#the art is so good and its fun to see posts but at what cost :((((

[chalkeater]

Im soo happy i made the art of the height comparisons thing but oh my god some people are just So Wrong about the canon heights or are completely misunderstanding the SIMPLE point/joke/au/headcanon whatever- i was TRYING to make. Like on one hand i totally agree that yeah youre right Noelle isnt THAT SHORT im 6’2 and she’s 6’0. Monsters are just tall in my source but if people are gonna agree with me they should at least not be wrong about it .. how many times do i have to read “good headcanon but its not canon” girl its my little personal joke and indulgent thing “um Noelle is actually taller than susie anyway” no Count the pixels?? “youre wrong noelle is canonically shorter-“ im not stupid im just suggesting people consider a little fun idea that isn’t canon on purpose

[teeny-tiny-revenge]

It's home cinema manufacturing time! 🏴‍☠️ Gonna put my pirate show on my shelf! (I'm doing an Arts and Crafts Project and I'm making it everyone's problem.)

After seeing how much they cost, I abandoned the idea of getting a Blu-ray writer for now. For the time being, good old DVDs is what it's going to be! My TV is old and not very big, so DVD resolution is gonna be fine.

It's been ages since I last burned a DVD. For the full experience, I'm gonna create nice menus and pretty sleeves for the boxes. Graphic design is my passion! Um.

Well. First needed to find a program to do stuff with. I'm a Linux guy, so I'm using Devede. (Which is free, btw. In case someone else wants to do a low cost spot of putting pirate show on the shelf.)

DVDs fit a maximum of 120 minutes of video. So, four episodes, I thought. But after a quick attempt, the program refused to do more than three (maybe because of the menu also taking up space, and four episodes cutting pretty close to the 120 min mark?). Anyway, three episodes per disc it is. It's a pretty nice runtime for watching the entire disc, IMO. An hour and a half, and then you can return to reality to realise you should probably eat something, or go to bed because it's midnight.

OFMD with its current two seasons has a total of eighteen episodes, which is divisible by three. You get the following setup:

Disc 1: Pilot, A Damned Man, The Gentleman Pirate - That's pretty good, Stede's introduction to piracy all on one disc!

Disc 2: Discomfort in a Married State, The Best Revenge is Dressing Well, The Art of Fuckery - All bangers. Great to watch together, our boys meet and shenanigans happen!

Disc 3: This is Happening, We Gull Way Back, Act of Grace - Many romantic moments, lots of great scenes, shit hits the fan at the end there. Alright!

Disc 4: Wherever you go, there you are, Impossible Birds, Red Flags - ... Pain and angst! What have I done!?! The disc of horrors. Gotta make sure to have tissues at hand when I watch this. But hey, it also has messy bun Ed! Small mercies.

Disc 5: The Innkeeper, Fun and Games, The Curse of the Seafaring Life. - Another disc with all winners. I love all these episodes so much! (You can watch this disc to recover from the trauma of the previous one!) But seriously, this one slaps.

Disc 6: Calypso's Birthday, Man on Fire, Mermen - Great combination again. Season finale! Love and excitement!

... Honestly, except for the psychological damage of putting all the most painful episodes together, this is coming out pretty cool. Says a lot about how good the show is. I actually really love all the episodes (yes even the painful angsty episodes of massive depression). Thinking about this little project really reminded me how much I love this entire show.

So, we got a tracklist, now menus, then we can burn this stuff!

I did the menu backgrounds in GIMP. Realised I have a big folder full of screenshots I took myself, screenshots someone else took and posted on Tumblr, official promo pics for the show, and I have no idea anymore where most of them are from, because I named the files according to what's on them. Which is useful for when you want to find pics (Need a picture of cursed suit Stede? I have files named that, easy peasy!), but not so great if you wanted to give credit to whoever took a given pic you used. (It's probably @sherlockig or @ofmd-ann or @blakbonnet. Please feel credited, your beautiful screens and gifs brighten my day, and some of them are now probably part of my DVD menus. Shrunk down and cropped, but, yeah.)

I originally wanted to structure my menus as having the title of an episode, then some pics from it, then the next episode, then pics from that, and so forth, but I couldn't convince the program to give me the necessary padding between the menu items, so I ended up just putting the episode images below the menu. Still like it.

Anyway, DVD menus can also play sound! Behold a crappy video of my beautiful creation (provided entirely for sound):

It plays Gnossienne N°5!

More crappy pics of my other disc menus:

Gonna make them some nice sleeves next. Some day. Gotta make sure they all work properly first. So. I'll be on my sofa, watching my DVDs. With menus! (Edit: here are!)

[starry622]

Emergency Commissions!

yes hello, it is i, the dog whos been ebegging for money. unfortunately i need more money, because i cannot for the life of me get anywhere to hire me and therefore i cant afford the cost of living! if its any motivation, im a gay, physically and mentally disabled trans man who hasnt been able to eat much of anything for two weeks.

currently, im putting my full bodies at a discount from $40+ down to $25 max. any other kind of piece also has a discount, but im focusing on full bodys, since thats what i draw the most. waist ups are $15 max and busts are $10 max.

my specialties are in humans and humanoids, though i can also do furry art! im new to it, but its fun and makes good practice, though it may take me longer to complete. i also really love character designing, so if thats your jam, please consider me! as you can see, proper backgrounds are my mortal enemy, but for an extra $5-$10 (depending on complexity) you can have yourself a background!

if given permission, i would like to post the pieces i make for you, and can tag you in the post. i would also like to add them here as examples if you would permit it.

i can only take payment through cashapp (which you can also donate to, $Starry622)

fullbody example(s) (click for better quality):

(this last one is a commission i did for @toxifoxx xe are Very Cool and this is his william afton design ^^)

waist up example:

bust example:

i can also paint (digitally, of course)!! but it kills me inside, so its $30+ based on detail and background. the more basic the scene, the quicker itll be done, but paintings take me much longer than my usual style (MUST HAVE REFERENCE FOR PAINTINGS)

painting example:

[zarla-s]

Man it's been a long time since I've done an ask cluster! Let's see if I can get some down...

He's an extremely fun character to write for and play with! So in that sense I'm fond of him, haha. He's such a huge disaster of a person, there's always something fun to do with him. Well "fun" in a relative sense.

I don't have anything to forgive him for, he didn't hurt me. |D He hurt the brothers!

I do have an idea for a cute feature inspired by Six-Eared Macaque! I should really sit down and do that already... and finish the one I half started but never finished...

I don't think my opinion on any of them changed! I love them all, haha. Which ones I drew comics about just depends on which ones I get ideas for really. Sometimes I get Alphys ideas and sometimes I get Goatparents ideas! Inspiration is fickle!

I don't have any solid plans or anything. :B Just gonna keep chugging along with silly comics and art! Work on Defrag and such. I'd like to finish a Ladyverse comic I've had lying around forever, and I had vague plans for doing a doujin for them too I could work on... and also seeing if I could format Handplates into a book format... I've always got a bunch of projects, haha.

It works on that level! It wasn't intentional though. |D

I do enjoy speculation! I don't really have much of my own though, I didn't predict anything in chapter 2 so now I'm assuming I can't predict anything in the future chapters either, haha.

Emesis Blue is great! Some really beautiful visuals in there, very striking! Love the mood of it too and a lot of the surreal imagery. I think it helped spur me back into TF2 again, haha. Medic and Scout's relationship was so cute.

I have thought about this! It has its share of challenges though... I outlined them more in this post. A pdf would be more doable though... could even include some extra stuff as well! Hmm...

I can see that! He'd probably spend as much time out in the rain as he could just doing whatever to stay outside.

It was pretty much always going to end like that. I always wanted it to end on a hopeful note! Which might seem weird with how dark it is at the beginning. I DID for a brief period at the very beginning of Handplates think about stopping with the Pacifist run, but that was only because I thought going where I wanted to go would take too long and already the project seemed so dauntingly huge at the time, haha. But it was always going to end in a positive way!

Gaster talks about what he originally intended to create here, and he explains a bit about the physical experiments he runs on the brothers here. They aren't really a solution in and of themselves so much as tools to try and find a way to break the barrier. Really though, Gaster got stuck in the sunk-cost fallacy lol.

I don't really have opinions about what canon Gaster would be like. |D Handplates Gaster is his own thing really. Canon Gaster, who knows! Deltarune Gaster, who knows! I will say I hope Gaster stays a mystery in Deltarune and never actually shows up but I think the odds of that are really low at this point.

I thought about doing a script along those lines! I did a few rough drafts of one, but it never really went anywhere... it'd end up dead-ending or kind of meandering off. I might see if I can get an actual script down for a side-comic or something in the future... it might be better suited for a fic.

I was just thinking about this lately! I was picturing Gaster totally forgetting about that until he sees Papyrus squinting and is like OH GOD YOUR EYES THAT'S RIGHT D: and goes to get him looked at lol.

I couldn't come up with a good idea for Flowey which is a shame, I do like him, haha. If one comes to me though I might make a little side comic about it!

Gaster's LV is complicated... his stats in-game are ludicrous if I recall correctly. Did he carry the damage from his murders into the void, even if those murders weren't his in the new timeline? Deep thoughts.

He fed them anything he could find, haha. Which is why sometimes they just ended up with chocolate bars (which he intended as dinner for himself). He probably fed them more often than he fed himself lol. He did feed them fairly regularly though.

Not about skeletons, probably. |D

Man I know I had an explanation for this but it was so long ago... it's hard for me to remember. It could be that the Riverperson is just weird and has weird insight into elements of things, had a prophetic dream... I don't know! It bugs me now that I can't remember this, haha.

[vandalyssm]

Theory: Merlin's Recent Publicity and its Correlation to a Possible Sequel/Revival/Reboot (+Eoin Macken's Pseudo Merlin Project)

'Ello. Fancied sharing my thoughts on recent developments regarding BBC's Merlin.

Fair, firm warning: I'm only sharing speculations and my personal opinions on the matter, and I do not advertise them as fact whatsoever. Consider them musings (or delusions, your choice). You can use this to further fuel your hope of the slim chance that this beloved show will see the light of day once again or maybe make theories of your own. Dispelling it is also an option, as I cannot assure my arguments would be free from flaws.

Right. Without further ado...

Revival of the Official Merlin Twitter Account

Let's put this into scenario.

Imagine a dated piece of media, previously well-known worldwide and had its own golden age for a time. This media launched the last of its contents over a decade ago, yet it gained a loyal, devoted following that persisted to grow and continued the legacy of the franchise over the years. Though there were highs and lows, the community remained alive for an impressive amount of time, steadily producing art, fiction, and creations dedicated to the media, despite not having anything new to work with. This devotion is acknowledged by those from an outsider's perspective, including the creators of this media (cast, staff, and distributors alike).

To put into context, the community was left unsatisfied with how the media ended, and many wished for the media to return. Articles were written, petitions were signed, comments left on the cast' social media accounts, and even questions were asked directly to them. Although different in wording, the inquired notion remained the same: Will there be a possibility of a sequel/revival/return/reboot? The answers range from a neutral, vague reply to a more resounding no.

This cycle persisted, but the people were immovable; they were visionaries and their dream lived on in their hearts. And this did not go unnoticed.

So it continued... until one of the media's social accounts made a sudden return. Out of nowhere, without a warning. They're back for good, the account announced. It sent the community into a frenzy. But if you took a step back from the excitement, you'd notice that it's strange. Why would a media ended over a decade ago suddenly be promoted again?

Now, I'm going to explore two possibilities; pragmatic and idealistic. The previous hypothetical scenario lays the general principal of Merlin's relevance (duh).

I'll make the pragmatic perspective brief. FremantleMedia saw the opportunity to make some bucks from Merlin because of the loyal fanbase, using a no-cost yet effective method to keep us tuned in; hoping. OMG, what does this mean? Does this mean they're going make a sequel?! Holy shit, they're teasing us, aren't they? I can't believe this is happening, it's a dream come true! And so on and so forth. Evidently, it works and numbers are growing. The official Merlin twitter account is racking up more followers and likes with each post. In this possibility, there's no such thing as a sequel/whatever it is the fanbase hopes for; just a reanimated corpse doing the same silly tap dance while we holler at it, dumbly hoping that they bust out new moves.

Now, the fun part. The idealistic version!

I'm going to use a real life example for my theory: the upcoming release of Dragon's Dogma 2. With a quick Google search, you can learn that Dragon's Dogma 2 is the highly awaited sequel for its well-liked predecessor, Dragon's Dogma.

For some time, Dragon's Dogma was on sale on Steam (with a decent cut too). This was done to gain the attention of...

1. those who haven't previously dived into the franchise. It's to make them think 'Wow! This game's so good. Oh, there's a sequel of it that's gonna be released soon? With even better graphics and gameplay? Sign me the fuck up!'. You liked Blueberry Cheesecake, so it'd make sense that you'd be more open to buying Double Blueberry Cheesecake, Premium Ingredients Addition, with 2 additional paid toppings.

2. Veterans and nostalgic fans. 'They're promoting the game I liked years ago... Oh, well, it won't hurt to play it again, just for the nostalgia. It never really left my mind anyway."

In other words: hype! hype! hype!

If using this principle, then the possibility of a sequel/revival/reboot/new content exists. It's either being processed (wishful thinking, not as likely) or being considered (more likely). If it's the latter, then they're testing the waters to see how much people still care/how much money they'll make. The more attention and hype it gets, the higher the likelihood.

Simplified:

P (old media pushed for publicity) -> Q (hype built)

Q (hype built) -> R (new content)

Eoin Macken's Pseudo Merlin Project

If I recall correctly, Eoin Macken first announced a pseudo Merlin project in late 2020. It's first teased to be released in 2021, but nothing came out of it so far (at the time of writing this) except if you count the small handful of times Macken hinted it over the ongoing four year period.

Now, I understand his position. First and foremost, he needs the legal rights to actually produce anything and it's no easy feat when you're dealing with a massive company. Then there's the issue of costumes, props, sets, and equipment. A lot to consider. To put it simply, he must offer the company something worth more than the show itself or contribute in their favor in some way. Macken seems like a charming and capable guy, so he can make it work. Probably.

I lean towards the spin-off theory because a cast reunion would not take four years. As far as I know, Macken is close with the knights and they could get together at any convenient time. If the project was a zoom call or a recorded get-together, it would've been released already. To compare, by using the average of 385,000 babies born each day during the last three years, we have 421,575,000 newborns before the Pseudo Merlin Project.

I want to tie this in with the previous theory, but eh. It can connect, but not really. I don't have any further explanation or evidence since Macken hasn't given any news.

---

Anyways. That's enough of this. I hope it made sense, at least it did to me. I'm entering my third year in the fandom, so I'm relatively new and still hopeful. (Though I try hard to keep my feet on the ground while I stare up at the clouds.)

To end this post, I'd like to say: keep hoping. Hope is such a stupidly beautiful thing, and it should be nurtured. Turn that feeling into art, into efforts.

There are franchises revived 2-3 decades after, and Merlin is no exception.

[daeyeol4you]

The Chay Rewatch

As part of my KP Rewatch, I’m going to be commenting on each episode and analyzing the different Chay scenes. He’s my favorite character, and I thought I’d put down my thoughts (as well as timestamps for his scenes) as a fun way to express that.

Episode 1

Our first glimpse of Chay as a character is the baby photo at the 17:24 mark when the camera pans over an old family photo – the next photo shown is Porsche and Porchay, much older – speaking to the role Porsche was forced to take on as a young child and the clear love between the two.

Time: 17:40- 19:28 - My favorite boi appears!!

Chay being the designated family nurse – he’s never the one hurt but he deals with every single hurt his family goes through, constantly shown that everyone is putting themselves at risk while he just sits there

Arthee saying “If not, Chay would’ve been hurt.” as if he and his gambling issues aren’t the direct cause of the financial troubles Porsche has that caused the rent/debt payments to be late – Porsche’s blind eye that he turns whenever someone close to him does something bad is wild to me, but I digress, this is about Chay

The look on Chay’s face during the whole conversation about paying Chai is very important as he’s clearly a witness to what happened off screen, but he stays silent even during an exchange where he definitely would have something to say. He silently reassures Porsche that he’s okay, but its like he’s biting his tongue because anything he’d say would cause an argument or burden Porsche.

One of the many times we see Chay completely shut down his natural reaction and feelings, something that happens a lot around Porsche. He’s usually so upfront about what he thinks, wants, and feels, so this moment of quiet self-censorship is very telling, to me at least, in how Chay tries to protect Porsche or lighten the load. Chay clearly feels a lot of guilt about how much he’s costing the family.

His first words: “Hia, I’m sorry.”

This whole scene is such an interesting intro because Chay is here to show exactly what Porsche is fighting for and what he has to lose. Without Chay, Porsche doesn’t join the mafia. Without Chay, Porsche doesn’t end up falling in love with Kinn.

Time: 25:45 – 17:18- the celebration pizza scene!

His Shirt: Today is a good day – the costumers really weren’t going for subtlety here

The costumers really like putting Chay in white, maybe to show his innocence or that he’s Porsche’s one light before he falls for Kinn.

Porsche getting to squish Chay’s face – hate to see others living your dream

Chay with the milk, I’m sorry I laughed

Porsche really still sees Chay as a baby – he will have a heart attack if he ever learns that Chay was drinking at a club and nearly took drugs

Time: 31:50 – 32:25 - The Call

Chay I love you, but why would you tell your brother this? I understand he called you, but my dude… just say you’re in the bathroom

shows a lot of Chay’s childishness alongside how unaware of the mafia world he is

His Outfit: Not really distinguishable, but I’m assuming its the same shirt from later on in the episode

Time: 42:53 – 43:33 - Post Disaster Chay

Chay cleaning up the records is honestly so sad. They’re not something he or Porsche would buy as Chay likes idols and Porsche doesn’t seem that interested in any form of art, and the record player looks like the one my dad has in his childhood bedroom (ie that shit old) which means that these are their parents’ records. Chay was barely a toddler when they died meaning he has no memories of them. Porsche, however, does and has elevated their parents to a near god-like status throughout Chay’s life to justify how he pushes Chay to succeed. Chay cleaning those records first when the rest of the house is a mess is him trying not to spare Porsche even just that tiny bit.

Also I wonder if Chay’s love for music stems from these records. Maybe Porsche put them on and said our parents loved these records so that Chay could at least share something with them.

Look, if I were Chay and my brother disappeared the night after saying hey was it Kinn’s people who destroyed the house? I would simply try to find out who Kinn was.

Chay’s outfit: I’ve seen other’s discussing this but the statue of Nike on his shirt continues the trend of the costumers choosing the weirdest thematic shirts to put Chay in.

Time: 48:06 – 54:58 The Beach Bar

Sidenote: all of the trinkets in this house are so thematically interesting

Nefertiti: She shows up in 2 different trinkets. There’s replica of the famous Nefertiti bust, and there’s a picture of the bust in the collage next to the computer. She’s one of the most famous queens in history and one of the most famous pieces of art from Egypt (honestly only beaten out by Tutankhamen’s gold funerary mask, Tutankhamun is also her son – read from this what you will). Korn later contemplates the queen piece as he states that all of the pieces are complete.

The white bird statue on the bookshelves: Nampueng is painting a white bird when she meets Porsche and Porchay (I think) and white birds symbolically usually signify freedom

The silver knight chess piece: this I’ve also seen commented on, but I genuinely think this is so important for Porsche’s role in Korn’s game. Porsche has the symbols of the most famous queen in Egyptian history and a knight chess piece so heavily connected to his home. Also silver is the same color as the Major Family's signet rings. I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for these going forward.

Chay’s Outfit: still in the Victoire de Samothrace shirt, and honestly this entire scene is full of so much history and antiquity in the set and costume design it has to be intentional right??

This whole scene is honestly the best brother scenes in the show, Apo and Barcode are the best at portraying fictional brothers. Chay’s judgmental looks whenever Porsche does something weird to make him laugh – that’s Barcode and Apo full stop.

On a serious note, this scene shows that Chay doesn’t always want to follow Porsche’s path, even though he eventually respects his brother and listens to him. He’s a teenager, and try as Porsche might, he’s not as naïve and innocent to the world as Porsche, who tends to only see the baby in his baby brother, would like. He knows that his schooling is causing a lot of trouble, and he’s trying to pull his own weight. Which Porsche sidesteps in the way only a parent with a crying kid can do.

Sidenote: Porsche refusing to move out of the house is very telling about his character. He was forced to grow up very quickly, but he’s holding onto the house and his parents’ ‘dreams’ (as if their parents didn’t want both their children to go to college and be happy) in a vaguely childish manner that isn’t talked about as much. He wants the life he couldn’t live, and since he can’t have that, he’ll hold on to the idea of it.

Chay’s cries way too many times throughout this series, and he makes me tear up a little bit every time. This scene in particular because its such a realistic scene. Barcode definitely draws a lot of himself up when filming these crying scenes which is why it hurts so much.

Chay Crying Counter: 1

“Don’t forget, you’re not alone in this. And you’re not the only one fighting.” – Chay is constantly bringing up how Porsche isn’t alone, how there are two of them in this family (pool confrontation speech anyone?), but I think this also says a lot about Chay’s character throughout the show. Often times, non-main characters (I’m not gonna say minor even though technically Chay’s screentime puts him closer to minor when compared to other characters) get treated like dolls who exist only to forward the main pairing’s story. Chay states right from the get go that he’s his own person not just an extension of Porsche. He’s fighting as well. He’s a driving part of this story too. (I may be getting a bit too passionate about this one quote, but c’mon! I love when characters assert their own autonomy within the narrative!)

Chay trying to involve himself in Porsche’s troubles (and the narrative), trying to get Porsche to let him in only to be gently shut down and then not so gently left behind. IDK I love analyzing the different Chay’s we get because like Kim & Wik, Chay has different personas that he puts on with different people. With Porsche, he’s the sweet, agreeable baby brother who has to live out their parents’ dreams. He gets good grades, and he goes to the university interview because that is what Porsche wants. And yet, the second he’s no longer in front of Porsche or where Porsche can keep an eye on him, he drops the mask and allows his real emotions to show (I’ll do more analysis as we get to later episodes because this is getting long)

Chay is so attentive to Porsche’s dreams. The beach bar is definitely something he’s pieced together from different things over the years. Porsche talks a lot, and Chay definitely listens. They’re like that Into the Spiderverse meme.

Chay how tf do you not have neck issues. His head is literally laying on his shoulder while he’s laying on the bed.

Not me also analyzing the jazz posters on his walls – Chay was definitely in the Jazz band in school which is why he needs guitar tutoring. He probably plays the saxophone. Most of the saxophone players I know are unhinged in fruity and delightful ways so this is a compliment.

Chay’s Outfit: His satin matching pajama set compels me even though it does not fit his character at all. They definitely realized he needed pajamas and stole something from the costume rack for the major family. They would wear satin pajamas (Kinn does wear satin pajamas I think at one point)

The first thing Chay does when he leaves his room is call for Porsche, somebody sedate me. But what was he trying to do? Was he trying to continue the conversation from the night before? Does Porsche normally wake him up for school? I need answers…

Chay reading the note breaks my heart because its so clear that Porsche is lying. The morning after Chay brings up them running away to run a beach bar and Porsche is suddenly going to an out of reach beach bar? Chay knows this is bull because Porsche would have said something the night before. Chay knows Porsche is doing something so bad that he feels the need to lie to Chay. The deep sigh Chay let’s out as he stares into the yard biting his lip (or pouting? Idk) shows that Chay isn’t fooled. He’s aware that Porsche is in deep shit, and he’s upset that Porsche has gone on his own to fix it. But Chay can’t outwardly express that because he’s spent his whole life being the perfect baby brother trying not to be a burden. So Chay just sits and sighs in his empty house away from the narrative his existence kickstarted (because Porsche would have never joined the family if he wasn’t so desperate to take care of Chay)

Chay is so interesting to me because he is so important to the plot as a whole, but he is constantly kept far away from the main plot. I saw someone say once that he’s in a completely different genre from the mafia story he’s a part of, and I agree.

Overall Chay Rating (Chrating): I give this episode an A- 

 It’s a great intro into Chay’s character by giving you a lot of setup for his character, particularly in relation to who he is around Porsche. There’s no Kim, but I like that we got introduced to Chay before his romantic interest comes onto screen. Chay’s styling this episode was cute, but not my favorite looks. This episode stockpiles Chay fans with lots of Chay screentime to survive the harsh winter (the episodes without him) coming for them. It’s not the best Chay episode, but its definitely up there.

[christiansorrell]

RPG Read-through: Himbos of Myth & Mettle

After my recent read-through of .dungeon//remastered (originally posted to Twitter), someone there was like "I really like your old read-throughs. Have you put those somewhere else for when Twitter inevitably dies?" I hadn't! So here is a read-through I did last year about one of my favorite releases from the last few years Himbos of Myth & Mettle! - Christian

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

Time to read-through one of the most fun games I've played this year: Himbos of Myth & Mettle by Maxwell Lander!

Right out of the gate, this game has such an exuberant, fun energy to it, and I like the voice throughout the writing. The concept could be done much more impersonally/traditionally, but it really wouldn't carry the same feel at all.

Straightforward d20 roll-under system with guidance to create drama and fun over everything else. I've played with the dice chain optional rule and enjoyed it! It's something I love in other games and it's fun to see its inverse here (smaller dice are better).

Interestingly, the system has a mixed success component as well - although you may not expect it with the d20 base. It takes something like your ability modifiers from a traditional game and makes that into a window of error that gets you success with a complication.

The magic system is a lot of fun here. Any himbo can use their Heart stat to attempt superhuman or supernatural things. You answer some quick questions to determine the cost and roll to see if you pull it off. There's an effect table too if things go wrong with some wild results.

The Heart system is a good encapsulation of what I enjoyed about this when I've had the chance to play it. It has this vivacious, positive, and often cartoonish energy to it where things almost always go big, in good and bad ways. It's very heartfelt (no pun intended).

Fun art (by Mary Verhoeven) and quotes throughout this book too. I wonder if these were real player characters from playtesting or maybe in-universe Legends of Himbodom?

One of the most memorable lists of player stats out there. It stresses letting players use most stats for most things. Doing something very courageous in combat? Roll Breast over Thighs. Flirting with an NPC to distract them while you pick their pocket? Roll Lips over Hands.

Death is rare, rather Himbos take Scars when they fall to 0 Heart (acting primarily as health but also "mana" to some extent). Each scar makes them more and more jaded, a bit more negative. After 4 scars, they retire - becoming a hero maybe (yes, heroes are bad here!)

There are special abilities, skills (gained from a lifepath system), and Heat (a bonus pool that reflects how sexy you are in the moment). I had a lot of fun with the special abilities in particular when I played.

D20 tables throughout help build the tone really well. It's clear what kind of characters this game is focused on after looking these over. I really like lifepath systems in games, and this one is surprisingly extensive. It's fun to roll a random character and see who comes out.

Tips section gives some guidance about trying to create a different type of story and different types of conflicts than you typically see in fantasy RPGs. I really like the take on Heroes here. It's a great twist on the genre (and is probably more accurate, honestly).

It's got two adventures in the back, including the 12th Annual Fresh Meat Games which was the adventure I got to play through at EFCon. It's a local festival and competition that the PCs join to test their mettle in front of big crowds. Lots of fun.

Nice little thing: there's a library check-out card holder on the back inside cover with little character sheets in it!

That's the game! It's a lean little book, quick to read and quicker to play. It's got a straightforward central system with fun twists and tables throughout to ramp up the drama and really the entire text just exudes a unique, over-the-top, heartfelt tone I love.

It's available digitally for $10 USD on Itch!

The hardback version is great - really nice quality, it has a ribbon and those cool sheets in the back! I'd recommend picking it up HERE.

Lastly if you'd like to hear more from me, you can do that in my monthly newsletter (includes an article, an RPG freebie, and a list of cool stuff from myself and others over the last month): https://meatcastle.substack.com

[bit-b]

AI *F*ART

------------------------------ Note: Please do not harass, intimidate, threaten or doxx the person being discussed here. Names and genders have been censored for this reason. No disagreement is worth hurting someone over. ------------------------------

I was typing out this as a reply to a specific person with some dubious takes. But I think it applies to everyone. So I’m gonna rework this and make it a tiny bit more general.

This all comes from someone who got upset by a post that was being critical about AI technology. They were clapping back at anyone clowning on tech-bros in the comments.

I admit that I was on the clowning side of things. And my points were more for comedic value, and not to make any solid arguments. But after getting replies from this person citing some flaws in my logic, I decided to play ball and listen to their side.

My main question I had for them was: “What are the benefits of using an AI to generate a base picture instead of having a human artist do all the work?”

Their response was:

1. It's thousands of times faster. 2. It's far higher quality than most artists are capable of producing. Even with the occasional fucked up hands that need to be edited.

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

Let’s cover the first one.

This person uses indie game devs as the base for their argument.

People tend to have a limited amount of time on their hands. And making a bunch of art from-scratch takes up a LOT of that time.

In all this time, a person will need to pay for food and shelter. So they’ll either need to have a lot of money, or will need to save up to be able to dedicate their time to the project.

Now, I also wanna add the option of working on the project in the background for as long as needed. Though, this method also has its own costs/benefits. The main drawback would be the MUCH longer time it would take to complete.

There’s also the option to bring other people on board. That said, everyone would have to operate under the expectation that no one is being compensated for their work unless a successful product is made. Everyone would have to be really passionate about the vision of the project for a scenario like this to work.

For an indie, I can see how using AI would be tempting.

However, what isn’t being accounted for is the original artists whose art was loaded into these AI models.

Their art represents decades of personal practice. Skills honed by passionate people that wanted to bring their visions to life. This is why work like theirs tends to be compensated for. Or at the very least, credited.

In a good number of cases, artists don’t want their finished work to be fed into an AI model.

With current AI ethics, original artists are usually not credited or compensated. And the images generated from these AI models get used for all manner of projects that the original artist didn’t consent to.

In cases described above, the indie devs would be effectively stealing the artists’ work, mashing it up a bunch, and reselling it to their customers. All without getting consent. And the artists would receive no financial compensation or credit for their work.

So if I’m interpreting this right, this person values the speed and efficiency of indie development over properly crediting and paying the artists that made these AI tools possible to begin with.

And this person, according to their own words, believes that giving artists the ability to use the tools counts as compensation. They believe artists should start using AI and stop complaining. “[Adapt to the times]”, more-or-less.

I don’t subscribe to ANY of the mentality here. To me, It’s basically a person demanding others do what they say. All because they wanna have a fun little toy that allows them to get away with not paying or crediting people.

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

Now, how ‘bout the second point.

“It’s far higher quality than most artists are capable of producing. Even with the occasional fucked up hands that need to be edited.”

I want to point out that art quality is a subjective thing. “High quality” boils down to people’s individual interpretations.

In my opinion, a lot of the AI images I’ve seen are extremely similar in color composition, have very repetitive layouts, and most contain plenty of the telltale flaws of AI generation (weird hands, text, plants, architecture, etc.). 

AI images lack any kind of specific flavor that makes human-made art unique. With an art piece made by a person, you get stuff like unique lineart, quality shading, distinctive color palettes, dynamic poses, noteworthy or relevant emotions on faces. All-in-all, a more personal art piece. And a chance to work with a pretty cool person.

So to me, I don’t consider quality to be a solid reason to use AI-generated images. If anything, the opposite is true, and your quality is significantly hurt from using these tools.

As long as legal statutes aren’t set, no one can stop a person from using AI to generate assets for projects. However, using them is ethically dubious. It showcases the lack of quality and effort a person wants to put into their work. And it really reveals how a person ACTUALLY feels about what they’re selling.

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

Another point made had to do with open-source software.

This person noted how much open-source software has helped people. They stated that artists are being selfish for not allowing their work to be used when programmers have been contributing their code for free.

The difference is that when a programmer starts coding around someone's open-source code, there's an express knowledge that they're making something under an open-source license.

When a base set of code is made under an open-source license, it's dictated that other people can take that code and trade it around and modify it in whatever ways they want, as long as they ALSO operate under a similar or exact open-source license. It’s also usually required to link back to the original source.

Now, if an artist really wanted to, there’s nothing stopping them from creating art exclusively to feed it into AI models. Heck, someone could get a community of artists together with the goal of drawing art for the sole purpose of feeding it into AI. Everyone in that group could properly consent, and accept the terms of this kind of agreement.

Problem is, most AI initiatives aren’t set up like that. They collect art from all over the internet, generate new pictures out of them, and assume that the original artists will be cool with it. It’s actively taking the choice away from people. And stripping their names out in the process.

Open-source software has a reasonable setup that facilitates sharing and modifying for free. The legal groundwork for AI images do not. And until some proper ethics and legalese are put in place, AI image models will continue to hold a reputation for undercutting and undermining artists.

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

This person offered up a bunch of other options for artists to consider instead of only focusing on commissions. Stuff like:

Making a game and using their art as assets for it. Using an engine like Ren'Py, which is open-source.

This implies that artists are gonna wanna make games in the first place. Making games and making art are two different things. They have overlapping parts, but the interests are not the same.

Also, it’s not as simple as that. You still need to learn how to use a game engine. While it’s easier than starting from scratch, not everyone’s a whizz at coding and programming.

It would take time to learn. An artist can’t just swap skill sets at the drop of a hat. And they might spend all this time learning this new skill (one that isn’t even a passion of theirs) to end up having poor sales and failing in their new endeavors.

Learn to 3D model. AI can’t do that yet. And won’t for probably a decade. And if it does learn, then learn how to rig your models for VR games like VRChat.

Once again, there’s overlapping interests. But 3D modeling is not a simple skill to learn, and a lot of 2D artistic skills don’t translate over to 3D.

As someone who has made his own 3D model from scratch, I can tell you that it is NOT simple. And there’s mountains of tools and functions that you’re gonna need to learn to make 3D modeling a viable skill to profit off of.

And, wait. If AI learns to 3D model, this person’s next suggestion is to learn to rig models for VR?

Realistically, what’s stopping programmers from setting up the AI to automatically rig models? I know of a bunch of plugins for Blender that already exist that do that sort of thing. A tiny bit of human correction, and auto-rigging can be pretty easy.

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

So in summation: This person wants 2D artists to toss out a perfectly valuable skill they spent years perfecting, let an AI do it, and learn other artistic skills that they might not like, or aren’t adept for. All to make a bunch of non-artists happy? People who show little to no respect for the skill it takes to make art happen?

And the really delicious irony about all of this? They’re suggesting that artists should go learn new skills to survive new AI technologies, when THIS PERSON could practice what they preach and go learn new techniques that could improve their ability to draw.

Brush up on some skills that help with quality. Pick up tricks that improve output speed. Work on mastering the ability to draw EXACTLY the thing envisioned in your head.

The best part of doing it that way: you’re not screwing over a bunch of innocent people just to make a picture of an anime babe.

[devilruin]

【 Please note! 】 ⎯⎯⎯ Please remember to look at each author's do not interact criteria and blog rules before interacting with them! Also, please check each work for specific tags!

if a link to a piece is :

⛧ ⋅  italicized ― it contains explicit content

⛧ ⋅  bold ― it contains dark content

⛧ ⋅  italicized and bold ― it contains both dark and explicit content

✧ @abbacchiosbelt ― hayley has such great ideas that i just want to pick apart their brain to see how they come up with such splendid thoughts! they're honestly such a fun person, i want to give them all of my love and then some!

personal picks : stuck in a wall with genshin men (reader's just like "oh won't someone come save me? wait... not like that!") , glory and gore with toji (funny story, i didn't know they wrote this and posted the link in a server we share and they were like !!! i wrote that! needless to say i was super embarrassed) , yandere kaeya headcanons (i just think he's neat when he's unhinged) , arranged marriage with diluc (oh nooo what a terrible thing to have to deal with...), and someone great with gojo (gods he walks the line of infuriating/bearable every damn day)

✧ @after-witch ― theo has perfected the art of suspense. her immaculate pacing within her stories always blows my mind, and there has been a few times where i've gone "WHAT!?" while reading some of her works!

personal picks : good as gold (the ending of this! i love the implications sm), wife or death (its always morally correct to make a deal with the devil in one's time of need), alone in the dark with gojo (he's is such a vile pos here... not that i'm complaining!) , a gift with sesshomaru (adore the chance to see sesshy being soft for once), love is the honey with chrollo (honestly reader, same.), welcome home lord scaramouche (the absolute level of bitchiness this man possesses...), glass half full with dazai (him taking advantage of another person's feelings? its more likely than you think!), character development with fyodor (how to gain his approval: read books together), suffrance with chrollo (seeing such a normally calm character snap will never not be satisfying to me), and act of contrition with chrollo (my hand twitched at the end with the physical NEED to slap this man)

✧ @bye-bye-sunbird ― big sis sunnie!!! sunnie is literally a ray of sunshine, she's so sweet and warm-hearted, she always makes me feel so happy when i chat with her! i swear her smile can melt ice and make flowers bloom!

personal picks : necessity with scaramouche (this absolute menace, i hope a bird poops on his precious hat) , yandere diluc soulmate au (diluc refusing to lose the few things that bring him joy, no matter what the cost is, is so delicious) , waltzing with the harbingers (note to self: do not step on their toes) , blaphemous with pantalone (the gods do not exist here in these snowy lands, but don't fret, for pantalone exists in their stead) , and forced marriage with diluc (fuck there's something so sexy about diluc when he snaps...)

✧ @cinnamonest ― lena is a dark content creater / momcon enthusiast / CEO of feral razor / raging kurapikasexual that never misses with her works (did i mention she's got a great sense of humor paired with a big brain?) i love her mei mei series and hope to use her profile template in the future!

personal picks : dad kaeya with his daughter (love all of this series tbh) , the genshin boys' reactions to being slapped in the face (her rankings are always spot on) , genshin boys' dick headcanons (all i can say is yes, this is permanently engraved in my brain) , genshin boys' choice of womb tattoos (sex magic go brr) , dad diluc with his daughter (he'd be such an insistent and possessive father for sure) , moribund with childe (i wonder how many people he'd kill in one go while coming after you. surely he can't go after too many... right? right???) , and crepus with his daughter (thank you lena for always indulging my depraved thoughts!)

honestly everything from her is just so good!

✧ @ddarker-dreams ― lock's mastery of the english language is always a sight to behold! she seamlessly connects minute details from the original work (anime / manga / show / etc. ) or even from some of her own works into her writings, sometimes with no one noticing! scarlet bindings with diluc has a few different references (most of which are obvious) ! she's also a giant sweetheart who i absolutely adore bouncing off ideas with, and wrote cold to the touch with kaeya for me!

personal picks : tempting fate with scaramouche (lil sadistic gremlin will get what's coming for him... eventually) , "your body won't lie to me" with chrollo (he's such a bastard here, i love it) , yandere tartaglia with a fatui recruit darling headcanons (the chilling realization that reader is stuck with him as a superior...) , break a leg with gojo (his insufferableness bleeds through the words here) , the snowstorm with childe (imagining the bloodthirsty look in his eyes as he's coming after reader is just hngh...) , entanglement with kafka (she really is both the unstoppable force and the unmovable object) , smoking gun with johan (the realization johan has after speaking to reader is so good... i could feel the heaviness in the air) , loaded question with arlecchino (i always did believe that she's the type to play with her lover in more way than one...) , aftertaste with kaeya and diluc (never a good time with both of them, that's for sure) , in your eyes with izaya (gaining his attention never ends well, does it?) , exodus with chrollo (ngl, chrollo you're looking real smackable right now) , entrenched with kaeya (the audacity of this man never ceases to astound me) , comfortably numb with chrollo (what is numbness if not acceptance? what is ideation if not desire?) , quid pro quo with chrollo (going to be completely honest this piece lives in my mind rent-free) , and hell within reach (this series has such a special place in my heart, i love lady avalor sm)

not gonna lie, you could probably read any of her works and leave full and happy (or binge them all for a good time!)

(fun fact: lock was the first person i followed, and is one of my biggest inspirations for writing, which is why i like to call her the goddess of yanderes, suspense, and horror)

✧ @dear-yandere ― vanny (or as i like to call her, the yandere queen or queen of yanderes) is another one of the great yandere writers of tumblr! she's also the owner of a big heart (honestly i think she possesses enough love to fill a few blue whale hearts) and is such a compassionate person, whose writing (and artwork) is top tier!

personal picks : diluc's crush dating kaeya (a jealous yandere diluc is always a good pick! ) , acquiescence with pierro (oh yeah, love this old man so much) , little dove with columbina (she's so hauntingly beautiful and also frighteningly eerie) , vladimir (league of legends) at a bar with his darling (can i bite him back? please???) , shuu sakamaki being slightly tsundere + mean (he says he's not looking out for a walking blood bag, he's just upholding his father's rule (like he ever cared about it in the first place)), hisoka being his usual perverted + creepy self (ugh he's so hot like that though) , mafia boss dazai osamu drugging his darling (mafia dazai just hits different) , memento mori (chillingly ironic since it's starring mori ougai) , and little lover (shared harbinger darling) , honestly another writer where you just can't go wrong with any of her works

✧ @hypnoswrites ― their way of crafting stories is like a master painter. each line is a brushstroke and every word brings a new color to the piece. by the time i've reached the last sentence, my jaw is on the floor, my eyes are wide, and i have to take a moment to compose myself (in a good way!) after reading.

personal picks : nightly visit with astarion (fuck he's insufferable like this and im all for it) , quality time with shalnark (the only words i have is oh fuck, he's so manipulative with a soulmate) , heard through the grapevine with shalnark (all i can say is holy shit. i love reader's nen in this and the pacing is exquisite!) , spider cave with chrollo (the utter despair of knowing that everything you did was for naught is such a bitter taste and i gulp it down like the sweetest honey) , to prove oneself with hisoka (fuck yeah reader get his ass!) , and dissonance with demiurge (anti-magic runes? engraved in the walls. hidden listening device? secretly planted. hotel? nazarick.)

if you would like to be removed from this list, please let me know!

© 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧 — 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝟏𝟏-𝟏𝟑-𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I have jumbled thoughts on WISH looking to fall short of industry projections, its low CinemaScore grade, its low chances at scoring a great multiplier that helps it climb, and Disney's overall bad film year - on their centennial no less.

The success of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, the excellent legs ELEMENTAL scored after such a poor opening weekend, and how well THE LITTLE MERMAID did domestically tells me everything I need to know, I feel.

GUARDIANS VOL. 3 had a solid opening for an MCU sequel, down a bit from what VOL. 2 pulled in back in 2017, but still good. Legs carried it past $350m+ domestically, and it made over $845m worldwide. It's probably my favorite MCU movie in a while, and it resonated for a lot of other people, too. Can't say the same about MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, LOVE AND THUNDER, QUANTUMANIA, and THE MARVELS. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now a mess of rushed movies that are either homework or you have to do homework in order to keep up with them, GUARDIANS VOL. 3 not so much. I extend this to last autumn's BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER as well.

ELEMENTAL, like most of the recent films overseen by current Pixar leader Pete Docter, told a personal story in a fun, appealing, and visually stunning way. Despite existing next to other family films in a crowded June/July, ELEMENTAL grew some serious legs and did really good overseas. I'm confident LUCA and TURNING RED, had they been released theatrically in a world where COVID-19 never happened, would've done pretty darn well. LIGHTYEAR is the anomaly here, the rare Pixar film that audiences just didn't take a liking to. But I can't hold it against Pixar, Docter lets these filmmakers make the movie they see fit, and sometimes in the world of the arts... It's not going to sit well with everybody. Luckily, ELEMENTAL had a real rebound and nearly made 2 1/2x its posted budget.

THE LITTLE MERMAID got by on being almost beat for beat a redo of a beloved animated feature in Disney's library, and it also helps that some of the actors did a pretty solid job. (I haven't seen the film, only bits and pieces at my movie theater job. I'm not into these remakes.) While this movie couldn't cover its costs worldwide, as it had a hard time in certain large markets, it still did pretty great here.

But I think Marvel, Disney Studios (as in the end that does all the live-action and CG tech demo movies), and Walt Disney Animation Studios are in need of some course correction. I get the sense that the latter two arms of Disney's massive film machine aren't really letting filmmakers make the movies they want to make... But rather making the films for them, and someone steps in to do the job. That's also pretty much the case with Marvel, but sometimes they let a director do what they want. Sometimes. James Gunn got more freedom on VOL. 3, and Ryan Coogler got a lot of say on WAKANDA FOREVER.

Pixar feels the most free of the divisions to me, outside of 20th Century Studios and Searchlight. I feel their recent animated offerings have more of a voice and a personality, they feel like their filmmakers' own creations. Everything from LUCA to ELEMENTAL, all these post-Lasseter movies. I'm not really getting this kind of thing from the Disney Animation films made under Jennifer Lee's leadership, and given how audiences reacted to STRANGE WORLD and WISH (as in, those who actually saw them), I suspect audiences aren't, either. Are their movies being noted to death by upper management? That FROZEN II documentary did reveal that these films are test screened for toddlers, and then stuff is cut out to make things less intense. As if they are sanding off the edges of a perfectly fine piece of furniture.

Maybe it's not villains and such that people missed in Disney animated films of late. Maybe they weren't upset at twists or whatever...

... but rather, they were not too fond of writing that feels like it got doctored relentlessly into being FROZEN 6.0, and also the lack of bite and that classic sense of danger that complimented the magic and "warm fuzzies" quite nicely in the more beloved Disney animated movies. You think Walt Disney gave two craps about the angry letters he got from parents over the frightening moments in SNOW WHITE and PINOCCHIO? If a Disney film has to be a little scary and intense, it should be. I don't understand this new thing where they hold back. Look at how warmly received DreamWorks' PUSS IN BOOTS sequel was last year; a good helping of some scary stuff for the kids in the audience should only help it do better, so long as everything else adds up.

(Note: "Warm fuzzies" was something a friend of mine, a fellow Disney enthusiast named Jim Miles came up with, and I use that phrasing quite a lot!)

The horizon for both studios is curious. Pixar's next is a guaranteed hit with INSIDE OUT 2, it's ELIO that's the more curious one. It'll be Pixar's 2nd-ever post-outbreak theatrical release of an original animated movie. WDAS' next is unknown, and they have ZOOTOPIA 2 and FROZEN III on the horizon, both of which sure to cover any recent losses. Maybe WDAS-2024 shows a change in direction, maybe it's another round of what STRANGE WORLD and WISH had to offer. Maybe it'll be taken back and retooled if WISH comes up short? There will likely be a much needed strike for animation when the Animation Guild can make that happen in mid-2024, so maybe we won't be seeing that very film next year. Stuff will likely be pushed back again, for a strike that NEEDED to happen. Maybe some self-reflection and strikes will do this studio good, they seem to be in a funk.

And in live-action land, you would think a new HAUNTED MANSION movie with that kind of cast (well, except for Jared Leto, yuck) and a rare-for-Disney PG-13 rating would be an all-timer, right? Big flop. Massive budget, probably noted to death, too. If not, then... Decisions were made, and audiences just didn't care for them unfortunately. The remakes, even the ones that make good money at the box office, are largely agreed to be stinkers. Audiences may have flocked to most of them, but if they weren't based on beloved movies... How would they have done? And what's next? A LION KING prequel that I'm certain won't make much of a stir, a delayed and iffy-looking SNOW WHITE remake that I feel will also have trouble at the box office... And more animated movie-based pictures, and some theme park ones maybe. They've run out of classics to remake, so now they're trying theme parks again. They keep trying to get this TRON-in-name-only movie off the ground that's not a sequel to TRON: LEGACY and doesn't involve anyone from the previous two films. And they're doing sequels/prequels to the remakes. But as we saw with ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS and MALEFICENT 2, that's not a guarantee. People came to see the car they loved with a new coat of paint, not a similar car made afterwards.

So, I think Marvel, Disney Studios, and WDAS are at a similar point to where the Disney enterprise was in the early-to-mid 1970s. Maybe even into the early 1980s...

Above: This logo, for the enterprise's 50th anniversary in 1973, would show up before the films released that year... Presumably, the Buena Vista distribution title card would follow. It does not appear on home video editions of the Disney films released that year. i.e. ROBIN HOOD, CHARLEY AND THE ANGEL, etc.

I think this is all telling me that some audiences aren't necessarily upset at what kinds of stories Disney is choosing to tell, but are instead a bit unsatisfied with the way they are telling those stories. That merely the reliance on brand names and what worked a decade ago is not enough anymore:

I think about where Disney was by around 1975-76, inching up on a decade without Walt Disney, and a few years after Roy O. Disney's passing... And it looks as if Walt Disney Productions at the time were delivering what was guaranteed to be successful... In 1965...

You had cheaply-made kid-friendly comedies starring TV mainstays and often times they co-starred an animal (THE BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE, MILLION DOLLAR DUCK, GUS, take your pick), you had standard adventure movies (such as TREASURE OF MATECUMBE and THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD), you had the occasional long live-action musical with animated scenes in them (BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, PETE'S DRAGON), and the occasional animated feature film that was always directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and had that same lazy vibe that he'd been employing since THE SWORD IN THE STONE a decade ago...

You look at what Disney had to offer on the movie front from around 1969-1976, and it's like backwash from the early 1960s, and what worked back then... Interestingly, it was the animated movies that continued to do well during that period, contrary to popular belief. But nothing was a massive blockbuster domestically, on the level of 101 DALMATIANS or THE JUNGLE BOOK...

So, again, I think of Disney's output roughly 1967-1979... And I see what's coming out now as backwash from 2013-16. Guaranteed smash hit movies - Marvel superhero spectacles, remakes of animated classics, FROZEN-esque family movies... no longer foolproof. Pixar looks to be weathering this just fine, even if this timeline did not see LUCA and TURNING RED hit theaters nationwide. I still reckon those would've been big, big hits in a not-COVID world. How ELEMENTAL did tells me everything.

There was one lucky arm of Disney that somewhat avoided all of this... STAR WARS...

STAR WARS is largely just streaming shows now. There hasn't been a feature film since THE RISE OF SKYWALKER back in 2019. SOLO was the first movie in the whole franchise to actually lose money at the box office, the lowest-grossing film remains that very cheap CLONE WARS theatrical pilot movie. I feel SOLO lost money simply because the director change and subsequent refilming of almost the whole damn thing ballooned the budget, and there's only so many people you can drag to a Han Solo origin movie when a Wikipedia article is right there. Releasing it so soon after THE LAST JEDI didn't help, either. STAR WARS movies aren't MCU movies, I think you kinda need to let those sit for a little while. SOLO, I think, would've probably done better if it had been a Christmas 2018 release. Not the May right after LAST JEDI's December 2017 bow. Disney plans to release two new STAR WARS features in 2026, and well... Good luck with that. The new STAR WARS movies will be a test, to see if audiences will keep showing up for these movies. They aren't even entries in a new trilogy, so there's that.

Lucasfilm did do a new INDIANA JONES movie that did disastrously. Maybe audiences just weren't down for another adventure with Indy, maybe the market was a little too crowded, maybe those who saw it just didn't take to a Spielberg-less Indy movie. (Not a dig on James Mangold, but maybe audiences felt his absence?) Maybe it just cost too fucking much... Lucasfilm seems to just be "Star Wars Studios" now. They lost the rights to the book CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE, which they were supposed to adapt. They've barely made any live-action movies that *aren't* STAR WARS or INDIANA JONES on a consistent basis since RADIOLAND MURDERS all the way back in 1994. Like, what did they make between '94 and now that wasn't part of those huge franchises? RED TAILS, and an animated movie called STRANGE MAGIC. Both of which bombed... But I will be fair to Lucasfilm, a good chunk of the not-SW/Indy movies of the late '80s/early '90s also flopped.

Speaking of that... I also feel that Disney should probably invest in lower budget movies again? Not necessarily "cheap" stuff, but lower budget stuff that's more experimental and more creative? Not the kinds of movies that they can send straight to streaming, but small little movies that do okay in theaters and sorta help build a back catalogue for them. Why wasn't something like CRATER a theatrical release?

One of Disney's biggest live-action successes, a looooong time ago, was HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS. Produced for $18m, grossed over $200m worldwide and spawned some sequels. Did you know that movie actually outgrossed THE LITTLE MERMAID that same year? That's right, in 1989, HONEY made more money than MERMAID... Which film do you think is better remembered?

Anyways, what ended up happening after Disney's weird era after Walt's passing? In the late '70s and early '80s, they genuinely tried to experiment and redefine what a "Disney movie" could be, but a lot of it went south. TRON was probably the most successful of these experiments, but even that didn't measure up to expectations. Touchstone was set up, and they hit the ground running with SPLASH in 1984, and had quite a few successes into the late '80s... Films like THREE MEN AND A BABY and GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM. But that was Touchstone... Mainline Disney was where things needed to be happenin'...

And they weren't really... THE BLACK CAULDRON, THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN, ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS, they were all coming up short. The little bit of respite came from efforts like FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR and THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, smaller-budget productions that made their money back.

Eventually, the tides changed, and it was time to make movies that took the audience by surprise.

While it was released under the Touchstone banner in 1988, I'd say WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was the movie that really got the ball rolling... And then that would be followed by OLIVER & COMPANY, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, etc. All of which reversed course for the studio's film output. You couldn't convince anyone over the age of 12 to check out a "Disney" movie in theaters five years earlier in 1983, but by the beginning of the '90s, you had all the demographics showing up to some of their films...

Maybe that's what Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures will discover again in this weird post-outbreak, post-streaming world. They've hit this wall before, and they've gotten over it...

Maybe it's time for them to take a daring leap and make a proverbial new ROGER RABBIT-type movie that makes a Disney movie neat and worth checking out in the theaters again...

AND ALSO, TO TREAT THEIR FILMMAKERS AND STAFF BETTER, but that's another story.

[vodid]

Question if you’re fine answering!

What’s advice you would give young people wanting to open an art store for the first time? If that makes sense?

this is a very general question and there is SO much to cover so i'll just put a buncha different points:

research research research all your store platform options (etsy, shopify, bigcartel, kofi, etc.) before choosing one and, when you find one that will work for you, look into how established artists structure their stores if you need help on building your own. you'll want products to have a decent picture and a description that lists its size and shipment options. not required but def recommended, i'd see about adding a faq page too that mentions shipping times, if you'll replace damaged artwork, etc.

prioritize having pictures of the physical product over the digital file (if applicable) customers want to see what they're getting!

keep track of all your finances (easiest way is to just use a google spreadsheet) track your revenue, fees, production costs, shipping costs, supplies, everything you spent money on for your store. i can give a tutorial on how to set up a spreadsheet if you need!

DO NOT SKIMP on protective measures for your art. buy chipboard, buy plastic sleeves/baggies, buy rigid envelopes, buy extras of your products! have lots of scotch tape! chipboard i think is the most important one that i hear some artists don't use. PLEASE USE IT HSDFSDFS it's a sturdy but flexible and thin piece of cardboard! this will make sure your artwork won't be as easily bent or creased during shipment. you can find these at crafts stores or online!

research post offices in your area. (if US) look into cost of postage, travel times to the post office, if you have a post office with a 24/7 kiosk available, and decide if you are willing to ship international (no shame in choosing not to!) — for this and the last bullet, i have a lot more about how to ship your art if you need it

optional but strongly recommended: handwrite your thank you notes! nothing makes people feel better than to see a personal touch in their order saying it was packaged with care by the artist themselves. you don't need good handwriting to write a simple ty 💕

be annoying about your store. promote it like fucking crazy (on your own blog, please don't self-promo on other ppl's blogs hsdfsdfs) and make it fun!

i hope that helps :') feel free to ask for clarification or about other things and i'll try my best to provide an answer!

and last thing, i'm not sure what you define as "young", but keep in mind that most platforms and paypal require you to be 18 or older to use their services!

[tomsawyee]

Every time a Pretty Good RPG comes out, the same brand of post crops up and gets reblogged by Pretty Much Everyone, and it always functionally boils down to:

"See??? People still love single player games!!"

It's pretty easy to see where this take comes from. With the advent of consoles and internet connections that can functionally "always" be online (ymmv, our private internet infrastructure is woefully lacking), AAA has been on a shift away from offline standalone experiences for ~15 years.

What this take ignores, though, is where this shift in what gets greenlit and published comes from.

No amount of "proof" that single player character RPGs still make money is going to change the fact that shitting out Call of Duty every year makes more.

The games audience on Tumblr is heavily skewed toward character games with flexibly approachable RPG mechanics and gamified relationship interactions. This community, large though it may seem from the inside as all fan communities feel, is a microscopic slice of the games market. Every rando who's ever worked in a store that sells consoles can confirm: The vast majority of Xbox One's and PS4's are/were Call of Duty + Fifa and/or Madden Machines. These games are annual releases with minimal change between titles and robust+heavily monetized online features.

Bioware didn't shit out Anthem because the (exhausted, mismanaged) workers there wanted to make Destiny: But Worse. Bethesda didn't shit out Fallout 76 because their devs thought it would be a compelling restructuring of the IP they had already rendered unrecognizable under the survival MMO umbrella. They did it because EA and Zenimax, publicly traded billion dollar parasites, wanted to cash in on the fact that, if you can tap this content well just right, you can convince people to keep paying for your game forever. They did it because we've been modding the shit out of Skyrim for 10 years and they're losing sleep over the fact that we haven't had to keep giving Zenimax (Microsoft, lmao) more money to do so.

The antidote to this problem isn't to cross our fingers and pray that Dragon Age 4 doesn't suck (It's going to) (If it even comes out at all). It's to stop placing our hopes in the hands of enormous publishers, and to do start digging for games that scratch the itches AAA is intentionally missing because they aren't infinite money pits.

The antidote to the frustration of corporatized art-making is the same for every medium: Go looking for the thing that you want. It probably exists, and it is probably being drowned out in the mainstream by multi-million dollar marketing campaigns for Assassin's Creed: We Promise We Don't Abuse Women Anymore Lmao XIII. You don't even have to manually dig through itch.io-- Investing a little more in this hobby we all love can start with something as simple as clicking the "more like this" equivalent tab on whatever online marketplace you use and reading more about a title that doesn't cost $59.99 but still catches your eye. Mainstream indie-adjacent publishers like Devolver and Annapurna Interactive have strong recent track records of enabling small/medium studios to make games that are compelling and fun without the looming specter of infinite monetization and breaking employee's backs to make sure horse balls shrink in the cold.

I really hope you consider this perspective if you feel like BG3 came out of nowhere. It was in Early Access for almost 3 years, but it was largely panned from the mainstream Hype Cycle. Larian self-publishes, and games journalism is by-and-large not journalism but marketing, so this enormous game was incredibly easy to miss if you weren't actively looking for it.

Every tier of this industry has its own foundational rot, its own bad actors, its own entities that we really don't want to give our money to. But I promise, taking a little bit of time to go digging past the AAA buzz of the week will net you a better experience than waiting for megacorps to place something in front of you that is worthy of your time.

[b0nelessdoodles]

Art Summary 2023

shoutout to the one month were i drew fanart and then everything else was just dnd content again lmao (also shoutout to me being late to posting this haaaaa)

2023 wasn't the best year for me personally. between money problems and job searching, health issues, mental health issues, unintentional discomfort at my new job, and the overall issues of the world it just hasn't been great and I felt it heavily in my creativity. I never really had any creative highs this year outside of artfight (and even then i felt like i didn't do well) which only fed into some of the issues I was having.

But looking back I am really happy with most of what I made! Sure I didn't draw much but hey I think I popped off when I did!

So here is to 2024! Already off to a good start in the art department and even if I slow down at least I've had fun so far!

(i was gonna put me gushing about things in tags but its a lot so i'm doing a read more this post is already so damn long lmao i'm sorry)

okay i'm here to gush about two pieces at a time and their contents cause then make me happy to look at so lets get started on that with march and september 'cause hey! look at the relationship development of my little goblin guy!

march was when kk (tic's best friend and now boyfriend) first appeared to the rest of the party outside of just tic talking about him. literally the entire party could see that kk was in love with tic and was just like "oh buddy sorry about that" 'cause tic was a dumbass and romance was just never something he thought about until meeting the party. then we flash forward to september where the two confessed to each other after what really felt like the end of tic's story arc. at least it felt that way to me 'cause he reached his goal of killing groll and becoming the king of goblins but i know he still has shit to do I'M LOOKING AT YOU TRAVELLER AND RIP! but yeah that was the whole reason he left and it was done. he did it! but it almost cost him kk and the two ended up having a really important talk about it. kk chewed tic out and spilled his guts and i still think about it a lot holy shit it was so good omfg but it was in that moment that it clicked for tic. that if he had actually lost kk he had no idea what he would do, that he felt like his whole life would fall apart without him. and just man it was good wholesome content. congrats to the goblins for being the first canon relationship! (even tho they were not the first confession that one goes to rhami!)

now that that block of the text is out of the way we get to more depressing ones, those being january and october with my guy, dr. cecil wilfree.

its just.... man. what do i even say about him. january was probably the last moment before his life went into a full downward spiral, eventually leading into his demise. that piece isn't even anything major but rather something like a reminder going "hey, remember when wilfree had two normal eyes? good times!" and just man (-insert that image of a horse standing on the beach-) compare that to where he's at in october and knowing what happened in those 10 months? january he still had trust and hope, he believed that he was going to get back home and help river out with his plague, maybe even get aster home if she'd let them, maybe find a way to cure himself and help casey. but by the end there was no hope and he found out that he had been used, was nothing more than a tool for someone who he trusted, despite knowing that he really shouldn't have. river was dead and it was his fault (at least in his mind it was), he had failed to protect aster and traumatized both her and willow, and he could do nothing to save an entire population from being wiped off the face of the map. and he caved under the guilt. he gave up. its sad to see him alive and pissy in january and then look at december and see a shell of the same man, no more thoughts in that head as his mind got disconnected from his body and self.

and then for extra sads we've got december which was his birth month, so i drew something from a time before the campaign. back when he was alive and well, no soul curse and unknowing of the horrors yet to come, and receiving a gift from someone whose life he could soon destroy due to his own hubris.

anyway! pay no mind to may! i didn't draw a damn thing that whole month!

[katatonicimpression]

On this note of comparing the relative "problematic-ness" of comics from different eras.

There are ABSOLUTELY comics I have read that I don't think I can recommend with a clear conscious because of fucked up content. For example, I genuinely believe that most of Sam Wilson's most important writing and character development is from the 70s, but I also feel that I have to give caveats to that statement (both to the comics code and its impact on the politics of those stories, and, more importantly, the clear and abhorrant racial stereotyping in that era).

But...

There is this gnarly issue with Marvel comics, and seemingly mainstream comics in general, that the current state of the industry is conducive to worse writing (e.g. series cut shorter because subscription models demand new titles, individual issues being shorter to save costs, less writing and fewer panels per page, less stability/job security so people don't take the right kind of risks etc..). This leaves older comics in the position of not just being beloved because of nostalgia or because a specific storyline was good, but genuinely overall being a better reading experience in a lot of ways because the writing is better.

And the thing is, yeah, like the previous post said, progress isn't linear with this stuff. There's less direct censorship now, diversity is often celebrated and characters are allowed to be openly lgbt. You're unlikely to see the level of crude racial caricatures in official art nowadays, and there is clearly internal messaging to artists to eliminate whitewashing (e.g. with Wanda) and even correct insensitive writing choices (e.g. with Karma's name). And I do think it is worth taking a second to be pleased about this, especially in the current political climate where it feels like they're two weeks away from banning gays from tv at this rate.

But obviously, so so obviously, a lot of this stuff has persisted. Writing is still frequently informed by stereotypes and fucked up or just stale tropes. The art still has problems, even if they're rarely as obvious. Hell, Sam Wilson's writing (and, to some extent, art) is still often informed by racist tropes, and a laziness/carelessness in the approach to the character that cannot be separated from racist attitudes.

The classic example of nonlinear progress in Marvel is obviously the 2000s, and the themes of jingoism, reactionary politics, the straightening of a bunch of characters who were clearly queer before, and abject misogyny that recur in the era. The voyeuristic obsession with sexual violence is a legacy from that era that I think hasn't really been reckoned with.

The other day I was thinking about how X-Men (2013) - the all female xmen lineup - is genuinely a lot of fun. Like, it's not perfect, but it's pretty good. And fundamentally, its feminist credentials hold up in my book. Like, it feels like a group of various women with different personalities, complementary subplots, and a welcome and appropriate theme of found family.

Meanwhile, the flagship feminist series of the Krakoa era was marauders - a white feminist girlboss femdom fantasy, written by a man, with themes that absolutely do not stand up to any kind of scrutiny, and is actually less progressive than the source material it builds on in many ways.

I think maybe this is a good example to illustrate this point. The final products may look better, may be marketed on their progressive credentials, and there are clearly internal mandates to avoid a lot of obvious problems, but that doesn't fix anything inherently, it doesn't guarantee an outcome.

I don't have a conclusion here or anything. I do think sometimes people are vacant or insensitive about very clearly offensive content from older comics. e.g. sometimes people post panels that are just a racial caricature with no awareness of what they're throwing in peoples faces. Or sometimes people take plot beats that are clearly the result of a bigoted attitude from the writer at face value. This is, if nothing else, annoying as hell and I would imagine contributes to an atmosphere that feels hostile to a lot of fans. Especially fans of colour in what are usually white-dominated fandom spaces.

And obviously, read what you want. If you don't want to read a comic from the 70s for literally any reason then don't.

But i think it's important to not get cocky about it. The modern ones aren't exempt from the same criticisms and often represent a backslide on certain topics/themes/characters. And in some cases there might be legitimate and, yes, sometimes even politially progressive reasons for preferring an older treatment of a character.

Idk, I guess I'm saying I think that you should think critically always, but also know that doing so renders nothing exempt from criticism.

[lex-n-weegie]

Its like 3 AM but shhhh I felt the sudden urge to ramble about my version of Glamrock Bonnie soooo

Under the cut cause long and rambly and worldbuild-y lol

Okay so as a quiiick refresher, here's my version of the dude (old art grahhhhh)

(Yes I got a special version of Foxy too called Captain Foxy but that'll be for a different post maybe xvkanxka)

Okay okay before I fully talk about Bonnie I gotta talk about the Pizzaplex itself. Monty was around before Bonnie was decommissioned, he was a special animatronic for the golf course attraction, made as a sort of "experiment" on adding more special animatronics for different areas. He worked well, and it let to DJMM and The DA to be made soon after. Monty and Bonnie were buds, but Monty got along pretty well with all of the main four. He fit well within their dynamic, even the workers could see that. And if course, Freddy and Bonnie were the absolute best of friends, the dynamic duo. The bear and bunny.

However, Bonnie had some chronic issue: he simply didn't care much for rules. He'd follow most of them of course, like don't bite the children, but for others(such as stay in your greenroom after-hours) he'd ignore them if he simply felt the urge to. He was really laid back, maybe even too much so sometimes. He didn't care about how much the workers would scold him about it, nothing bad ever happened so what was the harm? They weren't his dad, they couldn't tell him and the gang what to do. Eventually the others followed his example, leaving their rooms at night, cause the workers couldn't do much in terms of retaliation when it came to the main four. Just empty threats it seemed.

Sometimes it was a good thing, breaking that particular rule, as it let Bonnie be the first to kind of "meet" Hazel.

Ramble about Hazel(can probably be skipped): Hazel was originally going to be a bare, boring animatronic, made to help with freelancing costs by simply being a Jack of all trades when it came to art. Painting, sculpting, construction, repair, even mechanical engineering, put in as a just in case if a Glamrock needed attention and no one else was available. However the first person who worked on them made them look heavily like an old Fredbear's character, one that existed for an extremely short time, a golden bear with heterochromia named Daisy(the worker found some old remnants of posters with her in them). The company however, freaked out when they saw that, as they wanted zero trace of Daisy in anything they did, so they fired them and asked someone else to "fix it." That resulted in his brown fur and poofy dark brown hair. They also programmed him with a more quiet, almost shy esque personality to hopefully avoid any rampages with his extreme strength(it was needed in order to do all the construction they wanted). All of this is just a long winded way of saying that due to unique circumstances, she stood out among all the other staff bots. Also fun fact! He wasn't called Hazel at this point, just referred to as "Bear."

All bots were ordered into their rooms, again, and told that something in Rockstar Row broke and someone would be fixing, "Do not speak to them under any circumstances." "Bear(Aka Hazel)" was told the same, don't talk to any of the Glamrocks. Bonnie of course, being Bonnie, ignored the orders and went out to say hi. Bear originally didn't want to respond, but ended up chatting a bit when Bonnie asked what exactly they were fixing. He actually first put the idea in his head to do other things than what he's told or programmed to do, even if he didn't follow that until much later.

Other times however, leaving his room didn't end so good.

It had been a good couple months, possibly half a year since "Bear" and Bonnie talked, Monty was having a particularly bad day. Monty wasn't a Glamrock, so he was "lesser priority" and often treated badly. He wasn't the only one, any animatronic that wasn't part of the main four was treated like garbage("fun" fact again, at this point in the timeline "Bear" had been locked away in an old room for a couple of months, forgotten about and honestly expected to lose power). Sometimes, unfortunately, Monty would take out his anger on the others. Never physically mind you, but he stilled yelled and snapped.

There was one time he was slightly physical though.

That night was a bad night, and Bonnie left his greenroom to go to Gator Golf, Monty's "room," to talk to him about it. He was up on the rafters, and he tried to talk to them about it. They were being pissy though, refusing to talk about his feelings and anger. Through his anger, he shoved Bonnie away him, only intending to get some space when he put his hand on his shoulder. Instead, he slammed again the guard rail, it snapped, and Bonnie plummeted to the floor. Similar to the game, he hit a pole on the way down, severing his top and bottom half of his body, but he did also break from other stuff.

That would have been fine, fixable even, but unfortunately the top half landed into one of the many ponds Gator Golf had going around. Normally, they all were waterproof, but when their circuits were exposed...yeah.

Monty was soon quickly made to replace the bunny, and they went to dump the box of him and his parts they gathered into some random room in the basement. Instead, a worker accidentally found "Bear," still on and drawing brand new concepts and things they weren't asked to. It eventually led to them becoming a new attraction, Bonnie being left in that room she was in to rot.

A year and a half later, a bunch of stuff happened with "The Gang"(Freddy, Chica, Roxy, Monty, and Hazel), but the main thing was that they all had found out they were given "birthdays"(only the main four got them, Hazel wasn't given one). Not exactly the days they were made, but when their characters were born. Hazel immediately set out to make the best gifts ever for all of her friends(her and Monty weren't a thing at this point, just dumb crushes). Freddy's was the farthest, being just the month before they learned all this, so Hazel had a whole year essentially to figure something out for him. And she absolutely stumped him. Chica, Monty, hell even Roxy was easy, but Freddy they couldn't think of anything.

And desperate for any ideas, and figuring maybe some of her old doodle paper from years back could still be in there, she sought out the old room she used to "sleep" in. She found no papers, but that box they brought in the same day she was brought out was still there. Now with more free will, they willingly let curiosity win and peeked inside. Bam! The old parts of Bonnie! Not only was part of her actually furious that Bonnie was essentially, put through the same thing she was put through, but it fueled her to rebuild the guy best she could, as she still had everyone's blueprints in her memory.

At first she gets the head working, and from there they chat while she fixes the rest of him. Unfortunately, due to untreated water damage(being allowed to soak in), some parts couldn't be salvaged and needed to be replaced. Mostly motors, but also his memory card. She saved as much as it as he could, but it still resulted in him "forgetting" memories and skills, such as playing the base and the scattered memories from before. Good enough for him though, he could relearn it if he wanted(or have Hazel program the knowledge back in), and he can make new memories with the gang. With her fixing him up and the time they spend together afterwards, he develops a little crush on her, similar to Monty.

After he's fully fixed and revealed to be at Freddy's "birthday," he stays in the basement during the day for a month or so, at least until Vanessa and Mason(BF's s/i) can come up with a reasonable excuse and a convincing lie about how they fixed him, all outside of company time and "for free." Eventually, Glamrock Bonnie was able to come back, simply explained away with "he retired and went on vacation, but now he's back to teach you how to bowl!" He doesn't rejoin the band, he's how similar to how Monty was and what Hazel currently is, a mascot for the bowling alley. Unfortunately it does mean he's treated a similar way to the two(aka treated badly), but it doesn't bug him much cause he's just happy to be back.

As for the selfshipping side of stuff(him and Hazel + how the poly relationship happened), it's sorta a funny story. After Monty got over some guilt and whatnot, the two were quick friends again, and ended up expressing their crushes on "a certain animatronic." Neither wanted to say who, cause they both knew the other would have teased them mercilessly, but they both convinced each other to try and confess.

So naturally, they both end up trying to confess at the same time. And kind of fight over it(they didn't really MEAN to, just kinda happened yk?

Hazel didn't wanna choose, she honestly grew to crush on them both, and eventually yelled at them to snap out of it and "I'll date you both then!! Okay?!" If you've ever read the original Archie comics it's semi like his relationship with those two girls(I forget their names fjsnsj). They both kind of "share" him I guess, lol. As for the two of them, they're not into each other, not romantically at least, but they do have a close and deep bond. They're not a couple, just a couple of besties ♡ dying

[zelmoe]

i was tagged by @penismage to answer some fun questions!

name: Zach

sign: I think stop signs are pretty neat, though sometimes a yield is just fine (jk I'm a leo)

height: about 5'6" or 167 cm

time: 8:04 AM

birthday: August 1st!

favorite bands/artists: aw geeze, picking out favorites is always so tough for me but bands I've been listening a lot to latey: Sigur Rós (saw them in june, best concert I've been too), Beirut, Fleet Foxes, Chai, Ana Frango Eléctrico, Novos Baianos, They Might Be Giants. My music tastes change along with the seasons so my music tends to rotate constantly.

last movie: oh man... I don't watch movies a lot but I think it was everything everywhere all at once?

last show: The Great Pottery Throw down!

when i created this blog: I'm pretty sure it's was either 2011 or 2012, ive been on here too long

what i post: My cute mutuals, Landscape photography, Memes, social issues. Really depends on the mood and what pops up on my dashboard

last thing i googled: The Warrior Met Coal Strike (its been going on over a year now and just recently at the end of july, the National Labor Relations Board Region 10 ruled that the United Mine Workers of America pay 13.3 million to Warrior Met for cost of increased security and transportation of scabs, "damages" and loss of profits due to the strike (lol) and really trying to undermine workers right to strike.)

other blogs: I used to have one for posting my photography but I stopped using that and I finally started a nsfw blog right before the porn ban (but maybe ill start that up again)

do i get asks?: not much but that's because I don't have anon on. Though I got a a few last night!

following: 350ish?

followers: 1,200ish? (Too lazy to check)

average hours of sleep: 6-7.5, 7.5 is usually my normal amount but sometimes I'm bad and go to bed late (well early for most people haha)

instruments: i play the French horn pretty well (used to be in a community band before covid) I also have an accordion, piano, and a variety of wind instruments like a recorder, chanter, tin whistle and an ocarina. Oh and I have a Ainu style mouth harp

what i’m wearing: tee-shirt and slacks, normal summer work attire

dream job: i do not dream of labor in a capitalistic way. Honestly I wish I could just keep a nice space, cook, clean, make art, bake. My job as a geologist is pretty good though

dream trip: oh man I want to see too much of the world to have a specific dream trio. Though ny BF and I have been playing around with the idea of going to Peru/Chile/Bolivia as our next trip

nationality: American... whomp whomp

favorite songs: this is not a valid question there is too much good music out there, though one song close to my heart is "Let's Make Room" by Útridúr because I proposed to my BF with that song playing

last book i read: I just finished Fight Like He'll by Kim Kelly literally right before writing this. It's a great look into untold stories of labor from women, POC, queer folk and other marginalized communities

Well that took forever to write! I'm only going to tag a few people @captainacecub @coalescent-space @comingouttomyself and @magikasword plus anyone else who wants to do it. I'm bad at tagging.