#probably because the ones i draw aren't super realistic

[wuntrum]

do you have any tips for an artist who wants to start making one off comics? i really enjoy your artistic direction and style of story telling so i’m very interested in your thoughts on it

yes, definitely!!

-read lots of comics! and a variety of them, too--both ones in the sort of genre/style you'd like to make, but also ones in completely different genres, lengths, places of origin, traditionally/indie/digitally published, simple to experimental formatting, etc

-in relation to the last one, if a comic you read really speaks to you, take some time to study some page layouts from that comic! how do the panels vary from page to page? how much space is the text taking up? what sort of "shots" (to borrow from cinematic language lol) are they using? these shouldn't be fancy, just little thumbnails, but i find it really helps. here's a few i did from a guest in the house by emily carroll

-start smalllll. its really important to build up your stamina, just like with any new sort of skill. if you wanna make a graphic novel thats 200+ pages long, you should make some comics that are 1, 20, 50 pages long and see them through to the end before taking on a super big project.

-this is related to the last point, but i think keeping your cast of characters small at first can also help build up your comic stamina. signals was the first longer comic i made, so i specifically really wanted to focus on just jeanne (and occasionally her parents and peers when they showed up)

-character sheets are helpful, but i also think the easiest way to start getting your characters drawn consistently is through actually drawing the comic! there's also gonna be panels where they look "off" or whatever, and its literally fine, i promise

-through the smaller comics, experiment with how you go about writing your story! theres no right or wrong way to write/plan out a story so, it takes some trial and error to figure out what will work best with your work flow. for me, i've found success in making a timeline of events for the story -> loosely guessing how many pages i'll need/want per section of the story -> freewriting (trying not to edit too much, just dumping all the words out) -> thumbnailing/loose sketching/editing text (all sort of happens in the same step; i find i need the layouts in front of me to understand what i need/don't need from the text i wrote) -> tight sketching -> final . but, if that flow doesn't work for you, try something else! i know a lot of comics people find success in writing a script first, with indications of page and panel-by-panel breakdowns

-take shortcuts often and without guilt. its a lot of work to make a comic! theres just a lot of drawings involved, that most people aren't gonna look at for very long! i especially recommend for infrequent/difficult things, like buildings or crowds or cars or bookcases, using some sort of 3d asset/brush to make your life easier. if you can reuse a drawing and change the crop/expression, do it!

-use some sort of tracker to track your progress on how many pages you've sketched/inked/finished. even if you don't have an external deadline, i think it's still good to give yourself some sort of timeline to work on (i recommend setting "ideal" goals and "realistic" goals, especially if you're working/still in school/etc). for signals, i used google sheets, because you can set up columns to be attached to little circle charts, so as you check off your progress, you can really easily see how much you've done/how much you have left to do (as i type this i highkey forget how i did that before, with signals, so...you might need to do some sheets experimentation to actually do this lol. but there's probably other trackers you can use too)

-understanding comics and making comics by scott mccloud are both great books, highly recommend them (easy to get second hand/from your library/🏴‍☠️)

-lastly, haveee funnnnn

[coulsonlives]

Y'all. There has officially been "furry" drama on the neopets subreddit, and I'm crying. It's such a trainwreck.

Someone posted anthro artwork of their neopets OCs, which looked like this:

And I guess it was reported as NSFW by multiple people, because these neopets were really um, well. I'm not gonna lie, they look like naked people with super short fur, and they even have pretty big mons pubis (genital area) which for anthro characters, especially super humanoid ones, is normally covered by clothes and/or thick fur.

Plus the poses seem a little playful (tongue sticking out? toesies?) and could easily be interpreted in a sexy way, especially once you factor in the more realistic anatomy, which again, there are shapes there in the genital area that aren't even really hidden. So I'm not surprised a lot of people were uncomfortable.

My opinion? It shouldn't have been taken down (and it wasn't!), but people had the right to be confused about why it wasn't marked as NSFW.

My thinking was, you wouldn't want to open something like this at work and show it to your coworkers. Or leave it around the break room table.

But of course, the artist got snarky. Apparently this happened to one of their older posts too, so they were really annoyed and acted like the mods were spineless (literally, they said multiple times that the mods should "grow a spine"), and there was some weird implication that the mods were censoring women's bodies, or fatter bodies, or something. They also compared their OC artwork, which is of the above very-humanoid neopets, to the Fontaine Sisters (who ofc, are always fully clothed sigh), and said if the Fontaine Sisters would be allowed to be posted, their naked humanoid neopets should be, too. Uh?

Then, they made a totally separate rant post on the subreddit, titled "yes, neopets is a furry website", which was promptly removed (I didn't even get a chance to see it, rip).

But I'm scrolling through the comments, and oh my god.

Someone replied with this comment:

The <image> link goes to this picture, with a few comments:

This person also seemed to agree on the general interpretation that it was a very "sexy" rendition:

And someone else on the original post with that character:

So hrmm, okay. Nothing wrong with drawing what you think is sexy, but. Own up to it and accept it might get marked as NSFW.

Someone made the following comment...

And the third reply checks out tbh. If I was still working with kids, I'd probably get written up too lol. And no, not everyone has a hip with the kids, totally down to hang boss, so that's a weird argument. If you couldn't leave this in an office break room, like I said before, it's not okay.

This person explains why the NSFW tag actually is appropriate, even though the artist claims it isn't:

Another comment that points out the mons pubis:

To which the artist replies:

To give them credit, they're not wrong that humanoid animals and humans in general do have a shape in that region! And it looks weird to just have a totally flat silhouette there, especially if the rest of the character is super curvy. But. again. There is almost no fur. So it comes off as nakey + features too humanoid for some peoples' routine, at-work browsing.

Someone else comments:

When... the artist could've just dropped the subject as soon as their post was labelled NSFW, but instead they had a tantrum and made a totally new post to whine about the mods' decision and peoples' reactions? Um.

Here's someone else trying to explain peoples' reactions, and the artist's reply is just silly:

Those are dogs and cats and fish. They're. not. extremely. humanoid. anthro characters. Now I'm getting annoyed reading all of this stuff lol. Is this really the hill you've chosen to die on? This has happened twice now. Mods are gonna mod. Get over it or leave. Your art isn't the same as say, King Coltzan even if people do thirst over him too. He's fully dressed.

Another commenter who missed the point about how most neopets characters have clothes and aren't very, very humanoid:

But thankfully the mods came in and locked some of the comment chains:

So um. That was wild lol.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I was wondering:

Did you learn to draw somewhere, or were you self-taught? Maybe you have some tips or hints for beginners? What was your favourite thing about drawing?

Sorry if this ask is too personal, but I really like your drawing style and wanted to ask some advice :D Have a good day! 🌸

it's a mix of both, really! i grew up loving art from the very beginning, like. im talking about making teletubbies fanarts and asking my dad to make me learn to draw characters from w.i.t.c.h. and tomb raider fandsndfs, according to my parents i had a pencil in my hands before i even started talking -- and that's what led me to actually learn to draw "properly", first in a art-centered high school (that. did less than good to me tbf but it was a matter of 90% of the art-related teachers being garbage) and the comics academy in torino where i think i started to truly "understand" what i wanted from my art style

if i may give some advices other than the good ol' "keep practicing and try to at least doodle something once a day", i could go with:

don't compare yourself to other artists negatively, especially those younger than you. it's probably the hardest part, but you need to "force yourself" to be positive. if you find yourself thinking "this 14 years old draws better eyes than me", go with "i love how they draw eyes, let's see if i can learn from it"

copy copy copy copyyyyy!!!!! copy from references, copy from photos, copy from comics, copy from movies. of course don't plagiarize people and then present that stuff as your own, but try to make a pose yours and learn to take pictures of your own hands, feet, face or ask people to pose if you can't find the right position

your art will look like shit to you, a LOT of times, but know that at one point you're going to quit. if you don't like what you're drawing, either quit there or restart, don't try to "fix" it because you'll just end up noticing more and more issues with it - issues that, most of the times, aren't even issues to begin with. letting go of perfectionism is very difficult, but at some point you'll have to do that--

and about perfectionism, a VERY good exercise we did in comics school was being forced to "draw fast". this isn't me telling you you NEED to draw as quick as possible, but it's an exercise that forces you to learn quickly where certain body parts go, to prioritize specific details rather than others. we had a model, and at first we had to sit there for an hour drawing her, then the hour became 30 minutes, then 10, then 5, and at the end 1. it took us a few lessons to do that, but at the end the super sketchy 1 minute copy went from ???? to a stylized human figure!!!

learn to draw realistic anatomy, and then make it your own style.

for the love of god learn prespective it's a bore it's a chore but as soon as you learn that everything becomes SO much easier

for shading, just. put a point in the canvas where the light source is and go from there!! if the light is on the right, the shades will be on the left

if you're coloring, play with the shades' colors. a good idea is to use the opposite color you use for the lights - if the light is yellow, the shades look great in purples, for example just don't use pure black unless you wanna go for a more dark/noir aesthetic oh my god

professional comic artists retrace a lot of their backgrounds. i'm js. use this as you wish :)

learn to draw different body shapes!!!! like getting out of the anime phase of "fat people are just like thin people but with a huge belly" can be difficult, but it's very satisfying

go out of your comfort zone. if you have problems drawing horses, spend a few days learning to draw horses. take some pics and try to understand them.

body proportions are so fun once you realize how so many things are the same. generally speaking, your spread hand is as long as your face, your feet and half the size of your arm; the outer corner of your eye is at the same level of your ear, and the inner corner is perpendicular to your nose and the corner of your mouth; if you leave your arm on your side, your elbow is at the same level of your bellybutton, and your fingers reach halfway your thighs. it's so fun

and yea, i can't stress it enough. it'll take time. art is painful, art is stressful, art can be discouraging. take a step at the time, accept some failures and celebrate any good thing - even the smaller ones. you learned to draw hands today, and you should be proud. i tried to draw a cat for the first time and it looks wonky, but the cat you will draw tomorrow will look better. i believe in you

[punks-never-die205]

So funny with Kid and the bees 😂🐝 what about Killer?

Killer's a little less likely to be so metaphorical with it.

He's not breaking out diagrams or drawing pictures, but he's definitely more blunt than "When daddy loves mommy very much he risks her life by knocking her up." or whatever it is parents tell their kids when they're super little.

If no one's guessed, I don't have kids. ahem.

Killer, by virtue of their education, is probably a little too realistic with his explanation, even to kidlets, but I don't think that's bad. He's certainly in the school of thought that says "if kids know what things are called and aren't taught that such things are shameful, then if there's an issue they'll speak up easier."

Having a kid say in public "Mom my [idk what word a kid would use? pee-pee?] itches" is a lot better than having a wailing kid in the ER because they were too afraid to tell you they got a bug bite on their junk.

But that is to say, Killer would be the kind of person who would hang out with a group of children, answer all the questions their parents probably don't want a stranger answering, and then have like, an entire island's worth of brats running around yelling penis and vagina at horrified adults because they're saying these words with all the care they give to something like strawberries or puppies.

[olderthannetfic]

Having more fandom friends around my age/mindset (context: late 30s, rare fandoms, reads some nsfw but not the type to post about it a lot in my main account) might be nice. I ignored the fandom part of myself a long time due to my RL friends being shitty about it (I dumped the worst of them) and I'm trying to enjoy it more.

But I keep leaving comments on fic and art and don't get any reply, let alone a conversation or follow. When I do get a response, the person stops posting fic in that fandom shortly afterwards. In an earlier more active fandom, I would send requests to people (clearly open for requests!) and 99% of the time I'd be ignored, or they'd draw the request at a level clearly before their usual stuff then delete it because they didn't like it (their words).

I'm not writing anything inappropriate or critical? I try to make my comments more interesting than 'i love this write more thx', maybe they get too confusing and off-putting to read? It certainly isn't because my ship is too weird because even non-shippers ship my current OTP lmao

I am trying to be realistic about it, maybe they aren't replying because they don't have the energy, or they have a life and they can't reply to the comment immediately and forget to, or they moved on, or they think I'm a tit which is totally fine?

The issue is it keeps happening, it's depressing, and the follows I do get are people in the same fandom who only like the parts I'm not invested in at all, have really tired takes and are significantly younger to the point I'm concerned about looking like a creep if I interact with them at 100% of my full power. It feels very much like I'm wishing on a monkey paw.

I have a very small number of friends I can talk to about fandom stuff I will cling onto with both hands. I just wish there were more. This is mainly me venting but if anyone has any suggestions feel free.

--

Hmm... Well, I share your suspicion that if you're the common factor, you're at least somewhat contributing to this situation. It may not be that you're offputting but that you inherently like things most other fans don't like—not just rare ships but also rarer tropes.

Or it may not be rarity exactly but prompt style: while tons of people love found family and slice of life, a lot of prompts for those are so generic and boring that they inspire exactly zero new plotbunnies. Meanwhile filthy kink is not for everyone but often has the seeds of a specific fic in a prompt, so if you do like it, those prompts are super inspiring.

A lot of people are pretty terrible at responding to comments. I'm extremely hit or miss on AO3 myself. I'll respond to a zillion things on tumblr before I remember to actually answer comments on AO3. Partly, it's that I get said comments in my email inbox, not on AO3 itself, so I read them and appreciate them but am not in the space where I'd respond right at that moment.

Sadly, people making one fanwork and moving on just comes with the territory when you're in rare fandoms. It's much easier to make friends who like to vid Asian dramas or who are learning a language for fandomy reasons or who are doing fandom historical preservation than friends who share your exact current taste in blorbos and who will continue to do so.

In my case, I love rare things, but I also love to move from fandom to fandom rapidly, and I find it really stressful to have friends who end up resenting that.

I tend to befriend fans whose overall vibe I find compatible more than people I share ships with: people who will probably be in fandom for life, people who are loud and proud about it, people who are interested in fandom history and pan-fandom meta. I also tend to be drawn to accounts that are not only horny on main but horny for kinky shit that draws haters. It does a wonderful job of weeding out the whiny children and finding me fans with a spine. Hilariously, one of my closest offline fandom friends with whom I share the most character opinions doesn't even like sex scenes. But that's not somebody I'd have gotten to know online.

It's going to vary for the people you're approaching, but that may be one reason they're not as enticed by the sight of another fan of their current rare fandom: they may have totally different types of criteria for fandom friends.

It's hard to know how much of the problem is you without examining your internet presence more, but I get why going "here's my account, plz critique" is not attractive. This ask seems fine. No particular writing style red flags jump out at me.

I've definitely known people who were dicks about my tumblr popularity and wanted to know why I didn't reblog them... but it turns out they interacted with me only once every six months so I don't remember them or their tumblr is entirely shitposts or their writing style is incoherent or they sound angry all the time.

One problem you may be running into is that findable fans in their 30s and 40s are self-selected for Fandom For Life types who already have a bunch of close fandom friends. They're likely doing a lot of socializing in private with people they've known for ages. I like to think of it as people with very full dance cards. They tend to be the most attractive because they're living happy, fulfilling lives, but that same quality makes them too busy. Meanwhile, people who are sad and alone and desperate for friends are often less visible and less compelling. If someone figured out how to connect with them, they'd be a great friend, but fewer people are trying.

It's not that every compatible late 30s fan is too busy for new friends. It's that the fans who are visible enough that you know they exist and know their approximate age are a very specific slice of overall fandom.

As fans age, some of their fandom friends leave fandom or die, so there can be periods where people are going "Shit, I need new friends!" later on, not just in college and such. But I'd say late 30s is a tough-ish period. A lot of people are busy with young kids and/or haven't lost their inner circles from younger years yet.

In general, a lot of my closer fandom friends aren't actually looking for new friends and haven't been in quite a while. Some don't even post publicly anymore. I'm something of an exception because I'm both extremely friendly and always on the lookout for minions to convince to go to Escapade con or take up the banner of fandom preservation yadda yadda. I have a vested interest in remaining open to new people.

Thoughts, everyone? Have you gone through friend-seeking and full dance card phases?

[sailor-aviator]

✨

Okay, so kind of a personal post, but I wanted to get my thoughts down, and I will end up deleting this later lol

For my whole life, I have loved books and stories. I have literally been writing stories since before I even knew how to read and write. Somewhere at home is a picture frame that my great-aunt put together of a drawing I made when I was like two or three, and it was a sloppy finger painting, but it's clear that it's meant to be two people and some kind of creature. And she typed up a caption for it, and I guess it was the description I had given her of what the painting was supposed to be.

"A prince saves a princess from the scary dragon, and they live happily ever after."

Not my best work, admittedly, but it's the first documented time of me making a story, and I looked at that picture frame with fondness. Who knows where it is now, probably tucked away in some box in the attack after my parents moved.

But, then I got super into writing in like the third grade when I came up with my first original story, and then my love for writing snowballed from there. I can't tell you how many stories would flit in and out of my brain over the years, but somehow I think y'all have an idea just based on the ideas I pitch on here. But, just know that the ones I put on here are only a fraction of the ones I come up with.

I don't know why I'm so in love with writing and stories exactly. Maybe it's the thrill of making my own worlds where my problems aren't so present and overwhelming, or maybe it's because I love to find the magic in different possibilities. That sounds kind of smarmy, doesn't it? But, I think it's still true.

But, something that's been part of my personal journey as of late is the idea of doing things for myself and not others. My whole life, I've been such a huge people pleaser, and now at my big age, I've decided that I don't want to live my life like that anymore, but I'm faced with the problem of: how do I stop?

I'll start off by saying that I love my parents a lot. They've made a lot of sacrifices for me and they do a lot for me, and I'm forever grateful to them. But whether they meant for it or not, there was a lot of pressure to be a certain thing growing up. I could have hobbies like writing, acting, painting, drawing, singing, etc. But I had to be realistic, and that meant that I wasn't allowed to pursue those things as my main goal. I had to find a way to stuff myself into the box of "STEM, business, or something that would make money." And I get why. Financially, life was rough for a really, REALLY long time growing up. Both of my parents came from households where their parents worked more than one job to make ends meet, and this was back in the 60s and 70s.

So, for most of my life, I allowed myself to have those hobbies, using them as an escape for the growing pressure I was feeling at needing to be "perfect" for my family. And that's just it. I was never "perfect" enough. I could have won first place at a tournament for speech and debate, and I would be given critiques on how I could have done better. They always told me they were proud of me, but the word "but" always came after their words of praise.

"You did such a good job, but..."

"That was really good, but..."

"It would have been even better if you just..."

I didn't hear the words "I'm proud of you" by themselves until I was 12 years old and it was from a family friend. I remember waiting for the "but" to come, and when it never did, I had to excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom.

So I escaped further into my little worlds, and sometimes I would share them with my friends who would always tell me that they loved my stories, but there was always the nagging feeling in the back of my head that they were lying. They had to say that because they were my friends, but also because the stories weren't...perfect.

I've always been a perfectionist, and it's something I'm learning to get over as time goes on. These past few months have been such a journey for me because I've been allowing myself to be bad at shit.

But then I started posting on here, and it made me feel so good to know that literal strangers thought my writing was good too. You guys didn't have to lie to me and tell me that it was, you genuinely thought my writing was great! And it makes me so happy! It refueled my love for writing, and I hope I can keep writing for years to come!

But I've also been telling my mom about all of this (leaving out the 18+ bits lol) and the other night she looked at me and asked me if I had considered actually getting a story published.

Now, this was a bit of a blow for me for a couple of reasons. Yes, I'm so happy that she's finally taking an interest and seeing how passionate I've always been about writing, but...

But why now? Are you asking me that because you genuinely think I'll get published, or are you asking me because you're hearing that people actually really appreciate my hobby and you think I can make money off it? Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic about something I've made clear that I always wanted to do?

Idk, I'm probably just overthinking the whole thing, and I know she's genuinely happy for me, but it still kind of heart. Yeah, the dream is to one day be a published author. It always has been, but who knows if I'll ever finish anything good enough to be published, ya know?

Anyway, if you stuck around this long you can breathe out a sigh of relief lol I'm done rambling and ranting for now. I'll get some of the updates out to you guys when I can

[loosesodamarble]

Oh! If you're still doing the headcanon ask game, can I get Vanessa and Morgen please? 🥰

Of course I'm still doing the ask game! I've only just started it today in fact!

And those headcanons you ask for are here now!

.....

Vanessa Enoteca

Realistic Headcanon: Vanessa’s Red String of Fate spell is a two-way street. There’s gotta be a mutual sense of connection for the spell to protect anyone. The spell can get around the elf possessions because the souls of Vanessa’s friends are still in the bodies. But if Vanessa and a person’s bond isn’t super stable, the spell won’t work for them. Zora and Nacht would have a high risk of not being under RSoF’s protection because of the walls they keep up. Nacht is definitely worse off than Zora. While he said he was gonna live with the Bulls, he would take growing accustomed to them at a snail’s pace, and even then his connection to most Bulls would probably remain as coworkers. Even with Nacht’s history with Yami, I think Vanessa wouldn't warm up to Nacht quickly. He is an acquired taste after all. Plus (and this is a personal me thing) I don’t see Nacht and Vanessa having much chemistry. (No hate to people who imagine them with a friendship or even romance. My mind just draws a blank when imagining them interacting. 😔)

While it might cause Vanessa some grief to learn that her spell does have conditions like that making it slightly harder to protect the squad/friends she considers her “family,” I feel like conditions like that would make for an interesting test of trust. Like, imagine if an enemy tried to infiltrate and bring down the BB? But RSoF outs them as an enemy because the spell won’t protect someone who doesn’t value Vanessa as much as she values them.

Not realistic but hilarious Headcanon: Vanessa has never won a drinking contest against other Black Bulls members. Either the members are too young to drink (Noelle, Asta), they aren't interested in competing (Grey, Secre, Gordon, Henry, Nacht), they'd rather compete with food (Charmy, Luck), or they agree to the drinking contest and in her overconfidence, she drinks ahead of time and ends up dooming herself to lose (Yami, Zora, Finral, Magna). Vanessa has won countless contests elsewhere but within the squad, it just never works out in her favor. 😅

Heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends Headcanon: Vanessa remembers how her mother looked when she smiled. When she was first put in that cage, she hoped to one day be able to do something to make her mother smile again and thought that was how she'd get her freedom. She gave up on that hope eventually. But even years later, Vanessa would like a chance to make her mother smile again.

Unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own Headcanon: Vanessa's actually a talented writer and has written a few romance stories (both the innocent and not so innocent variety). None of them are very long with 30,000 being the average word count. She's managed to write one short novel per year since joining the Black Bulls (which means her writing process might actually be "write drunk, edit sober" 😆). She bases the stories on the romantic gossip from other squads that she hears about. And one might've been a self-insert fantasy with a knock-off Yami. But you didn't hear that from me.

...

Morgen Faust

Realistic Headcanon: Morgen trained himself to specialize in healing magic. His magic had a natural inclination for offensive spells. But he wanted to heal and use support spells and so he underwent intensive training to get the spells he ended up with. He wasn't without any attacks in his repertoire but he was mainly a support mage with healing, defensive, and other utility spells. Morgen is not a noble who would coast by on his naturally strong magic and just take what's given to him. He will commit himself to learn how to use magic the way he wants to.

Not realistic but hilarious Headcanon: Morgen's go-to response to anything he really didn't want to do (meet with a suitor, clean the bathroom after Yami used it, do a spicy food challenge, etc) was to go to the nearest window and jump out of it. He wouldn't say anything, but walk to the window, open it, and jump out like it was nothing. If he wanted to make it clear how opposed he was, Morgen would run and leap out the window without even opening it. It was so bad that anytime Morgen was told something people knew he wouldn't like, they'd arrange to meet him in a windowless room. (Don't worry, he'd cushion his fall with a bit of Light Magic, that or he'd make a pair of wings and fly off.)

Heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends Headcanon: Morgen's first loyalty was always to his family. Not just Nacht. But his parents too. Even if they didn't truly love him, he loved them. Because they were his parents. They gave him life and a home and clothes. He was quietly neglected, but he was never fully cast aside and abandoned. And they loved Nacht (albeit for the wrong reasons, but they at least values Nacht) which meant that the brother Morgen cared for didn't face the kind of cold treatment that Morgen got. And when it came to the matter of devils, Morgen was more scared of his family hurting themselves rather than the illegal nature of it (hence why Morgen brought absolutely zero back-up when he confronted his family; he didn't want them arrested, just out of harm's way). Morgen loved all of his family, in a desperate and one-sided way where he could only want for their love back, but it was still a deep and honest love. Because that's the only kind of love Morgen knew how to give.

Unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own Headcanon: Building off how I said Morgen was more concerned about the dangers of working with devils rather than it being illegal, Morgen would've jumped at the chance to learn about Forbidden Magic. Not so much as to use it. But he'd tear through whatever books were available and watch with deep fascination as Nacht learned to control the powers of the Bremen devils. While not a scholar, Morgen is the type to like learning new things. And knowledge about devils isn't something you come across easily. Finally, it's his family's secret practice and Morgen would want to be in on that! Screw the law, the Faust family's devil knowledge is really cool!

...

Headcanon ask game

[tankgotstuckinthecircusgate]

for the art ask thingy you reblogged, mayhaps 8, 12, and 17? (don't feel pressured to do them all)

ty for question! there will be a lot of text below bc i like to talk about my art or myself😭 i'm an egocentric😭

8. What do you like most about your own work? It's hard to say, because i criticize myself a lot or treat my art like idkkk things i have to do while i'm still alive?? like creating (anything) is literally the meaning of my life so my work to me it's kinda like a "vacuum the apartment" item in to-do list. you vacuum your apartment, delist it, and then forget about it forever but if to think a little deeper it's hmm i like the style in which i’m drawing rn, though i’m still not really happy with it. but this whole styling thing is super hard to me after years of academic art 💀 if im super tired my hands automatically draw something realistic and this really upsets me bc i don't want to draw realistic things :( i don't post many original art here, but i love the sense of freedom it have, that i’ve worked very hard for and still working on it! like replacing "how to do it acceptably?" with "how i want it, how i feel it and how to do it honest" in my mind. honesty and sincerity are the most important things in my life, work, people etc. there are many problems with this now because of the russian laws and autocracy, which has long been more like totalitarianism. i have a hard time saying and doing what i think, constantly having to go around/come up with metaphors/not putting something out there at all, even changing ideas and plots. it disgusts me, i hope i can emigrate in the next two years or so, freedom is a key value for me and ok if to be more abstract, i like the fact that I draw/etc for myself, i.e i create something that i lack in this world. every time it gives me a feeling of satisfaction (though it doesn't last long) that "there! at last I see what i wanted, what i craved to see". i.e actually i work from "i don't like what there's rn, i want to see it differently, I want to do it other way". as if the store didn't have clothes in your size and and you'd have to sew your own

12. Show your favourite drawing from this year

i realize that this question implies one drawing, but idc and will show several instead of just one :^) the first drawing that comes to mind is this! well it's not exactly a drawing ofc but still. it's one of 54 illustrations for the play "the shadow". i love this work very much (text here says "your country is like every country in the world" in different languages, and on the color block the phrase is "it's all so mixed up", it's quotes from the play)

and three more illustrations for the same play! best part of this year in terms of art is probably that i finally got into lettering. although it's not lettering in the classic sense here, like these lettering aren't meant to be readable, i just think the letters are very pretty:^)

and the last one. this fanart turned out to be very important for me! i drew it some time after my diploma and finally for the first time in a long time allowed myself to loosen up and not think about what others will think. thanks to this art i realized in which style i wanna work:^)

17. What inspires you?

almost anything tbh. movies, books, theater, songs, science, news, colors, clothes, people, whatever in personal projects, it's usually a reflection on current events/experiences talking to people and their stories inspire me a lot on a more simple level: music/songs. i believe that any visual composition is music (even Kandinsky wrote about it and he himself considered his abstract works as painted music). So rhythm, intonation in songs and other things inspire me af. i always make playlists for every big project im working. it's not even about the lyrics of the songs, it's about the vibe/mood they give. (i had an exhibition this summer with illustrations for "the shadow" and like i put a disco projector there and made a 6 hours playlist 😭 bc all the illustration were based on music (and i hate exhibition snobbery, pseudo-intellectualism, and in general when people consider themselves superior to others. i also think that looking at pictures without music is boring) aaaaand i'm also inspired by the words themselves? (you can notice in the pictures above, haha). sometimes by the meaning they carry, sometimes just by the way they look. and the letters inspire me bc that, again, is music to me. the rhythm, the plasticity, the contrast. i just love letters ahahh

thanks again for the question and hope it was interesting! have a good day/night/morning/etc ! 💞

[britneyshakespeare]

this is sooooo silly but i keep thinking about it. disgraced would-be-debut author cait corrain (a youtube video about that if you aren't aware of what i'm talking about). i can't remember where it was shown right now that they were talking to a biracial artist they were commissioning to draw a black character for them. for some reason they just kept wanting to like overexplain why they are going to an artist of color and how they would do a better job (why not just tell that particular artist how you appreciate their particular skills?). bc they were like well a white person probably wouldn't do as good a job on it. this might not seem like the most important thing to point out, but you don't need a reason to commission artists of color. you can just do that. there's nothing inherent to the art of drawing that would make white people less able to drawing people of color, or any person less able to draw anyone else with different features than them. especially if what you're seeking is a realistic piece; an experienced realistic artist shouldn't have trouble drawing ethnic features that they don't personally possess.

it felt like cait corrain was just very much overspeaking on troubles with racial representation in popular art. and they don't really know what those problems are or how they arise. when white artists are bad at drawing people of color, it's usually not that they just have some sort of difficulty of perceiving accurate shapes or forms. it's that their stylistic preference has a bias towards lighter skin, eurocentric features, that sort of thing. you don't have to tell an artist "i think you'd be better at drawing this character because you're non-white." like that's just so weird.

oh wait super important edit im making immediately bc i meant to say this in the original post: U CAN HIRE ARTISTS OF COLOR TO DRAW THINGS OTHER THAN PPL OF COLOR. HIRE ARTISTS OF COLOR FOR ANYTHING U WANT COMMISSIONED. U DONT NEED A VIRTUE-SIGNALLING REASON TO DO IT. u could even have them draw one of your white characters (gasp)

[canadiankakashi]

Behold, attempts to draw realistic possums

[tillxthexearthxstartsxtoxcrumble]

This is just me being a bit overprotective of how heartstopper showed teens cause one of my favorite things about it is that none of them have, like, unrealistic body expectations. Even if they're extremely athletic, none of them have six-packs or anything like that. It shows what teens actually look like and that's special to me. But I've read and seen a couple things now where they make characters look completely different from what they look like in cannon. Especially Nick Nelson. He's a teen boy. He's drawn to have a gut, and that's normal. He is a teenager. Please, please, PLEASE stop changing that in fanfictions. People can be attractive without looking super lean and fit.

But also Charlie!! Charlie is a small person and he's skinny. Tao is kinda short and scrawny (as they say with the whole "Twig arms" joke). They never really mention anyone's weight, height, or size.

I do want to focus a lot on other characters besides Nick as well because they are great things to focus on, all of them are really good representations of teenagers. But I haven't seen nearly as much of people changing their body in fanart and fanfiction.

I know that Kit now is really fit and athletic, they've joked about it before, but even then I don't see it as much of a reason to act like Nick can magically look like an actor that goes through training and probably has someone to help with their diet to make sure they can look a certain way for a role. Teenagers don't have that. Teenagers come in all shapes and sizes and it's important to keep them to what they are shown as in cannon. Especially in this cannon. Because this is the most realistic representation I've seen of teenagers, probably ever.

*Any part in bold from here on out might have spoilers for the heartstopper comics if you haven't read volume 3 & 4*

(Warning for content: mentions of eating disorders.)

One thing that is shown in character design, is Charlie and his eating disorder. Charlie has a hard time eating anything, especially when he gets stressed and feels like he doesn't have control over things. Charlie is skinny, and he isn't too athletic (yes, he was on the rugby team but (at least in the show) he isn't anymore). Charlie is scrawny, and that is part of his character design, and it is important to his storyline because that is a big driving point of volumes 3&4.

SHOULD BE SPOILER FREE FROM THIS POINT ON <3

With other characters there aren't too many things that make their character designs super important to be true to their character, but it is still important to draw teens naturally, because it can cause a LOT of harm to someone's mentality to see a teen look a certain way and no matter what they do they can't have that. Teen or not.

This is mostly just me ranting and it might not be me saying much that made sense or anything, but I felt it was important to talk about.

In a lot of media about teenagers we see extremely unrealistic body expectations. Even good shows. But a lot of very popular shows about teens in high school cast 20-30 year olds where they look drastically different from most teenagers and that can be very harmful to teens who watch those shows and start doing things to try and look like that. Whether it's over excersising, developing and eating disorder, or being unhealthy in any other way. It's sadly a big thing to see normal teenagers now and that's why it's important to me that we keep Heartstopper to stay that way.

100% feel free to reblog or reply with things you would like to add. If I mentioned anything that is harmful to this topic, please do tell me because I don't want to spread any harmful information.

[rosicae]

Writing tip or something - planning scenes

Writing difficult scenes is always a struggle. Here are some tips to make the process a little easier, and more importantly, actually get something done instead of staring at a blank page for two months (guilty).

First, let's start where you left off. Maybe they're exploring the dark woods trying to find their lost cat and they come across a beast. Great! Battle scene time.

The first thing you need to ask yourself is what you'll get out of this battle. The main points, or plot-twists, if there are any. For example: Maybe the cat turned into the beast and they only realise as it lies dying; maybe one of the main characters die; maybe they find a key in the beast's skull; maybe they spare the beast and it becomes their friend; maybe the beast just dies and that's it. I'm not judging, there's a plethora of reasons you'd do anything in stories. Most scenes should have some sort of lead, whether it be key or death or kiss or whatever, depending on what sort of story you're cooking, but it's up to you.

So, figure out your main point. For simplicity's sake, I'll go with: “They kill the beast, they find a key”. Finding the key will be a clear lead to their next move. But for now, let's focus on the current scene.

You're going to want to order the events. Writing scenes like this off the bat can be pretty hard, so let's just go with what we know first.

I'm not joking when I say a lot of my scenes start out sort of like this.

Now, to build upon this beauty, we have to dig into each segment. Let's start with part A!

PART A - “Rosi encounters a beast.”

What sort of beast is it? A slimy tentacle monster? A catfish-pirate? A deformed bear? Dracula?? Your decision will affect the entire scene, so really think about what you choose. Monsters are super fun, so be creative if your story allows it! I'll pick a duck-faced bear spider hybrid. What does that do? It might help to draw your monster if it's a struggle to think it through. Here's mine!

As you think about their appearance, see how you can use it to their advantage or flaw. You might even already have ideas for certain moves during their fight, or what could be the fatal blow. We'll talk more on that later though.

Next on Part A, how did she encounter it? Was she up in the trees trying to check the sun's direction when suddenly it barreled into her and threw her down the tree? Did she trip over a log only to realise it wasn't a log but an angry treant? Is the forest cursed and monsters just keep chasing after her for no reason??? Maybe she's holding a tracker and the evil villain is sending the monsters after her.... it's good to think about, in the long run. For now though, let's just stick with: "she bumped into the beast"

But try to make it fancy. What was her reaction to bumping into it? Why would she bump into it? Maybe she wasn't looking while she was running and kept bumping into trees, but then one tree was actually the monster. The monster is clearly very fluffy (would probably make a good blanket), so let's make that a clear point.

So now we've got:

“Rosi was running along the forest without properly watching where she was going, when she bumped into a tree - but it was fluffy and warm and beating, not a tree. It was a bear duck spider beast. OOOO! SLAP SLAP!”

Slap slap being “the beast slapped her in her confused daze”, because who wouldn't be surprised if a tree was actually a duck-bear hybrid? This happens to be a perfect initiation to begin battling! On to part B!

PART B - “She fights the beast and kills it.”

This is absolutely the hardest part. It'll take careful consideration and pacing and- oh whatever let's just slap in every action thing we can think of. Even if you think it isn't good, even if it's just little phrases or actions or fancy words or teeny tiny segments you aren't sure about, it's good. Just do it.

-beast slaps her in her confusion/daze and she hits her back against a tree, much pain

-beast snaps its flappy duck beak and honks a bunch, muddling her brain

-rosi throws rocks at it

-rosi somehow breaks off its spider legs, unbalancing it

-beast uses its spider legs to crawl everywhere and be very agile and hard to fend off

-beast stabs her with its stabby legs

-maybe an injury from being slapped around

-rosi tries to run but it's always there

-rosi smacks its beak, very annoyed

-beast forces her to the dirt and pummels her with its stabby paws

-rosi evades its stabbies because the green drippy stuff looks like venom

-venom touches nature stuff and makes it wither

-beast lets out a bellow that shakes the earth and topples trees

-rosi avoids the trees to not die

-rosi scrambles to get up

-the most important thing is to somehow open its skull: plunge a verrryyy strong stick through its eye that tears out the key; or somehow trick it to stab itself with its venom spider legs and it withers and turns to bone/ashes and yay key (I like the second one so I'll go with that, but it's always good to list out your options!)

So I basically just took parts of the forest and parts of the beast's body and natural instincts of someone who is facing death and, adding some creativity, threw together a bunch of possibilites. It might take some practice, but once you're in the flow and have some experience listing this stuff, you'll get the hang of it in no time. Thoughts tend to be short and snappy in quick-paced scenes, so be careful not to go into a whole monologue about their past experiences, but absolutely show some reasoning to the complex things they do if necessary. And leave the monologing for when they're not being killed.

Now let's order them into something that sort of makes sense. It varies depending on what you want, so see if you can make your own unique battle scene out of this list!

-beast slaps her in her confusion/daze and she hits her back against a tree, much pain

-rosi scrambles to get up

-maybe an injury from being slapped around (tree + back + sudden slap = pain, this might be a good time to mention if they already have a flaw like having weak bones or an old injury, but if it isn't your intention to incapacitate them and you want to be realistic, have a reason for them not to insta-die without being op. Maybe she was just slapped into bushes and got little scrapes or a twisted ankle. Maybe she had a plushy backpack that took most of the impact. Remember where your character gets injured too, since pain usually hurts for a while and it's good to add that in wherever needed now and later. It can even drive the story along at times, like a life-threatening blow.)

-beast lets out a bellow that shakes the earth and topples trees

-rosi avoids the trees to not die

-rosi tries to run but it's always there

-beast uses its spider legs to crawl everywhere and be very agile and hard to fend off

-venom touches nature stuff and makes it wither (she notices here and thinks oh no, that is bad, can't let that touch me)

-rosi throws rocks at it (misses because it's agile)

-beast forces her to the dirt and pummels her with its stabby paws

-beast snaps its flappy duck beak and honks a bunch, muddling her brain

-rosi smacks its beak, very annoyed

-beast stabs her with its stabby legs (or tries, let's not kill her just yet if we're deciding on venom QwQ Maybe she uses a plank of wood to save herself last second)

-rosi evades its stabbies because the green drippy stuff looks like venom

X-rosi somehow breaks off its spider legs, unbalancing it (delete because the lower idea is better, but maybe earlier one of the rocks she threw can unbalance it a bit and it jumps on her to attack closer because it feels threatened)

-rosi somehow tricks it to stab itself with its venom spider legs and it withers and turns to bone/ashes and yay key (she tricks it by deflecting it with something strong, like a boulder behind her, she got out of the way just as it does a slash at her, and it bounces perfectly into itself

And just like that, ordering and expanding on every part, you've got yourself an entire fight! Obviously it isn't as easy as counting to ten and opening a pot to a finished piece, but if you just take ten minutes or, better yet, an hour, you'll get somewhere. All you need is the base.

PART C - “She finds a key in its skull.”

Keys are shiny, and if it's daytime, maybe some light can twinkle off it as it falls, or she could just notice it because who wouldn't notice a key trapped in bones? Either way, she picks it up, as you do (unless you want an eagle to swoop in and take it, in which case rosi will have to chase after it and climb a tree and try to take it back from its nest and blahdy blah but rosi doesn't feel like moving anymore after the fight, so let's go with the easier option for now). She might have to wrench it out of bones, but it's fine, she's already dirty from the battle.

So what's the key look like, hmm? Is it rusty and old, or fleshy but firm and warm as suited for being trapped in brains for so long? Or oozing in the same venom, and she has to wipe it off with special fabric only trolls deeper in the forest are capable of making, or throw it in a lake to purify it? Maybe it's short, or missing half that you have to find somewhere along the journey. What does it unlock? Rosi won't know now, obviously, but you'd better have an idea or there'd be no point to it in the first place. Maybe this entire journey is in her mind and she's finding parts of a key to unlock her memory which will be a door to her childhood house. Maybe it's a master key to the villain's castle. Maybe it was accidentally baked in a cookie the beast ordered from a special fish-headed-cat-run bakery, and the little workers will be scrambling around to find the key and be so grateful that rosi brings it back that they hail her as king of fish-headed cats. You never know :D...except you kinda have to, so please have some sort of idea even if it's small.

That's practically all you can do in this part, so next we're on-

PART D - “She questions the key, then goes off to seek reason for it.”

Assuming she collects the key, what are her thoughts? It's all down to personality. Let's say rosi loves keys, and she has a whole collection at home, and she loves shiny things. She'll probably squee at the sight of it and act very excited - "she snatched up the key and chirruped her glee (oh hey, that rhymes!), and after a quick inspection with gleaming eyes, she tucked it safely in her pocket alongside trinkets from the seaside."

Because, you know, obviously she was at the seaside before all this. Or whatever else she was doing. It's your call. It's their personality. It's an optional connection, but a valid one nevertheless. Careful though - if she carries too much, she might get weighed down and drown.

In her case, she doesn't really think too hard on the key. Maybe she's already fought plenty of monsters and gotten a nice treasure trove of stuff. Maybe she's an air-head. Cough. Either way, the obstacle is gone so now she can go off and do what she was doing before - albeit a little more cautious, provided she learns from experience. If there's a clear indicator of what the key is for, or if the character was actively seeking it out, that'll obviously give a different outcome - maybe they'll turn back the way they came (car keys), or head for the town of blue oak (blue key) if that is already in their knowledge database, or ask the next person they see and get guided or tricked.

Finally, let's put this baby together! Let's start simple for now and just slap together this monstrosity with whatever little stuff we think of in the moment and some proper tense. We can build it up later (not here lol I've spent too much on this but you can if you want).

~~Rosi's Magical Adventure~~

Rosi ran along the forest without properly watching where she was going, when she bumped into a tree – but it was fluffy and warm and beating, not a tree. It was a bear duck spider beast.

Fish. That definitely shouldn't exit.

The beast slapped her in her daze and her back slammed against a tree. Despite being in pain, she scrambled to get up. She staggered, feeling the pierce in her ribs, the ache in her feet, the scream in her head that told her to run. It was drowned out under the beast's bellow. The earth shook and trees toppled one after another. Rosi spun on her heel and ran, avoiding the trees that twisted her path.

Even when she thought she outran it, it was always a step behind, a step above, a step ahead. Its spindly legs granted it an agility she couldn't imagine matching. Not only that – wherever the ends of those legs touched, an iridescent liquid spurted out, withering blooming manes and wilting once-proud trunks in an instant.

She shivered. She couldn't let it touch her. Realising that her (flee, running, escaping – whenever you can't think of the right words in the moment, just think of whatever is the closest and use that until you find the right word, or you might waste an hour racking your brains when you could just keep writing) was futile, she pounced into a rolling stop by a mound of rocks. It disoriented the beast for but a moment as she scooped a handful of rocks and hurled them at it. Most missed, or melted into its ragged coat, but a few landed directly against its uppermost legs. It gave an unnerved honk and flung itself at her, forcing her to the dirt, pummeling her with monstrous paws and claws that snapped her skin as she raised her hands to defend her face.

It honked. She grimaced. Her vision blurred and brain muddled with every honk. On impulse, one hand shot out to smack its flapping beak. Its pupils contorted, enraged by her sacrilege, and its spindle-legs shot towards her.

Just in time, she rolled free and pulled herself up, evading the blows that scattered poison over melting green. One hit went into a boulder. The boulder didn't budge. It was ineffective. It sparked an idea in Rosi, but she wasn't sure, so she waited until it happened again, and again it hit a boulder and bounced without damaging the boulder. She danced her way around the clearing, then stopped directly in front of boulder, facing the beast with her lips twisted into a wry smile.

The stabby leg slashed her way, but she ducked out of the way at the last second. Unable to redirect its blow, the leg bounced off the boulder and went directly into the beast's skull. The venom was quick to engulf the beast. Its skin vanished like the trees. It was only (bones, skeletal structure remained) and it fell before her. (If you still aren't sure how to write a part, break it down even further, even if it looks stupid. Keep breaking down everything as much as you need, until everything is plain to see and there are no misunderstandings. Then add on, and keep adding on, until you eventually understand.)

Streams of sunlight (because a lot of the trees died, so now there's some light in the forest) glinted off a surface lodged in the bones. Realising the rusty old metal to be a key, she snatched it up and chirruped her glee, and after a quick inspection with gleaming eyes, she tucked it safely in her pocket alongside trinkets from the seaside. Then she turned and limped her way back home, wondering why she came in the first place as blood trailed after her.

~~The End~~

It isn't perfect – far from it – but it doesn't matter. It's a start. You can work with it. You can keep going. Finish the chapter by repeating this process over and over, then go back and polish it when you've let the experience sink in a bit. Who knows where you'll go??? (ﾟヮﾟ)/

I spent almost three hours on this instead of writing my own book, and I'm tired, so I don't know if this makes sense, but I hope it's helpful a little??? I tried not to make it complex as much as possible so people of many levels can understand and hopefully get something out of it;;;

It's the method I've been using for a long time, especially when I'm in a difficult part or just can't get myself to write anything. Start simple, get something done, and keep going.

….....which I realise is the complete opposite of what I'm doing. Oh gosh what have I done OAAAAAO

….also this is really long and I'm scared so I'm not even going to hard read it over or edit now that I'm done writing.

ROSI OUT

[mementofloreo-archived]

@sorrowmarked || the PINING...|| some early hs yearning for u(cut for length)

When Kaori asks him out, word gets around fast.

Daisuke thinks a big part of the ruckus that follows is because he shot her down. She's super popular after all, and apparently there were rumors about her being hung up on some underclassman from her middle school even last year(though he was shocked to find out it was him...)

...Still. She's pretty, and she's nice, and she's got a knack for baking that he can't help but be jealous of. But at the end of the day, she's nothing but a friend to him. He's never been remotely attracted to her romantically.

She took his answer gracefully, of course. She's a nice girl when all's said and done, and she just wanted to clear the air, she said, get some closure so she could start moving on. Daisuke can respect that.

Still, a "nobody" first year being confessed to by a "mega-hot" second year and rejecting her without a second thought? He would have ended up drawing more eyes after this regardless, but circumstances considered he's been feeling like he's attained some kind of celebrity status.

Guys ask him if he's out of his mind and he just groans, rolls his eyes. Then some people ask if he's gay and he waves it off. I'm bi, he tells them, but my sexuality wasn't the issue. I'm just not into her like that.

And he feels like he's starting to hear whispers about him. Gaggles of girls(or boys) here and there, talking about him. He doesn't catch a lot of it- he tries not to, actually- but, well, it kind of leaves him feeling fidgety and flustered, some of the things he does hear.

You know, when you actually look at him he's pretty hot.

And wasn't he in the cooking club with her? Kinda gives him a sexy flair doesn't it...?

I've seen him on the soccer field before and he's actually got a great-

The teacher snaps her book shut as the lunch bell rings and things get noisy as people start to move around. Daisuke's busying himself pulling out his box lunch, thinking about if he wants to get some dessert from the cafeteria along with his drink- and finds himself waylaid by several students(mostly girls) from the class next door.

They ask where he got the lunch, and he looks down at it awkwardly, blinking for a moment.

"Uh...I mean, I made it." He says dumbly, "I do all the cooking at my place."

He takes a half step back as they chatter about how cool that is, and how popular he must be with his family, and- and god, wow, these kids really don't have a clue about his home situation so he wishes they wouldn't be getting so hyped.

"It's just me and mami," he cuts in, "Er, my mom, I mean. My sister's already a working adult-" he leaves out that she's a pro soccer player, "-and uh, my dad..."

Still has several years left on his prison sentence, but fuck that guy anyway.

"...Uh, he and my mom split when I was 13."

Another couple of minutes pass while he finds himself all but interrogated, but he quickly notices something aside of the strangers.

Hikari.

She's sitting on her desk, the front corner one by the door. Takeru's nowhere to be found and neither are Mina or Wataru, so they've probably gone to eat already and she's just waiting on him.

But she's been looking at him a lot lately, it feels like. Not that she was ignoring him before, but...

Well, he doesn't know what it is, but it's a different look. Like she's wrestling with something, or focused, or concerned, or...well, regardless, something's on her mind. But he doesn't want to pry.

Takeru made a joke a couple of days ago though, about her "really not being too wild" about Daisuke's newly acquired "heartthrob" status. Daisuke deadpanned simply that The hell do you mean heartthrob? My looks aren't even that memorable, dude.

There's still that little bit of him that wants to dream maybe she's jealous, maybe she's starting to feel something, maybe, maybe, maybe-

He's gotten used to stomping that little flicker out as soon as it starts, though. He can't stop himself from being crazy about her(he's tried, he's tried so hard) but he can stop himself from alienating her by being a moron about it.

...Still, even though there's no way any of it is because of a crush or something like that...he does think that it might be hard for Hikari, adjusting to having to share her oldest friend with so many more people so suddenly. He remembers exactly how that felt in elementary school for him, after all. So yeah, maybe she's feeling a bit lonely. That much is realistic.

"Hey," He cuts through whatever the conversation has turned to, "I gotta go eat. Bye."

It's brusque, but he knows if he's too polite he won't get away from them. He makes a beeline for Hikari, meeting her eyes and stopping at the doorway.

"You didn't have to wait up for me, we always get the same table," He says casually, but there's a smile on his face.

"Ah, I wasn't-" Hikari hurries to gather her things, "I wasn't exactly...waiting on you..."

She shuffles out the door, saying something about not keeping their other friends waiting, but even as he follows her Daisuke feels a little lightheaded. It's like something out of a dream, what he just saw. Hikari doesn't react to him that way, she's never made that face in response to anything he's said or done or- really he's never seen it happen at all.

But even a couple of steps behind her he can see that her eartips are red. She's blushing. He didn't imagine it.

That little hopeful voice is back. Shut the hell up, he tells it, grinds it under his heel, but it keeps whispering anyway.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe, someday, perhaps.

[aresrl]

I hihi I am!!! A little nervous w/ doing this bc I've never done this b4 so please bear🐻 w// me💦 May I request a match up? A vision, a romantic partner and maybe a friend and/or enemy? If that's too much feel free to just assign me a vision + partner, ehe/// Preferably male for a romantic match-up, but either gender is fine with a friend and enemy match-up^^ I tried to be as detailed as possible but I think I ended up just ranting, so im v v sorry if it's long! I sort of fluctuate when it comes to being an introvert/extroverted. W// strangers and irl, I'm very introverted and shy!! Rarely speak and if I do it's just the usual "Hi how are you? That's good. I'm good too, thank you for asking:)" yeayea I'm not too. Keen on social interaction irl. But I always do my best to be very nice!! I never wanna come off as mean bc wow what a bad first impression that would be. But with friends / ppl ik online?? Whew I am very very friendly n chatty ^^ Either very high energy or very chill, there's rarely any inbetween. Sometimes I like to jokingly tease my friends but I'd never go too far / make them uncomfortable!! And if I do I always apologize right away!! I like to say that I'm affectionate?? My strongest love language is def physical affection, if not quality time. Idk man there's just something about vibing with someone or hugging them that just aaaaa/// Although I usually display affection w// words of affection bc. Literally most of my friends are online friends so I can't actually hug them, sad times. Idk if this is needed/important info but I just remembered: I'm 5'6 around??? Need glasses bc. Whew i am blind (near sighted), I'm poc (specifically black) anndd, hm. Actually I think thats it for this section, aha. As you can see I'm, not really all that organized. Also I don't have the best attention span - while writing this I'm circling between 4 different apps - and I'm a bit of a mess. And also a little stupid. Just a smidge dumb. But I have my moments - I solved like. 2 puzzles in Inazuma by myself so I think that counts for something. I also find that I tend to talk a whole lot when I have an idea or smthn to say abt a thing I'm super interested in!! That's info-dumping. I info dump. Yes. I also really like to listen to other people talk abt things they like!!!! Its so nice :) I'm protective over people I care about!! I've never done it but 100% would bark at someone who messed with someone close to be. Arf arf yaknow. I tend to he impulsive. I'll do something, and be all "YEAH>:D" and then regret it later. And then I'll do it all over again in a fun little cycle :) I consider myself an optimist, but quickly turn into a pessimist whenever it concerns myself. Fun funfun. Should probably mention that I am. A very insecure person w/ dangerously low self esteem, which is super fun esp when you mix that with the fact that I'm rarely ever motivated to improve. Yayayay Also sort of a pushover?? Like most often than not I'll be convinced to do something, even if I'm not too keen on doing it. Also afraid of confrontation when it comes to my friends and strangers (that is, if it's concerning me!! I'll order smthn for my friend but if I need to order for myself?? uhh stutter time aha). I'm also a mega simp ahah! Srsly though if I fall for someone/get infatuated with someone I. Will be so obvious abt it even though I try very hard not to be. Would gush over that person probably. I don't really like mean people tbh. Like yes I'll be nice and civil with them but!!! I cannot stand!!! Rude people!!! Esp when they're mean for no reason like sir??? maam??? homie??? chill pls ty<3 People who aren't necessarily mean, but moreso have bastard energy and are just really "hehe>:D" but playfully are p poggers tho!!! I think I get along with kids!! I have a little sister,, around like. Nine? And we get along really well!! I also try and match a kid's energy whenever I'm tasked with looking after them. I take pride in the fact that kids like me >:].... even if they sometimes scare me-- Ok, interest time!!

I like art!! Quite a bit!! Less of a realistic artist and more of a cartoonist!! Idk there's just something fun abt drawing cartoons, hehe. I also like self ships - I have quite a bit of them, actually ! Idk its comforting drawings your fictional crushes loving you idkidk. I like writing too! Both original stories, and one-shots or personal fics that are associated with already created media!! Writing character backstories and personalities and stuff is also fun too! I've even made my own fictional world with a full fledged backstory n everything! It's very fun to think about. I'm a day dreamer!!! Yea remember when I said I write stories? I day dream abt potential stories even more. Mmm daydream world so nice so warm so fun I read aswell!! Mostly fantasy books, or stories where animals are the protagonists. Think Warrior Cats. But my favorite book series has got to be Guardians of Ga'Hoole. Fantasy owl books, anyway! X Readers are also things I enjoy reading :) Again, s I m p Also gaming!!! Is something fun I do sometimes!!! Although it's usually Genshin Impact, or Wii Sports/Resort w// my little sister. Oh, also pokemon! I rlly like Primarina, Vaporeon, Sylveon and Vulpix/Ninetails! I absolutely adore sweet foods, and baking is smthn I'm def interested in! Don't like foods w// weird textures though, like beans or mashed potatoes. Also I. Love spice so much. Mmm love it when my mouth burns so bad. Don't have a favorite animal but I've had three cats in my lifetime (btw not important but my current cat is named Sylvester and. He's my baby boy) so I am. A very big cat fan. Probably not needed but I really like sword and claymore characters. Literally all of the characters I main are either sword or claymore users. Although I did get Diona, so I miiight start forcing myself to learn how to aimmm. I see that I tend to like people/characters that are a little more extroverted than me. Upbeat, happy type beat!!! Nice sunshine babies, :) I think thats it! I hope this was good enough? Again, first time doing this (at 2am nonetheless) so forgive me if I got too rambly or did anything wrong ^^ Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this! And I hope your day is good / you had a good day, depending on when you read this, ehe!

Hey! Sorry if the wait has been long! I also love Warrior Cats (I promise myself, one day I'll finish it.)

You received... A Pyro vision! Optimistic, enthusiastic, impulsive, reckless, and a lot of energy are the general characteristics held by the Pyro vision. • I hesitated between the Pyro and Hydro vision, but your energy distinguishes you from the Hydro vision. • You said you were impulsive, always doing something you might regret later but still doing it. • You react quickly: as you said, if somebody hurt someone you love, you won't think twice before barking. Your partner would be... Xingqiu! “This feeling was unexpected.” • At first, you were just friends, and Xingqiu really loved to tease you. Actually, you both teased each other. But eventually, a feeling of love towards you grew into Xingqiu. And that was reciprocated. • Your relationship is filled with teases, jokes, and good/funny moments where you mostly share what you commonly appreciate. • He also knows when to get serious: for example, he does everything to support you during your moments of struggle concerning your self-esteem. Your friend would be... Childe! “Luckily, I'm here!” • You two also share funny moments, especially during situations where your “stupidity” is overtaken by his insight. • Sometimes, he finds you cute. • He likes the fact that you get along well with kids. It leads you to great moments with him and his siblings. • You're quite the opposite in terms of self-esteem. I think it's a good thing because it makes you complementary. Your enemy would be... Albedo! A misunderstanding. • You wouldn't hate each other, but I think Albedo wouldn't like the way you use your energy, and when you're more in a chill mood (meaning you're more available for him to talk), he could get pissed at how much times he'd have to repeat himself for you to understand something. • He's very patient, but he understood quickly that his interests would maybe not be within your reach. • You would just be too different. Worth to mention • You and Venti are like drama queens in Mondstadt. You are good friends. But you both know that you can't be more, as it would eventually both drag you down (because of similar problems). • Klee is also your best friend: both of you share decisions that you definitely will regret later. Or maybe not. • Hu tao and you are kinds of silently competing over who's the best tease, and she beats you. My goal is definitely not achieved. I hope I can catch up tomorrow. And don't worry, it was surprisingly good for a first description!

[littlefoxwithbighat]

The sides denying aspects of themselves

I could write 50 essays on this topic but you'd all get bored and it would be incoherent. So let me talk about some of the parts of the sides that they deny. You probably all already know these but I think it's interesting to talk about and look at the examples--so here we go!

Logan "I don't feel anything" Sanders

OK, right out of the gate this is so untrue. Its so, so, so untrue. You know it, I know it, we all know it.

We've seen him happy:

Angry:

Scared:

Frustrated:

And empathetic/ remorseful:

We've also seen him passionate (Crofters musical), defeated (SvSr) and childish (Losing my motivation)

And all of this requires feeling.

I think what's interesting about this, is that the veil is so thin for this lie. For the pieces I wrote on Roman and Virgil, other characters have had glimpses of the parts they deny but for the most part it's pretty hidden. However Logan having feelings and denying them is common knowledge. Like all the characters know it.

Even Deciet, who yes, is incredibly astute and intuitive, picked it up within knowing the guy for like 10 minutes of canon interaction.

But what is most interesting about all of this to me is that CHARACTER THOMAS KNOWS.

Not only KNOWS but has canonically called him out on it!

C!Thomas [to Logan]: This just serves as testament to the fact that you have a temperament- which is fine, you just haven't accepted it (-LNTAO)

C! Thomas [to Logan]: I've seen you scared. (-Embarrassing Phases)

This is so so fascinating. Firstly, it's worth remembering that Thomas is in control here.

As Virgil said "You're the boss Thomas. Anything you want to know, you can know. You just have to be open to hearing it."

They're his sides. He ultimately has control over them. And Thomas knows that Lo is hiding his emotions, so WHY doesn't he resolve this? Because, let us be clear, it might take time, but if he wanted to, he could.

A) He doesn't think that ultimately, it doesn't matter

B) He doesn't want to

C) He hasn't actually adressed the matter

D) He is concerned about the consequences

Personally I think it's a combination of all four, although perhaps less so D.

We never really get long enough to pause on this topic and see the other sides reactions to this, so it's difficult to draw any firm conclusions. The best we really have is The Puzzle Song in LNTAO, and from that we can conclude Roman is frustrated, and Patton and Virgil are empathetic, but also a bit frustrated and trying to facilitate change.

OK, we've established that he has feelings and looked a little bit at other character reactions. Let's move on to our favourite blue boy himself.

Firstly, motive. WHY does he do this. This is one is easy, and widely canonically established, its his overwhelming need to be taken seriously. Right?

Well sort of.

That what I would have said at first too, but I don't think thats exactly right. It's because he needs to be LISTENED TO, and it's important we make that distinction. I think Crofters is a great example. He made a bit of a fool of himself in that video, and what's more, he didn't care. And I don't think it's becuse of his powerful love of Crofters overtook his sensibilities (lol) it's because he didn't have a point he needed it express in that video. His emotionless, serious personna was created is that the other sides, and Thomas, would listen to him, when he expresses facts and opinions. Because that's all Logan wants.

So it's pretty heartbreaking that it hasn't worked.*

*(Please note I do not think the sides were unjustified in talking over him in some of this points and that some of them are clearly a result of high emotional stress. That said its still clearly getting to Logan)

This is even more distressing when you consider that for Logan listening and learning, going both ways is very much his love language (See Joans explanation of Sunrise from In The Heights on his playlist, and his reaction to Thomas saying he might take an astronomy course). Logan is killing himself trying to be listened to, trying to be loved, and it's not WORKING (Hmm, remind you of another side?)

But this is a progressive development. Maybe it's partly a result of Thomas not having the characters super fleshed out when the series started, but even so, this personna Logan is putting up is coming up more and more often, and he's clearly repressing his feelings more and more. It's kind of difficult to show this, but just watch Logan in early season 1 compared with now, there is a marked difference.

But actually, I think there are two things that illustrate this perfectly.

First, him making himself into a textbox in POF. I mean it goes without saying, but textboxes aren't people. They don't have emotions. Logan feels he can't even show up anymore, because he as a person, is not worth paying attention to. I don't think it's a coincidence that he chose a form that cannot be talked over, and pops up on the front of the screen, impossible to hide, or cut out of shot. Remember, it was Janus who created the skip button.

(That being said I think I'm not saying this is a sign of him having a healthy ego and interfering, if anything it implies the opposite)

Second, the unicorn onesie. The unicorn onesie is something I keep coming back to when I think about Logan because... UNICORNS. They're a fantasy creature, there's not a jot of science or reality about them. Of all of the choices, Logan, fact oriented Logan, doesn't understand figures of speech Logan, doesn't like cartoons because they're not realistic Logan, WHY does he pick a UNICORN!?

In my opinion, the unicorn onesie is something of a confession. Vulnerability. It kind of represents all of the feelings and fantasy and fun that Logan tries to repress. And that kinda makes sense doesn't it, I mean, feelings, fun and fantasy, that's what unicorns often stand for.

So I think it's telling that throughout the series, we first see him embarrassed, but not too torn up about being seen in his onesie (able to show and engage with his feelings fairly openly, but trying to keep fairly calm and serious) to being unable to wear it around his friends in a relaxed environment, WHEN THEY ARE ALL WEARING ONESIES (Can't show any emotional vulnerability at all and suppressing all his feelings in order to seem serious and be listened to.) Thinking about it this way, Roman saying "no onesie, no vote" could be an interesting parallel to how the sides view this. Because, again this isn't working, and if anything, the deeper Logan goes into this emotionless front, the less he seems to be listened to, which makes him go even deeper, and it's an endless positive feedback loop, which is ironic considering how soul-crushingly negative this is.

What I'm trying to say is that we've seen repeatedly, that the point in the episode where a/the side(s) get emotionally vulnerable is often the point in the episodes where everyone calms down and listens to one another, so this emotional repression is doing nothing but damaging Logan.

That being said, you can understand how he's worried about letting his front it down. Because Logan is right.

There will be times where he needs to be heeded, and ignoring him could lead to disastrous consequences. The biggest example of this is DWIT. If he wasn't there they could not have gotten rid of Remus, everyone else would be panicking, and Thomas' mental state would be in the gutter.

Thomas NEEDS Logan.

So if Logan feels like showing his feelings will stop him from being listened to, then logically, he has to continue to hide and suppress them.

I think in season 3, maybe even the season 2 finale this will be adressed and be a big part of his character arc, and I for one, can't wait.

Anyway I think that about does it for this one. Thanks for reading!

[alex-wrtng]

How I Describe Characters: I don't.

This is where the "show not tell" demon comes to bite eveyone in the ass. Most of the time, characters are introduced and described within the same parragraph (unless it's some sort of pen pal situation, or they are a ghost/invisible, or the MC is blind, etc.).

Most amateur writers will try to infodump all those quirky characteristics they've been working on so hard and then their introduction ends up looking like a grocery list of random attributes that vaguely resemble a real human and not an anime character.

I usually don't describe my characters unless there's a striking feature I need to point out like a scar, a tattoo, dyed hair, etc. and if it doesn't fit in my narration then I use dialogue or action to fill in the blanks left behind by my need to keep descriptions short and simple.

Work with negative space: less is more.

No description means "default characteristics" which can change depending the setting, your character's name, socioeconomic background, etc. This is where stereotypes come in handy (oof). Stereotypes exist whether we like them or not and we writers need to take advantage of them by using them in our favor.

The average person has: brown eyes (approximately 79% of the world's population has brown eyes), brown hair, under 6 feet tall (you can look what the average height by country is here), no scars (unless your book setting is wilder than average then go off and give everyone scars), no facial hair, short hair (men), shoulder length hair (women), etc. Skin color depends on other factors, but readers are more likely to guess that the character has a light skin tone than a darker one.

No description means the reader will probably imagine what I just described.

We can work with stereotypes in a small setting (say your story is set somewhere in small German village. What do most German people look like?) or in a more general setting (an international space station or simply a big city with a diverse population where one's ethnic background is hardly going to be the same as everyone else's). When it comes to wider settings the "default" changes a lot so go do your research if you are using real locations.

Names

Your character's name will paint a picture way faster than an entire parragraph.

Examples: Karen Miller, Ricardo Martinez, Fitzwilliam Wickham, Tyrone Williams, Wang Xiuying, Pierre Dubois, etc.

I didn't need to say a word for you to draw a basic picture of what they look like. Do what you must with this information.

Professions

Now that we have a name and we know what a default human looks like, we can start with clothes. Uniforms are easy because you don't need to do anything special with their description. Eveyone knows what a cop looks like and same goes for a bunch of other professionals. A quick Google search should be enough to let you know exactly what you need to know, but remember that a few words are more than enough. One adjective and one or two nouns should do the work.

Examples: Bloody scrubs, pristine suit, tactical gear, ragged jeans and a random hoodie, leather jacket and washed out jeans, etc.

On the other hand we can simply NOT mention any piece of clothing and simply go "David the doctor" and depending on the setting the reader will imagine a white lab coat, a stethoscope, either scrubs or a button up shirt, a pen in their pocket, a pager in their belt, and whatever else their brain can come up with before you throw in some action. If your character doesn't have a profession (too young or unemployed), you can describe the climate instead (what do people usually wear when it snows?) or the setting (could be a fancy party or a beach in the coast of France) or the activity your chatacter is doing (gym, class, visiting grandma, murdering the governor), etc.

Skin tones

Don't look for synonyms unless you want to super romantic (or super annoying). If you aren't like me and you have an inclination for poetic descriptions then go ahead and describe how the sun makes their skin shine or whatever, but if you aren't then here's a very basic chart:

If that's not enough for you then go to a makeup websites/blog and look up tones vs undertone.

Again, you may NOT need to describe your character's skin tone if their name or setting was enough to deal with that. Most of the time the reader will simply guess your character is white and that's it.

Body proportions

Here's where it gets tricky. There's the basic descriptions of "tall vs short" and "fat vs thin". The reader will automatically choose a medium for these two (unless it's a male main character in which case they will always choose tall unless he is some sort of loser or a child) so you may not need to describe this either. Height is highly irrelevant unless the character is much smaller/shorter than the MC or if this new character is a romantic interest then "taller" and "shorter" should be enough of a description unless you want to get creative or your MC is the type to wax poetics about such a thing or your MC is the exact opposite and has the ability to guess their exact height (like a Sherlock or Spock type of smart character).

You can soften the "fat" adjective with words like "soft", "chuby", "curvy", "thick", or you may go for the kill and describe the character as "morbidly obese" if you feel like it. I don't make the rules, you do.

Objectification

No one needs to read a description about a female character's boobs.

If you reeeeeeally want to go there you can mention how character A can't stop looking at Character B's chest or you can bring up the subject with dialogue or you can indirectly mention it by describing their clothes (be creative, bitch).

One thing most men don't know is that women (straight or otherwise) notice when other women have above average breasts, but most of time it's just "oh wow those are big" and "oh wow those are much bigger than mine" which may or may not be out of curiosity, jealousy, or attraction. I mean... women have eyes too, people. There's a third option which is "that can't be comfortable" which is 100% real. Big boobs can cause health problems, but this isn't a post for that.

MEN can also be objectified, but it's more subtle and less problematic as the mention of "marked abs" and "big muscles" is exactly what makes it to the cover of Men's Health magazine and superhero movies. Just like huge perfect boobs with small waists aren't realistic (but they exist), perfectly chiseled bodies aren't very realistic, but you do you. Find a balance and look up what's needed to have someone look the way you want them to (diet, exercise, good genes, demon deals, plastic surgery, etc).

Have fun NOT describing your characters and follow me for more tips. 💖

Bonus notes: Your chosen POV style will affect your descriptions. In 1st person POV, your MC's personality must color how they view people and what words they use to describe them, but you must keep in mind that most people don't stop to think about what a person looks like for more than a few seconds unless there's something special about them or the situation.