#i really think at this point he should stick to indies

[vtuberconfessions]

It's too late to stop the "calli Mario party curse" jokes, but if I see "Pako cursed" "jokes," I will become violent. That man is so sweet & does NOT deserve to get a negative reputation in the community because of a coincidence.

.

[indieyuugure]

Your comic series is the first Rottmnt comic Iv ever read! It was an amazing first impression to the Rottmnt fandom! Could you teach me how to draw the turtle boys ( rise turtles)?

Also love the new update!

Aw! I’m so glad my comic made on good impression on you! ^v^

Of course! I’d love to help you!

So first thing’s first, here’s the boys the best I can draw them. The most important thing when learning to draw new characters is identifying what makes them look like them. We’ll start with the faces since that’s, in most cases, the point of focus.

Leo’s face is a pretty tall and vaguely pentagonal. His face is also very angular, the corners of his cheeks and top of his head are very sharp. Leo has the traditional style mask with tails that drop down to about his waist.

Donnie has that smart boi forehead and majestic eyebrows. His forehead often has a soft curve to it while, similarly to Leo, his cheeks and jaw use sharp angles. Remember too that the top of his head is flat, there’s no curve. His mask is that newer pirate style that wraps over the top of his head, with the tails looking like curvy squares.

Mikey’s face is a combination of a rounded square and a circle. The top of his head, while much rounder than Donnie’s, is somewhat square. The bottom of his face is a curve. Sometimes I draw the curve in line segments, but it’s not a requirement and won’t impact the way he looks. In general though, Mikey has a very circular face. His mask is the traditional TMNT style with the rounded bouncing tails on the back.

Raph is arguably the hardest to get right for some odd reason. Really though Raph’s face is just a shorter version of Leo’s face with slightly more exaggerated angles. His face is like a fat pentagon. Also tip: Raph’s eyes are always just a little smaller then you think they’re going to be. Trace some scenes from the ROTTMNT movie, you’ll see what I mean. Raph’s mask is the same style as Donnie’s where it covers the whole top of his head. There’s a small nick on the edge above his right cheek and the tails are tattered.

Okay, next are their markings! They play a lot in how easily identifiable they are.

I figured these diagrams should help as a little map as to what spots go where.

Alright, now we’ll look at their shells. There are many amazing diagrams and explanations for drawing their shells on Pinterest I’ve found, but I’ll sum it up here as best I can.

Leo’s shell is very sleek in design making his is profile look the thinnest of his brothers. Many people describe his general body shape as being an inverted triangle.

Donnie’s shell is very straight with hardly any curves. I didn’t include his battle shell in this since that qualifies as “gear” in my opinion, so you get to see what Donnie’s shell looks like! You’ll notice that the sides of his shell are very wide, which I’m guessing is because the curve of his carapace is so shallow.

Mikey’s shell is very similar to Leo’s but is a lot thicker and boxier(haha get it? Cause he’s like, a Box Turtle? :D I’m so lame…). He’s also much rounder and the distance between his plastron and carapace is pretty big.

Raph’s shell is probably the most complex of the boys because of all the spikes. Good things to keep in mind are that the spikes on the top of his plastron angle out, and spikes on his carapace flow up. In general think of Raph as a pentagon, he’s got big broad shoulders and arms and almost comically short legs. (And yes, I’m aware that I didn’t include the side of his shell here, it was too big to fit on the diagram. But just to give you an idea of where it should be, around the “w” in “flow” is where it should connect to his carapace.

Okay! So now that we’ve covered what the boys look like, let’s apply it to their bodies!

Here’s a quick sketch of Leo. “Oh, but Indie” I hear people say, “I can only draw basic shapes and stick figures!” Well to that I say good because that’s what I’m doing too!

For drawing action, it’s crucial to capture the energy of the character. And in a style like Rise’s energy is an iconic trait. So I’ve re-invented this “shape method” to actually be useful. The number one thing is that these shapes are loose guides as to the positioning of the body. Don’t think of these shapes as “well chests are like cubes and arms are like rectangles.” These shapes are place holders. I could replace those circles with stars and it wouldn’t change anything. I just use circles because they’re faster to scribble and stand out against the hard angles of everything else.

Here’s a picture of the shapes overlayed on the image, as you see, these shapes are guides to help comprehend a complex angle in 3D space. Sadly I don’t have much I can assist with on proportions, since I learned purely by studying total uncreepily real life people and myself (I swear I’m posing in the mirror for purely educational reasons! Okay!?).

But anyway, for this kind of thing, practice is the only remedy. Just draw action pose after action pose. Trace scenes from ROTTMNT and the movie to teach your eye to see what things should look like and to train your brain to recognize patterns of shapes and angles.

I hope you found this at all helpful. I’m not really sure how great of a teacher I am but people keep asking questions like these so I guess I’m okay. Glad you liked ROTP so much and I’m glad it made such a good impression on you! ^v^

Good question! :]

And of course if you have more questions, feel free to ask. Here are some previous asks about drawing I’ve gotten that you might also find interesting:

Tricks for Drawing Extra Expressive Faces

More Tricks for Drawing Expressions

Tips and Tricks to Drawing Non-Graphic Wounds

Basic Guide and Tips for Drawing the 2012 and Rise Turtles

How to Draw 2012 Raph’s Fire Ninpo

Nailing The 2012 TMNT Style in 2D

Important Concepts in Drawing Female Characters

[fanficsthatmakemybraingobrr]

A Night In Cairo

Chapter 4

Indiana Jones x Gender-Neutral Reader

You’re a Intern at Marshall College in Bedford Connecticut and you work with Dr.Jones, but he sucks at his job and is never there and is always behind with work making you get the short end of the stick. Then he drags you on a trip to Cairo with him.

I actually liked how this chapter turned out! i don't think it's half bad. but i am still very open to criticism! anyways i hope you enjoy! :}

link to: Chapter 1/Chapter 2/Chapter 3

Link to AO3

Regret. That is all you have right now is pure regret. You wish you slept on that damn bed. You should have made him sleep with that sad pile of comforters. You also regret using comforters, you should’ve taken the sheets you woke up in the middle night drenched in your own sweat and what feels like a broken back.

That’s also the reason you’re up so early you couldn’t fall back asleep. If you had to guess it’s probably 7:00 in the morning? Indy was passed out and sprawled across the bed, laying on his stomach hugging a pillow smooshing it against his face. He's pretty knocked out and is sleeping soundly, his face is gently illuminated by the sunlight coming through the window.

You just stare at him.

His eyebrows slightly furrowed.

You seem to be doing that a lot lately. Just starring.

His hair all tousled.

Why are you looking? 

The way the light played on his face perfectly framing his facial features was intriguing. 

Maybe because you've never been able to get a good look at him? I mean the time you spend around him you're always grading things or helping him plan out his syllabus day by day because he didn't do it before the semester started?

You never noticed the scar on his chin- damn this man has long ass eyelashes! 

Stop it. You're being creepy, you're standing over his body like he's a cadaver or something. You turn your gaze to the window hearing the sound of busy streets, the calls of vendors and talk of passersby. An idea pops into your head. This Is your first time out of the US, why not explore the city for a bit? You tiptoe across the hotel room grabbing your things and making your way to the door. 

The minute you step outside it's hotter than hell, you almost want to go back inside but this is a once in a lifetime chance for you right now. Hm? Where do you start, which direction do you walk in? You shrug your shoulders and think whatever and you just start walking. Your Arabic is pretty rusty so when you read signs you're mainly going off context clues. You start to pass by little shops and vendors admiring what they had to sell. The city really starts to feel alive as you take in the small details around you. In the background you hear people chattering, having small conversations About how busy they are today or their plans, the playful screaming of children, the sound of vendors selling their goods. You see how different areas of the city are all unique with different stores and goods available. At one point you see a small cat wandering around. You stop and pet it. You can feel it purr as you glide your hand down its back and off its tail.

As you were enjoying your enrichment time petting the stray cat you didn't notice Indiana come up behind you. He looked over your shoulder watching with a small smile patiently for you to notice him.

Wow.

It’s been like five minutes. Indiana is taken back for a moment. He finds it almost… What's the word, Endearing? that you're putting so much effort into petting this damn cat. He almost feels jealous. 

“You know that thing probably has fleas?” He let slip out in a teasing and joking tone. He didn't mean to say it truly…okay maybe he did. You were a little startled when he talked, you looked up from the cat at the older man and lightly rolled your eyes and let out a small chuckle.

“Your being mean Jones!” you exclaim. Indiana walks over and kneels down next to you in the cat. He extended his hand out letting the cat sniff him, the cat let out a small meow and it nuzzled its small head into his hand. You smiled as he began to pet the cat. You noticed how gentle he was in the way he treated the animal. The cat seemed to like Indiana as much as it liked you. 

“Now you have fleas” you teased back. Indy was caught a little bit by surprise by you making that sly comment but he couldn't help but smile at you.

“Yeah, I probably have some fleas now.” he said while smiling. A faint growl came from your stomach, oh yeah eating. You forgot about that. Indiana laughed as he heard your stomach growl.

“Seems like someone skipped breakfast, come on i know a place that has some great food” You stood up and the cat walked away probably to seek attention from someone else. 

“Yeah, I'm very hungry.” you say with a tinge of embarrassment. Indy then smiled and offered his arm to you. You looked at him a little confused. You let out a little ‘hm?’ and then you realized, he wants you to hold on to him. You awkwardly take his arm and he starts leading the way.

“This place gets pretty busy around this time and… ya know…i don't wanna end up losing you in this crowd.” you look at him and smile. He could have just told you to stay close but you let him keep his pride.

Indy led you into a little hole in the wall restaurant that was tucked away. Once you both walked you took a seat at a table for two in the corner of the small but humble restaurant. The decor was simple but comfortable and it had a warm and cozy atmosphere. The walls were painted a warm shade, with decorations hanging from them. The restaurant was busy with locals eating and enjoying their food. You picked up the menu and realized you could only read about half of it. You looked at Indy and he had on his round reading glasses. They made him look mature and intelligent. The round frames complemented his face.

“Uh Indy i can't read the menu that well…” you say as you sheepishly look over your menu. Indy looked up from his own menu at you and smirked at your statement. 

“That's alright sweetheart, I'll get us something we’ll both like.” 

“Okay..” you nodded.

Sweetheart? You were frozen, you moved your eyes down towards your menu finding it hard to concentrate on it. Did he mean to call you that? Why did he call you that? You could feel your face slightly burn. You found yourself almost wanting him to call you that again.

He did not mean to call you that.

Indiana Jones, a full grown man who has plenty of lovers is failing to suppress his feelings. What's going on? He's never done this before. He doesn't slip up like this (yes he does). Did you notice his slip-up? Indy suppresses these thoughts, glazing his eyes over the menu picking something out for you two to eat. Indy picked something out, called over a waiter and put in the order. There was an awkward silence between the two of you. God this is horrible. Indiana does want to know you better, he never really has sat down and had a genuine conversation with you except once. But that was your first day on campus.

Indiana had just walked out of the faculty lounge with a cup of coffee in one hand and his briefcase in the other. He had just gotten back from Turkey with his father. He was tired, his back hurting, he was behind on work, and did not have much patience. As he turned the corner to his office he noticed someone standing in front of his office door. He sighed as he approached them.

“I know I haven't graded exams but i'll get to them today.” he grumbled as he walked by them and unlocked his office. The person turned their head to the side in confusion.

“Um sir i’m not one of your students..” Indy stopped and turned around.

“What?”

“Sir i'm an Intern, My name is ___! I was told I'll be working with you this semester!” They gave him a smile and extended their hand out to him. Oh yeah, Indiana forgot about that. Oops. 

“My bad,” he said, extending his hand to shake theirs. "I'm a bit out of it today I suppose. It's nice to meet you, I'm Indy.” Indiana Jones then sighed, still feeling tired and slightly irritable after his most recent trip abroad. He took a sip of his coffee and rubbed his neck, as he could feel the tension building up in his shoulders. He looked at the intern and forced a smile, trying to mask his tiredness. "Well then, let's get to work."

Okay…maybe not too genuine, but you two are always so busy from that point on he doesn't know that much about you. 

“So..” Indy mumbled, breaking the silence. “Did you sleep well last night? I saw that you made that…nest?” You finally looked up from the table and at Indiana. You laughed as he called your bed a ‘nest’. 

“Yeah it was fine, just a bit warm.” 

“I'm sorry you had to sleep on the floor, i mean i would have but by the time i came out of the shoulder you were already asleep.”

“No it's okay, I really don't mind!” the waiter came back with your food and placed it on the table. You and Indy started eating and enjoying each other's company. It was nice, you told him about your life growing up and how you ended up at Bedford as his intern and he told you stories about the different adventures he’s been on ending on the last trip he took with his father. 

“The holy grail?” you looked at him in shock. Indy smiled and let out a small laugh.

“I thought it was just a myth!” you added. Indy looked at you with a slight smirk on his face. 

“Yeah, so did I. Even though my fathers obsession with it I never thought the damn thing had a basis in this reality. I always thought of the relic as mythical.” he let out a half hearted sigh and called over a waiter asking for the bill. You pulled out your wallet but Indy interrupted you.

“Hey I've got it.” you shook your head at his comment.

“Come on, you brought me on this trip for free! It’s the least I could do!”

“To be fair this trip is already funded by the college and I'm not paying anything either.” you stayed silent for a moment trying to come up with an excuse to pay.

“Could we at least split the check?” you suggested with a nervous smile. Indy looked up from the bill and stared at you for a moment. Then his lips curled into a playful smile.

“How about this? I pay for this meal and to pay me back and at the banquet tonight you owe me a dance?” 

[artiststarme]

Oblivious Eddie

This is kind of the opposite of @ladykailitha's current story. It turned out a lot longer than I anticipated lol. Featuring the screaming match that you guys voted on! I hope you guys like it and please share your thoughts in the comments!

~*~*~*~

Steve was at his wit’s end. Things were now back to normal in the summer after the supernatural happenings of the Upside Down in the spring. The older teens had graduated from high school (Eddie included), the younger kids were off at camp or work or rehab respectively, and Steve was working his usual shift at Family Video. 

He was alone today since Keith was out of town on vacation and Robin was touring the campus at Indiana State. He was bored out of his mind. The entire day, he’d had a mere four customers with plenty of time to rewind the returned tapes, organize the shelves in a way Robin would hate, and take a variety of magazine quizzes. He now knew that his spirit animal was a golden retriever, Tom Cruise would date him for his personality, and that his zodiac sign would find fortune in the next month. 

However, if something interesting didn’t happen in the next ten minutes, he was going to do something drastic like pull his hair out or something. As the minutes ticked on, he started getting worried. Steve prided himself on being a man of his word and he made a decision which meant he had to stick to it. But did it count if it was a thought to himself? Would he have to pull his hair out by the clump to prove a point to his own brain? Maybe he-

His spiral was cut off by the jingle of the door’s bell. Steve let out a sigh of relief, “Welcome to Family Video, is there anythi- Eddie! Hey man, what’s up?”

Eddie had gotten a part-time job at Thatcher Tire and was trying to bring in some money from work of the legal variety. He said it was time to make money like an honest man and develop the good habits of the working class. Steve thinks that Hopper threatened him about the drug dealing and Eddie had no choice but to abide by his rules because he was the one who cleared his name in the media and with the cops. Either way, Eddie should be at work but instead he was walking straight towards Steve with a swish to his hips. 

“Heya Big Boy, guess what.”

“What?” Steve asked in curiosity. He didn’t know what would make Eddie so happy but his face was nearly splitting with the force of his beaming grin. 

“I got a call from a concert venue in Indy and they want Corroded Coffin to perform! They said that my notoriety from Spring Break could work as publicity and bring in more people. They want us to play this weekend!” Eddie was practically jumping up and down in excitement. 

Steve hopped the counter in order to envelop Eddie in a hug, “congratulations man! What did the kids say? Are they excited for you too?”

Eddie pulled back slightly, just enough to place his hand on Steve’s shoulder and look him in the eye whilst pulling a strand of hair from its position stuck in his mouth. “The kids? I don’t know, I came directly here to tell you.”

The comment in Eddie’s earnest tone caused butterflies to flutter in Steve’s stomach. He wanted to tell him first? That’s so sweet. Then he shook his head, it wasn’t sweet. It was just a dude telling his bro some exciting news. That’s all. 

“They’re going to be thrilled, Eds! You’re going to do great, I wish I could see it.” 

“That’s kinda why I’m here. Would you, Steve Harrington, do me the honor of watching me perform the most metal concert ever in a dingy venue in Indy this weekend? I’ll be honest with you, I’m a little nervous and having you there would make me really happy.” Eddie looked at him with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster, trying to persuade Steve to go. And honestly, he didn’t even have to. As soon as he had told Steve about the gig, his mind started thinking over blackmail he could use to get Keith to cover his shift. 

But, as he looked into Eddie’s pleading eyes and pouty lips, all he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss him. Which… what the fuck?! Steve wasn’t gay, he liked boobies! He still liked boobies! But now he thinks he liked the picture of Tom Cruise in the magazine from earlier and maybe Matthew Broderick on the movie poster over there and definitely Eddie, fuck. Steve needed to have a mental breakdown, STAT. 

“Fine, yes, I would be honored to go with you. Now, get out of here and tell the kids. They’re going to be thrilled,” Steve said as quickly and nonchalantly as he could muster in the face of his fast-approaching sexuality crisis. 

“Yay! Thanks Stevie, I swear you’re going to love it. I’ll see you tomorrow for movies and beer at mine, right?” Eddie asked over his shoulder while walking to the door. 

Steve felt like he was being strangled as he watched Eddie’s ass walking away, “yep, I’ll be there. See you later, Alligator!”

The second Eddie’s van drove out of the lot, Steve was rushing to lock the door and turn the closed sign. He needed to have a breakdown in peace. He slid down the wall of the disgusting Family Video bathroom and let the pent up sobs explode out of him. He knew he was freaking out over nothing but he couldn’t help it. It felt like in the few minutes it took for Steve to realize he liked guys, his entire world had changed. He was an outsider now, a queer, a freak. Deep down, he knew there was nothing wrong with being gay. Love is love. But why him?

Honestly, this wasn’t the worst thing he’d gone through. Yeah, he couldn’t be open with his love for another dude without being targeted which sucked. But he fought literal monsters with a bat and came out of it relatively unscathed. So this obviously wasn’t the end of the world. 

Steve tried to think of what Robin would say in this moment but couldn’t come up with anything. He felt a rush of irrational anger at her because of it. Why did she choose to tour a college campus now? She was already planning on leaving him behind and now she missed his crisis when she was supposed to be there with him? Ridiculous, some platonic soulmate she was. 

After another several minutes of freaking out, he started to calm down. This wasn’t an awful thing despite his initial thoughts. He knew Eddie was gay after one two many beers and a miniature freak out on Eddie’s part. And he knew his friends should be okay with it. And Eddie was amazing, they went through the same things, and they’ve bonded over their matching bat scars. Looking back, maybe that’s why Steve hasn’t been able to get a girlfriend in months… because he like-likes Eddie!

A plan started to form in Steve’s mind. He was going to woo Eddie and show him what it would be like to have the full ‘Steve Harrington Dating Experience’. He’d flirt, take him on dates, the whole shebang. And when Eddie inevitably fell for him, they could be boyfriends. With the plan in mind and the crisis averted, Steve left the bathroom, opened the door to the shop, and continued plotting for the rest of his shift. 

This would be a piece of cake. 

~*~*~*~

This was much harder than Steve had originally anticipated. He did not consider how utterly unobservant Eddie was or how oblivious Eddie would be to his affections. Steve had been flirting with this fucking guy for a month now and he was no closer to making him his boyfriend. 

He’d started smooth the night after his breakdown when he and Eddie watched movies and smoked weed in his trailer. Steve had given Eddie a compliment on his outfit, brought beers, and rested his arm on his shoulder during one of the scarier movies. What did Eddie do? Nothing! Steve thought he might’ve seen the barest hint of a blush when he wrapped his arm around him but it was gone before he could check to make sure. So he vowed to spend more quality time with him to be more obvious. 

The next time was at Eddie’s concert. Steve drove Eddie’s van with Eddie and the rest of the van the entire way to Indy. During the drive. They kept up conversation about metal music, summer plans, and the kids. At one point of the drive, Steve straight up grabbed Eddie’s hand and intertwined their fingers. Eddie didn’t even break his train of thought and continued speaking, rubbing his thumb along Steve’s knuckles. Steve couldn’t even focus on listening as if Eddie’s thumb rubbing circles didn’t make Steve want to stick his fingers in his mouth. Physical touch was also not affecting his guy. 

He tried words of affirmation next and those didn’t work either. His flirts initially started small. He would compliment Eddie’s clothes, his hair, or the things he liked. Then they escalated to comment on his character, his personality, and ‘how adorable he was’. Yesterday, Steve literally told him that his ass looked great in his black jeans but would look better out of them. That statement made Eddie’s jaw drop and he let out a loud guffaw before continuing his conversation like Steve hadn’t just implied that he wanted to see his bare ass. Son of a bitch. 

He was trying out acts of service when Eddie called him out. Steve had been doing the dishes at the Munson trailer while he waited for Eddie’s shift to end when he came in. And he came in hot. He slammed the door behind him and waved his hands around in flailing outrage. 

“Harrington, what the actual fuck! What are you even doing? You’re so fucking confusing!” He screamed as he saw Steve scrubbing at a stain on a white cutting board. 

Steve whipped around to look at him and narrowed his eyes. He was the confusing one? He’d been flirting with this dumbass nearly every day for a month and getting nowhere. “I’m confusing? That’s rich coming from you.”

Eddie blinked in shock before his lips pulled back in a snarl. “First of all, nothing about me is rich. Second of all, yes it’s you that’s confusing! You’ve been fucking flirting with me for weeks and no you’re doing my uncle’s dishes! That’s confusing.”

“Why is it confusing? I’m doing the dishes because you weren’t home yet and I needed something to do. I’m flirting with you because I like you. What’s confusing?” Steve was legitimately confused at this line of questioning and he really didn’t understand why Eddie was yelling. 

“You like me? Newsflash- you’re straight. You’re the straightest person that I have ever met. I don’t know why you keep flirting with me or what angle you’re trying to play here but I’m not interested in being your experiment, Harrington.” Eddie yelled at him, his finger pointing at Steve accusingly before moving to hug himself in self-comfort.   

Steve saw his discomfort but elected to act defensively and yell back at him. “I’m not straight, I never said I was and you never asked! I like both and it’s really shitty of you to try and tell me who I like when you have no idea what’s going on!”

Eddie opened his mouth to talk but Steve plowed on, “your whole schtick is nonconformity and sticking it to the fucking man but you draw the line at me liking guys and girls? Maybe I don’t like you as much as I thought I did. You’re obviously just as rude and judgmental as everyone else. And you’re welcome for the dishes, fucker.”

Eddie grabbed his arms as he went to move past. “Harrington, Steve, Stevie. I’m sorry, please just listen to me. Steve!”

Steve jerked his head to the side to glare at him. “What?”

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you or not be appreciative of you washing our fucking dishes. I just, I didn’t know you liked both and I was losing my mind the past few weeks because I couldn’t figure out if you were flirting with me or if it was just you being a good friend or if you were playing a prank or something. I’m sorry and I do appreciate you,” Eddie was biting his lips nervously and his hand was still wrapped around Steve’s upper arm. He looked earnest and like he genuinely regretted his actions. 

Steve sighed, “I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable-”

“I’m not uncomfortable! I was just really confused and I didn’t know what was happening. But uh, I like you too.”

Steve’s eyes met Eddie’s. “You do?”

“Hell yeah, man. You were my gay awakening in middle school. That’s why I’ve been so frustrated this past month. I didn’t know if I was imagining it or if I actually had a shot,” Eddie chuckled. 

Steve stepped closer to him and put his hand on the back of Eddie’s neck. “You definitely have a shot.”

And then, Steve pulled Eddie’s face closer to his own and their lips smashed in a kiss. Eddie groaned as their teeth gnashed in the bruising kiss. When they finally pulled apart, they pressed their foreheads together and breathed in the same air. Steve whispered, “you were my gay awakening too.”

Eddie’s answering cackles were so loud, Max came over to tell them to shut the hell up. She got a free front-row seat to their liplock and let out a scream so high-pitched that the window glass quivered before running back to her trailer. On the bright side, they wouldn’t have to come out to the kids.

@doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes @pyrohonk

[obitv]

thanks for 200 followers! have this :3

during the timeskip, william and vyncent decide to go dancing.

read on ao3 here!

You really need to learn to think before you speak. Like, now. Yesterday, even! Any point that was before right fucking now!

Inviting Vyncent to hang out outside the base? Sure, normal. You've been staying in the rubble of the old base for a few weeks now and it's still... unsettling. And you live together, of course hanging out is normal! Trying to experience normal teenage things now that you two have some downtime? Yes, sure! Normal!

Asking Vyncent if he wants to go clubbing? NOT. NORMAL.

He asks you to explain yourself. Of course. Because you really had to put your foot in your mouth there.

"It's, uh- A nightclub? A bunch of people our age go there to... dance? And there's music and drinks? It's- You don't have to go, I was just throwing it out there, ha,  mean I've never even gone-"

"Cool. Sounds fun! When do we go?"

Oh, you're so fucked.

--

You find a nightclub. Or- Less find, more remember - totally not because you'd fantasised about this for days or anything, but because after Harlem brought you to one you went find which club he had been in, and subsequently memorise any other places you could possibly go, if you ever wanted to. Just to avoid him.

The infinitely worse part is when you spend far too long fretting about outfits. You spare a brief thought to wish you could talk to your old friends right now, but you manage to scrounge up something.. nicer than your usual. Tight ripped jeans you pretend you didn't steal from Ashe, indie band tee from some show you went to when you were 14, a worn dark leather jacket. And- Eyeliner. A little. You also pretend you don't remember much from Ashe's rambles about makeup, but that advice stuck with you.

You do not tell Vyncent about the unofficial dress code, and yet he picks up on it anyway. Probably keyed in when you started scrabbling through the rubble to pull that jacket out of what remains of your closet.

"Will? Do I need to.. dress differently?"

You will your voice not to squeak miserably. You fail. "N-o..? You- I'm sure how you usually dress is ok, y'know, they don't REALLY have a dress code? You- you'll be fine. Probably. Uh- Definitely. Totally... fine."

"There's a DRESS CODE?"

Which is how you end up standing next to a shirtless Vyncent Sol with a pile of clothes in front of you. If you had told the you from 6 months ago about this, he probably would've passed out on the spot. You aren't doing much better yourself.

You're trying very hard not to ask why, exactly, Vyncent owns low rise jeans. You're trying in general not to acknowledge that at all, actually, which is thankfully made slightly easier as Vyncent put those on BEFORE coming to ask you what to wear, so you didn't have to give any input on them. It's not like they're excessively tight or anything, just- He's not wearing a shirt. And Vynce may not be packed with muscle like Dakota but he isn't as stick thin as you and- You have eyes, ok!

But you are using those eyes for a much more acceptable task - helping Vyncent pick a shirt. So that he stops being all... That. You've narrowed the pile down to just two options before your brain melts and you tell him that "both- both of those are fine!" while mentally patting yourself on the back for almost making a full sentence after that whole ordeal.

You head outside before you can make a bigger fool of yourself, climbing through the rubble of the entrance and letting the cool evening air refresh your brain while you still can. Winter is quickly settling into the city, and you definitely aren't wearing enough layers to be out right now. You hope the walk can warm you up.

Vyncent comes up next to you right when you start having to fight back shivers. Bastard never even notices the cold, something about being used to higher altitudes. That's... something you should ask more about, probably. Not tonight though. Tonight is not a night for potentially emotional conversations.

Aside from your wandering thoughts, the walk is nice. The chill clears a bit with exercise and good company, and your jitters. Vyncent seems excited, thankfully, even if he's definitely out of his comfort zone. But so are you! Which makes this... maybe count as a bonding experience. If all goes to shit you can share the misery, and if things go well... Well. You can always hope.

You end up in a part of town that's still bustling even this late in the evening. Music and conversations blend together into one, filling the air. There's even colourful lights strung up between the buildings, almost making up for the lack of stars. Vyncent is looking all around at them - and you realise for all you guys went out together before, none of your patrols or explorations had taken him to this part of the city before, at least not after dark. You give yourself a moment to admire him - the lights here probably wash you out, but the faint colours reflect off his eyes and almost make them sparkle.

Before he notices you, you grab his arm and gesture to one of the open doorways nearby. A neon sign reading FERDINAND'S flashes above it, and together you walk over.

The music hits you as soon as you get near the door, a pulsing wave of bass from the speakers, and you spare a moment to turn back to where Vyncent is trailing behind you, still faintly starstruck.

"Hey, Vynce. You- just let me know if you wanna leave, ok? If it sucks we can just go home and watch a movie."

His gaze snaps to you, and he takes a breath. Straightens his posture a bit, like he's preparing to go into a fight, which you try not be amused by. He shakes his arm out of your loose grip and smiles at you. "Yeah, yeah. I still wanna check it out though!"

So in you go.

-

Clubbing... isn't something you have much experience with. You'd planned to go out, before, but you left Deadwood too early to really go anywhere. And the time with Harlem scared you out of trying to go anywhere while he could be around, so really your experience is limited to, uh. Next to nothing? So sue you for not knowing what to expect.

It's loud, for one. Obviously, but it's not loud in a bad way, just in a way that lets you feel the beat all the way in your bones, in a way that leaves little room for thought other than the beat. It's much warmer in here, though still not as crowded as you'd feared. Come to think of it, you're not sure what day of the week it is? But it's clearly not peak. The bar is crowded, sure, but it's barely two people deep at worst, and there's even free seats.

You hesitate to leave Vyncent, but when you gesture at a booth and then at the bar he seems to get the idea. He heads to get a table, and you go to grab yourself the drink you're definitely going to need to keep your head around here. You don't plan on drinking much, if any more than just one, but a little liquid courage feels like it'd be nice right around now. You order your beer, look back at Vynce, and order a second in case he wants it. You probably should've asked before he left.

You get them quickly though, and weave your way across the floor to reach him. He's still staring at everything, and it almost makes you wonder how the fuck you two had gotten past the bouncer. He takes one of the bottles out of your hands, but scrunches his nose up after sniffing it and puts it down on the table closer to you. That answers that, then.

Overall, it's a nice club. More of a pub on this level than a nightclub, really, but you know there's a proper dance floor around somewhere. The music is good, too, nothing too overplayed, and a fair bit you've never even heard before.

"I thought you said there'd be dancing?"

It's almost hard to hear him over the music, but you have to admit it's true. You brace yourself, throwing back the last of your drink, and stand up.

"C'mon! It's, uh, over this way, I think?" Fucking Vyncent and his elf hearing doesn't have any trouble with hearing you over the noise, getting up and walking with you before you resorted to getting really close for him to hear you.

Whatever. The dance floor is downstairs from the main bar, and- Wow. There's definitely more people down here, but still blessedly not packed. You hadn't considered that- well- There'd be other people here.

Vyncent, though, perks up. He was a pretty good dancer back at the party you won't ever talk about, now that you think about it. It's definitely a similar vibe, just less possessed highschoolers and more drunk college students. He's much less reserved than you, immediately heading to join the dancers while you hang back and watch.

The music is different down here, but still not bad. There's multicoloured lights shining all over the main floor, catching on people's hair, clothes, eyes, and Vyncent is... fucking stunning. He's in a league of his own out there. Going from partner to partner and somehow, he's just as amazing as he is in combat. You had assumed most of his skill had come from the whole possession deal back at the party, but this is actually him choosing. No tangos on this floor, but that doesn't put a dampener on him at all.

There's a break in the music, eventually. Vyncent comes back to where you're lurking, panting but smiling. He's gorgeous. Someone's body glitter has rubbed off on him, somehow, and the cascade of lights makes him glow. You haven't seen him this- happy, since before everyone left.

It's a.. scary thought. You want him to be able to be this happy forever, and in this moment you'd do anything he asked if he kept smiling at you like that. So, of course, when he holds his hand out to you and asks you to dance, you say yes.

Seriously. Think before you say things, Wisp! But Vyncent's hand is warm in yours, and you're just buzzed enough to not feel like hundreds of eyes are pinned to your every move, and the music is shaking your bones with every beat. To be fair, you've wanted this for... far longer than you'd like to admit.

You faintly recognise whatever song is playing. It's fast, and is probably going to be burned into your brain forever, because you are dancing with Vyncent fucking Sol.

[this is where i'll be, so heavenly, so come and dance with me, michael]

He drops your hand once you're properly in the crowd, which is a shame, but he starts dancing and you try to mimic him and others around you. It's easier than you'd thought, to not worry about the other people around you. Whenever you'd pictured something like this, you'd underestimated how it'd feel to really be here, with Vyncent watching you and laughing, seemingly carefree.

You think he's never looked more beautiful than he does right now. You desperately want to tell him, so, so desperately, but instead you let yourself laugh with him, moving closer to the beat. You're moving in an imitation of some formal dance, a back and forth just between yourselves. It's impossible to stop smiling at him now that you've started, and maybe you're happier than you've been in a long time too.

It's- a bit of a blur, after that. There are times where Vyncent reaches a hand out to you and you dance together like that, a raver's waltz. He spins you a few times, and you're breathless with laughter after each one. You step out for a break, and Vyncent goes between various partners - but for once you don't feel that stab of jealousy, because his eyes keep darting back to you and he smiles wider each time. At some point, both of you end up mostly standing still in the middle of it all, giddy with infectious joy, with you leaning against his chest and his hand on your shoulder.

You look up at him then, and your faces are so, so close- in a crowded room, where anyone could bump into you... The temptation to just lean up and kiss him is almost unbearable. You could always brush it off as an accident if you had to - or you'd finally have something you've wanted for months. it's tantalising, having that choice dangled in front of you.

Before you can really do more than begin to lean in, though, Vyncent's eyes flicker away from your face and to the door. You'd almost missed it, because you were definitely paying more attention to his lips than his eyes, and you look away, guilt starting to eat into you.

He says something then, but your hearing's gone to shit right now so he gives up and untangles himself from you. He points at the door, then tilts his head at you in a clear question. We leaving now?

You... can't believe you almost did that. You nod at him, struck dumb by your thoughts. Outside, the sudden lack of noise feels almost like a physical weight being lifted, while the freezing temperature is like a slap in the face. You stumble forward into Vyncent, and he steadies you while you shiver and try calling a cab, because no fucking way are you walking home like this.

Home, ha. You know full well that Vyncent is more your home now than any building could be. Even if you keep almost fucking things up - the thought of not having him there is almost too much to bare.

But, for now, you have him. His arm around your shoulders again, trying to keep you warm while you wait for your cab, and the knowledge that when you wake up in the morning, he'll still be there. Neither of you are going anywhere.

[indigaygo]

Reasons I think Varian Was Meant To Be The Moonstone

// TANGLED SPOILERS //

Okay, so I am a heavy reacher when it comes to tangled and I am also a firm believer that Varian was originally meant to be the moonstone but they changed it to Cassandra because either they wanted some massive plot twist or they thought Varian being a villain 3 times was too much. I think personally Varian would have been the better moonstone holder, nothing against Cass I just think he would have made a better villain.

Warning, this will be long. I apologise for any mistakes.

-

1- Cassandra's villain arc makes absolutely no sense.

Not only was this sudden change out of the blue with zero build up to it besides from Adira, but overall it isn't her personality at all. The whole "Gothel preferred you as a daughter" feels like a very rushed plot point just to give Cass some edge and a reason to hate Rapunzel. She was there, she knows about what Gothel was like and the things Rapunzel went through and she barely knew her in the first place.

2- Varian is the only one with abnormal hair colour.

Okay this one I REALLY looked into. If you go through the tangled series, there is not a single person who has any strange hair colours. And this one is explained in two sections. First half being about genetics and parents. Only 4 people in the show have their parents shown. Rapunzel, Eugene, Varian and Cassandra.

Cassandra shares the same hair colour and eye colour as mother Gothel. Eugene shares the same hair colour and eye colour as both of his parents. Now Rapunzel is when things get interesting. Rapunzel has the natural hair colour of her mother, but only when she isn't effected by the sundrop. The sundrop is what changed her hair colour.

Now for my explanation. Varian, is the only one, who doesn't follow this pattern. His father had black hair and via a canonical portrait, his mother was ginger.

So where did the teal hair come from? Now I hear you yelling "But Indi!! He could have had an alchemical accident or added it in himself!!" But is that true?

Because looks like he was born with it. And if Varian followed the pattern of the others with their parents, that hair stripe would be ginger. We've seen Quirin front and back and no where does he have that same stripe, likewise his mother doesn't show on either.

Cassandra's hair only TURNED teal after using the moonstone. However, Rapunzel, who would have genetically been born brunette, was born blonde because she was afflicted by the sundrop before she was born. And where did Varian's father come from? That's right, reason number 3.

3- Quirin and the brotherhood.

We know now that Quirin is a part of the brotherhood. All 3 of them have affiliations to the moonstone. Quirin was around when the blast from it had happened. The moonstone and the sundrop share something in common. Once they touch your insides, like the sundrop being drank by Arianna, and like Cassandra put the moonstone in her chest. Once touched internally, you are officially effected by it's power. Quirin was extremely close when the blast happened, there was no way he didn't get any injuries from it, which would have been a part of him to then pass down to his son. While Gothel, had no affiliations with the moonstone in the slightest.

There is more I could go off of but those reasons are more to do with my personal opinions about the lore and how the story should have gone while these ones are facts.

But yes I am very, very annoyed at the fact they didn't end up using Varian as the moonstone when the potential he could have had story wise would have been so insanely interesting rather than just sticking him with the Saporian's only to get betrayed in one single episode. Varian had such lackluster lore for such an important, repeated character in the series and then Disney denied us VAT7K.

Yes I am very mad about this.

[rad-rat-with-a-tophat]

I'M CRAVING SOME FRESHMAN RICH PINING OVER JAKE, DO YOU THINK YOU COULD FEED MY BRAIN?

OH FUCK YEAH BROSKI

i can do that.

It began with a pack of bright red little sticky notes and a bad idea.

Rich had gotten the sticky notes by swiping them off his 70 year old English teacher, Mrs Barrison. It's not like she would've minded. Every single one of Rich's English teachers loved him, Mrs Barrison included.

He got the bad idea from a song he'd been listening to recently.

"Leaving little sticky notes in your locker

hoping you'll come and find them

knowing I'll never tell ya'

how you throw me off my rocker,"

It wasn't Rich's usual style of angst and edginess but when you're a 14 year old boy with an unattainable crush you're not going to be listening to My Chemical Romance you're going to be listening to a soft indie band while daydreaming about talking to your crush.

Rich's said unattainable crush was none other than Jake Dillinger, a fellow Freshman and the most popular lowerclassman in Middleborough High.

Not only was he at the top of the food chain while Rich was at the bottom, Jake was straight. Which meant that Rich had a zero percent chance. Not even zero, it was closer to a negative fifty percent chance. Not only was Jake straight (and also the most perfect guy in the universe due to him being funny, kind, charismatic, etc) but Rich was the least datable kid in the school. Minus those two boys who everyone was sure were dating each other but that's not the point. The point was, Rich was a small, english-nerd, dnd player, and overall loser who had a crush on the embodiment of Apollo.

And if Jake was Apollo, than Rich was Icarus and he was about to drown.

The moment when the wax began to melt on Rich's wings that were made by hope and naivety was when he slipped the first red sticky note into Jake's locker.

I love your new pin

If anyone noticed the blushing boy slipping a piece of paper into a locker than no one asked.

And if anyone noticed that when a certain Jake Dillinger folded up a tiny red sticky note and put it into his pocket then no one asked.

That was just the first of many many sticky notes that Rich would send Jake.

Your hair is really cute today.

Did you know that there's a species of lizard where there's no males because they all died because of cancer and the way this all-female species of lizards reproduces is by cloning themselves? Because now you do. PS you should wear green more often

Ya like jazz?

Rich would slip a sticky note into Jake's locker at the end of every school day for two months before he got a reply on a tiny red sticky note, the exact same shade as the one's he used.

I don't really listen to music so I don't know any jazz. any recommendations? I feel like you have great music taste.

Oh my god! Rich thought to himself, tiny butterflies in his stomach washing out the usual shame he felt about his crush on Jake. He replied! And oh my god he's so nice! And he said he thinks I have good music taste!

Rich was feeling the sun in his hair and stopped feeling the sense of dread at the ocean below him.

Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. They're so cool.

Thus began a chain of notes dropped into lockers and tiny red stick notes stuck onto lockers.

It was the last week before school was let out. Rich took a breath and his shaky hand dropped the final red sticky note.

hi, good job with surviving through your first year of high school. this is my final note. i have two things to say as my last words to you. the first thing is to listen to the song sticky notes in your locker you'll see why. the second thing is that you shouldn't look for me. you'll just be dissapointed. bye <3

And if anyone noticed the tears from the boy dropping a tiny red sticky note into a locker as he finally hit the ocean below then no one asked.

And if anyone noticed the most popular freshman in the school cover his mouth in a gasp that was the precursor to many tears as his hands gripped a tiny red sticky note then no one asked.

"Handing you sticky notes at your locker

knowing you'll go and read them

loving you out and open

not just in the corners of your locker,"

Jake listened to the song over and over, muffling silent tears over the sun he never got to reach for. The sun he only ever saw from deep beneath the waves.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression Vol:12 - Again, looking back on 25 years with Gara.

K: Hi, here we are with The Freedom of Expression on our Nico Nico channel. Im Kaoru from Dir en grey. 

J: And Im Joe Yokomizo, who has just been for a beer in the Chinese restaurant near the studio. 

T: And Im Tasai from Tokyo Sports. 

K: And we also have someone who was with us last time, and he just didn't talk enough, so he's here again this time. Its Gara from Merry. 

G: Good evening, Im Gara from Merry. 

J: The staff have told me you're pretty annoying. 

K, T: Haha 

G: Not at all!

J: Kaoru, what would you say? In your view, is he annoying?

K: Haha, no, he's not. 

J: Gara, I wanted to ask you, were you Dir's first roadie? 

G: For the past 20 years, I always thought that I was, but after the show last time, I was in the dressing room, and I got a message from Shinya. He told me the name of the guy who was there before me. So I thought, 'Aghh, there really was someone before me!'. I wonder if that guy actually counts though?

J: Haha, Leader, what do you think? This is quite important. 

G: It was only for a short time. 

K: Yeah, but it still counts. As soon as I heard it, I thought, 'Oh yeh, of course!!'

G: Kaoru, that means Im the second roadie?

K: Yep, you are the second. I was right after all. 

G: I must have forgotten, because I never thought there was someone like that before me. 

J: Do you kinda feel like he's stealing your glory a bit now?

G: Yeah, I always thought I was the first.

J: I see, haha. So, from now, your are Dir's second roadie?

G: Yeah, Ive been exposed by Shinya. Im the second roadie. 

J: Do you feel a bit like Shinya should have kept quiet about this? haha

G: Yes, I really do. 

J: Haha. Yes, well today we are joined by Dir en grey's second roadie, Gara. So, last time you were looking back at Dir en grey's history, from the Indies days, to now, right?

K: Yes. 

J: I was unable to join last time due to my work schedule. 

K: This is the first time for you to be here when we have a guest, right?

J: Yes, thats right. 

K: He always disappears somewhere whenever we've had a guest before. 

J: Oh no, not intentionally though. Its purely by chance!

K: It was as if guests would come because you weren't here. 

J: Yeh, I've heard that. I don't know about that though. Anyway, today we are gonna be looking back at the indies era in detail. There'll be loads of great stuff to hear, so stay tuned. Please send in your comments too, questions, thoughts, messages of support, anythIng is ok. People using twitter can use the tag TFOE. The first part of this show is free for anyone to watch, but the second part is for channel members only. If you become a member, you can watch this live broadcast in the archives for a year, and you will also be able to access members only videos. Please click the blue link at the top of your screen to joIn, and enjoy this broadcast to the end.  Leader was just pointing to it. Dir's second roadie was pointing too, weren't you?

G: Haha, yes...second...I'm quite sad, I tried so hard back then too. 

K: Surely, trying hard has nothing to do with whether or not you were first? 

J: Maybe you are just slightly envious. Ok, well, as for today, we will have another look at photos from back in the day. (*Indies photo of Kaoru appears on screen*) Here we go, since we are looking closely at the indies era today. How do you feel about this, Leader? Do you recognize this photo?

K: Well, we used this photo last time. Only you wouldn't know that. 

J: Oh, I see. I do apologize. Maybe I should stick to the script more.

K: Haha, no no. 

J: But anyway, we'll be digging deeper into the Indies era today, but first we have a quiz. Its time for the "Does Kaoru remember?" quiz!!

*applause*

J: Ok, so Dir's second roadie, Gara... 

K: Haha, you just want to keep saying that, don't you?

J: Yes, haha. 

T: He is the first one in my mind!

J: You are first in your heart, but second in reality. Anyway, Gara has created a quiz for Kaoru about the indies era. So Kaoru, try your best to remember. There are quite a few questions, but we will try to do at least 5. Try to get them all right, Leader. 

G: You'll be able to to tell if i really was first, and whether there really is a bond between us from this. 

T: Haha

J: Right? We need to look out for that. Ok, Gara, I'll hand over to you. 

G: I start from Question 1, right? Ok, Where was the place where I first met the members of Dir en grey? I said last time that the first live show I saw them was at Shinjuku Rock, but this time I'm asking about our first meeting, so its not a live venue. 

J: Ok, so Q1 is asking for the place you first met. Leader, you have a sketchbook in front of you to write your answers. For some reason, myself and Tasai also have sketchbooks, although its not likely that we will know the answers...

T: Yeah, we will just try our best. 

J: Yes we will. So, Gara, is this with no hints, right?

G: Yeah, the meeting place, this was an important moment. 

J: If he doesn't remember this, it could seriously damage your trust in him. 

G: Right. 

J: Haha, but look at Leader's face! He totally looks like he can't remember. Can we get a camera close up on him? This is important! If you'd never met, we wouldn't be here now. 

G: This was earlier than the live.

J: Ah, they want you to get this right in the comments. Gara, you probably spoke about your love towards Dir en grey last time, but this time its all about how far Kaoru's love extends to you. Ok, Tasai, you write something too, make it Tokyo Sportsy if you want. 

T: Ahh, its difficult. 

G: Kaoru is writing something now. 

J: Ah, a comment saying 'Kaoru looks cute when he's thinking'. And 'A forfeit if he gets it wrong!'...'Leader's love is deep!'

G: Its the first meeting, remember. 

J: Yeah, the place. 

T: By the way, how did you feel when your first met?

G: Well, I'd only ever seen them in magazines before then, so I was nervous, but I still remember introducing myself. 

T: Ahh, I wonder where it was...

J: Hmm, ok, Tasai, you show us your answer first. 

T: So this was when you were new in Tokyo, right? Ok, here's my answer. 'A bus stop at Tokyo Tower'. Like maybe they decided to meet up here for some reason. Maybe there were just there for some reason. 

J: Ahh...Ok, I don't quite understand this, so moving on...haha. 

T: Haha 

J: No no, you mean, maybe they had planned to go somewhere, so they met up there first?

T: Yeah. 

J: Well, the real question is whether Leader remembers. The place he first met Gara. Leader, lets have your answer. 

K: The studio in Kōenji. 

J, T, G: Ahh. 

T: That sounds more like it. 

J: Ok, Gara, tell us the answer. 

G: The correct answer is, an in-store event at Like An Edison. 

K: Don't remember that! Hahaha 

J: He doesn't remember!

G: It was an in-store event to coincide with the CD release, so I went and met the members for the first time. Meeting in the studio was after that. 

J: Well, he must have been close with this answer, right? If you met for the second time in the studio?

G: Yeah. I have a tonne of memories from that studio too. I saw them making new songs and and stuff there. I used to always drive the equipment truck too back then, but at the time I didn't have my own parking space. They told me to be responsible for truck, even though I didn't have a parking space, so I had to park it on the street in front of my place for about a month. 

J: Ahh, I bet you got a tonne of parking tickets. 

G: Yes. 

J: Ahh, that sounds painful. And despite this you still might be the second roadie! Leader, why did you think the answer was Kōenji?

K: Well, he was just there a lot. 

J: It seemed likely to be the place?

K: Yeah. 

T: Kaoru, do you remember this in-store event? 

K: No, we did a tonne of events like that back then. 

J: If any of the viewers were at that event in Like An Edison, please tell us in the comments. I wonder if anyone was? Not that we can give them anything if they were, except say, 'Oh wow!'. Haha. Well, that was question 1. A comment there says, 'A shock for Gara!'

G: He was close though, because I was often in the studio at Kōenji. 

K: You were following us, haha. 

J: Its like, he was only a little bit wrong. 

G: Ok, shall we move on? The next question is this. 'Where was the first region (outside Tokyo) that Gara travelled to as a roadie? And what was the amazingly delicious restaurant where Kaoru took Gara out to eat for the first time?'

K: This is hard! haha 

J: The restaurant name. 

T: Is this maybe a hint? You told us the region you are from last time, right, Gara?

J: Eh? Where are you from??

T: No no no, don't tell him! haha. 

J: Eh, whhhy? Ok, whatever. But we need the region Gara first travelled to as a roadie, and the name of the delicious restaurant where Kaoru first took him out to eat. 

T: Joe, you write something first. 

J: Its not WHAT you ate, right? Its the name. 

G: Yes. If I say what I ate, I think Kaoru will know where it was. 

T: Kaoru, do you know? 

K: Well, I'm just not sure about the timing as for the region. 

T: Its difficult!

J: The restaurant name is tricky too. 

G: But its something that everyone has heard of. 

J: Oh, so its not lIke an independent, local place, right?

G: Yeah. But back then, it was only...oh, I'll give it away if I say that. 

K: Back then it was only..?

T: Ok, lets write our answers. Some comments saying, 'Gara is causing trouble for Kaoru', 'Leader, think!', 'I think I know it'. If you know it, don't tell us! 

J: Well, I really have no idea, but this is my answer. For the region, Hokkaido. And the restaurant, Dosanko Ramen. This is what I would eat after a concert, so I thought it could be this. 

G: That's a good answer. 

J: Thank you. Ok, Leader, your turn. 

K: Osaka, and Kamakura (ramen).

G: Oh, that's correct!! That makes me so happy! 

*applause*   

G: He told me about this incredible ramen, and took me to try it. So my first time trying Kamakura was with Kaoru. 

J: Ah, great! You got it right. 

G: You remember that?

K: No no, I just used to go there all the time back then! 

T: You don't actually remember going with Gara? 

K: Well, he said the words, 'Back then it was only...', which reminded me that this place became a national chain a little while later. Haha

J: Ahh, I see. 

G: Ahh, I gave it away with the hint. 

J: So it wasn't your memory, it was the hint that got you there. 

G: Kamakura ramen was totally different from any of the ramen I'd had before then. I didn't realise ramen could be like that. 

T: Ahh, yeh, its good, isn't it? 

J: Did you go there to finish a night of drinking or something? 

G: No, I think Kaoru just took me there. 

K: We still couldn't really afford to go out drinking much back then. 

J: Ah, financially, right? Eat loads of ramen instead, right?

K: Yeah. 

J: Ah, well, we got a correct answer! Shall we move on? 

G: Ok, the next question is this. 'What was the first song on which Gara helped during the recording?' 

J: This is quite important, right?

G: Yes. 

J: This is the first question related to the actual job. Hmm, a song from the indies era? 

G: Yes. I was able to see how the recording process worked. 

K: I'm trying to think what the timing would be...haha. 

J: Hmm, when would it be?

K: Yeah, I mean, within our timeline. 

J: Tasai, do you have any idea?

T: Well, hmm, I don't think we talked about this kind of thing last time...I might be wrong. 

J: Hold on a sec..Gara, you want him to get this right, yeh? 

K: Ahh, I dunno.  

J: You just wrote something though!

G: I saw the while process of recording the song with this one.

J: So, you were there watching the whole time?

G: Yeh, from when they started making the song in the Kōenji studio. 

K: Well, in that case I think I've got it right. 

T: Well, this is kinda vague, but my answer is, 'That song you recorded in an old house somewhere'.

G: Oh, that was Jealous. 

T: Yes, Jealous. 

J: Ok, Leader?

K: Haven't you written anything?

J: No, I haven't. Haha. 

K: Ok, my answer is Ash. 

G: Correct!!

*applause*

K: Well, I thought it was likely to be this. 

G: Yep, I was there during the recording. 

K: For that omnibus album?

G: Yes. 

K: Yeah, he said 'which song', so that means it wasn't part of a collection of songs. And if it wasn't a single, then it would have to be this. 

G: I remember I went for Tendon with Die. 

K, J, T: Hahaha. 

J: Is food all you remember?! Haha. So you saw the whole recording process. Do remember making any new discoveries about the secret to Dir en grey's sound?

G: I didn't understand the secret to it at all!

J, T: Haha. 

J: But you remember the Tendon. 

G: Yeah. Well, it was only one day. From the drums, bass, guitars, and even to the vocals, it was all done in one day.

T: Amazing. 

J: Yeah, but with a few hints, Leader got it right. 

G: Impressive!

J: Yes, two out of three correct so far. Ok, do we have time for another one?

G: Ok, next question please. 'There was once a mid-summer outdoor event back then, (which I attended as a roadie), but what did Kaoru say to me in the car on the way home, which to this day, I can never forget?' I can give you a small hint, it was a bit of a shock. 

J: So it wasn't something moving, or meaningful?

G: No

J: He wasn't commending your abilities or anything?

G: Not at all. My response was more like, 'Ehh? Kaoru, did you really say that??!'

J: It was something a bit shocking?

G: Yes. 

K: Did it have some connection with the event?

G: Yeah...this mid-summer outdoor event

K: Ah, I see.

J: That's a hint! Mid-summer, outdoor event. Ahh, there is some interest in the comments too. 'Gara, this quiz is fun' etc. 

G: Thank you. Its been 20 years, but these words of Kaoru's have stayed with me. The main hint is probably that it was shocking. 

T: Well, since you've been talking about food, Gara, I think its about food, so my answer is, 'I just ate shaved ice, but I hid it from you'. 

K: Haha

T: Like in the heat, he ate it all. 

J: Ah, like Gara would resent Kaoru for it?

T: Yeah, he'd be shocked. 

J: Well, since it was summer, my answer is this. 'Your sweat stinks!' It'd be shocking to be told this, right? Ok, Leader? I wonder if you remember. 

K: My answer is this 'What are you doing with us??'

T: Ahh, that would be bad. 

K: Well, it was an event, so there might have been some other bands playing that he liked, you know?

J: Ahh, so it wasn't like a solo event. 

G: Well, one time Kaoru came over to my place, and I had posters of all sorts of other bands up everywhere, so maybe he wondered what I was doing with Dir?

T: Did any of us get it right?

G: Actually, one of you did! Shall I tell you what he said to me? He said, 'You stink of sweat!'

J: Yeahhh!

K: Hahaha 

T: How did you get that??

G: Well Done, Joe. 

J: He really said that to you?

G: Yeah, it was the middle of Summer, and I was moving all the equipment around by myself, I worked so hard. Then at the end I got in the car and sat next to Kaoru, and he said, 'Ugh, you stink of sweat!'

K, J, T: Hahaha 

G: I was like...I've been working hard for you all day! I've never been able to forget it. 

T: Kaoru, do you remember?

K: No..

G: I was pretty young, so it was quite a shock for me. 

K: But I vaguely remember him telling me about how I said that to him once. 

J: Did you tell him about it?

G: Maybe when we when out drinkIng once, I might have mentioned it. But it really was the most shocking thing to hear from him. I mean, that's how a roadie should be, right?

J: It shows that you've worked hard. If you weren't sweaty, you wouldn't have been doing your job properly. 

G: Right? That's how I should be. 

J: Its a sign that you did a good job. 

G: Yes 

T: Someone commented, Kaoru should apologize. 

J: Haha 

K: I'm sorry. 

J: Ahh, an apology from Leader!

G: I feel purified, haha. 

J: Ohh, that's good. Ok, next question.

G: Ok, the next question is, 'Which food which Gara hates did Kaoru force him to eat, all in one?' This was a thing when I used to go for drinks with Kaoru, hated foods or stuff like that. 

J: Well, you DO stuff like that when you are young, don't you?! I mean, if we don't know what foods you don't like, we are never gonna get this, but Leader probably knows. Its just a matter of choosing the right one. 

G: Yeah, this particular food, I still can't even eat it. 

J: You can't eat it?

K: Something that can be eaten in one go?

G: Er, we talked about this last time, but he also made me do 'Pistachio all in one' before too. 

J: Ugh, that's like hell. 

G: I wasn't allowed water, so I just had to keep crunching away until I could swallow.

J: That sounds tough, you cant really swallow it all at once either, can you?

K: Inside your mouth was shredded, wasn't it?

G: Yeah. 

J: Ugh, really? Well, viewers, please write in the comments if you have any ideas about this one. Someone just wrote pizza, but its something you still can't eat, right? If its something even an adult can eat, it must be something with quite a distinct taste?

G: Ah! Yes. 

T: Ahh, I've already written something. 

G: *reading comments* Century egg? Ohh, that would be tough!

J: And expensive!

T: Ok, lets reveal our answers. So, last time Gara said he doesn't like chicken much, and I thought if he's done 'pistachio all in one', maybe he might have done this too, 'Fried chicken cartilage all in one'

J: Ah I see. Well, my answer is this. 'Goya' (bitter melon). A lot of people  hate this, and it tastes very distinct. Ok, Leader?

K: Haha, I don't even remember, but..'Pickles'. 

J: Gara, are any of us correct?

G: One of you is close. 

J: Ohh, ok, tell us the answer. 

G: The correct answer is, Okinawan pickled onions (島らっきょう). So 'pickles' is nearly right. 

K: Goya is kinda there too, haha! (*Goya is an Okinawan vegetable*) Ahh, pickled onions, I think I kinda remember this now. 

T: Like, how did that work?

G: Well, all the onions were in the bowl, and I had to put them all in my mouth at once, and swallow them without a drink. 

J: Ahh, the things you got up too. 

G: I can still remember the disgusting aftertaste. 

K: The taste lingers, right?

G: Yeah. 

J: Ahh, is that the time already? Did we do 4 questions?...5? We did 5. How many did Leader get right? 2?

T: 2.5, right? With 'pickles'

J: Ah, ok, yes. 2 correct answers, and 1 good try. Half correct. What do you think Gara?

G: Yeah, I think he remembers a lot, since he was close with that last one. If this were baseball, he would be (*baseball reference, I dunno*)

J, K, T: Yeah, haha. 

G: It was a good result. 

J: Ok, Leader, 5 questions about the indies era from Gara. What did you think?

K: I don't remember anything.

J, T, G: Hahaha

K: I just worked out the answers from the hints. I don't actually remember. 

G: We were close though, we we working together practically every day. 

K: But it was only one year out of 25, haha. 

J: Well, yeah...

G: Maybe that's the fate of being the second roadie...haha. 

J: Ok, we're going to have to finish the first part of the show, but we'll learn more about Kaoru in the second half. We'll continue talking about Kaoru and Gara's history, so please become a channel member to see that. I'll just let you know how you can do that. The second half of the show is for members only, so you need to be a channel member if you want to see it. If you join, you can watch this broadcast in the archives for a whole year, and we also have members only videos, where we challenge ourselves to all sorts of things, so you can enjoy those too. Ok, how to join. Its very simple. There is a blue link at the top of your screen. Kaoru is pointing now. Click this link, and you will get a screen asking you to choose your payment method. Choose your method and click proceed. Then you can enter your payment details, and you're done. If you haven't yet joined, please do, and enjoy the rest of the show. Ok, now, some news from Gara?

G: Yes, thanks. Uh, on Dec 25th Merry will hold our 'Very Merry Xmas' event at Shinagawa Club eX where we will show the history of Merry (*etc*).

J: Ok, thank you. Leader?

K: Hm, was there something? Ah, well, we are mid-tour now. We still have Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Osaka. And then an extra date on Dec 16th at Shinjuku Blaze. Uhh, I think there are quite a few venues with tickets still available, so people can definitely come by on the day and check it out. 

J: I saw you at Zepp Haneda recently, but I'd love to see you in one of the other regions if my schedule allows it. 

K: Please do. 

J: Ok, a quick break here while we change over, but channel members hang tight. Lets continue The Freedom of Expression in the second half!

[breserker]

mystery horror theater bre-thousand 1

because if i go on another movie binge without filling this out first i'll have defeated my own purpose

THE OTHER DAY i watched three filmmmsssssss if you can call it that -- Smile (2022), Day of the Reaper (1984), and Savage Weekend (1978). this is my first time doing this under a name and i guess i should give them number ratings but what i may rank very high might get me slaughtered on sight, you'll see what i mean

SMILE (2022) (TW: Suicide, self-harm, THE CAT DOES NOT MAKE IT)

At the behest of a friend, I jumped in to watch this movie -- I enjoy doing that, very little fucks me up and I like keeping an eye out for people horror-wise. Overall? It was incredibly good. It had the tense anxiety of Invisible Man (2020), where there's a lot of focus on the mental deterioration of a woman in a world that doesn't believe her, surrounded in a blanket of the first scene of Midsommar (2019) where it shows a pretty ugly side of certain traits of mental illnesses such as mania and psychosis. And it should, the main character works in a psychiatric emergency hospital, and does so to the point of detriment that I would call self-harm. I've been there, working so hard you wreck yourself, y'know?

By about halfway through it became obvious that was also a monster movie, and while I can see some people turning their nose at that, I think I really needed that aspect to follow through with the movie without feeling beaten down with misery and anxiety. The monster in question operates similarly to It Follows (2014) but instead of being passed on by sex it's passed on through sharing the trauma of witnessing a suicide. The monster itself reminded me a lot of BOB from Twin Peaks, there is a beautiful scene recreating BOB scaling the couch while smiling. It's then that I realized that the first person to die was named Laura. Yeah I see you...I see you...!!!

The theme in the movie is the chain of trauma passed from person to person and viscerally affecting those already with past traumas. I deeply enjoyed its execution and how this was a monster movie...I do wish, however, it ended a little bit differently. While the message that trauma never truly leaves you is there, I was hoping for a different, bittersweet ending instead of the bad end the movie provided. It felt tacked on or changed at the last minute. 4.5/5

~~

DAY OF THE REAPER (1984)

buddy oh man oh MAN BUDDY IF YOU LOVE REALLY SHITTY INDIE HOME FILMS SHOT ON A SHODDY SUPER 8 CAMERA WITH THE WORST ADR DUBBING YOU'VE EVER HEARD IN YOUR LIFE, with every treat a bad movie has to offer, THIS IS YOUR FILM and you can watch it FOR FREE on YouTube RIGHT NOW and then come back and punch me in the face. I was HOWLING with laughter. I got a friend also enthusiastic about bad movies to watch it and HE loved it TOO. i have to gather more people to watch this gem, and if you stick with it and think it's boring keep going because the conclusion is so wildly out of this world and so strangely done that it'll hopefully bring glee and joy to you too. CLEAR AND AWAY 5/5

~~

SAVAGE WEEKEND (1978)

I was running out of steam by this point because laughing at Day of the Reaper put my lungs in a state, but this is a slasher from the years in between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. I've seen many many slashers that follow the tropes of horny teens boning it in woods (but strangely a white girl usually dies first! I donno where the Black guy trope comes from--but then they're rarely in these films ANYWAY so whatever). But here, it's a bunch of really messy adults with crossed desires, separation/divorcees not knowing what they want out of love at this point, horny adult looking for any tail they can get, et cetera. It honestly was a refreshing break from all of the giggly teen stuff--I'd be far and away more interested to see more like this in the future.

The editing was cut really quick in a lot of areas and the film's pacing at times makes it feel like a rushed project, it needed a finer tooth comb on both fronts. The quality wasn't great but I was pleased to see a flamboyantly charming Christopher Allport give the nasty queer bitch role his all. The twist was pretty meh, I wish there was more fallout action between Mac and the divorcee (just get nasty with it! it's the 70's let's go!) I might be interested to see this again but probably not, it gets this score just for the novelty of horny adults with horny adult problems in a slasher film: 3/5

[bitty-bits]

A Jolly SineTrismas

It surely was another year. Let's look back at some stuff, and forward to other stuff, in the final Bitty Bits edition of 2022.

First of all, happy holidays to all who celebrate. Yeah it is a bit late on the "more famous holiday" side of things, but there are still others going on, and... in general it's probably never wrong to be festive during all of December. (It's also not wrong to NOT be festive! Just pointing that out!)

Many things happened in this late half of the year, controversial things, stupid things, all things. Here I will talk about some that mattered to me, to some extent.

(Also, RIP bozo...naro! Good riddance!)

This issue is dedicated to @rick-666, friend and avid newsletter enthusiast who encouraged me to try to fix the broken ass email form thingy that should actually send these posts as newsletter things but just isn't working! I'll have it fixed next year, I promise!!!!

My Work - Where To Next?

So I've made and tried to make many things through the years, but as someone who pretty much does anything all the time, I'm finding myself often doing... nothing at the end of it.

In 2020 I basically started work on Ketchup Dreams by making its first characters, Bitty and Lake, with more to follow the coming years... but still nothing too substantial. Pondered with which medium to present these characters in. Comics? Animation? In the end I'd just continue adding some things here and there to the overall project, but it still doesn't seem like enough. I really want to build a good universe for these guys to live in.

So at the moment I feel kinda directionless. But hopefully that will change. I guess I won't know what sticks until I actually do stuff.

From Bitty also came the entire aesthetic, motif, symbol, meaning AND name for, I guess you can call my "indie" studio/group/label thing... which my future creative works will be released under, and who knows maybe even friends' creations. The "ᑎᐱ" thing was kind of accidental, but I liked it enough that I wanted it to mean something for me. Not to sound corny and dumb, but to me "ᑎᐱ" is kinda like another representation of the polarity we have in life, much like black and white, but in this case it would be something like... smooth and sharp. Yeah I'm not gonna try to give too much meaning to it, it's just for fun, mostly. Bitty's ears initially were meant to just be bunny + kitty ears (hence the incredibly original name) for an asymmetrical design, but that basically spiraled into everything else.

All that said I'm still doing stuff every now and then, I even have been experimenting with tweaking Lake's design slightly, you can even see a little bit of that in the header art here. More on that some other time...

You can check the current "roadmap" for Studio SineTri projects on the pinned tweet.

Why not "TriSine" instead? Because that just... sounds too normal. "Tri" is an existing and common prefix. Also the order matters.

The Tesla In The Room

I don't think I need to talk much about the whole thing with Elon Musk buying Twitter and everything that came with it. Mostly I'm just tired of it all. Billionaires, other than beings that shouldn't exist, are Boring and not even in a funny kind of way (except for Bill Gates, his mere existence is comedic to me probably thanks to early internet culture) I wish I just didn't have to hear about 'em. But I guess we can't.

Anyways this entire situation practically got me back into being on Tumblr daily, after I had left it in favor of Twitter in like 2015, and now... the opposite is happening, that's just how sick I am of Twitter. Not just the website itself but the people in it and the energy that usually comes out of there these days. Musk was simply a final nail in the coffin. The problem is... he just keeps adding more nails. Here's hoping Elon doesn't ruin the very last thing that made Twitter "fun" to me - TweetDeck, but chances it'll survive are slim.

I'm also on Mastodon btw. Juuust in case.

AI Art Discourse - What's Happening?!

"A Still of Klonoa in The Simpsons"

Speaking of Twitter, probably one of the least pleasing topics to witness over there lately will be this.

No doubt, "AI art" as a concept pretty much exploded into popularity in 2022, while it already existed in concept years before, this was pretty much the one year that, 5 years ago, we'd look at machine learning attempting art and say "now just think about how that'll be 5 years from now", and well, that time IS now. Kinda.

There's legitimate worry about whether or not the computer would be able to replace artists, but... personally I don't think it will ever BECAUSE... there will still always be a demand for humanity and human-created content no matter how good any sort of AI gets, and well, currently AI still struggles with "drawing" many things. But it's fine, earlier this year people were mostly memeing with AI generators, being impressed, confused, having a laugh, or everything all at once.

Until computers making drawings suddenly were no longer seen as cool but rather, bad!!! evil!!! problematic!!! etc. even though the reason for that all stems from... misconceptions and misinformation (sometimes on purpose, just because... I dunno. Internet rewards people who get angry at things.) about how the technology works to begin with. No, AI doesn't simply collage a bunch of pictures together, that just isn't how it works, even if it knows what a Mona Lisa looks like almost perfectly. It's hard to put it into words, but this thread I believe explains it a bit better in simpler terms (hopefully), even if you still don't understand, it's... best to not be too ignorant about it.

Of course, I DO think AI ethics is an important conversation that should happen, but not if it's... not gonna be a conversation in the first place. If it sounds too extreme, reactionary, or sounds just about as crazy as anything you'd hear coming from Alex Jones or like, your pro-life uncle™, then it probably isn't the way to go.

This made even people who think photography isn't art come out of their closets, if they even were in one.

There are good use cases for AI in art. One of them is allowing disabled individuals to also partake and experiment with visual arts. Yes, technically nothing "stopped" them from "really" doing it, but just look at how much that argument almost slips into ableism territory (and there is a surprising amount of that coming from some anti-AI folks.) Hell, I could've used AI to create a background for the art on my header as I'm mostly... a character illustrator, focused on characters, and just don't really enjoy drawing backgrounds much at all.

Anyways I recommend y'all check out AWAY (Are We Art Yet), a collective of artists and creators alike embracing AI but also fighting for more ethical AI usage (discussion about scraping images from the web, consent for works to be used as training data, etc.), without the reactionarism and sometimes ableism. They're a friendly bunch.

What I’ve Been Playing / Watching

Gravity Falls

Well, does it really?

Hey Kids, Have You Heard Of Gravity Falls? The show's 10th anniversary was this year and, having heard mostly only good things about it since then, AND as someone who had recently been sucked deep into the modern Disney TVA pipeline (DuckTales 2017, Amphibia and Owl House are also great and would also recommend), I made it a goal to watch all of it before the year ends.

At first I thought this, like other very successful shows, would have way too many seasons for me to really get into, so I was surprised when I found out that wasn't the case.

It's definitely a great show, even 10 years later. From what I saw very little of it comes across as dated when it comes to references or jokes, the characters being likable and interesting are about enough to hook you into it I think. Also Matt Chapman is in there a lot and as an avid Homestar Runner fan, you can just Tell not only through his voices, but his humor and vibes entirely in some episodes.

If there's one thing I probably can't get enough of is Disney cartoons made by some of the most... Non-Disney people on Earth.

The Dream I Had On December 25th

Usually I share my dreams on Twitter, but decided it might be neat to feature some of the more interesting ones right here. They are an essential part of one of my creations after all. This year though, for a reason or another, I had less eventful or weird dreams in general. But waking up on Christmas day this is what was on my mind:

For more of my dreams you can check out my dream journal with stuff since at least 2014, here.

I had a dream I can split up in three parts - first I was at an old house of mine but I could hear a new trailer for the Mario movie premiering far outside, a classic game song could be heard in it and things pointed to it being a Daisy reveal.

Second part was a Strong Bad thing, where I possibly interact with him directly and actually cause a change to homestarrunner.com "accidentally". He makes some sort of analog horror parody, and an old main page gets a new "feature" permanently. I felt a sense of realization since "I caused this". I really wish I remembered more cuz it was great

Third part is the one I can recall the most, it was what seemed like a weird Gravity Falls AU type thing, which is slightly mixed up with The Owl House - In what appears to be the first episode, Grunkle Stan is nowhere to be found, with probably Eda taking his place as the twins' "Graunt". The episode begins with Mabel just wandering around the forest, when she comes across several typically good luck signs all at once, things like four leaf clovers and such. Eda knowing better knows it's a trap and tries to protect Mabel, but she is convinced that Eda is a witch (which probably Should be a secret at first in this alternate timeline I guess, Eda Is Not What She Seems™) and EVIL!!! and ignores her, acting hostile towards her, even, so Eda locks her up in a shelter. Perfectly normal. In there she finds… a journal. It doesn't appear to be -the- GF journal but rather a mix of that and Philip's journal from Owl House. At first it looked like the journal could talk by itself but someone just happened to be there in disguise, it was Soos, who happens to know a couple things about the journal but probably not much. For some reason I was "watching" it in Portuguese and they'd give him a completely different name, likely starting with a hard C, but I can't remember now. Some weird magic thing happens too which I don't remember how it's triggered or when exactly in the episode progression it even happens but it would make food and candy "infinitely stretchy", where you could essentially have infinite amounts of something just by stretching them, and it caused children to go insane over it. Eventually Soos and Mabel made it out of the shelter, with the latter no longer feeling suspicious about Eda. That's about what I can recall.

Song of the Issue

I will now feature some cool music (probably just vgm) I like here, just because. Sometimes topical, sometimes not.

But today it might be.

A secret easter egg track, on the older 2008 MIDI version of the Charlie (the Duck) II soundtrack (that probably came into existence together with the 2008 Windows version of the game, as opposed to the original DOS version which much like other Wiering Software games only had sound effects, at most.)

It would only play on Christmas day, and was basically a slight arrangement of the proper theme, but with some classic Christmas tunes thrown into it.

The OGG/streamed version you hear on the Steam release cuts the song a bit shorter.

More Stuff

Audicons Fluent/2.0/Name Pending

Inspired by Microsoft's Fluent Design aesthetics and technicalities, this will be an update to my existing icon pack for audio formats, covering even more obscure formats that only 3 people know about! Just like the old pack, this will be fully compatible with probably any version of foobar2000. Very soon!

Ninjin on Archive.org

Yeah!

juke...box. AI. video.

yeah dude.

(no, seriously, it'll come out when it comes out. that's it.)

Miscellaneous Tumblr Side Things

I dunno, I just felt like... having a couple dedicated side blogs for specific interests, as some people do, cuz I have ideas. One of them will be about brazilian animation in general. Nothing fancy or scheduled, just things that will exist.

Conclusion

The more I write the more self-conscious I get that I might just be shit at writing Anything, but I still appreciate if anyone actually likes reading through!

Stay tuned for the traditional yearly dumb highlights collage pic™ on my main Tumblr (@lu9) and Twitter (if it's not completely broken by then...)

Bitty's Message of the Day

My new year's resolution is to Exist more!

[fanficsthatmakemybraingobrr]

A Night In Cairo

Chapter 2

Indiana Jones x Gender-Neutral Reader

Content warning: Mild panic attack

You’re a Intern at Marshall College in Bedford Connecticut and you work with Dr.Jones, but he sucks at his job and is never there and is always behind with work making you get the short end of the stick. Then he drags you on a trip to Cairo with him.

I don't quite like how this chapter turned out,  I mean I posted it on a03 and I've been wanting to rewrite it but I want to see how it does on here and maybe I will maybe wont! And please give me feedback and tell me what I could do better next time! I hope y'all enjoy!

link to Chapter 1

Link to AO3

When Jones said the morning you didn’t think he meant 5am. Now you're in his car as he’s driving you to god knows where. You two are sitting in awkward silence. It feels like the silence is lasting for eternity.

So many different thoughts rush through your head while you look out the window at the passing scenery trying to distract yourself. Dr.Jones still hasn’t told you why the hell you are going to Cairo. You’ve never even been out of the US! You had no idea how to pack or prepare for a trip like this! And Egypt for your first trip? This is all way too overwhelming. All of your anxieties and nerves Eat away at you as you sit in the passenger side seat. You need to start asking questions.

“So uh… Dr.Jones-“ He chuckles and lightly waves his hand in the air.

“Please cut it with the formal crap, just call me Indy.” You look at the older man with slight surprise. He's never acted this friendly towards you, he's always been really professional. Maybe he's acting so differently because you two are out of the office? So many thoughts are racing in your mind.

“Um alright Indy-” You grimace slightly saying his first name, it feels weird. “Could you tell me why we are going to Cairo and especially at such a short notice? I mean I've never been out of the US before let alone being on a plane!” You spiral into a rambling mess asking a million different questions at once. Indy sighs. 

“Hey calm down ___ it’s going to be fine.” You shoot him a confused look. What does he mean? It's going to be fine?. He basically kidnapped you and is now taking you to a foreign country! 

“I received an invitation from The Museum Of Cairo to one of their fancy Banquets after I returned an artifact that I found last time I was there. We fly in tonight. The banquet is tomorrow night and then we leave straight away the next morning. ” Indiana says nonchalantly. There's a long pause between you and him.

“And you kidnapped me because…?” Indiana jeered at your comment.

“Hey! I didn't kidnap you! This was all just a little last minute…and I brought you with me because they gave me a plus one and….well…” He paused and had an embarrassed look on his face.

“You don't have any friends?” Indiana's eyes widened and he scoffed at your smartass remark.

“No! because you're my intern, I just thought it would be a good experience for you. and it's nothing too intense, it's basically a vacation if anything you should be thanking me!” This conversation didn't make you feel any better about this damn trip, at this point you don't think anything can. The rest of the car ride fell into the awkward silence once again.

Soon enough the car pulled up to a terminal. As you exit the car, you realize this is your first time on a plane. As you both entered the cabin a short stewardess in a blue uniform with red lipstick greeted you telling you to enjoy your flight. The cabin was pretty spacious with comfortable looking seats and plenty of amenities. Both you and Indy’s seats were vertical from each other with a small table in between. You take your seat closest to the window. Looking around you there weren’t many other people on the plane. 

“Wow, this looks expensive..” your eyes landing back on Indy as you take your seats, the older man chuckled, taking his hat off, placing it down on the table and grabbing a book out of his carry on.

“This is all paid for so enjoy it. We’re gonna be on this plane for about 10 hours.” 10 hours? You could feel your anxiety start to build as the information settled in. What are you going to do? You started thinking of different ways to cope with your anxiety but it just feels worse. The stewardess walks up to the middle of the isles addressing the passengers. 

“Hello, everyone!” She announced with a high pitched peppy and somewhat languid voice.

 “Welcome to your flight to Cairo! This is going to be a long journey, so please make yourself comfortable! If you need anything or have a question or concern during this flight, please don’t be afraid to ask me or one of my fellow stewardesses. We will be taking off very shortly, so sit back, relax and thank you for flying with us, we hope you have a pleasant flight!” You would be lying if you said her voice wasn’t annoying.

The plane slowly started to move forward, as the aircraft moved the tighter your chest felt and the more knotted your stomach got. Gaining speed the cabin rumbled, gripping the armrest, your body felt tense and numb with your anxiety growing more. The plane lifted up from the ground, it felt like you were sinking into your seat while your stomach dropped. You desperately try calming yourself down but failing miserably the feelings of panic were too overwhelming. You look around for something- anything to help. 

Indy couldn’t focus on his book with your heavy breathing in his ear, it was almost getting on his nerves, but he couldn’t be upset about it. It would be hypocritical of him. There have been times where he’s gotten nervous on planes. This trip was also pretty last minute, and it’s your first time flying..dammit now he’s starting to feel bad. You’ve done so much for him and have worked really hard your whole internship, the least he can do is try to comfort you. Indiana placed his book in his lap with a sigh and turned his head towards you. You are staring at the ground with your hands tightly clutching to the armrests of your chair. 

“Hey.” He says in a hush but commanding tone, Indiana isn’t used to comforting people so he was trying his best not to sound too awkward or unnatural. Your eyes were glued to the ground; it felt like you couldn’t speak. There was a pause and you managed to let out a small ‘hm?’ trying not to sound too anxious. 

“Hey, can you look at me?” He grumbled a bit, you snapped your eyes shut and tried to calm down just feeling more overwhelmed. Indy exhaled- he didn’t mean to say it like that he’s just not good at things like this. You deserved better. Indiana gently placed his hand on top of yours. You open your eyes a bit taken aback. This time he spoke more softly.

“Hey ___ it’s going to be okay.” Your hands slowly let go of the chair. That was the first time he’s actually called you by your name. You turn your head and look at him. His face is different. You’ve never seen this kind of expression on him before. His eyebrows are slightly furrowed, his eyes look at you with worry and concern. A part of you wanted to look away or at least somewhere else but the way his glasses framed his eyes made it almost impossible. Indiana slightly squeezed your hand snapping you out of your daze.

“I promise. It’s okay___.” He’s never acted like this before, and it’s kind of nice. There was a pause of silence and you just looked at him, it wasn’t uncomfortable- it was the opposite, it was oddly comfortable? 

“Do you feel better?” He tilted his head to the side waiting for your answer. 

“Uh yeah, I do feel a lot better thanks.” You pulled your hand away, his touch was starting to feel like a little too much. Your face felt warm but you definitely felt better than before. Indy had a small smile on his face.

“That’s good, I was worried.” He then picked his book back up. 

“Try to sleep, it’ll help time pass by.” Indiana suggested as he started to read his book again. He was right, maybe you should try to sleep. After not being able to sleep last night and having a panic attack, you’re pretty exhausted. You shut your window and lay your chair back, there’s nobody sitting behind you, so you have quite a bit of space to lay back. You then prop your feet on top of the table and then your head against your chair. You didn’t realize how heavy your eyelids were until your head hit the cushioned headrest of your chair and soon enough you were out.

[walkawaytall]

10 Favorite Songs

I was tagged by @otterandterrier! Also, look, I'm interpreting this as "10 songs that I was obsessed with at one point and still like" because I simply will not be able to narrow down a list of my top 10 favorite songs of all time expediently and I really, really want to write tonight, so.

Medicine by Daughter (I believe my Daughter obsession is what caused either Spotify or Pandora to suggest their "sad indie station" to me years ago and I'm still offended. They weren't wrong, but still.)

Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler (it's a banger and the music video is bonkers in the best way)

The Story by Brandi Carlile (if you ever get a chance to see Brandi in concert, do it)

Haunted by Taylor Swift (look, this isn't even my favorite Taylor Swift song, but I am so baffled that I first heard this song a year ago. It slaps and deserves way more attention than it's ever received.)

You and I by Ingrid Michaelson (my friends and I were ob.sessed back in the day)

I'm With You by Vance Joy (Vance Joy is the closest thing I've ever experienced to a celebrity crush. He has been a delight every time I've seen him perform live and that one time I was really awkward at a meet-and-greet)

Mercury by Sleeping at Last (I have considered getting a tattoo inspired by some of the lyrics of this song)

Clementine by Sara Jaffe (I listened to this nonstop in 2012)

Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men (I also listened to this nonstop in 2012)

Stick Season by Noah Kahan (yeah, this is just a great song on a great album and I think more people should know about it. I know it's wildly popular. I still think more people should know about it.)

Yeah, this feels like just scratching the surface.

Consider yourself tagged if you want to participate!

[froqgy]

tunic spoilers (not finished game yet) (long post ahead)

i wish i could've added more logs so far but i never got around to it.. i made a lot of progress 👍 i went so far with a stick 💀i headed toward the frog domain and stealthed around to unlock the place where u need to put the orb.. with a stick...yeah it was grueling. it was a mad dash for opening the gate though it was insane that i pulled it off... and then i realized i wasn't streaming for roger so i reenacted it with stuff i had on my desk.. i explored probably most of the atoll with a stick 😭

also i was worried whether or not spending the items at the altars would upgrade or sell.. initially i assumed it was the first but then i was like what if it was the second.. i finally got around to upgrading oh my god. also equipping cards. also estus flasks. i went through these two areas with a stick and no upgrades of any kind it was insane but now i can kill anything (not true) and i went mad with power (semi true).

since i forgot where the orb was i headed back to the first area and lo and behold made some actual progress -> east garden -> beneath the well -> dark tomb.. now i'm trying to figure out how to advance in the west garden so... also i need to use more bombs so bad so i can figure out what the prize is.

i don't have much thoughts or speculation for the story.. here are some bits and pieces. i went in only knowing that it was wayneradio's game of the year and that it's a game you have to go in blind and he was really insistent (and defensive) when someone said the game was awful or something that they didn't "play enough".. so i went in expecting this to be a time of subversion of le genre and/or something that would blow my mind i wanna knowww

also i watched a trailer of tunic in some indies game list video a little while ago and the only thing i remember was this

so 👍 the manual is very cute and how it has pen marks and stuff and that you can lower it to see the crt(?) tv that you're playing the game on.. i think that probably would have some relation to the Big Thing this game will do.. i'm glad the game has an invincible mode as an option shout-out to game accessibility (shout-out to celeste and oneshot).. hollow knight should have that. tbh.

anyways seeing the tricolor symbol and obvious homage? reference? inspiration? to loz games although i've only botw but i'm sure it's doing something there. the symbol is in the load up too so i wonder.. all the mechanical bits of the world (autobolts.. that sometimes turn into tuning forks? they die with a mechanically musical sound.. the purple energy coursing through the network around the world and the leaky bit that had a similar autobolt death sound to them that made my vision purple.. the broken down triple eyed robots and the towers with the tricolor symbols) give me the impression of a computer or tv so i wonder if anything will happen to the crt or person playing. maybe they are parts of a circuit or motherboard (thinking of it since yesterday i played intense spot the difference with my friend and one of them was a stupid circuit board). i kinda expect to go off the rails at some point so i wonder if there'll be anything dramatic as a forced changed perspective from the game to the person playing the game. there's also the "hero" who died and looks awfully similar to me.. is that the fox ptorag? does that fate exist for them? are the awesome giant skull shopkeepers me from past lives (fox shaped)? is the shopkeeper related to the fox deity seeing as they are both foxes and have blue eyes? is the fox deity actually evil? is the hero actually evil? are the rudelings reincarnations of the fox's past lives? is "the wall" from which the fairies are from trying to stop me from changing a fate or hacking the world? the map has an image on a conjuror (an enemy?) who hold candles, and that "candles can be put out". that could be referring to just them, perhaps because they attack with they candles (i haven't met one i think). or do they also mean the candles on the map that mark the hero's grave/altar.. i really wanna put them out but i don't know how yet. i wonder if this game has multiple endings, though i don't get that impression..yet..

it's very interesting that you have to decipher the manual at least visually, if not textually. forces the player to rely on previous rpg and video gaming experience. perhaps its the devs experience on playing games and reading manuals they don't understand the language they are in. i really wonder if you can decipher the text, but i don't know how to go about it so i gave up. also they keep telling me to use items but i don't want toooo idk if they replenish.

the game is very fun so far, especially since i got the ball rolling and don't find myself dying as much.. still am dying though and i've had some scares and anguish my last session (last night). tried and finally got past the two birds (one eating slorm) in the atoll by killing them, but then the little squirming white big eyed thing that i remembered exploded before was following me very slowly so i looped around a bit near the birds before heading off to advance in hopes of losing it but that thing followed me so far and i went up the spiral tower trying to keep in mind not to get cornered by the freak to deal with the bird but had little magic points and health left and couldn't kill and the FREAK advanced up the stairs and cornered on the part sticking out i was screaming (never actually too loud bc i play late at night..but i do) thankfully the bird killed me instead of the little freak. i got past then on little health and ran into the 5 fairies and survived but got too scared to continue bc 1) low health 2) there was a purple moved like a spidery THING on a nearby island that immediately ran when i got close and i got so scared that it was going to either 1) run around and KILL me or 2) it was a planned event/sighting that wouldn't happen should i respawn monsters. i think if it's not the second it's probably the first or similar since everything loves killing me. i also got freaked out by the tentacles under the well.

i'm looking forward to playing more.. i think i'm doing a good job of inspecting and looking around as i tend to try to do when i play games.. be very thorough is my aim of the game. the cards and knowing whether or not the items with numbers are consumables (likely) is the most tempted i've been to look up a little info.. but i must resist so i can say i played the game without a guide.

[stephantom]

A friend of mine died this Tuesday. I just found out. He was 69, he’d been fighting cancer and I knew he thought it was close to the end a few weeks ago. I wish I’d said something more to him. So idk I just want to talk about him for a bit—maybe this isn’t the place to memorialize him, maybe I should post on his twitter but I don’t feel ready for that, I just want to let out some thoughts to the void / to people who didn’t know him.

He’s well known in some circles as Dink but we always just knew him as Alan. I met him at my husband’s professor’s charity event—she was the head of an organization to protect retired race horses from slaughter, neglect, and abuse. Alan had been a longtime supporter of the organization and they’d become friends. Years ago he’d taken her to some wrestling matches and she got hooked. He was also a professional gambler, which my husband thought was fascinating, so they got to talking, and he invited us to a wrestling event. We agreed. Skeptically.

It turned out wrestling is awesome, of course. And this was probably the best possible first match. It was a PWG All Star Weekend, back when they were still in a little VA hall (packed with folding chairs, selling beer by the pitcher), so much insane talent from the wrestlers, so much fun and passion from the crowd, just an incredible vibe all around. Alan got us front row seats. My mind was blown. At the end, he encouraged us to go talk to the wrestlers as they were packing up. Tell them you enjoyed their work. Buy a shirt. Make friends.

Alan was friendly to all the wrestlers and most of them seemed to know who he was. So did the bouncers and the other fans and the people running the thing. Alan was a pillar of the indie wrestling community. He was there for the founding of PWG. He drove wrestlers from the airport, bought them dinner, even gave them a couch to crash on if they needed it. Once or twice, he ran his own promotions, but he said he couldn’t keep doing it because it’s just so expensive. Like throwing a wedding, he said. You don’t do it to make money, you do it out of love.

My husband and I stayed with him at his home in Vegas once. We were there to join him for a Ring of Honor event (filmed live and a very different atmosphere from what we were used to!). We got dinner with one of the wrestling tag teams, along with their entourage of students of wrestling. It was very cool to get some perspective from them (although the main guy said at one point that he didn’t like to give secrets away that would break the illusion and that maybe he was kind of old-school in that way—which was itself interesting to me, but I digress).

Over that weekend, my husband and Alan and I chatted about lots of things, like how Alan got into gambling as a kid, how his love of wrestling has changed over the years, his dog (such a sweet dog!), and our favorite movies (his was The Princess Bride—he talked a lot about Andre the Giant and how great he was; come to think of it, I think Alan reminded me a little of him; he was a big guy, very tall, with big bushy hair and a kind of slow, calm way of talking).

He was pleased that I got so enthusiastic about wrestling, and then bemused when I wound up suddenly much more obsessed with rock climbing, a world he didn’t know. I think he wished I’d stick with wrestling and get deeper into it, but alas my interests have a mind of their own. Even so, he sometimes commented supportively on my climbing videos, which still makes me smile to think of.

He was a deeply generous, humble, honest, friendly and down to earth guy who loved to share what he loved and never stopped doing the things that made him happy. I hope I can still be so involved in a community around something I love as I get older, like he was. I’m glad I knew him.

It sucks that he’s gone, it really really does.

[champagnepodiums]

'As for your second half, I'm just going to leave that because otherwise I will write essays and you didn't ask for that lolol'

okay wait now i'm curious 😅 i haven't voiced out those thoughts to anyone and i'm curious what you think! please correct me if i'm wrong or if you have another perspective about that hehehe

OKAY so i think firstly, i'd like to push back on the statement that 'if even IndyCar drivers want to race in f1 if given a chance then i should just stick to f1' because f1 has been marketed as the pinnacle of motorsports for SO LONG that i think that almost any racing driver would go to f1 given the chance, like it isn't just IndyCar drivers and i think that's an important thing that tends to get lost in this discourse.

as far as Colton Herta, I do think he got shafted by the FIA. He finished 2nd in 2018's Indy Lights, however, the FIA chose not to award points for that season because they deemed that it had too few entries. If he had been awarded those points, he would have a super license. It's also ironic that he's missing out because his struggles to tend to come on OVALS, particularly the Indy 500 which is double points and really can make a break season. (I also do want to say that there was a lot of vitriol thrown at Colton on Tumblr and it was highly disappointing).

as far as IndyCar becoming a feeder series, I just don't think that's happening or will happen. I can only find one driver who has made the jump from IndyCar to F1 and that was Sebastien Bourdais in 2008 (and he won four successive Champ Car titles prior to this move) so it's not really something that happens often or even has the potential to happen often. And with the pushback that happened for Colton Herta (who has the pedigree, connections and backing), I highly doubt any IndyCar driver will be able to make the jump.

Lastly, I do think that if IndyCar was to become a cheaper bypass for the European ladder, then I think that is an FIA problem and that says way more about what is broken with the European ladder than it says anything against IndyCar. And I think F1 feels like a promotion because it has been marketed as 'the pinnacle of motorsports' for decades.

But also, it almost feels like F1 fans/media think that drivers who either lose their F1 seat or just don't make it to F1 should just stop racing. And I don't get that? Why is IndyCar less than if it serves as a landing pad for obviously very talented drivers who still want to race?

So yeah, I don't think you're wrong or anything but yeah, I think there is this perception of IndyCar that drivers just mope around, wishing for a way to (or back to) F1 and that's largely not the case. (And maybe if IndyCar did better at showcasing their drivers on social media, people would know that WAY better lol)

[papersak]

I like the idea of New Year's Resolutions. They're kinda sentimental to me. But this year I can't come up with a single goal, a single bar that I should try to meet this year...

... so I'll just type out all of them and check back in a year to see which one sticks.

Read 6+ novels

Pass Valkyrie Dimension

Finally learn conversational Japanese (bonus points if I can read a doujin)

Enter a Pokemon VGC regional again

Make another animation

As for how and why...

Read 6 novels: this starts all the way back mid-2020 where y'know, boredom and anxiety had me seeking healthier hobbies than doomscrolling. I actually got 4 for Christmas 😮I think they're all romance novels. When the library was close to work, I could power through 4 ez, so let's aim for those and finding 2 more.

Pass Valkyrie Dimension: It's a DDR song. 😅 This might be the hardest, if not second to 3, because of how much consistent work it would require. Before lockdowns, I was able to pass light 16s and POSSESSION. It was the peak of my DDR ability and it was a huge rush. But gah... I've fallen so far that I'm shaky at 15s now, and 14s are exhausting. It's always been a goal of mine to pass VD, and my true "DDR retirement" goal is to pass Paranoia Revolution. They're just the coolest boss songs to me. On Expert, not Challenge... experts know that chart is better. 😆

The problem here is my home pad is giving out, and playing in the arcade is not only expensive but... time consuming? I've actually grown to dislike going in a group because of how much waiting is involved. 😓

Japanese: The last time I was in Japan I had told someone I've been studying for 8 years. He seemed shocked; I was shocked for a different reason. Like, I started 8 years ago and I still can't hold a conversation??? What's up with that? I absolutely love going to doujin events, and I have quite a pile of (all-ages) comics from artists. But even when it was two artists I was a huge fan of, it frustrated me that I could never really befriend them. Even though Yanada remembered me after multiple visits, even though I spent all that time talking to Yato, and participated in all those DDR prompts...

I'm getting too old to still have "a second language" on my todo list. And sure, Japanese is at the top because I'm a weeb at my core. I know it's sort of a selfish reason. I just also have a really wonderful time when I do visit for vacation. I want a better understanding of the people I talk with when I go back. And uh... there's seemingly credible companies that let you work remote for the US while in Tokyo, particularly for IT jobs, and I have at least one of those tools in my belt already...

Pokemon VGC: I'm only 70% sure I wanna do this again. Which is still pretty sure. But I'm worried it won't be quite as fun as before. I participated in Reg C and it was AMAZING. Unfair how much fun people can have for an event hosted by such a scummy company. 😆I can't stress enough how much the other players made it so memorable, maybe even more so than some indie events. People were so helpful and so passionate, it's contagious. Team building was stressful, but I really did have fun showing off an Oricorio team with my random shiny Revavroom, and taking even the few wins I did had me over the moon.

I worry that with whatever the hell regulation it is in summer 2024 (like, wow, they are so awful with rule sets), it'll make it near impossible for someone like me to make a team that's viable, let alone a team that I'm happy to show to others. But with how swiss works, maybe I'll run into other people like me and just have fun. Or, y'know, maybe I'll find out that VGC truly does suck when Inceneroar and Landorus are legal, and I'll never have FOMO again. Either way, it'll work out! Now I've talked myself into going...

Another animation: I've been trying to figure out... why I keep making characters teary-eyed every time I make a non-parody animation. I never make sad characters in comics or art... animation just opens up my power or something. And yet, I still have parodies I want to do. I guess if you read this far, I'll go ahead and confess that the two I want to do are smooooch and the Madoka Magica (first) opening with DDR characters. I also started brainstorming a DDR parody to Mephisto from Oshi no Ko. But I don't have a lot more story ideas in my head. I'd like to do a humorous one just to prove I can. I honestly felt to powerful making the Silver and Lance one earlier, and that sort of "I'm doing it because it needed to exist" principle is why I make all the art I do, I think.

So maybe that's why I never improve, because all I care about is bringing an idea into existence. There's definitely part of me that cares that others can see what I'm thinking clearly, and without any polished skill I am certain the internet won't care. I'm uh... grateful? Surprised? Honored? that while I have plenty of flaws in art, I've improved enough to convey something I was emotionally attached to and share that feeling through animation. I think I can stop saying "I'm not good enough to do this idea" whenever I get an idea for a large project like that. So I meeeean... yes, I do remember my beginner methods making some of those scenes a nightmare, and if I was truly skilled then I could've got it done not only in better quality but with less stress. But maybe this year is the start of just going for an art project instead of saying I'm not ready.

Anyway. Happy year of the dragon. It's not my zodiac sign, but I kind of feel lucky in 2024 because my old persona was a dragon and dragons are adorable. May we all go into this year with extra ambition.

🐉