#most of these are pretty old and from when I first got my iPad so they’re a lil wonky

[crushedsweets]

Who are the people that Toby likes the most?

Natalie, Jack, and Ben!

Toby has known Natalie for about 5 years, and Jack for 4, and Ben for 3. ok now im gonna do long ass headcanons for their relationships bc im just soooooooo silly . .

toby and natalie knew eachother when they were at the height of like.. using murder as a relief/power trip. it was a really sick and fucked up thing to bond over, and it wasnt something either of them took lightly or as a joke. but it was something they did talk about, moreso 'let me tell you about my night' and they'd kinda just allude to the murder part of it. eventually, natalie stopped killing as much (and stuck strictly to freak weirdo men at bars/clubs who try taking advantage of ppl). toby doesn't have the luxury to stop bc he only did it when the situation/order calls for it.

they usually just lounge around together. watch trash reality tv, natalie was ashamed of her art for a while but toby loves getting her to show him her stuff. toby taught her how to axe throw and cut down trees. he helped fix up the barn she stays in so it's actually livable. he even got brian to help with shit like insulation cuz theres no heat/ac in it. sometimes he does her hair if shes having an awful night. she never had someone to brush her hair growing up, having no mother/sister/girl friends, and finds it to be insanely fucking relaxing. lulls her to sleep so quick. it reminds toby of lyra and he cried one time after she fell asleep from it. she never found out about it.

toby was the first proxy to be nice to jack. not that tim and brian were horrible to jack (only after he was . . 'tamed' i guess). but toby was the first one to like, bring him things, talk to him, actually attempt bonding. if tobys feeling lonely and natalies not in the mood to entertain, jack was almost always welcoming. ok maybe not welcoming in the like :) hiiii toby. way. but in the. 'ok yea whatever come in i guess' way.

jack used to cook a lot before he was sacrificed. now he doesnt have the same taste buds, and while he can eat human food, its all pretty bland to him. best he can enjoy is insanely spicy stuff, and thats more sensation rather than flavor. BUT TOBY. that fucking dude can EAT. he's brought like a fat steak and veggies and rice and random shit to jacks and asked him to make him dinner. and oddly enough jack was willing to do it. toby continued to do that stuff. jack didnt know about tobys CIPA for a while and was baffled when this white boy from rural colorado could actually handle the spice anytime jack made south asian food LOL.. ("how much spice do you want" "i dont care make it as spicy as you like" "toby are you sure of this" "yeah i can take it").

of the 3, toby is the least close to ben. mostly bc ben is best fucking friends w jeff and toby doesnt like jeff very much(who does?). plus toby figured ben was like a kid and wasnt exactly crazy about being besties with a 12 yr old. But then ben played some video games with him. ben doesnt really Act like an. ipad fortnite tiktok middle shcool type of kid so toby was like Oh he's cool i guess.!

they dont have much in common at all tbh, didnt have similar childhoods and toby didnt play many video games growing up. BUT toby finds so much joy in just having a fucking boyish childish fun stupid relationship where he could play video games and talk shit and eat like crap with yk. they have a very brotherly friendship and it's kinda weird for toby being on the big sibling side of something, but he's fond of it. they get into petty arguments about stupid shit, and went a while without talking bc toby punched jeff and jeff was bitching like 'uumm dont hang out with that prick' and ben was like lmfao ok. toby didnt even realize ben wasnt talking to him tho. . ("hey sorry i was avoiding u jeff was bitching" "u were avoiding me ?????")

[sunenjoyswriting]

A very twisted Christmas.

Writers note: “I’m not gonna reupload my AO3 fics here”, I say, before reuploading an AO3 fic here. Anyways more Yuune yippee!! This is one of my longer fics (it’s not even 1k words…)

Possible warnings: Angst for two lines. I think that’s it…?

It was Yuune's first Christmas. He didn't have high expectations for it, nor were his expectations low... They didn't have any expectations. They didn't know what's it be like, [[PLAYER]] never once has mentioned it and the rest of the main cast hasn't either.

But it was definitely a unique experience.

Just like the usual routine, the first thing [[PLAYER]] did after waking up was turn on their phone and open up Twisted Wonderland. They had gotten used to the weird occurrences that happened (which were just Yuune changing the code for fun and giving [[PLAYER]] messages), but was pleasantly surprised at the immediate change that definitely hasn't intended by Disney...

A, slightly glitchy, textbox was the first thing to pop up on screen. It simply said;

"Happy holidays from Yuune~ I wonder what presents ill get! Hm... If you get a new phone, I think this game should be the first thing you get on it!!"

Then the usual thingy happened, and [[PLAYER]] took no note of the text box. They had gotten greeted by this "Yuune" quite the few times by now. They were usually on holidays, examples include:

"Happy halloween, I'm dressing up as one of the ghosts in ramshackle~! Trick or treat~ Gimme candy! Now!!" On halloween ([[PLAYER]] put a piece of candy next to their phone later that day after trick or treating to "give" it to Yuune), and "Happy birthday, [[PLAYER]]!! I wonder if the day you installed twisted wonderland is my birthday or if we share one..." On their birthday ([[PLAYER]] made note of the question Yuune had asked, sometimes wondering that themselves...)

This greeting wasn't particularly special in any way (except for the lack of a specific holiday, but that really didn't make a big difference), so [[PLAYER]] just ignored it.

So, [[PLAYER]] just did their usual grinding (with, surprisingly, no interruption from Yuune.), and left the game a little quicker then usual, to go and celebrate Christmas!

With Yuune... Well, I have genuinely no idea how they celebrate Christmas in Twisted Wonderland. So unfortunately, you just have to assume it went like in the game (with more added mischief from Yuune!)

Presents Yuune got include:

A tablet from Idia (oh god Yuune is gonna turn into an iPad kid/j), A crocheted bat from Lilia (I believe Lilia crochets and I will stand by this), A full size gargoyle from Malleus (that was a pain to get into Ramshackle...), and more that I don't feel like adding because its not important.

Honestly, after the whole celebration was over... Most of the rest of the day was spent in ignihyde, just like most days for him... It wasnt too bad, though! The tablet was pretty nice to play with, and since it was so high tech... It could do practically anything!! It was a pretty nice day for Yuune.

Only at the end of the day when Yuune was about to (attempt to) sleep, did [[PLAYER]] return to Twisted Wonderland.

And the first thing Yuune noticed was that their room definitely had... More items! A lot more items...!!

Most notably, A new phone. With the TWST transfer data screen on it... Looks like Yuune managed to predict what one of their gifts would be.

"I wonder if the glitches will be transferred to my new phone..." [[PLAYER]] muttered to themselves, quickly pulling up the screen with the TWST transfer stuff on their old phone.

Yuune's mood made a complete switch at that comment... Will he also be transferred, or... Will he be stuck without [[PLAYER]]...?

Well, only one way to find out!

[[PLAYER]] quickly transferred the data to their new phone, reloading the game to quickly start up playing Twisted Wonderland again.

And, it seems the "glitches" also got transferred, because the first thing to pop up was a glitchy textbox.

"Woah... The screen is so much bigger! I can see you in higher quality, as well!!" Was what text the textbox had, clearly from Yuune.

~The End~

and a very twisted holidays to you~

[fanficfish]

hetalia: my hc on nations and personalities

...beyond the stereotypes!

okay okay hear me out okay hc brainrot midnight time im jacked on caffeine and the night is young aight

so lets get this straight: so first off i imagine the nations are like 96% "stereotypes of ttheir nation" (e.g. the more people think or are americans that digest too many burgers, to more likely it is America himself eats attrocious amounts of burgers. The more people say Germans are swrious, the more likely Germany is a serious dude. etc. the normal stuff we all know off.)

but the other 4%? That's the nation's "person" side, seperate from their "nation" side. It varies a little depending on country ofc but that's prob the average.

E.g. hungary and austria "divorced" but they clearly care for each other. They can't be together for literal reasons but the non-nations parts of them wouldn't mind at all.

prussia is knwon aa a great warrior so that's what he is. But his non-nation half has self doubts and the need to keep an eye on his family. Like llease, Prussia how did you know what Austria wears and eats??? I get a feeling this wasn't in the mdidle of WW2, probabky right before if i had to geuss. Austria wouldn't have moved in with Germany and by exention aprussia yet....and he waa following the dude....prussia is an overprotective helicopter parent of an older brother, canon.

France and his distaste for technology. Exhibit A: french music was consistantly the one doing the weird innovative stuff in my music history class when it wasn't Schoenberg. Besides that, i could see France not liking tech as much due to being literally a thousand. Heck, i'm pretty sure half the old nations are a bit iffy about it just because "wdym now i can't just didappear lff the grid without anyone getting cocnerned and i need passports and phones and shit?" Except maybe Denmark, China, and Japan. Those three are 100% ipad kids in old men bodies.

iceland oozes gen z. enough said. The man might be obsessed with finding tourists and his northern lights and his weird museums but the thing where his beothers are throwing plates at his door and he's like "hell noooo"? The one where he's going off to make friends over ding-dong soup with the ASEAN dudes? That's allll Iceland, the person. Far as i could find there os no iceland-malaysia embassy and closest it got was relations with indonesia. (I highly recommend checking out the iceland-diplomatics-relations wiki page. There's a very interesting factoid under the list for Asian countries i think many of you will be interested in.....but per my own doctrine, this is a Hetalia hc post and not a Politica post.)

america and his animals. That goes for estonia too. Americans are no adopting whales and aliens as pets (well maybe the donate-and-save-an-animal program but we aint keep them in the house) and i doubt estonians keep talking mochi they found randomly in a disty corner. I'm fairly certain most Eatonians don't hell "latviaaaaaa!!!!" When things go wrong either.

austria getting lost is just a him thing. That's not normal for austrians, music part is very much influenced by his people. His preference to chopin might be him though since Salzburg is in Austria and that's Mozartland. Also, Chopin is Polish.

I won't even start with the clusterfuck called Russia but Japan daydreaming about Switzerland? Yeah that was Japan's non-nation side getting really weird. Japan understandably was just as confused himswlf considering for the most part he has no prpblems being a "stereotypical japanese dude".

need i mention Italy, who has a huge crush on Germany m/hre despite him literally changing in basically everything (because that's the natire of a nation), and just likes the guy as long as he exists?

I also choose to believe Sweden can grow a beard if he really followed the stereotype (no seriously. Why os the image i get of Sweedish guys just dudes with beards? Someone has a really nice sweden somewhere ln this site where he has a lovely beard and it just makes him look like the embodiment of sweeden, no questions asked). But he doesn't like it, which fair o imagine beards aren't fun when stiff gets stick in them or whatever, so he just shaves or leaves some stubble. Def not cuz Asians and beards is just not really a thing so Hima prob just didn't draw beyond the stubble.

Latvia being a secret brainiac that plays mental chess against himself while doing other stuff, all hidden under an alcoholic who can't get rid of his past. Pretty sure his blabbermouth thie is his own personality. I did see somewhere that there's a steretype that Latvians have six toes and i kinda wanna just believe Latvia got that one too cuz why not!

theres others im sure but yeah. Those are the knes i came up with and im gonna sleep now bye lmk what you think

[hillbilly---man]

tell me all about your trip, what was your favorite thing you did, what's something neat you didn't expect, did you eat anything cool did you buy any souvenirs

Aaaaaaah thanks for asking! It's hard to answer so I've been thinking on it for a bit lol

My favorite thing I did:

Genuinely I don't know! I'm inclined to answer Ishinomaki/Tashirojima (Cat Island) though, mostly because of how off-the-beaten-path it was.

For some reference, most people who visit Japan for the first time (while technically it wasn't my first, it was my first as a tourist so I planned it like a first-timer) stick to a relatively small area: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc, sometimes heading to Hiroshima.

[not that I think you personally need a geography lesson Kas but just in case someone reading this might]

But this place was up in Tōhoku (inside the red heart on the map) so it didn't have that touristy feel.. which isn't a bad thing to have but I thought it was neat to get away from that for a bit.

But yeah! In addition to that incredible hotel I mentioned in my other post (Tama Hotel in Ishinomaki), the city was really chill and the island was gorgeous. It had this whole "old declining fishing village vibe" to it which was so interesting. Plus the views of the sea were incredible:

Not to mention the cats! Which, despite the reputation of Japan's animal islands seemed to be in no worse health than your average stray cats I'd say. Several were also neutered. The island didn't feel overrun, it just seemed like a place with a whole bunch of them. And they were so friendly! We'd be walking down the street and a cat would see us and just start excitedly trotting towards us and beg for pets. My sister even got to hold a bunch of them! (You're not supposed to forcibly pick them up, so she wouldn't hold them if they showed even the first sign of wanting down)

A gif of them as a gift:

Something neat I didn't expect:

I didn't expect people to be so delighted by us speaking extremely basic Japanese to them!

Well, I did kind of expect it a little bit I didn't think it would be SUCH A BIG DEAL.

I've been very casually learning Japanese for a while, but it's mostly Duolingo so it's not like I like, know the language or anything. I went there with some vocabulary and just enough confidence to use a word or two. But when I hit a cashier with a "daijoubu" (I'm fine) when they ask if I need a bag or even just an "arigatou gozaimasu" (thank you) at the end they seem to be so much happier about the interaction. I honestly wonder if they're used to white tourists being kind of difficult and stubborn.

By far the most unexpected bit of useful vocabulary I used was "douzo":

Exiting an elevator at the same time as someone else? Old lady gets on the bus and you want to give her your seat? Someone in a store reaches for the same product you were reaching for?

Just gesture to the thing you're offering, smile, and say "douzo" to let them know they can go ahead. Doing that got me so many smiles from people! One old couple was so happy about it that they talked to us for a little while (we didn't understand much of each other but I caught that they were in their 80s and they caught that we were going to the aquarium) and they even helped us find our next train!

Did I eat anything cool?

I felt like I didn't really get a chance to be very adventurous with food this time! My sister is very picky and refuses to eat pork (it's not a dietary restriction or anything, she just thinks it's gross), raw fish, or cold entrees. Also, we were both pretty sensitive to the smell of seafood during the trip. This meant we were really limited on things like ramen, bento, sushi, etc.

We relied a little too much on American chain restaurants I think. But we did get to eat some good Japanese food though!

We went to this one place called Yakiniku Like (it's a chain and I think it's kinda trendy on tiktok bc it's very tourist friendly). You get a small grill in your table and you order your meat on an iPad and cook it yourself. It was pretty good! Not very adventurous or interesting though.

Snack foods are good too! I finally got to try Japanese pudding (good!), coffee jelly (not my thing but I understand why that pink haired kid I'm always posting about likes it so much), convenience store fried chicken (heavenly), and those strawberry-whipped cream sandwiches they sell at 7-11 (why the hell don't they sell those here).

Also, so many green grape flavored candies! We should do that more

Did I buy any souvenirs?

A little bit!

I spent most of my money on food/transport/logistics so I kind of found myself hesitant to buy too much stuff. I did get a bunch of pins and magnets though!

My pins:

I'm not taking them off my bag but I've circled the new ones! I got a bunch of vintage Olympics pins at a flea market on our first day, and I also got some from the Ghibli Museum and Rabbit Island.

(also in looking at this, I just now realized that I have two Lake Placid 1980 pins on my bag....)

And my magnets:

I collect refrigerator magnets when I travel even more consistently than probably anything else. Every time I travel somewhere I try to get at least one. I came back from Japan with several, lmfao

OH! Also I won this ugly little guy in a UFO catcher and I love him

[sebstanismyspiritanimal]

Third chapter! I didn't think so many people would like this concept! I thought it was a really niche au that only I wanted to read but y'all are changing my mind! I will probably start posting to ao3 once I hit 5 chapters, because I'm anticipating a fairly long story. Would you guys want me to keep posting the whole chapter here too or just a link for the new chapters for ao3? Let me know! As always if you missed part 2 here is a link for it!

The next couple of days saw Eddie relaxing into a routine at the bureau. There hadn't been a new case yet so Emily and JJ had taken to showing her the different paperwork forms and walking her thru how to do them, for when she had some of her own to complete.

Spencer had also been sharing the stack of cold cases files he worked on periodically and letting her get familiar with the process of trying to help solve them.

Watching Garcia hustle past the desks in the bullpen without so much as perky smile, Eddie and everyone else knew they had a case.

She followed the lead of everyone else and made her way up to the conference room, nervous and excited to participate in her first case.

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

"Lucy Barlow age 34 was found yesterday along a hiking trail after being reported missing for 5 days by her sister-in-law. There's no evidence of sexual assault, but the ME did find evidence of restraints on the hands and feet." Everyone was listening intently to Garcia's debriefing as they looked at the crime scene photos behind her head, no one saying anything, but looking for any clues or evidence as to what they were dealing with.

"It's a heroin overdose." Eddie said abruptly, standing up to look closer at the photos displayed, not realizing that all eyes were on her.

"How do you know?" Hotch asked, leaning forward to watch the new agent take her first shot at profiling.

Eddie turned to look at him and faltered slightly seeing the whole team watching her.

Clearing her throat, she turned back to the pictures, "She has miosis or heroin eyes, her pupils are constricted instead of dilated. Her fingernails are blue which is a sign of heroin use, and shes got vomit on the side of her mouth. Most overdoses include vomiting, but her muscles are also slack when they should have already been stiffening up."

Eddie went to sit back down and Garcia continued her debrief with a proud look in her direction.

"She's right, cause of death was ruled overdose by heroin."

"If it's an overdose, then why are we being called in? It sounds like she went on a bender for 5 days and OD'd." Derek said bluntly, everyone else nodding or humming in agreement.

"Because another woman was reported missing this morning, 35 year old Andrea Lakes." Penelope clicked to another photo and the team understood the connection, they looked eerily similar.

"Wheels up in 30." Hotch stood and walked out the door, the rest of the team standing and collecting belongings to start to head to the jet.

"How did you know that those were signs of a heroin overdose?" Eddie could hear the honest curiosity in Spencer's voice, the rest of the team perking their ears up at the new info, the newest agent had been pretty tight lipped about her life, even the parts that weren't redacted or classified.

"My mom overdosed on it when I was 5, we were alone in the house so I got a pretty good look at what it does to the body. Plus I spent a lot of time in trap houses after my dad had sole custody." Eddie said, nonchalantly packing the iPad and files into a carry on bag for the plane ride. She looked up when no answer came from the genius and saw everyone watching her with sad eyes, not even pretending they weren't eavesdropping.

"I'm sorry. I-I didn't know." Spencer mumbled, looking very upset at himself for unlocking a part of Eddie's Tragic Backstory.

Laughing slightly she squeezed his shoulder, "There's no reason for you to have known, Spence. I'm fine you guys, this was a long time ago. Besides the trap houses were my favorite places to stay, they always had the best snacks for the kids." With a grin at the teams slightly horrified looks, she shouldered her bag and went to find the jet.

The plane ride was uneventful, they spent the first 30 minutes to Nebraska going over the case and the rest of the time relaxing. Eddie had started reading a book when Emily tapped it suddenly.

"You read Tolkien?" She questioned in a loud voice making Spencer perk up and the rest of the team to groan exasperated.

Eddie slipped in a book mark, guessing that his was going to be a long conversation.

"Yeah? It's been a while since I read the Hobbit and I figured its a good plane book."

Derek groaned around a grin that was forming, "Don't tell me you're a secret nerd Eddie! Spencer and Penelope are too powerful together, we can't have someone else joining their ranks!"

Eddie laughed and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know how much of a secret it is, Derek. I started a DnD club in highschool, nothing quite says nerd like a 20 sided die." The rest of the group groaned as Spencer shot up out of his seat and ambled up to the open one next to her, quickly starting up a conversation about LoTR, ignoring the laughter and teasing the whole plane started at the two of them.

[i-love-klim]

12-year-old brother played through 999 recently. some notes on the experience

* he picked it up because we were both bored as fuck and 999 was one of like 3 games I had on my phone. for a while initially he had to borrow my phone (up until he got his first ending/I was able to set up retroarch on some lucky-not-to-be-ewaste laptop). which I would class as an 'ipad kid arrangement'

* he had some vague awareness of the funyarinpa going in so whenever it showed up ingame we shouted FUNYARINPA!!! FUNYARINPA!!! back and forth

* "this game is yap central. I mean I guess it's interesting, but like..." - quote from his first go at door 4

* after safe end (but before true end kicked in) he guessed akane might be zero. when asked to elaborate he replied "cuz zero's been with you the whole time... otherwise it doesn't make sense". his more confident guess around this time was santa (naturally)

* he didn't like clover very much I think. said clover was mostly kinda stupid which corroborates my thought about clover just not having a lot to do in VLR moreso than being flanderized into stupidity

* ending order was coffin (per my recommendation) -> sub -> axe -> knife -> safe -> true. I tend towards coffin as the first ending because it's what hooked me and the setup/payoff with the morphogenetic field is good and makes the plot make more sense but he thought it was a "boring" end & only really got excited once he got sub end... I guess if I ever get anyone else to play this game I'll recommend sub end first. also I was like "hmm you can maybe skip knife cus you don't learn anything that doesn't come up in other routes" but he wanted to see everything so he went ahead and I think it paid off. there are some interesting discrepancies in door 8 & door 6 if you pick door 4 first, and apparently the "red/white/black santa" rant is knife end-exclusive? I'd forgotten about that

* related to the last bullet point he was pretty insistent on taking it slow and rereading dialogue, for the most part. when he was en route to safe end he ffw'ed through a bunch of repeat dialogue but that was about it

* favorite escape room was door 7, he liked the puzzle where you add up the atoms in each compound listed

* I did not get to watch his live reaction to the elevator scene. but at one point he approached me and said "ummm... if you say 'she was afraid of being locked up with a boy' you get some weird dialogue". which is imo funnier

* he MIGHT play VLR. he's about an hour in now and he hasn't been nearly as into it as he was with 999 partially because VLR's opening act is vastly less intriguing than 999's but also just because he has more stuff to do now. like watching bluey and playing fortnite. I guess

also we're using the same dogshit laptop to play VLR and it only barely runs the PC port. you have to crank the resolution down if you don't want the game to lag and the CPU to run crazy hot when ~3 or more models are on screen at once, lol. maybe I'll drop the pretense and just replay VLR on my own...

[edith-is-a-cat]

OMG!! i love crystals so muchhhhh that's got such a good vibe you captured me perfectly :D

i also love minecraft foxes especially the Rotund Ones in that one mod. i'm so excited to see more arctic foxes in game because those are my favorite :) i would keep your netherite sword safe!!!

also dw i'm not worried :3 i don't mind anxiety, i have it myself. i'm not the most social person in the world but online i tend to be more outgoing. i'm kinda getting back into the tumblr scene after a year or two of neglecting it so i'm a little anxious here and there too lolol. patting your head! don't drink too much energy stuff~

in return, i am telling you to look up blue tiger's eye crystals, since you seem to like blue and you are also a cat. :) they have really cool banding and it's so reflective and pretty. one of my favorite crystals.

THE NOISE I MADE I LOVE READING LONG ASK THEY ARE SO SWEET 💕 (My older sibling made a noise back at me from downstairs 😭)

RAH SINCE I WAS REMINDED I MUST SHARE THW RANDOM CRYSTALS I KEEP IN MY ROOM AND BATHROOM (with many sea shells too)

yes all the photos have flash on because im a "one of those creatures who've evolved to spend their entire existence in a pitch black cave that's closed off from the world" (direct quote from my friend) an i never have any lights on i just run into things

WUGH WHAT MOD EXACTLY??? IM GOING TO WRITE IT DOWN AND HOPEFULLY USE IT ONE DAY!! (I haven't gotten minecraft on my pc yet, ive wanted to mod minecraft for a while but couldn't bc forever on an ipad, but i have modded stardew valley and it wasn't as scary as I thought it was! Now i can live happily with my 6 wives!! Plus ive been wanting to mod Deltarune for the Ribbit mod! but its more scary and complicated since there isn't as big of a modding community around it, ill figure it out though!!!)

also if u were like a little fox in minecraft i would give you a special nametag using my magic §!! (you can get that symbol by holding down &!! idk if your keyboard is the same but that how i get it!! It changes the text color depending on what letter you put by it!!!) Also i would construct you the best enclosure ever (or just plant a forest!!)

WUGH SO REAL if real life was like being online everything would be so cool (and maybe suck a bit more?? people get more voiced online for better and for worse ;~;)

+ I got back into tumblr like!!! October 2022, well i was never really into it but I did have my first blog that i never really did anything with (its now my reblog account)

also on the energy drink note my chem teacher said i had a problem 😭 (I dont!!! I exist like a month without any!! (I love her i showed her my can locker where i had filled my school locker with energy drink cans and shes just like "cool bud" SHE ALSO WAS ONE OF THE TWO TEACHERS TO ASK FOR OUT PREFERRED NAMES I LOVE HER))

On the blue tiger's eye note!!!! Yes. please. give. I need them i have so many things to decorate!!!! I need to put up shelves around my bed so i can look at my random stuff i adore!!!!! (the only thing i have up on my wall is something i drew for my art class and my Undertale heart locket aka one of my most prized possessions... sadly the the music box in it doesn't work anymore i played it so often, cries, it broke when i was trying to wind it for the little kids at my old school)

OKAY DID NOT KNOW I COULD TALK SO MUCH!!! DJFJDB

[genericpuff]

always wanted to make one of those 'day in the life' posts so here u go!

TW/CW: Tattoo needles, mild blood/mentioning of blood

ima be honest with you, sometimes those 'day in the life' reels on tiktok n junk annoy the piss out of me because they seem so disingenuous, but that's honest to god probably just my executive dysfunction being salty because there's no way in HELL i'm gonna be on some 'grind' where i'm getting up at 6 am to make smoothies and do a workout before i have to go to actual work, i can't with that and i struggle to fathom anyone else doing that consistently LMAO (but i know there are and y'all are a different breed, i wouldn't be able to do it LOL)

like i literally get up anywhere between 30-10 minutes before i gotta catch the bus to go to work-

(understand that i can only get away with doing this because the bus stop is LITERALLY RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM MY HOUSE LMAOOO i could also just as easily walk , work is about 15-20 minutes away, but like... i don't wanna when i could just sleep in for another 15-20 minutes LOL)

most of my mornings consist of battling with myself to get out of bed until the last possible minute and then hoping the bus isn't early so i don't miss it on account of my own executive dysfunction, paired with timmy's because i'm a canadian hoser, buds.

i'm actually pretty hyped though for that apartment move at the start of april because as soon as we've moved, we'll be even CLOSER to my work to the point i won't even have to catch the bus anymore, you can literally see the new place out my work window. watch me find ways to still be late for work LMAO

anyways. i got off kinda easy today because NORMALLY i have to get up earlier as most of the time my appointments start at 1 PM, but I only had one appointment today and we had booked it for 3 so I got to sleep in a bit longer <3 This was the design I had made up for them (a sternum piece):

but then it turned out i had completely neglected the one change they wanted, which was to make the middle flower a lotus flower. thank god for my ipad, having the ability to change up designs on the go was half the reason I bought it ~

easy fix uwu

as for the setup, my tattoo setup is pretty simple, the machine isn't actually ready to go yet but i usually set that up after the stencil is applied to give the stencil time to sit and dry (and i don't like having nothing to do while i wait):

(the actual machine once it's wrapped):

it was a full kitchen in the shop today meaning me, my boss, and my two other coworkers who work in the open area were all working and having a good time. one of my other coworkers wasn't in today but they work in a separate private room so the main area itself was full. sometimes i'll come in and i can tell who was in first based on what's playing on the TV. if it's documentaries or reruns of old comedy shows (like the Office) I know it's my boss, if it's reality TV then I know it's L, and if it's music from Spotify then it's usually my other coworker S.

It was S today :' )

here's the actual stencil on the skin! my client is an old pal who i've tattooed a couple times and was thankfully okay with me taking pics and posting these ~ (haha, no female presenting nipples here, tumblr!)

as you can probably see I had to take a marker to the tail and redraw it so it would go around the belly button, originally the stencil went right thru it and wouldn't have looked good

but guess what? didn't matter anyways because the fucking stencil wouLDN'T FUCKING STICK. like, as soon as I started working on it, I realized it was gonna be one of those stencils, the kind that wipe away INSTANTLY. I think it was a combination of just the placement (backs and sternums don't tend to hold as well) as well as her skin type (not all skin types hold onto stencils and ink equally) and the fact that it was hotter in the shop than it usually is which amounted to a bit of sweat (esp in the belly area where things tend to be a lot warmer) which resulted in the stencil not holding in the slightest. y'all it was STRESSFUL and even after I tried to re-apply the stencil again as best as I could (with the tattoo already in progress and the old stencil pretty much gone) it STILL wouldn't hold, so I essentially had to bloodline the whole thing (i.e. line it in so lightly and quickly just to get SOMETHING visible in there after the stencil disappeared. half the lines weren't even genuine lines, just the tiniest faintest impressions that mostly consisted of blood, but still better than nothing).

eventually my coworkers had all clocked out for the day so i was the last one standing, meaning I got control over the Spotify >:D

(and played pretty much the exact same music my coworker would have because we have the exact same tastes in music lmao)

so this is where i had to re-stencil because the original stencil i had put on was wiping away like crazy, but then the second stencil ended up being just as shitty. like you can see where i had to put the lines in 'good enough' near the top because even the shoddy stencil redo was GONE as i was working on it, and it created this sort of cyclical problem where i couldn't just not wipe while i worked because that would result in there being ink anywhere so i couldn't see what i was doing... but then i would wipe to clean it up and poof stencil gone. it was a nightmare and stressed me out but big thanks to my client for understanding and trusting the process <3

because even tattoos are allowed to have an ugly stage before they look good ~

all in all i'm pretty happy with how it came out in the end, the process definitely didn't go as smoothly as i had initially hoped and i would have liked to spend more time on the actual lining process in the beginning, but i had to rush that shit. thankfully as soon as that foundation was laid, it gave me time to just go in and tighten up those lines, a lot of this ended up being freehand compared to what i had planned on doing :' )

(the best part is this client has two lil' dermals just an inch or so above the tattoo that the snake's face and tongue line up perfectly with, it's adorable haha)

either way, that was my day at the shop, i was the last one there so it was on me to settle the debit/credit machine, set the alarms and have everything ready for another day tomorrow!

very appropriate music for the last track of the day lmao and our shop pet, Smaug, poked his head out to say hello!

for the most part, a good day! aside from that stupid stencil giving me a hard time, it was still pretty chill, came out to be a 3 hour day, I showed up around 2:30, my appointment started at 3 and we were all done by 5:30, left just in time to go pick up some sushi takeout and catch the next bus home <3

(have I ever shown my face on my Tumblr before??? if not, here's me!)

My job's pretty cool. Still have to deal with a lot of "typical bullshit" esp when it comes to communicating with clients and setting up appointments as well as tattoo-unique bullshit like dealing with squirmers or crappy stencils or not being able to have a social life without people pestering me for free work, but it's the best job I could ever ask for especially in this particular location. The husband and wife duo who run the place are super sweet but have their shit together well, they run a tight ship and it means I don't have anything to worry about besides setting up my appointments and tattooing. It took a lot of fighting over the course of years to finally end up in a comfortable place, and many times I almost gave up, but it was worth it because now I'm in a great place that pays well and I get to do what I love.

But I'm still pretty eager to get home most days lol So I grabbed my sushi, caught the bus, and made it home.

It was about 6:25 when I landed and because of Daylight Savings, it's still very light out. It does so much for my mental health to leave work and have it still be sunny, the ✨ seasonal depression ✨ is gone and all I have to worry about now is ✨ regular depression ✨ And it's gonna be even better once we move to the new place because it's on a ground floor and has windows aplenty, loads of natural light (compared to the gross basement we live in rn).

But until then, this is what I come home to (～￣▽￣)～

I will now spend the next 6-8 hours playing FF XIV, watching my shows, and working on Rekindled and Time Gate, pretty much all at the same time or at least jumping between. Usually I'll have something playing on rerun on the TV in the background (so something I don't have to pay attention to, like reruns of the Office or Bob's Burgers or w/e I'm feeling that day) and then I'll be listening to music in my headphones or - if I want to engage with something that isn't a rerun - I'll put on a Youtube video that's easy to listen to and absorb without having to look directly at. Sometimes it's speedrun documentaries, sometimes it's GameGrumps compilations, just depends on what I'm feeling and what shows up in my recommended that day LOL Yes , it might seem 'pointless' to have a show playing in the background while also listening to music, but it's sorta just there as a presence and idk, it brings my ADHD brain comfort lol

If you don't believe me that this is the level of multitasking that I'm at, the other day I made a call to Nintendo Support to help my husband get back into his account and I did it while running dungeons in FF XIV, yaaaaay ADHD! My brain needs constant stimulation to function! ╰（‵□′）╯

(and yes, I'm usually joined by Psuwis - it's Maliseet for 'cat' - who's very needy for my attention as soon as I get home lol)

This is how I spend most of my evenings, and even entire days if I'm not in the shop (and my schedule's pretty flexible, sometimes I'm at the shop 5 days a week, other times I might only work 2 or 3 days, it just depends on how busy my bookings are). My husband is actually probably just getting off work rn so he'll likely be home by the time I'm wrapping up this post lmao

Supper!

I actually worked on Rekindled pretty much all day yesterday, so now the episode's almost done already, it's coming along nicely! I'm hoping to have it done tonight or tomorrow so that I can have it ready for Saturday when I'm away on my trip (and maybe get a headstart on Ep 12 so that we can have a new episode next weekend as well during my apartment move!)

Anyone in my follows play FF XIV? Currently working on my Astrologian, it's pretty fun! You can find me (Pym Thras'rala) in Hyperion if you ever wanna party up sometime!

That's pretty much it! Not really anything super crazy or exciting to show, my life's pretty routine and that's how I like it. A lot of my social life is online nowadays but I do make time to go out and hang out with IRL pals as well. If this were done on a Friday most of what I'd be doing is hanging out down at the bar with pals LMAO

So yeah! hope you enjoyed this lil' self-indulgent "talk about myself for 20 minutes" post （￣︶￣）↗　If anything I hope it offers some kind of solidarity to the other pals out there who need 27390572309 forms of stimulation to get through the day LMAO

(also not recommending anyone live the way i do, my back hurts, my sleep schedule is fucked and my brain is fried（*゜ー゜*）let's all hold each other accountable and remember to check our postures, stand up and stretch every hour, and stay hydrated <3 ).

[polaesims]

Get to know you - Sims Style

Thank you @puffkins2000 for the tag! 💕

What’s your favorite Sims death?

Tbh I'm not big on killing my sims (boring, boooo) so I'd say good ol' old age, especially cause bitches be dying at the wildest moments. But if you want me to be more fancy, I love drowning specifically in floor.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match all the way!!! I only use alpha or alpha-ish cc when I can't find MM alternative.

Do you cheat your sims weight?

Nah, never and frankly I never had to... like my sims just stay one weight their entire life unless I play with a gym freak.

Do you move objects?

Always. The grid is my enemy, moo is my saviour.

Favorite Mod?

Consort Age Mod, cause I love generational gameplay and seeing my sims slowly go gray is so nostalgic to me, and Zodiac Sings Mod, cause I was tired of twins getting different zodiac signs...

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

For TS2 I got a lot of them at once cause they were hand-me-downs from my mum's friend's daughter. For TS3 it was Late Night, I remember it vividly cause my dad thought the lady in a bikini on the cover was inappropriate.

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

Neither, cause I play in my native language (it's way more memable), but if I had to choose LIVing speaks to me more.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Long story, strap in. So when I was still in highschool, I created a joke save to share with my friends and I made this elderly man whom I named Andrzej and he was a menace. He was a womaniser alchemist, who had like 20 children (5 of which I kept in household, and they were as chaotic as their father) and then became a kung fu master, married a werewolf and finally impersonated a Goth family member and stole their fortune. I love him. Andrzej forever in my heart.

Have you made a simself?

Yep!! I posted her!! She's way prettier though cause girlie's symmetrical. I usually just drop myself and my bf into my world and see what story progression does with me. (as of now I have 3 kids as a kids hater ;-;)

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

The black one I guess... I rarely use the presets cause they're ugly af.

Favorite EA hair?

The one from Island Paradise, the updo with strands framing the face.

Favorite life stage?

Young Adult or teens. I like teens more when I make mischievous bastards.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I can't build to save my life, but I love to decorate!! I'm mostly for the gameplay though (and making sims).

Are you a CC creator?

Yep! I'm new to this but I hope I'll keep getting better.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

Not yet, I'm still figuring out Tumblr in general, but I have some mutuals, I hope to become friends with 😊!

Do you have any sims merch?

Nah, I never found anything subtle enough, cause I don't do on the nose merch very often (except band tees).

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

I used to use an UNGODLY amount of cheats...mostly cause I was a kid, but I would make a pretty sim with loads of CC, then play for a few months with that one sim (mostly being a hoe) and get bored eventually. Nowadays I'm a big generational player and I can play with one family for several years. Just a couple months ago I finally finished playing with a family I started 4 years ago.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

@sim-songs, @twinsimming, @pixelfrogslegs, @aroundthesims, @bioniczombie, @nectar-cellar, @nightospheresims, @rollo-rolls, @faerielandsims.

How long have you had Simblr?

Literally not even a month, but I felt instantly welcomed to this amazing community!!

How do you edit your pictures?

I use Procreate and then PicsArt on my iPad.

What expansion/gamepack is your favorite?

I just play TS3 nowadays so for that I will say Generations for sure!! I also can't live without University and Seasons. They are my big three.

I don’t know who to tag tbh... I feel like most of my mutuals already did that plus I'm new here so I'm kinda shy but let's say that I tag anyone that is interested in doing this and hadn't been tagged. Like you can say I tagged you!!

[wholemleko]

updates ig???

(reposted from my deviantart)

so i guess this is like. my plans for the future or at least where i feel like im at when it comes to comics and such.

tl;dr - bird of death is my main project now and everything else is in uncertain limbo

details under the cut:

first thing is just, the state of my projects. bird of death, which im posting now, has completely taken over my brain and its something i enjoy working on much more because its part of a bigger project that im working on with a group of 6 other people and ultimately i think art is a social thing for me. at this point ive also got a 115+ page buffer which ive never even come close to before, so i feel very much at ease about being able to put it out into the world without the months long hiatuses ive gone on with my other comics. plus, it has elements in it that are largely influenced by ideas from my previous projects which i guess leads me to my next point...

which is that im growing burnt out of my older comics. i had for a long time. i occasionally experience moments where i really love my old stories again and give myself the impression that im ready to get back into them, but then it always ends up being temporary and fizzling out again just a week or so later. like venturing. i spent years working on it and theres so much left of the story for me to tell, things that i am still excited to show. but at the same time, its a story i started when i was 16 and i guess this happens to a lot of creators, but my writing style is so different now and when i look back at it i cringe. theres also the factor that felix is almost like an undercooked version of my protagonist in bird of death (for reasons that have only vaguely been revealed). so when i think about writing his story it just feels like. he's the same guy but more poorly put together by a younger me.

this same thing goes for another comic project that ive never shared publicly but which ive been working on for just as long as ive been working on venturing. its actually the story im using for my final project for my degree lmao. the characters in it that im most invested in feel like early drafts for characters from bird of death... the catharsis of writing them has moved to this new story. my old projects just feel like early drafts of this new one but wearing different clothes. they are all born of the same train of thought.

then theres the matter of my fancomics. children of decay is so early on and undercooked that i barely have anything to say about it except that i still love the idea of having a warriors comic, but man i am just not invested in it the way i am with bird of death. (also the fact their titles are so similar... feels silly lol).

my moomin fancomics are a whole other matter... im not the writer for them, and theres still a ton of content that i wanted to cover. im still only in the first chapter of blackthorn tree, and i wanted to adapt 4 more fics afterwards. they are stories that i love, and which continue to be very dear to me, but the inspiration that gave me is, again, now being channeled into my newest project. i guess that makes sense, given that my protagonist was originally made to be a moomin oc. ive also felt increasingly disconnected from the moomin fandom, not because i like the series itself any less, but the fandom landscape is just very different from what it was. another factor is that i did actually have the rest of chapter 1 almost finished, but i lost all those files when my old ipad got fried and this really bummed me out, just a further discouragement.

putting all these things on the backburner feels bad. i dont like saying that i dont know when or even if i will come back to certain projects. i know lots of people enjoyed what i was making, especially venturing and the moomin comics. but i just cant find it in myself to commit to them again now that this new project has pretty much overtaken me, and i dont know if that commitment will ever come back. this isnt to say that i am putting an end to any of them or that im quitting them. just that they are not the thing i am committed to, and i am putting them into uncertain limbo. it feels smarter to concentrate my energy on a project i am much more devoted to now, which is very developed, and which i am making alongside other people who are also very devoted to the greater project.

if u got this far thanks for reading, and thanks to all those who've supported me over the years in my creative endeavors

[steakout-05]

[outdated] archiving every single one of Barry's death screen quotes from Monster Dash: a rope of sand

so back when Monster Dash was first released in 2010, Barry had a handful of quotes he would say on the menu screen after he dies. when Monster Dash got updated a while later before being taken down completely, these quotes disappeared from the game and ended up being barely archived, so i thought i'd save every one i could find so they wouldn't fall into obscurity.

i found all these by sifting through decade-old videos recorded on bandicam or by some kid with a camera pointed shakily at the screen so i apologise for the quality being inconsistent and dodgy

first image id: "Note to self: Next time there is a wall, don't jump into it!"

second image id: "Agghh walls. My only weakness."

these were used for when Barry died by running into a wall and falling into the endless void :3 these were also the most common that i kept finding because slamming into walls was very common in the videos i sorted through,, i understand its ok

image ids: "That [enemy] is just angry because no one will ever love him. Or her. Or whatever it is." (this quote switches out the name of the enemy depending on which one Barry got killed by, which is either a zombie, a mummy, a yeti, a vampire or a demon)

damn Barry going off!! this is one of the meanest things he has ever said to anyone ever and i think that is incredibly funny, jesus Barry

first image id: "Damn you spikes hiding cleverly in plain sight!"

second image id: "Who designed this place and thought spikes everywhere would be a good idea?"

these were used for when Barry died to spikes,,, not much else to say other than that i find these to be very charming and funny

first image id: "Why couldn't I die wearing a cool hat?"

second image id: "That fortune teller sucks! There are no sharks with lasers involved in my demise!"

third image id: "Dying is as fun as a bag of jellyfish!"

these are some miscellaneous ones that show up randomly regardless of how Barry kicks the bucket, i like them a lot and they were some of the more rare quotes i found :D

first image id: "At least I died with dignity... And my pants!"

second image id: "It's time to start a re-run!"

third image id: "I hope I come back as a zombie."

that first quote i literally could only find in like 2 videos, it's apparently pretty rare! i apologise for the fact that it was recorded off some dude's ancient iPad, the only other screenshot i have of it is in an even worse quality taken half a metre away from someone's computer screen...

first image id: "I hope Death is ready to rock-off the top bunk!"

second image id: Why am I the cat with only one life?"

third image id: "When you die can you take your weapons with you?"

more miscellaneous quotes... not much else really

image id: "You win this round, [enemy]s. Next time we meet, you won't be so lucky." (another quote that switches out the name of the enemy Barry dies to. the image here says he died to vampires.)

and finally, a monster-death specific quote to end on :) if anyone knows about any more quotes i might have missed feel free to reply with them and i'll try to find a video or an image of them. i think i got all of them though,,, i hope so....

[fire-emblem-poll]

My personal game recommendation!

Note: some of these games I have not finished and they aren’t in a particular order!

#1 My Time at Sandrock

It’s a game set in the desert in a post apocalyptic world! You as a builder help the people in the town and uncover the secrets.

Plus you can marry others in the town, personally I have yet to marry anyone but I’m working on it with Fang, Unsuur, and Logan (still haven’t decided)

I haven’t finished this game I’m currently stuck on the rat queen battle.

Where I play it: Switch (like most games on this list)

#2 Unpacking

I mostly got this game because it was on sale, and let me tell you it’s such a comfort game for me!

Whenever I need to wind down for bed I put this on and play for a level or two! It’s helped me with my anxiety as well!

Where I play it: Switch

#3 Persona 3-5

Now I have yet to play Reload so don’t spoil anything for me! I got into Persona 5 Royal first, due to a friend lending me their copy. To put it lightly I couldn’t put it down! I really like Yusuke!

Persona 3 is special to me, it honestly made me think on every action I took. Especially with Shinjiro, my favorite persona character, i can’t wait to play Reload when I can!

Persona 4 is a mixed bag for me. I haven’t finished it yet and I don’t think I’m going to. I do like Kanji!

Where I played: Switch

#4 Hades

Pretty simple premise: Escape from the underworld to see your mother. And get powerful through every play through.

I’m currently still playing Hades a bit! Though this game does hold some sentimental value in my heart since it was one of the two games that helped me get with my boyfriend. I have escaped twice and like most Hades fans I really really like Thanatos, I even have a charm of him on my bookbag!

Where I play: Switch

#5 Honkai Star Rail

You discover secrets of the express and the worlds you go to!

I don’t play this a ton anymore, I mostly just do my login stuff and some other housekeeping things. But I do enjoy it!

My current team is: Sampo, Gepard, Loucha, and Dr Ratio. Though Lunae gets swapped in sometimes.

Where I play: IPad

#6 Mortal Kombat 1

I’ll be real I have yet to beat the story mode but I’m close! I’m someone who got the worse copy from playing on Switch, which I regret every day.

My current main is Johnny Cage and Kenshi but I’m trying to learn Syzoth since I like his play style! I’m too scared of actual people to do online stuff.

Where I play: Switch (sadly)

#6 Story of Seasons

So this is technically three games, I haven’t played the DS one.

Basically you just farm and gather materials to make your town better or just make friends! You can get married as well. I got married to Doctor (FoMT), Iori (PoOT), and Matthew (AWL).

I actually got my boyfriend into these games! It’s really fun! These games were kinda how I found my niche with games!

Where I play: Switch

#7 South Park: Fractured But Whole

I’m not even gonna explain this story it’s so fuckin weird. But it was my introduction to South Park! It’s really fun and the battle mechanics remind me of FE. And it’s super inclusive while still being South Park.

I’ve completed two play throughs of this but I will warn you. For switch the loading times are a bit longer! This is basically 15 year old me’s nostalgia.

Where I played: Switch

(I ofc have played other games but I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you to play AC:NH, Cult of the Lamb, or Ace Attorney)

Also don’t let other people tell you what you can or can’t post. Also if you tell people to only post certain things: Fuck you genuinely.

[bigjimbopickens]

Hi! I wanna say I love your art first of all! I just read the message under your last post about Kevin’s art video and you said you’re mostly self taught - I’m curious about how you get into that? I’d love to learn to draw but have no idea where to start!

Sorry for getting back to this so late I am not as active on Tumblr. And yes, I am mostly self-taught because of my circumstances growing up. To those who don't know, I am SnowfallWarning/Big Jimbo and I am currently an animation student. I do 2D animation, concept art and character design and I graduate this year (hopefully). I am disabled both physically and mentally which is why I mostly do digital art. I have a coordination disorder (dyspraxia) and am blind in one eye but that doesn't stop me. For my entire childhood I was discouraged from drawing as I apparently wouldn't go anywhere with it or that I was terrible. Where I lived most of my life had no opportunities for someone like me so I had to leave to continue pursuing art. Because of the poor access, the only things I had was notebooks, school supplies and an old iPad mini to draw with growing up. I learned everything I currently know now from using those. I don't know what got me into drawing still, may have been Warrior Cats and dinosaurs. Like what Jose said in Kevin's video, art comes from the soul. It is human expression and we've always been doing it. Anyone can be an artist and we all start somewhere, trust me. Here's some stuff I usually tell people because I do get asked this often (I'm also not the best teacher): 1: Experiment. Find what works for you. Be messy with it, not every piece needs to be perfect. If you are a digital artist then also trying different programs can be helpful too. Maybe you're better at drawing landscapes, characters or abominations that defy God. 2: Use references if necessary. Not sure why for a while it was considered "cheating" to use references. Everyone in the industry uses references, I would know. If you also want, you can try tutorials but I found I learn more from references. 3: Take inspiration. I'm always adding things I see in other people's art to my own style if I like it. Though try not to copy them. 4: Tracing. I believe tracing is okay for learning purposes. It's how I learned to draw humans after doing exclusively furry art for years tbh. I tend to stick to real-life references for this, this is a great site for practice: https://line-of-action.com (if you're not okay with nudity then do remember to turn that off). "But where do I even start?" Grab a piece of paper and pencil (or open a blank canvas on a digital art program if you prefer that) and just start doodling whatever. If you have an idea then go for that as well. Every class I've had in college so far has started with drawing and rendering a bunch of shapes to see where everyone was at and to get a feel of our styles. So maybe try that too. Draw random shapes with different materials/brushes, colour them in and add details like shadows and highlights. I know it seems ridiculous but I do it every once in a while to experiment and try different methods. You probably won't improve overnight. Hell, it took me 7 years to get to where I currently am. A lot of people quit because they think they're not good enough when pretty much every artist is only proud of about 10% of their work. Definitely the case for me. Not every piece is going to be a masterpiece and the imperfections can be what makes it special, so please don't be so hard on yourself. Don't be discouraged because other artists may be better than you either, they've probably been doing it for longer. So please, if you are dedicated enough, keep trying. I'm sure you will get somewhere :) So basically, - Use whatever material you got and draw what comes to mind, even if it's terrible it is a great start. - Experiment with your style and/or materials. - Reference, take inspiration and trace for memory. - Don't give up but do take breaks to avoid burnout. - Try not to be intimidated by other artists, we also don't really know what we're doing tbh (and just as afraid of you as you are of us).

I hope that all made sense and was somewhat helpful :)

[alexhornefan]

In Conversation with Alex Horne

Hello Alex! First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us ahead of the Horne Section’s tour and the release of Taskmaster Champion of Champions.

You studied Classics at Cambridge University, did you know straight away that comedy was what you wanted to do, or did you have an alternative career path in mind?

I’m still not sure it’s what I want to do – I’m going on a wood carving course next year – in fact, I don’t think you ever really need to be sure. After Cambridge I did a postgraduate Broadcast Journalism course at Goldsmiths. At that point I was pretty sure I wanted to be a journalist… Comedy should happen by accident, I think, not a career decision.

How did you get onto the comedy scene?

I always liked comedy and thought there was a chance I might be funny when I made my family laugh on a car journey to Taunton in 1987. At school I made two guys laugh just before my A-levels. So whilst at university I did a couple of spots at the Footlights open mic nights then booked 5 minutes in a new acts club in London. When I got three laughs there, I was hooked. I booked more spots, eventually bagged an agent who made sure I got paid (often double figures) for future spots, and just 12 years later, I was a full time comedian.

Did you/ have you ever suffered from stage fright and, if so, how did you overcome it?

I did the semi-final of So You Think You’re Funny in 1999 and was so nervous I vomited twenty seconds before going on stage. It was such a bad way to start a gig, I never did it again. Gradually the fright subsides. Now I see the stage as my safe place. You’ve just got to keep on doing it.

You obviously started out as a stand-up comic; did the formation of the Horne Section seem like a natural progression or was it the result of a sudden epiphany that this type of music and comedy would work well together on stage?

It was, like most things, luck. Stand up was going ok. Their jazz careers were going ok. We booked a slot at the Fringe for a laugh and bang! It worked immediately and we’ve not looked back. So, no plan, but the willingness to do something different and potentially awful and embarrassing.

How much of the show is scripted and how much is improvised?

A very hefty chunk is improvised. It’s crucial to the show; if we are having a good time, the audience, we hope, will have a good time. So every night I make the band do things that they’ve never done before with no warning. I think it’s clear from the performance that these bits aren’t rehearsed, but if not, people must think it’s a very strange show.

Do you prefer collaborating and touring with other people as opposed to on your own? Do you have a solo tour planned for the future?

Good question – right now, I’m only performing with the band. It’s always fun; if it goes well we share the fun, if it goes badly, we share the pain. But one day I’m sure I’ll do something else by myself. It can be lonely though. But equally, getting five musicians to the same place at the same time can be a nightmare. So it’s that age-old choice, have a nightmare or be lonely?

I have to ask about Taskmaster because, and I think I speak for everyone, it is the highlight of the televisual year. Why do you think Taskmaster has been such a hit and how long do you foresee the format lasting for?

Ah, that’s very kind. Thank you. Personally, it’s just a lot of fun to make because we are asking great comedians to do silly things, without any prep or pressure (except for the pressure of the game, obviously). The tasks themselves come from a comedian’s brain so the contestants trust that they won’t be compromised, and then everything else comes from them; we get to see what these funny brains come up with, it’s all real, and the competitiveness is genuine. That, I realise, is a sprawling answer. The other thing is that Greg Davies is a very, very funny man and it’s an honour and a pleasure to sit next to him with my little iPad.

Do you have a favourite task that you’ve set for the contestants?

“Impress this Mayor. You have twenty minutes. Your time starts now.” I love that task and I love that mayor and I love that Joe Wilkinson brought him 42 Calippos and 8 cans of strong lager.

There is going to be a US version of Taskmaster, so is there a noticeable difference between the ways that the British comics compared to the US comics approach the tasks?

There really isn’t, which was a massive relief. It’s still the same principle; five funny people doing their best to do pointless but doable things. Sometimes they were brilliant, often they were idiotic, always, I hope, they were entertaining.

Source

[realhusbandexperience]

Part 1 (Introduction)

 The summer of 2023 was the year my life changed forever, but before I get into specifics, I want to write a bit about myself to add more context. I was born and raised in Cuba. I came to the US when I was 19 and I am currently living in New York. At the time of writing this I am 33 years old, 6’2, dark hair. I go to the gym religiously minimum 5 times a week. I consider myself a handsome guy, getting girls has never been a problem for me. Despite that, I have never been the type of guy to sleep around a lot. I came to the US in 2010, and I immediately got into a relationship that lasted around 6 years. We had what you can call a “normal” relationship, and we were both going to college during most of that time. In 2016 we split up; it was not a difficult break up. I want to say we were both very mature about the situation. I think today looking back, I understand more why things happened the way they did. Let me explain, I have never been a very sexual person. That’s also the reason I have never been the type to sleep around with different women. At the time, when we broke up, she mentioned wanting more. I thought she meant in life, maybe she wanted to move out of New York. Maybe she wanted to party more since most of our college years all we did was study. It wasn’t until 2023 that I got to understand what she really meant. This will make more sense once I get into the real reason why I am writing this.  

Two years after my breakup my best friend who we will call “Kathy” (I am changing everyone’s name) told me that her cousin “Ashley” found me attractive. I knew who she was but despite being my best friend’s cousin we were never in the same circle and she’s 3 years younger than us. I was also in a relationship and for the 2 years I was single Kathy knew very well I was not looking for anything. At the time, I did not think much about it because I never thought it would go anywhere anyways. In order to get the story going I will conclude by saying that not only did we connect at a level I never thought we would, but 2 years later Ashley and I got married.  

I want to write a little about our marriage so far. Ashley is a nurse in a hospital and her shift would change every week. I work from 7AM to 3PM Monday to Friday. It doesn’t matter what shift Ashley worked the day before, she always gets up with me at 5 am, makes me breakfast and gives me a kiss before I leave for work. We are a team, and I could not be happier with the way our relationship is. I always thought we had pretty good communication so, in my mind I didn’t think she would hold anything back. Not only did I always see her as my wife but also as my best friend.  

Summer of 2023 came, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the end of June when I started noticing some weird stuff around the house. I am a very anal person so if something is out of place or seems different, I am quick to notice. First, it was the toilet, you know when a man pees sometimes it splashes around, and it leaves marks? I am the type of person to clean it every single time! Then why am I finding it that way when I come from work? I know it sounds small and there were other little things but that was the one thing that bothered me the most. It drove me so crazy that I started having doubts. The normal move to make would’ve been talking to Ashley but instead, I installed spy cameras all over the house. Trust me when I say I am not proud of it but the intrigued was killing me and I wanted to be so wrong about what I could potentially see on it.  

I installed the cameras on a Monday while she was at work and Tuesday morning, I was sitting in my office with my iPad next to the two screens I use for work checking every movement. A part of me was feeling so guilty watching my wife at home having no idea of all the cameras but I needed to know. I remember being so nervous leaving the house that morning knowing I was about to spy on her. Depending on her shift, she always goes back to sleep for a few more hours. It wasn’t until around 9:30am that she got up again and started doing what every normal person does after waking up. Watching her stepping out of the shower and then putting on her panties made me think about how I don’t compliment her figure enough. Ashley is 5’7 and just like me, she takes good care of her body. I love everything about her. She has a toned and athletic physic with a slender waist and well-defined curves. Her breast is exactly the way I like them in a woman, not big and not too small. They stay right where they need to be, hence the reason why she rarely wears a bra. Her father is from Dominican Republic and her mother is from Medellin, Colombia so, she inherited that brownish skin color like she has a tan 24/7 and that beautiful seductive face that many Colombian women have. If you Google Vanessa Christine, she’s a model my wife follows on Instagram (@vanessachristine), then you will have a good idea how Ashley looks like, except I might be biased but my wife is 10 times prettier. After stepping out of the bathroom she proceeded to walk half naked to the kitchen and began to make a cup of coffee. While waiting for it to be ready, I see she’s on her phone while her other hand went very slowly under her panties. The quality of the video wasn’t 4K resolution, but it was good enough for me to see her biting her lips while looking at whatever was making her do that on her phone. That alone wasn’t that bad, I know this might shock whoever reads this but no, I don’t watch porn. I never cared about it and as I mentioned before, I was never a very sexual person to begin with. With that being said, it’s not like I was going to break up a marriage because she might have been watching a dirty video and touching herself?  

That alone was still not explaining all the other weird stuff I was finding in the house. Then around 10:40AM I saw her walking towards the door still half naked. I had no idea if anyone had rung the bell but I had no audio on the cameras so I couldn’t hear. She opened the door and at that point I couldn’t even describe what I was feeling. A man I did not know came into the house while my wife was only wearing panties and at that point, I didn’t need more prove but I was so in shock that I couldn’t take my eyes away from the iPad. They started kissing in the Livingroom and I can see my wife putting his pants down and kneeling in front of him. In a way, it was like watching a totally different person grabbing his cock and slapping her face with it, spitting on it and getting very dirty. I lost the sense of time while I was observing what at the moment, I was hoping was a nightmare. Then he grabbed her and sat her on the couch, opened her legs and started eating her out. From that angle I was only able to see her face enjoying it while one hand was on his head and the other was touching her boobs. That went on for a lot longer than I was expecting it to go and when I finally snaped out of being in shock for who knows how many minutes, then my brain finally started to process everything. I was so hurt, but that day I also started to understand something. The relationship with my wife was perfect in my eyes but, I began to realize why putting more effort on the sexual part is important. I finally understood what my ex-girlfriend meant by “wanting more”. Everything my wife was doing there with that man is exactly the opposite I do during sex. I was being very honest to myself. I was very boring in bed, we never did anything crazy or risky. I barely even like to kiss in public let alone do something else. I was assuming responsibility for what at the moment I thought was a failed marriage. My heart was broken in a million pieces, but I was also mature enough to understand that I was not giving her the passion this strange man was giving Ashley. I even remember thinking, all these years together, and I think I can count the number of times I’ve gone down on her. I still had to get up from that chair and run towards the bathroom to throw up. I was so devastated watching that man getting up after eating her out and brushing her pussy with his cock getting ready to put it in. They started having sex and I couldn’t hold my tears back any longer. I had to look away but a part of me still wanted to wait until the end. I wanted to see how long he was staying in my house and to my surprise, I saw him cumming in my wife’s stomach then he used the bathroom while my wife laid in the couch fully naked. He got dressed, gave her a kiss and left.  

I am not saying that made me feel better because at that very moment only waking up from this nightmare would’ve made me feel some type of relief. But the positive of it all, if any, was to see zero intimacy. I couldn’t hear a thing, but he didn’t stay to cuddle, it didn’t look like he was there for more than just sex. I saw a different side of my wife that day, and I wanted to be so impulsive. I wanted to leave work and confront her and maybe that has been my problem so far, I was never that type of person. My heart was racing, and I was still crying but I tried to calm myself down so I could approach the situation more thoughtfully. There was no way I was going to start that conversation through messages or a phone call. At the end, I got home, and I don’t know how, but I did my best to act like I was fine. She did notice I was not the usual self, but I gave her the “I’m not feeling well excuse” She had to leave for work soon that’s why I had decided to postpone the conversation for another day. I was also trying to decide whether I wanted to mention the hidden cameras or not. 

[blahandwhatever]

The latest alignment of the stars has been one seemingly in favor of one last hurrah (GOD let it be the last - but I know I can’t count on anything in this freelance life) for hunger and want. The Pinecone Research studies I was getting twice a week for a while - a reliable source of some grocery money even when I otherwise had nothing else - have run dry, missing for about two weeks now. I got a small project from a small job that usually pays within a day of project completion and worked hard to get it done by Tuesday, but I guess there are delays due to holiday and/or summer schedules, and then of course tomorrow’s a fucking holiday, so there is no hope until Friday, when I get paid by my main job anyway.

Thankfully, for the most part, I was pretty well stocked up on things from my last major grocery trips, so I didn’t feel it too hard for a while. But eventually, things began to dwindle. Out of bar soap, then out of a less preferred but okay liquid hand soap, now using another, kind of old and slightly irritating hand soap. Out of mouthwash, which is a first and kind of uncomfortable (and fucking Target stopped selling the cheap store-brand one I used to buy except in the largest, most unwieldy sizes. they stopped selling their 99-cent toilet paper too - and the Target Circle rewards program, where I used to automatically earn rewards on every purchase and now never do, has gone down the toilet. it’s the first time in my many years of shopping at this store that I feel deeply disappointed in it).

By today I was on my last piece of fruit, out of beans and vegetables, out of Kind bars and chocolate, out of eggs, out of dinner foods except ramen and I’d just had ramen for dinner yesterday, out of bottled water (I swear I feel a little ill whenever I rely too much on my Zerowater. is there something Wrong with it.), almost out of coffee and tea.

And, shopping list ready, I eagerly awaited the pay for my project. And it didn’t come. And it wasn’t a possibility I was entirely unprepared for. So I turned back to the only source of immediate (if paltry) cash I had: good old Survey Junkie. And I made my little $5, and I bought a few things (maybe tomorrow I’ll make another).

And I gamed the system a little by downloading the Bibibop Rewards app for the second time, this time on my iPad, with all new info - including a new phone number created in Google Voice - so I could get another free bowl, which, to be safe, I also ordered from a different location. And I succeeded, and it saved me. (And I do legit like it, for the chain that it is. Much less disappointing than the poke bowl chains. It’s not the same type of tasty as the bibimbap bowl from Hakuya, or the same level as the holy grail from Chungkiwa - where I still haven’t been since the first time - but I like the customizability and how vegetable-heavy I can make it, and the specific type of experience that provides that is good in its own right. The rice isn’t delicious like it is at the other places, so it’s not even worth using much of.)

And then there’s just tomorrow, and then it’s beautiful, beautiful Friday.