#lol its doing the same pose as my avatar

[leovoid]

Me trying to persuade my sister to watch JoJos (I'll update the post as our conversation continues)

My sister: "Why is that show so gay lol? Like every gif I see of it - gay" Me:

My sister: "Is it meant to be gay or funny?" Me: "Funny mostly, but people now a days just see it as flamboyant and gay

which the fanbase is okay with lol

I mean....its funny right?

But the pose is just a "JoJo pose" A silly, over the top pose that as far as the story is concerned is a signature, serious, or energetic pose a character does But for the creator of JoJo and the reader, it is supposed to be taken as both serious and funny with the idea that "Ah its a new JoJo pose"

"The story of JoJo while both comedic and serious in tone is more than just its narrative Its a straight up culture, the energy of JoJos is so over the top and expressive that it can't help but inspire and influence others to copy it in some manner or form. Its an anime/Manga from the 80s in its rawest and most powerful form Araki knows its silly, but he wears that shit with pride and he does it proudly and everyone loves him for it. JoJo has created a cult back in the 90s, quite literally and its only gotten stronger since the remake during 2012 What makes JoJos so great is that its more than just an anime/manga, its more than its medium, its just a fun, entertaining, and emotional ride that when you realize all that JoJos has to offer you'll actually begin to understand why the fandom is the way it is Why the so fervently want as many people to watch it as possible, why its heavy in meme culture, and why people copy it and how JoJos despite being released in the 80s continues to be dominant as a masterpiece till this very day"

My sister: What was it meant to be at that time then?

WHY IS IT SO OVER THE TOP LOL?!

Me: "I think at the time, it was meant to be signature esque and cool, maybe to get people to buy its figures or for the kids to pose Like... Think about how popular Power Rangers (Or shows like it) was and still is over in Japan Kids copy it all the time, the poses, the saying and mannerism JoJos is the same thing but for adults, because why should adults lose that magic too right? Mature story telling doesn't have to be a serious narrative all the time What makes JoJos so good is that JoJos embodies both of these things and makes it work"

My sister: "Then what would you describe it as?" Me: "You know how you would think of Akira, or Dragon Ball Z, or Avatar and you would see it as something more than its medium? Akira for its crazy animation quality for its time that stands as one of the best animated movies ever made

Dragon Ball Z for its cultural impact on the world to this very day as the most recognized anime in existance

And Avatar for being a childrens show that showed for the first time that american animators could od what anime could have and tackle mature themes even for a kids show?

JoJos is something of that nature that is hard to explain, the story is great but its not deep or complex, there is no hidden philosophy or thematic exploration of any ideals or anything (At least not all around)

But because of how much of a culture shock JoJos has shown and the style of the show that LITERALLY IS ITS OWN STYLE that no one else can replicate, JoJos succeeds in becoming an iconic legend in its own right by being SPECIAL

Its just a special kind of anime, you can't rank it as a normal anime, there is something deep within the machinations of what makes JoJos "JoJos" that makes it so incredible

Its different from say watching Monster, and trying to unravel the mysteries and feeling like you figured out something deep and meaningful

With JoJos its the same minus the complex moral question, its more of understanding, what is it that makes the show so good?

Its a lot more interesting to figure that out and in turn I think you would appreciate it a lot more if you viewed it under that lens instead of comparing it to animes you like. Because if you do, you will never understand or come to appreciate JoJos.

JoJos is truly its own special kind of show separate from all other animes. There is nothing like JoJos, and I don't think any show can replicate what JoJos succeeded in doing"

[slickchickchocolatier]

@rinbowaman

Hahahah soo this iss so meee I litterally ship myself with every fictional character I like 😭😭 flirt I would say definitely do with my female friends in a fun way but around guys I get stiff asf .

And this is my character..

I have short hair ..until summer I had long hair like till my chest below, but I got tired of having long hair so soo longg so I chopped it off ✂️...

I chose pink 🩷 clips to wear because normally when I am studying i do put my bags aside with the clips 📎

And then my earrings are not heart shaped they are just small hoop ones and I got pierced ears when I was 4 year old 🤸

My favourite colour is blue and there is a blue tshirt which I wear at home daily even if it's washed just yesterday it's just so comfyyy😭😭 so that's why the blue tshirt

And my glasses i do have bad vision and they are the exact same just like in character 🤓

And the pose 🫶 I have been using this emoji a lot recently so I have started doing it with my hands too at random objects

Am bored ? Let's do this pose 🫶

I see a cute dog / cat ? This pose is a must 🫶

All my friends say I have a babyish face 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭

omg your avatar!!! tell me you dont have beautiful hazel eyes bc if you do....i'm dead. i know its quite common for people in your country to have the most beautiful friggin eyes in the planet!! and omg your avatar! its soooooo cute! so feminine and calming....literally the two aspects of my mgr/mre/hhp y/n. like both you and @nikstrange and i recently too cut off like 8 inches off my hair, its right around the center of my chest now, i had it down to my pelvic bone, which it will get back there again. lol. my hair grows so fasst, my mom says it's bc i eat alot.

you have a babyface? i have a baby face too! specifically my cheeks, my jawline kind of helps add some maturity to my face along wiht my cheekbones, but i get told that my face is a mixture of soft and hard with slight definition but when they see my baby photos they automatically tell me i still have a babyface. lol.

[sylwanin-was-right]

I like the recoms because they pose a question about the practicalities of like lab-engineered reincarnation. Can you really download someone's personality, stick them in a massively genetically divergent body, and expect them to be the same person? I feel like no. I think the interaction between Quaritch and spider provide an opportunity to explore that. But maybe I'm giving James cameron too much credit. Its also cool to see character designs that are still including that contrast of Navi bodies with human clothing/hairstyles. Also they hot hehe.

I like the recoms because they pose a question about the practicalities of like lab-engineered reincarnation. Can you really download someone's personality, stick them in a massively genetically divergent body, and expect them to be the same person? I feel like no. I think the interaction between Quaritch and spider provide an opportunity to explore that.

Good point! The transhumanist implications of consciousness and personality transfer are def interesting and tbh its largely what made Quaritch such a suprisingly interesting character in AWOW despite his return as the main antagonist again. Seeing how he handles his consciousness transition in his new body and new relationship w Spider will def be something I anticipate (tho i do worry abt how Cameron will handle it lol).

But maybe I'm giving James cameron too much credit.

LMFAOOOOOOO this is sending me 💀

Its also cool to see character designs that are still including that contrast of Navi bodies with human clothing/hairstyles.

Tbh yea i agree w this!! One of my fave things abt scifi is the cool integration of civilization and alien life. I love concept designs of how daily life or tools and functional things like clothing would look on otherworldly beings and the concept of an humanoid-alien adapting to human life.

So many things to consider in designs like how pants would make room for a tail, and how scale and proportion of objects differs from human view, and how certain capabilities, like hightened sight and hearing senses, would affect anything from building designs to speech and other mannerisms. Also like u said its cool to see the variability in mixing human and Na'vi genes. I love seeing the variation in the different designs of the recoms and how closely they resemble the human forms but also differ from the Na'vi enough to be distinctly "artificial" (originated in vitro)

Also they hot hehe.

Valid!

Tbh im not much of a military aesthetics enthusiast, but i have always liked armor designs. I can def appreciate a slutty tanktop and army boots on anybody 😩. They fit Recom Quaritch and his stupid grin just nicely! (Also personally for me, the Na'vi and subsequent avatars are attractive in an alien way, though i do wish their body types were a lot more varied).

[corvarrow]

Projects in Progress

Thought it might be fun to post a little text update! As I thought this month has been very busy at work, these last two days in particular I have gotten home very late, and I am...very tired. lol. But its okay cause eventually we will be moved along to the next thing. Anyway, here's a list of art projects I have in progress right now:

Art Fight - So far I have done 4! My goal is to do at least somewhere between 5-10 (maybe 7-ish) so if I hit that then everything else will have exceeded expectations. At any rate I'm pretty happy with what I have done so far and that I have been able to participate at all!

Youtube Avatars - For my brother's channel. You know, one of those onscreen characters in different poses. I have some of them roughed out and I can apply the same technique I've been using for sketching, just with some color, so I think this will go fast once I have a really good chunk of time to sit down and work on it.

Designing Some OCs - Besides just wanting to draw more of my regular OCs, I have several newer ones that currently exist in text form only and I am dyyyying to try to figure out how I want to draw them. They live in a completely different era from the rest of my OCs so it will be an opportunity to draw some other costumes and I am so excited

New Icon - I like this Alucard icon, but I don't remember what exactly the context was, lmao. Still currently trying to decide if I want an OC or a Critter or a Shape or all of the above

[redfagdiver]

[aurithemoon]

Some college Aang sketches.

[manyblinkinglights]

also I still haven't had time to try anytauring ray either, but now I have a new (and much easier to model/texture) avatar I'm considering: how would you rig a lapras? I want to have the arms rigged to the front flippers, and my first idea was to just shove the humanoid armature into the ground, but I think vrchat doesn't allow that. I'm also not sure how to find best practice for avatars with very short "arms", since being able to grab stuff is so important. (alsothankyouforquadneck!)

I'd also rig a Lapras as an AnyTaur, with the Humanoid standing up and sharing the viewpoint as normal, because you still need the TrailerHitch system to keep the body level behind you. While the Lapras would go into the floor when you crouched too low, the gains you'd get in its body from being an AnyTaur outweigh this imo, especially from an otherwise very not dynamic and difficult to rig avatar. I'd then just rig all four flippers custom, the hind ones would rotate like your Humanoid toes, and the front ones would disregard being legs and rotate like your Humanoid hands. No wizardry because the thing doesn't "walk", yeah... but the hind body would still capture your Hips rotation (direct + inverse), the long neck I'd add my various modern puppeteering advances to so you could use a gesture to puppet it SUPER nicely and reach out and bop people + switch between it rotating like your Humanoid upper body & the whole thing just curving around based on your Head. If you actually HAVE this Lapras model lmk and I'll post my WIP Advanced AnyTaur files for you--it might be a little much to dig into but the pieces should be there for you to understand the subsystems that permit Lots Of Extra Head And Neck Behaviors, and you can then copy them and implement your own (it's NOT THAT BAD if you're just adding cool tricks to the old baserig's Quadneck system!!!!). All you need to learn to do is use offsets (that you hand-calibrate to unfuck) instead of trying to rotate-like various targets directly. For the Lapras in particular, though... I recommend a hybrid system with an optional Final IK assist. You build this on TOP of the constraint rig, and use offsets to allow the Lapras to switch to it. The purpose is to allow the Lapras' head, on gesture, to actually keep its head ON your hand for picking up props and using them. If the hind fins aren't well-served by rotating like Humanoid toes, you can basically try stuff until something looks good, like trying different constraint weights or switching to Thighs, Head, opposite-side Hand, opposite-side Upperarm, BEND, etc, sky's the limit. Again, the Lapras WILL go into the floor somewhat as you deviate from standing height. But imo it will be worth it; also, my Advanced rig (which I don't recommend you USE until it's done lol, because the setup is totally different in Blender and may trip you up) has onboard optional Worldspacing of fully custom animations and poses, so it could be tweaked at the FX level to worldspace when you stand still and thereby not sink into the floor on you. WOW THIS WAS AN ESSAY. I think you could with some SEVERE tweaking add the worldspacing feature to the Lapras but I'm not sure you're up for it, I'm not sure ~I~ am. Well. Okay. Well. I think you could worldspace it via the TrailerHitch and then if you're on Quadneck for the Lapras I THINK the Quadneck is stuck on the TrailerHitch and not your Hips? So you could worldspace the whole thing via the TrailerHitch maybe...? Like when you stopped moving, and this would keep you from sinking into the floor... Let me know if you're serious about the Lapras, if you've successfully rigged a regular AnyTaur you probably CAN tackle the Lapras, and adding worldspacing to it when VelocityX and VelocityZ are both between -.1 and .1. And you can certainly add a couple extra tricks to its Quadneck to allow hand-and-forearm-based puppeteering, and optional Final IK assist! (Both of these are VERY similar, and rely on the same trick with calibrating offsets as your Sources).

[thatgamefromthatad]

Seen these ads? (Obey Me! Review)

This is a visual novel/otome/gacha card RPG game with the same characters and themes as featured in the ads.

As stated in many of the ads this game centers around seven demon brother love interests (as well as some other potential love interests) although the game has a lot of plot elements other than just romance. Most of the ads that I’ve seen feature real art that appears in the game one way or another, and the ads tend to be focused more on the characters and theme in general rather than specific gameplay. Of the ads that do appear to show gameplay, most of the time it’s not really what you’ll see in the game but still follows fairly close to the actual game (for example, the “kiss, free, whip” ad on the top left doesn’t show real gameplay, but you can kiss or whip that character. But that specific art comes from a gacha card I believe and isn’t what you see when you do the kissing and whipping).

A few notes before I get into the full review:

I’m a lesbian, so I’m definitely not the target audience for this game, but I always try to be objective and open-minded when playing any game I’m not the target audience for (other examples I’ve reviewed in the past are Moments, which was also primarily targeted toward women who are attracted to men, Immortal Taoists, which involved a genre I had never heard of before and really had no interest in, Time Princess, which also wasn’t my favorite genre but was still a great game, and various Genius Inc. visual novels, which are targeted more toward high-school age boys as far as I can tell).

Speaking of lesbians, this game weirdly censors the word “lesbians” but not any other LGBTQ+ terms (that don’t include the word “sexual”) as far as I can tell; I decided it was enough of a one-off thing that it wouldn’t factor a huge amount in my overall review of the game, but I think it’s still something to take note of and not let off the hook since it definitely shows bias and can be offensive to players.

This game is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and I was pretty harsh on Crush Crush for being rated that way because I thought it crossed the line with some of its sexually suggestive content. I kept that in mind while playing this one, and personally I don’t think it crossed the line in the same way, at least not from what I’ve played so far; although it does have sexually suggestive content (most often when interacting with the character Asmodeus, who is literally known in the game as the “Avatar of Lust”), it’s much more occasional through tidbits of dialog as opposed to in Crush Crush where it involved a whole section of the game and was more interactive in nature. I would definitely still cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old reading some of this dialog, but I think it fits fairly within the App Store descriptors of “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity” and “Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

Last note - there is a character in this game (Luke) who has the appearance and demeanor of a small child who you can interact with in a similar way to the other love interest characters, which concerned me for obvious reasons. I looked more into this, specifically reading into all of the different dialog options involving this character, and his responses never seem to be more than platonic, which is good. He still blushes when you give him gifts and stuff, which is kind of awkward, and it seems weird to throw a kid character into an otome game, but all considered I wouldn’t say the game is promoting anything inappropriate (unlike one of the Genius VNs that clearly involved relationships between an adult and minors).

Sorry I know that’s a lot of notes and disclaimers but I just wanted to that all out of the way as general concerns anyone might have trying this game or reading this review!

Without further ado, read my full review below:

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***

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(I’m trying a new color-coding system to help highlight some of the main points of my review if you don’t want to read my entire essay word-for-word lol. Pink is a positive aspect of the game, red is a negative aspect/criticism and purple is not necessarily positive or negative but just something I wanted to highlight.)

😈 Is the game actually fun? Yes! Just in terms of production value, this game is top notch: the art and character designs are very appealing, the transitions between characters’ poses and facial expressions during VN scenes are actually animated (which looks much smoother and more natural than switching between still images), the voice acting is great (although the VN scenes aren’t fully voice acted, some parts like phone calls are and the characters say different phrases during scenes and battles as well)(Note: all the voice acting is Japanese), and the music is FANTASTIC and perfectly sets the vibe throughout the game.

The best parts of this game in my opinion are the different personalities of the characters and the overall plot; although some of the characters’ personalities can be a bit one-note at times (for example, one character’s entire personality that I’ve seen so far is that he likes to eat and is always hungry), the characters each have their own charm and play off each other well. I found myself getting invested in each of the characters’ desires and goals throughout the story, even the characters I didn’t particularly like. The story is also chock full of humor which is always fun, and the whole world and backstory built around this game (the “Devildom” setting and the idea of an exchange student program with angels, humans and demons) are also unique and impressive.

I really enjoyed the multiple modes of storytelling i.e. how the VN chapters are supplemented with text messages and phone calls from characters and an Instagram spoof with additional side stories to unlock. I know this isn’t a new thing in mobile games (even Gardenscapes and Homescapes do it to an extent lol) but add the compelling characters and overall production value on top and it’s a really enjoyable experience. Since the home screen of the game is set up like it’s your phone, with the different parts of the game represented as “apps,” the game kind of creates a feeling like you’re really living in this world with these characters where you can freely scroll through their Instagram feeds and check the messages you get from them on your own time. The shop where you can buy items and premium currency is called Akuzon (an Amazon spoof) and the place where all your gacha cards are is called “contacts,” which further adds to the immersive effect.

The “dating” part of the game is pretty cute although I haven’t gotten super far so I’m not sure of the full scope of the romantic interactions. From what I can tell, in addition to the dialog, blushy faces and bedroom eyes you get from characters when you give them gifts and touch different parts of their body (above the belt lol), when you raise your intimacy level with them you get additional phone calls and messages from them (I haven’t played a lot of otome games but I think that’s how a lot of them go). I wasn’t that invested in this part of the game but I think there’s some strategy that goes with using the right combination of gifts and touches to maximize intimacy boosts and get certain dialog, which adds a whole other aspect of gameplay in addition to the main game. I also noticed that occasionally your choices throughout the VN chapters will give you a small intimacy boost with a certain character; I kind of wish this was even more integrated since most of the time I felt like no matter what I chose it didn’t make any difference in my relationship with characters. Also, I don’t think there’s a way to “officially” date a specific character, it’s more about raising the intimacy level to earn more interactions but it doesn’t actually affect the main plot.

As far as the main mode of progressing through the game, which is winning “dance battles” with teams from your gacha collection, this part of the game has its own positive qualities such as the cute chibi forms of the characters that appear on screen and the fact that some of the special attacks show a little anime clip of the character (of course it’s less exciting when you see the same clip every battle but I still thought it was a nice touch). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a rhythm aspect as the “dance battle” name would imply, and your main interaction during the battle itself is basically just tapping hearts that pop up and tapping the characters when their attacks are ready, but you also have the option to skip that whole interactive sequence and just get a result based on your team’s stats, so there’s not much to complain about there (especially since the battles are sort of a side note compared to the storytelling aspect of the game despite being the main element of RPG-based gameplay that allows you to progress). If you are interested in the RPG aspects, there’s plenty of that to work with (building teams, balancing attributes, managing resources/rewards to level up cards and progress through skill trees of sorts, all that good stuff) although you’re limited to an extent by how difficult it is to get a lot of gacha draws without paying real money. It’s even harder to be able to focus on both strategy and character relationships while playing for free when the same scarce currency is used for both gacha draws and gifts.

👿 Is this a free game or a “free game”? Despite what I just said, I would still consider it a free game - you can gradually save up some of premium currency the game gives out through tasks in order to pay for more gacha draws and other items, and as far as I can tell you can access the main story and the other parts of the game without hitting a paywall. I only got to the fourth chapter so far though so don’t take this assessment as gospel. Like with a lot of other freemium games you might feel pressured to pay (especially when you run out of gifts to give your lover boys, which was the biggest downer for me, or if you’re obsessed with wanting to collect a lot of cards or get a specific card) but since you don’t actually need to pay to progress I still consider it free.

There’s also an energy system where you hit a wall and have to wait if you run out, but I never ran out because of the huge amount of energy the game dumps on you when you first start, and it seems like there are a bunch of other ways to get extra energy as well. There also aren’t pop-up or watch-to-earn ads in this game that I saw.

💀 Features

Main visual novel scenes and storyline (the visual novel scenes come between dance battle stages and there are a few short side routes that branch off but still one main route as far as I can tell, I don’t think your dialog choices really make a different except for in how the characters react to you immediately afterward. Still the main storyline in itself is fun to follow and it’s fun to get different reactions out of the characters based on what you say)

Dance battles (I’m not fully knowledgeable about the minutia of the RPG system at play here but in general the outcome of the battle will depend on the level, rank and attributes of your cards compared against the difficulty and attributes of the stage you’re playing. There also “memory cards” that can be assigned to support your team and expendable temporary boosters called “glow sticks” that boost your stats for one battle. During the battle itself you tap hearts that appear to earn extra points and you can tap your characters when their power is charged up to “attack” your opponent and use special skills. There are guides online that go deeper into stats and strategies and such if you’re interested. Different stages have different rewards for completion and you can quick complete levels you’ve already beaten to mine resources you need)

Gacha mechanic and cards (the gacha area of this game is called “Nightmare” and there are a few different pools along with event pools each with their own odds and sets of cards you can get. For the default pools you get free draws periodically and I believe you get one free draw for each event pool IIRC. You also get a bunch of vouchers for draws when you first start the game which got me handful of SSRs and a couple URs to build a couple of solid teams right off the bat. In addition to drawing directly from gacha pools you can get some cards by collecting card pieces as rewards from stages and events until you have enough to get the actual card. Each card has its own set of stats/attributes, can be leveled up and has a skill tree of sorts that can be progressed through with resources mined through beating stages, although it’s more of an attribute tree than a skill tree since most of the branches just add points onto one of your card’s attributes. Some cards, the rarer ones, have special skills that can be used in battle)

One-on-one characters interactions and intimacy i.e. the “dating” part (there are two ways this occurs: 1) you can set a specific character to your home screen that allows you to enter into an interaction with them, with a refresh period in between interactions 2) the main way, which is through “surprise guests” after dance battles. These surprise guests show up frequently but not always, and they’re always one of the three team members you used in battle, selected randomly. For each one-on-one interaction you can do three actions - either give a gift, touch the character or ignore the character. Sometimes the character will also offer you a high five which counts as an action if you oblige. Different characters have different favorite gifts and touching different parts of the body can get a different reaction depending on the character and your level of intimacy I believe. Your intimacy level with a character increases depending on the combination of actions you perform, and sometimes the character also gives you gifts back like more energy or resources. There are guides for this online as well)

Text messages and phone calls (text messages are the main mode of storytelling outside of the main VN scenes - you get messages from characters or multiple characters in group chats that you respond to with preset messages or stickers similar to how you make choices during the VN parts. Some of the text messages correspond with the main plot as you progress, ex. A character texts you to be in a certain place at a certain time and next VN scene is of you two meeting at that place. I think other text messages also come up when you reach certain intimacy levels with characters. There are certain group messages that you don’t respond to where you’re basically spying on a group chat among characters and just get to see what everyone’s saying. In addition to written messages and emoji stickers characters will also sometimes send pictures. Phone calls are fully voice-acted dialog you have with another character and they seem to pop up when you reach certain intimacy levels - I’ve only gotten ones so far with the two characters I have the highest intimacy with)

Instagram spoof/“Devilgram” (Devilgram is an in-game photo sharing social media app similar to Instagram and the photos on there correspond to gacha cards. When you acquire the gacha card that corresponds to a Devilgram post you unlock a side story, but you also need keys to unlock further scenes from that story, which can be gradually earned through completing tasks and such)

To Do tasks (completing tasks on your To Do is the main way to earn premium currency in the game along with other rewards and resources. There are daily tasks, overall tasks and tasks specific to each character. Examples of tasks are completing a certain stage or number of stages, beating a stage using a team that includes a certain character or reaching a certain intimacy level with a character. There are also beginner missions when you start the game that I think stay available until you complete all of them)

Events (there are sometimes side story events called “pop quizzes” and gacha events that are available for a limited time, or sometimes an event has both a corresponding pop quiz and gacha pool. The pop quizzes are separate chapters with their own dance battles and VN scenes, and the battles will come with reward points that you can spend on different prizes. Sometimes there are unique cards you can only get from an event. Other minor types of events include log-in bonus events and events where you can get special types of gifts for your love interests. There’s also a feature where you can “time-travel” back to old events at some cost but I haven’t explored this much)

Jobs (you can assign characters to passively complete jobs that earn you a small amount of non-premium currency over time and also increases your intimacy with the assigned characters by a small amount)

Customization (you can unlock avatars of different characters to use for your profile and set the name you want characters to refer to you by throughout the game. You can also change the outfit of your homescreen character, change the homescreen wallpaper and change the homescreen background music by making purchases in the Akuzon shop or acquiring certain gacha cards)

⚖️ Ad Honesty Rating: 4/5 (just from the ads I’ve seen, especially the ones that appear to be running currently, there don’t seem to be blatantly fake ads and the ads show real art and do well conveying the theme and characters in the game. However some of the ads are misleading about the actual mechanics of gameplay and may also lead you to believe there are actual romance routes with the characters which is not really the case)

⭐️ Overall Rating: 5/5 (I definitely didn’t want to give this game a great rating just because it’s super popular on Tumblr but I can definitely see why it’s so popular. There are lots of things to do, the characters are very lovable, it’s funny, the art is great, the music is great and the lore and overall vibe are compelling and unique. It’s a high-quality game with a good story and I’ll probably keep playing it)

▶️ Ad Example:

▶️ Gameplay Examples:

Dance Battles

Surprise Guest

If you got through this review bless your heart ❤️ Special thanks to @human-watching-ads-from-devildom which is where I was able to view some of the ads since I was having trouble finding them elsewhere online and viewing some of them on the Facebook ad library.

Follow me for more reviews of those free mobile games you’re always getting ads for! Thanks for reading! 🥳

[desertdragon]

has there ever been a time where they feared for their life?  why?

This is difficult for me to answer because I don't think Vaste so much fears for her life, as she fears the consequences of her loss on those around her, as well as dying having lived honoring her spiritual beliefs- there's a big difference since one implies importance on the Self while the other suggests importance on Others/Culture

So it's hard for me to answer the question and feel as if...I answered the question lol

To make Vaste fear for her life you'd have to put her in an ultimatum, in a situation where the risk is complete oblivion from existence, and even then if she has a level of choice over it the fear is alleviated- but to have no choice in permanently ending her existence would be frightening

So for example, all the fuckery she does fighting in a soul form against Hydaelyn and Zodiark? Risky, death there would mean she's gone forever having not accomplished her goals- the same with one of my apocalyptic What Ifs where Lewena can't control her connection to the Primals and simply becomes a monstrosity that kills the universe, there's no coming back from that that Vaste can control either, it's the complete destruction of life with nothing her powers can do since Lewena would be far stronger than even her, Ms. Cheese going bad is something everyone wants to avoid

And for fun, any characters who are Reality Writers would also pose a massive threat given that they can just decide they prefer a reality without her in it, then boom, gone from existence

There's the Cosmic Horror aspect as well, any cosmic level entity that by default she can't defy would create a genuine dread

In essence, utter annihilation from existence especially before achieving satisfaction over her life is the one way she truly fears for herself, rather than an Other

-

@lettersnorth I have an addendum as I'm heading home from work:

I think a further example of Vaste fearing for her life under Cosmic Horror also applies in the sense of being taken over by such an entity, especially since she can't understand what it is or entirely what it wants because it Is unknowable- I know I listed that she can't be mind controlled in her powers/abilities on the carrd, but I think a Cosmic being surpasses that restriction just as much as a Reality Writer does, just because mind control I feel is one being forcing its Will on another, it's not a part of nature as it's a choice, a power dynamic created consciously or subconsciously, and Hydaelyn protects the WoL from that

A Cosmic being however Is nature personified, it Is a piece of the law which constructs the universe, it Is the primordial fabric all matter requires to exist- gravity, physics, entropy, creation etc. we can attempt to quantify these Principles with formulas, but I don't think we'll ever truly understand them nor fully comprehend all their potential, as they've existed since before the first living thing drew breath- they will outlive all life by the very same virtue of their existence

(As a side note this is why I don't fully follow the Heat Death of the Universe theory, I'm a fan of the Cyclical Universe Theory instead; I think it's extremely arrogant of humanity to presume it Knows something so vast and ancient and fundamental as the universe down to the date and method of death, and that it can only exist Once- especially when we more than likely will never be there to verify it actually Dies and doesn't just restart the Big Bang, even if we achieve cellular immortality on schedule or sooner)

Because a Cosmic being/aspect simply Exists then it has no Will to force, no agendas, it just Is- and you can't fight what just Is, in the same way you can't fight those cosmic principles I listed, or the fact that you need air to breathe, that you are subject to natural forces, that you are made of cells etc.

This is how The Slaughter from TMA would take her over into becoming an Avatar because the more you reach for a cosmic being like the Concept of violence and fearing violence, at a point you have allowed that cosmic force inside, you are under its microscope- and I think that would make her fear for what life she has as a living thing, until the pull of the Entity strips that away, too

[crushzone]

Hi Nin! I know this might be weird of me to ask because you are an artist yourself, but I am rather new here and was wondering if you have any other artists you'd recommend? If not that is ok!

Hi there, not weird at all! I LOVE supporting fellow artists, I find their wonderful talent and dedication incredibly inspiring, seeing their beautiful works on my feed constantly reminds me to take a step back from my exhaustion and to simply remember why I love to draw to begin with: because it’s fun.

I’m usually really picky about artists I follow and their style, but when I find the ones that I enjoy, I go ALL OUT with my support. So without further ado, the following artists listed are those I am not only in love with, but those who I genuinely look up to. 

So make sure you stop by their page to show them some love and appreciation for their hard work (because hard work extends beyond the individual pieces they’ve made, it’s also for the countless hours they’ve spent on practicing and perfecting their craft, constantly challenging themselves to learn new techniques). 💛

👇🏼👇🏼 Nin’s Artist Recommendation👇🏼👇🏼

---------------------

@aku-jumbi - HQ!!, Various, You all had seen me share a BUNCH of their works on my blog, but it’s just because their art is so SOOOOOOOOO good. Your style leans toward photorealism, while still maintaining its painting-like quality, so if you had ever wondered how your favorite characters may look like irl, they’ve got you!!! Watching your speed painting is so fascinating, idk how you do it, but you’re always killing it every time (Like our process is so different, so it was really interesting to see how you approach your works you know?). This piece of Kei Tsukishima and Oikawa Tooru are two of my favorite works you’ve done!

@achieve-the-sun - HQ!!, Various, Let me start off by saying that I love Morghy’s art so much, that they are the first and only person I had ever commissioned from so far. They drew Keishin and I sooo adorably, it brings me so much joy to look at it on the daily. Your style reminds me of freshly baked cookies, or the warmth of bakeries, I can’t help but feel a sense of coziness whenever I look at your adorable artworks. This piece you did of Kageyama and Hinata was what had drawn me to you. Everything from your color choices, fluid gestures, and expressions are such a delight to look at!

@chaotickatts - HQ!! I am so in love with Katts, you all. I had never seen anyone draw like this, her style is really unique. I can go on forever about why I love your art, but one of the biggest things that drew me to your style is the way you draw bodies. I like the variation and realistic details you include, for instance, I absolutely adore the way you gave Sakusa more moles on his body, and the way you drew dad bod Osamu. Idk, I think there’s so many different types of body shapes and details out there, and it brings me joy to see you being so inclusive of them in your art.

@namusw - Hunter x Hunter. Was drawn to their Hunter x Hunter works and I don’t even watch/read that manga. Honestly, just check them out, I love everything about their works, they are also a killer at both traditional and digital styles. This piece of Hisoka, Illumi, and Chrollo was the one that made me fall in love.

@cranbearly - HQ!! I really adore the way they draw expressions and their coloring style (inspired me to attempt some flat coloring). This piece of Oikawa and Iwa made me follow them instantly. Expressions are so difficult to nail, and you’ve done such an amazing job conveying every emotion the characters are feeling, I’ve learned so much just from looking at your works, so thank you for blessing us with your craft.

@a-zebra-was-here - HQ!! Their art has a very carefree type of vibe and their coloring style brings me so much joy. I’ve really enjoyed your drawings of the Miyas’, this piece of the twin was what got me, and this other piece, the first image of young Miyas’ was so SO well done, I am in love with the way you colored that. 😻 

@erionmakuo - Various, dude....I want to cry, I don’t even know what to say, EVERY SINGLE PIECE of your artworks just BLOWS ME AWAY. The way you color your art is just so ethereal, the color schemes you had chosen, the way you mix the color of your lighting, textures, and everything in general, I can go on about this all day but just hop on to their blog and you will know exactly what I mean. I don’t have a particular piece that drew me in because I was blessed by all your works at once.

@uranarino - HQ!!, Your artworks bring me so much joy. If I have to describe your style like an experience in life, I would say it reminds me of how it’s like to fall in love with someone for the first time, if that makes sense. That sudden overwhelming feeling you get when you’re doing the most mundane things with someone you care about, only for time to stop as you realize how in love you are with them? Yea, your art captures that really well. These two pieces of Kuroo returning home with his groceries and of him taking a day nap with his cats was what had drawn me to you.

@queenoftheantz - HQ!!, Various, Their style is really unique, it kind of reminds me of an adventurous graphic novel or something you would see on Cartoon Network (idk, I thought of Chowder, but please, I really mean it as a compliment, I just really love the fun cartoon style you have.) They also do some animations! I really love this piece of Kyotani you did, the landscape and colors look SOO GOOD!!

@noodlemanjpg - HQ!!, Various, love LOVE your style and the way you draw expressions. I also really love how you color, your works “appear” effortless, but I know a lot of knowledge and precision is put into crafting it. This piece of Kuroo x Yaku being all cozy at the couch was what had drawn me to your blog, it makes me smile every time I look at it. Kuroo’s smitten expression is just...ahsdl;adjs I can’t help but smile with him.

@diabolism666 - HQ!!, c’mon, you can’t be in the HQ!! fandom without at least seeing one of their artworks. In fact, I had seen your art even before I’ve gotten into this show, and it was love at first sight, lemme tell ya. EVERY. SINGLE. THING. you had drawn are so good, it doesn’t even matter if it’s a more simplistic drawing or elaborate one, I am just always staring at it in awe. Thank you for being so incredibly active about it too, idk how, but you’ve produced so many amazing drawings and we’re just incredibly grateful for it. You draw some of best Tendou, Reon and Toshi out there. Your works have so much range, I really feel like you can draw ANYTHING hahaha.

@viria​ - Various, Viria *sobs* your works are so good. The way you draw faces and affection just gives me butterflies. I don’t even watch Fullmetal Alchemist, but this piece you did of Edward and Winry made me fall so deeply in love with your works. Your style has a certain softness to it, even when it is of an angry character, and I love it.

@nipuni​ - Various, another artist that I am incredibly nervous to tag because your works are just out of the world. You also seem so so nice and is always incredibly helpful whenever anyone sends you an ask. Just...I have the biggest crush on you and your works. EVERYTHING you had drawn is so stunning, and I mean it. The details, pose, composition, and coloring, it is just so perfect, I could pull up particular artworks, but I was really blessed by it all at once. If you are into fantasy-esque realistic looking portraits, check her out, she exudes so much knowledge and talent.

@hinamihere - HQ!!, Your artworks are soo stinkin adorable. Your color choices, expressions and the way you draw hair is just so cute, your art always bring the biggest smile to my face. This piece you did of Akaashi and Bokuto was what drew me to you, when I saw it, I “awhhh”ed so loudly, my hubby had to ask me what’s up, and when I showed it to him, he had the same reaction, even if he’d never seen Haikyuu!!

@oxxuri - BNHA, so SO good, the way you color, light, and draw is so beautiful. Every single detail, down to every lashes and strands of hair is so beautiful. You draw some of the most attractive faces I had ever seen, these drawings of Aizawa and Midoriya brings me so SOOOO much joy, and I don’t even know anything about BNHA.

@amezure - HQ!!, their comic strips always make my day, I was giving their blog a peep so I can pull up specific examples and my statement is instantly confirmed when I stumbled across their newest comic art of Kuroo and Bokuto and started laughing HAHA. 😂 Your self study sheets are incredibly informative and I find myself referencing them often, it’s so nice to see my favorite artists continue to polish their craft through endless amounts of studying, practice, and analysis. It serves as a constant reminder for myself to do the same. I love the way you draw people (check out this piece of Bokuto x Akaashi), but I ESPECIALLY love the way you draw animals. (Specifically anything that has to do with lil owl Bo and Akaashi 🥺)

@obobro - Avatar the Last Airbender, HQ!!, I am absolutely in love with the way you color and draw portraits. Your drawing and detailing has so much range; you have a series of hand drawings, and that alone already displays so SO much range. I was really drawn in by this drawing of Tsukki, Zuka + Azula, and of Sokka + Katara, you can really tell they were related and I love it so much. Your art has so much life to it, it’s truly fascinating. 

---------------------

I have a couple more artists to recommend, so if you’d like a part 2 to this, please lmk.

But yes, I genuinely stand by my recommendations, these guys are so SO good at what they do and I am currently sweating because the thought of tagging all my artist crushes in one post is actually kinda scary lol.

Hope this helps! ✌️ 

[peridot-tears]

Listen. I really like western Romantic (-with-a-capital-R) looks as much as anyone, and I like my Rococo waistcoats and Victorian steampunk rolled-up sleeves as much as the next person. I really, really do.

And I do love my blond-with-piercing-blue-grey-(with-an-e-instead-of-an-a-)eyes-look as much as the next person. Love me some classy Europe, na? (German “na”? I literally lived in Germany?)

But I like it when we mix it up a bit. Given how whitewashed and eurocentric so much of our imagery of history and class is, I want to see more of what hasn’t been glorified in that vein.

Not just Black Panther-esque clothing that recalls African dress almost lost to westernization. (That deserves more recognition, by the way! I’ve met women who wear their traditional clothing to formal international events in the west, and they slay it! Didn’t have a chance to ask which cultures, though. Just...Africa. Per what my eurocentric education has taught me.)

And not just saris and qipao. Not JUST our traditional clothing, though that gesture alone reminds the rest of us that we have our own identity despite our westernization into tuxes and gowns.

Slight tangent: Harry Potter made that mistake NOT by trying to squeeze in representation vis-a-vis Cho Chang and the Patil sisters, but by showing how little they knew by choosy the TACKIEST wear.

(Okay, so Cho’s dress isn’t as bad as I remember, but I’ve still seen better, more innovative, stuff that appeals to Chinese eyes. Read: Fan Bingbing.)

(The Patil girls, on the other hand -- heard a lot of complaints from Indians about the how awful those dresses are, and I’ve definitely seen better at Indian parties lol.)

But what about, say, the Chinese look when WE started westernizing? I’m talking that waistcoat-with-a-Manchurian-braid look. A changshan with short hair. Or just literally The Republic Years look.

(Yeah, that’s where Avatar got half its world-building from.)

And that’s just from my East Asian perspective. Imagine if we put more non-western peoples in these clothes, posed them the same way to look just as elegant as this.

Like, damn.

(I love her btw.)

(Not a waistcoat, just wanted to slip in an example of modern-traditional Asian formal clothing, ’cause YES.)

(Ya’ll have NO IDEA how hard I searched for Idris Elba in a waistcoat. I know it exists...it just didn’t show up :()

The rest of us deserve to be romanticized in traditional western clothing too. Not just pale, blue-eyed (grEy-eyed or blUE-eyed if you wanna be ~different~), blond- or red-haired people. We already know the dominant western culture comes ~ursprünglich~ from Europe, but it’s easy to take for granted how the rest of us transitioned into the modern day with these clothes, whether we liked it or not. It shows up in our history too. And we can rock it just as well as the next culture.

After all, that’s how we all ended up here:

[essu-rwby-desu]

                                           Episode 1: Argus Limited  

                                      -SUPER LONG POST. SPOILERS-

LETS START OFF WITH SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT:

SMILES. When the girls smile, I smile. It’s such a good feeling.

“LONG. LIVE. THE KING.”

...Anyone else feel like having some soft serve right about now? A soft serving of White Rose-

It’s funny because while watching this part in the theater, I think everyone unanimously said in a whisper: “what the fuck was that?” and then laughed. Cuz I know I did LOL.

Keep crying Adam.

Vale is still fucked up, confirmed.

Honestly look at her. How can you not smile.

...Is. Is it Yang’s birthday or something?

You know, if I didn't know any better, I would’ve said Nora’s semblance is instant-posing and teleportation.

AND THE THEATER GOES WILD.

Honestly though, poor Weiss. Breaking out just to. Go back in.

Ugh. LOL. Im sorry, that IS my reaction still. 

LIKE. LOOK. THEY FEEL THE SAME TOO.

...Weiss is packing the most, but. She FLED Atlas. How much could she possibly have- DIDNT SHE RUN OFF WITH JUST ONE BRIEF CASE???

Indeed Sisters.

Take a moment and enjoy the facial expressions.

More happy/excited Ruby. There’s never enough.

Ooo Ilia with some new threads, very nice~ Also that piano version of Smile. My heart.

DID SHE JUS-

Oh. Of course she didn’t. YOU CANT JUST SETUP A SHOT LIKE THAT. THAT’S THE UNIVERSAL “Tippy toe kiss off screen” SHOT.

Sun’s turn to say goodby-

NEPTUNE. WOOO. THE BRO-SEIDON. This is a meme in the making. Also where are Neptune’s legs.

Sun is me, Neptune is my brain trying to tell me to do things.

Neptune. Don’t. She doesn’t. (But look at her though, look how cute.)

Welp, there he goes.

The poor useless noodle. LOOK AT BLAKE. SHE WANTED TO STOP HIM BUT. LOL.

Sun is such a good boi. Like. He just wanted to help Blake, help her to realize it’s okay to have her friends’ help. And now:

She’s back with her team.

BUT WHAT’S THIS???

AND THE THEATER GOES: WOOOOOO!!!

See you in Volume 7/8, Team SSSN. Seriously. Scarlet. Sage. It’s over due time. 

THE GANG IS BACK TOGETHER. IT’S LIKE THEIR DORM ROOM. AHHH-

Blake. It’s okay. You really don’t have to do that. Yang is fine. 

UGHHH YANG, YOU BEAUTIFUL SOUL. 

The team is just happy that they’re back together again. And I think everyone is too.

I, too, would whoop my niece’s butt in video games. It’s not like shes almost 2 years old or anything.

Yang is. Always. ARMED AND READY.

Now you see him.

...Now you don’t.

...O-Oh. Did. Did he actually just die? Oh shit.

OH.

GOD.

NO. 

I. I feel bad now.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE RELIC ATTRACTS THE GRIMM??? The team had all the right to be angry.

...How strong is Gambol Shroud and Blake? One swipe to be able to decouple a caboose? Also, throw back to the Black Trail-

Speaking of the Black Trailer.

Oof. Not the kind of memories you want to remember.

Does Oscar’s/Ozpin’s fighting style make anyone think of Sora from Kingdom Hearts had he gone with a one handed fighting style?

THE DUEL SCYTHE ACTION. YAS.

Team RWBY: OH GOD, IT’S VOLUME 2. NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN.

Well, at least there’s no Grimm this time.

AYE ITS KATARA. #WaterTribe

OPENING REVIEW:

Blake and Ruby look really bad ass in this shot. Composition people.

Im guessing based off the credits, this character’s name is Maria Calavera?

There was a post I saw a few days ago speculating that Maria was once a warrior with Silver eyes, much like Ruby. IS SHE GOING TO TEACH AND EXPLAIN THE POWERS OF SILVER EYES TO RUBY? FINALLY? WILL RUBY BE THE NEXT AVATAR? 

Who’s this hooded figure? Getting more Kingdom Hearts vibes again-

YOU DON’T KNOW HOW LOUD I ACTUALLY GASPED WHEN I SAW ROMAN’S HAT. LIKE I DONT THINK IVE EVER GASPED BEFORE IN MY LIFE. EVER.

“Who is this hooded figur- wait, that’s RoMAN’S- *GASPS* IS THAT NEO!?” PLEASE. BRING MY ICE CREAM ASS KICKER BACK.

But. Upon more observation, there’s 2 things to account for:

The skeleton like left hand. Perhaps a Grimm left hand. Though it is missing the dark Grimmy aspect to it.

The hand and the sword:

Welp, there goes the Neo aspect.

BUT WAIT. What if it was Neo who had Roman’s hat, and it’s NEO’s perspective that we’re seeing. NEO OUT FOR REVENGE FOR ROMAN? WHETHER IT BE CINDER OR RUBY???

...Neo has Silver eyes too, right?

There’s so much gay energy coming from this LOL. WHY WOULD WEISS BE RUNNING FROM RUBY WITH SUCH A HAPPy LOOKING EXPRESSION. ITS NOT LIKE HER??? LOL.

:(

Is that Zelda?

Local boy beats up Farm boy.

LOOK AT THIS TEAM. A GOOD START TO THE VOLUME.

[happypledis]

“We met on Kakao...” ||Nu’est Ren Scenario

Characters: You x Nu’est’s Ren (sorry I just like the 1st person format, sue me)

Genre: Fluff bc that’s all I do lol

Summary: Your friend went to school with Minki. One day she tasks you with taking care of her phone while she’s gone, and he messages her.

Author’s note: I have little <> around the text conversations because it’s A. Marking the texts as texts and B. reminding you that it’s translated idk lol

So you moved to Korea about a year ago and have been working in a city outside Seoul

you and your coworker Sua are best friends, and you talk about everything together

you know that she used to be a trainee at a small company for a few years, but her contract expired and she never debuted

she’d gone to one of the high schools marketed to those who wanted to be celebrities, and happened to be friends with quite a few idols

 K-pop didn’t really interest you so you used to listen to her stories with a lot of confusion (you really trained that long??? who’s x again? and were they in your year?)

finally one day you come into work telling her about a group you saw after randomly turning on a music show that actually caught your attention

she nods at you

“Yup, Nu’est? Super talented! And sweet. I went to school with Ren, remember?”

you narrow your eyes at her bc you didn’t remember

she shakes her head and laughs

“Well, if you’re gonna look into them, let me know. I’m actually still friends with him! He’s so busy nowadays though...good for him but kinda sad for me”

as time passes you slowly find yourself understanding the K-pop craze

you love all five of these guys and they make you happy

it’s hard to admit to Sua though lol

one day, Sua and you go out for lunch on your break and she tells you she’s going to go order for you both

“if I get any notifications, would you mind answering them for me?? I’m expecting an important message on kakao”

you nod as she dashes off to order

wondering what kind of message she’s waiting on that she’d let you answer, you scoot her phone right next to you so you can answer it easily

the smell of the food distracts you until her phone chirps

you pick it up, and the screen reads:  Choi ㅁㄱ [MK]: <Hi~ it’s been a long time, right? I’m sorry Sua  ㅠㅠ>

you have no idea who that is and the person is speaking informally to her so it doesn’t look like a business thing like you expected???

 but she told you to answer, so you decide to

the chatroom is empty with no earlier chats in it to help you guess who they are, and they don’t have an avatar either

so you just hope for the best 

<Hi! I’m Sua’s friend from work and she told me to answer your message! She’ll be back in just a moment>

the person reads your message immediately but doesn’t respond back right away

Finally a message pops up again

<Oh... I see. I’ll wait for her then.>

shrugging, you type back <alright!>

a few seconds pass and you look up to check Sua’s progress

she’s standing in such a long line...

your stomach rumbles and a new message pops up

<Wait, are you the one in her profile picture?>

you’d forgotten about that photo, but respond back with <Um, yeah, I am.>

<I see> the MK person immediately messages back. <I’m asking because she’s told me about you.>

you stare at the phone. who even is this???

<Who are you? I don’t recognize your name.> you send back

<A friend from school.>

you stare are the phone again. 

what classmates had the family name Choi and the characters M and K in their name?

<Umm, I’m not sure who you’d be still.>

<She told me you know who I am. If it helps, I was a male classmate.>

what exactly is she telling these strangers about me?????? is this dude someone who actually became famous? or is she trying to set us up??

<Are you working in the same line of work as she tried to join?> you say this as discreetly as possible so that only someone who legitimately went to her school would be able to answer

<Yes. Like I said, I know for sure you know who I am...>

you sigh

 obviously it’s a celebrity of some kind, but Choi is literally one of the most common last names in Korea and who could expect you to keep all the Chois apart???

<Stumped, hm?>

<maybe> you admit back

<well then, would this jog your memory?> 

a little bunny emoji pops up on your screen

you stare at it. The only idol you know of that’s called a bunny by his fans is...

choi minki. Choi MK.

aka ren

Nu’est’s Ren

you bite your lip 

because you do not want to do something embarrassing like possibly squeal in this restaurant 

<I...um... are you possibly... that MK??>

he immediately sends back <Possibly. Are there really that many that you would get confused?>

you can’t believe. believe. this situation. 

<Are you really that person who made the shoulder gangster pose?>

<If you can’t tell by now, I think you can’t call yourself a Love.>

you bit your lip again and look up. Sua’s finally ordering. darn, you can’t ask her what to say or do.

I guess I’m in this alone

<Hey, I have a fan club membership that proves you otherwise> you send back.

ooh where did that come from?? you’re proud because your heart is beating kind of fast because you’re nervous

but still! you did well

<Will I see you at the next event, then?>

your lip is hurting now. <of course, if I can get a spot.>

<Maybe you’ll get lucky. I hope to see you there.>

this time a squeal nearly does escape you, but you stop it just in time

<I do too.>

The chat is quiet for another moment and suddenly Sua is back at the table

“Oh, he already messaged? Well, I gotta go to the bathroom, I’ll take over when I’m back. thank you!”

and then she’s gone

sua’s phone chimes again and you look down

<I’ll look for you. Since I’ve already seen you before, I wouldn’t forget your face.>

oh my word

your lip really hurts 

this. is. a. problem.

<Do you have a favorite member among us?>

<Oh. No, I don’t. I love you all equally!>

<That’s a shame, I was hoping it would be me.>

this time you really do let out a squeal 

heat floods your face as the people at the table near you look up, startled

you clamp a hand over your mouth before responding with: <Maybe seeing you guys in person will change my mind.>

<I’ve heard people usually fall for me.>

he sends a little emoticon of an animal sticking out its tongue

you snort. <they do not.>

<Then maybe you’ll start the trend?>

your eyes bug out. you had always known Ren was confident but you didn’t know he was flirty like this????

is this even flirting?? is it narcissistic to think that he’d flirt specially with you?? it’s just cause he’s getting a chance with a fan. any fan.

and since he’s an idol and you’re his fan... he’s expected to do this

but still, right now it’s you, so it feels special

<I guess we’ll have to see. Depends on if I get any fan service. It better be good--you’re competing against four other people...>

<Oh, of course. I’d really want to win you over.>

then he sends another message really quick: <unless I already have.>

you roll your eyes, smiling, and send an emoticon of a bear with a question mark over its head 

<I don’t know why you’d come to that conclusion.>

suddenly Sua is back at the table. “Hey! So, how did you have that long of a conversation with the manager of the department?? I looked back and saw you texting for a while. he’s so quiet. I’m honestly surprised!”

“The department manager?? But--”

suddenly a new chat pops up, and the ID reads “Department Manager Lee”: <Sua, I just got your report.>

you blink 

“I was uh... messaging... Re--uh, Minki. Your friend. You never said who would contact you and he started messaging you so it just... happened.” you avoid saying his stage name out loud because anyone could be listening????

she grabs her phone and her eyes skim through a few of the messages

“Well, looks pretty interesting to me...” she grins at you. 

you don't like the look on her face

“But I gotta message Manager Lee.”

“oh yeah yeah, go ahead!” you say. hopefully ren will understand where you disappeared to

the waiter starts coming your way, so you clear a spot for her to put down a plate while Sua deals with the manager

after a few bites, Sua smiles up at you. “Okay, I finished with that and just started reading your conversation with Minki.”

you swallow

“about that--”

“aHEM! he was flirting with you. did you notice???”

“I mean, I was wonderin--”

“and you were flirting back!”

you ignore that part. “doesn’t he talk that way to everyone??”

“he’s charming, yeah, but not flirty. and that’s different than the way he treats fans. I’m a fan too, of course I notice.”

“uhhh.” you shake your head. “I really don’t think there’s a difference”

“you were flirting too and you just ignored me when I said it. he’s single, by the way--”

“Stop! this is way too premature to think about dating. we just talked. once.”

she sighs. “true. but when I changed my profile picture to you, he messaged me and then asked who you were. so I think he was interested in you ever since then--”

“one. time. we have talked one time. It’s too early. stopppp!”

“fine. okay. I will.”

her phone chirps

“aHA! look!”

she slides it over to you and you see a message from him

<could you give me your ID then? Just so you can tell me if you earn a spot or not, and I’ll know to look for you.>

“Okay. Maybe you’re... right,” you say, while you type in your ID for him

immediately, your own phone chirps

your screen lights up with a little emoticon of a bunny

and you and Sua both squeal, not caring about the table next to you

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Suspiria remake review from a shitty movie-goer

(this review is posted too late so excuse me for some timing inaccuracies I couldn’t be arsed to edit)

(IF YOU HATE TL;DRS JUST SKIP AHEAD TO THE “THE REVIEW” PART. YOU’RE WELCOME)

I actually hate to admit why was I interested to watch this movie in the end, but for once SOMETHING motivated me to go to a movie after countless tries from my family to get me to watch something in theatres at a “reasonable time” (daytime is what they mean, this movie was at 8pm our time, and this is when the cross-city bus transport (it goes from one big city to another) stops doing their service lmao).

I myself have a lowkey interest in moviemaking (I’m already getting there by editing my phone-recorded videos because whatever). I come up with my concepts in my head and I am mostly willing to put them down somewhere in my computer so I don’t forget it years later if I want to make that concept a thing in the end (because none of my concepts are finalized... well except for one short horror-ish story I posted on DeviantArt (see mom, I do like some horror stuff!). Reddit as of lately inspired me to edit some of my movie’s plot-lines based on irl events (not related with anything too SJW), and I’m not sure how an usual movie-goer would see this concept but I am going to try to execute it... whenever I have enough equipment to shoot my own little films or skits or whatever.

What’s that? There are people who scrolled past this and already yell at me that “YOU ONLY WENT TO SEE THIS MOVIE BECAUSE OF THE MAN WHO COMPOSED THE SOUNDTRACK~~~”? Ugh yes you exposed me, tea all over. I even had “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” on a bit of a repeat as of lately (how fucking come I wasn’t too couragerous to listen to this song before?? And “Pyramid Song”??? Man am I discovering their pearl(ie)s(*) too late). And I’m occasionally on the band’s subreddit as well. And the man himself is touring ‘round the USA, signing material of fans and have genuinely warm chats with them. Admireable.

But that’s only half truth.

I never thought I’d see Suspiria on cinema theatres in here. Until one time when I saw an ad on a completely random Lithuanian website that said this movie is coming to our theatres 14 December... I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. I made my goal to see Suspiria since then. I even dared to ask a couple of my new college ‘friends’ to see it with me, but one of them fell off the deal when I revealed that I’ll be going to see it on Saturday, and on the weekends he’s usually at home, far away from the city the college is in (he lives in college dormitory on mostly the work-weekdays). So my only movie companion ended up to be this 28-year-old coursemate (actually we both study different things but sometimes we attend some of the same lectures) who was intrigued by the Suspiria trailer herself so at least I’m gonna have her by my side of the movie, so I thought. Sweet.

I already envisioned seeing this in a mall cinema theatre but my companion offered me a cheaper alternative - her suggested cinema theatre was actually in renovation so the business is temporarily happening inside an actual drama theatre’s long theatre hall. I had to wait long until the ticket box opened and because of that I was lowkey frustrated as I finished my English test writing a little earlier, so I spent my time walking around the city until the time came and I wandered off to the old building of the cinema so then I remembered it was moved and I found the moved place. Yeah I bought the tickets before my companion could but I’ll skip ahead to the time that I almost lost the tickets because they were put down on a windowsill outside some children activity centre (Suspiria and children?? lol). I came back home late at night and was ready for the movie to happen the next day. Oh and before buying the tickets I coincidentally saw dance classes going on nearby that building... weird, as Suspiria has dance elements in there

The day came (December 15) and my family went together with me because they saw this as an opportunity to see the Christmas tree of our city (but not the movie). Needless to say, they were still visibly pissed at me orchestrating this idea, as I planned everything BUT the transport to go by. Well at least my mom and my sis. Dad was cool with it as he returned home to watch Home Alone. Aside all that, the cinema hall was cozy, Christmassy, not too small, there were a few trailers before the movie, no snack-seller places (as this is not a mall lol) - my companion was glad she wasn't at the mall as she found this place where we were at way lovelier.

Now with all that unnecessary long intro off my chest, let’s begin:

THE REVIEW

(definitely not spoiler-free, if you are sensitive to spoilers please watch the movie for yourselves before reading my review. But if you like being spoiled, I’m your friend then I guess lmao)

The intro to the movie felt like I ended up booking a wrong movie - I didn't expect that to be set somewhere in Germany, especially an American/Italian-shot one. Was that a thing in the original Suspiria? I don't know... (apparently it is, but the cities are different, never the country though)

Patricia (I didn’t know it was Chloë Grace’s role until reading the Wiki) looked like to be a really big deal here, with the dance pupils discussing her disappearance the other day and Susie overheard them, then Sara mentioned the Patricia thing to Susie after Susie revealed she was kind of chosen as the lead dancer for the Volk play... is it because Patricia was THE saviour that unfortunately knew a little too much?? Idk, it’s perhaps the reason we get to see the Klemperer guy subplot happen (I didn’t know it was Tilda Swinton behind him all the time either, must be because the way the male German accent was put on her lol). Turned out she was captured and kept under some dungeon where Sara had gone later in the movie, but looking like an almost melted and grotesquely old human being (or if Mary’s mother from “Chocolate with Nuts” was a person). Speaking of which, there is one more later in the movie, but I won’t tell just yet - we will need to get into such scenes discussion first.

Interesting deaths here, despite of them being grotesque and horrifically detailed. It almost felt like Susie, whilst doing her first dance as the probable lead dancer, temporarily turned into Olga’s voodoo doll or a violent bloodbender (that old lady from Avatar that could bloodbend was incredibly uncanny, damn) and left Olga completely fucked up, and the foam mouth later on... is this the effect myxomatosis has on a human being if it was ever humanly? She was twitching and salivating afterall. :P But no, she’s not dead until she gets to plead her death later in the movie! :O Several others occur throughout, but none is more prominent than this key scene I described, well at least according to TV Tropes.

The search for the evil person in this movie without Wiki helping me much was definitely a nice game for me to play. I kept thinking that Blanc might be that one, then I thought she’s not the one until she looked at Carolina (I think that was the tall tomboy’s name??) suspiciously and then she later passed out on the floor violently, with rabies foam and everything.

Anyway, don’t tell me Tilda Swinton wouldn’t make out a pretty good Thom Yorke post-Pablo Honey. She’s 8 years older than him, ffs! Also played a man before (e.g.: this movie I’m talking about) so the make up won’t be an unjumpable-over hurdle.

The sighs were for sure unsettling, especially because they oddly sounded like orgasm here and there. IDK why. I know fucking is referenced twice in this movie (well only fucking once and sex another time). Speaking of random things, the nightmare shots were completely random themselves, following up with some imagery we never see in the movie again, and some of that we see only a little (like the worms and bloody organs).

3 long scenes that were note-worthy for me. One is the Olga mutilation/Susie's first dancing scene that I already noted, and it was driven by music (the others will be too. Soundtrack of this movie still rules). Then there's the Volk play itself - girls go from one place to another, take poses of each other, dance individually, let their minimalistic red rope dresses flick in the air, interspersed with Sara in the underneath area and her broken leg (so broken, the bone went out of her skin!), and then the matriarchy getting her back on stage, but healing her leg with her witch powers before that. I haven't really listened to the rest of the soundtrack but I gotta check the song out so that I won't end up labeling it as a Kid A reject. No but seriously - intense dancing needed some intense drumming and painful instrument sounds just to project out the massiveness of the whole play.

Then I keep remembering the scene where Madame Blanc commands Susie to jump higher and higher in the mirror hall, up until she jumps as highest as possible. Also my companion’s favourite scene was the stare exchange between these two ladies during the part where people were singing some drinking song in a bar to celebrate ‘Volk’’s success - you hear them singing and then some chilling background noise slowly mixing and creeping its way into the atmosphere, then I think it leads into a scene where some sparkling aura entity wakes Susie up (and she’s nude) in the middle of the night and gets her to go down to this... dungeon orgy full of random stuff going on, complete with an Asian man doing something beyond explanation (I could say lewd but not quite), even more strange ritual dancing and the very much frightening Madame Helga... who looked like Jabba the Hutt for some reason. And then of course everyone slitting, slashing and twisting each other, and by the end Susie throwing us all a plot twist which makes her THE evil one who can finally let her ‘friends’ go of all that suffering they have been through thanks to the damn witches (and yeah apparently her dance friends haven’t completely died? THAT’S how they do - they tell Susie to end their suffering and she does). Also she cracks her chest open to reveal a... very graphic part of a female body that will by no doubt get this whole text review reported without consent so I refrain from any illustrations. Oh and this scene mostly has the possibly favourite this movie’s soundtrack song of mine, if not one of them, play - titled Unmade. It was a mind-boggling decision to do so but the movie editors do them I suppose, but still. I felt sad for the song having to be the background of such absurd but fair enough events? (Oh and I didn’t mention that everyone who voted for the other woman than Madame Blanc to be the leader of the witches (iirc) were rid of in this movie. Damn.)

Oh and the ending is rather an interesting detail, not talking about post-credits because as always I have to be this one movie goer who wants to do it but can’t because they’re urged to go back out of the movie theater. We turn into modern day Germany with a love heart carved on a brick wall with the letters A and L (perhaps?? at the time of finishing this review my memory towards it kind of erased some parts of the movie for me), a nice little remembrance of Lutz’s (the old man’s) love for his dear Anke, with which they have reunited during the movie, but Lutz was dragged out by some people related to the dance academy for probably wandering elsewhere than needed and somehow Lutz ended up as one of the sex dungeon victims, stripped of clothing and lying down quite powerless. That and before the modern day shot we are subjected with Lutz in hospital with Susie coming to visit, they discuss something related to the plot, Susie touches the guy speaks some more, leaves and according to the Wiki, Lutz “suffers from a violent seizure” that was nothing more than just a hard seizure. And it even erases his memories!

Anyway, as a whole, I felt more underwhelmed of this movie’s experience despite really wanting to see it. Like, “uhm yeah gore blood people getting slashed everyone’s a witch and everyone’s watched over by the witch and if you expose the witches you die” kind of underwhelmed. I didn’t want this movie to blatantly go through my head, but it did, that’s why I wanted to make notes everytime something notable happens. There was one startling moment, and it just was an innocent scene transition. And something within Olga’s mutilation scene made me chuckle (and made some other people leave the cinema hall ASAP). It’s more of a disgusting watch than scary. Also feels too dragged out in parts.

I’d only recommend it if you are gore-tolerant (there are people that can’t stand looking at blood so this might as well not be for you, especially if you’re younger than 16), like intense choreos that can impact other people literally, and... the soundtrack. Yes of course. If you dare to get through the movie with feeling its soundtrack, sometimes you might as well feel it right, but some of the soundtrack song usages might as well make you go “hmm” as much as me.

I'll remind myself to never watch a movie in theaters for soundtrack again (unless they're not THAT late). And the other 'trilogy of the three witches' movie remakes, especially if they come out at the time I haven't moved houses by now, because for sure as hell will my parents not like me going to cinema late once more. The movie is lowkey 7 out of 10 for me, can sometimes it's on the verge of falling down to 6 becaude of no completely proper comprehension of some directing choices... so 6.7/10 is good - as it still has 6 in it, but totally leans on to the 7.

Will probably watch it again. I need to remember some more of this movie sometime later. And looking for online uploads of this movie is unrecommendable - I'll wait until Lionsgate distributes it to America for wider audiences so that anything could surface 2 months (or even a few days) later from now. Though if I didn't need all that, I'd definitely not watch it again for a long time... unfortunately I want to.

Post movie feelings: my companion liked the movie, initially said to never watch it again but now wants to watch it again because it was so "wtf" she felt like re-experiencing it at some point. She liked the music (another bonus point for Yorke). She wished she could film the reactions of other people who watched this, as they mostly were confused, all being like "wtf did I just watch???". I'm already feeling bad for the 3rd companion who didn't join us but would also like to watch this - he’ll likely be one of those confused movie-goers.

[beevean]

So what are your overall thoughts on Forces storywise? Positives and negatives? Where do you think the story ranks in the series?

Maybe it’ll be easier to just list positives and negatives (warning: long post):

Positives:

- Even by watching a low-quality stream of the Switch version, I can say the game looks gorgeous. It does suffer a bit from the Adventure 2 syndrome, where the art direction can bet too dull for you to appreciate the graphics, but some stages are breathtaking. Egg Gate in particular looks amazing.

- While the plot on its own doesn’t belong in this section, I appreciate the simple fact that they actually dared to break from the lighter and softer approach that’s been going on since 2010, and the fact that they remembered that the cast isn’t just made of Sonic, Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot. The concept was awesome! The tone was perfect, serious but not depressing and too try-hard! There was some action! It’s a step in the right direction, and I hope people will criticize the plot for the right reasons and not because “lol sonic shouldn’t try to be edgy”.

- Shadow will be playable. Even if he’s at his core “Sonic with a OP Light Speed attack” this is very important.

- While at first I was annoyed at seeing old levels again, I’m actually happy with what they’ve done. They’re not just rehashes, they’re treated like actual dynamic environments. Green Hill is not just “hey remember this level”, it’s a place dear to Sonic that was ruined by Eggman. Chemical Plant is also ruined and repurposed as a space port, almost like a Sonic CD Bad Future. Only the Death Egg is pretty much the same, although I admit, the Classic level using the same gimmicks as the S3&K version was a nice touch that I forgave because it made sense in-universe.

- The dialogue! Aside from a couple of stupid lines, mostly by Sonic, there was no trace of childish, jarring humor, nobody was OOC or treated as simple comic reliefs, and the interactions between characters were genuine and believable. Some parts kinda reminded me of the Boom cartoon. “See, Infinite, now we het to know each other! So what’s your favorite color? Do you enjoy long, romantic walks on the beach? What’s the source of your powers? You can skip the first two questions if you like” “Maybe he’ll have more friends if he stopped talking about himself in the third person.” (maybe I just have a bad sense of humor idk :V)

- Eggman and Knuckles were perfect. We didn’t see them a lot, but their characterization was on point. Knuckles was just full of charisma and he radiated confidence, a far cry from the butt monkey he’s been since Sonic X. And Eggman was actually smart, with some clever ideas like having backup sources for the Phantom Ruby, rightfully chewing out Infinite for not killing Sonic, and… well, we didn’t see it, but I like the idea of him keeping Sonic alive in his cell just so he could see what happened to the world thanks to his absence (that’s perfect fanfic fuel). And Mike Pollock managed to sound badass in certain parts. “The sun will fall upon you. Boom! The end. Your pathetic lives… are over.”

- Speaking of Pollock, the voice acting was some of the best in the games this far. I can count on a single hand the times someone sounded fake or unconvincing (mostly Silver, sadly, and Sonic was a bit oscillating). I think I gushed about Liam O’ Brien enough, he clearly had so much fun with Infinite. I can’t wait to hear the Japanese version

- And finally I love Infinite way more than I should. His design, his voice (especially his voice

- I like that thing Infinite did in Capital City. You know, when he mind raped everyone in the city by conjuring those abominations of nature. That was a clever use of his powers.

- The last shot of the game, with the Resistance hideout shining under the sun’s light and a single flower at the center, with the instrumental version of the credits’ song in the background, is honestly moving. Even after the huge disappointment that was the ending, this part made me feel satisfied and like I accomplished something (and I didn’t even play myself). It reminds me of Wiosna from Katawa Shoujo, and if you played it you know how it feels to hear that music after finishing a route.

Neutral:

- The scrapping of lives. I’ve seen people complaining that it makes the game too easy, but

1) there’s still some punishment if you lose a life, just like in Unleashed the timer doesn’t reset and of course you lose all your Rings, so if you die you can kiss that S rank goodbye;

2) lives have been pointless since the introduction of save files. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you got a game over in a game that saved your progress? And what was the punishment for a game over? At worst you just have to restart the level you died in.

So while I’m not particularly happy, I’m not disappointed either and I welcome the change.

- The music. I put it here because it’s kind of a mixed bag, there are tracks that I hate with a passion and tracks that I can’t get enough of (and I’ve only heard a tiny fraction of the whole OST). So overall I would say it’s average-to-good. 

I really wonder why they’re insisting of forcing Ohtani to compose whole soundtracks - the guy is seriously talented and I admire his work, but why can’t he be helped by someone else? I know Kenichi Tokoi and Naofumi Hataya also worked on the soundtrack, but afaik their roles are minimal.

- The Avatar himself. I’d enjoy the idea a lot more if 1) they talked, and 2) the characters stopped shilling them just a tiny bit, especially since everyone else was relegated to the background. Still, the concept of a muggle wanting to help the heroes is cool, as it goes against that sort of “elitism” in the Sonic series. And I just grew too attached to Gadget the Wolf :)

- The level design, the thing people trashed for months on end… it’s okay. Is it good as Generations’? Absolutely not. Is it bad? I don’t think so, because when I think “bad level design”, I think of Knuckles’ Chaotix and Sonic CD. 

Forces is inoffensive in this regard. On one hand, it’s not as linear as it looked like, there are multiple paths and some nice platforming sections. On the other, the 3D parts are few, short and in general not that engaging, and yes, Classic Sonic’s stages are supported by too much automation because the physics engine can’t handle him apparently. In short, if you’re okay with shallow fun and you thought Colors was fine, then you’ll be okay with Forces. (and while we’re not supposed to judge the developers as people, considering the level designers were all newbies I’d say they did a good job)

Negatives:

- the fact that you can’t recollect your rings unless you’re playing as the hedgehog Avatar. That just flies against the very core of the Rings concept.

- The sheer lack of “show, don’t tell”. Most of this game is just told, in fact most part of the plot is told via walkie talkie convos. The majority of the cast is just there to comment and guide the characters during the levels, only Silver is shown actually doing something. The most offensive example is how Eggman conquering the world is “shown” by a simple text box (people are already speculating it’s another sign of troubled production). And we don’t even see that much of the conquered world, either, aside from City (no seriously that’s the name of the area).

- What happened to you, Tails? What happened to the boy who wanted to be more than Sonic’s sidekick? Why the mere sight of Chaos 0 sends you into a panic when you fought Chaos 4 before? Why thinking Sonic is dead makes you “lose it”, when the same thing happened twice already (or once, if you want to discard ‘06) and in both cases you were devastated but still managed to kick ass? Why are you just an exposition fairy? Who hates you that much in the writers’ team? :(

- THE. RUSHING. Oh my god I could rant for hours about how the game not only is too fast-paced, but outright misses chunkes. I already mentioned the text box part, but what about the part where Infinite sends Sonic and the Avatar into null space… and they get out of there in literally ten seconds? What about Fake!Chaos and Fake!Shadow being dispatched like that, without even the simples of boss fights? What about Silver, Shadow and Omega just appearing out of nowhere? What about the “fake sun” plan being thwarted simply by the Avatar after less than ten minutes? What about the relentless teasing of Infinite’s origins, all culminating in a big fat nothing (he didn’t even take off his mask for fuck sake)? What about Eggman just vanishing after the final boss? What about the fact that two thirds of the final boss are rehashes, and at this point I’m seriously insulted by seeing Egg Nega Wisp for the third time?

- Going hand-to-hand with the rushed plot, the wasted potential. Sonic gets tortured in isolation, so you’d expect some consequences to his characterization. Nope! Not even a reveal that he was just hiding his fear by acting tough. Why are Shadow, Chaos and Zavok on Eggman’s side? Lol, they were just illusions, the real Shadow is fine and the others just don’t appear. All the cool hints about a tragic past for Infinite in his own song? Nothing mentioned in-game. He’s an experiment, that’s it. The connection with Mania? Just an excuse to justify the presence of Classic Sonic, whose only purpose in the plot is to snap Tails out of his depression. This game is just begging, “Rewrite me, please!”, and if I could write decently I’d do it myself, I’m that disappointed.

- What’s the deal with Aqua Road? It’s the only gimmick level in the game and it looks like the unholy child of those horrible bingo tables in Bingo Highway and this part in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PC.

- Very minor, but if Eggman could see the fake sun, that means he would’ve been incinerated too. Considering how smart he was otherwise, that seems like a huge hole in his plan.

That’s everything I can think of. So, in conclusion, the game is generally good but overall mixed, and I dread the coming of November 7th because I can’t even imagine the kind of reception this game will get (and since it’ll come right after Super Mario Odyssey I don’t think it will sell well :\). 

I would personally play it if I had the chance because the game doesn’t look broken, boring or frustrating, and if I can manage to have fun with ShTH Forces will definitely be entertaining :V but it’s clear something went seriously wrong during the production and it feels like there are bits of the game missing, bits that could’ve elevated the quality from “good” to “excellent” - which is also why I hope Sonic Team doesn’t throw everything away but keeps the good parts and expands on them to create an even better game next time.

So if you’re planning on getting Forces, ask yourself what do you want to see in a Sonic game, because that’s the thing that makes the difference between “it’s not perfect but I can have fun with this” and “this game is absolute trash and Sonic doesn’t deserve this”.

[manyblinkinglights]

HOW TO USE THE MBL ANYTAUR BASE - PART ONE

These instructions will be structured around a main narrative--someone who has everything they need for best results, and for whom everything goes right--with digressions for what to do when things go wrong at each step. 

Pictured: gryphoranguAnytaur.

WHAT YOU NEED (WANT):

- A fully weight-painted taur model .fbx. *If you have a quad instead, see “I HAVE A QUAD INSTEAD” **If you’re modeling from scratch, see “I’M MODELING FROM SCRATCH” - CATS Blender plugin, just in case. (We’ll be using its assign rest pose function, if we need to.) - A Unity 2019.whatever.it.is project, with the latest VRChat Avatars 3.0 SDK. - Pumkin’s Avatar Tools package (THIS IS SO IMPORTANT). ***If this tool is unavailable, see “I DON’T HAVE PUMKIN’S AVATAR TOOLS, OR IT ISN’T WORKING FOR ME NO MATTER WHAT I DO”

Open MakeYoursInHere.blend. Find the Humanoid hips on the base Anytaur, but DON’T touch them--just find them. Turn on Isometric view and import your taur .fbx; scale and move your model until its Humanoid hips (you know, the bone below its spine, in the Humanoid torso up front), or Humanoid hip-ish-area, matches the Anytaur’s, and the legs are long enough to put your feet ALMOST on the floor (same as the Anytaur is fine). You don’t want to leave so much clearance it’s obvious you’re hovering, but you do want your taur’s (mesh) feet to be raised very slightly above the floor. This makes it easier to avoid clipping. *If you CAN’T STAND having your feet clip into the floor at all, you may wish to pursue using Final IK to run your taur limbs instead, but that’s the opposite hookup method from this tutorial!

When you’re positioned and sized, select your taur and put its wings into a flat T-pose, like the Anytaur’s, and its arms into an A-pose, at the same angles as the Anytaur’s. Apply this pose as your rest pose with CATS, or look up how to do it without CATS if you don’t have CATS. Then select the Anytaur, and, WORKING ISOMETRICALLY AND SYMMETRICALLY (symmetry has been preserved within the Humanoid armature, so you can work normally), you may move the spine, chest, neck, and head around to match the scales and angles of your taur’s existing armature. Again, make sure nothing you do alters the hips--OR interrupts the hierarchy!

If you have Dynamic Bone rigging on the Humanoid torso chain (like for fur or accessories), you may separate the bones out from your taur’s armature at this stage and join and parent them to the Anytaur’s. Same with anything wiggly you have on the arms, next, too.

Once the Anytaur’s Humanoid torso chain matches yours, select the either the left or right WHOLE ENTIRE Anytaur arm, including shoulder. View it isometrically, and shift it in xyz and scale it until it matches your taur’s arm. DO NOT rotate ANYTHING in ANY WAY! *If you have changed the angles in the Humanoid arms or legs, see “I CHANGED IMPORTANT BONE ANGLES IN BLENDER. :(”

You may rotate and reposition the fingerbones freely, though!

Now that both taur armature Humanoid upper bodies match, go into Pose Mode on the Anytaur and find RRA.spacer, off the Humanoid hips. Grab it and rotate it; the Anytaur’s taurbody’s back should respond dramatically. You’ll be toning this behavior down later in Unity, but I’ve recreated it here in Blender to help with weight painting. Try to understand what you’re looking at in the Anytaur’s hind torso chain. Hind.spine is one huge bone to make an optional Dynamic Bones-based-sit work correctly; hind.chest ends wherever is necessary for the “hinge” of that sit. We WILL NOT be going over how to implement sit in this tutorial, but since you’re looking, you might as well know why it’s like that. The .tinybones are because Dynamic Bones needs at least two transforms in a row to operate, and when I had ONLY two, I got stupid bugs preventing the butt collider from showing up in hind.hind.tinybone, so with this setup, Dynamic Bones gets THREE transforms, and the collider on hind.hind.tinybone definitely shows up. Unless you specifically commed your artist for it or they worked with this base in mind, you won’t have a BEND bone, and will need to paint your own, but you should already have hind.hips to start with! There are bone constraints in the hind thighs for weight painting purposes, again--you’re advised to leave them until you’re satisfied with the BEND/hind.hips torso chain action you get on your own taur. 

NOW:

Go into Object mode, select the Anytaur’s mesh, and delete it. *If your taur IS NOT weight painted, see “I’M MODELING FROM SCRATCH.” Then select your taur’s mesh and duplicate it. Then, shift-select the Anytaur armature, and parent the duplicate to it with empty groups. 

You could go to your duplicate’s vertex groups and start finding and renaming them to match the Anytaur’s armature as best you can at this point, but first, I recommend you fit the Anytaur armature to your taur!

Using your original as a reference, BUT ALSO taking at least a glance at a real animal’s skeletal reference (especially for shoulder length and angle), work isometrically from the sides and front--symmetry has been preserved in all the taurbody legs, lucky you! Rotate the Anytaur’s taurbody bones pair by pair (of bones, left-right) until they’re all angled right to fit your mesh. You may wish to grab and hide anything that’s getting in your way, if you haven’t already, like the zillions of wing and utility bones, and the Humanoid legs (shortcut in edit mode is “h” with a bone selected.) When you’re finished from the side, select the taurbody foreleg chains, switch to viewing isometrically from the front, and shift them in X until they mostly match the width-apart of your forelegs. For the forelegs, I’d prioritize matching the feet to the feet over matching the width of your taurbody shoulders. DO NOT ROTATE ANYTHING--they must stay straight-up-and-down from the front! Do the same for the hindleg chains, though unless you intend to individually articulate your hind beans, you may wish to split the difference between matching the feet versus matching the width of the hind hips above, or just match the hips width and ignore the hind feet, like I did on the Anytaur--If you noticed before deleting it, the hindpaws are quite far outside the hind foot armature--that’s about the limit I’d ever recommend you deviate, though. I just started to get some weird behavior on hindpaw twist at that distance (but I did get to enjoy having my hindlegs always look a little extra jaunty because of how they were modelled “at rest” around the bones here). If you’re lucky, your artist just has those hindlegs straight up and down lol so you won’t have to make any decisions.

You may add/graft on extra bones out of your old armature if you’ve got them (floof bones, etc), SO LONG AS YOU DON’T DELETE, REPARENT, OR RENAME ANYTHING ALREADY THERE, OR OTHERWISE BREAK THE ANYTAUR HIERARCHY. 

The twist bones don’t like being moved, sometimes, so make sure to check on them specifically and fix them if they’ve gotten skewed by grabbing just their left/right heads or tails at a time and shifting them in x.

Don’t forget to fit your toes! They don’t have to be straight up and down, just have them fit your toes. You don’t have to use EVERY beanbone either, there’s a final (FINAL--do NOT do it until you’re SO SURE you’re finished) optimization pass in Unity where we’ll delete any bones that didn’t get used. You could probably just graft your old toebones on, here (but DON’T do that with anything but the toes! We’ll need the leg chain transforms to all be named in PRECISELY this way or nothing will work AT ALL later. Working this way around, renaming your vertex groups to the Anytaur armature, allows you to check your work here in Blender AND not ruin anything silently before we move to Unity). 

The Anytaur armature should now be fit to your taur! Well, except for wings--SYMMETRY IS BROKEN IN THE WINGS, I’M SO SORRY, so if you need them, handle them by scaling left/right pairs of the bones’ heads and tails in and out in X from the isometric front and top views, and moving left-right pairs freely together with g + zy shortcuts. If you have dragon wings with extra wing fingers, graft yours from your old armature onto the Anytaur wingfingers. Just shrink the Anytaur wingfingers way down first; they’ll act as control bones. If you have feathery wings, look at the weight painting “zones” of influence that already exist in them. You’ll likely want to rename and/or merge your weight paint vertex groups to use only the (wing upper arm, forearm, and hand, obviously, but also the) first, the fifth, and the tenth feathers, OR--if you have a bunch of existing dynamic rigging, graft your wing surface rigging bones ONTO (parent them to) the first, fifth, or tenth feathers as appropriate. Only use the individual feather rigging if you HAVE (or are making!) individual feathers, it will look weird if your wings are a solid surface (each of the bones is going to roll quite a bit). Basically, the fifth and tenth feathers are rigged to “smooth out” the wing-arm action... hopefully the effect looks okay. If it winds up looking weird later you can reparent your (YOUR) bones directly to the appropriate Anytaur wing-arm bones instead. 

Oh, and tails. Do whatever with the tail. The Anytaur tail comes with six bones and limited but ready-to-go rotation constraint rigging, but it isn’t Dynamic Bones compatible, so you’ll probably just want to keep the rigging in the tailbase bone in Unity later, because it’s important for finishing the harmonious “feel” of the movement of your hind hips, and capturing all of your Humanoid hip motions. You can make it really small and not weight paint it if you want, though, so it’s at the base of your tail as a control bone. Do match the next five Anytaur tail bones to the rest of your tail, then feel free to add (or graft on) however many more you need. If you graft your entire old tail on instead of the existing one, you’ll NEED to rename it to match/replace the Anytaur tail in the hierarchy EXACTLY, taking into account whether you kept the first tailbone as a tiny control bone or not! Pumkin’s Avatar Tools, at least as I’ve used it, will FAIL on EVERYTHING DOWNSTREAM OF THE FIRST BREAK... so watch out.

Okay... NOW the Anytaur armature has been fitted. 

Use Pose Mode to pose your original model and then your Anytaur duplicate, into a pose suitable for weight painting (or for referencing, in your original). Now, begin the process of renaming/recovering your original vertex groups... 

Using your original as a reference as necessary, rename each corresponding old-naming vertex group in Your New Anytaur(tm) to match the naming of the new taurbody bones. Since some preserve symmetry and some do not, especially in the wings, just copy-paste each of the bone names out of the Anytaur hierarchy and into your old vertex groups’ names. Every time you find a match, the fixed mesh should leap up and stick to the right bone!

But maybe you have multiple vertex groups that all need to be collapsed onto one Anytaur bone, because the Anytaur rig is so different. In that case, use the VERTEX WEIGHT MIX MODIFIER. Important: this modifier HAS to be first in the list of modifiers, or it won’t work! It’s to the left in the modifiers list, under the wrench icon for “modifiers”. The first slot is the vertex group you’re adding more influences into (it should be an Anytaur one, like hind.spine). The second slot is where you put the group from your original model you want to add. After you put those, you change the dropdown mix method to addition. Rather than applying each modifier as you go, I recommend you duplicate them as needed and get them all ready and moved above your Armature modifier. Then look them over a few times once you think you’ve captured everything, then apply them one after the other when you’re sure it’s all there. There should be a big, immediate improvement in your Anytaur(’s taurbody torso chain, you’re probably doing this for stuff in the taurbody’s torso chain) after this step.

Once you’ve figured out somewhere for all of your preexisting vertex groups to go, and you can freely pose your Anytaur without leaving any vertices behind, it’s time to WEIGHT PAINT TWO THINGS. 

You’ll need to grab the RRA.spacer animation-rig-style control bone (off the Humanoid hips) in Pose mode, rotate it a little (A LITTLE) from the side isometrically, then find the vertex group for the BEND bone and start painting on weight at either full strength 1 yolo (valid) or around .4. Your back should begin to either raise or dip, depending on which way you rotated RRA.spacer. Don’t do too finicky of a job yet, because BEND doesn’t work alone, it operates in conjunction with hind.hips. Find and switch to hind.hips, and add or blur some weight forward into the lower back and belly, just, probably the whole taurbody tube. You want to balance the action of hind.hips and BEND until you get a strong but reasonable-looking response in your taurbody. Moderate the action you get by trying out the levels function on your hind.spine group (though levels is a little bugged currently--click back and forth between the viewport and the hind.spine vertex group a couple times so it doesn’t bump you back to the vertex group you were on previously). Give levels a value less than one to turn it down and free up the action in your BEND and hind.hips, or turn it up somewhat to damp them down if they’re just too freaky/rubbery/bendy. If you’re working with everything way up bright red at one you do risk getting lost in the sauce somewhat, so I recommend toning your hind.spine down to a firm green and working with red in your hind.hips and BEND that you then blur out as necessary. 

Once you can grab RRA.spacer and get an amusing but like... coherent... and goodlooking... response from your torso chain, at least to moderate/reasonable movements :p, add twist bone weight painting to your taurbody thighs if you haven’t already! That’s where the hind thigh twistbones get the top halves of the thighs up to the butt--make sure they’re well-positioned up there, with their heads matching the regular thighbones’ heads, and that they reach the halfway point on the regular thigh bones--and the regular thigh bones get the bottom half of the thigh to the knee. 

ONE NEAT TIP: to prevent butt crunch, move the heads of your thighbones down to the level of the “crease of your buttcheek” (but maintain the same angle as they’re supposed to have; the head of the thighbone should still be ALONG the original thighbone’s line). When your thighs hinge from THERE, they won’t vanish your butt and leave your crotch poking out into the wind when you crouch or sit! However, after moving your thigh bones’ heads, you’ll need to revisit the isometric front view and grab the tails of your twist bones, then move them back into alignment with x. If your leg chain is still properly straight up and down, you can just zoom in and move their tips to touch the dotted line.

Your Anytaur should now be FULLY WEIGHTED to its armature!! Now it’s time to GET THIS BEAST INTO UNITY.