#i think tumblr messed the resolution up

[sourapplesauces]

i never finished this but it was still a cool idea

[avoicebehindthestars]

DFAFM - It Ends As It Began (a colouring page)

You guys thought I was done manifesting my undying love for @phoen1xr0se's glorious Don't Fall Away From Me? :> I know I took my sweet time, but here's a fanart to celebrate the completion of this insanely fabulous post-s2! While this particular scene didn't happen in the fic, there are certain elements that make this fanart unequivocally DFAFM-coded :> If you've read it, I'm sure you can recognise them straight away ;)

I think that since Aziraphale came up with the name of the cottage, Crowley took it upon himself to hang the plaque. And sure, he could've just miracled it into place, but why would he do that when he could use the excuse to have his strong angel lift him in his arms while he nailed the plaque above the door? Task complete, hammer tossed safely on the ground, it's time to express some tender affection to his precious darling <3

And now listen up! This is a colouring page! I'm serious, if you feel like colouring it in (and can put up with the utter mess I've made of the plants xD), grab at will. I want you to! :D Click on it to enlarge (depending on your screen size and resolution it might appear smaller) and then right-click to download a bigger resolution.

Just a few requests:

don't erase my signature,

reblog this post if you share your coloured version (or link to the source if you share outside tumblr),

leave me kudos (…and comments? ^^) on AO3.

And now I'm going to try and tag everyone who's interracted with my previous post, because I'm assuming those people are interested in the actual page :)

@the-stars-are-ineffable @knifeforkspooncup @techiekittie @akaylawithalotofideas @lucianofranstric-blog @thestarsaresapphic @rori-98 @prinxlegolass @dastardly-ethereal-love @embrembracing-the-ineffable @gallup24 @parker-quil-1969 @hysterical-mess @aroaceling @mimi-and-the-next-20th-century @echeveriaaa @nadiapb @echosilverwolf @bowtiepastabitch @bagelofchaos @dragonwars2601 @newtness532 @velvetvulgarities @belladonna413 @pragmatamis @tragic-cosmic-magic @lickthecowhappy @crowleys-curl @teslagirl6 @akaylawithalotofideas

And of course @goodomensafterdark do your thing! :D

[qqueenofhades]

JSYK the OP of the Crab Day post is a self-identified conservative Christian. Can't speak to anything she may have done or said, but I do know that Crab Day wouldn't actually fix Tumblr - the site is running a 30mil *deficit,* which is different from debt. All Crab Day would do would be telling staff that their current policies get users to send them more money, which doesn't actually change anything. Corporations change only when their business strategy is losing the shareholders money.

Gotta be honest, my friend, I'm... not sure what you're trying to do here? Warn me that the original post was made by a Problematic Person (tm) and therefore that must mean it's all wrong, or.... what?

We know that Tumblr badly needs money, because they have told us that and openly admitted that the unpopular new changes were spurred by a need for increasing revenue. I logged on just now on desktop and got a suggestion that I could purchase an ad-free browsing subscription to help support the hellsite (which is the word they used, because they have very much embraced the joke). I have in fact already bought an ad-free subscription, both because I like the product Tumblr provides and want to keep using it in its current form, and because it makes my mobile experience immeasurably nicer. I am well aware that especially in this era of social media sites dropping like flies, the continued existence of a platform that is 30-million-dollars underwater (however you want to split hairs about exactly how) is not a guarantee. And we all complain about Tumblr, but we have all been here a long time (me, uh, over 10 years), we have a solid community, there's no other alternative that's really ever come up or gotten the same kind of uptake, and if it went under, we would be uh, screwed.

Tumblr is kind of a mess, it's the antithesis of every social media site, and it doesn't (for now) have the crap that makes The Artist Formerly Known As Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram so utterly unusable, or if it does, you can (mostly) turn it off. That's why we all like it and why, even if we are resolutely anti-capitalist gremlins who resist being marketed to with every fiber of our being, it doesn't change the fact that servers, staff, and all the rest cost real human-people money which the site, by their own frank admission, is struggling to raise. Even if staff does often make crappy updates, they generally at least TRY to listen to us and include a feature to make it optional or roll it back, unlike certain unnamed idiot billionaires. Their mockery of other social media sites can sometimes be a little much, but for now, Tumblr is pretty much the last place on the internet that does what it does, and I like it that way. If it went under and took my blog of 10+ years and all my friends with it, I would be incredibly sad.

That being the case, and basic financial realities being what they are, encouraging people to toss a few bucks at a TOTALLY OPTIONAL and fun gimmick that increases functionality for a product we like is actually not a bad thing. TumblrMart has crabs, checkmarks, Ea-Nasir merchandise (seriously), ad-free browsing, etc., and if our choice is voluntarily supporting the site through fun (and again, OPTIONAL) purchases versus having us all be involuntarily subject to some horrible data-scraping mechanism or forced off altogether because they couldn't keep the lights on, that is fine with me. Nobody is making anybody do or buy anything. But if you like the product Tumblr provides and want a fun material way to show your appreciation, then I don't think it's some Great Transgression to participate in that.

[dailyrothko]

Hi! I'm a painting student and I'm really interested in understanding if Rothko worked in series or just individual paintings that have some traits in common? I know he had the dark paintings series (and his Chapel), but what about his more colourful ones? Are the numbered titles indicative of that or not? Thank you so much for your time! 🌟

Hi

The chapel, the Seagram Murals and the Harvard Murals are all a series.

What are called the Black Form paintings of 1964 are thought to have been a series but it was not said explicitly by Rothko as far as I know. Since those paintings look alike to a certain extent and because of the time they were painted I think the assumption might be right. The numbers go up to 6, but number 3 is missing and there is one number repeated.

It's said that UNESCO pursued the idea of pairing late Rothko black and gray works with Giacometti sculptures, as they did at the paris show this year but we don't know if that would have happened or if he would have created new works for it.

And that's it, no other series, the numbers don't mean anything we know about, he just didn't want to use titles because it would lead the viewer to have an impression of what the painting was about, which was very against Rothko's philosophy.

Many of my scans here should be updated to better ones, as I try to do regularly but sometimes time interferes or, more likely, I have not obtained a scan i consider definitive or even an improvement. Sometimes the scans are good color-wise but were made in the time of lower resolution screens and suffer by being dated.

I am working on these issues, ongoing, however, I do have these series all up if you'd like to be more familiar. Tumblr was really messing up reblogs for years retagging everything, so just a note that the original post is the one that gets updated

The Seagram Murals and studies for them (Rothko always did a lot more than he needed) are here

The Black Form Paintings (many different scans) are here (this tag is a bit of a mess right now)

Rothko chapel and related works here

Harvard Murals here

[bakawitch]

Phew, took me awhile, but I think I finally nailed what I was going for XD

Kudos to @wisteriasymphony for coming up with Luka's hero name!

(Tumblr's messing with the resolution and idk how to fix it)

[edennill]

If Tolkien characters had Tumblr blogs part 2:

part 1

Finduilas:

url: waitingtothewind

pfp: drawing of a fictional crush in pastel colours (babygirl fulfills her royal duty to exercise patronage over artists by comissioning reams of fanart lol)

bio: ✧˖･* princess finduilas of nargothrond :) ✧˖･* 47 ✧˖･* poetry appreciator ✧˖･* romantic at heart ✧˖･* girl of many fandoms ✧˖･* favourite animal: doggos ✧˖･* favourite food: strawberry juice ✧˖･* and if I had a voice that could make mountains melt I would walk over stars just to see how it felt ✧˖･*

title: ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

has a very pink custom theme with a fancy font. runs a fandom/aesthetic blog and stays clear of discourse. writes really good meta that is quite popular and poems that get notes in the single digits. doesn't really know how to deal with anon hate. participates in every tag game she comes across.

Maeglin:

url: keeps changing it between @molelol and @twilitdark because he likes small animals, but wants to sound edgy.

pfp: keeps changing it between a baby mole and the kind of very dark photo where you can't really see what it's supposed to be.

bio: M / not a minor

title: the dark under the trees

guards his personal info incredibly closely (a good practice, but how much of it is due to his father having been so controlling that he learned secrecy early on is up for discussion). rarely posts, mostly reblogs photos and shitposts. vaguely vents about his idril/tuor/gondolin/treason problems. when he gets into discussions with people he can be uncomfortably fierce, has sent anon hate on occasion.

Celebrimbor:

url: craftingsilver

pfp: red eight pointed star (default variation, not technically fëanorian) on yellow background

bio: older/younger than you think | look I've seen the Trees that's enough | Noldorin jewelsmith | male

title: time and soul, wrought and tempered

mostly posts and reblogs crafting tiktoks and tips, sometimes adds a dash of science, philosophy or something personal. has made a resolution to filter out any posts pertaining to his family on his dashboard and keeps to it almost till the end. shows a strong sense of humour and has gathered quite a following.

Idril:

url: celebrin-does-things

pfp: blurred photo of her with her back to the camera

bio: 500s - architect, wife and mother - everyone is welcome

title: "ammë, there's winter in my boots"

started off as a miscellaneous blog, but shifted to being mostly about Eärendil's shenanigans. she vaguely vents about maeglin/gondolin/cousin's treason sometimes, but still comes off as way more laid back than irl. hardly used her tumblr before her son was born and still treats it mostly as a place to document things he has said + a way to talk with like three treasured mutuals. the architect part in bio is mostly a ruse because she has only ever completed one or two projects but can hardly reveal she's a princess, can she? (before the fall of nargothrond if she got on tumblr it was to nag Finduilas to remove her personal info from bio hah)

@eri-pl, this is in part because you asked (a while ago, sorry), though I'm afraid I don't have much to say about all your suggestions. I prefer not to get into Sauron's headspace actually, but the idea of him having access to social media is horrifying lol. And Pharazon has all the worst characteristics of Reddit atheists, non-ironic modern white supremacists and racist trolls rolled into one with the added horror of the new unsavoury state cult. Míriel is not allowed a sim card🙁😬

also I'm just now realising I tagged a compatriot in something I wrote at 3 am so if you have time stamps on you now know my messed up sleep schedule and if you don't I've just told you lol but never mind.

[the-badger-mole]

If you could fix aang as a character and make him a better well rounded character and hero of the story how would you do it? I love aang, but I perfectly understand why you don't like him. And the writing that was done for him in the show is so messed up. I wish he was written way better. Because for me Aang does have moments. But over all he has a lot of moments where he is toxic and it just drives me crazy.

I'd allow people to be angry at him. That moment in Bato of the Water Tribe, where he makes snide asides about the SWT culture and artifacts? Yeah, Katara and Sokka heard him. The village that had an anti-Avatar Day? That doesn't get resolved even after Kyoshi's grand appearance, because centuries of ill will doesn't just go away like that. Same with the two tribes in The Great Divide. Their interaction with Aang leaves a sour taste in their mouths, and Aang doesn't just get to lie his way out of conflict resolution.

I'm not saying this to be mean, but Aang's whole schtick is that everyone either loves him or is a villain, but if he's going to be an effective Avatar, he's got to learn to live with not being universally adored. He's got to learn that other cultures have value, even if their customs come in direct conflict with his own, because how is an Avatar who is a supremacist for their own native culture going to be an effective bridge for the different countries of the world? How does he illustrate the show theme of "the illusion of separation" if he can't even appreciate other peoples' points of view? How is he going to be effective at conflict resolution when he hasn't even experienced resolving his own conflicts?

Aang should also be forced to consider the war head on. I'm not talking about fighting lil' skirmishes and being chased by people. I'm talking about being forced to confront the war happening around him, and how it has affected the people he loves, and his role in it. I made a post here about how I wish it had been handled, but the tl;dr version is Aang should have been considering how to end the war and defeat Ozai WELL before the second to last episode.

Obviously, I Aang shouldn't have gotten with Katara, but I'm fine with his crush. Unrequited crushes are a part of growing up, and learning how to handle that disappointment is important. It think it would have been such a powerful moment for Katara and Aang to discuss their relationship and end with them still being friends even though Katara doesn't feel the same way about Aang.

If you're interested, scroll through my blog a bit. I've touched on how I'd improve Aang a few times. I would link more, but Tumblr is a garbage barge of a site, and their archiving feature reflects that. `

[padfootastic]

exam szn is coming up which obviously means ore distractions, as everyone knows. so what better than to come back to tumblr lol so many tag games etc piling up that i wanna dooooooo

so. let’s have a lil snippet time!

thanks for the tag @in-flvx 💜 this one’s from a wip that was supposed to have been finished & posted for jilypad week but,,,,here we are,,,,,

“Sirius!” Lily exclaims. “We were looking for you.”

“Oh?” He presses a quick kiss to her cheek before bending down to pick Harry up, who immediately cuddles into his arms with a tired sigh. Poor baby, must’ve been exhausted by all the excitement at the beach.

“Yeah, regarding tonight—“ Sirius gulped quietly at the way she said that “—Your room is a bit…messy, I’m sorry. We were reorganising and well, y’know how it goes…”

She shrugs apologetically but all Sirius can think about is how she called it ‘his room’. Not the guest room, not the spare, but his room. Sirius’. He once again pushes past the mushy feelings that rise in him at that little distinction.

“Oh, it’s—it’s fine, I can just take the couch, no problem.” Even if his feet tend to hang off the end, and the edges are a bit lumpy, it’s fine. He resolutely doesn’t think about his comfortable Alaskan King at home.

“Of course you can’t!” Lily scowls at him. “We’re not gonna put you in a couch in your own house, Sirius.”

There it was again, the reference to him belonging here. It was a bit presumptuous, slightly possessive but Sirius was a dog at heart, he was never going to turn down ownership.

“Er—the nursery, then?” he asks, confused.

“What, crammed up in Harry’s crib beside him?” she says with a scoff, “Don’t be silly.”

Sirius blinks. “Where am I sleeping then?”

“With us, of course.” He jumps at the voice booming from behind him, clutching Harry tighter to his chest, whirling around to find James munching on a carrot.

“Where did you come from?” Sirius mutters under his breath before straightening up and saying, louder, “And what do you mean with you?”

“Well, like Lily said,” and here he sends a meaningful, entirely undecipherable, look towards his wife who…blushes? “Your room’s temporarily indisposed, the couch isn’t even an option—don’t give me that look, you barely fit on the thing—and the floor is gonna mess up your back worse than it is.”

“Oi!”

“So, our room it is.”

Right. Of course. Because that’s the obvious conclusions. How could he say no?

(Again, he can’t so he doesn’t)

It’s twenty minutes later, after Harry’s been put to bed, thoroughly kissed by his parents and godfather, after James is done with his nighttime turmeric milk and Lily’s put her hair up into braids and Sirius has taken out all his rings and chains and bracelets—that’s when he’s stumped by yet another problem.

How, exactly, are they going to sleep in one bed?

“We’re just going to expand it a little, Pads, don’t worry,” James says, supremely unconcerned.

He goggles at that, staring at the casual wand work. A part of him wonders why this is the extent of magic they’re using to solve this problem—James can conjure a bed Silenced, with his eyes closed—but promptly decides to not dwell on that for everyone’s sake.

[hwljpg]

So, I just finished watching all 9 episodes of Smiling Friends in one sitting.

I dunno why, but I just have a bit of a natural aversion to immediately diving into like Internety things that blow up really quickly. I still need to watch the pilot episode for The Amazing Digital Circus, I have no clue what the game Content Warning is about, I know I got into watching videos on Lethal Company late and such.

One of those things was Smiling Friends. I had seen it blowing up originally, and so naturally, I just drifted away from it. I had subsequently seen it in like some memes or stuff afterwards, but besides that, not much.

It doesn’t help I’ve not really gotten into Adult Swim cartoons at the moment. I love random, but Adult Swim cartoons can be really cynical in a way that makes me wary of them.

Then, I saw you post some art of it. Then some more. Wow, more! What about this show makes this person I consider a good Tumblr friend like it so much to dedicate so much time to doing at about it? Well, you said in an ask that it wasn’t as cynical as other Adult Swim cartoons, especially when it came to Pim and Charlie. Huh, okay, I think I’ll go watch it!

I procrastinated on it for a few days because I was busy. But, finally, I decided, “You know what, I’m just gonna watch it!” I watched the first episode. Honestly, it is my least favorite episode. (Weirdly, just like how the first episode of the Sam and Max TV show is my least favorite.) I didn’t like The Boss breastfeeding, I didn’t like how Desmond kept the gun pointed to his head, I didn’t like the spinning baby. That all felt too jarring for me.

Of course, maybe I wasn’t properly acclimated with the show yet. Besides, there was good with the bad. I thought Pim and Charlie’s dynamic seemed funny, the ending was great, and I liked Allan and Glep as the other two Smiling Friend workers. So, I pushed through.

I ended up really enjoying my time watching the show. There was a lot more I liked than I disliked. My main thing: You were right, it definitely wasn’t as cynical as I thought it would be. Sure, the world still is cynical and messed up at points, but I felt an authenticity to the reoccurring characters and how they dealt with the situations they ended up in. Plus, for every single episode, I didn’t see the ending coming AND felt super satisfied by the resolutions! My favorite episode is probably the Salty’s one.

So, I guess this is a really long way to tell you: Thanks for getting me into Smiling Friends!

ooouuu i’m glad you enjoyed it!! surprising i’ve gotten some people to start the show because of my fanart.. wuohhh

Completely understand the parts that felt jarring; i could only look past it or at times find the humor in it mostly because of how my friends and i perceived and translated it into our own funky little brains. And i don’t necessarily feel as if adult shows need to step away from that very random/jarring humor/gags but more of Figure Out How To Do It Right and that’s what I feel smiling friends does perfectly. But some people are gonna be left with a bad taste in their mouth anyways and that’s completely fine yk.

What I like is how they mix those very jarring elements in their show + the characters world and contrast it with simply how realistic the characters are. They typically converse as if most of this stuff is normal and it only adds more to the joke when they actually freak out. Like i’ve said before i adore the mixture of extremely realistic dialogue that sounds so similar to real life conversations we’ve very have had before with people in everyday life. (that’s why i especially love the trip to brazil episode)

And obviously the lack of cynicism. I’ve been avoiding most adult animated shows for YEARS because i genuinely just can’t stand the cynicism and it’s constantly negative fanbases it always brews. And i’m very heavy on looking to the fanbase to get an example of how good of a media may be or simply how much it may appeal to me. I remember telling a friend that the difference between the rick & morty fanbase to the smiling friends fanbase was just one fanbase is known for constantly having a negative outlook on life and saying shit like “you need to have a high IQ to understand this show” while the smiling friends fanbase just DESPERATELY wants to make out sloppy style with Charlie. There’s no tasteless misogynistic, queerphobic, or racist jokes. Hell they have two fat characters as the main characters and we have not heard a single fat joke. It’s a breath of fresh air and with its inclusion of having many youtube/twitter/online creators be part of the show (and RUNNING the show) i feel as if we’re hopefully stepping into a new age of adult animated media.

hopefully one with a more positive outlook on adulthood.

aaaa enough of my rambling you literally watched the show!! feels so odd i used to be influenced by fanart and now my fanart is influencing others. i will do everything to use this power for good 😭 just happy to see people start and enjoy things im really fond for.

hope u having a good morning/evening/night tumblr friend 🫶

[justenjoythegossip]

The continuance of the PR (shit)show

More shenanigans at the globes?

So apparently Chris and Abba were at a Golden Globes after party last night. I use apparently because a pic of them with Mads Mikkelsen was posted a couple of hours ago on an Insta account. So the shitshow officially continues...

A change in the PR tactics?

First reaction looking at that pic. Well I think this is the very best pic they have “taken” of the two of them, one where Chris doesn't wear a mask that covers half of his face, where he hides his hand (disappears?) so that we can't see the Arthur fist, where he looks rather healthy, actually smiles and doesn't look like an hostage. We know he and his team lurk on social platforms to see what people write about him. So maybe they just decided on a new course of action for the direction of the PR games for 2024. Maybe it was Chris' new year resolution: to actually make more of an effort to sell it from now on. 

The ending of the shitshow

I have written a few of my thoughts about the ending of this shitshow before. So I will sum them up again. Nobody knows when these PR antics will stop except the protagonists of that shitshow, so people should relax and stop expecting them to be over. I know many mods keep writing this is about to be over. But it’s a lie they have wanted to believe or repeated since the Ghosted premiere. Yes there were many signs over the course of that shitshow when it looked like it was about to be over. But it is part of their MO. I have written about this in my post about the Forbes article.

People just don’t know when it is going to end. But it is very likely to go on for a while. And since he doesn't have anything in the pipelines work-wise, maybe this "RS" is what he needs to promote himself. Also, I personally think that a 4 month marriage would be bad publicity for Chris after marrying a 26 year old who looks like his niece. So people should expect the shenanigans to continue for a while. 

The purposefully badly manufactured PR....

There are obvious issues with that pic. Some mods have pointed them out. Again you might choose to believe that he has the most incompetent team in the business… or the badly manufactured is part of their MO. And I think it's pretty obvious at this point because they have done that over and over. Maybe they were at an after party but messed with the pic on purpose. Or maybe they weren’t even there at all. The point is people get to play the 7 errors game. And it drives traffic for them… which is the whole point of PR antics.

SIDENOTE you can expect (or not) some more proof that they were really there together once tumblr blogs are done pointing out all the bad photoshopping or AI. Once people show how fake the initial sighting seem, some more legitimate evidence sometimes magically pops out to give credibility to the first...

Mads Mikkelsen's news and current projects

I will say that it’s always an amazing coincidence that,  anytime someone outside of this shitshow is connected to them, people always have something to sell or are campaigning. Remember how after their recent papwalk, we got a deadline article about Scarlett’s Project Artemis. And then we have this...

[millaaster]

Love Takes Time - Koisuru Boukun

Pairing: Morinaga Tetsuhiro x Tatsumi Souichi

Summary: Morinaga comes home from work to visit Tatsumi, as usual, but he wants to make sure they're more than physical, for his senpai to really trust and be comfortable around him!

Words: 1745

CW: SFW; Fluff; Domestic Fluff.

AN: Soooo...this was my first fic written quite a while ago and I'm finally motivated to get back to writing, so I'm starting things over on Tumblr by reposting this! Enjoy babes. I JUST WANTED THEM TO BE CUTE YOUR HONOR!

Please, do not repost or translate.

MORINAGA finally had a chance to travel home after finishing his work ahead of time as he started his vacation period. After going out to eat with his senpai, they came back – this time to the new apartment he had moved into.

As Tatsumi took a shower, Morinaga was taken by thoughts, alone in the kitchen. AsSouichi opened the door, he was startled at finding that figure standing there – both because of how handsome he knew Morinaga was (and not seeing him as regularly as before gave it a whole new effect on him) and because of the serious look in his face. Did he do something to hurt him without realizing it?

After a few seconds of looking at each other, Morinaga seemed to come back to himself. Looking down and smiling tenderly, he started:

“Senpai, as time passes, I’ve been thinking more about what kind of life I see myself having in the future. I believe I’ve made it clear by now that of course you’re a part of it, no matter what”.

Tatsumi was slightly worried as he didn’t know in which direction that conversation was leading.

Morinaga continued:

“You know I’m the happiest just by being the one that comes back to you when returning home, but…I want to be the closest to you, senpai. And I want you to feel comfortable when you’re with me as well”.

Tatsumi was dumbstruck. It was true there were some barriers between them. He felt a clench in his heart by thinking it was probably mainly because of his own “self-defense mode” - although Morinaga had his share too.

“Senpai, we’ve known each other for quite a while and been in a relationship for some time too. So…I’ve made a resolution”. He had a smile on his lips and watched Tatsumi warmly. “I’m not holding back any longer”.

“...Wha-!?!” Tatsumi considered whether he should flee out through the door and run away while he still had a chance, but he continued to listen.

“Hehehe. Don’t worry, that’s not exactly what I mean!” And with a satisfied look: “From now on I’m doing all the things couples do with you senpai – and I decided to take the initiative as it was impossible you’d do it...”.

He got closer to his wary senpai and took his hand.

“You know, I really miss you when I’m away. I really want to hug you; to feel your hair and your warmth; I want to kiss you and cherish you. I’m going to do it all as my heart tells me; even if you hit me, I’ll be diligent!”.

“What is this idiot talking about?” thought Tatsumi.

“I’ll take my time, though. I’ll let you slowly get used to it”. And with that, he pulled his senpai closer and softly kissed his forehead, leaving to his room and then to the bathroom for a shower, in high spirits the rest of the night.

Tatsumi’s mind was blanked out. As soon as he put himself together, he ran and locked himself inside his room.

* * *

In the morning, Tatsumi, still sleepy, forgot about what happened for a minute, being instantly reminded by a:

“Good morning, senpai~ ♥”.

“Mornin...” he replied, squinting his eyes suspiciously in the direction he was standing in. Throughout the day he would avoid getting too close to Morinaga, almost keeping an imaginary safety zone. When he realized how the guy had a grin every time he noticed that behavior, he even considered whether he said that just to mess around with him. Still, he didn’t let his guard down.

Tetsuhiro had a clear strategy in his head though. So that it wouldn’t end up being even worse, he was willing to make use of all of his self-control. To begin with, every three days he would try some sort of skinship and, wherever he had a chance, he would make questions about things he wanted to know regarding his senpai – that also helped them to engage in general conversations, rather than keeping it physical.

He was conscious that, although they had changed so much until then, he had to be a little more mature towards their life together; he couldn’t let his selfish desires lead him on. He truly wanted to establish a genuine bond with Souichi. This time, he had a week of vacation; it would be enough for giving it a try and, after that, he could approach him every time he came home.

At first, when his senpai was a little more relaxed, he would give him a good morning back hug. Morinaga was, indeed, hit by an angry Tatsumi – who did feel flustered inside. During breakfast, when pouring him coffee, he would give him a soft peck on the cheek with an “Enjoy your food~”.

As he expected himself, he wasn’t all that strong, and sometimes, taken by lust, he crossed that line and took Tatsumi to bed in a hurried sequence of actions.

Morinaga also sat purposefully close to him at night if he was around reading or working in the living room. He bumped his feet on his senpai’s and caressed them lightly before he stood up and left, cursing. At this point, at least, he wasn’t as violent, limited to the use of some heavy vocabulary to express his indignation.

Although Tatsumi was having a hard time, as all that felt more teasing than bonding, he also sensed he was less and less bothered by Tetsuhiro’s caring attacks. He was aware the guy wasn’t going to stop and, furthermore, that his feelings weren’t fake, it was just...he had a different way of showing affection. But, if he was supposed to keep his word and accept Morinaga that way, maybe consolidating proper communication was the most important thing to do. Both of them had strong personalities and, in order to work it out, the two of them would have to adapt and give up some things every once in a while.

Even with those thoughts in mind, a few days later, when Morinaga tried holding his hand when they were waiting for the meal to finish cooking, he felt his face burning hot and quickly escaped.

* * *

On a Friday night, Morinaga was traveling back to the apartment to stay for the weekend, when he got a message from Tatsumi:

We had a setback at the lab

I’ll be a little late, sorry

You can just get in first

Back on the campus, Souichi’s research experiment went wrong and they lost about two months of work from that set. After trying to find the problem and solve it, he and his exhausted helpers called it a day and left. On his way home, all the mad anger felt earlier had already turned into frustration, and the exhaustion in his body made it even harder on him.

Even though it was late, when he entered he found Morinaga awake, watching something on the TV, and a bowl of soup waiting for him over the table. He greeted:

“I’m home”.

“Oh, welcome home, senpai. Though I should be the one saying your line”, Morinaga replied with a soft laugh.

“Ah, right. How was the trip? You should have gone to bed; you must be tired”.

“No, it’s fine; I thought I’d wait for you”. And realizing his tired expression “By the way, what happened in the lab? Is everything alright?”

Morinaga listened to the explanation as Tatsumi sat down and ate.

“Senpai, I’m so sorry. I wish I could do something to help”.

“...Yeah...it’s okay. It is very unfortunate, but I guess that’s part of an experiment, isn’t it?”

He wondered if Tetsuhiro was still working there it would have happened differently. He was good at noticing details he sometimes left behind.

“Senpai, you’re the one who should head over to the shower and then take some rest. I’ll take care of the dishes, so don’t worry”.

He did need that to deny it, so he simply complied and said a quiet “Okay, thank you”.

After finishing with the few dishes, Morinaga went back to the sofa, since he was a little curious about how the show ended. In the meantime, Tatsumi came out of the bathroom in his pajamas.

“Hey, you’re still watching it?”

“Ah yeah. It’s kind of interesting, actually”.

He went over and sat by his side. He was very close and Morinaga felt his knee touching Souichi’s leg. He was surprised but happy. Right then, he turned slightly towards him and noticed his senpai’s sight was pointing down, distracted. He knew how dedicated he was to his work so that day must have been really rough. Morinaga reached out and held his hand. Tatsumi startled and frowned for a bit, then he hesitated, but stayed still like that. He fondled his senpai’s hand and felt him tighten the grip between them.

Tetsuhiro smiled; that’s what he wanted, to be someone to be relied on by the one he loved. He snuggled closer and watched as Souichi moved his face almost as if placing it on his shoulder. They stayed there silent, only enveloped by the white noise coming from the screen in front of them.

About half an hour later, Souichi dozed out, using Morinaga as a pillow. He looked down to catch a glimpse of one of the most precious things he had ever seen. He carefully turned off the TV and carried him to his room. He covered him and was about to leave…but he couldn’t let that chance go to waste. He laid by his side, cuddling him and setting his head at Souchi’s nape, feeling the soft hair brush against his nose as he fell asleep.

* * *

When he woke up, Tatsumi took a second to notice another body was close to his own and gasped at the arms holding him. He then remembered what came about last night, calculating what he should do now.

But...but...that heat was so cozy...he had no reason to get away from there. He could just pretend he was still sleeping and enjoy it a little more. He was happy that, after all, Morinaga had put so much effort to help him learn how much he could like this kind of thing.

Meanwhile, Morinaga, who was awake all the time, did his best so Souichi wouldn’t notice. When he leaned back again into his chest, relieved, he tightened his embrace, pretending it was out of reflex.

Interactions are always appreciated ☆* have a lovely day!

Ao3

[kryptiq-kreachur]

Do you have tips on uploading trad art to tumblr and not having it look scuffed as all hell 😭😭😭 your art looks great pls share your secrets

Aaaa, thank you! I actually decided to shift my focus back to traditional art very recently and it means a lot to hear that ;; I hope this helps you and anyone else with similar questions!!

So I have two methods that I usually rely on when capturing my traditional art. The first one is kind of limited, but it is faster and more accessible. For these demonstrations, I'm going to use a colored sketch of my OC, Brinley. Step One: Taking Your Photo! All you'll need for the first method is your phone. What you want to do first is to find an area with nice, even lighting- the less warm, the less you'll have to correct later, so the closer to daylight, the better. In fact, using the light outside is a great way to capture your art! Note: If you are in a place with very cool lighting you will also have to correct the colors, but in my experience, cooler light is easier to work with. Position your artwork so it's illuminated with the light source directly in front of you. If it is behind you, it will be harder to get your shadow out of the shot. The spot I was in had my light source behind me, so my arm covered it a bit.

I repositioned myself to a spot with the light source in front of me instead, and I was able to get a nicer shot.

Keep your phone as level as possible over your drawing, and as close as possible without your phone going out of focus.

And now the first step is done! Step Two: Editing Your Photo! This is where everything starts to come together! Firstly, crop your drawing to your preference. I try to keep the negative space around my art as even as possible. IPhones have a handy feature where you can choose an even aspect ratio, so that will help keep things simpler if you want. Next, all you have to do is mess with the settings until you get it how you want it to look. Filters can help it to look more cohesive. I like to keep the art close by me to reference so I can get it to look as close to real life as possible. Note: black and white art is the easiest to edit due to the high contrast. Finished! Congrats! Your art is ready to post! Here's what my sketch looked like after I added a vivid filter and then messed with the settings.

The second method can be a bit more difficult, but the results always look better than just taking a photo. What you'll need is a computer (I think you can also use an ipad- any device will work as long as it can connect to the scanner), a scanner and any art/photo editing software. Step One: Scanning! The scanner I use is technically used for office work, but can be used to scan photos, therefore the quality is very much in the middle. There are scanners that are used purely for scanning high quality images of art and photography that will produce much better results on the initial scan, but this works just fine! There are also stores and other places where you can scan your work even if you don't own a scanner. First, make sure your art is as flat as possible and in the middle of the scanning bed. It doesn't have to be perfectly straight as it can be edited later, but if it isn't flat or it's on the edge of the bed, it will end up blurry in some areas or completely cut off. After that, go to your device and set the resolution to at least 300 dpi to guarantee a high quality scan, and then begin. This is what my sketch looked like after the initial scan.

Now we can move onto the next step! Step Two: Editing! You may have noticed that the colors are very washed out- scanners that aren't optimized for art and photos tend to do this, but with some editing, it'll look great! After opening it in CSP and selecting a canvas size, it's ready to edit! Note: Opening the image directly will automatically set the document's dpi to 72. Idk if that's a constant for other programs, but this means the overall image quality will be very low, so the picture has to be imported into a higher quality document with dpi set to 300 manually. I usually just copy and paste it into another document. Level correction is your friend! That's the correction layer I use the most when editing and it does the most heavy lifting, usually. After that, I sometimes edit the saturation. Since this is a digital method, you can edit your drawing however you want! You can fix some mistakes this way, or completely change things. There were notes and a sketch next to this drawing that i didn't want, so i painted over them with white- since i edited the level correction to up the exposure, the painted areas are indistinguishable from the background. Finally, I add either a gradient map for cohesion or fiddle with the tone curve until I'm happy with the final product. Once again, I like to keep the original art next to me while I'm editing for reference. (And then after that I might add a noise filter or some other effect, LMAO) Finished!! And now you have your scanned art!

These are all the editing layers I used!

Like with anything, trial and error are very important! You'll get better at editing art over time, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't look like you wanted it to the first time. Thank you for the ask, bye!!!!!!!

[defeateddetectives]

water under the bridge | a(nother) natori shuuichi/matoba seiji fanmix

featuring cover art by the incredibly talented and wonderful @izumisays

tracklist + lyrics + notes below:

i.

HEALTH x PERTURBATOR - EXCESS [i didn't do it / i didn't do it for love / what did i do it for]

FOREIGN AIR - IN THE SHADOWS [i know you could hear me / but you pretend you don't have a heart]

OWEN PALLETT - PEACH, PLUM, PEAR (JOANNA NEWSOM COVER) [now its done / watch it go / you've changed some / water runs from the snow]

TAMER - BEAUTIFUL CRIME [when the sun sets we're both the same / half in the shadows / half burned in flames]

PARIS JACKSON - SCORPIO RISING [you're my stained gauze / you are all i've got]

BRETON - PARTHIAN SHOT [you can cover up what you want / cover up what you are]

ii.

DOL IKARA - STONE TOWERS [what am i here for / i've gone astray / what are you here for / now i'm your decay]

TRILLS - SPEAK LOUD [you and me after / you and me before / time splits in two / on both sides of the door]

CHARLOTTE MARTIN - CUT THE CORD [we're too weak too strong / to cut the cord]

ADELE - WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE [if i'm not the one for you / why have we been through what we have been through]

LUDOVICO EUNAUDI - LOW MIST VAR 2. DAY 1 [instrumental]

DAUGHTER - SWIM BACK [i'd just need to erase distance / find a hole in the ocean / swim backwards]

iii.

TEGAN AND SARA - BACK IN YOUR HEAD (DEMO) [i'm not unfaithful but i'll stray / when i get a little scared]

AGNES OBEL - FAMILIAR [can you walk on the water if i / you and i / or keep your eyes on the road and live the familiar / without you and i]

MARIKA HACKMAN - REALITI (GRIMES COVER) [when we were young we used to live so close to it / and we were scared and we were beautiful]

MACHINEHEART - LOST TIME [i'm thinking about the last time / i wanna try again / i'm pushing on the rewind where it all began]

PVRIS - OLD WOUNDS [they say don't open old wounds but i want to / i think i could love you till the day that you die]

FOALS - MILK & BLACK SPIDERS [and i know you're still with me / you're my compass and my sea]

notes:

endless amounts of love and gratitude for dearest izumisays who put the cherry on top of my scorpio season with the offer to create a cover for yet another one of my little fanmixes! i now desperately need to hang this in the louvre and my wall because i cannot stop gazing at it in awe and adoration and feel the need to make everyone else do the same 🥰

we had talked about the vibe for this being inspired and informed by the transition from the sharp edges of their earlier dynamic to the recent (incredibly! surreal!) gentler pause in divorce coexistence that manga canon has been gifting us. as a result, it wound up much mellower and maybe even cautiously hopeful(?) in parts compared to those before (ie. the overall aesthetic contrast/narrative progression from here still hecks me up in the best way)

not sure how much tumblr may be messing with the resolution so full-view probably best and pls also appreciate seiji's tiny proposal loquat[TM] in the last pic! :D

[smaller-comfort]

I am obsessed with your take on Zahndrekh so can I have a breakdown of what’s in your Zahndrekh/obyron doc? Also if you wanted to talk about how you see Zahndrekh and Obyron’s dynamic I would love to hear it? 

Tumblr really didn't want me writing this one up, for some reason. Kept crashing.

Snecrontyr! Most of it is the longer Thing, which is about Yama. (Obyron stands behind Zahndrekh and glowers a lot! Zahndrekh writes (bad) poetry! There's a battle! Assassins! Obyron has sex with Neb and tries not to think about Zahndrekh the whole time! (Failure.) Setekh is the wooooorst!)

Part two is set immediately after they arrive on Gidrim and rapidly devolves into porn, as all the tension I hopefully build in part 1 comes to a resolution. For pacing reasons I kind of do think these should be separate stories and not just two chapters of the same thing, but idk.

The other two wips in the file are smut set in the same timeline- one where Obyron tops/darts Zahndrekh and has a minor meltdown over it, and one where Zahndrekh dresses Obyron up like Princess Leia and makes him roleplay a concubine. (Obyron is less than enthused, mostly because he keeps forgetting his lines. Zahndrekh has a great time.)

So, this is a very young Zahndrekh, fresh out of the battle royale that is necrontyr military academy. He's brilliant and aggressive and extremely arrogant, and if it werent for his general weirdness and idealism, he'd be just as bad as his peers. He has very old fashioned ideas about chivalry and honor, but his ideals are very firmly embedded in the hierarchical mess that is necrontyr upper society. He's not a revolutionary; he thinks the social divide between the nobility and the underclasses is a correct and natural thing.

He doesn't view Obyron as his equal, and he never will; the power differential between them is the only reason he actually feels as if he can trust Obyron. The fact that he trusts Obyron is at odds with the fact that he also very badly wants to bend Obyron over a table, but that trust is marginally more important to him.

Marginally. Ironically, the more he trusts Obyron, the thinner that margin gets. Once they reach Gidrim, it basically dissolves. I'm not writing any of this story from Zahndrekh's pov, but he's a mess by this point. Not only is he separated from Setekh, but he sees Obyron distancing himself, and he decides he doesn't have anything left to lose if he finally makes a move.

Obyron, meanwhile, just wants to serve his master, because that's his job, and his professional pride is the only thing he has that can't be forfeited to a noble. He isn't supposed to want anything else, and the fact that he does is terrifying to him. He wants to be close to Zahndrekh, but Zahndrekh could replace him at any time. Soldiers are inherently replaceable and interchangeable, after all. So he has to make sure he doesn't make another misstep; he has to be someone Zahndrekh won't want to replace.

It's messy and a little fucked up and not particularly romantic, really. I can't write romantic pining; I can apparently only write characters sitting in different rooms thinking to themselves "well now I will sit here consumed with lust for the rest of the evening."

Other Zahndrekh stuff: his body language is slightly unsettling to everyone. Some of this is intentional; he's more observant and a better actor than anyone gives him credit for, Obyron included. He likes putting people on edge to see how they'll react. (Obyron's pointed non-reaction to his antics delights him. He longs for a straight man. Figuratively speaking.)

Necrontyr use their teeth for threat displays; Zahndrekh always smiles with his fangs out. No one can tell if he's actually thirty seconds from challenging someone to a duel or not, and no one really wants to find out. Not when Obyron is standing behind him with his warscythe, anyway.

He is hiding so much hair under that headpiece. Obyron eventually learns how to braid it for him; Zahndrekh jokes that his skills are wasted as a vargard, and he's going to put all of Zahndrekh's actual body servants out of a job. Obyron does not find these jokes funny at all, and neither do any of Zahndrekh's servants, but none of them are ever going to try to explain that to him. Obyron does like touching Zahndrekh's hair, though- at least, he does once he gets past all of his internal screaming about how inappropriate it is.

If you asked Obyron if his feelings towards Zahndrekh were romantic, he would be baffled, horrified, and slightly disgusted. If you asked Zahndrekh the same question, he would laugh and deflect and then sulk for a solid month about it. He'd try to force a noble title on Obyron so he could make an actual attempt at a proper courtship and Obyron would be so insulted, he'd stop talking to Zahndrekh for another month. Zahndrekh doesn't actually notice that Obyron isn't talking to him until week two.

By month three there would be whispers in Gidrim's court of petitioning the phaeron for a war or something to keep Zahndrekh busy, preferably somewhere far, far away from his crownworld.

I'm not writing any of that story, btw.

I'm not.

[warmsol]

hey isa! Do you have some advice for a beginner who wants to start a story? I know it's a lot of work, finding the right cc, buildings everything, create sims etc. Do you have a favourite blog to browse for such cc for storytelling? Also I could use some advice what's important for taking pictures - what's the best crop solution for tumblr? What font and font size is the best to use? And hoooow do I write dialogue without adding too much and still keep it interesting? Sorry if this is a lot, but I really admire your work and loved to start a storytelling simblr again!

hii! i think it’s awesome you want to dive into storytelling. i’ll answer your questions under the cut 🫶🏼

1. as for finding cc, i’ve just accumulated a ton over the last few years, no specific blogs but rather just browsing on tumblr. you can always check if your favorite blogs have a cc finds account, many do! mine is @warmfinds which could be useful. but yeah when it comes to cc, i suggest really thinking about what you’ll need! like, say you have a scene coming up in the kitchen, gather some kitchen pieces that you can use for that scene. it might be more helpful to break up the search according to scene rather than trying to find things all at once for your story. (also suggest downloading telegram and joining dollhouse mafia.. or keeping up with the vault… cough)

2. for taking screenshots there are some guidelines you can loosely follow (highly suggest watching this video for a quick breakdown) here you’ll find the different types of shots you can include in your posts! considering this is sims, there are some limitations so just allow yourself to get creative with it.

for most of my story posts, i’ve stuck with 1280x720 resolution. but recently i’ve been playing around with sizing, so unless you’re focused on consistency don’t be afraid to try out different crop styles.

3. font! the font i use is arial. it’s straight forward, and easy to read. i’ve used this my entire storytelling journey and haven’t had a complaint. at the end of the day just remember that the font is probably the most important part! pick something easy and clear to read. also, switching colors when a character is talking is highly encouraged. if that’s not your style, at least add a name tag for easy following along.

4. sooo, when it comes to dialogue, it’s really something you learn as you go. i had a tendency to write very lengthy in the beginning, i wasn’t a seasoned story writer so i sucked at knowing what to cut and trim. my biggest advice is to write out everything. ramble. let it be a mess. get out everything you want your characters to say. it’ll be rough, and that’s fine. once you’ve sat on it, go back and edit it. keep what’s important, what moves the story! i spend a good amount of time editing scene dialogue until it feels right. one huuge thing that helps is reading out loud! if it flows well spoken it’ll feel more like a natural conversation. just don’t be too hard on yourself, we all start somewhere. it’s a muscle that needs to be exercised and you’ll find your rhythm as you practice. (like seriously compare my first posts to now and it’s night and day, and i still have room to improve)

lastly i just want to say pleeease have fun. don’t pressure and compare yourself. i’ve fallen down that trap many times and it literally stopped me from posting. but as long as you remember this is all a fun hobby, i think you’ll be okay.

i hope this was somewhat helpful ♥️ also once you start posting lmk! i wanna follow along heh

[jerzwriter]

I want nothing more than to move past the drama of the past few days, but to do so, I need to apologize for my part in it.

Issues are best dealt with privately and transparently. I stand by that. I beg you, if you ever have an issue with me... come to me. I'm always willing to listen. I can't promise a resolution, but I can promise a civil conversation. If we can't resolve things, we can go our own ways peacefully. But I can't address issues I'm not aware of, and that's precisely what happened with this whole mess. Everyone isn't going to like everyone else. I don't even want to be liked by everyone. I'd be doing something wrong if I were. I don't care if someone bitches to their friends about me. Venting to friends can be healthy and, honestly, something we should all have the luxury of doing. But when private venting turns into ongoing public attacks, that crosses a line. That's bullying and, frankly, unsettling.

I don't want to see someone ranting about how much they hate me, or anyone else, for that matter. So, I utilized block to the best of Tumblr's ability. But thanks to someone who feels the need to keep sending me screenshots dozens of times over, I still get to see the worst of it. It's not a good feeling. In fact, it's awful. Still, on all but two occasions, I hit delete and dealt with it alone. The two times I replied publicly, it was because the attacks were too mean and 100% directed at me... so I snapped. I'm not proud of it, but I'm human. I have limits, too. But, when I make a mistake, I admit it.

Arguments can be made I have the right to defend myself publicly since I was attacked publicly. I agree with that. But, at the end of the day, all it did was drag me down to a level that I pride myself on being above. So, going forward, no matter how vicious an attack on me, I will do my best to walk away.

I didn't start this ridiculous, unnecessary war. I've never attacked, only defended. The only thing I want is to stop being attacked by someone I have never spoken a word to.

One last thing. I've been told that someone is sending hateful anons to this person. They and their friends believe it to be a follower of mine. I don't know if that's correct. After all, I'm getting hateful anons and screenshots, too. It's entirely possible it's just someone trying to create chaos, but I digress. But if anyone who claims to be a friend or follower of mine is harassing this person, PLEASE, I beg you to stop. I don't care if you think you're "defending" me. It's wrong, and I don't condone it.

I'm sorry for the discomfort this has caused others in the fandom. I'm sorry if anyone feels they need to "choose sides." I know I've never asked anyone to, and I never will.

While this has gone too far to be resolved, I just want us to coexist peacefully. I'll do my part to facilitate that... but again, I only control myself. I hope others will step up and do the same.

Thank you for listening. 💕