#need me some giant print versions...

[dy3rs3v3]

Lee Jeffries and his amazing portrait work with Metallica for their 72 Seasons album artwork, 2023

[kekaki-cupcakes]

hello!! Hope you’re doing well!!

could you please do a Leo x mortal reader cafe au like the Connor stoll one? And could the reader be a Greek mythology nerd also please have a little brother who she’ll randomly quiz about the Olympian gods?

have a nice day 😚😚

heyyy i didn't get your whole request in but i got the vibe dw and also kind of made a moodpboard for it cause I loved the whole aesthetic and no one requests mood boards <3 LISTEN TO EXPRESSO BY SABRINA!

Leo Valdez x Reader--- cafe au

»»————-　★　————-««

“Hello,” you said, looking up from your screen for a millisecond, “what can I get you today?”

When whoever it was ordering didn’t respond, you raised an eyebrow, hand hovering over the digital menu. The boy frowned at the screen above your head where it listed all the different drinks. He had the nicest brown curls, you noticed, and looked back down before he caught you staring. 

He tapped his fingers quickly on the counter. Sabrina Carpenter's new song was playing over the cafe speakers. It sounded like summer.

“How many espresso shots are you legally allowed to put in one drink?” The boy asked with a crackly voice. He had dark smudges under his eyes. And on his hands. Huh. You really needed a camera to look into at times like this, for comedic effect. Like the office.

“About six,” you said, dropping your customer service voice with a shrug, and opened up a new order on the tablet, your bracelets jingling. “What can I get you today?” 

You loved your bracelets. Some were from that second hand store down the street full of goths and grandmas where you’d bought yet another version of the Odyssey yesterday, and the rest were from your little brother. 

You never admitted it to anyone, but he’d made them based on all your favorite Greek gods. The ones you were wearing today had pomegranate seed charms and antler horn patterns.  

His eyes widened considerably. They were brown. And sparkly. “What happened to your voice?”

You squinted at him. Someone else came into the cafe with three little dogs stuffed into their giant handbag. 

“That was my customer service voice.” Your brain was finally receiving enrichment in messing with this cute greasy boy. You put it on again, paired with a fake smile. “What can I get for you today?” 

He chuckled, and hitched a giant canvas tote bag over his shoulder. There was a giant inked cat with butterfly wings on it, and a long metal pipe sticking out the back. You had a feeling this boy would steal your name if he got ahold of it, or trap you in a ring of flowers deep in a forest.

“Uh,” he trailed off, and then winked, scrunching up his entire face. “Surprise me.”

You blinked at him. How entirely helpful. You watched him pull an entire fucking old fashioned pocketwatch out of his pocket to check the time. 

Medium was the most commonly ordered size of drink, so you selected that, and then a caramel latte with whipped cream. You had that knack that every person in your generation seemed to have been born with. 

Selecting random objects and flavors to match someone’s vibe precisely. You just happened to be a barista. 

For instance, this talkative sleep deprived boy was rocky road slices with peanuts in them, and torn open sugar packets, and caramel. Your coworker, Lou Ellen, who was wiping down tables behind the handbag dog man, was those butterfly shaped ice-cubes and home brewed black coffee from a saucepan and dragon fruit juices.                            And that thick book on Greek mythology she’d bought you for your birthday last year [she’d nicked it from the library and peeled the sticker off]. 

“Four dollars and sixty cents,” you said patronizingly, in your customer service voice. He grinned like you had just invented the funniest inside joke ever, and handed over five dollars in fifty cents coins.

“Keep the change.”

You printed out the receipt and reached for a medium sized cup and the ballpoint pen from a uni campus open day, after pocketing the generous tip of forty cents and a paperclip. 

What a gentleman. “Name?” 

“Leo Valdez, super sized Mcshizzle, bad boy supreme,” Leo Valdez super sized Mcshizzle bad boy supreme said happily, as one of the handbag dogs escaped the bag and started chewing on his laces. 

You desperately needed that camera to look into now. You should be the star of a sitcom at this point, with you as the tired main character dealing with silly customers while desperately longing to go home and read your books, Lou Ellen as the hilarious trashy best friend, Will [your coworker who was currently taking out the trash] as the angry bisexual lumped with the night shift crew, and your little brother, who would pop in at random times in each episode to deliver the punchline.  

Instead of letting the credits roll, unfortunately, you scribbled out an unintelligible scrawl to represent the complete nonsense you were supposed to instead. Your smile was strained this time. “I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Leo [you assumed that was his name] beamed. “Thanks!”

It was only as you frothed the milk and tried not to burn your fingertips on the spout did you realize that the song was still going. Lou must’ve looped it, as she did with every song ever until she got sick of it and hated it. 

You nodded your head and tipped the bubbling milk into the cup, reaching for the tube of caramel sauce. “Soft skin and I perfumed it for ya, I know I Mountain Dew it for ya.” 

“That morning coffee, brewed it for ya.” You rolled your eyes to no one and tipped the extra caramel sauce into it. It was ten o'clock at night, and your shift had just started. Morning coffees meant college students rushing in at two a.m. so they could finish their projects. 

You shook up the whipped cream. “One touch and I brand-newed it for ya.” 

One of the most satisfying parts of your job, apart from spinning around and introducing yourself as the manager [you are not the manager] when someone demands to see the manager [who comes in once a month, looks around, and leaves again], is the whipped cream. The sound of it and the little pattern it makes just itches a scratch. 

You smile as you finish the swirl, which sinks into the cup of espresso shots and caramel milk. You spin around, “now he’s thinkin’ ‘bout me every night, oh…”   

“Is it that sweet? I guess so,” you hum under your breath, and ducking the spray bottle Lou Ellen launches over your head, you stick a straw in the cup and walk to the bench, where Will’s serving the man with three purse dogs a jelly donut. 

Leo’s digging through his bag while you wait, not bothering to rush him and leave the 24/7 rip off starbucks diner empty. 

You pick up the pen and take the lid off with your teeth, doodling a little cat on the blank bit of the cup. The tail comes out all wrong, and one of the whiskers slides halfway around on the plastic with a scratchy sound. 

You add rushed fairy wings to its soft looking back, and hand the cup over as Sabrina Carpenter sings about being a singer. Her voice is so pretty. Like caramel. “There you go.”

Leo grinned at you, and while you watched in absolute horror, proceeded to pour an entire monster energy drink he’d pulled from his tote bag into the perfectly made coffee. 

“Excuse me?” you whisper shrieked. 

He blinked at you owlishly, and you tried not to notice how warm his eyes looked in the vintage yellow lights of the shop that made everything seem seventies. “What?”

“That’s enough caffeine and chemicals to give a water buffalo a heart attack,” you said, pointing at his awful concoction. It started to fizz. You wondered if the building had chemical reaction insurance.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Leo shrugged, and picked up his cup happily. He looked down at it, and a grin split across his face. “I got a drawing!”

»»————-　★　————-««

It was only a few days later when the bell rattled quietly by the door and you looked up to see Leo and smiled despite yourself, fingers tapping on the cup in your hand, wear the ring you’d made from that paperclip sat, did you realize what role he would play in your heart shaped ice-cubes Sabrina Carpenter soundtracked paperback books late night set ballpoint pen sitcom.

The love interest. 

»»————-　★　————-««

[sadesluvr]

Ethan Landry + Chad Meeks Martin - Romantic Blurbs (SFW)

A/N: These do contain links to a NSFW (18+ only) version! Enjoy :)

Ethan who’s shy at first - He’s dreamed of being in a relationship, and now that it’s here he’s kind of insecure. What if he’s not enough? What if he can’t kiss? The thoughts plague his mind, and they’re only soothed by your gentle touch.

Ethan who wants to make the first date perfect, pacing nervously around his room as he fidgets with his clothing. He’s bought you flowers, and he hopes they don’t wilt on the way over.

Ethan who shows up an hour early because he’s so nervous…

Ethan who walks with you hand in hand around the block; silently admiring you as he does. Your hair, your smile, your scent…It’s all perfect.

Ethan who basically becomes your puppy; following you around campus. The gang always makes fun of how he is around you, forever worrying about where you are.

Ethan who loves study dates; at the apartment, the library, outside - wherever, always bringing you a snack or your favourite drink…

Ethan who teases you when you find things hard: “It’s not that difficult, let me show you. You’re being dramatic!”

Ethan who melts when you call him a dork (especially if you’re in the nerd/popular girl trope)

Ethan who’s so proud to tell you all the nerd lore. Bonus points if you know it and debate fan theories…

Ethan who loves nothing more than to cuddle with you, grinning to himself as you fall asleep in his chest. He wouldn’t call himself a dreamer, but he can’t help but vision a future with you.

NSFW

Chad who’s a pretty confident guy until it comes to you. For some reason, you feel out of his league and he just can’t talk to you.

Chad who’s quietly protective of you, even before you’re in a relationship. Mindy jokes that he always wants to know your gossip - who you’re dating in particular - and is quick to defend you from anyone who might cast judgement.

Chad who starts off with the small things, like saying ‘Hi’ to you in the hallway. Your smile is the only bit of confidence he needs for him to become a total flirt. It’s a complete 180.

Chad who always makes excuses for you to hang out together - parties, study sessions, movie nights. He just ‘likes’ being around you.

Chad who falls hard - Every song, every movie, everything becomes about you. Mindy teases him about it 24/7.

Chad who plans the best dates for you. They’re usually fun and spontaneous, like roller skating, theme parks, laser tag and sports games. He’s saving something quieter and intimate for when the two of you finally decide to be physical.

Chad who shows off at carnival fairs, flexing his muscles whilst he throws basketballs to win you the biggest toys. His heart swells when you walk around with a giant teddy in your arm, it tells everyone you’re his. Most importantly, you’re happy.

Chad who is a sucker for photo booths. He keeps a printed photo of you in his case, and as his screensaver. Silly, serious or just plain in love; there’s a photo of the two of you for every occasion.

Chad who loves cuddling you. He’s a big guy, and making you feel special and delicate is his priority.

Chad who’s practically loaned his clothes to you, especially his sports jacket. It’s cliché, but seeing you in his hoodies simultaneously makes him love you more and turns him on ;)

NSFW

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Trigun Vol.1, Chapter #03

previous | all | next

More Trigun annotations! I'm doing a deep-read of the Japanese original print (reread) and Overhaul 1.0 (first read) side-by-side, and writing down everything I notice from small details, version differences, translation differences, etc. (and being so so gay about the characters. of course)

As always, here are the non-analysis panels of my dear babygirl (+ memes)...

And the rest is under the cut. i am living in ur brain now <3

[link for if the images aren’t in horizontal rows]

Starting off with the chapter cover of our handsome boy, this is the first time we see him with his glasses! I've seen someone on Twitter make a guide on Vash's different glasses designs over the manga (sadly it either cost money or was only distributed at a con and I don't have it...), so I'll try to pay attention to that during this readthrough.

As I've mentioned in the previous chapter, his antennae used to stand straight up, but they're bent now! They pop back up once in a while but from here on, the default is bent.

I love how gently he sets the girl down, and also the way everyone waits in awkward silence (and confusion) for Vash to move the rubble.

I think this part works excellently as-is, but notes on the nuances of what Nebraska originally said (this was ridiculously hard and the translation is very rough):

①「絶対どこかで不都合を並べた奴を消して来てるのさ」 ②「なぜなら」 ③「現におまえは消される側にまわってねえ……！！」 ↓ ① There has to have been a time when you "eliminated" ("erased"/killed) someone that got in your way (/someone unfortunate enough to [be there]...etc). ② Because... ③ In reality, you haven't taken on the role ("side") of being eliminated...!!

This part's very hard... He's talking about something similar to offense/defense. In this case, it's that because Vash has been avoiding conflict/being in direct danger entirely, Nebraska is saying that Vash must have killed, directly or indirectly, someone who got in the way of Vash's fleeing. I think.

I'm not sure why, but the way this was phrased stuck out to me.

Also, Gofsef's fist had an extra knuckle for one panel.

A translation error - it should be something like "He shot every bullet into the same precise spot... And shifted its trajectory!?"

Vash says "JACKPOT!" in English here, in the Japanese version. also hes soooo handsomeeeeee look at him omgggg kicking my legs back n forth blushing giggling i need to be tranquilized.

Nebraska's straight-up being crushed into pieces here. goddamn.

Not sure if it was removed in one of the reprints or in Overhaul's cleanup process, but in my Japanese copy, there was a "thump" onomatopoea of the guy backing into a wall.

Milly and Meryl are the best comedy duo in the world... They're perfect... The tiny speech bubble actually says something like "They're goofing all over the place..." The word ボケ (boke) is the funny man in a manzai comedy duo (as opposed to the straight man), and/or the jokes that the person in that role makes.

YIPPEE!! (In Japanese, it's one continuous exclamation ↑ like so. Also, there are tiny music notes around the handwritten text in the wahoo speech bubble.)

Vash runs out of breath after celebrating (cleaned up in Overhaul). God he's so silly...

A small error - I would phrase Meryl's line as "[Now, now,] Don't get too ahead of yourself."

I love how in Japanese, Meryl calls Vash "a very dangerous person with chronic troublemaker disease (慢性トラブル症)." I'm saying this from now on.

She also sarcastically says that she's grateful of the stars' alignment that they were able to meet, while gorilla gripping Vash's hand.

Also, I never noticed how fucked up Nebraska's body was!? Maybe the memories just got rewritten by Stampede. but goddamn. gun for legs...giant mechanical hands...

Vash making a Kirby Ꙩ.Ꙩ face my beloved. just a little guy!! with some badass girls!!! The last line is 「…はい？」 which is like what??/huh??/alright?? etc. はい is a very versatile word ☝ lol

That's it for Chapter #03! As always, the Japanese annotations will be in the reblogs. I'll remember to write the post about Meryl's speech patterns sometime soon.

[hotwaterandmilk]

Just another one of those posts where I do a bit of a general update on a few things. This time opening with an edited scan of Maomao from Nekokurage's Kusuriya no Hitorigoto manga adaptation to get your attention. Boo!

I've been reading the Kusuriya no Hitorigoto light novels and enjoying them in the sense that I think preteen me would have liked them. I started reading the LNs earlier this year (as they're great for reading in waiting rooms and the like thanks to their short format) and I think the LNs are definitely my preferred version of the story. The anime has a nice OP theme but is fairly middling otherwise and I don't go much on the art in either mang adaptation (though Nekokurage's art has improved recently and Maomao looks less like a giant-headed baby doll in the Animate bonus cards per my scan above). Maomao is the real draw in all versions so obviously I preordered her Nendo the first moment I could — bring on May 2024!

Speaking of translated light novels you can buy right now, the first part of the Oguni no Koushaku Reijō wa Tekikoku nite Kakusei Suru light novel was just released as A Young Lady Finds Her True Calling Living with the Enemy Volume #1 by Cross Infinite World (see here). It's a solid story that doesn't overstay its welcome and Bertine's business acumen is just *chefs kiss* for those after a competent heroine.

Once the second and final part of this is out, I'd love to see Cross Infinite World pick up another short (but unrelated) PASH! Books publication, Shiitagerareta Shuusai Reijou to Ringoku no Haraguro Kenkyuusha-sama no Amayaka na Yakusou Jikkenshitsu. The web novel version was quite solid but I haven't read the printed version yet. Yeah I like science ladies, what can I say? It would be so good to keep seeing interesting titles for girls and women being picked up for English release because I tire of isekai villainess stories (which imho peaked years ago with Watashi no Oshi wa Akuyaku Reijou) and there are some great little tales out there that do things a bit differently & just need to be shown to the right audience.

I'm so excited for Metallic Rouge in early January! While it used to be that getting an original property from BONES was always exciting, it has been a while since they've created anything I've really cared about but I'm hoping this will break the drought. If a show has Izubuchi, Kawamoto, Yamada contributing then you know I've got to be there. Plus a couple of lady leads in a SF setting? Trailers with some great action and music? I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much but I'm keen to give it a shot. If it isn't for me at least I can say I've given it a chance, right?

I've been terrible at sharing the latest about this year's Silent Möbius anniversary, but I'm not a news blogger and frankly very few people care so eh y'know, whatever. BUT I figured I should say something about FAIRYTALE PARFUM releasing scents for the key members of AMP this month (though Mana has been totally forgotten, it seems). You can check out the range here, there will be a launch event on the 10th of December in Shinjuku too.

Asamiya drew new artwork for the bottles and while I'd love to get Kiddy's perfume that nods towards her bodily acceptance in its notes, importing that stuff is just too much of a pain so I've settled for a tiny acrylic stand of Kiddy instead. Sadly there's no option to buy a set of stands so I just went "whatever" and grabbed just my best girl. Anyway, if you'd like a tiny acrylic stand of an AMP girl with extra weird proportions then make sure you check out the FAIRYTALE PARFUM website.

[unhinged-comics-scree]

⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊ Weekly Bravern Madness Post ₊✩°｡⋆˚⁺

Episode 11 Spoilers ahead, naturally

I'm actually on my second watch since we found out our water heater is leaking so that was a whole thing so not quite first impressions but that's literally me screencapping every scene and screaming so probably better this way

Okay important things about me to consider for my lens as I go through this

I think Isami is so so so cute. I'll probably make a cute Isami screencaps post as a separate thing. His gap moe is so cute. I love his stern face. I think Smith is great too but I love the focus reshifting to Isami. Anyway. He's so cute

In terms of Smith as Bravern I guess I view it as the reverse too? I don't really know how to explain it but I guess in Japanese there's tags for Smith + Isami (Sumiisa) and Bravern + Isami (Braisa?) and in my head it's all Sumiisa. Like he may look like a giant robot but he's still Smith, if that makes sense.

Second watch bonuses: realizing why she reacts this way at his mention ;-;

Right away, I guess I got my beach episode! I love that Isami and Lulu have Bravern brand summer clothes. I hope they come out as merch. It comes up rarely eg. the boxing shoes from ep 5 have the (Burn?) Bravern specific emblem on them and I just think it's so cute. Like yeah Bravern probably printed them just for these instances and I wish we got enough show to see it in action.

I actually got so emotional at the end of episode 9 when the OP starts playing without the lyrics and this showing up with the ED music is phenomenal. Extra delicious that it starts with part of the full version of the ED that's not in the normal ending.

I also love this because the other two emotional moments where it's like, starting something but not completing it are the after boxing scene and when Isami is crying into Lewis' shirt (okay this can easily be assumed to fill out as "I wanted the two of us to save the world together" but what else did you want to do with hiiiiim). The shipper mind wants to fill it in with some love confession and then!!!

After the like, back and forth name stuff (which parallels the Lulu + Superbia fusion) I was like, pre-emptively bracing for some kind of goofy baiting/played for laughs thing but no he goes for it!!

I actually have a collection of any instance of Isami with any amount of coloring on his cheeks and I've been lamenting that the only full blush moments are when he gets the asian flush drinking but aaaaah so cute. Also he looks so young here! He's 24 he should be falling in love!

Also I'm like, actually really impressed about this scene technically because It's just a really good looking turnaround animation. With Bravern he's 3D so whatever but isami looks good from every angle!

The artist who adds the extra effects like bloom and color tweaks on scenes occasionally tweets out their before and afters and I really hope we get this scene where they point out they added plush, kissable lips onto Bravern.

I reblogged a post about it but I do really love that Isami isn't like, disgusted or pushing him away or anything. Not even grateful Lulu interrupted it. Maybe he's actually disappointed she interrupted.

I know it sets ups the symbolic washing away of it but in case there was any ambiguity to the nature of this love:

There's some discussion across japanese twitter about how you're not supposed to do some line in the middle but based on some cursory stuff I'm not sure how common that thought process is. Also Bravern isn't that much of a pro in Japanese culture (even a lot of JP twitter was confused at his proud "This is OMIAI!").

If you aren't involved in Twitter, a comment people like to point out is that they specifically hired a Food Coordinator for this episode lol. I took a bunch of caps of it but between this and Isami's "we need to eat to be strong enough to save everyone" talk I need to do my Dunmeshi + Bravern food as strength and love post.

Anyway I'm obsessed with the fact that Bravern doesn't need to eat but actually has a mouth which reminds me of this tweet my sister brought to me

Naturally, his mouth is for kissing, Among other things.

Okay honestly the food bit is so weird I was kind of worried the entire first half of the episode turns out to be a dream sequence.

I need to set this as my desktop background or something. I think it's really cute that they added/implied that Isami and Bravern are now a cutesy couple rather than Isami being all weird about the love confession.

THIS! Is the point in the post I realize that watching while typing these up leads to me just doing a play by play which isn't really much of anything. I promise the rest of the post isn't just as long even though we're only halfway through the episode.

(Hey, timeskip OP here. This might be a lie)

Lulu + Superbia symbol! It's cute and has a really nice mix of being similar but opposite in it's own way.

I am obsessed with Segnitas being too lazy to fight and honestly I think he's so cute. The interrupting the fusion is kinda expected for a a show with every bit being in universe but it's still a good gag. I'm glad he is around to make commentary until his true death.

I kind of expected the Bravern + Superbia fight to be an episode 2 thing but I guess we won't have the time for that given the end of this episode. Triple shoutout to my Wednesday post by having the "You can get fulfillment from living!", seeing a callback to Lulu's kick and basically having an awesome fight.

Okay ending time. I have a lot of thoughts but one of the ones as I was watching was just.. He can't eat but he can bleed (and cry)? Actually considering that he explodes it's probably oil or something. Like obvs he isn't going to explode into purple triangles like everyone else but oofda. I am all sorts of sad about this but one thing that gets me is that Bravern doesn't even die fighting! It was a stealth attack!

There's some theories that Isami has a change of heart too fast and this might be another time loop, which I think would be on brand but man his reaction to Bravern dying is too much there's at least no way it's because of a Bravern dying bad end. Actually, I wonder if the damage to Bravern's core is worse than we can tell? Lulu bad end looks way worse though. Or maybe hypothetical Isami time travel route is -> they don't fight Superbia -> defeat one more death drive -> Superbia realizes he doesn't get his warrior death -> he takes on the last Deathdrive 1v1, dies -> remaining DD dies somehow but Superbia is still gone -> Isami goes back to save him for Lulu (they can't risk double time looping her?) -> doesn't ever experience Bravern dying so this is new and terrible.

In this case, Ira is acting unpredictably specifically because they do the no-kill route with Superbia. He's evidently super disgusted and I wonder if it's because its the peaceful resolution between the two? Otherwise I'm curious why else. Actually in general I'm curious why everyone is so personal with Bravern but I think we've all been asking that.

I think some people mentioned it on Twitter but Lulu very casually mentions her time travel lived experiences so it would be weird if they didn't know Bravern himself enabled it. Like I mentioned in my other post. He literally can't take on two giant mechs without Bravern and he knows for sure Superbia can't take on someone.

It's interesting that Bravern has different final words in this timeline than Lulu bad end but he also probably never had that stargazing scene in that route. Actually, you know what, I think Lulu bad end he does know it's Lulu because I don't think Isami was there for the specific curry scene we saw. He's still crying, naked in Bravern during that. Unless he just talks about Japanese curry all the time where we don't see.

Smith's last words are specifically "Brave Bang" (yuuki bakuhatsu) vs Bravern's "Brave Burn" and I'm basically Pepe Silvia-ing it up trying to figure out what it means. It's not really a direct confession about being Smith (because he's still a coward in that regard) but maybe it's a secret move/activation considering the moves are in English?

I think any kind of extra finale speculation requires its own post but that's my thoughts!

hm. Sorry. Maybe I should get into writing fanfic so you at least get something out of this

[nonbinary-octopus]

so my current 3D printing project is this: I am making a giant lego man

not super huge, just 5x regular lego size. It'll be about eight inches tall when complete

the reasons for this are, primarily, because it’s cool, and also. I just bought legos with my own adult money for the first time, and it turns out that lego people are for some reason considerably more expensive than lego bricks. I had a whole rant about it earlier that I'm not going to retype here, but the short version is, I did not buy any lego people

but then I went on thingiverse and I found a model for a large-scale lego person! (with this remix for better arms)

and I thought, that is very cool. I am going to make a giant lego person, who can sit on top of the lego box and guard the bricks

and then, because it would take quite a while to print the whole thing, I did a miniature test print at regular lego size, which is 20% of the original file size

it took about an hour

and he is a pretty good little lego man!

His head's a little loose, but not too bad. I had to reprint the hands cause I originally oriented them stupidly and they broke immediately, but once I redid them in a smarter position, they just took a little sanding of support droopies before they fit great.

The shoulders took some effort to pop into place, but I had expected that. On the rare occasion an arm came off of a lego person when I was a kid, I remember it being extremely difficult to put it back on. Once I got the arms in place and wiggled them back and forth a few times, they moved perfectly smoothly

The legs were trickier to attach to the hips, and one of them keeps angling itself oddly, so that he stands a bit pigeon-toed. If you mess with it too much, it will fall off.

Also the hips keep springing back out of the torso, which isn't great.

Based on this, plus a couple comments on thingiverse which said several connections were not working great, I knew I might need to make some adjustments. And to know exactly how it needed to be adjusted, I needed to print it at full scale

but I didn't want to spend several days printing, only to have to make adjustments and potentially have to reprint every file

so, first, I made a connection test file

I cut the individual pieces up into just their connection points: a slice of neck from the torso, and the bottom of the head. the shoulder pin on the arm, and the shoulder hole in the torso. The hip pin and hole. the wrist, and the entire hand because it's the smallest piece and didn't make nearly as much of a difference if I printed the whole thing. Plus, it rests on the hand on the buildplate, and it would be tricky to get just the hand post to print without including the hand

the first printing attempt spaghettified

it slipped horizontally not far in, and I suspect that caused the spaghetti, when it tried to print over somewhere that should have been supported and now wasnt. Can't be sure, because nobody saw it happen. My husband called me down to stop the printer when he noticed.

this is the shoulder hole and neck post

it wasn't a total waste, however. I was able to tell from what little had printed of the neck and head that the neck hole was far too large for the post.

So, I made an adjustment to the torso file, making the neck post larger, and restarted the test print with the new version. Unfortunately, restating meant that it went into the evening rather later than I had initially planned, sparking a conversation about what times of day would be most convenient for me to print things so as to not render the living room unhospitible (no hard feelings in either direction, it's just. a loud machine. and it can get annoying to listen to)

That test print went fine, and I was able to test all the fits

conclusions:

the neck now fits perfectly

the hand post is much too small for the wrist

the hip and shoulder joints are both too snug. I was able to force them together, but they will not rotate (they also now will not separate, and the layers around the shoulder hole split when forcing the shoulder pin inside)

so, back to the modeling program to make more adjustments. The simplest of these was to thicken the arm post

for the shouder, I measured all the bits and discovered that part of the problem is that the wall of the torso around the shoulder hole was thicker than the length of the pin before the flared head

in short, the pin was not long enough to reach all the way through the hole and have the flared head pop out on the other side

so, I lengthened the pin, and also put the slit on the flared head on the top as well as the bottom, for extra squishability

For the hips, they have a different pin shape than the shoulder, so I decided to replace it with the same mushroom-shaped kind of pin the shoulder has. I also widened the hole in the leg piece slightly.

You may notice that I didn't mention testing the hip-to-torso connection, despite noting that there was an issue on my initial miniature print. This is because in order to test it, I'd need to print a large enough portion of both the hip and torso pieces that I might as well print the whole thing, so I figured it would be better to get all the other connections correct first, and then adjust that one as need be.

I did take a look at it in the modeling program, however, and discovered that when assembled, the posts in the hips and the sides of the torso attempt to be in the same location. So I trimmed the hip posts to fit.

Then I printed all the altered files in miniature again, because that's a pretty quick test print

As I had hoped, the legs clicked on much better and more sturdily, and the hips fit into the torso much more securely as well.

The hands and head no longer fit at all, but I'd figured that would be the case as well, considering their fit on my initial test and my subsequent adjustments. I'd printed four hands when reprinting them earlier, testing two slightly different positions (the difference in results was negligible), so I used the extras for the new figure. I sanded down the neck post a bit to get the head to fit, and perhaps I should have sanded a bit more but I didn't feel like it

With that promising test, I prepared a new test print file to test the fit of all the adjusted parts at full scale (save the neck, already tested, and the hip-to-torso connection, will test later as explained earlier - so, just the hip and shoulder joints, and the hand, since I didn't change the wrist and can reuse it to test the new hand)

That's printing currently. Will update when it's done.

[zillanovikov]

Hey tumblrinas, author of Sad Bastard Cookbook here. After seeing yet another person say they read the Cookbook OUT LOUD to someone, I realized the world needs a Sad Bastard Cookbook audiobook version.

I've never made an audiobook. Some questions:

Does the world actually need this? Does anyone want this besides me?

Does anyone know stuff about making high-quality audiobooks and I can pick their brain?

Does anyone know stuff about distribution of audiobooks and I can pick their brain?

A big question I have is about cost. We made the ebook free because while it cost us ... many, many hours of labour, it didn't cost us actual money. Also because it matched our ethos. The print book costs money because you can't give away free print books to everyone who should have one in the entire world without having some other source of income. And because we aren't independently wealthy and the royalties from the print sales is helpful. Capitalism. Hate it, can't escape it.

I guess one of my questions if people know is: what are the up front costs of making a high-quality audiobook? And what distribution exists for free audiobooks?

We had such a hard time getting a free version of the ebook on Amazon, and it's still not as good as the free version on Itch. But since Amazon is a giant monopoly and Itch is a tiny independent site, there's so many people who would never see the Cookbook if it was only on Itch. So "discoverablity" is also an important factor.

I also gotta ask my co-author and illustrator for thoughts but they're asleep and/or afk and once an idea enters my brain I gotta talk about it immediately. GOTTA. So like, please tell me stuff you know and you want but obvs I need to listen to my crew when any decisions are made!

[littlefluffbutt]

The party can get started; Duchess has arrived!

As we all know dolls don't always look like the cartoon version but Mattel really did Duchess dirty so I wanted to fix what I could to make her closer to her animated self.

The first and most important thing was fix her hair!! I don't understand why Mattel gave her that giant pouf if they weren't going to duplicate it (Darling Charming also suffered from this). Also they made her hair mostly black?? WTF??

This literally took me several years and attempts as rooting is not my forte and her hair-do kind of confounded me BUT I finally figured it out! (I'm slow lol)

I rooted several rows around her hairline with a bump-it in the center lol. I got her stripes figured out (the center one is not very clear as it's lavender/black/lavender and the lavender gets lost in the white). I can't get her hanging piece to curl (the nylon is really stiff) but for now I'm content:)

I painted over her eyebrows black and her pink lips to the luscious red they are supposed to be. I also gave her some shimmery eye shadow (color shift purple) as I felt she needed it. Her headdress does not resemble the one she wears in the show but I like it and just painted it.

Mattel gave her a big block-y necklace but I found her a simple one that matches the animated one. There's supposed to be little lace up panel on her dress in the front but they gave her this solid black corset/belt thing instead which I painted. Her over skirt was fine but instead of putting a layer of tulle underneath it's tulle printed fabric lol. I made a black tulle petticoat for some added poof which extends just past the skirt like it does in the show. Her tights were supposed to be white with a curlicue design so OF COURSE Mattel gave her black fishnets >.< I wasn't confident about doing the curlicue so was happy I found a thin shimmery fabric that was perfect as the iridescence matches the iridescence on her skirt:)

Duchess is one of my favorite characters from EAH so I'm ecstatic to get her to where I felt she needed to be:)

Anyone who read all this gets a cookie lol

[adarkrainbow]

All fairytale fans heard about or know about the ATU, the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification, this international classification of folktales and fairytales in numbered types.

But do you know that there are other fairytale classifications? Local fairytale classifications? And since I am French let me present you...

The Delarue-Tenèze classification. Also known as "Le Conte populaire français" (The French Folktales), of its complete title "Catalogue raisonné des versions de France et des pays de langue française d'outremer" (Reasoned catalogue of the versions of France and French-speaking oversea countries).

This book/classification, created by Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Tenèze, and published in five volumes between 1957 and 2000, is a study of folkloric fairytales inspired by the ATU, which it heavily borrows from and frequently references. However, the Delarue-Tenèze classification is an exclusively French system. That is to say all the folktales and fairytales studied there are originating from France, or present in countries that inherited some of French culture. The complete list of countries is: "France, Canada, Louisiana, French islands of the USA, French West Indies, Haïti, Maurice island, La Réunion". By studying, comparing and classifying the French-speaking (or French-written) fairytales of these various areas, Delarue and Tenèze managed to create a complete study of the history and evolution of essentially French fairytales, excluding all the types of stories that are typically not found on French-speaking lands.

It was thanks to the work of Delarue and Tenèze that we notably can reconstruct what the fairytales of Perrault, for example, ORIGINALLY looked like before the author took them back and rerote them. I evoked this during my Little Red Riding Hood posts (I think it was in the one titled "The dark roots"). Delarue and Tenèze, by accumulating all the French variants of the fairytale they could find, separating those that clearly were post-Perrault (they had elements newly introduced by the author) to those prior to Perrault (or at least not "contaminated" by their written cousin), and looking at the geographical repartition of these tales, they could identify which elements exactly Perrault cut out of his tale (the wolf serving meat and wine to the girl, the removing of clothes in the fire, the cat cursing under the table...) and thus re-create what the fairytale would have originally looked like.

In this extent, this work is deeply needed for whoever wants to study fairytales in France or the French folklore. Unfortunately, after two "complete editions" gathering all the volumes in 1997 and 2002, the publishing house of the catalogue fell on hard times, and closed in 2011. Since this date, the catalogue is out of print, and you can only access it by having second-hand copies or borrowing it at libraries.

However - and I just learned of this today upon looking at my references - the work of Delarue and Tenèze (both unfortunately deceased) is still continued today, or rather was taken back by a group of anthropological studies of Toulouse, who are preparing three more volumes to add to the original catalogue.

If you are interested in what each volume contains:

Volume 1 and 2 cover the "contes merveilleux" (marvelous tales/magical tales - aka the fairytales as we understand them today).

Volume 3 is about the "Animal tales", mixing animal-featuring fairytales, Reynard the Fox-type of stories, and other moral and fables inherited by popular culture from La Fontaine, Aesop and more.

Volume 4 is about the "Religious tales", aka all the French folktales, fairytales and local legends that show France's folk-Christianity, mixing the heavily Christian (Catholic-flavored) culture of France, "first daughter of the Church", with the countryside legends and tales of witches, wizards, fairies, giants and other ogres, turned into demons, saints, angels and Virgin Maries.

Volume 5 is the "conte-nouvelle" (the "short story-tales"), basically folktales that are realistic sounding and just sound like non-magical, non-religious life stories or local legends.

[in-pleasant-company]

Hair bow from Nellie's Spring Party Dress

The Delineator, August 1901 via HathiTrust

A lot of people have commented on the very modern design of the hair bow included in this outfit. I came across this fashion plate the other day which reminded me of it. I think the lady in this image is not wearing a giant hair bow, but in fact a hat decorated with silk, and the angle of her head makes it look a lot like a hair bow. The hat seems to have some sort of rhinestone buckle in the middle. It's a rectangular shape, not a double heart, but it's the closest thing I've seen to Nellie's hair bow.

I feel the need to state that I originally found a cropped version of this image on ClickAmericana where it had no indication of the sources of any of the images or information in that article. A reverse image search yielded only other websites with no indication of the source of the image. I finally located the source by flipping through copies of The Delineator on the HathiTrust website, and I almost didn't see this image because this particular page took longer to load than the other pages.

It is so frustrating to me when I find a great image with no source attached. I've noticed this especially as stock photo websites get more and more popular, because they often don't have correct tagging or captions.

If the New York Public Library or the Met Costume Institute are looking for someone to label their fashion prints collections, please hire me! If only to keep my brain from screaming every time I try to find something on their websites.

[gretchensinister]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @marypsue for tagging me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

732 oh gosh it needs to have text next to it to not show up giant

2. What’s your total word count?

1,316,095 aha you can tell most of my fics are short

3. What fandoms do you write for?

What I am currently preoccupied with is The Dark Crystal/The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The vast majority of my fics are for Rise of the Guardians, and I have one fairly substantial fic each for Thor and Venom.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Give You Everything, not surprised about this one, it's Eddie/Venom and I published it a little less than four months after Venom came out in theaters. 2. Single Snowflakes, this one is a surprise? It's barely over 1K, T for subject matter, Bunny/Jack where Jack talks about past trauma with Bunny. I wouldn't have written it except that this was part of my project to fill every prompt on Round 1 of the Rise of the Guardians Dreamwidth kinkmeme. I guess it resonated with people??? 3. How Old? Another Bunny/Jack fic, G-rated and very short. 4. What it Means to Ask, yet ANOTHER Bunny/Jack fic, G-rated, but about how serious the concept of being a "mate" is in Pooka culture. How Old? was also related to that. 5. Down and Dirty-a wrestling-type fight between Jack and Bunny turns into sex.

What have we learned? The Jackrabbit fans, they are legion.

5. Do you respond to comments?

For the past several years, yes, pretty much always. Back in 2012 when I was just starting to post on Ao3, I was like unto a nervous deer and sometimes didn't respond. But I did print out all the comments on Without Contraries There Is No Progression (Pitch/Sandy that got me writing big complete things) and put them on my fridge at the time. It helped me get my master's degree.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The one that comes to the top of my head is Warmer Than I Thought. Jack's dying because he just didn't have enough believers when he became a Guardian. He's not going to come back with continuity of self. Pitch is there to offer him some scant comfort as he goes.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mostly write happy endings, honestly, but the honor of the most happy and resolved ending goes to His Time, which is chronologically the last fic in my Rise of the Guardians Apotheosis AU. It's a far-distant future, OT8, everyone is together and essentially the pantheon of a new planet they made after Earth is gone due to the expansion of the sun. They are trying to make it go well this time, and so far succeeding.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

The closest thing to hate I ever got was on my explicit Thorki fic...from a person complaining about how much I had Thor and Loki talk to each other.

9. Do you write smut?

I write a lot of explicit sex, yes.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've written a fair number in my prompt-fill project, but it's not something I'm drawn to write.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've never known about any of my fics being stolen.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone talked to me about translating one of my fics and I was very excited and I said yes. However I don't know what came of that because things happened and I fell out of communication with the potential translator. Maybe they finished it and I don't know about it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, and I don't think I would, unless it was part of a strictly structured event/project.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Well, it's Pitch Black/Sandman. Conceptually, the ships I'm drawn to have ties to dichotomies of dark/light, good/evil, cosmic opposites kind of thing. Pitch and Sandy, as personifications of nightmares and dreams, were a perfect vessel for that obsession.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

I told my friends, "I'm not going to rewrite The Phantom of the Opera." And I'm not. But there's a version of PotO that I wanted that uh, isn't what any of the big official versions gave me. So I started writing and I have 49,615 words so far. If I don't find a way to finish it I think I will end up posting it as something permanently unfinished, because there's a lot that I like in it now.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I have been told in a real graduate writing workshop that I have good dialogue. I also like to think I'm pretty good at sensory descriptions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

The things I find extremely difficult are endings and like, plots where things happen--I want so badly to write a big complicated Space Empire story but like. How is does political intrigue? (This house is FEELINGS ONLY.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I don't think I'd ever do it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Almost certainly Dragonball Z. If all goes well, my friend and I may have the chance to excavate some of my old notebooks during the holidays and then--it's archive time and that is a threat.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

It's A Draught of Light, which I love as it is, and for proving that I could write an alternate-world epic fantasy novel as long as I didn't like, admit that's what I was doing. I do admit though that I have an edited version that takes it farther away from being fanfic that I like even better. Maybe I should, hmm, start taking steps to making that version available, if you understand what I mean.

Who do I know writing out there that hasn't been tagged yet? @queerpyracy, @purplebloodedmajesty, @incurablenecromantic

[danpuff-ao3]

Sooo...

Fic-Binding.

Is a thing I'm going to learn this year! (This feels really awkward but I can't think of a smooth introduction, so here we are.)

Here on Tumblr was my first introduction to binding fics. It never occurred to me before that people would. I began following many amazing binders here on Tumblr and over on Instagram. My sweet friend Nina bound a short story collection of some of my fics for my birthday last year. And Lila gave me a copy of one of her fics. There is something so very special about seeing fics in physical form! It gives me all the warm and fuzzies!

...only it seems that if a gal wants her favorite fics on her shelf, she's going to have to bind them herself.

Now, I was tempted to share some progress pictures along the way, but I fear that would hinder my progress. My anxiety and perfectionism are strong. I do not like to be observed making mistakes. Even really minor ones. Even worse if people point them out to me, however well-meaning. I live with a deep and abiding terror of failure and judgment. Which...is it healthy? No. Am I working on it? Yeah. But my therapist and I agree that throwing myself into the deep end is not the right method for me, so alas...baby steps!

(Seriously, my partner and I have been together nearly 7 years and only this past year have I begun to try and test new things where he could see me do it. And there is no person on planet earth more supportive or less judgmental than my Eddie.) (But to be fair, when one is taught to hate themselves and see their only worth as their usefulness and productivity, well...The terror is quite real, and deeply ingrained, I'm afraid.)

I will try to take progress photos along the way and share them all in a photo dump when I'm feeling more comfortable and confident. Which is a long ways away as I've not even bound a book yet. Showing my errors should be easier when I can say "look but I fixed it!" By necessity I've become pretty good at teaching myself things, so with luck (and YouTube videos) I can do this!

And in the meantime I can at least write about my efforts!

Eddie, my partner, has been very enthusiastic since I first broached the subject of bookbinding and when my plans to gather supplies seemed to fall through, he agreed to help me get what I needed. He had me put supplies on an Amazon wishlist so we can purchase items when we can. The first purchase I made was the most necessary one, which was a printer. I got a little table to put it on, built the table!!!! (I am not very handy, okay. When I build anything, however simple, it's a huge accomplishment!) I set up the printer. Aaaand was resigned to wait however long until I could start.

...

...and then it occurred to me. "Hey, dumb-dumb, maybe you can start practicing parts of it now?"

Oh yeah! There are several parts to putting a book together. And so, I began! I chose a small fic, Orange Blossoms, to get a feel for how it would look printed out. I followed some online instructions. And it wasn't perfect, but it was in booklet form and I could fold the paper and everything was where it needed to be. Small success!

Then I adjusted the font size and reprinted, because the previous font size was teensy in Scrivener and GIANT in Adobe and on paper.

Next, I wanted to test printing multiple signatures. That one took a bit more work for reasons I can't properly explain. Even now I don't know why the original version was printing out the way it was, with a blank last page. In theory, it shouldn't have done that??

Anyway, I chose In My Veins (In My Blood) for this. Orange Blossom is 3k and fit into one signature. In My Veins (In My Blood) is 7k and I figured I could get 2 out of it. I figured starting small would be better so I don't waste paper and ink while trying to sort things out. Or you know...waste as little as I can.

I fiddled with some settings and such until the first signature printed right. Then I had to mess around to figure out where I needed to insert blank pages, and I changed my mind about where to put my mock copyright and title pages. Once I was happy, I then printed the second signature and then proudly waved them in Eddie's face!

Then, I found a gift card from Christmas and decided: hey, why don't I get some more stuff? Today my order came in and I got: an awl, needles, and waxed thread. Time to stitch those suckers together! I stumbled across a bookbinding video some months ago that I saved, so I pulled that up and went step by step. Measuring and marking where to put the holes. (Nightmare, btw, my brain hates numbers.) (Brain sees numbers and runs off scared; needs soothing and cajoling to come back out and get to work.) (The solution was obvious and didn't require actual math like the YouTuber told me but anyway that's not the point, the point is:) Then I threaded my needle and go to work!

Signature 1 was easy enough. But threading the 2 signatures together was not. First YouTube moved too fast and didn't explain things very clearly. Like...not verbally addressing each step in detail, but also with too many jump cuts for me to really tell what she was doing. But she referenced a Sea Lemon video which I found and was much more helpful!

And now I have 2 signatures threaded together! It's very rough and sloppy, but you know what...it's a first attempt, so whatever. (Look, even admitting that my first attempt is pretty "eh" hurts my soul, but here we are.) (At least you can't see it!)

So that's where I am for now! Eddie's going to peruse my list this weekend to see what he can get, and once I have the supplies needed for the next step, onto the next step I'll go! I do want to bind The White Road as my first actual bound fic, so I can work on fiddling with the typesetting a bit while I wait!

ALSO I ate dinner so late because I was so caught up in learning how to stitch those signatures!! I was like "okay this shouldn't take that long." Hey, self, this is a new skill you're learning. Maybe don't make assumptions. And at least double any time you think something should take. I sure scarfed down my food after that!

Anyway, I know it seems very silly that I'm too scared to show pictures, but even talking about it is a big step. It's like...well if this doesn't work out I'm going to look really dumb, huh? Better keep things all to myself so if it doesn't work out no one is disappointed or judging me or whatever. Much better to come out the gate with something to show, right?

But talking about stuff and sharing stuff is really important to me. It's this like deep inner need I've trampled down for so long, out of fear of seeming childish or silly at best, or at worst boring or burdening people. But maybe this is something some people are interested in. And I'll be generous with cuts and tags for easy skimming for those who aren't interested, and those who are, well...You're welcome to bits and pieces of my journey with me!

Speaking of tags, I've been trying to come up with a name for my "bindery." I thought of "Busy Bee Bindery" because I love bees and am quite busy, actually. But maybe it needs my name in it?? Idk I'm still brainstorming that one. Maybe by my next update I'll have one I can use for tagging! And you know...to slap on my bindings! 😄

[morrak]

Untitled Wednesday Library Series, Part 108

Some weeks I look at the Part number for these posts and find myself tempted to crack wise or offer some sort of insight. Of course, 108 just isn’t especially remarkable. It’s not an unpleasant number — feels a little like a cool shower, or maybe bottled apple juice — but ultimately this bit is wasted on it. Oh well.

I digress. Epitaphios, a 1936 poem (finalized 1956) by Yiannis Ritsos in Rick M. Newton’s 2014 English translation, published by Smokestack Books.

The How

Directly from the publisher, for once. Actually, come to think of it, it’s for twice — I gave the inimitable @dansedan that Cavafy collection a while back and ended up getting myself another via an email to its press.

I was made aware of Ritsos during a sidetrack through his hometown of Monemvasia, known for its wacky topography, endurance of what might be called too many sieges, and raucous population of giant fennel. Not much of his work has been massaged into English, so finding this seemed like a win.

The Text

Per Newton, a ‘general and philosophical lament, the sort of dirge any mother might sing over the body of her son’. Perhaps. It was first published with a dedication ‘To the Heroic Workers of Thessaloniki’; it’s very loudly a response to the widely publicized murder of striking tobacco workers.

I’m happy to agree with Wikipedia here and call the language embellished. Because it’s structured after the ecclesiastical Lamentation of the Tomb, and because Newton’s translation is (let’s say) extremely academic, the poem is (let’s also say) highly ordered. I won’t come down one way or the other on this decision, though I will allow that it’s a strong one.

The Object

Adequate. Aberrantly poor printing quality on the front matter and cover but otherwise plenty readable. The paper is just fine and it’s hard to imagine this getting used hard enough to trouble the binding.

Everybody loves a bilingual printing, of course.

The Why, Though?

Ritsos is well known enough — and this poem sufficiently interesting in principle — that I simply wanted to read it. I cannot pretend to be affected by it; the lens, structure, and lexicon it uses all bounce right off my brain. I do, though, respect all of those things, as I respect Newton’s labor on this version. It’s a rendering meant to be heard, and I like that.

I’d need to be a whole lot smarter and better read (and probably proficient in Greek) to really appreciate this, but you can’t fault me for trying.

[littlebearplaytime]

Heya! I use the name Oak! I’m a little and prefer the nicknames of puppy, bear and soft sweet names that are either gender neutral or masc!

I go by he/him and they/them pronouns and I’m trans. I usually involuntary turn little but I have no problem with it and encourage it when it needs to happen!

Big me is 22 and actually works with children so I always come home with heaps of fun ideas to try (like games or new tv shows!)

Little me is about 3-7 years old but that could change every now and then.

My favourite little activities include

• picnics and walking the doggies

• Watching TV/films from Disney, Pixar and Aardman as well as bluey and bear in the big blue house

• Colouring and crafts

• Playing with toys like pop funkos (my hand feels and looks little when holding them)

• Bathtime!

• Going to the zoo, farm or the beach

• Jigsaws!

I’m quite new to the gear side of things but definitely need a teething toy! I don’t think I’m looking to get anything else right now.

I love dressing in my red corduroy trousers or brown joggers with a soft shirt or T-shirt with animal prints! I also love wearing shorts and my Oodie which has doggies on!

My favourite foods include

• apple slices with hummus

• Pasta with lots of tomato sauce so it splatters everywhere!

• Mashed potatoes with veggie sausages shaped like a hedgehog or flower

• A bears breakfast (granola with honey, bananas, yoghurt, raisins and sometimes some pomegranate seeds!)

• Hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows!

• A snack bowl or pick and mix!

• the giant version of custard creams!

I’m really happy I’ve joined tumblr and know get to indulge a little in my little side!

I’ll love to talk to some of you if you’d like!

[poppetsisters]

I'm gonna talk about the new Marvel CMF series.

These are some great figures, but with the new box designs they're going for, bag feeling is officially dead. Don't get me wrong, I understand and appreciate that it's for recycling and sustainability purposes, but this does make it so hardcore collectors have to go back to the dark ages and bring a scale into Walmart. That, or just break into the box and steal what they please. Me personally, I'm gonna check to see whether Bricklink starts price gouging because of this since the prices for CMFs on that site are reasonable so far.

Anyway here's what I think about the figs.

Goliath. Something I should make clear is that I'm not a fan of the MCU. However, since Marvel sets are 90% based on MCU titles, that means the only versions of characters I can get come from those movies. Case in point: Bill Foster. Though the suit looks nice and maintains a stylistic similarity to the MCU Antman costume, as a comics fan, it bears no resemblance to the comic costume and hence I won't be picking it up.

Storm. Oh she's perfect! We already got a decent Storm fig based on the Giant Sized suit, but without the crown thing sadly. But THIS! When people think of Storm, they think of this design, and it looks great! I'm for sure picking this one up!

Beast. Another great fig. I love that the alternate face includes glasses. Such a nerd! Interesting that they chose to make a new hair mold when the good ol' dracula hair would've been just fine. Not complaining of course, it's just interesting to me.

Kate Bishop. I'm not a Hawkeye enjoyer, which means I don't have much stake in Kate Bishop either. It's lucky (heh) that we have a figure of her, so I'm happy for the Kate Bishop fans, it's just not something I'm excited about.

Moon Knight. This was always gonna be a guaranteed buy from me. Of course I wish it was the comics design, but at this point I've grown used to settling for MCUification. Nah but this figure still rocks. Lots of detailed printing, a cool new moon piece, and a brand new hood mold that I hope LEGO makes in more colours soon.

Wolverine. This figure makes me upset that I bought that Wolverine mech only for them to improve on the design in every way. The boots, the arm hair, the everything is just the most perfect you could make a Wolverine figure, and the added sentinel head is a nice touch!

She-Hulk. As someone who bought that one Hulk set with Hulk, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, and She-Red Hulk all in their classic comic colours, this figure has no use to me. It's a faithful design that includes dual molding and nice prints nontheless. One way they could've outdone the original figure was perhaps use the Avatar arms and legs... actually nevermind, that would look kinda awkward.

Hawkeye. I can already hear the AFOLs complaining about the lack of leg printing. Shout out to LEGO finally getting Jeremy Renner's hair right! Otherwise it's fine to me. I can get a better Hawkeye fig from that one avengers video game set.

Mr. Knight. This represents one of those magical MCU moments where the costume of the movies matches close enough to the comics to pass. Hence, I may have to get this one. The figure itself is very basic, but that's all I need sometimes. The fish bowl is a nice touch too.

Echo: I never heard of this character, but I know she's indigenous and is famously depicted with a white handprint on her face. For comics accuracy, this is unfortunate that the minifig leaves this out. For cultural sensitivity, it's complicated. Based on my 10 seconds of googling, a handprint is generally associated with success in hand to hand combat, which seems fine enough, but I also know a red handprint over the mouth has emerged as a symbolic representation for violence against indigenous women. I think this too fits Echo's backstory, but you have to remember this is Disney we're talking about, the same company that made Pocahontas. As a white woman, I'm not at all an authority when it comes to indigenous representation in media. I recommend you do your own research and listen to what indigenous voices have to say on the matter. For now though, the figure looks cool I guess.

Agatha Harkness. The figure looks good, but not gonna lie, I'm here for that Darkhold. It feels weird to buy a minifig SPECIFICALLY for a prop, but it's an important Marvel artifact so I don't want to miss it. Besides, I should probably get Agatha anyway. Who else is gonna babysit Franklin Richards?

Werewolf by Night. With Moon Knight and now Wolfy, I can combine them with Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Morbius, and Blade to make my own Midnight Sons roster. The bloodstone is a nice addition too, just makes me wish we also got Elsa. Ah well.