#i think i want to render differently and i don't know how and it's scary

[finemealcreates]

Trying to tell myself that I'm just at that point in my art journey where I'm able to see all the things wrong with my art, but my skills aren't there yet, so I'm about to massively improve. But oh my lord am I hating every single thing that I draw and it's massively killing my drive

[bhaalest]

god this is so overdue. im finally making a bg3 side blog

for a first post i wanted to list some of the artists i've been (mostly) refraining from reblogging to main for many months at this point. i meant to only do my favorite few but then i couldn't decide who my favorite few were so... here you go

@meanbossart draws absolutely beautiful art of his absolutely beautiful du drow, and also has an amazingly well-written and well-characterized story about what he, astarion, and shadowheart get up to post-game

@kawareo goes deep how his durge strike suffers from both the urge and orin's attack, and into strike before orin's attack. i love the standalone art and comics, so when i say his writing is my favorite thing he's done that's high praise

@velnna's tav staeve is another very pretty man and i don't know how to describe what i like most about his art other than "very pleasantly textured", it catches the eye in a very pleasing way

@lucklessrat has incredible dramatic and comedic timing in their comics of lethean, and i love what they do with leth being old. you don’t see that often

i have a soft spot for half-orcs and paladins so naturally i think about @everchased's finch constantly. they have several of my favorite bg3 comics ever but the SMITE one is... just gonna say i agree with astarion there

there is so much to say about @jeeaark's tav greygold, from the jokes to the relentless optimism to the visceral (in a very good way) art style, but my new favorite thing is the dark urge (godsdammit) companion series, it's really fun to see DUG and greygold interact and i can't wait for more. also, another half-orc!

@ejoym's durge devlin is wonderfully deranged, i love the dark humor in the comics, the art is really crisp, and the artist makes really great use of colors. i love how pointy everyone is also

@ohpsshaw's durge typhus is going through it at the moment. love his expressive face (and the expressiveness of the whole art style) and puppydog vibe, i can't wait to see how much he... enjoys... the rest of the game as daddy's chosen. also check out the artist's entertaining commentary on her main(?) blog

@taygra5shaon's big scary durge jacq somehow can do adorable and terrifying equally well, sometimes at the same time. this is another artist who has great timing in her comics. i especially like the young jacq ones.

@angiemaniac's tavella and durge companion au presents durge from a different and very interesting perspective. and she does a great job including every companion into the story, while tavella is still a compelling character on her own!

cae is the most beautiful durge you've ever seen and @hellothisisangle's art does such a good job of making him feel dangerous. it's incredibly beautifully rendered, the poses and fashion are always amazing, and on top of it all cae's lore is fascinating too

@wellen-katze's comics are really in a league of their own. their comics vary but my favorites are the ones that hurt to read. my favorite series is this one with ascended astarion and a nameless durge dealing with the tragic aftermath of the story. their comics hurt in an incredible way that i can't get enough of.

ghost, aka niro, by @oathbreakerapologist is wonderfully fucked up. he has a really upsetting presence (/positive) and i can't look away from his relationship with orin. this is probably the least sfw blog i'm linking, which i hope comes off as a complement

with @mistercrowbar's aldiirn it's hard to pinpoint specific things i like because the art and comics are so well-rounded, but if pressed i would point to aldiirn's visual design and the skill with which the artist makes his desire for approval and will to break the rules mesh together. i'm not sure if i want to be his friend or study him like a bug

i love @crocodiller's pining dumbass (affectionate) rowan so much. there's a lot to like about the comics but my favorite is rowan's supportive friendship with karlach. they're also very well-paced and some of the crispest art i've ever seen

i found @ryvenarts and sullen literally yesterday but i'm already very interested and excited to see if there will be more

another recent (to me) discovery, thirkuir by @jayfitzmaurice. i really like his design and the expressiveness of all the characters

@quess-art has an adorable baby durge who still has a compelling backstory i'm excited to see more of. plus the wagging tail is just perfect

@3eefstud's durge Einar is really nice to look at, with amazing colors and gradients. i'm surprised i didn't find them until very recently

i thought @panksage's Ebony Darkness D'urge was just a joke at first but no, the comics are sincere (and also funny) and just beautiful, especially the colors!

i do not know if @arianiziolek's durge has a name. catty little murder lizard (affectionate). has some of the funniest comics but more importantly the best durge facial expressions

@bajablast666 is double dipping with durges kaethan and kelrath. both their art and writing have an intensity that i love (the red outlines they use often are so good) and their writing in particular conveys emotion and visceral feeling so well

karl by @beltart is another on the surprisingly long list of people i initially found from their art, then read their writing and was blown away. i don't think i've seen anyone else depict the weight of the urge as intensely as this and i love it

and finally, a palate cleanser from all the durges, @wirywyrm's tav arthur who's in a sitcom as opposed to a horror story. i really like the texture and detail of their art and also how much of a dork arthur is. least smooth bard(adin) in the realms

incredibly i did leave out a few people, mostly people who draw companions rather than their tav/durge because i sort of locked myself into this format, so i may come back and update this later!

[pien-art]

-FAQ-

Hello! I've gained a whole bunch of followers lately and I've been getting a lot of questions about commissions, what my setup is, what brushes I use, etc, so I thought I'd make a post about it to answer everyone's questions at once !

Putting them under the cut <3

Commissions:

Commission prices are listed in my pinned post. You can send me a private message about your commission idea and we can get to talking :) It is helpful to have enough references handy (character, outfit, descriptions etc)

I am generally a fast drawer but I also have a job and a physical disability so there might be moments I can't work on your commission. But that is never longer than a few days at most.

Payment is upfront, the full amount and via paypal only. I know this might seem a bit scary but unfortunately there are a lot of people who end up not paying for commissions and I want to avoid that.

During the process I will send you frequent updates and will ask for input, to see if it is going in the direction you want. You can ask for changes during the sketching progress but once I've started on line-art and coloring, no big changes will happen. (You can for example ask for a different color for a shirt etc, but not for a different prop or pose or expression)

When it is completed, I will send the drawing to you via email. The drawing will remain mine and it is not to be sold or profited of by the person who commissioned me. If the commission is for something commercial/for selling, that needs to be discussed. I prefer to do drawings only for personal use!

For more questions, my dms/asks are open :)

How long have I been doing digital art:

I've been drawing digitally for about 5 years now i think? But before that I've been drawing and painting traditionally literally since the moment I could pick up a pencil.

Set-up:

It's just me and my ipad and apple pencil laying on my bed. I wouldn't even know where to begin for those whole multi-monitor/screen setups ;-; I draw only with Procreate

Brushes:

I tend to play with different brushes from time to time to get different textures, but generally i use the same few for most of my drawings/styles. My favorite one is the Peppermint Brush, for sketching. I use it in every drawing i make! I always sketch with it, and often do the line-art with it as well! And it makes for a nice textured brush for rendering as well! (i used it for a lot of rendering of the armor in this drawing)

The (procreate) brushes i use a lot are

for medieval style: inking - Ink Bleed (for line-art) artistic - Quoll (for coloring)

for general style: calligraphy - Chalk (coloring/rendering) sketching - Peppermint (line-art/sketching)

for realism: calligraphy - Shale Brush (full rendering) Also using the shale brush for smudging and erasing when drawing realistic

for lineart: smooth pencil from this pack by Heygiudi

How/why do you choose a base color:

I tend to look at a few different things when deciding on a base color/color palette.

the overall color of the reference pic

the color i associate with who or what i am drawing

the feeling/vibe i want to give off with that drawing

color has a BIG impact on the vibe of a drawing, so it is something i keep in mind when im drawing.

Using a color as a base to start, helps a lot with my drawing process. It helps me pick out other colors so they match better. It helps me get light/dark values right. And the chalk brush i use, has gaps between the strokes, so the base color will always come through a little. Having the same color come through in the entire drawing, helps pull all the colors together if that makes sense? I always start with a solid base color when i am painting traditionally as well!

Advice:

PRACTICE!!! just keep drawing and practice. I know this is such generic advice but truly practice is The Way. Learn from other artists but don't compare yourself to them. Everyone's artistic journey is different and there's no "good" or "bad". And most importantly make sure that you have fun when you're making stuff :3

I also learn a lot by studying art I admire and love. Figuring out what it is I like about it. (for example, the line thickness or the shapes or texture etc), and try to incorporate that in my own style in a way that is not directly copying or stealing.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: july 2024

full disclosure: I started out July in a bit of a mental lurch, really feeling stuck in a rut. there are a lot of reasons for that, absolutely none of which need to be shared with the general populace of tumblr dot com, but suffice to say that I was feeling listless and reading was not a high priority. I was pretty content to accept that this was going to be another month where I didn't finish a lot of books. I was too busy for most of June, and now too unfocused and bummed out in July.

and then that ended up not being the case. I think I can chalk that up to three things:

very early in the month I realized that none of the reading I had been planning on getting to was grabbing my interest at all, so I did something drastically different: picked up a YA memoir that I bought at pride on the recommendation of a bookseller. not my usual kind of reading at all, but YA is very readable and memoirs grab me fast because I'm nosy, so I figured it might be great for getting out of a rut. and boy, was I right!

Akwaeke Emezi also has a new novel out, and if you don't know then please note now that I'm a person second and an Akwaeke Emezi fan first. their newest novel was a sinister joyride, non-stop twists and turns that I couldn't put down until I saw the characters through to their bitter ends.

and, of course, over in the Dungeon Meshi manga I got to Mithrun. I've only had Mithrun for a couple of chapters, but if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in this dungeon and then myself. even if I hadn't been able to read anything else, that would have kept me running back to the library for more Dungeon Meshi.

all of which added up to a fairly voracious appetite for books being reignited in my brain, and my second most book-heavy month of the year so far (still haven't beat May, but there's time). sick!

so - what have I been reading?

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 7-10 (Ryoko Kui, trans. Taylor Engel, 2019-2022) - mannnnn I know I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said elsewhere, but Dungeon Meshi is so. fucking good. the way that Kui starts to raise the stakes of the story and grow the world beyond the core band of adventurers is so conscientious and well-done, timed perfectly so it never feels like having an undercooked heap of fantasy exposition thrown at you all at once. instead everything proceeds at a perfect simmer, leaving me feeling like the frog in that pot of boiling water who didn't notice how dire things had gotten until it was very suddenly too late and I was screaming bloody murder at a book. things have gotten so dire that I'm yearning for the days when fighting a red dragon was our biggest problem - and yet, through it all, every character remains rendered with humanity and compassion, no matter how scary, dangerous, or outright alien they first appear. I'm not naming any spoilers, but I need [REDACTED] to fix shit ASAP in Vol. 11 and [SUPER REDACTED] is on my shitlist fucking forever. also Mithrun sweetie you're perfect, do as many crimes as you want.

Heart and Hand (Rebel Carter, 2019) - my romance novel of the month, as picked by my lovely patreonites! this self-published historical romance promised some messy f/m/m, following a biracial (half Black, half white) young lady, Julie Baptiste, as she responds to a marriage ad that takes her out west to the fictional town of Gold Sky, Montana. Julie's sort of a standard historical heroine - she doesn't care for the silliness of high society and vastly prefers the company of books, looking forward to becoming Gold Sky's schoolteacher - but her marriage has a twist: rather than marrying one man, she's agreed to marry two, a pair of friends who have been inseparable since they served together in the Civil War. this book is charming, for sure, but I can't help be more intrigued by what isn't there than what is, namely: are these men having sex with each other or not? Rebel? hey, Rebel? why is there no DP in this two husbands mail order bride book? that was, like, he bare minimum that I expected. for the love of god, why did those men never put both of their dicks inside Julie at the same time? why did we spend so much time on emotional conflict that could be easily resolved if anyone just talked to each other when Julie's two beautiful husbands could have been having sex in front of her? HELLO?

also, listen, this is such a nitpick, but I am FROM Montana and it feels personal: I know that the general poverty of frontier life isn't sexy, but god these people are WAY too well off. at one point Julie enjoys some fucking BANANAS, something that I goddamn assure you were not easy to come by in late 19th century Montana. a banana. as fucking if.

All Boys Aren't Blue (George M. Johnson, 2020) - as is proudly advertised on the back cover of my copy, in recent years All Boys Aren't Blue has been the second most-challenged book in America behind Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer. reading through All Boys Aren't Blue it was initially hard to see what exactly was so objectionable, until I realized that a queer Black person living their life with compassion and joy is the scariest thing some of these motherfuckers can possibly imagine. Johnson writes about their life growing up in the nexus of racism, homophobia, and masculinity with wisdom and endless compassion, directly addressing young people who may find themselves in similar positions to offer them assurance that they, too, can be okay. more than anything, All Boys Aren't Blue is a plea for young people to live their lives without fear and shame. it's a beautiful blessing of a book that I hope brings comfort to every innumerable kids who need it.

Little Rot (Akwaeke Emezi, 2024) - how do I even begin to describe Little Rot? definitely not for those who feel squeamish about sex crimes, I guess that's an important place to start. this novel starts with the breakup of a long-term Nigerian couple, Kalu and Aima, and follows both of them into a weekend that starts with drugs and sex parties and spirals increasingly out of control from there, drawing more and more characters into a complicated snarl of money and power. Little Rot has the seedy, lurid draw of an episode of SVU if SVU ever grew up and realized that cops don't do shit, reveling in the nastiest that Emezi's imagined city of New Lagos has to offer. cannot say this book is for everyone - few of Emezi's novels are - but god, it's a thrilling study in corruption.

The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (editor Joan Nestle, 1992) - this is a massive and fascinating historical document, assembled by Nestle as part of her work with the Lesbian Herstory Archives. within this collection are letters, interviews, academic essays, poems, and transcribed oral histories from all manner of self-identified butch and femme lesbians. while some of the contributors are recognizable names in the history of American queer activism (including Pat Califa, who's a bisexual trans man now lmao), others are women who were just trying to live their lives with as much authenticity, comfort, and dignity as was possible in their time. (although, notably, the vast majority of these women are white, and all but a very few are Americans. racial and cultural diversity is not one of the collection's strong suits.)

the personal narratives span all over the twentieth century, and I was really delighted to see the very frank discussions of what would be written off as "bad representation" by a lot of queer resources today: butches overdosing on toxic masculinity and getting in messy bar brawls, femmes committing outlandish acts of adultery, lesbian sexual awakenings taking place between fairly young children, and one extremely memorable instance of a butch getting unexpectedly pregnant and decided to do a little sex work on the side since she couldn't get more pregnant than she already was. I was particularly fascinated by the many, many accounts of "second wave" self-identified lesbian feminists who tried to do away with butch/femme identities and "politically incorrect" expression of lesbian sexuality altogether (that's everything but mutual cunnilingus, btw) in pretty eerie echoes of contemporary radfem arguments. at close to 500 pages it's definitely better suited to skimming and stopping to read whatever catches your attention rather than trying to read cover to cover, but I think this is a really invaluable piece of history.

American Mermaid (Julia Langbien, 2023) - this was a novel, for sure. American Mermaid is a novel about a broke, anxious high school teacher named Penelope whose novel, also called American Mermaid, is a runaway success that gets optioned for film. Penelope quits her teaching job and moves across the country to Hollywood to work on the script with two dude bros who don't really Get what American Mermaid is about, and set to work turning Penelope's weird, unsexy female empowerment novel into an MCU-style action romp with a hot young lead. the novel's strongest when it's deep in the spirals of Penelope's frantic mind, probing the conflict between her fairly desperate need for cash (she wants to be financially independent of her conservative father, she has good reason to suspect breast cancer is in her future, she wants to start a family someday) and the artistic affront she feels at watching her story be disrespected and dismantled. where it's weaker is in the extensive chapters of the story-within-a-story; while useful for context, I straight up didn't need to read that much of Penelope's novel. and the plot overall kind of felt like it fell off the rails near the end once Langbien finishes making her point about how Hollywood sucks. it's not bad, but it's also just... fine. it's fine!

How to Taste: A Guide Discovering Flavor and Savoring Life (Mandy Naglich, 2023) - how do I put this so nicely? this book is for people who are kind of dork ass losers about food, a group that I do very much count myself as a part of. I first became acquainted with Naglich's work when she appeared on a podcast called the Sporkful, which claims that it is "not for foodies, it's for eaters." I'm a fairly devout listener, and after listening to Naglich describe her efforts to become a master cicerone (one of the world's most elite beer tasters, a distinction that is taken Very Fucking Seriously) I thought sure, whatever, that's a book I can get behind. Naglich is maybe a big more entertaining as a podcast guest than a nonfiction author. in places the book can be dry or roughly constructed in a way that suggests another pass by an editor or maybe a co-writer would have helped. and straight up, there are just weird fucking typos in this book that are like. crazy to me, I cannot believe they got through. the cheap-ass cover art also suggests this was not exactly a high budget production.

but having been very mean about it, there are a lot of extremely interesting tidbits about the world of professional tasting here! it sounds awful and you couldn't pay me to do it, but here's the cool thing: Naglich is extremely aware that what she does is insane and she knows that the average reader doesn't want to learn how to identify where a coffee bean was grown just by sniffing the bean from across a room. what she offers instead are really approachable ways to be more conscientious about how you interact with and appreciate food! and she also shares some really cool info about tasting snobbery that IS bullshit, to help you sort out the stuff that actually matters and emphasize that fun and personal taste ultimately trump any "rules." it's a very dorky book but I, personally, did have a good time.

Sex Criminals Vol 3: Three the Hard Way (Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, 2016) - every time I read another volume of Sex Criminals I find myself thinking "man, hang on, do I ever actually like Sex Criminals? am I enjoying this?" but then I end up placing a hold on the next one. I don't know, it's charming! it's like so very VERY 2010s in its dialogue, by which I mean it's like. you know. it's giving Joss Whedon before we all found out how bad he sucked and collectively booed him. but man, I love a story that's down to get weird, and Sex Criminals is sooooo about being weird. and yet also very normal where sex is concerned! considering this is a series all about people having freaky world-altering powers that activate when they cum, sex is treated as an incredibly ordinary thing, warts and all. I like that! I like seeing that! idk, I don't need every comic to be perfect, as evidenced by the fact that I'm actively enjoying Azrael: Angel of the Bat. sometimes the vibes are just good.

[steelheart-redux]

how often do you draw/how do you manage to do. that much work (uploading a comic every tuesday and thursday(?)…) is there any tips you use to save time and also sanity. also hi your comic is really good both art and story wise…

hello!

well. how do i update 2-3 times a week. i will be honest one part of it is just that i am kind of nuts. do not try to match my update schedule unless you also have the Evil Need To Output Pages As Fast As Possible. it is perfectly okay (and frankly more normal) to update at a slower pace. i just naturally draw very very quickly, and am going a little bonkers from having these guys stuck in only my head for 2 years.

but in terms of actual advice. most of my advice is aimed at people who live at the whims of their dysfunctional brains, so it boils down to making the creation of comic pages Not An Arduous Task.

for me, that comes in the form of doing as much work as possible upfront.

i keep comic planning (writing the story, researching things, scripting if i do that, thumbnails, etc.) a fairly separate thing from actually making the comic panels. i make Big Decisions and set up everything i need page-wise on days that i have more motivation, to make it easier to do work on days i have less.

for example, say i'm feeling pretty foggy today, but i know I wanted to get page 54 done. So I go, and instead of seeing a completely blank document (scary!), i see this:

the composition is already there, the dialogue is decided (though admittedly i do change that a lot), and i already have a zarian render ready to go. the thinking is done! i just have to do the legwork, which at that point is pretty mindless. i watch a lot of youtube while i do these.

i also organize my pages in a weird way that i find rewarding, but this answer is pretty long already lol. i'll elaborate if asked.

so that's sanity. as for time, i've talked about using 3d models for characters and props. you don't have to make them if you don't know how, i know csp(?) has built-in asset libraries, and there's plenty of stuff online. make color palettes, if you can! i didn't know procreate had a color palette feature for way too long!!!! also, reuse backgrounds! please reuse backgrounds. if you're like me and get kind of squinchy about doing it, just blur it (comic style allowing) or use props and characters to cover up more noticeable things, and/or draw over things to make it slightly different. i've used the same background panel six times in the past few pages. did you notice?

lastly, don't beat yourself up for not following your planned page creation schedule to a T. things happen. life happens. it's okay. but also, if you're like me, know there might be some days where you do have to give yourself a bit of a kick in the pants to get things going. all the stuff i talked about above is designed to make that easier.

i hope this makes sense, and thank you for reading!

[bugcatcherkit]

more plural mob talk when you get the time please!

I need to hear about shigeo and mob/other characters it's my favorite interpretation of them!

OKAY I will try my best!!!!! But its a little difficult because the way I think about them changes a lot. There's, like, some set characteristics and all, but I don't tend to think in "definitives" with them. The difference between this and canon is there's More Dissociation and a further degree of separation (though, again, Baseline Identity; they can't exist in isolation).

OKAY OKAY. ANYWAY. I think a lot about the resentment they developed for each other. Mob resented Shigeo ("his power") for how they lost security in their relationships and were isolated from others, as well as his general destructiveness that Mob had to deal with the aftermath of. I also think that Mob sometimes gets hung up on how to live his life to the fullest when he has to share it with a part of their brain that doesn't always agree with what he wants to do.

Shigeo started resenting Mob for taking over their entire life, and also all the demonization, dehumanization, being rendered as scapegoat, and being cut off from all their relationships. Confession Arc was him trying to separate himself from Mob so he wouldn't have to deal with that anymore. And despite learning to accept and be more open with each other, I think they still struggle with this stuff sometimes in post-canon !! When they have problems with each other, most of it comes back around to this. But they're better at working through it and communicating and all that.

In line with their new communication efforts. I think it's interesting that Shigeo seems to know more about Mob than Mob does sometimes. Mob is so good at intellectualizing his emotions and fears and experiences, but Shigeo is more aware of the underlying emotional reasons that Mob struggles to grasp. Mob does not know this much about Shigeo, because Shigeo is mostly Raw Emotion, and he mostly relies on what he's been told about him up until post-canon. I'd imagine finding a balance becomes difficult sometimes even though that's what they're working on. Also, I tie this stuff to their memories. Like, Mob doesn't want to be left in the dark about things he doesn't remember but Shigeo does, especially surrounding stressful experiences. But Shigeo is like "bro you just want to Know you don't want to actually Accept or Feel anything about it yet".

I know I have other stuff about how i view their dynamic but I can't think of it right now so I hope this suffices. Most of the time they're just going through life. Mostly co-con or blended. So.

OH AND OTHERS. One I really think about a lot is Mob/Shigeo and Dimple. IT'S SO GOOD. They severely understand each other. Also, whether he knew it or not, Dimple was one of the only guys in Shigeo's corner for a while because he was always encouraging them to stop holding themselves back and consider their emotions. And Dimple was there to help them out a LOT when others couldn't, which was a big hang-up for Shigeo during Confession Arc. They all understand what it's like to be seen as scary or insignificant or inhuman in some way or another, so they don't do that for each other. And its great for Shigeo to know that once Dimple realized he couldn't use their power (which he never actually succeeded in doing), he stuck around anyway when he Rematerialized. Overall, Dimple would Get It and not pass a lot of judgment I think. Dimple dynamics are so underrated guys…..

Another fun dynamic is them and Ritsu, who I think was the First to know by the way. Sometimes he helps figure things out between them when they're having an especially difficult time communicating. Also Shigeo's general strong attachment to nostalgia means he kinda struggles to see Ritsu as more grown up, and he babies that kid in a way that Mob does not. He also likes to give Ritsu so many cool rocks off the ground and he'll feel mildly offended if Ritsu doesn't keep them.

And also Shigeo and Tome would get along great. Their shenanigans would be worrying.

Sorry I didn’t explain many other dynamics I got sidetracked and also I didn’t want this to be too long. This took a while because I’ve been in my “school is starting soon” slump where I am so so so tired all the time and struggle to focus on anythingg 🙏

them..

[gomzdrawfr]

want to join the fandom cause it seems fun seeing fanarts and you and others interacting but I don't know how...and with the whole ai thing im scared...

my advice: just do it

really! sometimes all you really need is a leap of faith, and that was exactly how I dropped into the cod fandom. When I joined the ghoap discord server I talked to one of the artist I really like and respected from my lurking time (hi @bressynonym) aaaand the rest is history

I didnt know how to draw properly, nor digitally, all I did was scribbling on OneNote (yeah!) and rambled about cod characters, it is daunting and it is scary to interact but after a while? you may just be able to find someone to brainrot together with

start small, like commenting, reblogging, talking, chatting- doesn't have to be towards artist/writers, it could be the art/fic enjoyers!

you need to put yourself out there if you want something

as to if you want to start in the fandom as a creator, here's some more tips (which are all based on my experience, I am no pro at doing this, hell Im still learning myself, and I am by no means speaking these on behalf on others!)

establish a goal: what are you making? fandom based? original creations?

as with starting new, everything may take a while for stuff to happen, you'll feel like you're speaking to the void at times (esp with original arts, but do know that your stuff do get perceive by others as time goes, I would advise to draw fandom stuff as a beginning to get that boost going if you want! or else it's going to be quite hard to get things rolling)

imo this is hardest part of any new creator, you'll have to bear with it and try not to give up (but I understand how incredibly demotivating it could get, there were times when I stopped posting about Raven entirely, but eventually I post it anyway cuz surely someone out there will like them, it just takes a lot of patiences and perseverance)

btw, engagement can also vary from time to time, you may be booming for a bit, then suddenly you dont, it is a cycle that will bound to happen

take rest regularly, and I mean a break from social media because numbers, discourse and everything can get to you, very quickly (I cannot emphasise this enough)

the numbers are not worth it over your mental health (comes with practice to really solidify this thought)

study the algorithm (pain): see what other creators are doing to get where they are, what tags are they using in their post? what features/niche do people like?(this is, if you really want to grab some form of engagement, bcuz reminder in the end you are creating art for yourself first!)

example: I think posts would get more reach if you tag it with the ship name first, followed by the characters' name (doesn't work all the time tho)

that's the thing about algorithm, it is ever-changing, and you'll have to learn to adapt with it when it does!

expanding on that, studying algorithm could be about ships (for example, ghostsoap is most popular in the fandom), or really good rendered art/flashed out fic that leaves your jaw on the floor, or ships that gets lesser attention in general which puts you, who make content about them, easier to be brought into the light (like Faralex)

bUT, it can also be personality!

(again, not saying this is meant for everyone and strictly from my own experience + what I observe) for me, I made up the lack of my art by establishing a personality: a wild panda who yaps about price and their oc and also kinda everywhere in the place (just like this post LOL), OR you're the person who named themselves after Soap's ash particle number OR you're the one who likes bottom Ghost- literally anything goes, you want to make an impression in different ways, some more funny/goofier than others but it works (be mindful and stay respectful tho, dont wanna be the asshole in the fandom now do ya?)

efforts ≠ engagement (not all the time, but most time) and this is a fact. Sometimes, you can't expect a piece you did for 10+ hours to get thousands views and likes, especially in a fandom space. You need to understand algorithm is that wonky. (very disheartening, but again, you make the art for you and the few others who genuinely likes them, and those people can go a long way) be mentally prepared for such events, and try not to beat yourself up too much for it

ultimately tho, do it, do it scared but do it anyways and again, draw the things that bring you joy, I hope these could be helpful in some ways!

[iztea]

hello iz ik it's such a cliche question and idk if you've already answered that but- how do you learnt drawing humans??? like everyone says practice but i don't know how and i struggle so much :( thanks already for answering!! i really really love your art

hi!

the very regulated, academic, objectively correct bs answer: learn the fundamentals, study and practice!

the unhinged, off-the-counter, cool uncle from your dad's side of the family answer:

Imo, the best way to learn how to draw on your own is to reference and study other people's art. There is no need for you to reinvent the wheel, and if you are a beginner and have no idea what you're doing, tackling multiple fundamentals at once can overwhelm and demotivate you quite a lot. So, for your morale and motivation, I think it is totally okay to just observe multiple artworks from multiple artists and engage with them critically ( * N.B. : artistS - plural; by referencing multiple works, you lower the risk of accidentally becoming a copycat or locking yourself into an art style that will never be as good as the original because it was not yours)

What I mean by critically engaging with an artwork is to analyze how they're tackling difficult body parts that you struggle with. For example, let's say you can't/don't know how to draw legs. Look at a picture of a real human leg, observe how someone else has simplified that leg form and anatomy, and then try to recreate it. Don't just copy their linework 1 to 1. That is not the point. Do it your own way, incorporate aspects of others' art that you like, and make them yours. You should have 5++ references of that leg from 5++ different artists. There are maany people out there who post their studies online, raw sketches or structural drawings (TB Choi comes to mind for example). Look for people like them, and if you can't find someone, then Pinterest is your bff. When learning how to draw, hunting the internet for how people sketch >>> rendered art. If speedpaints are more your thing, then youtube has you covered. Personally, I've learned more from a 20 min speedpaint with nightcore bgm and zero annotations from some guy that doesnt even speak english that has 300 views than I've learned from 10 min long art tutorials from fluent english speakers with 1 mil views. At the end of the day, we can yap and theorise as much as we want, but it's the act of drawing that brings results and seeing how other people draw is sometimes worth a thousand words.

> References in general also help a lot. I can't tell you how many times I was too lazy to look something up and spent 14235 hours trying to draw it off the top of my head only to have it done in 10 minutes once I finally gave in and pulled up a reference. So yeah, always use references. Don't be like me this is actually a bad habit

Okay, but how to /use/ that reference if you're a beginner? Very simple: draw on top of it ( *Do Not trace the outlines, that's pointless if you actually want to learn something). Draw guidelines over the body parts, deconstruct and simplify the ref into just boxes and lines ( always think in 3D ). This will help a lot with keeping the proportions in check. You can start by drawing those guidelines first and then get into details. Kinda like in sculpture: you start with a big block of a rock, and then you slowly carve and build form and then detail. The more you draw, the less you will need those guidelines as you get a feeling for the proportions yourself and will no longer need this step.

Once you become more confident in your skills or have a "sense" for drawing and you are in too deep to just give up after hitting your first wall, then you can tackle the scary intimidating stuff that is art fundamentals ( or you can do them simultaneously, all I'm trying to say is to never forget that you are not the only drawer in the world; looking in your neighbor's yard is totally okay within the reasons of common sense ). You don't have to raise and milk a cow it to make butter, you can just buy it from the store. If you want to bake a cake, a beginner chef will use store-bought cake mix because they have no idea how to cook. Once they learn the science behind baking (because it really is a science) they will buy their own ingredients and then improve or personalize the cake with better, well-researched ingredients, they will add their own twist, flavours, adjust the macros, perfect the technique and so on.

This is how I've personally learned how to draw by myself bc I'm self-taught and didn't care for formalities as it's just a hobby of mine that I do for fun. If you want proper advice you should probably listen to more qualified people but I can only preach what I practice.. Anywayssss hope it helped!!

[dross-the-fish]

What do you think Erik's past was with women, when it comes to dating and women. I'd like to know what your take is.

"dating" is probably not the word I'd use. Delving into the text of the book there are two parts that stick out to me as indicating that Erik may have a history with women other than Christine this segment here from the scene at Apollo's Lyre where Christine is recounting events to Raoul "You wanted to know what I looked like! Oh, you women are so inquisitive! Well, are you satisfied? I'm a very good-looking fellow, eh? … When a woman has seen me, as you have, she belongs to me. She loves me for ever. I am a kind of Don Juan, you know!' And, drawing himself up to his full height, with his hand on his hip, wagging the hideous thing that was his head on his shoulders, he roared, 'Look at me! I AM DON JUAN TRIUMPHANT!' And, when I turned away my head and begged for mercy, he drew it to him, brutally, twisting his dead fingers into my hair." Seems to indicate that this kind of thing has happened before. It is possible Erik is speaking generally and it's not definitive proof but it is interesting, the verbiage he uses.

And this scene towards the end of the book when he has Raoul and the Persian in his torture chamber

"What are you running away for?" asked the furious voice, which had followed her. "Give me back my bag, will you? Don't you know that it is the bag of life and death?"

"Listen to me, Erik," sighed the girl. "As it is settled that we are to live together ... what difference can it make to you?"

"You know there are only two keys in it," said the monster. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to look at this room which I have never seen and which you have always kept from me ... It's woman's curiosity!" she said, in a tone which she tried to render playful.

But the trick was too childish for Erik to be taken in by it.

"I don't like curious women," he retorted, "and you had better remember the story of BLUE-BEARD and be careful ... Come, give me back my bag! ... Give me back my bag! ... Leave the key alone, will you, you inquisitive little thing?"

And he chuckled, while Christine gave a cry of pain. Erik had evidently recovered the bag from her." He says he doesn't like "curious women" and makes a reference to Blue Beard, which is a fairytale about a serial killer who murders his wives. There's a scene in Blue Beard where the most recent wife discovers a room with the bodies of his previous wives. The first quote could be dismissed but this is the second time Erik has indicated a dislike for curious women. Erik's lair is canonically full of traps and features a very cruel torture chamber. By evoking the image of Blue Beard in particular the narrative seems to be further implying that Erik does have some history of women and not a pleasant one. It's possible that Erik is just trying to scare Christine out of looking in the room but it's equally likely that it's not an idle threat. He's shown that he's not above putting hands on Christine and treating her roughly despite his claims to love her. I have a personal theory that Christine is not the first but Erik knows she is going to be the last. I've always kind of run on the idea that throughout the book Erik is aware his health is failing and the clock is winding down for him and that's why Christine is different, because she's his last chance and in the end she does give him, not a living bride, but something much more needed: redemption and forgiveness from someone he's harmed. Proof that he's not unworthy of human compassion. A lot of people in the Phandom don't seem to recognize how dark of a character Erik is. I find him legitimately scary as much as I also find him sympathetic and I think he is fascinating in part because there is something genuinely terrifying about him that tickles my love for horror stories. I feel like it's vague enough that you can leave it up to interpretation, so if you don't really like the idea that he's had women in his past that he ended up killing you can chalk it up to Erik just trying to frighten Christine into compliance but I think it's interesting to look at the darker takes and speculate about the skeletons in his closet.

[dimetrodone]

Ice Age 1, 2, 3, as I don't care or interest with other rest

Answering for all 5 baby whether you like it or not

Ice Age 1: Extremely nostalgic, so I'm very biased towards it. I know its not really anything special but i still am very fond of it. I remember getting as little embarrassed watching it when i was little cause the ending made me so emotional and i didnt want to cry. When i got older it became a long car ride classic for a few years

The movie looks rough now, but choosing to make your main cast of characters a bunch of fuzzy hairy mammals in 2002 when rendering hair was hard as hell really set Blue Sky on their path to being phenominally good at fur and feathers in their later movies.

Fucked up they never brought the baby back in the sequels but maybe it was for the better…

Ice Age 2: Manny gets a wife

As soon as the first movie ended this series basically became a sitcom about three bachelors slowly getting married off. I hold some fondness for this one since I did watch it as a kid, but even then I felt it wasn’t as good as the first one.

I remember kid being bothered by the uh…vague Mesozoic critters frozen in ice being the main antagonist in the end. It made me think of all the Land before Time sequels where they would just throw in a random prehistoric predator each movie that doesn’t talk and was just there to be a scary thing in the end that gets pushed down a cliff.

I like how they added Crash and Eddie the opossums to the gang as hip new characters but you can tell the writers didn’t care about them at all as the movies went on.

Ice Age 3: Scrat gets a babe. Also dinosaurs

Better than the second one? The plots with the main characters was boring, fortunately the little weasel guy completely stole the show and made the movie pretty fun even as someone with no attachment to it. Manny’s baby daughter is named Peaches which is admittedly a really cute name for a baby mammoth.

Tween me had a vandetta against this movie cause it bothered me SO much that the movie series giving Pleistocene critters some love resorted to using dinosaurs by the third movie. Tsk tsk

Ice Age 4: Diego gets a wife. Also pirate

Feels like the writers had no idea what to do with Peaches as a child so we get a time skip and cut to her as a teenager with a boyfriend Manny doesn’t like. Meh

Ice Age 5: Sid gets a wife. Also space ship

You can really tell they were really running out of steam at this point. I like that they didn’t know what to do with Peaches now that Manny accepts her boyfriend so they uh…gave her a different boyfriend/mammoth finance Manny needs to get along with. I remember this one the least despite having watched it the most recently besides the first one.

The output of Blue Sky somewhat reminds me of Illumination, where they have one main hit series they milked to death who’s most iconic character(s) are little unintelligible creatures who barely have anything to do with the actual movie plots.

[dogueteeth-fhr]

ooooooo 4 or 11 (or both) for the fhr prompts?

Thank you for the prompt! Cheshire took over me for this one :3

11. Babysitting Spoon for a day.

He's terribly warm, for something so small and thin. Even when he trembles and whines, begging for Cheshire's hand to keep patting him with big tapioca pearl eyes, the heat he exudes is something she almost would have expected from his handler, not from this twig of a dog.

Regardless, Cheshire sighs, frowning down at the pup who rolls over to have his underbelly given attention. Cheshire really wishes that he understood why in the world Steel thought that she was the perfect person to dogsit. The two of them aren't even close. In fact— and yes, certainly this is it— Cheshire is quite certain that this is some form of psychological warfare disguised as a show of trust. Yes, that would be Marshal Steel's angle, wouldn't it?

It's no secret that Cheshire doesn't like dogs.

It would be unfair to say that she hates them. It would even be a disservice to say that he dislikes them. He thinks that every dog is great and wonderful and everything a person never could be.

So long as they keep a twenty foot difference away from her— and even that is generous of zir.

She knows how fast they can turn. Lickety-split, quicker than lightning to a rod, ivory goring flesh as the handler barks orders and Cheshire is sent stumbling back in line. They don't bother to heal the bites. There was no pain in such lessons to stay back, stay in line, blocked by the gate in zir spine, so a lesson had to be learned in other ways. The fear of infection, sepsis. Of being rendered inert- a useless, blunt tool meant to be scrapped for parts. To be submitted to the ridicule of the others, fingers twitching louder against zir ears than rattling branches on a window. The shame. The fear. Being small. Tiny. Weak. Cradling his arm, praying the stitches and antiseptic would stay.

Even Spoon could leave his legacy on Cheshire's wrist if he so desired.

The thought churns his stomach and Cheshire's hand retracts from Spoon as if she'd been burned, leaving the dog whining and worried as Cheshire shrinks away. Zir mind is sharp and coiled, curdled on her tongue, spoiled and rotten just like everything about her. Just like everything about the world. People. Zirself.

"It's alright," she says, offering the worried greyhound a wan mile, voice honey as he gulps back the soured milk in zir chest. He doesn't dare touch Spoon's mind when hers is like this. He doesn't deserve it. Chen would have her head, too. Chen doesn't deserve that... even as annoying as he is.

Daniel would be mad at him too, wouldn't he?

Cheshire can't stop the small smile from zir face at the thought of him. Even far away, the thought of him clears the clouds from his head. Makes curdled milk turn pillowy soft yogurt, even makes Spoon lurching to lick away at his face not so scary, not so bad. Minus the breath smell.

Daniel is just as bad with Spoon as Cheshire is.

Uncertain, a little jumpy. Unable to fully predict the dog's wants and needs, unable to fully read his movements. Julia is different. Sure. Confident. Even when she gets it wrong, bouncing back like the mistakes she made never mattered all along.

Cheshire sighs, giving up on pushing Spoon back. Zir eyes still wander the room, as if she were being watched. It still makes zir stomach churn to let zir guard down. Force zir muscles soft, let Spoon climb down into her lap. Let himself look as tired as she feels. As small.

"How am I going to do this?" She whispers to Spoon in the dark, gingerly scratching his ears. His little eyes are intent, wide, listening; little tapioca pearls of attention and affection, and she can't help but give his little forehead a kiss. Zir hand softly holding his muzzle. Never forgetting.

Daniel.

Julia.

Sometimes the lies grate. Sometimes zir teeth ache between kisses. Lies growing like cavities, sweetened and smoothed with diversions and secrets. But it's better for everyone involved, isn't it? What people don't know won't hurt them. Julia doesn't need to know her best friend and situationship beat her bloody at the gala. Daniel doesn't need to know his fucked-up lover broke his knee beyond repair. Chen doesn't need to know he trusted a killer to babysit his dog.

No one ever needs to know.

"It'll all be over soon," He murmurs into Spoon's fur, stroking the silver silk, allowing herself the weakness of a hug, the shame of curling into the happy, warm, trusting body that believes zir hands could never hurt.

One way or another.

Good end or bad.

This masquerade will be over soon.

[eirinstiva]

Alérgico a la pala

Halloa! ~ Bertie sent a letter~~ and Aunt Dahlia is here~~~

She is a large, genial soul, with whom it is a pleasure to hobnob. In her spiritual makeup there is none of that subtle gosh-awfulness which renders such an exhibit as, say, my Aunt Agatha the curse of the Home Counties and a menace to one and all. I have the highest esteem for Aunt Dahlia, and have never wavered in my cordial appreciation of her humanity, sporting qualities and general good-eggishness.

Is Dahlia Bertie's favourite auntie? I think so, this description of her is cute.

“Wake up, Bertie, you old ass!” she cried, in a voice that hit me between the eyebrows and went out at the back of my head.

I need an audio of this as alarm. It would be a bit scary but it's perfect to wake up and get ready with a good laugh.

“I wonder, Bertie,” she proceeded, gazing at me as I should imagine Gussie would have gazed at some newt that was not up to sample, “if you have the faintest conception how perfectly loathsome you look? A cross between an orgy scene in the movies and some low form of pond life. I suppose you were out on the tiles last night?” “I attended a social function, yes,” I said coldly. “Pongo Twistleton’s birthday party. I couldn’t let Pongo down. Noblesse oblige.”

Aunt Dahlia, I think poor Bertie is suffering enough with the hangover, or as we said in (some dialects of) Spanish: el hachazo (axe blow).

I’ve got a job for you.” “But I don’t want a job.” “What you want, my lad, and what you’re going to get are two very different things. There is man’s work for you to do at Brinkley Court.

So is canon that Bertram Wooster doesn't want a job, he loves to a drone in The Drones Club. He's allergic to working (figurative), or as we say in Chilean: alérgico a la pala (allergic to shovel/spade).

“You’re pulling my leg.” “I am not pulling your leg. Nothing would induce me to touch your beastly leg. 

This is the proof of the Bertie closeness to Aunt Dahlia. Would Bertie use that expression in front of Aunt Agatha? No. Would Aunt Agatha answer him in the same way? Nope. Would Bertie dare to say "no" to Aunt Agatha? Mmm...

“Derisively,” I explained. “I won’t do it. That’s final. I simply will not do it.” “You will do it, young Bertie, or never darken my doors again. And you know what that means. No more of Anatole’s dinners for you.”

Aunt Agatha has the same vibes that her nephew, and she knows him very, veeeery well, that's why she asking him for this job.

“But, Aunt Dahlia, listen to reason. I assure you, you’ve got hold of the wrong man. I’m hopeless at a game like that. Ask Jeeves about the time I got lugged in to address a girls’ school. I made the most colossal ass of myself.” “And I confidently anticipate that you will make an equally colossal ass of yourself on the thirty-first of this month. That’s why I want you. The way I look at it is that, as the thing is bound to be a frost, anyway, one may as well get a hearty laugh out of it. I shall enjoy seeing you distribute those prizes, Bertie. 

Would Jeeves help him with this... job? I don't know, and now Bertie has to deal with Gussie visiting so early. There's always the chance to nap later, old chap!

[zenkor123]

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Squad 451 after listening to Peeta mumble to himself pt ?

"What was that you said about Annie?" Finnick says.

Peeta replies "don't you know? Snow tried to hijack her and failed. After I was sent back to my cell she came after to the doctors room, she screamed your name but she didn't die her skin was Tracker Jacker blue though. I sometimes think that the failure was due to her moral fortitude and her love but I think it might be a different reason. Hijacking Is expensive and unreliable the only tyrant that would perform hijacking is snow. That's becuase snow loves to make things personal, he loves to see families or lovers turn on eachother and I watched him personally torture 2 avoxes. He loves to use reunions as assassination attempts like he ttried with the mayor of 6. it took weeks to mutate me and only after the mind scattering pill did I fully mutate. One needs to make them immune to jacker poison first then fill them with Venom. Even with all the venom I think hijacking depends on the individual being hijacked. But if the Hijacking fails it just makes her a defective mutt in the eyes of the capital. No one can have this much Venom put into them and not have their bodies transformed. I have hallucinations that feel as real as holograms, and when they attack me the spots they attack turn red, I even got hives after 5 Katniss mutt hallucinations began eating me. I can't feel new pain as my pain receptors were broken, the type of rages I have made famous while wrestling is not seen in humans, It takes huge efforts to concentrate my memories. Annie is still mutated she is still a mutt. I don't know if her body turns jacker juice into anti venom though.

" I know what your talking about, Annie told me. She is not a mutt! She also told me you tried to tell her what’s real and wasn’t to the best of your ability also and took a beating for it”

"How do you define a mutt? A mutt is just a creature(or human) who's very body is changed to fulfill someone else's purpose, a cow that fails to give milk, a dog that is stray and wild is still a mutt even if they fail In the purpose of design" " I wasn't so upset before about Katniss calling me a Mutt if I seemed it was bc of the guard."

"She's more then what she was designed for"

"Yeah absolutely speaking for myself I crushed hives of jackers and gave training to soldiers to prepare them for combat with hostile mutts. If the stigma of the word mutt bothers you I guess you could say she is not a mutt. I didn't mean to insult her. I'm glad that the rescue came in time for her to avoid the mind breaking pill. Why they don't start with this pill probably has to do with its side effects I could easily imagine it zombifying their mutts rendering them useless. "

"She's not a mutt!”

" I get it mutts are scary they are used by the capital to cuase painful death besides you not wanting your wife to be associated with the capital muttations why isn't she a mutt?

"Are the capital citizens mutts? They have their bodies modified, genetically modify their children's appearances, Annie still in body is human no matter the body changes of the hijacking, her identity is that of Annie Cresta, not my assassin. She wasn’t born in the capital. Even if her body was modified like you said, and it was, she has the hallucinations and false memories, most of both your body functions are identical to any other human. Neither of you are going to be as modified as a mutation born in a lab or farm”

"No they had their body modified willingly and a mutt Is always a tool of some kind though some capitolites have their avoxes genetically modified for specific tasks. So many avoxes are mutts I saw an Avox capable of seeing in the dark when I was in the capital. He told me his name was pontus he had fingers that could roll like a lizards tongue and were a foot long. They fed him to lion mutts at the end of my first week of the capital. How does a normal human generate antibodies that can fight something as lethal as Jacker venom? Did you know that the capital makes incendiary weapons out of Jacker Venom, they showed us their arsenal. the venom also can rust clothing making them look like spoilt food. That’s why I was given new clothing in the hospital where I attacked Katniss”

"How could a baby consent to being modified? Isn't a baby designed to be appreciated as an artwork for their families a tool?"

"Is the baby a tool? I mean I can see your point in the capital they compete over who has the best physical mutations. Though it is just cosmetic. They aren't servants. It also isn't permanent once they grow up they can genetically modify themselves. Hijacked humans must look like their namesake in order to kill their targets when they are off guard. If hijacked humans looked too different Snow wouldn’t get to cackle at his work. I don’t know anything about how Annie is faring with the hijacking but in my experience, Peeta Mellark sometimes feels like a different person, like I am watching someone’s else’s life in my mind. It was like this before I was even aware of it when I still thought I was him. Was Annie Cresta born in the capital like me? In a lab?

Katniss interjects “You don’t have any other memories other then Peeta’s even the made up memories are based on your memories, you even wrote that the capital got to the ‘ruins’ before you did’

“I choked you just like my creators designed me for, the capital didn’t care about who the mutt was just what it could do, any resemblance to Peeta Mellark is based on plundering his corpse , watching his memories is like watching a scrambled movie, where you sometimes feel the same things as the main characters, but the movie is broken, fragmentary and when you try to unscramble it you get attacked by demons. I confess that when people call me Peeta I sometimes feel like a fraud, it took me a while to be comfortable around Haymitch or Prim, until it was certain they really were interested in me but I try to make my own impact to prove that I am more then Peeta Mellark.” “By baking, creating propo posters, painting Morphling bottles? Like Peeta?” By wrestling, like Peeta? If the memories are in your brain they belong to you. If proving you are more then Peeta is what you have tried to do, you have failed” Katniss says.

When I was mutated, the capital after murdering Peeta didn’t put much to replace him, just the bare minimum needed to kill Katniss and die following the deed, so of course even after hope left.. that Peeta could return, I still looked in the rubble . So much fuzzy memories, so much nonsense, sometimes I had to guess which memories were correct based on what made sense. I don’t even know my eldest brothers name! All the none sense about prostitute Katniss and lover gale only reminds me that even the greatest efforts cannot bring the real memories of Peeta Mellark back to me, only fragments.… ” Peeta

“Then ask, that’s what Annie does”

Peeta says "I've asked Delly and spoke for hours about district 12, she stopped talking to me for no stated reason. I appreciate it but don't get your hopes up. I once spent an entire week chasing a single memory of the quarter quell, Jabberjay Hour , destroyed 40 branches in the process of retrieving. One time the hallucinations made my tongue burn as I kept pushing. Many things that cause pain, don’t do much and I sometimes enjoy it, it hurt even by my standards. I despise Delly but , though she didn’t exactly say this she was correct in that she was friends with a Peeta who the capital murdered.”

“Were your squad” Jackson says

[hamliet]

The Wild Robot. Yes the animals all agree not the eat each other, which I have questions about.

The movie The Wild Robot is about that protecting a child in an unconventional family unit who doesn't conform to expectations is the most important thing in the world. I think that's a really important thing for kids to hear right now, particularly like in the current climate, particularly when kids are facing a world where they're told that their desires or their identities or their families or their point of origin renders them less than human or unworthy of existence. And they're surrounded by people who are arguing that they should not exist, that they do not deserve to either be here or even to be alive. I understand peace and love and understanding, like, parenting vibe of wanting to teach your kids that is important for people who have different beliefs and different values to be able to talk to one another. You know, we need to be able to have civil conversations around things like tax policy or health care or, you know, all the deficit, all this sort of stuff, right? But also, it's wild to have this movie argue that you should, like, sit down and break bread with people who believe that you are inherently lesser than them and that you should not exist and that they should be allowed to do whatever they want. I don't know, maybe I'm being too cynical here. Maybe the last eight years or so have been too rough on my faith in humanity.

Ahhh. I haven't seen it. Honestly, the thing about this sort of thing is that almost any message can come across as preachy and... unempathetic when not framed well or handled well, and my guess is that something went wrong with the writing in this.

Also of note: sometimes it's better to frame a story as an individual one that can inspire, but not as a ubiquitous moral sermon that we're supposed to apply to our lives. I don't know whether that's what this film does, but that's my thought on it, from someone who has not seen it and could be completely off base.

I'll also state that nothing occurs in a vacuum, and the state of the world right now is bloody scary and this sort of thing can make us bristle. I think it's worth examining ourselves, yes, challenging ourselves to live up to our ideals... and also have compassion on ourselves for our own limits and boundaries. You're not wrong if you can't eat with them. You're not.

I love people who are supporters of evil men. You know the ones. I will never not love these people. But at the same time, I don't know how to still love them, what that looks like in practicality. For me it is not so simple as to just sit and eat with them and to say what they've done doesn't matter. It does matter. They're hurting me and my loved ones.

And until people you eat with value you as a person, well--you can still value them as a person, and I'd think you should, but I also think you should protect yourself and have compassion on yourself, especially when they won't have it on you.

Anyways I wrote a letter after the election in the US to a relative (never sent it, and I'm not going to; I'll speak in person). But the point is that there is ugliness in it, but also I believe righteous anger. And it's messy, and you'll notice there is no conclusion to this, because I don't have one.

Let's stumble on.

I don't know how to still love you. I genuinely view you as a Nazi. I grieve for the monster you've become, and I do hope you one day experience the full ramifications of what you've done--that it sickens and cripples you, and that the guilt gnaws at you all your days. Even repentance can't change the effects you've inflicted on us all. But that kind of remorse is too heavy for most to bear, and I don't think any of you have any desire to bear it. You are the monster you warned me about, and I truly do not think you deserve any goodness in light of the millions--even billions considering world power--you have condemned to save yourself and your own self-righteous that is but a filthy rag. I want to beg for mercy for y'all because I believe in mercy, but I don't know that I want it for you. I am failing to live up to my own beliefs now, and that is on me.

So yeah, I'm working it out too. Sometimes I think it's just sitting with this raw agony and anger, knowing I love them, and they love me, and it's not enough, and that is terrifying and scary and sad, that it's not enough in practice.

And this is where I gotta have faith in God because like, I can't even. Other people can do what I can't.

So yeah this devolved from a movie I haven't seen and writing techniques into discussing fascism and forgiveness and human nature and God. But your mention of "eight years" kinda implied to me you were talking a little bit about this, so uh. You're not alone!

[wrasslin-lps]

Smackdown! vs Raw: Part 5 - the 13th Amendment

After that tragic and brutal ending to the Bubba beating the shit out of LuLu storyline, Stacey Kiebler of RAW approaches him to work with him. Because this is the dark ages of 2005, a different time truly, she’s also a hoor. LuLu agrees to pick her, to keep the white birth rates down.

She wants to put LuLu through a gauntlet! She demands that LuLu beats cracker ass Charlie Hass, which LuLu handles easily. After the match, LuLu and Hass shove each other - but shock and horror, Matt Hardy shows up!!!

The game cuts to next week, so I choose to believe the beating lasted 6 days. Matt Hardy and Batista show up and challenge LuLu and Hass to a match, which summons Kurt Angle to tell them both to fuck off back to RAW.

Backstage, LuLu and Hass have a gay macho argument about Keblier, but agree to keep focus on their upcoming tag match against Batista and Matt Hardy which is happening even though Kurt told them to fuck off.

Have fun Chuck!

Or at least that was the plan. Unlike later games, when you tag into the other character you actually play as them. While this is way more fun than tagging out and then just waiting for 5 minutes to play the game again, it did ruin my funny plan to have Hass lose for fun.

I throw the match for roleplay aka that idiot Chuck fucks it all up! Batista and Matt beat Chuck up after the match.

Ignore LuLu plox and thx

Backstage, LuLu is nursing his head for some reason while Stacey pretends she watched the match that had LuLu cheerfully walk away from Hass.

Stacey invites LuLu to Raw to watch her in a Bra and Panties match, a match wherein two women face each other and the woman that strips the other wins. It was 2005, how were people to know this kind of thing was demeaning?

Next week, LuLu enters Stacey’s locker room, with permission for once!, and Stacey shows off her bra and panties and promises to have LuLu play Santa, where she sits on his lap, if she wins the match while I cringe and beg for it to end.

After a cringe-inducing match where I reflect that perhaps Anita Sarkisian had a point, LuLu heads on stage and I prepare for my agony to increase tenfold. Luckily, I am at last granted mercy.

RAW GM Eric Bischoff says he’s angry that LuLu was such a cool badass to Batista and Matt Hardy he’s going to make him fight them both at the same time, and it dawns on me that this is self-insert fanfiction for very, very sad teenagers.

The match goes how you would expect, and LuLu LuLoses. The whole thing was fucking pointless, as the match for Survivor Series is a 15 Man Over The Top Rope Battle Royale at Survivor Series. And the winner… wins Stacey. I mean, it was her idea, but this stuff is still skin crawling.

What’s funny is that I think Torrie, my other property, has higher stats than Stacey, so I don't even want her!! This is all very baffling. Despite being called a Battle Royale, it’s actually a 15 man Royal Rumble where people enter in intervals 6 at a time(so the PS2 doesn’t meltdown and cry)

Entrants in the Battle Royale:

Chris Jericho, Intercontinental Champion

Shawn Michaels, who is like 10 years older than Stacey and a born again Christian 

Garrison Cade, more like Gay Loser

Lutalo Luckstar

Matt Hardy, more like Matt Hardly

Tajiri

LuLu mostly just decided to observe the chaos.

Yep, that’s some chaos alright.

LuLu takes advantage to shove HBK out of the ring, and taking his place is

7. A-Train

Garrison Cade is eliminated by someone I dunno LuLu was being attacked when it happened, and taking his place 

8. Batista

LuLu and Jericho team up to take out A-Train, and LuLu immediately runs away because that’s scary. A-Train’s replacement

9. Christian 

runs into the ring, and Lulu gets nearly tossed out by Tajiri and that prick Chrisitian. LuLu works with Jericho to toss Tajiri over the rope, but he gets trapped and thrown out by Hardly and Batista.

This waste of time was rendered a bigger waste of time.

I love the shot of LuLu looking sad to conclude it.

LuLu did, several months ago. 

[sburbian-sage]

Uhh, hi. Grace of Light here. I was a Seer of Time in my last session, and this is my first replay. I've been looking through all the guides and stuff that I can, but it's very overwhelming...

I've been having trouble finding clear info on Graces... and that Grace of Blood has me really worried. I thought my cataclysm would be an accident of some kind? That's how a lot of guides made it sound, but maybe I mixed it up with the Waste.

But for that person, they sounded like they were doing it on purpose, and it sounded really scary and confusing. I don't want to hurt anybody, (or whatever they did exactly...), am I really gonna go crazy like them?

No, as a Grace you're not predestined to go insane, I was being a bit hyperbolic (and insulting towards someone jokerposting in my inbox, people jokerposting in my inbox is surprisingly common and always annoying). I don't think whoever that was is representative of most Graces. Partially because I don't think their "plan" fits what Graces typically end up doing, and partially because they were ranting about something much more philosophical and personal than just the game. At worst, they cracked under the pressure and are about to undergo their cataclysm, but it will be nothing like what they described.

Graces and Wastes are both cataclysm classes, and are both destined to cause a cataclysm. The difference being that the Waste is "active", and their cataclysm is more like a bomb going off, while a Grace is "passive", and their cataclysm can be more likened to a poison of some sort. When the cataclysm happens, the course of the session will be irreparably altered, such that any major plans you had for "how the session will go" will be rendered irrelevant. Whatever is going to happen to your session will be a slow corruption. Nobody will see it coming until it's too late, it cannot be stopped, and people will be hurt by it. But it won't be your fault. This is just what happens when a Grace enters the session.

My advice for you in the short term, as a Grace of Light, is to put the cataclysm to the back of your mind. Any attempt at reducing or avoiding the harm is doomed to failure. It's going to happen, and once you shake things up just in time for the third act, the eyes of all your coplayers, and the game, will be on you. If you're concerned about the fallout, focus on either fixing the harm, or helping everyone work past it and complete the game before the "poison" gets worse.

My advice for you in the long term, as a replayer, is not to get overwhelmed. The myriad guides, FAQs, and so on are useful, but endless. If you try to take in too much information at once, you'll overload or be unable to sort through them when push comes to shove. Or you'll psych yourself out when you see concerning things like that last ask. Reference them when needed, but trust in your force. You beat the game once already. If you want to read through All The Guides (All Of Them) in a professional manner, save it for when you've got a couple of sessions tucked in your belt and have built up a skillset that gets you through most of the game, but want to know more about the weird glitches, obscure features, or other data you haven't personally witnessed yourself. The replayernet will not hold your hand going forward, but it will be at your back.