nanao and Ryouhei, who used to be just in the background most of the time in S1 are now set perfectly into their own functions and you can tell that they do exist for reasons other than just fill up the team positions. Nanao also seems to be his own person now instead of living through Kaito. Seiya is being shown looking after the whole club, as the competent club president that he is, instead of just Minato. Minato now has proper reactions to everything and doesn’t just completely ignore when Seiya is being a little shit. Masaki is now acting like a true mentor and already in the first episode we have him giving more advice to the boys than the entirety of the first season. But more than anything else, what caught my attention was Shuu. S1 did him really dirty by giving him scary jealous rival vibes and not expanding at all on his relationship with Minato. As I said before, they’re not your usual sports anime rival duo. They really respect and admire each other, are jealous of each other to some extent, but they’re friends first and foremost. They’re also opposites of one another in every way. We didn’t get any of this in S1, and now we’re getting literally all of it at once. What a fucking blessing.

Honestly, the only things I’m concerned about in this season are 1) Kaito and Seiya’s relationship. It’s probably too late to mend it now and make it the way it is in canon, and it also seems the animators are just not interested in doing that, which kinda hurts, but I guess we can’t have it all. And 2) Minato and Masaki’s relationship. I’m pretty sure that we’re not gonna get the same amount of content for them as there is in the novel, and in the off-chance that we do, it’s just not gonna have the same approach or the same quality. Minato and Masaki are mirrors of each other but the anime vehemently refuses to acknowledge this for some reason. They try to treat Masaki as a completely separate entity that has absolutely nothing in common with Minato despite all of the mystic, supernatural and fate-oriented themes that their connection is centered around and the fact that they’ve gone through very similar experiences and hardships in doing archery. But I’d rather believe that it’s a little too early to make a judgement and wait. Truth remains that the characters and their relationships in the anime will never be nearly as good as they are in the original work no matter how hard they try, so I’m just gonna take what I can get.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on this episode. It was one of the very rare instances where I completely approve of anime-original content in an adaptation.

[ultranos]

Hi! Would you say ao3 writers shouldn't worry about the mining of the website? I saw your tags and I'm curious :)

So, broadly-speaking, what it sounds like the people handling this AI are trying to do is use AO3 as a data source to feed into the AI to "train" it. I understand the alarm from writers, because it's one thing to use a script to generally scrape the web to generate a database for machine learning, and it's another to specifically target fanworks, especially coming from a person with as...colorful a track record.

And using a script to just scrape the web for training is a fairly standard method, as I understand, although one thing you quickly learn is the adage "garbage in = garbage out" holds very, very true. You have to curate the data somehow. (See also: the number of times someone has let an AI bot interact with people on forums freely and then been shocked to discover the AI has turned into a Nazi.)

So think about how you navigate AO3. Think about how you try to find fics you want, how the tags sometimes do and don't work for you, how exasperated you can get as you sift through stuff you don't want to read until you get really good at understanding the tags and filters.

Now realize the AI probably isn't doing that. The AI has no idea how tags work at all. It's probably reading everything.

Based solely on the dead-simple Markov chain nonsensical language processing it can do from that dataset? Oh man, that's hilarious.

But okay, I'm going to give the engineers here a lot more credit. They're not just Markov-chaining and actually trying to do legit natural language processing (NLP). The problem: for NLP, document generation where the AI is writing documents that make sense? That's considered an AI-complete problem and any natural language understanding application/problem falls under one of the great unsolved problems in computer science. Our current technology today cannot do it, since it basically requires creating an AI that is actually capable of passing the Turing Test.

So the creators of this AI are clearly trying to solve this problem, which in and of itself is noble and I honestly don't think nearly as many people would be alarmed if it were an academic institution doing it. And it's not like other corporations are not doing it (there's a joke for over a decade that Google's been attempting to train an AI on search results which is probably less of a joke in reality). But the fact is that it's tied to Musk, which is alarming because of his recent actions with Twitter.

But also hilarious because this man has a track record of having absolutely no concept of how difficult actual technical problems are. Twitter is just the most recent one to blow up in his face. But he's also promising brain implants in 6 months, and I would put money down on guessing that he hasn't solved the seemingly-simple-but-actually-complex problem of actually implanting them into the brain. (I looked into this 10 years ago in a job. You basically have to slide hundreds of tiny knives into a bowl of jello without damaging the jello. On a time limit, so you can't just go very very slow. Theoretically doing it on a mouse model was terrifying enough.) This is also a man who thought he was going to create and manufacture a miniature rescue submarine for cave diving and ship it halfway around the world in under two weeks.

This man is going to get an AI that will write terrible nonsense that makes My Immortal look like Shakespeare and Tolstoy. And it will be incredibly bad porn to boot.

[cidthesquid]

Best If Used By.... |Fashion Dreamer #1

[TrendSetters]              [First Post]              [Next Post] Hello all! I spent a few days playing Fashion Dreamer, and have been having a blast! It's not 'Style Savvy', but it ever meant to be! I have some concerns.. But first... Outfit(s) of the day! (Fashion Dreamer ID: a8xv8rRA3A)

Nothing Fancy yet, Here's my second muse: (WIP)

Alright, so my thoughts on the game as a whole. (not a review) It's super fun..if you know what you're getting into. It's closer to most modern 'Dress-UP' apps than classic Style Savvy. But that's really what I was looking for! You can think of it as Shining Niki, Covet Fashion, etc, But with no microtransactions, and a much heavier emphasis on community! The game DOES NOT require a paid switch online subscription, It ABSOLUTELY requires wifi to get the full experience. All the events are online-only, you can see and dress up other players characters (muses) based on their stated preferences, And you can even put in requests from people you've met, or you can just list your preferences for anyone to style. You specify your style, colors, patterns, etc, and other players will send you custom outfits!

(sorry, this filter looks really bad in screenshots) I played the game for a few days via emulator, while waiting for my copy of the game to arrive. And honestly, 'Offline Mode" felt like an entirely different game. You can still dress up your character, and fulfill outfit request for NPC's, and design your own showroom, but that's it.

The world feels much smaller when just cycling through the same small handful of NPC's with very similar dialogue. You still play the role of an "influencer", looking to grow their online following and brand, But without any other real players, it just becomes a grindy numbers game.

You make check the billboards, grab the items, make an outfit, take a photo, and get automatic 'likes' from the game's imaginary public. Then you just keep doing it over and over to increase your 'follower count. There are a few bonus things you can do, such as take pictures with other people, and 'pin' the post to boost incoming 'likes' and 'follows', But without the online community aspect, it's extremely repetitive.

And that's where the title of the post comes in, The game was clearly designed similar to a live service game, the players are expected to be online almost all the time, and new features and items become available over time. However, while this game is $50, it doesn't feature microtransactions

That's a HUGE plus for me, But it makes me wonder how financially viable this game will be for the publisher in the long run. When the sales start to slow, they'll have far less money coming in, And that may make it harder to keep updating the game. And if they stop updating the game, older fans may stop playing Less people online means the 'community' aspect will lessen ...And at the end of the day there are server cost to consider.

So it really makes me wonder, how long they'll choose to support this game. Will the game end up with a "best if used by date", because the game costs the devs some amount of money just to keep it running, ...not even including the time it takes to make more items to keep people interested. I've been having a lot of fun now, but I think they should have focused a bit more on the single player experience, and implemented more interesting offline goals. As who knows, 3, 5, 10 years down the line, the game I'm enjoying now will may longer exist. ---- Sorry for the more 'bleak' post, I'd still highly recommend this game to those who think it sounds interesting. I've just seen a ton of VERY Strong opinions on this game, but no one mentioning the live service trappings. Anyways, feel free to leave your thoughts or comments down below!

[Next Post]

[mandysxmuses]

(( could you go more into the color symbolism of your Keeper characters? as in, why certain colors were chosen for them? ))

//OH BOI, absolutely

With Emma, the answer might be a little disappointing but it really was a matter of the stereotype of girls liking pink, there isn't really much deeper symbolism there. She just likes pink, just thinks it's neat, though as she got older she wore a bit more purples and was canonically wearing a lavender dress when she died

and the purple there had nothing deeper either she just. thought it was neat

That being said, her having ginger hair like Trost might be the best hit for symbolism since it could symbolize how he was the caretaker she was the closest to and the way they were both connected to the tragedy

and with most of the others, I can really put my tinfoil hat on and draw all the red lines. ... about characters I created.

Ok so Niemand/Tulpen's main color has always been yellow. As the certified main helper character -- wait crap

SORRY ALWAYS FORGET HOW TO SPELL THAT WORD. as the deuteragonist I wanted to make sure he had a bright, hopeful color associated with him and that it was unmistakable. From the very first concept he was supposed to be the one helping MC out of the bad scary place, so it was both important to have a color they could easily pick out in any environment while also not having it clash with my vision of who he is as a character.

And despite everything he is still one of the most innocent and childlike characters in the Void, which I think yellow is a great representation for, just childlike warmth and innocence

also

help. what did I do wrong

Jemand, similarly, is one of those characters I've had in mind from the very get-go so I've had a while to solidify his design and personality

Black-and-white is deeply embedded in the character. Even his spirit, which along with the others' is supposed to look like a cloud, still follows a strict checkered color-scheme and it's a cloud, boi is defying physics for his aesthetic and we should love that for him. We should be jealous, honestly, and feel bad about ourselves to not have that.

But not getting into how great he is and how awful we are, since he can do that himself...

Jemand is one of the only characters who can, and is the only one who DOES, choose to appear in grayscale. He can make his entire body look like it's showing up through a black and white filter, and while I don't bring it up often while writing him, he usually looks like that unless he's in an environment where that sort of thing would bring on too much confusion for his safety (ex. Earth).

And I think there is a strong symbolic importance to that.

It's important to note that during his performances and concerts, despite remaining in grayscale, Jemand's shows are some of the most dramatic and bombastic explosions of color you'll see. They are over-the-top and beautiful, and he really goes out of his way to make sure they're incredible to any audience.

But there is something deeper to those performances. Anyone close enough to Jemand will have him admit at some point that despite the parties and shows, he feels empty. He not only feels like people only appreciate him if they see something so surface-level, but that's all they CAN do because who he actually is would be so unlikable they'd leave if he showed anything real.

And while that's already complicated, and while it would be understandable since Jemand truly has done some horrific things, these sorts of feelings have been stewing even since Emma was alive. It's something that goes to the core of his character.

But that's another thing the black-and-white can symbolize.. it's technically a form of deception. If there's one thing about Jemand, it's that he constantly lies. He can do so effortlessly and without even thinking about it. He paints a black-and-white view of the world where he's an innocent who can do no wrong and everyone else is the bad guy, and sometimes he lies when there isn't even any need to do so for his own self-preservation. I think the checkered motif can symbolize a blinkered view on behalf of whoever only has his deceptive words to go by.

And while I did want to do this in chronological order, just for Renee I'll break the pattern like she breaks spines, because the black-and-white motif also carries over to her, and for a similar reason.

I mean obviously she's not a shameless liar but she does have an extremely black-and-white sort of way of thinking. "You are a bad person, you are a good person", etc. etc. she thinks in strict dichotomies, no nuance. And while it is very understandable with what she's been through, this "one side or the other" perspective is preventing the recovery of the boys she claims to want. Similarly to Jemand, she'll think of any and every of her own actions in the most charitable light possible, and try to justify any and every abuse to the people she hates.

... I guess I don't need to explain the symbolism of her other main color being red mksaldmd

BUT SHE DOES ALSO HAVE GOLD, she both wears gold jewelry and her office building has some gold highlights inside

Which I think could symbolize her somewhat holy/religious nature, being literally empowered by the spirits of dead humans

ALRIGHT BACK TO TRYING TO DO THIS CHRONOLOGICALLY

(lmao I messed it up from the get-go by putting Niemand before Jemand)

Laut's color is purple, and this is typically a color symbolic of royalty and wealth and... well. Laut is the only one who puts any form of emphasis on wealth and even exhibits some forms of classism (and the only reason this DOESN'T make him look like a complete tool is because he doesn't actually know what wealth or an economy even is or anything)

But yes, he is a very pompous uppity "high class" man, who wants to present himself with an air of regal superiority, so purple really suits him

and he wears a purple SUIT hahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

TODDIIIEEEEEEE

(ngl I think it's funny how that literally started as Schatz's nickname for him that he hates, and then some of his ships were like "I'm gonna call u that" and he's like "omg I love that name..........")

anywho

while Toddie's bright orange hair is the first thing most people would notice about him, he kind of has the most basic look of everyone of the Void, just dressing in brown sweats and sometimes not even wearing shoes

And while the orange could be said to have symbolic meanings to his character and is technically his "main" color, the brown, to me, holds a lot more to him. It's a color that doesn't match his spirit yet he chooses to wear it.

He deliberately goes without bathing or other forms of hygiene as a form of self-harm. He doesn't want to be friendly, he doesn't want people near him. He wants (or at least thinks he wants) to be repulsive.

But given that orange is a color that has symbolized warm feelings and optimism and happiness, I do think that does hold some truth to who Todd was, and who he could still be even if he's convinced he can't

and while there technically are a lot more characters I could get into the weeds on this is actually already getting really long so

I PROMISE I'LL GIVE A PART 2

[cochineal-leviat]

Hello! Hi! I'm one of the invested reader in your most recent fic Gimmighoul for your thoughts? And also the one who's writing a fic vaguely inspired by it. (And also one that commented a lot, haha.)

You may recognize me by username (there's an extra 's' here but, eh, it's the same.) I decided to ask the questions I wanted to ask there because of, uh, anxiety issues.

So here are my questions:

1. Would you be okay with it if I were to use your character, Flore, in my story? It's most likely too late because I already started with the female MC, but I may write more Pokémon stuff in the future and I'd like to write it with a non-binary MC and I now have as a headcanon that, if there was an option to be non-binary, their default name would be Flore (like Juliana for the girl, and Florian for the boy). Also, if you're okay with it, would it be okay to alter a little bit their story and their taste? Like, they have Koraidon instead of Miraidon or they chose Sprigatito instead of Fuecoco as their starter. Or, they're fond of cute stuff instead of macabre stuff. Their personalities would most likely stay the same, but there would be slight alteration like that. Just like how people write Juliana or Florian: things changing depending of the person personal experience.

2. Next, I wanted to know if I should give you a shout out if I ever post my fic somewhat related to yours? Since you gave me the idea for the prompt, in a sense. Like, I would say the name of the fic that inspired me and your author's name and saying something like: "check out their stuff, they're great." I don't know if I should, because I'm, anyway, a way smaller author and my story will, probably, not even be remotly similar to yours. Furthermore, I'm a very strange person and I write the idea out of my mind with barely any filters. My works are tagged properly, at least, but, you know, not safe for work. You're a SFW author, so I'd understand if you'd like to not be associated with me in the slightest. However, since I would be the one doing the shoutout, it wouldn't be as bad as if you were to do it. If there's one thing I really dislike it's making people uncomfortable against their will. I'm a strange person, maybe a bit scary at first glance, but I'm not a creep. I do not approve of tricking people into seeing weird things. No need to worry, this fic I'm planning to write will be, at max, rated teens and up. I looked at your other stuff and you're more inclined toward family friendly and I respect that 100%. On my side, my taste change and my mind shifts every two months so my works are all over the place. (I wanted to explain that, because, you know, the internet can be wild sometimes and get to the most extreme conclusion.)

3. I forgot to ask: what are your preffered pronouns? I should have asked that first. Sorry if I'm indiscreet, but I just want to be safe. I assumed you were non-binary since you seem to like turning some character non-binary (by looking at your works). So, my brain default to they/them pronouns. Also, asking in case I need to give you a shout out. (And, in case you want to know too, I don't have preffered pronouns. Any is fine.)

Anyway, that's it! I know this is a lot, but I think those are important questions. Sorry if it was badly written, I have trouble to write my personal thoughts on paper; I write stories, not emails. Thank you for your time and I wish you the best of luck for whatever adventure you are currently on! ^_^ (Also, random compliment: I like your art. Especially the coloring. The way you use colors is magnifico!)

Ah! Good to see you, and what a nice lengthy ask. I will answer in kind to make things easier.

1 Go ahead! You can use Flore for your fics. I am over the moon that you want to write about them. But if you do, I would like you to please credit me. I put a lot of time and effort into writing them and their design, and it would hurt for them to be used without credit. But I am assured you will do that; if not, you would not be asking permission in the first place.

As for changing Miraidon to Koraidon and other story details - you have my permission! I don't sweat the small stuff. Flore likes cute things, too; it's usually overworn by their love of spooky stuff most of the time (they and Lacey geek out about cute Pokemon in most of their hangouts). And you can change their Pokemon to whatever team you have in mind. It will be like a fun alternate-universe version of them. It makes sense that OG Flore and your version of Flore differ, and I'm all up for seeing it!

2 You can give me a shout-out or not. I will leave it up to you. I gave you the prompt indirectly, but you don't have to mention me if it varies too much from the original. But again, as above, please credit me if you use Flore.

Being told I'm an SFW author is pretty funny! I suppose I am, even though I have written horror and creepy stuff before - it never needed a mature rating. I respect NSFW authors for being so brave. So ditto!

3. I use He/him, they/them pronouns. I go through life mostly as a guy, but I also feel non-binary, so you are not entirely wrong.

And don't cha worry! This is not poorly written at all. I can read that you are excited, and that is nice to know. Thank you very much for the well wishes (I will need them) and for complimenting my art. It's lovely of you.

Have a sketch of Flore as a farewell gift! I wish you an absolutely awesome day or night further!

[little-grey-dowitcher]

My mom used to make me do a photo shoot any time we went anywhere for any reason, especially for big events or vacations. She would interrupt whatever I was doing, whatever I was having fun with, whatever I was celebrating, and turn on the camera, and the process would begin.

First, we’d have to find the perfect location. Move away from anyone else that might be there (don’t worry, your friends will still be here when you get back). Find a spot with good lighting, find a place that will look nice to pose next to.

Then, I’d have to put myself together. Clean my glasses, make sure there’s no glare on them, push them up on my nose, fix my hair (you’d look so much prettier if you’d let me curl your hair), straighten out my clothes (is that ketchup on your shirt? What were you thinking? You knew I’d want pictures!).

Now I’ve gotta pose. Stand up straight, find something to do with my hands (stop hiding them behind your back, put them on your hips or something. No, not like that. Not like that either… I guess that’ll work). Maybe in another picture I’ll have to sit down, cross my legs, lean back, look over my shoulder (tilt your chin up, you look like you’ve got a double chin). In the next one I’ll have to stand back up and pose with her (lean closer, you’re too tall for both of us to fit in the frame. Don’t hunch over like that! Stand up straight! Now lean into me. No! Just… bend your knees a little).

Now I’ve gotta fix my face. Do my “pretty smile”. The one where my lips curl into a smile that perfectly frames my straight, white teeth (I spent good money on those teeth, now show them off!) without making my upper lip look any less full (it looks like you’re growling, stop that). Make sure my eyes are narrow enough to look like a real smile, but wide enough to still be fully visible. Fix my glasses again, because they slid down while I was trying to get my eyes just right. (Smile! … no, your real smile… no… do your pretty smile.) Try to memorize what my face feels like when I finally get it right so I don’t have to go through this entire process again in the next shot.

Now we gotta do selfies together. Those are especially fun. I have to hold the camera because my arms are longer, and she wants the camera way up high (make sure you get my good angle! The one that doesn’t make me look fat) but my hands are unsteady, so we’ve gotta retry twenty times because it keeps coming out slightly blurry. Gotta stare into the camera as I put my “pretty smile” back on each time. It’s great. I get to watch the joy leave my own eyes in real time, and capture that lifelessness with my own shaky hand.

By the time the photo shoot is over, I’m exhausted. My face is sore from trying to perfect the pretty smile. I’m not having fun anymore. My friends are doing something else and I’ll have to awkwardly rejoin. Sometimes we take so long that whatever event we were at is over, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to anyone before being shuffled out the door.

“It’s to capture the memory!” she’d say. But for the most part, I don’t remember what we were doing before those pictures. Sure, some are obvious, like where I’m holding the first gold medal I ever won in a tournament. When I look at the picture, I barely remember actually winning it. Instead, I remember being dragged away from my friends to go pose with it next to a potted plant in a dingy hotel lobby. Then there’s the less obvious ones. What were we doing in this restaurant? Oh, your 50th birthday? I mean yea, I guess I do recognize that outfit I’m wearing… but only because I really hated that skirt. Didn’t we go to the aquarium after that lunch? Where are the pictures from that? … the lighting was bad, so you didn’t take any? But that was so much fun…

Now, years later, I get to look at those pictures. “Oh, how gorgeous!” my mom gushes, referring to the color composition of the shot of us on the beach at sunset, which she has put several filters over to change the saturation. “That’s so lovely,” she coos, referring to the framing of the image of my husband and I dancing, which she has cropped and rotated to exclude the unsightly barn my wedding took place in. “Beautiful!” she exclaims, referring to the picture of me on prom night, which she has thoroughly edited to remove the horrible fake tan that she forced me to wear in the first place.

What a picturesque childhood I had. So beautiful. So perfectly framed and captured. So devoid of any actual emotion. So empty.

[aces-to-apples]

wait how are zabraks black-coded if you don't mind me asking? this in good faith btw

I recall the diversity-instarwars blog having written a meta post about Dathomir and its lore but the blog is now empty so I'll do my best to be concise, though I'm emphatically not an expert or authority on racial coding. Through pretty bog standard Star Wars racial stereotyping, cultural appropriation, and exoticization, the Nightbrothers are pretty blatantly ""inspired"" by historical atrocities committed against African peoples by European colonizers, with a Star Wars-typical White Feminist Hashtag Girlboss filter thrown over it.

The men of Dathomir, the Nightbrothers, are canonically acknowledged (and it's widespread, everyone knows) to be subjugated and enslaved by the Nightsisters. They're used as laborers, defenders, and, let's be frank here, breeding stock. In the episodes where we meet Savage and Feral, it's very clear that Nightbrothers do not get a say in whether they become "mates", that they are not allowed to refuse, that they are forced to hurt each other to "prove" themselves, and that they are afraid of being chosen by the Nightsisters. None of the "tests" that Ventress demands they be put through are portrayed as unusual.

In addition to how familiar that sounds—forced into labor, forced to create children against their will, not free to leave or refuse because their bodies aren't there own—the Nightsister "magic" (despite Mother Talzin's fucking ridiculous Transylvanian(???) accent) is clearly based on white American stereotypes of "voodoo", which I understand is itself a pejorative and bastardized version of a living religion. The "dark magic" vibes, the scary green mist, the nonsense chanting, the zombification of its victims, the mind-control, etc., isn't actually anything specific but like. We all know what it's supposed to evoke, especially in a franchise well-known for stealing and twisting pieces of other peoples' culture.

There's also the hyper-aggressive, "savage" portrayal of the Nightbrothers towards outsiders when OBW and Anakin showed up, the way they live in rickety-looking shacks and huts and wear plain and rough homemade clothes, the way they're divided into "tribes" and are visually singled out by their distinctive skin markings (either natural coloring or ritualized tattoos, ymmv), the obsequious treatment of the Very White Woman who shows up to "select" a "mate" without warning or consideration... And then on top of all of that, the White Women In Charge chooses Savage as her "champion" and then uses that "magic" to non-consensually change his entire body, control his mind and actions, and then forces him to murder his family as proof of "loyalty" to her, when he only offered himself up as basically a sacrifice to keep her from killing said family in the first place.

It's all just. So bad and messy. And gross. It's so gross. And look, none of this is like, "proof" or anything. Coding as a concept is really complicated, and can be done deliberately and thoughtfully or subconsciously and without any intent whatsoever but whoops, you did a racism/ableism/antisemitism/etc.! But like, regardless of whether you think the Nightbrothers are (intentionally or unintentionally) analogous to real-life groups of people, it's all super gross and fucked up and the fact that so many people like Ventress as this empowering girlboss character when she's basically a white radfem with a laser sword and systemic power over a group of marginalized men of color that she abuses on-screen super skeezes me out personally.

*shrug*

[billy-theratking]

Runaway Max: Chapter 1 Review

I find the entire first interaction at Fort Fun between Max and Billy fascinating because we get an in depth look at how Billy acts in canon and it's crazy to see how Max's initial impression of him upon meeting him.

At this point, it's pretty much a fact that he has a tendency to put on a charming front around strangers and that it may seem that he acts very oddly around Neil if you don't know about the abuse.

Max doesn't know anything about Billy or his really shitty circumstances yet, so we get to see it for the first time from a point of view without bias, which is great!

Billy was late to the meeting and I'm assuming that was intentional since he probably sees Max and Susan as a waste of his time. And if he can lash out against Neil's need for control at the same time? Even better.

That being said, Billy definitely knows how far he's allowed to push Neil before he's getting into dangerous territory. Which is why the fact he didn't look up at his father stood out to me so much. His choice to not meet Neil's gaze has a number of meanings depending on how you look at it.

First, in western culture eye contact is a sign of confidence and respect, so if Billy had avoided looking at him as a sign of disrespect, that would just further fuel Neil's already building anger with Billy's rebellious nature.

Second, it could also mean that Billy is uncomfortable (which is likely), whether or not him being late was intentional. And even though he's trying to hide it behind swagger, his fear of Neil still shows in his body language.

And three, Billy is avoiding eye contact as an act of submission in the hopes to appeal to Neil's ego and soften the oncoming blows once they get behind closed doors.

Only Billy knows.

When Billy and Max talk he comes off as playful (Max even described him as friendly) and I'm inclined to agree. Billy was polite even if he came off as a bad boy type, with lines like:

"Billy gave me this slow, cool nod, like we already knew each other,"

"Billy glanced back at me. His face was slack. Then he smiled a sleepy smile."

Though, paired with some of the more ominous lines, those interactions take on a darker tone and Billy seems much more dangerous. For example:

"He was smiling when he said it. He laughed again, pinching the end of his cigarette and throwing it away. His eyes were bright."

"-he never really looked awake, except... sometimes. Sometimes his face went suddenly alert, and then you had no idea what he was going to do or what was going to happen next."

With this information, it encourages the us to read into the conversation with a filter, one that paints the entire interaction in a bad light and makes us uncomfortable.

I also love the parallel between the book and in Episode 1 of Season 2 Mad Max (a nickname that he gave her btw).

Final thoughts:

'"Max," he said in a sly, singsong voice."

Which is the same thing he does when he's in the car and tells her to say whose fault it was that they were forced to move to Hawkins.

The line I'm going to share really goes to show Neil's character and parallels Billy's physical abuse. It's terrible and really made stop reading for a moment to process the implications of such a line.

"Neil always called me that [Maxine], no matter how many times I told him to stop."

Neil likes to act like a kind gentleman to lure in weak women, so when his true colors show, they won't leave him in the misguided belief that if they just do what their abuser wants then they can have the man they married back.

If blatantly refusing to respect someone's boundries isnt a red flag, then I don't know what is.

I'd also like to note that we get to see some similar behaviors from both Neil and Billy in the first chapter when it comes to putting on a facade in front of both Max and Susan.

That's how women get trapped in abusive relationships. That coupled with the fact that they are almost always isolated with nowhere to go even if they did want to leave.

But both Billy and Neil drop that mask from time to time when their emotions (anger or frustration) get out of hand. Which was why Neil seemed so aggravated when waiting for Billy to finally show up.

Quote of the Day:

"He was watching me in the flat, empty way he always did--heavy-lidded, like I made him so bored he could barely stand it--but under that was a glittering edge of something dangerous."

[quinntamsin]

She held the helmet under her arm as the droid behind her rolled along without even paying attention to the destruction around it. A loud whistling sound informed the Mandalorian what she was waiting for. "Are you sure H21?" she asked, only to receive a longseries of droid language whistles. After listening and discerning theirmeaning the Mandalorian sighed. "Fine, I will speak to the Duchess once this job is over."

Greetings everyone, it's been a long hiatus, but I am hopefully going to be getting back soon. Depression got real bad lately and even cannabis only can do so much. I've been able write a bit more on my next OC riddled fanfic Poisoned Heart. Anyway let's do Andor! Andor S1E1 "Kassa", the opening to Andor is a black screen seemingly zooming into to reveal the title. A stylized version of the Rebellion's symbol, the Starbird, is above it. Dark rain files into view as we watch Cassian walk a dark industrial walkway back to the city where he's living. Morlana One, a massive corp zone on the planet is where he's hiding. This place s reams blade runner and I like how they embedded a bunch of random weird ads. I like seeing this alien city and hearing the various languages in the background. The music here is very synth and I love the dancing twi'lek holo. I wonder what species the fucking bartender is. Almost utapaun, something with an elongated head and more. The proprieteress of the club pops up and we hear Cassian call the place a company town. Pretty damn accurate, Morlana's Corp Zone represents the worst of the Empire. She getting suspicious before Cassian mentions he's looking for his sister. The darkness punctuated by the blue light really sells a seediness to the place with it being broken by random gold lights. It makes me think we're in a strange almost iPhone owned industrial complex. A guard confronts, well a pair of idiot guards, Both using heavy Corscanti accents. Diego's voice has a short of desperate measure to it that sells his spy infused violence. I wonder if he watched some John Wick with how he carries his head as he kills the two me. That sort of tired, bedraggled expression of "here we go again." One guard dies and the other can sense his time to end., and gets his face blasted out. This is not your clean Star Wars, this is the Rebellion and one where you cannot afford loose ends. Yeah, if you want clear cut good and evil, do not watch this series. It's a james bond or mission impossible series with a grittier take. The filters on the vfx remind me heavily of Altered Carbon. WE come to Ferrix, a dust covered dirty city in the early morning. A droid is our main focus, one that easily heads out into a massive junk and scrap pile outside. I like his four little traction points for transportation. We switch to Cassian on Kenari his home where his sister wakes him up. B2EMO his droid has a pretty interesting stutter, which makes me wonder why it occurs. Maybe a damage to his voice processor? "That's two lies." The droid has to put a lot of energy into lying and just seems to want to spend time with "Kassa". Seems Ferrix is another mining or industrial town of sorts. I'm seeing a lot of bright yellow colors in the pallet along with drab oranges and reds. The usage of stone for a lot of the exterior definitely makes me think of some sort of mineral-based processing. Not to mention a lot of the clothes have padded bits insert into them making me thinking defense. Also more people are wearing ear plugs, definitely a job requiring large machinery. This is a great scene, it tells so much just in its costuming and colors. THe way that Cassina's friend has a cleanish face. WE switch back to the Pre-Mor where an investigator is talking about the seats of the guards. I like how he updated his "uniform" because he wants to act the proper Imperial. The man in charge decides to cover it up since the men in question would all make them look back. The DI just wants to ignore it, the Preox-Moralana company wants shit to look good which means less Imperial Oversight. Heh, love it. We switch back to Ferrix where Cassian has come to visit a friend who does repairs. I wonder is this part of his quest to find his sister? Bix is his connection and he pushes more. She asks Cassian what he did and she stole a fucking Starpath unity. He apparently stole it from his friend's bids. Damn, not the best decision. This episode has already established that Cassian is out for Cassian. He has some connections but they aren't exactly "friends". Flashing back to Kenari, we see that the camp is alive with curiosity. The various colonists have strung together a village mixing technology and various stuff near their home. We see them placing on some sort of paint for something the lines have a meaning for the older kids. I notice a distinct lack of adults in their camp. Back to the DI we see him in the security HQ where he berates a man for ignoring a obvious shi launch. Cassian continues his walk around the story as Nurchi, a loan shark, who wrangles another acquaintance into a discussion. I like vetch, big kind of dinosauroid dude with a cockney accent. Bix leaves work and her love interest follows her. What a fool, the man is going to get himself in a lot of trouble. The music hear continues to give us a sort of casual, but thriller quiet. All of the actions of many here are in the underworld. So my guess is she has to maintain a lot of secrets to keep herself solvent in credits. The Imperial Security folks have a nice level of chatter to make themselves appear like normal employees dealing with their uptight boss. Pegla who is a yardbull watching the various ships warns Cassian, and yet again, Cassian has burned another bridge. In the past we see the Kenari older kids head off somewhere. Strange, are they after that ship that crashed? Moving onto Andor S1E2 "That Would Be Me" we continue our take on the opening triad of Andor series. With quick reminder of what happened at the Industrial Site and the death of the two guards. We get the subtle simple opening of Andor with its string theme, which slowly fades into the jungles of Kenar.  The Kenari are heading off to investigate the crash our band of children are decked out in various weapons as they pass what seems to be an abandoned colony site. Overgrown pieces of machinery come to view as we then see a massive open face mine. The kids seem to be descendants of maybe colonial miners that once dwelt on the planet. Changing scenes we see a man entering a tower to adjust his ear plugs. He drums away on the chime which appears to be a large industrial way of alerting the workers of the town. In the shipyard Pegla is turning down the lights and everyone is heading back to put away their equipment. Another day working in the town has come as everyone cools down for the night. Meanwhile, Kassa is seemingly skulking about as Ferrix falls asleep. We see Bix friend reading her console and the Arabesh is translated as he sees the message for a Kenari male wanted. As he enters who appears to be an adoptive mother of sorts. THey discuss the fact that the Pre-Mor Sec know about him being Kenari. Our friendly droid tells him that Bix wants to meet. She asks what he did and he relays a simplified version of him murdering two shitty Sec Guards. The Sec Commander is intent on hunting down and as Bix goes to have some fun we switch to Syril Karn. The Seargent he brings in is pretty hardcore in ow he sees the Order of the Empire. The talk about how they need have a stronger hand to deal with the "Formenting" as he says. This man is what appears to be a failed or wannabe stormtrooper. His eyes got all beetle-like as he talked about dealing with the "Formenting" Back to the Andor Household we see Maarva (yes I had to look up a list of names because I'm reviewing so many shows) is holding something tight. Cassian meanwhile is in his crash ship room. Going through whatever is on his mind. This makes me think the flashbacks to Kenari are about the trauma of losing his sister I mean that is an obvious point, but there is definitely more to the story. The kids zone in on the crashed ship and we see the oldest heading in to investigate alone. The sizzling of electricity fills the air as she uses a tongue click to summon the kids. As the music intensifies we switch to a ship flying over a planet, this appears to be Ferrix again. Whoever this guy is he's definitely a tad sketch. LIkely a Rebel with how the droid tells him about "Safe Places" to land. And as he heads into the city our drummer dude opens the day to waken everyone. Bix wakes up with Perrin watching her from a seat. Bix and Perrin have a somewhat awkward short conversation over a cup of Caf. In his ship Cassian and B2EMO who seems to be somewhat depressed droid. Maarva pops into what I think is Cassian's room to see an old Kenari fighting staff covered in bits and bobs. Was she the one who the kids ran into? We are again in Kenari, the leader of the group is drawing closer as Cassian notices the bodies of the pilots. They are definitely humanoid, but have yellowish skin as one of them gets up and shoots the Kenari leader. The children take him out with their blow guns (how the hell did I not notice they were blow guns). The kids realize their leader is dead, killed by the invaders. THey pick her up, leaving her blow gun as they watch for more invaders. Cassian watches the dropped ship with an intense hatred as we once again switch to Ferrix. He runs into someone and we learn that yes, the mining venture on the actual planet fell apart. SO yeah, my theory was right, the kids were the survivors of a mining disaster. He pays for what seems to be a ticket somewhere. And as Pre-Mor people are coming in their strange blue and orange Imperial inspired uniforms (including those silly little hats). Mosk who is acting like a rent-a-cop wanting to be an Imperial Stormtrooper speaks to his people. Reminding them that the folk of Ferrix can go complain about Pre-Mor at the Territorial Forum. Karn meanwhile seems a bit unsure what to say as he gives a haphazard speech. I wanna say, their ship is clunking as fuck and I love it. Really shows how these guys mostly work as Industrial SEcurity. Why have a flashy ship when a company carrier does the same? So Skarsgard, is Luthen, our old seeming rebel, is on a sort of floating anti-grav bus. He ends up dealing with a man who just can't stop talking and moves to insert himself into a conversation Luthen doesn't want. The carrier draws closer to the primary town in Ferrix as the dump below shows us Cassian on a Mission. It's interesting how unlike the rest of the cast he's always in dark browns and reds. Everyone else is either in blue, orange, green or yellow.

Episode 3 "Reckoning" opens with the children slowly making their way into the downed ship on Kenari. The kid is Cassian, and we see more of the strangely yellow-skinned figures inside wearing suits with the Imperial Emblem on it. The ship itself appears pretty industrial with a central command bridge filled with various oscillating monitors. A central bank of consoles surrounded by clean mirror-like black surface. We switch back to the dusty mining yards after young Kassa bashes the side of the console. He's waiting for someone. So, quickly I looked it up, the people with the yellowed skin are Republic soldiers which makes their death all the more strange. The man from early, Luthen exists from his transport and meets up with Bix. This is interesting, as we switch to the Pre-Mor fucks coming in out of hyperspace. We switch to Maarva and CLem Andor preparing to salvage the frigate. The kid they find is Kassa, and as we switch back to the weird LAAT like ships coming into the space above the town on Ferrix. This scene as the Pre-Mor Sec goons start looking switches places with Clem and Maarva. She's able to sedate the kid as the Republic Frigate is close to appearing. The Security goons appear at Maarva's place of residence and push after announcing they have a warrant. Bix pops back up at work where her friend Timm stalks off a bit sus. Mosk is going off the deep in with his bully-boys. They detect where Cassian is hiding just as Luthen arrives in the warehouse. The pretty orange and teal blue outfits of the Pre-Mor sec teams stands outa gainst the duller browns and yellows of the people of Ferrix. The darker browns and reds of the buildings also makes them stand out more than a sore thumb. A friend of Bix alerts her that the Corpos are there for Cassian as the rat reveals himself. Kerabast, Timm, you damn fool. Luthen asks cassian where he got his gadget, and Kassa being the foolish impatient bastard just pushes for more money. He wants to know how Cassian got the box, he's either a fucking spy or he's too good for his own good.  Cassian scoffs at how easy it is to fool the damn Imperials. Luthen points out that his life isn't going to stay the same and he mentions how Clem was hanged. Again, Kerabast. Luthen invites Cassian to join his little OPA, I MEAN REBEL cell, and suddenly we are in the town center. Several citizens begin to bang on things to warn rest of the town that the Corpos are there. Mosk calls it intimidation, but the fool likely knows its a warning. If they can get to the bell ringer to sound out a warning everyone on Ferrix including the rebels will know. Corpos have them surrounded as Bix runs ahead of them to find Cassian and is stopped by a Corpo officer. In the old factory Luthe is working out an exit plan as he explodes some slap charges. This start a minor chain reaction with corpo team going down as the team enters with what's left and starts firing. Parts keep falling as Cassian hyperfixates on the box. Dodging bits of metal as men are being harmed and killed. Another corpo goes down as the last one shoots from above. The scene itself is well acted and timed. The falling debris adds a great level of tension as the entire factory comes down around them. They escape out of the factory as the last of the team is likely dead. Luthe and Cassian make their getaway as the younger man asks why they don't go for the box. Timm heads in to free Bix and one of the corpos shoots him. As the shooter is set away by the CO Bix is left with Timm's corpse on the steps. You can really see how Mosk is just a damn weekend milita-goer with his actions. Meanwhile, Karn pops into a room and scares off its inhabitants as we switch back and forth between all of the team. Maarva warns the corpo about what the banging actually means. "When its stops." All of the clanging ends, as all of the town goes quiet. The Sec corpos rush around taking up positions as you cans ee they aren't use to actual combat. Syril finds Cassian with a blaster pointed at his behind him. Luthen calls for Karn's life and Cassian grabs him as soon as he's able to make a call. The corpo who shot Timm is killed when he tries to launch the od and finds it weighed down. The Clanging was a way for the locals to work together to end the corpos. One comes upon Karn whose been tied up, as one of the speeders has been rigged with explosives. An old Ford-looking piece acting as a decoy and drawing the fire of the Pre-Mor Sec. They surround it after it crashes, with Mosk laughing and three of the men getting caught in another blast. Cass and Luthe speed off on a swoopbike leaving the corpos realizing their actions were all foolish and gungho. Switching back to t memories of Maarva we see her crying as she thinks of how she found Kassa and rescued him from Kenari. He himself just trying to find his sister. Bix meanwhile saved from being handcuffed and reaches for Timm only to be dragged off. We see the people of Ferrix in pain and the swoop darts off into the sunset. Karn stares into nothing realizing his foolish actions at listening to Mosk got his loyal men killed. That his actions while maybe correct were just the actions of a mall cop at playing tin soldier. We enter Luthe's snhip as starts to lift off and see the old ANdor ship doing the same. Cassian awakes on it to see the last visage of his planet. We get a swell of the music as Maarva watches them and suddenly we are back in the present and Cassian watches as they leave Ferrix. Hottakes:

The Twi'lek dancer holo in the pleasure house is a good example of how the galaxy sexualizes them.

I like  the style of the blue light and strange usage of triangular walk ways.

The fact this story seems to hinge on him finding his sister is a good lead into his reasons for being a Rebellion Spy.

The two men who followed him were the same kind of fools to start this story.

Bix is a nice addition to SW's growing scrappy technician cast.

I do like that they are translating the Arabesh for us.

Cassian is definitely a desperate motherfucker.

Damn the security fucks are definitely a bit too MAGA for my tastes.

Luthen has a definitely interesting vibe to him.

The Pre-Mor guys are all definitely similar to fucking Imperials with their corporate outfits and armor being straight out of Imperial Naval uniform design.

Their ship and shuttles even mimic the old LAAT gunships from the CLone Wars.

Timm's death was so fucking bittersweet, he ratted out Cassian and was shot for doing the right thing.

Watching the guy who killed Timm crash was cathartic.

[byunbaekhyunie]

Hey! May I ask, as a non-gif maker, what exactly is the problem with the coloring? What is good/bad lighting? How do you correct it?

I see a lot of creators mention coloring, so I’d like to learn more❣️

of course ! this can get quite convoluted so i’ll try to keep things as simple as i can but, it did get quite lenghty so i put it under the squiggle

coloring, which is just shorthand for color correcting/grading, is the process of altering the colors of whatever source material you’re working with in post ; I’d say it accounts for maybe.. 50 to 75% of the final visual impact of the gif so it’s quite an important step but it’s an art more than a science so every cc color corrects in their own way and because of that, there are no definitive answers to your questions because there is no right or wrong way to grade or even light a scene (unless you’re perpetrating racial discrimination lol), it just depends on what end result you’re trying to achieve ! but i will offer my personal perspective and hope it's helpful to you ^^

so what is good and bad lighting... yk i wish i could say smth simple like "i like natural lighting better than studio lights" but thing is, sometimes you have the potential for great lighting but because the camera settings weren't properly adjusted, you get mad overexposure or super high contrast or whatever it is, the two are codependent so really my answer would be that i like when the footage i'm using was shot in log with little to no alteration because no matter what the lighting was, i should have enough data to get me where i want to be. but that's hardly ever the case, and that's what makes color grading often a lot harder for gif makers, is that we have to work on top of however many layers of destructive alterations the footage went thru before getting to us

that being said, i hate a color cast they’re a pain to correct properly. which brings us to our current case in point, the cursed 230714 mubank stage. this is a raw screengrab from the file after encoding

as you can see it's VERY pink, the color balance is all wrong, if you look at the robe you can tell the blacks are way too red and the highlights in his face are unnaturally pinkish, and yes that stems from the fact that they were using red and white overhead lights for this stage but also, i think i can safely say it probably got exasperated in post, on top of the skin smoothing filters they use but that's a whole other can of worms x_x it's also a lot of contrast to start with and it's slightly overexposed

btw i should say that i like well lit neutral tones, i don't like when things are too warm, too cool, too saturated, too contrasty or too dark, ideally i want my gifs to look as if you were watching the thing irl with your own two eyes, that's what i'm aiming for when coloring. again, to someone who doesn't mind smth a bit more stylized, this probably wouldn't be a big deal but to me, that's bad lighting and bad postprod

so how do you go abt fixing it? well, beats me ! i've tried a few different things and it's nearly impossible to readjust the balance to restore the flesh tones to smth more natural.. here's the first coloring i did, in split so you can compare better

i don't like it because it's too bright still, colors are way too saturated, there's too much cyan to counteract the pinks and his skin looks too yellow to my liking

and there's coloring two

i like the overall balance a lot more in this one but the highlights are still way too yellow but i can't neutralize them without having the whole thing turn blue i was working on a third attempt but ps crashed and i don't feel like troubleshooting anymore ><

i hope that was instructive in any way ! sometimes i feel like i'm a bit scattered and idk if i'm making much sense but don't hesitate if you need me to clarify anything !