#i wanted to post this in order cuz i do have the illustration for the first chapter skeched out

[somdachuvadenoite]

Been thinking bout @myaami s fic ever since i finished it. This is a illustration I did for chapter 2. I do want to make one for each chapter and it was supposed to be black and white butttttt it’s fine, maybe the others I’ll keep b&w.

Go read it!!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/21816376/chapters/52062352

Myaami, if you’re reading this just know that your writting is so fucking goooood, can’t wait for your next longfic project ❤️‍🔥

[gorgojijijijito]

I've made it my entire personality at this point but with what I'm doing I can't really help it, being an aromantic trying to rewrite a romance is HARD oh my gosh. yes im a self shipper so im no stranger to creating 'romantic' scenarios, but those portrayals of it are only born from my complicated relationship towards platonic and romantic attraction and activity. i literally only do it because im touch starved and have trust issues and confuse that with a need for a romantic relationship. i still do it because it's fun and self-indulgent, but i know that it's going to become a big obstacle when writing scenes that are meant to appeal to alloromantic audiences in Bride of Discord. that being said, im begging you guys to hold me accountable if my input in my ramblings about it are skewed or innacurate. right now im just going off of my background knowledge for general healthy relationships.

With that out of the way, commence the rambling ig.

I think the biggest difference in the acts of love in Bride of Discord as opposed to one of the works it was inspired from, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, is that BOD's are all either transactional, or hammer in the subconscious knowledge that Fluttershy is trapped. I'll go through them one by one explaining my grievances in separate posts bc ive got a LOT to say.

First of all, our first exchange that parallels Beauty and the Beast; the circumstance of how Fluttershy/Belle came to be in the love interest's domain. This one is honestly the least offensive of them that I can think of as of now, but it still has uncomfortable elements. It largely mirrors the circumstance in Beauty and the Beast, however a forced marriage was in mind from the beginning. Fine, whatever, arranged marriage is a popular trope so I don't mind it as much.

I actually like how Fluttershy's view towards it is portrayed; she doesn't see happiness for herself in any path she takes in life, and that hopelessness she feels leads her to face her worst fear in the most head-on way possible. It feels in character for her, considering it's an act of kindness and sacrifice for Equestria, and for the mental state she's portrayed with for the prior episodes, giving up her freedom is, unfortunately, a common last resort people with depression may take in order to feel something at all. I wish the audiodrama leaned more into her mental health issues, it would have fit really well for the tone of the story and provide an interesting turn of character that we don't really look into much with a show as lighthearted and FIM. Maybe it's just me, but i love learning about and exploring stories that illustrate the ways environmental factors, be it your surroundings or peers, can influence the way you perceive yourself, others, and your purpose in life.

But nope. cant do anything interesting like that cuz discord's gotta be creepy and touch her and dote on her all the time. i get it, it can be cute for a shy character to get embarrassed for being praised, but that isn't what's happening in these scenes, as much as the drama wants to convince you it is. Discord is simply taking advantage of her vulnerability to attempt to woo her with no concern for her protests or consent, and it's extremely uncomfortable to watch. He never apologizes for it and never backs off, all it does is literally tire her out. there is no change in how he values her consent from when he returns and when she asks him to keep stroking her mane, she just feels more comfortable with it because she told him about the one time she got stood up. he doesn't respect her as a person with boundaries, he only hesitates because he's flustered that he's lost the intimidation he'd used in order to overpower her in the previous month.

I feel like it would be better if Discord uses the touching and complimenting to make her uncomfortable in the beginning bc, you know, hes a piece of shit before he gets to know her, but then, as he grows to see her as a person with her own right to agency and desires, he stops himself whenever he catches himself. When Fluttershy talks to him about the reason it made her uncomfortable, he directly apologizes for his overbearingness and actually SEES the error of his ways. THEEENnn we can gradually have fluttershy actually ASK to be touched and comforted when their relationship feels mutually transparent, as they feel no more need to feep up a front about their feelings for one-another.

[studioninilong]

The Type of Art You Support

I am an artist influenced by many things.  Let's just say 'life' in general.  So the Visual Art you are Supporting is a result of those inspirations.  I have other artistic gifts that will be showcased here but for now we will focus on the Visual Art.

My STYLE is somewhere's between comicbook, manhua, & semi real.  It can be suggestive but my pieces here are always SFW.

Each Illustration has a story that goes with it...so hopefully you'll get to know the story as you view, recieve, print, or hang each piece.  I have a minor in creative writing so there's poems, scripts, and such with each uploaded piece.

Don't let AI fool you, Actual Illustration takes a long time to produce, hence why I'm even setting up this Patreon.

Each MAJOR piece (like the one above) takes about 24-50 hours to complete.  Which I can do in a week if I do not have other obligations.  So the goal of this Patreon is to do art WEEK IN/ WEEK OUT so you get a full plate of art every month.

--------------During Launch--------------------

Round One: FIRST 108 PATRONs get BOTH or your choice of one of these!

Art Card Series.

Primo: I'm designing a board game.  Well it's already designed, I'm just working out the kinks and visuals in order to put it into full production.  Sooo, I'm releasing artcards of the play-pieces that will ONLY be available here.

Segundo: I figured some ARMYs would appreciate my Planetary (134340) Series in artcard form rather than the GIANT %(&! 24x24 pieces going up in Esty.  Sooo, they are now a part of ROUND 1 for free Launch materials.

I ship these out once you become a patron.  Well I sign them and number them first, then pop them in the mail!

Round Two: The FIRST 224 PATRONS receive a LOTUS ENAMEL PIN

So Studio.Nini's emblem is a cross inside of a lotus.  Ask me what it means later cuz there's a long drawn out story and it involves Martial Arts.  Anywho, getting Lotus Pins made...in Studio.Nini's colour palette and gold...cuz i like gold.

When the second round begins...you new folk AAAAAANNNNND the First Round folk get Pins shipped out to you, if you're still an active patron.

Round Three: The FIRST 613 PATRONS receive a sticker variety pack (3ea)...because I like stickers, and you better like them too, HA.   (Ok if you haven't figured it out by now...this space is lighthearted.  I'm a pro at what I do...but I enjoy having fun with friends...........and you better enjoy it also or you're going to have an AWFUL time here, HA!)

When the third round begins, OG peeps get the Launch freebies from before AND these sticker packs.

....and as a special incentive....If you pledged IMMORTAL throughout the run of all rounds....you can ask me for a commission...............and it's yours.  No Holds Barred.

INTERACTIVITY

Voting on which Lady Dragon piece I do next is where our online interaction begins.  I'll be posting three (3) to choose from and you can vote on which gets done next.  Hopefully we'll have fun with that process since I will also be streaming the PAINTING PROCESS with you.

https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/74302843/e922453260c7424d9ddc21e18b2772c1/eyJ3Ijo4MjB9/1.png?token-time=1695772800&token-hash=5qFFjVatRgxERL4z3kEnc7V9kZX6Ezx9ft6KzFU7NjM%3D

The MINOR pieces appearing on this site take anywhere from 4-12 hours.  Those are like the character pieces above or landscapes, cityscapes...conceptual pieces.

FREEBIES

Milestone and monthly giveaways like Stickers, pins, journals, and of course...

ARTCARDS:

Well I only do one type of fan art, really. Bangtan Sonyeondan art.  And boy do I have alot of it done.  So for those who are ARMY you get extra art love.  These artcard freebies are only in physical form...so you'll get artcards (4x6 / 6x9) in the mail if you want those freebies each month. 

So, I do hope you enjoy the space.  I'm constantly beautifying it to make you all feel welcome!

And thank you again for your support!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 1

It’s been longer than usual since our last answer session, so I’m answering a ton of questions today! It’s so big I split it into two parts. Thank you for the patience on getting a response to these.

Thanks for reaching out to us with your questions and kind words ^^!

Sorry if this has been asked before or isn't something you can say but is there anyway for Cove to confess in step 4? I wanted him to confess in step 3 and followed all the steps to make him do it but ended up texting my family instead of Cove at the end.

Yeah, Cove can confess in Step 4!

Hello! I heard that Cove is on the spectrum, albeit undiagnosed. As someone who is ND, this makes me UNBELIEVABLY happy. I literally was brought to tears! Thank you for that!

Out of curiosity, will Cove be diagnosed in Step 4? I have a strong feeling y’all won’t make it a HUGE deal/make it out to be negative, so I’m not worried about that whatsoever! I’m just curious just he’ll off handedly mention it? Or will it just not be touched upon at all (which is ok!)?

Either way is ok, I’m just curious!

I’m happy it made you happy! Admittedly, Cove simply being someone with autism that grew up not being diagnosed was something I included for myself. I didn’t really think anyone would notice or ask about it, aha. But players did start to have questions about his traits, so I started to talk about it outside of the game. It’s great to see it get such a positive response and now I do feel like having it be a non-topic may have been the wrong choice and bringing it up would’ve been good in terms of having positive representation for that. I don’t know if I’ll find a way to mention it in Step 4 now, with how far along the game is, but I am at least thinking about it when originally it wasn’t something I really even considered.

Hey!  Just wanted to say thank you for Our Life.  It's been a bright spot and a needed escape in what's otherwise been a crummy year.  I know you just did a Q&A post but I figured I'd ask anyway.  Was just curious about Step 4.  Will it be similar to the other Steps in that it consists of several different moments or will it just be one long sequence?

Step 4 is shorter than the prior Steps because it’s just an epilogue rather than a full arc of a story. It’ll consist of scenes that all happen in a set row one after the other. There won’t be a collection of Moments to choose from. But it’ll still be very sweet and fun.

¡hola!, you see, first I want to say that I love Our Life! (°◡°♡) and I have 2 important questions, would Cove cry watching titanic? and what is the saddest part according to him? (sorry for my english) 

Titanic would make him cry. He’d probably think the parts showing people who aren’t able to make it to the life boats/are choosing to stay and go down with the ship were the saddest.

Hello, I wanted to ask how much you earn with creating games? Like is it possible to make a living? Thank you >< <3 

How much I earn varies a lot month to month based on Steam sales, Patreon backers, and how many projects are in full production at the time. It’s also hard to say how much I make historically, since that also changes dramatically year by year. But I do earn enough to work on these games full time! I really appreciate all the support that allows me to do that.

Hey!! I was wondering for the 18+ Our Life moment, will there be an emphasis on safety/comfort for all involved? I feel like there  would be just going off of what the rest of the game is like, but I wanted to ask 

Yes! Cove is a nervous boy himself and also super cautious about doing anything the MC doesn’t like, so clear consent from both is absolutely needed for anything to happen. It’s a conversational sexy times Moment with stops/starts so the two can talk about how they’re feeling, rather than a heat of the moment just going for it kind of thing.

Hey!! I was wondering how long the wedding dlc would be? Will it be broken up into moments, or just one big event? 

It’s one long series of scenes all in a row rather than a collection of Moments to pick from. It’s the shortest and the least expensive of all the DLCs. It’s not super crucial to get and those who aren’t into big weddings can totally skip it without worry.

HELLO AMAZING DEVS 👋 i am hopelessly in love with the worst guy ever (jeremy king) and because of this i have a really stupid question: does he really hate people who are nice to him? TvT he’s too cute to be mean to istg it’s a miracle JB held the urge to be consistently nice to him bc just look at his FACE he is so cute! thank you for jeremy’s route it’s so lovely (and awful bc he’s scum 11/10) it gave me so much laughs LMAO i hope you guys have a good day!! 

Haha, thank you. He doesn’t hate them but he’s certainly not pleased with them. Jeremy is either uncomfortable with or annoyed by people being sweet on him, depending on how they approach it. He’s far more comfortable with jerkiness. It lets him relax and he can be himself without it being a problem, since he’s also a jerk. He feels a level of guilt being such a little punk to kind people, not enough to be a better person but still.

Has Cove dated or been interested in someone other than MC? 

Nope! He stays single over the course of the game if he’s not with the MC.

Is Step 4 more mature? Or it's gonna be set in similar atmosphere as Step 3? 

Step 4 is a similar atmosphere as Step 3. Though, it’s actually kind of less mature-topic heavy than Step 3 since it’s just a ‘hey, let’s check in on the gang to see what they’re up to’ style epilogue rather than a story arc with serious issues.

will there be new music for now and forever?? or will the old our life music be reused? 

It’s gonna be a brand new soundtrack. We’ll be opening up a job position for that soon.

Hi, is it okay if we use the assets in Our Life (like the sprites) for fanworks or fan content content, like edits? 

Sure! Just as long as you don’t use the assets made by those artists to make money.

Quick clarification on Step 3 choices: I hope I didn't come off rude (because I LOVE the game, really!!), I was just curious because the intro threw me off at times. For example, you could choose how you felt about Elizabeth in Step 2 (Dinner), but during the Step 3 intro, it says that you got closer to Liz and I didn't get a choice in it. 

For the example, it can’t be helped that you’re closer to Liz in Step 3 than you were in Step 2 because she’s inherently closer to the MC regardless of whether you liked her or not in Step 2. Her feelings are out of your control and the game isn’t so dramatic that you can push her affection away and not let her bond with you, haha. But ‘being closer’ can still be relative. For some people maybe that means you’re best buds now and for others it might just mean you’re not fighting all the time any more. If there’s other parts you want to mention, feel free to let us know.

Did the illustrator for Our Life change? 

We have many OL artists! The main artists who set the game’s style haven’t changed, but there’s multiple other artists who help finish assets.

So Miranda's type is confident and outgoing, huh? So...does that mean Terri's her type?? 👀 

Haha, sorry for the late reply on this. As you might’ve seen in our post yesterday- yeah that is her type.

Hey! First, I just want to say I've really enjoyed how detailed OL got with gender identity and sexuality and how respectful the topics were handled! It's been so wonderful to play since the experiences could be close to my own (I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at parts). Second, I was wondering, would future games explore the topic of polyamory? I'd love to see more visual novels allow room for that and I saw you've explored the topic before.

Keep up the amazing work! ♡

Thank you! We do want to include polyamory in at least some of our future projects. Floret Bond, which might be what you’re referring to when mentioning how we’ve explored the topic before, is on hold unfortunately. So right now I’m not sure when something might release or what will be the first game of ours to come out with poly relationships (we might do something else before FB is done). We’ll have see how things ends up coming together.

Hey um. I feel like im not allowed to ask this on the private discord cuz people will yell at me but why is there so much focus on OL2 and not finishing OL1 stuff? I like the new people but i kind of want to finish cove's story and get derek and baxter stuff first. didn't people pay for it? 

I’m sorry, I don’t understand entirely what’s making that situation a concern. There’s a channel in the discord for critique where no one is allowed to comment back. People can voice things they’re worried about without any way for others to push back on it. And the two teams working on the OL games are different. We try to post pretty often about how we’re hiring brand new people to start on Our Life: Now & Forever. The OL1 team is all still working on OL1 like normal. There’s only more updates on the Patreon for OL2 because the expansions to the first game are mostly script-based at this point while OL2 is just starting to get all its art, which means there’s a lot more to show off as previews.

Also, there was a Kickstarter for the first Our Life, if that’s what you mean by people paying for it. But one of the stretch goals was to start Our Life 2 early, before fully completing Our Life 1, so that the new game could be out sooner. It wouldn’t make sense to stop doing OL2 work because that would be going against what backers were promised. Maybe you didn’t get the full story before and hopefully this clears it up!

Hello! I know it's up to every player but.. What is your recommendation for playing order? Did you ever had any timeline  events planned? 

I didn’t make the events with a planned timeline. The events got made simply as I had ideas for them and then I just kind of organized them from left to right on the screen in an order to space out more dramatic ones between more lighthearted ones. Any order the player wants to go with is totally valid!

Hi! It's Step 4 a paid dlc or update? And how long it's planned to be? Ps. Love the game! 

The Step 4 epilogue is free! The Cove Wedding DLC does cost money, though. Those are planned to be shorter than the usual Steps/DLCs.

Will we have options for what sort of job the MC might have by the time step 4 takes place? 

Yeah, you can. It’s not super exact or detailed, but there are options about it.

Is there a pandemic in Our Life world, or is it just in a better timeline with no pestilence? 

Our Life is pandemic-free! That didn’t exist when we began working on the project and it’s not something we’d like to feature in this story now that it has unfortunately come along, aha.

Hi, you said that you can play tic-tac-toe or hangman with Cove in Boating if you're sick/scared but I keep getting tic-tac-toe. Am I doing something wrong?

After being sick/scared you have to continue to be upset/unwell. If you calm down and decide to just chill you’ll end up playing tic-tac-toe.

Hi, GB Patch! Since Lee was initially commissioned to only appear in two Steps does this mean she won't appear in the Wedding DLC? I really like her character so it'll be a little weird to not have our cousin at our wedding, aha.

She is gonna be in Step 4/the wedding DLC after all! We’re still working with her creator to make sure it fits with what they wanted.

Is Sunset Bird based on a real place? Asking for a friend, not trying to move there or anything. 👀

It’s based on small beach towns in So-Cal, but not one specific town you could go see in real life, I’m afraid. It’d be nice if it was real, though.

—– —– —– —–

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[danysercia]

Trying something new.

I always wanted to have a proper Art Blog, but I never knew what that meant. Typically most art blogs boil down to fancy art galleries, highlighting the artist's best work, some nice sketches, and wips, and the occasional text post with some q&a. For most of my time here on the internet, I've been mainly posting images. I rarely write anything, because I was really bad at it, I'm still bad at it. Of course, you can't improve if you don't take the time to practice. So I decided to revive this little blog in order to start a mini-project, for fun.

I'm currently in my senior year in college, and thankfully I managed to learn something about drawing and illustration, even if it is just a little. I wanted to share some of the projects I've been working on over the semester, in the hopes of better illustrating (hehe) what I've learned over the years studying Illustration. Frankly, I've always wanted an excuse to start a blog, so what better way than to revive an old one for the 4th time! If third times the charm, the fourth time must mean it's very lucky, I hope.

Book Cover Project

So this one was a fairly easy project, all we had to do is pick an artist we like, read a few articles about their life and come up with a brilliant book cover and double-page spread about the artist's life.

Simple right?

Well, it helps when you already know the artist, read every article, and kept up with their exhibitions tour. My artist was Kehinde Wiley, a famous American portrait artist.

So the first thing I do, is make a nice mood board. Everyone loves a good mood board. So sort of had this idea from Art vs The Artist, when you take a picture of yourself and surround yourself with you art. Wiley really looks like his art lol. I also made a mini color palate (I sort of used this palette.) Also did some random practice spot paintings.

Everyone's favorite, THUMNAILS! I always make a few thumbnails, focusing mostly on composition. Also, keep in mind, this is a book cover. So you have to consider not just the cover, but the back and the spine. So I picked the top right one, cuz I like it, I can't really explain it, but it looks good. Anyway, let's move on to the spread.

Ok, not the best thumbnails, but they don't have to be good. The same thing, you have to think about how your illustration will look when you open the book. When you're doing a spread it's important that the focus point of your illustration doesn't land in the middle. So I didn't save much of my progress, so I'm gonna do the classic meme of "Sketch and Final". So here we do.

Book Cover FINAL

Spread Final

Ok, so if you made it this far, I'm so sorry, you've learned nothing, and that's due to me not being good at explaining stuff, I just like showing stuff. But I hope I've entertained you? Maybe? I don't know, let me know if this was helpful or not. I'll probably do another one next week, probably.

Hopefully, I'll get better at explaining things and such.

Best wishes,

Daniel

[xxxdoppel]

A long overdue post...

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but we have had so much going on with the game and the anime release that I keep pushing it back in order to give other posts priority, so here we go! My most recent acquisitions!

Beginning with Tart Nation! My goal was Pernelle and I did get her, but at what cost? Well, got spooked twice:

Hikaru and Karin

I was enraged, to be honest. I had exactly 200 rolls and the last thing I wanted was a spook, but well... I eventually got:

Pernelle Flamel

Okay, but the only way I was able to get her is because I bought her at the shop. 200 rolls and she wasn't part of any of them. It was really sad cuz I worked so hard for those stones... At least I got her. Gotta be happy for that.

With the free anime rolls, my main got:

Himika Mao

I ADORE that final pose, it's so dynamic! She looks so cool! You guys know I'm usually never happy with getting new units, but she's an exception because of that P O S E. I'm a huge fan of illustrations like that.

I also decided to go ahead and buy a wellfare from the shop:

Seira Mihono

It's taking me a while but I'm slowly finishing collecting the wellfares. The only one I'm missing now is Rion.

Now, my alt account:

Other than Mitsune, these free rolls gave me:

Sayaka Miki

Why is Seyiku the first one of the HQ to appear? It happened to my main as well! Btw I just realized her background looks like Oktavia's "collar"(?) That's kinda badass.

What a journey. It's been so much fun to the point I wish it never ends! I truly wholeheartedly wish so...

[milkser]

Hi guys

You all know what’s going on in my country. I’m gonna to write a whole post about it, but now I just want you to know what I’m in desperate search for a work cuz I don’t know what to expect from tomorrow and if you want to order something from me, PLEASE, do it now cuz at any moment I can lose the possibility to get foreign money and if this will happen I don’t know where to get them instead. All previous year I worked as an art model and illustrator and got used to work on ipad, (which I still pay credit for)tho it was hard. But consider the _possibility_that the working process may take TIME since I just don’t fckn know what’ll happen next, but I’ll work my ass off for sure

My prices, which are pretty low, and works examples are bellow, I work with paypal and sberbank but don’t mind to try any of your services.

I’m in such a stress, fear and desperation, trust me, not me, nor ANY of my friends want this war

I will be happy to any of your support with money or words, cuz at this moment I have, like , zero of it around me

[flowerslightning]

(Part 2) Cloud Strife and his Mental Illness

a.k.a Psychiatric Disorder

| 1. Memory | ⇦ Click if u havent read it yet

2. Hallucinations, Illusions and Delusions

Since these three things relate well with Cloud's troubled memories, I'll be talking about them first before jumping to his Confused Personality

This post will bore u a bit or maybe a lot 😂 it depends. If ure interested with psychiatric stuff, u'll find this enjoyable as much as i do

Disclaimer : I'm 21 and still a tiny meany student. During my intern at Psychiatric Department, I learned and witnessed psychiatric problems from real life patients. And since Cloud (my fav FF character) has psychiatric issues, I'll be sharing some of my knowledge and interpretation of Cloud's character. Im not diagnosing him, rather i'm giving my own opinion about his status

@nibelheiim created a post about dissociation, she explained about hallucination, PTSD and more. Come and check her out! Her words were more direct and easier to understand. She explained about Psychological matter and she's a real psychology student too!

While my explanation will be more focusing on Psychiatric Topic and words used will be more complicated (with grammar errors). My facts will be based on ICD 10 and DSM-IV

A lot of people were confused with these three terms - Hallucination Illusion Delusion - These terms associated with abnormalities of perception. It is important to understand that this abnormality holds two keys; ● 1. Perception is the process of becoming aware of what is presented through the sense organs. ● 2. Imagery is an experience originating within the mind that usually lacks the sense of reality that is part of perception.

Abnormalities of perceptions have 4 theme, but I'll be focusing on two major types that relate with Cloud: (i) Hallucinations ; (ii) Illusions. Some cases, perception can be normal in intensity and quality but has a changed meaning for the person who experiences it - it is called as Delusional Perception. It is not an abnormal of perceptions, rather it is a disorder of a person's thinking.

Try guessing, how many from these terms does Cloud has?

1. Hallucinations

- A perception experienced in the absence of external stimulus to the corresponding sense organ. Eg - patient hears a voice when no one is speaking within a hearing distance or patient sees something approaching him when visually no one is there. There are 2 qualities to determine a hallucination: ●it is experienced as a true perception●it seems to come from outside of the head●

The above gif, where Sephiroth suddenly appear again before Cloud's eyes even able to touch Aerith's shoulder, it illustrate perfectly the 'Visual Hallucination'. No one can see Sephiroth, other than Cloud himself.

Cloud [Remake] kinda had anxiety when he stared at the fire and later he saw Sephiroth surrounded with flames, then poof, that silver guy disappeared along with the images of fire. He said he was hallucinating stuff after the first bombing mission. Idk how Sephiroth could create fake images of fire around him, either Cloud was really hallucinating or it was really Sephiroth that came to see him. But, this is what we call as 'Visual and Auditory Hallucinations'. Cloud SAW Sephiroth and HEARD him talking when no one else did. I can also add in 'Tactile Hallucination' because he probably felt the burning sensation on his skin from the flame around him that caused him to feel hot and sweating, or probably it was his anxiety that caused him sweating upon meeting Sephiroth with the flashback of his burning hometown

Hallucinations can occur in all sensory modalities; visual, olfactory, auditory etc. In the Remake, the Whispers could only be seen by certain people. To those who couldnt see it, they would be puzzled what was happening to u, and would've thought that u were hallucinating something, like in the case of Aerith.

In Cloud's case, perhaps Cloud [In OG] had auditory hallucination due to his severe case of Mako Addiction. But then, that wasnt exactly a hallucination though, cuz the thing he said "'Coming.. They're coming" was actually true. A monster fell from the sky.

Other 'hallucinations' that Cloud had was the images of Sephiroth that appeared in certain headache. Cloud may claimed it was his hallucinations, but i've read it somewhere that says it was really Sephiroth appeared before his eyes. Sephiroth was messing with Cloud's mind, trying to break his mental in order to control him. However, IF IT WASNT SEPHIROTH that came, Cloud's 'hallucination' would be known as a mental disorder that may lead to severe case - eg Schizophrenia.

2. Illusions

An illusion is a misperception of an external stimulus. It often occur in several circumstances: (i)level of sensory stimulation reduced (ii)attention is not focused on the sensory modality (iii)level of consciousness reduced (iv)being in a state of intense emotion- fear.

Does Cloud has it? Urm, maybe? Well, it can be proven when he saw his 'noisy neighbour next door' as Sephiroth. As stated above, illusions occur in 4 conditions, and Cloud was in number (i) and (iv). When Tifa yelled him to stop, Cloud came back to reality and got really confused when the 'Sephiroth' that attacked him was actually a sick guy. We can also add in 'Hallucinations of Deep sensation' in this scenario bcause Cloud experienced the feelings of being pushed down by 'Sephiroth'.

However, we all know that 'Sephiroth' was real at that moment. For Cloud, he thought it was an illusion, but for us the audience, it was a real thing.

If u want a better explanation and example, try watching Joker the movie. The main theme of the movie was 'mental illness'. There are lots of scenes that shows different type of hallucinations, illusions and also personality disorder.

3. Delusions

a.k.a fixed false belief. A belief that is held firmly despite evidence contrary. A delusion is nearly always a false belief but not always so. There are around 11 types of delusions according to the book. Half of it may suggest Shcizophrenia. Schizophrenia is certainly not in Cloud's case. I've studied one by one the type of delusions and none of them match with Cloud FF7.

I will surely give anyone a good punch in the face if they dare to say Cloud suffers from Schizophrenia. I've met with bunch of patients having it, and the way they see this world is totally different from us.

In some other cases, eg a spiritualist convince a person to believe in his spiritualism and he present with contrary evidence to the non-believer. This non-delusional belief is called 'overvalued ideas'

Overvalued ideas is an isolated , preoccupying and strongly held belief that dominates a person's life and may affect his action. One of the easiest example i can come up with; a friend who had skin cancer may be convinced to her roomate that cancer is contagious, and her roomate suspects any abnormal skin conditions she has is an evidence to show she too, may have developed the same cancer, when the truth is, she's just completely fine.

It is very hard to distinguish between a delusion and overvalued ideas.

I had a patient, he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. He looked like an ordinary man, but when he talked, it sounded so unreal. He said he had jumped off from 10th floor several times and didnt get a scratch from it. He believed he wont die bcause he had gained super power. He even convinced me to try his 'so-called-secret technique- on how to survive a jump. By doing that often, I will have a superpower like him - a strong physical body. Up until now, I still dont know if he was being deluded with his thought or he was overvalued his idea, bcause from his psychiatric record, he did try to jump off from the second floor of his apartment's balcony a few times.

So, Im not really sure of myself did Cloud [FF7] really had delusion or not. Well, he believed he made it to SOLDIER bcause he had mako eyes. But was it something we called as delusion or was he just overvaluing his idea? He didnt know the truth and his memory messed up. No one could explain to him why he had Mako eyes, except Prof Hojo and Zack who knew the truth

Besides, after Tifa helped with his memory, Cloud accepted the fact he wasnt in SOLDIER. For patient who deluded with their own thoughts, they hardly could believe what people told him.

However, surely Cloud [in AC] had delusions of guilt and worthlessness due to the fact that he believed he had done something shameful and sinful - the main trigger of this theme was, he got infected with Geostigma while he was searching a cure for Denzel. Cloud got depressed with the loss of Aerith and the memory of Zack death had returned, but I think he was recovering very well in that two years time skip. The moment he got Geostigma, he became deluded he was worthless and his depression kicked in again.

Hallucinations and Illusions are normal to be experienced by healthy people, but it wont be if u encounter too many hallucinations & illusions in 2 weeks time. Believe it or not, a lot of people around us are actually mentally ill bcause some of them may have excessive certain delusions, such as delusions of jealousy, grandiose delusions, nihilistic, paranoid etc. Although 'it is consider as normal' in a few circumstance, a few cases need to refer to psychologist and in severer cases, must refer to psychiatrist. If u follow Dr Phil's show, u'll see a bunch of patients have different kind of crazy delusions.

Overall from my statement above, I would conclude that since Sephiroth always appear before Cloud's eyes, this resulting Cloud to think he has both Hallucination and Illusion, when in fact, he's just a normal guy with amnesia and personality confusion. Cloud doesnt have Delusion like how many fans said, neither he has an overvalued idea, even with the evidence of Mako eyes supporting his reasoning + he's a great fighter. I will have to say that perhaps it is his brain defence mechanism that tricks his mind to believe he is a Soldier.

If only Sephiroth stop disturbing Cloud's life, it will be a lot faster to fix Cloud. Tifa alone will be the main strength to get Cloud back to normal. Ah, but this is the beauty of the game. Life wont be exciting without the presence of a beautiful villain and a love triangle (Tifa-Cloud-Sephiroth). Lol Technically I see them trying to fight for Cloud's mental health. Tifa wants to help Cloud with his mental status while Sephiroth is trying to destroy it. Lolololol

My crack theory : Sephiroth says he's going to take Cloud's most precious thing, and he ends up choosing to kill Aerith, but ofc there's another reason why Aerith got killed. But if Sephiroth kills Tifa first, I think he can take over Cloud's mind faster, because then, no one will be holding Cloud back. Honestly no one can ever will, not even Aerith. So does that mean Sephiroth doesnt know about Cloud's deepest secret or is Cloud just good at hiding his weakness?

I WILL UPDATE THE NEXT POST LATER because I've reached tumblr limit images agaiiin. The next part will be focusing about his personality - Personality Disorder

If there is any part that I've mistaken, pls correct me. I'm sorry for my english. English is not my native language, so there are plenty of grammar errors.

[steve0discusses]

The Full Metal Alchemist Live Action Movie Part 8: Watch This Episode Covered in Butts be the Only One Not Flagged by Tumblr

Gonna be risky business and not only upload all of these caps the way I screenshot them--which has just SO MANY poorly CGI’d butts but also gonna do it on the Tumblr Drafts folder, which I have been assured works now.

I’m so worried about so many things, but considering all the fears I have about like...everything else in the world right now...I guess I’ll take a risk on tumblr.

Edit: I cannot believe that I had 8ish episodes of Kaiba’s tall dueling tower get flagged but not this movie. I just....wow I cannot.

So anyway, last we left off, General Hakuro stepped in and was like “Hi guys, you like my wily plans that no one in their right mind would have ever guessed???”

Yo remember this part of the anime? Where the bodies drop from the ceiling and it’s a hunk out of the final arc--it’s here. In this movie. This movie that can’t possibly afford to do that. Lets get some CGI animated bodies in here ASAP.

(see some texture regrets under the cut)

It’s like a Monet, as the Mean Girls say, because far away and shrinked to 500 pixels this looks kinda neat. They sort of look more like those slime ball that grow in the back of your throat rather than human bodies, but they still look pretty gross hanging up there.

But then.....we zoom in. Remember again that this was full screen on my computer, and at one point was on a freakin movie screen. This level of 3d...was on a movie theater screen.

The mind boggles. The mind boggles!

Like as you know, I am an artist, and I’ve dabbled in...basically everything in my pursuit to make a dollar...and I have taken about 2 years of classes in 3D art with Maya and all those. I’m not thaaat great at it--I’m much more an illustrator/painter--but I feel like I have that reference point. Can I just say--the model is...fine...you can do a lot with layers of bump maps so you don’t need a truly detailed model (not like they did that, because they didn’t do that, but I can figure that maybe they had an intention to do that and forgot?)

But, there’s no connection of the wires to bodies. They just kinda float? The bodies are also all the same shiny-ness? To the point that it looks like a copy paste? (I don’t think it is, the wires are slightly different on a few of them) There’s just not much in the way of a texture map or a bump map. It just...there’s also something missing from the skin.

Skin is actually kind of rough to render, so when I did it back in the day, I followed like a checklist to make sure I had all the layers and steps to make someone look...clammy. Some things are kinda translucent, they reflect light a different way...especially white skin like this wouldn’t be just...white like putty. Dunno if you ever saw a white person, but we got so many veins...there was so much potential to make something really gross and fleshy.

Instead we got silly putty. It’s fine. I’m fine.

So General Hakuro decides to just...kill everyone right now.

This makes no sense to me.

That means that the whole thing of Lust killing Hughes was completely unrelated to General Hakuro. All Hakuro needed was Shou Tucker, who has been in prison for...I assume months since Ed shipped him off. And Shou was only released today? Just now? Just now when Hughes was shot?

So this all just happened at the same time by accident?

I mean the General sent us to the wrong lab initially, so he didn’t actually want us to be here, and now that we are here, he’s going to set off an entire army as a reaction to three people walking in and going “oops”?

So, lets get a look at our army.

Oh it was so disappointing, this reveal. Not just the eyeball that has a bounce light coming from below the top lip there (how did that even happen???) but also when it opened it’s mouth, it had a flat animation of skin breaking--it wasn’t actually rendered 3d skin, it was like a jpg wrapped around it or something (or at least that was the illusion I got. That is fine for a video game or a TV show, but this is a movie. This is shot so that it can be displayed in a size bigger than your own house.

What happened to the animation team on this one? Not saying I can do better, cuz no, I can’t, that 3d chapter in my life was a while back, but I’m just one guy. This was an entire animation studio and they just...didn’t render 3d face ripping (which is their entire job, to work in 3d) and then they kinda just turned on the stock physics dynamics and dropped em instead of animating them.

The way they fell was like fish from a bucket--the same amount of speed, too. they all ragdolled like a 3D shooter, their rigs just hanging on for dear life (and yes, you could see the deforming happen on the joints of these models.) I’m fine with having a computer program render something out with a physics engine...but there is a balance.

You do have to still go in there and finangle it back because...real life is hella stupid. Real physics? So stupid. It was hilarious how nonthreatening it was, too because they’re like...the size of shrimps in that zoom out image. The scale is just so wild!

It was like one bored guy in a sound booth and they multiplied his voice three times. Golden. Absolutely golden.

So these guys stride over, all of them with the same amount of speed (leading me to think it was probably a recorded walk cycle they all share with slight alterations between all of em) and they kinda just...pile on eachother in a weird way.

I will give them this: I was happy to see something that wasn’t physics or procedural. They mo-capped and animated that part for sure. It had the touch of an artist’s hand. It was also a very funny way for Hakuro to die because this guy was on screen for like 5 minutes, and maybe 7 minutes of this whole movie.

Youknow...I think it really says a lot about your nude 3d models if they’re not disturbingly human enough to trigger the tumblr filter, youknow?

Anyway, Envy looks on.

And then Gluttony saves the city.

Meanwhile, they decide to bust out the fire effects and Mustang becomes the most useful person in this entire movie. Like honestly this movie was poorly named, because it should have just been “Mustang saves the FullMetal Alchemist’s Entire Ass.”

The next part seems like I forgot a cap, or maybe missed something. I swear to you, I did not.

First off, Al becomes fullmetal and makes this happen without an alchemy circle. The show doesn’t really care to talk about that though, it’s just a thing he can do now, and you’d only notice it if you were writing a Tumblr post about it.

I swear to you, Winry is just inside of Al and there is no explanation.

There is no explanation for this.

She was on the couch...why is she not on the couch? What?

And then when you think they might have a moment, Ed’s like.

Damn.

For reals what the hell was that entire scene except for a way for Ed to get his arm stitched back on in like 2 minutes?

Outside, Envy and Lust are just strolling around the back-alley of this red brick building we have seen used for this entire movie.

And like...it’s so funny to me because they weren’t trying to run or hide. It makes complete sense why they got shot. This is what happens when you just...walk away when the whole military guard wants to kill you.

Now lets go see how Hawkeye is faring.

Luckily, all of the ambling bodies have decided to walk slowly through this one weird grass section between extremely long buildings.

And Hawkeye tells everyone “You have to shoot their heads off” and I want you to look at that scene and tell me how many of those bodies still have heads.

Oh, all of them. Don’t worry about it.

Kinda hard to see, but Ed shows up to give Mustang a hand, which was fully unnecessary but we’ll get to that in a bit.

This movie is such a gem.

Ed goes big brain and realizes that Envy is still burned up, and thus is about to pass on.

And whatever, I’ll take it. It’s not like the movie has told us that they are made out of 1000000 lives, for all we know, in the movie universe, they really are only 4 lives. Like half a cat. Maybe Father only killed half a cat instead of an entire city.

Yugi Muto would be so freakin proud of Envy for how often this guy gets hit square in the chest with fire balls. It’s basically every scene where Envy and Mustang share screen time.

And don’t worry, I don’t think Envy died? But they sure made it look like he did, which I’m sure everyone everywhere was really happy to see, since Envy’s death was one of the climaxes of the whole series. Like people used to make these lists of “top 10 saddest anime deaths” and how many people had Envy on there? Like everyone? People freakin love Envy and they did him so much dirty in this movie.

Again I have no explanation for Winry.

So Mustang is like, Ed, you make sure Winry doesn’t biff it in that corner, and I’ll do my actual job over here on this side. And yo, he did.

And so then that’s it, Lust is dead, and now we have a Sorcerer’s stone.

Man it looks delicious, right?

I’d eat the hell out of that.

Anyway, we only have one more update and we’re done with this movie!

I know!

I know! They only have 10-15 minutes to resolve pretty much everything, and that’s assuming that the credits don’t take up a heap of that. Hell, I might only have 3 caps next episode if that’s all credits. I honestly don’t remember.

Anyway, hope y’all take it easy this February, here is a link for people who just got here to read these FMA recaps in Chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono

[wormbook22]

Hello world... again

Hellooo,

Thank you for finding me! \(^o^)/

This blog is mostly to promote my favorite arts & music, plus some stuffs about audio production (technical or not).

I used to have another blog on the same topics under the same name. However, due to some issues with Tumblr support (nothing illegal I swear o.O), I now need to create another one.

What you’ll find here:

Reviews of mostly non-mainstream musicians and their works (albums, singles, soundtracks, lives, operas etc.)

My journey of sound exploration, including discussion of music genres, recording techniques, instrument design etc.

(Sometimes) Other stuffs: books, art films, anime, paintings, comics, manga, sculptors, 3D rendering etc.

MINIMAL shitposting. I may post #random things and #announcement from time to time. The truly irrelevant stuffs are marked with #please ignore. Just block them.

I aim to churn out contents once every week for short posts (starting Aug this year), but more in-depth stuffs may take months, as I’m rather busy irl.

Now, here are some house rules before I start with the juicy posts:

1. Non-mainstream music?

That’s over-generalizing a bit, but I like weird stuffs from different genres all over the world. If it’s done right to me, it doesn’t matter if it’s jazz, pop, house, avant-garde, classical, hip-hop, soundtrack stuffs or whatever in-between. A few examples (not in any order): Kajiura Yuki, Ennio Morricone, Billie Eilish, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Björk, Agust D, Ulrich Drechsler, Hanoi Duo.

With that said, I’m quite biased with a mix of powerful female vocals, stuffs in minor keys & lots of evolving counter melodies. Sure, each of those do typically appear in mainstream music, but I tend to prefer more eclectic combinations of them. I’m sure I’ll unconsciously cover more people like that.

You’ll likely discover lots of weird people here. Do follow official channels of those who interest you! :D

2. Sound exploration...?

Well, after having too much time for introspection during Covid-19, I’m thinking of switching career to something along the line of foley artist or sound engineer. No idea what I want yet, so I’m exploring possible professions. Since this is a music-related blog, I just want to share my journey, haha.

Posts about this will have a separate hashtag so those not interested can ignore them. Topics will range from modding instruments, sound-making & recording paraphernalia, music theory, music history etc.

3. Weeb? NO. Maybe nerd at most.

In case someone spotted me mentioning “anime” and “manga” and thought “what if...”, no, I’m not into waifus, bishounen cults, or the other stuffs (you know what I mean)... Do not expect such contents here, though you can freely fangirl/fanboy about your favorite stuffs in the comment section (but keep it toxic-free plz) (^o^)/

I love many anime & manga series just as much as I enjoy Pan’s Labyrinth or NatGeo documentaries. I casually join fandoms, but I’m not hardcore and by no means an expert in anything. So do correct me if I get some facts wrong!

4. NO political stuffs, conspiracy theories, fan wars etc.

More like, I’ll keep potentially toxic stuffs to the minimum. I’ll still discuss them objectively if they’re relevant to the topic at hand. E.g. how a group’s disbandment may affect a musician’s solo career etc.

With all the crap happening in the world, we could do with a bit more positivity. And cooler heads. So I will NOT rant extensively about such things. And I WILL report such posts if I ever see them here.

I don’t care if you shitpost elsewhere. I do too. But please just spare this place...

Also, yes, it’s important to be aware of certain social issues.

However, I believe such things should be discussed with well-sourced information, clear illustrations and non-malicious intents. Not angry people throwing their opinions on the table, and sometimes throwing the table themselves. And more importantly, MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, social issues must be solved by consistently educating oneself and taking actions OFFLINE.

If you still wanna do that here, please please please switch to DM. I do want to have discussions with you.

Finally, I naturally stand at a respectful distance to my fav musicians.

I do get hyped and have expectations ahead of releases. But I’m not the type to directly message my favorite musicians, or queue up for hours to get their autographs. I also don’t collect merchandise or limited-edition items. I don’t go on “pilgrimages”. Just listening to their music, promoting them and supporting them financially (through streaming, buying releases, attending lives) is good enough for me. I don’t encourage this kind of behavior actually. Without avid fans, lots of musicians would starve... But this is just how I am. Plus, there’re just too many musicians I like. If I were too hardcore, I wouldn’t have time & resources to support them all xD

I’m interested in what they can share about their personal lives, but I don’t want to dig deeply into things that may disturb them. Unless they did something unlawful (not just morally questionable) that went unnoticed or unresolved (like smoking weed where it’s banned and not getting caught).

I love to discuss what make them spark as well as their flaws, casually but objectively. But I’m only human so biases is unavoidable. I always want to anticipate their next works or breakthroughs, if any, as long as their interest in making decent music is still there.

Liking their music doesn’t mean I need to like them as people. And certainly not love them romantically.

I sometimes need to compare some aspects of them (e.g. musical inspiration, background, how they’ve changed following financial success or failure etc.) But I’ll avoid that as much as possible, especially when it comes to music groups. A group is more than just its members.

All questions & gossip regarding opinions of fanbases should go to my inbox, and not anonymously (cuz I can’t reply you otherwise). I wanna keep this space clean, so I want to avoid fan wars & jumping to conclusions. Pretty sure it will happen eventually anyway, one way or another...

Wew, that sure is a lot of text *sweats*. Hope I’ve made it clear to you and myself what this blog will be like.

Please anticipate my next post around 2 months from now.

Thanks for reading. m(_ _)m

[haikyuu-trash-can]

500 follower special - Haikyuu Fave Challenge

Thank you all so much for your amazing support!! I did not expect it at all and I’m super happy to see the Haikyuu fandom still active despite the years separating us from the last aired season.

I suppose this is a good time to share a few (Haikyuu related) things about myself. You can copy this format and fill it with your own information so that we all find out something about the other Haikyuu fans we’ve been following. You can either reblog or just copy this with the tag #haikyuufavechallenge, I’ll be tracking it :)

Username: haikyuu-trash-can (because all the other variations of it were already taken)

Fave character: Suga

Fave team: Seijoh

Fave position: Libero

OTP: Daisuga <3

Fave rarepair: Oisuga <3

Fave crackpair: Ennoaka (Ennoshita x Akaashi) <3

(sorry no gifs for these two without stealing someone’s work cuz I can’t find the source)

Fave arc: All-Japan National Youth Training Camp arc (not animated yet). It’s like a gigantic crossover episode between all the teams and I love it to death.

Fave fanfic: Bell, Book and Candle by Skittydine. Probably the best thing I have ever read in the eight odd years I have been reading fanfiction. I’ll be posting a rec on it soon because it deserves to be spread so so much.

Fun fact: I had to learn how to make gifs to specifically make this post and it was harder than I thought. Kudos to you who post gifs regularly.

Unpopular opinion: I ship everyone with everyone else but I don’t really ship Kagehina? Not sexually and probably not even romantically. Not that I don’t like seeing the content and I totally respect people who do, it’s just that in my mind, they are so obsessed with volleyball they don’t see anything else. Here, let me brandish my mad MS Paint skills and illustrate with a simple chart

Top 5 moments (in no particular order):

1) Kageyama’s revenge dump

2) Tsukki’s fist pump 

“Tsukishima was the character I most wanted to draw making a victorious fist pump.” ~Haruichi Furudate

3) Yams’ first successful floater

4) This scene

5) I am Hinata Shouyou, from the concrete

I’ll do a face reveal when I hit 1k

[notalwaysthevillian]

Brewing Love

Hello friends, and welcome to another AU.

Warnings: medicine mention, food mention, there’s a cat, let me know if there’s anything else!

Pairings: Remile; background Logicality & eventual Prinxiety

Word Count: ~1.3k

Based on this post by @teacupfulofstarshine! (Thank you so much for letting me write it, Star!)

Thank you to @onenightjoanly for looking this chapter over for me!

Next Chapter

Chapter 1

Setting the last stool on the counter, Remy took a step back. “You know, cuz, I was doubting this plan. But you’ve really pulled it off.”

Their new coffee shop looked great. The tan walls and the wooden floors worked well together. The Cozy Corner was full of pillows and bean bag chairs for anyone who’d need it. And, at Remy’s insistence, they had plenty of outlets.

It was perfect.

“We pulled it off.” Logan’s cheeks flushed pink. “I’d rather not admit it, but I needed the two of you to accomplish this.”

“Aww, Lo, that’s so sweet!” Patton pressed a kiss to Logan’s cheek, making his blush deepen.

Holding back a smirk at the nickname, Remy looked around. “Everything’s put up and clean. What time did you want me back here, Boss Man?”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Don’t call me that. And be here at 6.”

“So, 6:30? Gotcha.” With a wink at Patton, who giggled, Remy turned and headed out the door.

“No later than 6, Rem!”

Two minutes later, Remy was unlocking the door to his apartment. The second he walked in, Chai began winding around his legs, mewing.

“One second baby.”

Tossing his coat on the bench, he pulled her food out of the fridge, peeling away the lid. She plopped down in front of her food bowl, her tail swishing on the floor.

Remy scraped it into the food bowl with a spatula before gently rubbing her head. “There you go sweetie.”

Thankful that Logan had ordered them pizza earlier, Remy breezed through his nightly routine. When the clock hit 11, he popped his Ambien and threw the blankets over himself. Chai nudged the door open minutes later, jumping up and curling on her pillow.

“Goodnight, baby.”

The next morning, Remy groaned as his alarm went off, loud enough to scare Chai out of the room. He fumbled with his phone, sighing with relief as he managed to turn it off.

He stumbled into the shower, shivering as the icy water snapped him awake.

Once dressed, he fed Chai and grabbed a protein bar. Throwing on his bomber, he called out his goodbyes to her before heading out the door.

He walked into the shop at 6 on the dot, finding Logan and Patton already there.

“Wow, you’re on time for once?” Logan teased.

Remy raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got some flour on your cheek.”

Flushing a deep pink, Logan wiped it off. “I started the brews. Can you make sure the espresso machine has beans?”

Working in tandem, Logan and Remy opened the store. Every once in a while Patton would come out of the kitchen and put a pastry in the display case, as well as giving them compliments.

By the time it hit 7, they already had a few people waiting outside the door.

“Let ‘em in, Rem.”

Smiling brightly, Remy walked over and unlocked the door, throwing it open. “Welcome to Fuckoffee!”

“REMY!”

“FINE. You’re entering Get Roasted. If you want to be insulted, grab a mug on the left. If not, grab one on the right. See you at the counter, bitches.”

He held back a laugh as one of the older women gasped. “Is that how you treat your customers?”

“Hey, at least we’re giving you a choice. Would you rather we just insulted you right out the gate?”

The woman crossed her arms. “I think you should be more polite.”

“I think you shouldn’t tell me how to run my business.” Logan said as he walked up. He nudged Remy, who headed back behind the counter. “If you don’t like it, the door is right there, Helen.”

“It’s Susan.” She corrected.

A laugh left Logan’s mouth. “It’s all the same to me.”

With a huff, Susan turned and headed out the door. Logan turned to the small group mingling by the mugs. “Any of you have an issue?”

“No way! That was awesome!” One of them said, flashing him a smile. “I’m telling all of my friends about this place.”

“I don’t care what you do.” Logan deadpanned before heading into the kitchen, hiding a smile as he heard the group laugh.

Remy leaned on the counter, watching as one of the girls grabbed a black ‘insults’ mug and brought it up. “Whaddaya want?”

“A venti vanilla bean latte.”

“One basic white girl, coming up!” He called out.

He quickly made the drink before ringing her up. “4 dollars or no drink.”

“Is that with tax?” She asked, inserting her card into the machine.

A snort came out of Remy’s mouth. “You know that the neither of us don’t understand how tax works.”

Grabbing her drink, she threw $5 in the tip jar. “Thanks!”

The rest of the morning flew by, with a decent amount of people getting offended and leaving. Around one, they started to slow down, leaving Remy some time to clean the machines.

“Pardon me?”

Remy whirled around, an insult on his tongue. It died immediately when he saw the ‘polite white’ mug in the man’s hand.

A hand that was attached to an extremely attractive body. Who knew a cardigan could look so good?

“Hello there.” Remy said, sliding over to the counter. “What can I get you, handsome?”

Big brown eyes blinked back at him through a pair of glasses. “Why thank you! I’ll have a hot cocoa please. With soy milk if you could.”

“No problem! Coming right up.”

Remy made the drink at lightning speed, hoping to chat a little more with the clueless cutie. He handed it over with a flirty smile. “What brings you to our neck of the woods?”

“Oh, one of my patients came in this morning and told me all about this place!” He waved his hand in the air as he talked. “He told me that it was a breath of fresh air compared to most other coffee shops. It was the most I’ve ever gotten him to talk in a session, so I just had to come check this place out. The concept is extremely interesting. How did you come up with the idea?”

“It was mostly my cousin that thought of it. I’d told him that I was sick of seeing people bully their way into getting a free drink at my favorite coffee shops.” Remy stopped his story for a second to ring up another customer. He handed them their pastry before launching right back into it. “Logan had been wanting to run a business for a while, so he mentioned having a place where you could fire back at the customers. And if you’re the boss, you can’t get in trouble for it. So this place was born.”

The man placed his now empty mug down, the charms on his bracelet jingling. Remy’s eyes glanced over the charms, seeing ‘he/him’ written on them.

“I like your bracelet.”

“Oh, thanks.” The blush that crept up his face just made him look even cuter. “It helps my patients. They know whether it’s a he day or a she day or sometimes a they day.”

Seeing the tentative look in his eyes, Remy reached out, running his hands over the charms. “Don’t worry. We’re extremely LGBTQ friendly. Logan is gay, his boyfriend is pan, and I’m bi. If anyone cracks an offensive joke here, Logan’s policy is that they have one chance to fix it. It hasn’t happened yet, but he says that he’ll educate them and if they’re still rude, then they’re banned.”

“I’ll be telling all of my patients about this place then.” The man rose from his seat, grabbing his mug to put in the dish tray. “Thank you again!”

Remy watched him carefully set his mug in the tray before heading out the door.

It was only when he was serving the next customer that he realized he’d forgotten to get the man’s name.

Next Chapter

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Brewing Love Tag List: @aroundofapplesauce @bubblycricket @coconut-cluster @creativity-killed-thekitten @i-have-n0-idea-what-im-d0ing @laragazzadellluna @laterpaladudeswheee @levy-the-b00kw0rm @mc-illustration @mourning--star @nottodaylogic @romanismyprince @shootingace

[keatonrow]

Planning Festival Outfits- My Picks and Experiences in Raves [2020]

It's rave season, and we're so excited. We got so many festivals coming up, but you have plant outfits. How do you go about doing it today? I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks on how I like to plan my festival? Outfits - hey guys future ash here. So I wrote this post before all the Covid19 craziness and social distancing went into effect, but I think it's still a fun way for us to pass the time to support small businesses and to have something to look forward to in our time off.

Planning Festivals Outfits

So, let's have some fun. Let's plan some mens EDC outfits. I like to create content around self-care bucket lists, adventures, and festivals, and rays, and today we're going to talk all about rave fastness, so you know it can be tough in this Instagram culture. There are great creams all around us, and it can be tough to like focus and plan your outfits cuz. You know you want to feel good. You want to express yourself, and that's the beauty of raves. I love just showing up to a show expressing myself through my fashion through my accessories, and I'm feeling in the moment, but you know sometimes it's not that easy for people to pull together outfits themselves.

My Process of seleting the best festival outfits

So today, I thought I would share my process with you. I'm going to share with you the process that I take specifically for EDC Las Vegas, but you can take this process for any rave or festival that you're going to be going to this year. There are a variety of different ways that you can tackle this. You can start with a set so, as you could start with a bodysuit or Topete set and create your outfits around that and accessorize based on that, or you can start with a theme me personally.

I love starting with a theme, and it helps to grow to me to understand what kind of look and vibe I'm going for, and then it also helps my rate fan. We tend to like to dress up and complement each other in the group. So we'll pick a theme, and we'll base all of our outfits around that for EDC Las Vegas people, it's kind of like the rave Superbowl.

That's how I like to think of it, and people go all out for EDC Las Vegas. So for me, I like to stay organized and to do that. I make vision boards in already talked about making a vision board for your New Year's resolutions. Still, you can make a lookbook or vision board for anything that you're cheating if you're creating your brand, your own business, I strongly us making vision boards.

I am a market researcher in my free time, and one of the things that we do is we like to test around brand imagery and what is both the personality and just the zest and pizazz of a brand through a vision board, so think of it. That way, you're creating a sense of who you want to be what costume you like the vibe you want to put on for the evening.

So what I like to do is I like to first sit down with my rave family, and we make a list of themes. Will jot down, and we'll just kind of brainstorm, a list of themes, and those can be inspired around the festival theme so for this year. EDC theme is kinetics in so it could be a couple of themes based around that whole concept, or it could just be themes that are relevant and make sense to you and your rave family.

So this year we have right now three themes that are kind of our top themes that we're basing our outfits around the first one is kind of like a purple kind of monochromatic black girl magic moment. The second one is played on lyrics. So, even though cash games not going to be there, one of my favorite songs of all time is an angel on my shoulders.

We're kind of doing a play on that, where we're doing angels and devils. So that's kind of like one team and then the last theme we're going to rep Chicago, and we're going to wear our Chicago gear, and all of our offices will be around either sports teams or something relevant to Chicago. Once I have all of those themes, I create a vision board for each of those themes, and in there.

Festival Accessories

I'll list out some important things like the accessories where I'm going to get all of the items that are in my out my outfit I'll. Even put pictures of the makeup look that I want to portray a couple of inspirations for that and then kind of what we're all the retailers where I'm finding these things so that I can start to accumulate them and get them over time. Because you don't want to wait till last minute and then you don't have a plan, so I'm going to share with you now how I create those boards, and you're going to follow along with me on the process.

So I create all of my boards in Illustrator I have the entire Adobe cloud Creative Cloud subscription. So that's what I use, but you can use whatever you have at your disposal, whether it be apps you can use Microsoft Word you could use even PowerPoint whatever you have, that has some kind of collaging tool. You can use this. I'm also going to show it. You an alternative later, but before you get started, here are some examples of different boards that I did last year for EDC one day, one we went as kind of elements from the periodic table day. Two was kind of like a black all black rep, your DJ's look.

Custom Crop Tops are my favorite

So we did custom crop tops from slap clean, and then day three, we did the elements. So I was water, and then I also created boards for my mom as well with those themes and in mind. So as you can see, the lots to do here, so how I start I first I go on Pinterest. I usually start aboard for the current year for EDC, where I can just have all of my ideas in one spot, and I will pin things that I'm finding interesting. If I'm going for a specific theme, I will type in here, you see, I'm looking for my angel and doubles theme, so I have an angel rave outfit, and I just use that as inspiration.

But you know you go outside of that as you go along throughout the year, you'll just get different elements and different trends that attract you. You can, you know, pin them from Instagram, pin them basically from wherever you find inspiration, and then you have It all in one spot. I also make sure that I will completely include accessories and makeup looks here, you're noticing that I'm doing the next process. These are screen grabs from my Pinterest board, and I'm selecting all the ones that relate to the theme that I'm going to start to arrange, so for, in this case, it's going to be for my black girl magic purple theme.

How does Pinterest help me in finding Rave Outfits

So I'm pulling all of those references, and then they end up saving on my desktop. Sometimes it can get kind of wonky savings depends on your desktop just because they're on they're, coming and derived from certain websites. So it's just easier for me to cut down the process here, so I go through. I start to make all the pins for all of those, and then what I do is I will start by creating a text box, and this has like all the details around my theme.

So here the theme is black girl magic, and then I talk through where I'm getting my set from or my outfit from what fabric I'm using. If it is going to be custom, where I'm getting fabric from to reference, if you know the shop already has it or if I'm going to order the fabric custom itself, any special accessories, so light-up crown maybe a body chain belt.

If I'm doing a DIY, making sure that I'm specific about what that is because I always create something unique myself, just to add my spin on to it and then any other accessories. I always make sure that I add you know: details embellishments the shops That I'm buying everything at the websites that I'm buying it at, and obviously because I am in erotic, I will make sure that everything is formatted correctly.

I move it up into this gray box. So I can see everything and oh yeah. I also add in the color themes what color schemes am I going for what colors are going to complement each other and kind of something to like the ground the outfit in now I take all of my snaps, and I start with you know. If there is a pattern or a piece of fabric or anything, that's kind of my backdrop to give kind of this feeling and the vibe that I'm going for.

Then I'll add in all of the different parts that I'm inspired by. I'm just basically doing a huge dump of all of the images that I had on my Pinterest, and then I shrink those down to one size so that I can see everything, and then I just start to arrange meetings around seeing what complements each other.

Putting together different images can help a lot

I have a lot of images. I didn't realize how much I pinned so from there. I just start to kind of look at what I have, and I may remove some images that seem kind of repetitive or have a similar reference to them. So make sure that you know if they're pretty similar, then I'll just select one and get rid of the others, and then I just kind of keep resizing and keep moving things around until it kind of all fits so right. Now, you're probably looking at this process, and you're like a girl, nobody got time for that.

So here's a little hack, you can use the Instagram layout app to select all the different pieces of your outfit, and I actually use this on the backend just so I can make sure, as I'm ordering and making my final selection that everything goes well together and complement each other - and I also will share this with some of the people that I'm ordering from so that they can see the vibe. It's a great way to reference as you continue planning and as you're getting ready today up. So that's how I create my vision, boards for each of my outfits, and you get a sneak peek of the vibe I'm going with for EDC this year.

A couple of other tips in terms of what you should think about wearing when you're going to a rave or big festival like EDC Las Vegas, is your shoes need to be comfortable? You know you can find shoes that match each of your outfits for each of the days. I know a lot of girls like to kind of you know, change up their shoes for each night, and you could do that, but you need to make sure they're comfortable.

Most important are the shoes tht you plan for your festival outfits

I like flat shoes, and I'm not trying to wear heels. It'S concrete, you're, walking around for hours upon hours and your feet are going to hurt, so just make sure that the shoes that you're pairing with your outfits are comfortable and that you've had time to break them in those are just rules of thumb that you have To follow but feel free to accessorize and change them from day to day, just make sure that they're broken in by the time that you get to EDC.

The other tip that I would have is, even though I'm doing all this, and I'm planning all of it. Always always always have backups anything. The biggest thing that I learned from last year is that the weather is unpredictable, and I know that everyone's saying that, but we were freezing one of the most memorable. Bonding experiences was showing up to ATM mid strip and seeing all of the ravers in H,

[nagatsukinura119]

Day 3 at Japan Expo Malaysia (28th July 2019)

Today was the last day. The day that I would last see the KiREI members. Cue gonna be a cry baby and go through Post Concert Depression (look it up hahah). Since I wanted to make the most of it, I wore the KiREI T-shirt I bought the first day I met them, which is gorgeous by the way (albeit it was a stock from their concert in Bangkok), especially the back side and I really love it!

As I said in the part one in Day 2’s report, I promised Hanapii that I was gonna draw an illustration for them. But here’s the thing, I initially thought to just post it on Twitter, but then my father said, “You should show them tomorrow” and that was exactly what I did! Now, the previous night’s adrenaline rush and fatigue was no joke, I was so exhausted, and my mind was so jumbled since I was still processing what happened at AKB48’s concert and at the airport (toldya it was VERY overwhelming). Thankfully I brought my drawing tablet in this trip (I don’t know why I did, but thank God I did). I barely finished sketching until I succumbed to exhaustion and went to sleep. The next morning I literally finished breakfast within 10 minutes and went back to our room and stayed there to finish the illustration. Since their last concert started at 2, and I had like 3 hours left to finish it (I wanted to be there by 1). Thankfully I finished on time and I quickly made my way to Pavilion.

When I arrived, once again I was surprised with the lack of people waiting at the stage (outdoor by the way), and this time I didn’t care what people thought and I just stood at the front row under the blazing sun, all in black clothes, and texting to my Discord fellas (lol). So first Austin and another host went up the stage and gave a quick introduction about KiREI and apparently KiREI was made up of 3 disbanded idol groups named “Tokyo Clear’s Smile” (this is the group where Hanapii originally came from, which I found out a couple nights ago lol), “Spring Chubit” and “Astarisk”. The girls were called in and dear gosh! Today they wore yukata again, but different designs than the first day! I just really like it when J-idols wear yukatas or any form of traditional clothing. It’s even more amazing that these girls were not just dancing, but also jumping in them! You have to admire their abilities, if not, impressed, cuz here’s the thing some of their dances were pretty vigorous, and after seeing their performances 3 times now, I could tell that Chori-chan is the ‘genki’ girl as she tended to jump the highest, dance with the most energy and also the one to rile up the audience. Miayan has the best and brightest smile that would capture anyone’s hearts (which explained why she has a fan account). Meanwhile Hanapii has the best balance in terms of her dance, her movements weren’t too extreme, and the fluidity and precision made her dance moves better, hence for me she’s the best dancer among the trio.

For this performance, Mianyan noticed me the most and as I said, her smiles were SO BLINDING! I could feel myself getting overcome by it that I had to look through my camera lens instead of my own eyes lmaoooo. Since I’m heavily biased for Hanapii I tended to look at her the most, and I couldn’t help but realized that she seemed a bit down today. I guess it wasn’t surprising since 3 days straight of performing and doing meet-and-greets could tire anyone. However, when she made eye contacts, she made sure to smile as much as she could (God I love her). Meanwhile, Chori-chan climbed in my Oshimen radar because of her bright and energetic interactions with the audience, including myself, especially whenever she invited the audience to chant with her. She’s really like the Takamina in this trio (that’s what I call ‘charisma’!)

Before they started the fifth song, Chori-chan told us that it would be their last song (cue the “Eeeeehhh~” by the audience), and I started to sob and felt my heart twinge a bit. Emotions from the previous night in the airport kind of resurfaced and once again I told myself to not cry or that would make them feel bad if they noticed. Their last song was ‘Dame Otoko’ and I’d say this was my most favorite after ‘Say Yeah! Away!’ (which I kept humming and singing to when I was at the airport the night before) and ending it with this song just made it twice the impact. The performance went splendidly but there was one point again the tears just started to leak, and I had to use my camera to hide my face. Again, I was like “NO. Don’t ruin this for them!”

After they were done, they girls professed their love for being in Malaysia, wanting to come back again (OH HECK YAS, please come back again! And I will too!) Then everyone was called for the obligatory group picture, and now me being in the first row finally paid off!

After the photo session the girls needed some time to freshen up for the last greet-and-meet session. And being the excited fan I was, I waited nearby at their booth, trying not to stand out as much as I could lol. When the booth opened, I immediately lined up behind some prepared fans. This time the man who was selling the merch definitely remembered me as he was like “Welcome back!” This time I was gonna be greedy and bought two Cheki tickets for each member and a towel. He was counting the total cost and I told him “Sanbyaku ringgit (300 ringgit)” which impressed him, and he was like “Oh! Your Japanese is good!” While I was telling him that wasn’t true, he noticed the KiREI T-shirt I was wearing and smiled even more. Honestly I really wanted to shake his hand right then and there, to thank him for his great work, but we just ended up chatting a bit more hahahah.

Before I was about to join the line, Hanapii saw me and she thought I was gonna immediately take pictures with her (oh you sweet darling). But I told her that today I was going to take pictures with everyone, and that I would start from Mianyan, then Chori-chan and finally her. When I went to the line Chori-chan spotted me and immediately assumed that I was gonna take pics with Hanapii as she asked “With Hanapii, right?” I told her I was gonna take pictures with everyone this time, and she was VERY happy, as in she started hopping (ADORABLE).

So I took a picture with Mianyan first. She kept saying I was cute and ‘comel’ (Malay for ‘cute’) and she wrote that on the polaroid frame. I told her where I was from, and since she had a confused look (cuuuuuteee) so I explained the location. I also thanked her for following me on Twitter (she was the first one who followed me). For the first round she and I took a pic with the freshly bought towel hahaha (she was really impressed that I wore their T-shirt too). I was gonna take another picture with her since I bought 2 tickets for each of them but she needed to assist to take pictures for other people, so being the social awkward I was, I stood back awkwardly and ended up going back in line since I wasn’t sure if I should’ve stayed and wait for Hanapii and Chori-chan to be free so I could take pictures with them.

While I was lining up in the very long line I realized Hanapii ran past me to the end of the line to give the last guy a sign that says ‘the end of line’ ah so adorable, at the same time I guiltily thought “Ah crap, I bought 6 tickets which meant I basically took 4 to 5 people’s chance to interact with the girls…!” When I reached them, I made sure to use two of my Cheki tickets in one go so that I didn’t have to go back in line as I specifically said, “Two tickets”. Chori-chan was so happy when I said I was using two tickets (can she get more adorable??). The first round she and I did a heart pose and when she was signing it poor girl thought my main name was “Nagatsuki” she actually remembered me on Twitter (gasp!) and she double confirmed my name with Hanapii like “‘Nura-chan’ dakke? (Was it ‘Nura-chan’?” And Hanapii was like, “Un! Nura-chan!” LOOOL! Before taking a picture for the second round, I told her on my Twitter I post my art and showed her an illustration of them that I made. She went “Amazing!” so many times I thought she was going fangirling as she started hopping on the spot (SO KYOOT). For the second round she held me close with one hand while her other hand was patting my head (I find this a bit endearing since she and I are about the same height while the other two are taller). While waiting for the polaroid to print and while she was signing them she kept saying I was cute and all, then asked if I was travelling so I told her that I came here in order to visit the event, that I was willing to fly over. She then asked me to come and see them again in Japan and before I could even respond she pulled my pinky with hers and made a pinky promise looooooooool. I remember I was so shocked that I stuttered, “Ahhh yeah yeah I’ll definitely try”.

Since Mianyan was busy I had to take pictures with Hanapii first in order to let the line go smoothly. I don’t care how many times she has greeted me with the cutesy “Nura-chan~~~” my heart still fluttered so much! Before we could take a picture, I mentioned about the previous day’s promise that I’d draw something for them and showed my illustration to her. She was like “Eh?!?! No way!” as I told her that I finished it earlier that day. She was so shocked that she was speechless and Chori came over to us and was like “Amazing right! She even drew my red ribbon!” while pointing at my phone. They traded a couple of words together and I just stood there smiling like an idiot. So we ended up taking a picture with that illustration lol.

For the second round, Hanapii was so happy with my visits, my support and the illustration that she was thanking me so many times and she literally hugged me so closely for the picture (I’m not joking, even I was like “Is hugging okay???” and she was like “Yes its completely okay!”). I thought that I still needed to put some distance between our faces, just as precaution, but nope, Hanapii pulled me so close that our cheeks were touching each other! IM SO GLAD IM A GIRL cuz so far I’d seen when they hugged guys (I was the only girl who lined up for the meet-and-greet), they still put some distance. So yeah, I was SO HAPPY with how Hanapii treated me. I then told her that I teared up a bit during their last song since it was their last day and she was like “Eehh don’t cry~” and started patting my head. She then said, “Let’s meet again in Japan, I’ll wait for you.” I thought I’ve died enough. But this comment, THIS COMMENT. I remember I blanked out for a second or two and just nodded (I couldn’t make that promise since I needed to consider my circumstances but MAN I WANTED TO PROMISE HER SO BAD). I was very reluctant to leave and this may sound pretentious but it seemed like she didn’t want me to go either cuz when she held my hands it was firmer than the last 3 times she shook my hands. Before leaving she asked me if I was gonna attend the closing ceremony later that night. Sweetheart you know I won’t miss it for the world so I promised her that I would.

For the last handshake I told Mianyan that I cried during their last performance and she was like “Ehhh~ don’t cry~ were they happy tears?” I took a second or two to rethink my words and spewed “It was both happy and grieving tears since this is the last day” hence we both ended up laughing. I was gonna show her the illustration on my phone, she ended up commenting my Murayama Yuiri lockscreen “Ooh~ cute!” and I almost had to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying “Ah that’s another idol (who happens to be my waifu)” so I just giggled a thanks. Thankfully she was also very happy with the illustration that she took the phone from me (she also added I must post it on Twitter). She then asked me if I just started liking idols (girl if only you knew hahah) so I told her I’ve always loved idols. After taking the picture, Chori-chan told us I was good at winking (I didn’t realize I winked to be honest) so Mianyan went “Ehh seriously??” and quickly checked the polaroid frame and was like “Oh yeah!” while I was fluttering, going “oh nononono, I didn’t mean to do that”. Then she asked something I did not see coming, “Can you do it to me?” and I was like “Eh?” then she said SO CUTELY “A wink”. I laughed embarrassingly at first, but I did it anyway and she was soooo happy. I knew Mianyan is the boldest among this trio but guuurrrrllll you’re climbing on my Oshimen radar too strong! And that’s how I ended my last meet-and-greet session with KiREI members in Malaysia.

Day 2 reports are here (KiREI) and here (AKB48)! To be continued in Closing Ceremony!

Bonus pictures:

[imreallyhereforplance]

Why No One Addressed Pidge’s Well-Being or Lance’s Outburst (+ S8 Plance Theory)

So I see that there are some posts where people are expressing an understandable amount of disappointment that the torture scene wasn’t expanded upon. That we didn’t see Pidge thank Lance or anyone ask Pidge if she was alright.

I was also confused, so I did some thinking, and came to a conclusion that’s actually pretty comforting to me: The writers did this to preserve atmosphere, and this scene will be addressed and/or paralleled in a future episode. Not just because we ship plance and we’re hoping for more scenes, but because it would help the writers reel the audience (or anyone who cares about Lance’s well-being) in during this future episode.

I COULD BE WRONG, but I’m actually pretty optimistic, and this post explains my thought process. It’s long, but if I can write it, then I believe that you have the strength to read it (if you want). Good luck.

@lancemccutie, this is dedicated to you ;)

As I mentioned, people have been disappointed at seeing NOBODY ask Pidge if she’s okay. And us plance shippers really wanted Pidge to thank Lance or something sweet like that.

But I feel like that’s just not the writers’ style. In a calmer situation where everyone is together, they might brush upon romantic subplots or, more commonly, illustrate the power of friendship/teamwork in general. In a more intense scene, though, they focus on events, like “Torture. Cut to Acxa. Hacking. Sentries.” That kind of thing. Because it’s all about ATMOSPHERE. So let’s talk about it. (I promise this is relevant.)

The torture scene. Wow, that was an emotional rollercoaster. Personally, I WAS surprised that no one said anything to Pidge, and I too was disappointed when we didn’t see her react to Lance. But remember that it was an intense portion of the episode, and an intense episode in general. There were multiple events going on, back-and-forthing between Coran, Acxa, the mice, the prisoners, and Ezor and Zethrid. The creators clearly outline this as an eventful episode, and they work hard to build up an atmosphere. This episode especially, since it’s the first time our heroes have actually been apprehended.

So in order to build this atmosphere, this dread, and make you really hope and really root for these characters, including Axca of all people, who might be their only hope, the writers cannot include anything that might subtract from what’s happening, even if it “makes sense.” (Like I get that there was some humor sprinkled in this episode, but it was mostly Coran giving away their location, which was a BAD thing.)

It makes sense that someone would ask Pidge if she’s okay. Which is why I am CERTAIN that someone did, we just didn’t see it because we had flashed to another character perspective. And why did we need to miss it? Because that would give us too big of a relief, we would have the subconscious feeling that it was over, things were better now. And of course we feel relief when they stop messing with Pidge, that’s unavoidable, but the creators realize that, and don’t want that. Or at least, too much of it. Because it’d be like spoiling their work.

Remember why the creators chose that she would be tortured in the first place – To BUILD atmosphere. To make you DREAD what’s happening. Like the popsicle post said, it “will make you gasp.” It tells the audience how bad the situation is. And it was remarkably effective. However, once she was released, they knew the audience was going to feel slightly better, and they didn’t want that. They wanted the audience to remain anxious. They wanted to minimize the feeling of relief so as not to take away too much from the dread that they’ve built up in their audience – the same dread they just created by including the scene.

So once Ezor stopped, the writers don’t bring any more attention to how Pidge is doing. Asking “Are you okay,” and Pidge saying “Yeah...I’m fine” would make us feel pity or concern at her particular well-being rather than concern at the situation as a whole. Instead, they want us to remember that the situation is still SUPER bad, so it’s treated like a “Nope, moving on. We gotta go – now!” kinda thing where they aren’t going to address this, and we the viewers are taken along for the ride. Having her tell us that she’s okay SUBSTRACTS from the atmosphere they’ve made from her being threatened, and instead draws our attention to Pidge particularly for a little too long for the writers’ liking. It would be a pause in what’s going on. Yes, it’d be a brief pause, but still there.

With this in mind, I guess you could say that Pidge is thereby used as a means to an end, but isn’t that true for everything that happens to these characters? Cuz the point is to tell a story, and you tell a story using those characters. You build an atmosphere using those characters. 

(Also, real quick, this logic potentially means that Pidge really could have thanked Lance as well and we missed it because the writers wanted the general audience to get the most excitement/emotionally out of this episode. Which I respect and, as you’ll soon see, doesn’t bother me, because the scene as a whole MAY STILL BE ADDRESSED LATER ON IN THE SERIES.)

So, THAT IS MY REASONING FOR WHY WE NEVER SEE THE TORTURE SCENE BEING ADDRESSED AGAIN. (For that episode at least.)

HOWEVER, even if we didn’t see it as the viewers, there is NO WAY IN CANON THAT THEY DIDN’T ASK HER IF SHE WAS ALRIGHT. It doesn’t fit their characters at ALL.

Moving on from that specific episode, we all know that Voltron is not just a bunch of events. There are lots of beautiful relationships and lots of character development. But there are certain times for that, and they work better than in such an intense, action-packed, back-and-forthing episode. (And sometimes a juxtaposition of emotion and action are intentionally put together, like when Keith fights Kuron. Intense, but also deliberately emotional.)

Usually when the story focus on relationships, whether platonic or romantic, it tends to have a particular atmosphere that’s different from “In the Way Forward”. When the Paladins built their trust in one another and talked things out when they were stranded in space, almost the ENTIRE EPISODE was dedicated to it. Because it was important to the story that they worked things out and built Hunk at this time in the season. (And the hallucinations and sense of the unknown alone built an atmosphere imo)

The creators work out when a good time to focus on these relationships is, such as the aforementioned episode, and in “The Feud!” Notice that at these times, the atmospheres are a bit calmer, everyone the story is focused on for that episode’s plot is together, there’s no back-and-forthing between characters.

So what about the A//urance scenes? The creators included it because they felt it was important for whatever direction their relationship was going to take, and they included it at a relatively appropriate time. Not in the heat of battle, but before the battle. They let the audience know where these two characters stand, and they do it briefly because it’s not the main focus of the episode, but apparently needs to be addressed. (Interesting….)

Now that all this ATMOSPHERE stuff has been established, let’s move on to PARALLELS. Particularly, between Pidge and Lance. This is when I start specifically talking about future plance goodness along with Pidge and the torture scene.

SO. You know what I think would be veeery appropriate?

A reverse “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER” scene.

Let me explain. If you think about it, Pidge and Lance have sooo many parallels. And sometimes these parallels occur over multiple seasons.

And because this particular scene stands out to all viewers, whether you ship plance or not, I feel that it’s likely, based on the pattern we keep seeing, that something reversed and similar will eventually occur.

Such as, someone ridiculing Lance, and Pidge saying “Back off.”

Or – and this is what I think will happen – an enemy approaching Lance and Pidge saying “Get away from him!” or “Get off him!”

At first glance, these scenarios seem a lot more subtle than “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER,” and the receiver of Pidge’s outbursts may very well not even acknowledge her if she tells them to get tf back, but I think these hypothetical scenes fit with what we’ve been seeing for a while now.

You know why these would work? Because like “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER,” it’s not lovey-dovey. It’s not superficial. It’s not OUT OF CHARACTER IN ANY WAY. No matter what happens in season 8, whether Pidge has a crush on Lance or not (I believe she does), whether she confesses or not, NO ONE can reasonably say that these lines are OOC. They’re not lovey-dovey, but they still speak volumes.

WHICH IS WHY IT WOULD MAKE THE PERFECT PARALLEL TO “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER”. 

It supports my rant on atmosphere because, in the case where Lance is about to be hurt by some enemy, Pidge screaming “Get away from him!” DOES NOT SUBTRACT from the atmosphere. It actually BUILDS the atmosphere. It makes you MORE scared for Lance. It makes you MORE desperate. Like, “oh shi-“ kinda desperate. A “Get away from him!” is more telling in the story than a “thank you, Lance.”

And this is why a parallel to “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER” is not only possible, but probable because it would accomplish a job that the creators want accomplished – atmosphere. (I told you atmosphere was important :D ) And for those of you who read my other post, Plance: A Ramble, (https://imreallyhereforplance.tumblr.com/post/177048118646/plance-a-ramble-im-just-going-to-warn-you-this) this could possibly fit in with the fight where the broadsword appears or the optional fight afterwards where Pidge expresses great emotion towards others.

I think that this can also be applied to @artemisarya‘s wonderful theories as well. I did say “no matter what happens in s8” this parallel would work, but I honestly do think that plance has a remarkably good chance anyways.  

Also, just for the fun of it:

Remember how in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which we’ve been comparing plance and “DON’T YOU TOUCH HER” to for a little while now (looking at @truegryffindorforever2), the dialogue was: 

Ron: GET OFF HER

Then there was some scuffling.

Hermione: No! Leave him alone!

So I feel like, while it’s not INEVITABLE and the creators could choose not to parallel this special scene, I think there’s a lot of potential for it in season 8, one that would even benefit the writers.

And, who knows? Maybe they will address the torture scene, but at a more suitable time plot-wise. Like, when Pidge and Lance are having a heart-to-heart? Pidge could thank Lance THEN, during an undistractedly emotional moment, filled with feels and nothing else demanding their attention. Instead of thanking Lance super quickly in front of all the other characters (including people like Krolia and Romelle) when the audience is supposed to be focusing on the direness of the situation. Personally, I think the former is an AWESOME time to have them discuss the torture scene.  

The purpose of this post is not to tell anyone that their disappointment is unjustified or invalid. Rather, the point is to share my personal thoughts and to give you hope that something that, to me, seems more like the writers’ style might come into play in S8. They might see a “thank you” during an intense scene as a SUBTRACTION from that episode’s suspenseful atmosphere, and will instead have a “Get AWAY from him!” moment to ADD to the atmosphere in a future episode. They’re saving it up to remold it in a way that’s noticeably beneficial to the story! (Again, it builds up atmosphere before something happens / almost happens to Lance.)

Also, despite how positive I might sound, I am obviously not a creator / writer / producer / anything-other-than-big-fan-of-Voltron. I could be completely wrong, I might make no sense, I might be overanalyzing, I may be missing the point. But this is what I think, and I hope it helps some of you <3 

Sorry it’s so long. If you have any patience left, tell me your thoughts!

Edit: I am aware that the "Lance! No!" scene can be interpreted as a parallel to "Don't you touch her!" and I agree with that perspective. To clarify, the parallel I am suggesting above does not only have similar energy, but a similar tone. The "Dont you touch her" scene was a much darker, slower, and more intense moment where Lance is not in a position where he can do much to help Pidge. This is what I envision for season 8 - where Pidge is prevented from coming to Lance's aid (whether it be because she is bound, hurt, or physically blocked) and the audience is aware that Lance is in grave danger. Hence the importance of atmosphere building as I've been discussing.

Once again, thank you for reading 💚💙

[combustiblegarbage]

what the state alchemists did in ishbal (all of them but particularly roy due to the sheer Scale of his destructive power) was literally state-sponsored terrorism

i was going to put this in the tags but then i realized i had more to say so like 

let’s engage with that fact. “lone wolf” (brown, arab/semitic coded) types like scar are more likely to be called Terrorists tho iirc they never use that word in 03 (i wonder if that’s deliberate? then again they never use the word genocide either so it’s entirely possible that they just didn’t want to impart that modern vocabulary into a series in which it might seem anachronistic) - but the idea of roy & the other state alchemists causing massive horrific damage is a strategy of terror to ultimately shatter the will of the ishbalan people to resist.

god and even wasting energy on that conceptually plays into the larger narrative that the amestrian brass is trying to construct about ishbal - that they NEED to be put down, that they’re a rebellious people and the state alchemists are being sent in to Control them. when in fact as we find out in 03, that wasn’t the case at all! they were a peaceful people and the military sent special forces in to sow chaos and destabilize their society, which in turn fed the narrative that massive displays of destructive force were necessary. it’s so wild when you see how the narrative was Perfectly Controlled so that the people + the military would feel they had no choice

(and yet they did have a choice - the constant theme of 03 is that you do have a choice that your choices matter and that you will have to live with the responsibility of them for the rest of your life)

i think of moments of intimate violence during the war, 2 incidents of which we see illustrated by roy (the 3rd is of course kimblee pursuing scar and other refugees as they try to cross the desert, which highlights how these people have GIVEN UP and they’re just trying to FLEE and kimblee just - doesn’t care). roy’s ptsd flashback during the fight with ed and later his confession about being ordered to execute winry’s parents both are instances where roy had a CHOICE, and he chose to collaborate. they highlight the intimacy of state violence, how a culture of fear and militaristic aggression creates a man willing to throw his own sense of morality and self away to follow orders (the murder of winry’s parents Exposes this more so than anything regarding killing actual ishbalans but like, that’s the point! the point is that he can’t See it until it turns around on one of his own because the military is so steeped in the dehumanization of the Other)

i cannot say anything about the intentions of the creators when they included that ptsd flashback of roy to that little kid, but in retrospect i think it becomes more and more powerful. when we first see it Super Super early in the series (ep 13? or something?), we barely know anything about ishbal or roy’s participation in it, and we primarily understand it as an expression of weakness from ROY that makes us feel for his character. but later, going back and seeing that moment after having watched the series and understood the war and the consequences it’s had on the country, on the ishbalan people, and on roy, it has so much more meaning!!!!!!! it’s a Deciding Moment!!! something that Exposes roy as the active participant in a campaign of genocide!!!! it’s a fulcrum!!! knowing the full background turns that moment on its head. when we first see it we’re thinking about roy’s victimhood because this is obvious ptsd and also functionally in the present narrative it places him in a position of weakness when ed wins the fight. it’s only much, much later, that we realize (obviously!!!!! OBVIOUSLY!!!!!!) that that moment isn’t about roy’s victimhood, it’s about the BOY WITH A GUN WHO ROY EXPLODES!!!!!!!

like......you guys this is probably nothing New but just the articulation of how that moment Changes for us as an audience as the narrative comes together is sooooooooooooo good and coherent and i love the discussion of narratives of victimhood and with whom we’re supposed to empathize and feel sorrow for, cuz there’s so much more complexity once you start Digging

full disclosure this whole post is because of the last comment in the parentheses on this post lmao