#sorry I'm slow responding

[zuppizup]

for soon mates hypothetical baby- i dunno wether it’d be funnier if Ethari was a nervous wreck when rayla went into labour vs if Runaan tried to be level headed but almost gives himself a panic attack

I think Runaan would have them driven absolutely barmy with "advice". Like, he'd definitely be the one sending articles to the family chat about new science in pregnant care/infant health, etc.

Which would stress Rayla out so Callum has a chat to Ethari about it and Ethari gets Runaan to cut down on forwarding this stuff but then Ethari has to deal with hearing about it and he's going out of his mind.

So then Callum hits upon the idea of getting Runaan to read through the instruction manuals for all the various baby items they want to purchase. They get him to weigh up pros and cons and recommend what he thinks is the best.

Which:

Gives Runaan something "useful" to do

More importantly, gives everyone else a break.

As to the whole labour situation, well, I have some ideas as to how all that might go down in this hypothetical situation that will never, ever be written.

[hellenhighwater]

I got to see Old Stories with my sister and my partner today! We've been following your progress for several months now, and I can't believe we got to go in person! Seeing Prometheus up close was particularly emotional for us; I hadn't been able to see him clutching his side so clearly until then. The whole thing was breathtaking.

Thank you so much for going! No matter how I try, I'm never fully able to convey how these pieces look in person. And thank you for reaching out!

[starflungwaddledee]

artfight attacks of @aseuki's lady helia and @das-a-kirby-blog's cherubim knight!

[keischreiber]

Thinking about how Reiner's decision-making as a leader is influenced by a need to a) fulfill a mission; and b) for the sake of someone else.

So when it comes to making decisions that are solely from himself he's lost and unsure of what to do, because his mind spirals back to how those decisions will affect the people around him.

You tell him that it's fine to be scared; but he needs to take the first step of truly deciding things for himself.

He understand you, but it doesn't make it easier.

"You can hold my hand until you feel it's safe enough to let go. And even if you do, I'll be behind you to push you up when you feel like you'll fall back."

That's what you promise him.

He is overwhelmed with emotion; never having felt this kind of support. It was different from they type of support he received. Different from his mother's who had expectations for him beyond himself, different from the military who had expectations for him to be the perfect warrior, different from Zeke who had expectations for him to remember that his failure was the reason everything happened in the first place, different from his friends whose expectations of him were slowly being rebuilt after the shared experiences of both loss and gain, different from the kids whose expectations were for him to be the role model that could be followed...

You didn't have any other expectations of him other than for him to be himself.

And that was what scared him. What if who he was, who he REALLY was, was something irredeemable... with damage too broken and shattered to be fixed. Once he puts down his mask of being a soldier... of being a warrior... of being the Armor... what the hell was he left with other than the child who he had chosen to cast away for the sake of what his mission needed?

"I... can you—"

He was struggling to say what he wanted. Not knowing where to start and fearing how it would end.

"I want you to stay by my side." He blurted it out. Selfishly. Greedily. As firm as he can be, letting his heart and every fiber of his being bleed out the last remnants of courage that he could muster.

His expression's filled with guilt and apprehension. What was he going to put you through? He knew it won't be easy being with him. But he wanted you there.

It was his first big decisions that he made solely for himself.

And that decision was to have you in his life.

[tiny-tf-faces]

I hope this blog is great AI dataset poison. Of course I have 3rd party sharing turned off, but it's not like an AI company is actually gonna listen to that stuff

The majority of generated transformers imagery I've seen is already just blobs of color. Ironically, robots are hard for AI to understand. And here am I, with hundreds of scruched up little (though maybe even too little to be included in a dataset) images, selected specifically for looking weird, all tagged various transformers characters. Just imagine what all those croissant Arcees could do to an image generator!

[ahollowgrave]

Hey! I love your screenshots so much! Do you have a guide on how you take them? Which mods, if any, do you use? How do you get the camera parallel to the ground at different heights etc? Any help would be amazing. Thank you!

Hey! Thank you! I love them, as well, and it’s always lovely to hear when others do!

Unfortunately, I am not much of a technical writer so I don’t have any guides.The reality is I spend hours and hours taking screenshots and I often feel like I luck into things looking nice.

But I can give you the same tips I give to my friends who have said it’s helpful advice:

Vanilla gpose is very good! You can do a lot in it without the need for 3rd party tools and I’ve found having a good, solid understanding of how gpose works is what really rockets shots into ‘oh wow’ territory. You really just have to touch all the buttons and see what they do and how they interact with each other.

The main thing is, for re/g-shade users: If it doesn’t look good in vanilla lighting, the preset isn’t going to make it suddenly stunning.

The second thing, for everyone, is: Play. Play is very important. If you’re not having fun you’re probably not gonna love the final result. If it feels like a chore, come back to it later! Play a different game!

The third thing, for everyone, is: These are not rules, these are not laws. Just because I do something a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the ‘right’ way to do it. Your eye is what makes your art beautiful.

I'm putting the rest under a cut because this wound up being three pages without the pictures because I ramble.

The parts of vanilla gpose I touch with every shot:

Camera Position: The first slider is your field of view. For portraits I set it to 200, but I tend to fiddle with it in all other shots until I get something I like. The second slider is rotation, very helpful to get to exactly 45 degrees or 90 degrees for shots. But you should also be able to use Q and E to rotate and this is fun to get neat angles on shots! Play with it!!

Depth of Field: I’ll be honest, I turn this sucker off because Reshade has ADOF which I think is better! But, I still suggest playing with this a little bit.

Lighting settings: You have three lights, each with three levels and each able to be a unique color. USE THEM. Find lighting objects in your setting that you can use to base the colors and directions off of. Is the moon full and above? Use a pale blue light as a rim light. 3a. Also, highly recommend looking at RL photography lighting set ups. This has been the most helpful. You can do a lot with three lights!!!!! 3b. Typically, I am mostly using two lights at type 1 or type 2. Sometimes I’ll use a third light, or that type 3 lighting, but it depends heavily upon the vibes. 3c. On this page there is ‘Character Lighting’ this makes your character brighter. I don’t use this at all because it tends to wash out shadows and shadows are an important part of lighting. I DO suggest that YOU use this to see how it works! A little is a lot, you know? 3d. THE MAIN THING IS TO PLAY WITH IT. Get weird with the lighting. Do really intense close up lights! Do funky colors! Cover them in bi lighting!!!!

Lighting Round Two: The one thing that my friends have said is the most helpful is telling them to use the Manual Birghtness Adjustment. This is on the general tab, not with your other lighting settings (circled in red). This controls the light of the WHOLE setting, including the brightness of your three lights. This is what really makes me go OH WOW. Turn it on, wiggle it around, be amazed. (Say it with me: Play with it!)

ADJUST YOUR LIGHTING.

Vanilla Gpose has a Motion Settings tab. This is what I use for my expressions but also a lot of ‘poses’ are just well captured emotes. A lot of this tab should be self explanatory.

The Eyes: The first eye has your subject turn to face the camera. You can have them look in a direction, turn it off, and freely move your camera around. The second eye is eye tracking. This is your friend! The head will stay stationary and the eyes will follow the camera.

Movement: Walk, run, sprint. Forward, left, right, back. Pause, play, reset.

Lip Movements: This, in junction with expression emotes, is very handy! Type 1 is minimal, type 3 is a lot more head movement. Pause, play, reset buttons.

Emotes: You already know what I’m gonna say. PLAY WITH THIS. Almost every emote can have an expression emote overlaid it and have lip movement added.

A personal favorite is /aback, /beam, lip movement 2, eye tracking.

Now. When you enter Gpose your subject is gonna be doing the animation they were last doing. To stop this, ground sit and stand before you enter gpose to start with a clean slate. However, this is also how you can get cool action shots. Using a dummy you can use an attack, reset the dummy, and enter gpose and your subject will be flailing wildly.

Some of the emotes and actions can move very quickly! To move things frame by frame we’re going to use the Disable/Enable Motion buttons. You have two of these at the top of the gpose settings.

Disable/Enable All Motion - This will pause or start all the motion of all the targets in your gpose! My Keybinding for this is 1 and I think this is the default for PC users. Disable/Enable Target Motion - This will pause or start the motion of your current target. (Tab cycles through the characters caught in your gpose.) My Keybinding for this is 2 and I think this is the default for PC users.

To go frame by frame by frame through an emote or action you’re going to freeze the character (1) and then, rapidly, you’re going to hit 1 then 2. (1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2) this unfreezes your subject and then refreezes them. Be mindful of your eye tracking and camera! One last thing: Take a LOT of shots. From all sorts of angles, with all sorts of lighting, with different expression. For every 1 screenshot I post there are about a 100 others that I didn't like as much.

Whew, okay, I think that covers the stuff I tell my friends. Sorry this got kinda long and it might be confusing because, again, I am no technical writer!

Now, I do use 3rd party tools but I’m only comfortable talking about those off anon! Other than Reshade. I understand social anxiety might keep folks from asking directly but I am a nervous person myself and just do not feel comfy talking about that stuff so publicly. But I try to be helpful where and when I can!

Apologies, anon, if this isn’t what you were hoping for in a reply but if anyone else reads this maybe they’ll learn a new trick or idea of idk something!!!

If you read the all thing that's fucking WILD and the only reward I have for you is my love !!

[mishkakagehishka]

I love loving mutuals but not ever telling them that to their face. Seeing one in my notes and going "omg!! It's [name], i love [name] :)"

[chosesun]

i'm trying to find the motivation to do things, but man it's been hard. i think i just overwhelmed myself again which is why i haven't been answering things here. i just have too much to do and it's stressing me out. don't worry, i'm not dropping any threads or anything, i'm just taking my time to do them. please be patient with me. i'll definitely get things answered at least by wednesday if i'm still overwhelmed with everything the next couple of days.

[bristledthistled]

Hii good day! I need to know more about Moon Tyrant’s concept! is he really a bad moon? or is this how Eclipse called him to make himself look better? on this note, how much did Eclipse changed Sun's memories of Moon?

Oh, yes, this is 100% Lord Eclipse being petty and slandering Moon’s name, making Moon the villain and himself the hero deserving admiration for protecting his people from the threat of this ‘Moon Blight’, this ‘Crescent Scourge’, this ‘Harbinger of Darkness’ and what other menacing titles Eclipse can think of to describe how much of a pain in the ass Moon is and will always be…

He made Moon into a sort of boogeyman, planting the seeds of fear into his subjects, because no matter what horrors he may inflict on the people of this dimension, the looming threat of something worse is enough to discourage any thoughts of questioning his authority and power. It doesn’t help that Canon!Moon ironically fulfilled that prophecy when he summoned the witherstorm into that dimension and basically sentenced it to an early death. 

In regards to Servant!Sun’s Moon, he was very similar to the tsamcanon!Moon. He wasn’t perfect and his beginning relationship with Sun wasn’t the best, but he tried to better himself and despite his faults, he was a guy that tried to do right by his brother and friends.

There were some slight differences between the two dimensions, like the daycare had more of a medieval/fantasy theme to it- more emphasis on the castle and a slight change to their daycare clothing, such as moon’s uniform having a liripipe hood hybrid-like nightcap.

It's also what inspired Eclipse when he was rebuilding the world, he went all out on his castle, tiny village, and the suit of armor, etc.

As for Sun, Eclipse has completely wiped Sun’s past memories; however, there is somethings that are hardwired into his baseline code that even Lord Eclipse couldn’t get rid of- such as his Daycare Protocols- and one of those things happen to be the Sun and Moon’s twin bond. I can’t think of a good way to explain it, but it's like, Sun’s memories of Moon may be gone, but his code still recognizes Moon as a part of Sun, it sees Moon as something familiar and something safe, which causes a lot of mixed feelings with Sun.

[amoneki-ramblings]

iirc you’re more into angst, but Haise would attempt to make Amon doughnuts, wouldn’t he? :0 He’d be a good critic too

YEAHHHHHHHHH I think it would be something Haise would pick up pretty fast (but maybe he would have Amon try his first few attempts and they'd be. Well. Amon says they're good at least but when Haise tried giving Juuzou some he visibly Paled)

Amon would probably just try to be Nice at first until Haise gets a More Reliable Taste-Tester, and then once he starts making donuts that are Pretty Good Actually Amon would give him more constructive criticism to refine them

He thinks that it's very touching that Haise would go out of his way to do something like this, despite the fact that he can't even enjoy the things he makes (All the donut making also certainly would help Haise later with the Quinx Squad, although they are left wondering why he makes donuts so often.... And why they're so sweet)

[tatatale]

(This one was my addition! Flower power! You can do it, Alive!!)

Oooh this is a very interesting Flowey!!! Thank you for your hopes and dreams (✧◡✧)♥

[loveydoveylex]

Vermillion: Ideally, throwing expenses out of the way, how would your f/o want to spend Valentine's Day with you? What would be the perfect day for both of you to them? And now thinking realistically, would they be able to pull it off?

(Hope you feel better and I hope you and Rayman have a wonderful Valentines day.)

thank you for the ask! and bless you for the well wishes ❤️✨️

I think ray might initially want to go for something huge and fancy - he wants to show me how much I mean to him, and that's a LOT! - before he remembers that that is not my style at all and I'd probably get overwhelmed. 😅 so he's quick to throw that aside, and we just spend a nice cozy day together, sharing our love and making eachother feel valued and appreciated. 💖 it might not be much, but we don't care. it's a day to celebrate our love, and we'll celebrate that however we please. for us, this is enough to make us more than happy. ^^ a day where any adventures and activities are set aside in favour of us just getting to be together in peace. the rest of the world can wait. <333

[ichorblossoms]

having thoughts about things

[cemeterym]

i'm begging my uni to stop making every fucking student social activity something where you have to walk around a bunch if you are a slow walker who cannot help it they literally want you dead

[desertfangs]

Daniel & or / Lestat

Opening sentence/prompt: Both Marius and Armand had warned Daniel not to let Lestat be a bad influence on him, and yet here he was.

5 lines whomst? Thank you for the prompt! I hope you like where I've taken it.

Both Marius and Armand had warned Daniel not to let Lestat be a bad influence on him, and yet here he was. With Lestat. Surrounded by fans who’d swarmed them in the middle of the Adventura Mall in Miami.  

Which of course was no accident. Lestat had encouraged it. Courted it. Was now clearly reveling in it. 

They’d come to the mall for an innocent enough reason: Lestat, having seen some new trendy sunglasses, was now determined to get a pair and he couldn’t do so on Night Island, even though Daniel was sure they were sold at the shopping center there. No, no, that was no fun and besides, they were already on the mainland. And Lestat wanted to see another shopping mall, wanted to revel in the accoutrements of modern life! Or so he told Daniel.

Daniel suspected he just didn’t want to go back to the Island. He’d come out of the room he’d been holing up in and had found Daniel in the parlor, where Daniel had been listening to music on his walkman. Lestat had pulled his headphones from his ears, bent down way too close to Daniel so that their noses almost touched, and said, “You have your hard-won immortality and you’re spending it on the couch?” 

Daniel had glared at him even as his pulse had raced at the closeness of his face, his breath on Daniel’s skin. He’d set the walkman aside, grabbed the keys for one of the speedboats, and brought Lestat over to Miami.

The sunglasses in question had been on an ad near a bus stop, sending them on their quest. They’d only been at the mall for maybe ten minutes when the speakers, which had been playing a selection of current top 40 hits, starting blasting one of Lestat’s songs. He stared humming along—loudly—and several people recognized him. By the time they’d reached the fountain in the middle, Lestat was loudly saying that it was one of his best songs and he was glad people had not forgotten him. 

The crowd had swarmed around them, asking for autographs, a few tourists pulling out cameras to get photos. Lestat had jumped up onto the ledge of the fountain, using it as a makeshift stage, ever the rockstar. And he looked the part, too, in his leather jacket and violet sunglasses, his blond hair loose around his face. Daniel looked more unassuming, his own blond hair short and feathered, in a gray sweatshirt and jeans. He stood on the floor in front of the fountain, awkwardly positioned between the group of onlookers and Lestat. 

Lestat signed address books and receipts, and, for those who had the tape on their person or ran to the music store to buy a copy, the linear notes from their cassette cases. Someone even produced a copy of his book. 

Just last night, Marius had been telling Daniel how important it was for their kind to keep a low profile, especially after what Lestat had done. This was the opposite of low. And the last thing any of them wanted—the last thing Armand wanted—was for people to come looking for them in Miami. Not just curious mortals who probably didn’t really believe, but people like the Talamasca, or intrepid reporters hoping to chase down what happened to the lead singer of The Vampire Lestat and finding their private island.  

“Where have you been?” someone called. 

Daniel searched the crowd and saw that a teen with facial piercings was the one who’d asked. 

“Ah, well, I’m afraid that’s a secret,” Lestat said, with a big wink. “But you’ll be able to read about it in my next book!”

The crowd went wild and shouted more questions, asking if there would be another album, new songs, what the new book would be called? Daniel spotted a security guard near the edge of the crowd, looking bewildered and unsure what to do. Clearly having a celebrity jump up on the fountain and draw an audience was not common place here and he had not been trained for it. 

Daniel had been so focused on the security guy that he hadn’t noticed Lestat was talking about his concert in San Francisco, and then suddenly he’d grabbed Daniel and yanked him on the edge of the fountain beside him. 

Lestat threw his arm around Daniel’s shoulders and gave him a conspiratorial wink. “Do you know who this is?” 

The crowd looked blank, no doubt racking their brains to think of everyone discussed in Lestat’s memoir, in which Daniel did not appear.

“How many of you read Louis’ damnable book, Interview with the Vampire?” Lestat asked. 

A few people whooped and hollered at that. 

“This is our infamous little reporter boy. The one who started it all.” 

One or two people looked impressed. Most looked uninterested. Daniel felt heat creeping into his neck and cheeks. 

“Don’t be shy, Daniel! Address your fans.” 

Daniel did not think he had many fans in that crowd and didn't dare read their thoughts to find out. He waved awkwardly. “Hi, it’s been great to see you all, but Lestat has an errand to run…” Daniel started. 

“Sing a song!” someone yelled. 

Daniel gave Lestat a warning look. Marius was already going to blow a gasket when he heard about this and he doubted Armand was going to be thrilled to hear Lestat had been parading around Miami announcing his whereabouts, either. 

Lestat shot a questioning look at Daniel. Daniel frowned, suspecting that trying to talk him out of it was liable to make things worse. 

“Unfortunately, without my band, I fear the show would not be up my rigorous standards,” Lestat said. “You’ll have to wait for my reunion tour!” 

Relief washed over Daniel as the crowd made disappointed noises.

Lestat let Daniel go, and Daniel jumped back down off the fountain, followed by Lestat himself. 

Daniel snaked through the crowd and Lestat managed to extract himself from their grasp, calling that they should look for his next book in stores soon.

“Was that really necessary?” Daniel asked. 

“Danny boy, let me impart to you one of the great lessons of surviving the centuries,” Lestat said, putting a hand on his back, the pressure of it reassuring through his sweatshirt. “Have fun.” 

Daniel looked at him. “Fun doesn’t always have to be reckless.” 

“Pfft,” Lestat said. “Reckless! I’ve been holed up for weeks. I’m allowed to stretch my legs.” 

Daniel didn’t bother to point out that no one had kept him holed up in that office. “There’s just been a lot of talk among the others lately about how we should conceal our existence.” 

Lestat gave him such an incredulous look that Daniel stopped walking. Lestat spun backwards to face him. “Ah, but don’t you see? The more rules they make, the more determined I become to break them all.” He grinned. He had a charming grin and beautiful, penetrating blue-gray eyes that made Daniel want to stare into them for hours. With looks like that, Daniel could see how he’d gotten away with everything that he had. 

“You’re going to get me into so much trouble, aren’t you?” Daniel asked.

Lestat winked. “Count on it.” 

He took Daniel’s hand and dragged him on toward the sunglass store. 

[sapphire-heart-tippy]

Been feeling a little down lately, but still trying to keep my chin up. I did this doodle while drawing some commissions (which helps me out a ton)

I feel like I can't really be myself unless I'm alone because my true self is loud, I laugh a lot, I make jokes and puns, I run around, I get distracted, I'm enthusiastic, I get excited and happy stim, I dance and sing... But a lot of people can't really handle that, so I have to constantly water myself down and pretend to be somebody I'm not for other people.

I know this is going to sound stupid, but I feel like Vans is the only person who would be able to handle who I am. I feel like he wouldn't be bothered by my enthusiasm because he loves me for me.