#this is my favorite ancient deviantart post i think. it really did inspire me and make me love silver ^-^

[carmenpeach]

schizophrenic silver. inspiration 👇

[101flavoursofweird]

Fic Questionnaire

Thanks for @sixtyfourk for tagging me! I’m putting the questions under a cut because it’s quite long :’)

I’ll tag @northernscruffycat, @northelypark, @edward-elbowlick, @vermontwrites, @asa-liz, @yoshi-g-teh-first, @call-me-rucy, and @aquamarineglow but if there’s anyone else who wants to do this, please go ahead!

How many works do you have on AO3?

107… but a lot of these are just reposts or prompt-inspired fics that are 10 lines long!

What's your total AO3 word count?

378242 words

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Professor Layton, PLvsAA, Layton Brothers Mystery Room, Rhythm Thief, Voltron: Legendary Defender (I only watched the first two seasons, haha…), The Ancient Magus Bride (I was in it for the cute dragon mage— not for the main romance), Steven Universe, Ace Attorney (only as a part of PLvsAA), Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, My Hero Academia

…10 fandoms altogether, but some like PLvsAA and LBMR fall under the PL category.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Aizawa Doesn’t Give Hugs - MHA- 1111 kudos - (Why can’t I update my most popular fic?)

Fireflies - Steven Universe - 221 kudos - (Again, WHY DID I NEVER UPDATE THIS?)

Reset - PL - 134 kudos - (This is the one I feel the worst about because it’s an ongoing long fic for my main fandom and I’ve had so much support from readers but I just can’t find the strength to update it…)

Worth Fighting For - PL - 86 kudos - (My incomplete Whumptober fic!)

Mending - Voltron - 85 kudos - (I think this was one of the first fics I posted on AO3 and I was really happy about the response it got! And for a fandom I’d never written for before!)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I usually respond to comments pretty quickly because I want to show my appreciation for people who take the time to comment :) If I’m ever slow to respond it’s probably just because I’m busy or I’m trying to formulate a long response. If a person leaves a longer comment, I try to make my response longer!

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

That’s probably ‘To Boldly Flee’. It’s a fic I originally posted on FF.net but it’s now part of an Aurora & Luke oneshot series called ‘Looking Foward’ on AO3. The fic stars Aurora and Luke in an AU set during Azran Legacy. It diverges from canon after Descole steals the Azran keystone in the Nest. Aurora doesn’t want to go to the Azran sanctuary and face her ‘duty’ as the Azran emissary— she also doesn’t want to get STABBED IN THE HEART— so she decides to run away with Luke.

Aurora receives even more angst in this AU than in canon. After Descole’s betrayal, she starts to doubt herself and her friends, aside from Luke.

With a bit of help from Rook and Bishop, the two of them fly to London and then to Misthallery when they hear Targent have taken over the town. During this time, Aurora has her identity crisis about being a golem and having the fate of the world resting on her shoulders. She eventually decides to help Luke save his hometown because Luke is worth the world to her.

This all culminates with Luke getting fatally(?) wounded and taken to the Golden Garden. Aurora is so distraught by this point that she almost ‘floods the whole world’ in a kind of failsafe doomsday device the Azran may have implanted in her. Luckily, Descole and Layton show up to assure her that Luke is alive— but just barely. Aurora returns to her normal self and they get Luke to hospital. Aurora waits by Luke’s bedside for him to wake up. Aurora mentions that Emmy’s fate is unknown, but they still mourn for her.

In the original FF.net ending, Luke wakes up.

In the AO3 ending, Aurora just keeps waiting for Luke. ‘She could not age, so she would wait until he awoke. Even if it took forever...’

If I ever did write more of this story, Aurora and Co would probably go to the other Azran sites (Ambrosia, the Infinite Vault of etc) to search for a cure for Luke. But at it is, the fic is left open-ended as to whether Luke ever recovers.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really hate but there was one anon review that may have been ‘too brutal’ (their words). I can’t say it hasn’t affected the updates on that particular fic.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I wrote a couple of light smut fics back when I really shipped Layton/Emmy. I think I’d cringe if I went back to read those fics (but then again, I do that with a lot of my old writing). I can’t see myself writing smut now.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I can’t say I’ve had a fic stolen, but I was reading a fic a while ago and the wording was veeery familiar. I’m not sure why because the fic was already good up to that point? Why would they bother copying my writing? XD I can’t complain, though! We’re all technically stealing the original creator’s characters and concepts by writing fanfic.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, for my Rhythm Thief AU, Déjà Vergier! In this AU, 16-year-old Raphael gets taken in by the Vergier family. A Deviantart user called BakApple kindly translated my writing into French. With the help of Google Trabslate, I started translating their French Rhythm Thief fic— ‘July the Fourteenth’— into English, but I didn’t get around to finishing it. My translating skills are nowhere near as good as BakApple’s!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I wrote a PL fic with called ‘If You Only Had Time’ with an awesome writer called Glowbug. It’s an AU (of course) where Rachel Bronev survives and she runs away from Targent with eight-year-old Emmy. Glowbug doesn’t seem to be active online anymore, which is a shame, but I don’t mind! I’m just glad we were able to write 6 chapters.

I don’t think I’d co-write any more fics now… but more for the co-writer’s sake than mine! I’m notoriously bad at updating long fics and I struggle to write under pressure or within a time limit. There’s a reason why I don’t enter Big Bang events, as much as I’d like too :’)

Writing fics is a hobby first and foremost. If I don’t feel like writing something, I’ll leave it and come back later, hopefully with renewed inspiration.

But I’m always happy to discuss fic outlines/ideas/characters’ with other people!

What's your all time favorite ship?

Apparently the ship I’ve written the most fics for is Janice/Melina on AO3?

There seems to be more content for them recently and that makes me SO HAPPY.

Ranhengela might be a close second favourite… Sometimes I literally forget both of these ships aren’t canon.

My favourite characters tend to be those who are so selfless and would sacrifice their lives for the ones they love— e.g. Janice and Henry— even if their significant other is presumed to be dead. I want these characters to be happy but I also want them to through ANGST.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I don’t want to say Reset… but maybe Reset? I haven’t given up completely but I’ve lost a lot of confidence with this fic. What I wanted most out of this story was for Luke to bond with other characters aside from Layton— his parents, Arianna, Emmy, Flora etc.— and to give these characters a chance to shine. But I guess I realised I can do this without all the crazy plot twists and time travel mechanics… like in Ready Now, for example. Most of that fic is just Arianna bonding with Luke, Layton and the others, and it’s hopefully giving Flora her chance to shine too! I guess after giving Arianna her own chapter in Reset I just really wanted to write about her, haha.

What are your writing strengths?

Someone mentioned in a nice review that I often fuse canon with fanon? That’s usually just me poking fun at the series— like when Arianna’s mother asks about Flora’s age and her adoption status, Arianna and Tony just shrug at her comedically. Who knows, really? :’)

I’ll often just make two character sit in a room TALK about their feelings.

Dialogue is an easy one, but I like writing dialogue for characters and getting their voices down. (I will forever portray Dalston with his official Yorkshire accent— not the fake posh accent they gave him the the US version of Miracle Mask.)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it’s cool! …If it’s not used to mock another language— apart from English. Please make all the English jokes you want. I’ll probably agree with you and laugh at them.

I remember when I was re-reading Goblet of Fire and I cringed every time J. K. Rowling wrote about a character who wasn’t English.

I’ll occasionally throw French words or sayings into Rhythm Thief fics especially because that’s what they do in the game. It’s hilarious how Charlie has an English accent but then she’ll sprout a random French phrase.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Pokemon, but that short oneshot is long gone.

What's your favorite fic you've ever written?

I’m going to be boring and say Bonds Left Unbroken— an AU where Layton and Desmond both get adopted by the Laytons. I think I enjoyed the earlier chapters more, focussing on younger Desmond and Hershel, and especially their time in Stansbury. The later chapters don’t really branch out from canon that much, aside from the fact that Hershel and Desmond are on the same page during Azran Legacy.

I feel bad that I never got around to finishing the ‘bonus’ episodes, but it kind of just felt like the original series with Desmond phoned in :’) But I’m still proud of the original fic!

[dingberg]

Who are your artistic inspirations? Are you interested or find inspiration in classical art or strictly modern artists?

Good question, and here comes a long answer because I guess that’s just what I do.

As you can probably tell from looking at my art, I take most of my inspiration from more modern artists (at least as modern as animation and whatnot started being a thing). I definitely appreciate classical art in that those artists figured out most the stuff out that we do today and the sheer amount of skill and creativity it took to do what they did with the much more limited resources and knowledge they had at their disposal. I have learned a lot from the classics and take some amount of direct inspiration from them (and plenty of indirect inspiration). For example, my tendency toward employing higher contrast with lighting and color to make my stuff “pop” more has been inspired in part by classical chiaroscuro paintings. But in general, I find myself much more interested in modern, more stylized stuff (especially character / narrative driven art), and thus find myself taking more inspiration from them as a result.

Getting off the topic of modern vs classical, I’d say I draw a little inspiration from a lot of different artists rather than a lot of inspiration from a few artists. I’ll often discover a new artist that has a style I really like, study their stuff and figure out exactly what I like about their style and learn how to do it myself, then get get distracted and discover ANOTHER new artist and repeat the process over again. Sometimes it feels like I can’t really make up my mind and just want to do everything.

As I’m sure nobody is surprised to hear, I’ve been a fan of anime/manga style art for a long time and take a lot of inspiration from those artists, mainly the more uniquely styled ones that get really creative with character design and stylization and all that. I think the most recent example would be Horikoshi Kouhei, creator of My Hero Academia. I started reading the manga a few years ago, I think, and I immediately recognized that he shared almost all of the sensibilities I already had with regards to character design, stylization, writing, and a bunch of other things. And it only sweetened the package that he’d also add little snippets between chapters with notes about his process and what his thoughts were with designing different characters and other elements. So I naturally started looking to him as an example I could learn from of “doing pretty much exactly what I like to do, but more professionally and on a much larger scale". Some precise examples of inspiration I’ve taken from him are adding more solid black to my art to make shadows pop more, and adding notes to my character designs with details about who they are beyond the design and some of my thoughts that went into making certain design decisions. Some other examples of anime/manga that serve as major inspirations for me are Gurren Lagann (stylization and exaggeration of action and lighting), and One Piece (exaggeration of character designs and giving characters fun little “quirks” to their design and personality to make them more interesting and unique). Samurai Champloo is another interesting one that inspired me with its melding of stylization with some degree of realism to get something that looks natural while still allowing for plenty of fun to be had with designs and action, and combining elements that really contrast with each other for an interesting result as well as taking inspiration from unlikely sources, like how Samurai Champloo itself is an unlikely combination between ancient samurai and modern hip-hop.

However, I also take a lot of inspiration from western artists as well. Skullgirls is a game that I bought exclusively because I absolutely adore the character designs, art, and incredible animation of the game. I don’t even really like fighting games, that’s how much I was sold on the art and characters. I was introduced to the game through the devs doing a thing they called “Whiteboard Wednesdays” during development of the game, where they posted picture of all the random doodles they did during the week, and I followed the game’s development ever since. I also have a bunch of animation sprites and sequences from the game saved to my computer to go back to and study every now and then. Seriously, check the game out if you haven’t heard of it and you’re a fan of 2D animation, that stuff is incredible. Don’t Starve has a really unique and interesting visual style that does an excellent job if giving the game a very distinct tone. Team Fortress 2 is also a HUGE one for me. One of, if not my favorite game of all time, due in no small part to the phenomenal characters that are as fun and cartoonish in their personalities as they are in their designs. For that matter, the official TF2 (and L4D) comics are wonderful examples of translating these game characters into a 2D, narrative-driven format that’s also oozing with style.

Those are just a few of my “big name” inspirations, but I honestly think most of my inspiration comes from other artists I find on social media or meet by other means that either work freelance or just do art and post it for fun. There are so many artists floating around beyond just the ones you see in games, TV or comics, and each of them has something unique to offer that no other artist has. Plus, I really enjoy seeing a lot of the miscellaneous stuff that makes up an artist, like their works-in-progress, little doodles they did in an afternoon, or the humorous little anecdotes they add onto their posts. I think the first person I ever followed and the person that inspired me to try my hand at sharing my art online was @thejohnsu. I’ve always loved his offbeat sense of humor and have been inspired by his weird process of coming up with something simple and letting it just absorb whatever odd ideas his brain happens to conjure up while he’s developing it until he eventually ends up with some crazy, creative character or situation that nobody else would have ever dreamed of. Another one of my early inspirations is @gashi45, mainly just for how insanely stylish his art looks in all aspects. Colors, shape design, expressions, it’s a complete package of in-your-face style, and he was the reason I started my quest long ago to leave my comfort zone, experiment, and really push myself to find my own unique style that really shows who I am as an artist. I actually followed these two all the way back on DeviantArt, which is where I really started as an artist online. And these are only a couple of the many artists that inspire me. Every artist I’ve followed on social media has inspired me in some way, major or minor, and even a ton of artists that I never ended up following for one reason or another.

Anyway, I hope that sufficiently answers your question.

(…I really need to work on being more concise with my answers, this is really gonna clog up people’s feeds).

[her-culture]

Meet Your New Favorite Artist: Charmaine Olivia

The first thing you notice is color. Pale California noon light bleeds through a window off screen and catches the tawny in artist Charmaine Olivia’s bright eyes as we sit down to FaceTime. Her hair is a canvas within its own right; the whole process of turning it into a blue rainbow stands among her projects as a highlight on her Instagram. She cozies up in a purple sweater, her geometric tattoo peeking out from beneath its cuff and trailing down her right hand as she cradles a peppermint tea. We joke about how she’s chilly in California while I’m battling winter in Connecticut.

“I shouldn’t really complain, then,” she says, a laugh grazing the edge of her voice. As both our conversation and her artwork show, her mindfulness and optimistic perspective is entirely on brand.  

At just 30 years old, Olivia has a slew of accomplishments. Her vibrant paintings have led to collaborations with companies like Vans, Urban Outfitters, Nylon Magazine, Hallmark, and more. In 2011, Lady Gaga selected her in an Etsy contest to do a poster for the Born this Way album. (The poster featured Olivia’s print, “Headache,” a whimsical portrait of a woman with flowing white locks and antlers.) She’s been working professionally since the age of 17, with multiple exhibitions across the country—and even a show in Australia—under her belt. Her “Sundrenched” mural currently stands as a splash of color among the cement greys of Sacramento. She even expanded into clothing, screenprinting her art on t-shirts and sweatshirts with the help of her team and packaging the orders herself. And she’s just getting started.

Olivia is currently preparing for her Los Angeles show in April, which has already generated a demand for tickets from over 1,800 people, according to her producer. With fans from around the world traveling to see her work, she is in a creative binge.

“I feel like I’m painting nonstop,” she says. “It’s been a while since I had an art studio. I’m excited to dive back into my art.”

In a lot of ways, Olivia is exactly what you’d expect an artist to be. The product of hippie parents and Southern California living, Olivia has a gracious and warm presence. She picked up oil paints at seven years old and loved nurturing her creativity.  After high school, Olivia shirked the typical route of college—art school or otherwise—in favor of self-taught freedom. She gained a foothold in the art world by building a following on the website DeviantArt and selling her work. Her fearlessness in following her own path has served her career well, as her pieces play upon her self-exploration.

“I always did art because art helped me find myself,” Olivia says in a Q&A Facebook video accompanying the hashtags #realtalk and #arttherapy. “Art was really my savior. The more I did it, the more I kept understanding myself. And I would post it online and people liked it and [wanted] to buy it, and it really evolved organically into being my career.”

In other ways, she subverts expectations. She often notes that she’s shy, which surprises me given the fact that creative career fields are ultimately dependent upon attention and exposure. But she explains that art becomes a vehicle for expressing her voice.

“A lot of my paintings are a version of me,” she says. “I can use [art] as a kind of mirror and imagine myself in these magical rainbow worlds. Art helps me find a confidence and when I’m really in it, I can work through so many different emotions and ways of being.”

Olivia’s signature style involves the female form and, often, some element of nature. The stars became her muse for her upcoming show after she moved to the countryside in Rainbow, California and gained a breathtaking view of the night sky. The women she paints are described by Complex as “Eerie, gorgeous, ethereal,” and she’s inspired by a range of things—friends, models, the process of sifting through her own emotions, archeology, mythology and mysticism, to name a few. She tells me that she’d definitely be an archeologist if she wasn’t an artist because there’s a certain magic about uncovering the ancient worlds.

“I use my art now as a way to explore the past but also the future because I’m very passionate about connecting with the world and making a change for the better,” Olivia says. “I guess when I look at these ancient civilizations, the stories they told, and the mythology...I think those gods and goddesses are the idealized versions of ourselves. I like to imagine, what would be the ideal version of someone now? What are these qualities we glorified in the past and how can we pull them into ourselves now? That’s what I explore in the paintings.”

Ultimately, she wants to highlight the beauty in the world. Art and social responsibility are undoubtedly always in conversation with one another, and in the current tumultuous political landscape, Olivia believes her calling is to connect with a more fundamental level of humanity.

“Part of what motivates me is the good in the world. I want to highlight what we want to fight for and what we want to protect. I want to connect with a deeper consciousness that isn’t tied to any one country or political view [but rather, to] an understanding that we have to work together.” She lights up as she speaks, a passionate determination clear in her expressive hand gestures. “I don’t know how art can do that yet, I’m still figuring that out. But when I create something and other people connect with that on an emotional level, I’m hoping it will naturally help in some way.”

It’s ambitious, but she delivers. Olivia’s art resonates with audiences, incurring a powerful sort of reverence in viewers. Strength, warmth, and hope echo from the canvases, and she’s beginning to explore the mediums of sculptures and street art to bring these qualities to audiences in an even more tangible way. It is easy to understand how ancient cultures could have built myths and temples to the gods and goddesses that govern those virtues—and how we need to remember their importance in modern society.

“I want to do more murals and get my art out there so people are reminded of what we’re protecting.”

Follow Charmaine Olivia on her Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

[nakateleeli]

Welgaea asks

A summation of all the asks I’ve gotten about Welgaea since the last one of these I’d put together. It’s been a while! I notice a lot of these are anonymous. A bit sad I had to turn off anon asks a while back due to some hate. I’ll turn it back on for a bit if anybody wants to send some anon asks in!

rapture-inside-of-me asked: Are beastia limited to just mammals, or are their beastia that resemble reptiles with scales or even birds with feathers?

Just mammals, or at the very least no scales or feathers or wings or anything. I’m sure there are a few things they can do that don’t fall into typical mammalian form, and I’m also sure there are some weird mammals out there that do stuff bestia can’t, so even mammalian isn’t completely correct, but it at least gives an idea. 

hikarufire64 asked: About the Beastia, can more Human like beastia like the male on the right turn more beastia like the female on the left. Something like a half Were wolf human turning into an actual werewolf on command to handle a situation.  Also, are there male beastia the look like the female on the left?

Bestia can not change form, no, they are how they were at birth. And to the second part, yes! Maybe I wasn’t as clear about it, but both males and females can both be more human-like or more beastly. 

aoshakozain asked: Hey! Now that you posted Muffin here, I found your Welgaea character sheets again. So I'm thinking of making one or two of my own. But for one of them, I'd need to ask: Are there / have there been dragons or something similar in Welgaea? And if so, what are they like? (general strength, intelligence and magic competency) One idea of mine is tangentially related, and I'd just like to know the background, so I don't come up with anything immediately contradictory.

Dragons do exist, though rare. They’re generally much more monstrous. Move about on all four with two wings. Fully grown they’d be quite large, as big as a house, but you don’t get to the insanely powerful levels ancient dragons get in D&D. They’re as powerful as you’d expect something as big as a house to be and just as tough. No definite weaknesses, though not unkillable. Dragons aren’t malevolent, though they live mostly by their own morals. They can be very intelligent, but not in the way humans are intelligent. They can plan and out-think and their memory is quite good. They can not speak. They can breathe fire, and I’m undecided if I would want other elements for dragons, or even other kinds like the longer Chinese dragon. At the end of the day they’re still monsters.

There are other creatures, like high elementals, that act as the spirit of the land and can take the form of a dragon with all the ability and intellect of a human, and even speak clearly, but high elementals are even more rare and a dragon’s form isn’t necessarily their permanent form.

Anonymous asked: Regarding Miss Naka and friends (and foes), how musically inclined are they? Do they play an instrument (or many), or do they prefer to simply listen to someone else play or sing?  What style and instrument(s) music do they prefer? And, on that note, how is music in general handled in Welgaea (conventions, types of instruments, melodies, artists, genres and so on)? I know this is a very, very broad subject. Tackle however much of it you would like, sir. (Apologies if this gets double-asked).

I imagine some of the more complex instruments to manufacture wouldn’t exist, though perhaps a simpler version would. Something like a flute would be a nightmare to create in their world, though something closer to a recorder may be more reasonable. There aren’t a lot of wind instruments. Those that do exist are much simpler to create. Music as a professional art form is more reserved for the higher class, which is fairly small, as only they would have the free time and money to spend on it.

That said, of course the more common person would still be interested in listening to and creating music. Everybody does. Though you would see it in a  more casual way. People humming or singing to themselves, or perhaps a person or two on an instrument for a town celebration or a festival. I imagine percussion, string, and vocals would be the most common.

Miss Naka’s not terribly musically inclined, though she’s not tone-deaf. If she practiced and maybe had some tutoring she could probably be an average singer. She doesn’t have much interest in playing any instruments. Ysami would probably be best at percussion, taking the raw hitting over the finesse of a string. She’d probably be acceptable, but not great. Ogre would be more inclined to play a wind instrument, especially since he’d probably had some training in them. Yuki… She wouldn’t make your ears bleed, but I don’t imagine she’d be terribly good at anything. Kentra would likely be pretty good at everything, though I imagine her singing wouldn’t be terribly normal, it would still be quite good. I can see Kharon, Morgana, and Lucienna all being fairly good at string instruments, though different kinds. Kharon would be inclined to pluck, Lucienna would be inclined to strum, and Morgana would be good with a bow. Kharon would play very traditionally, inspired by the thousands of years she’s seen. Lucienna and Morgana would be more formally trained. Kharon would probably be very good, in a sort of otherworldly way. Lucienna and Morgana would both be good, but not enough to do it professionally.

As to the kinds of music in the world, I feel like the very formal aside, it would all have a little more tribal and earthy feel to it. Just a little. Mostly because of how close to the land everyone lives. I could imagine some Chinese or Japanese styled music existing in some smaller cultures, though I don’t know if I can see country or western existing at all. I’d have a hard time feeling like something Russian would exist as strongly as it is, but perhaps a version more a mix of that and something more multi-cultural. To be honest I don’t know enough about cultural music to say much more than that.

As to the kinds of music they’re interested in, I know Miss Naka likes something happy and energetic, something with a solid beat. She’s far more interested in music than songs, only really liking singing when the voice is used more as an instrument than to get a message or story across. Ysami would like festival music, something that doesn’t really stand out and isn’t very unique, but fills the air with energy and happiness. Yuki would like something calm and pleasant, maybe a bit rustic. Ogre would like something closer to the mood of rock, and would be interested in the story and message the vocals are bringing. Kharon would be interested in something very simple and cultural. Something slow with perhaps just one instrument, no singing. Kentra would enjoy something calming and soft but nondescript. More mood music than anything. Morgana would like something hard and fast, but not harsh. Something with perhaps the sentiment of a little metal, but not metal-metal. Probably something about the intensity of Baby Metal? Lucienna would listen to something much more elegant, though with a little bit of energy I suppose, something pleasant.

phantom-form asked: So does the cast in Welgaea have favorite food/food they can tolerate the most?  If so, what would that be for everyone?

General-audience food is usually the most preferable. I think Miss Naka prefers it the most, actually, The kind of food that doesn’t stand out as being too cultural or anything and would generally be acceptable to anybody. She is fond of cheesy pastas though. As to the others, it’s hard to say. Ogre I’m sure would like good home-cooked meals. Not intentionally fatty or bad for you, but the kind that doesn’t necessarily try to be healthy. Ysami is a fan of more basic foods, not overprepared. Perhaps due to her time taking care of herself in the forest she generally ate simple cooked meats and some unprepared fruits and such, so she’d likely prefer that over an elaborately prepared meal. Yuki’s used to pretty basic stuff like simple sandwiches for lunch and maybe some cooked chicken breast for dinner. Anything beyond that she’d think is really fancy and special, not that she wouldn’t like it. I imagine she wouldn’t be too picky once it got to that. Kentra doesn’t eat. Kharon doesn’t need to eat, so if she did it would be just for the sensation. Probably simple stuff like riceballs or pork buns. Finger foods, but not messy. Morgana and Lucienna would be rather similar. They’d probably be used to eating very formally prepared meals like steaks and such. 

kuipernebula asked: So, I'm sorry to bother you about this, but I was curious if you had any specific sprite references of the Project Welgaea sprite style? I really enjoyed the style and, since i'm like 200% better at doing sprites than proper artwork, I starting doodling a sprite in the style based on Miss Naka and Ogre's sprites. (I'm sure I'll get around to making use of those stat blocks eventually, too...) Also, if there are any pallette references - like, rules on color limits and stuff.

I don’t have a base around anywhere, and I’ve changed them over time to suit my own purposes, but they were inspired by the characters in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7shivXGY00

But you can see what sprites I have made on the character sheets on my DeviantArt page, if you wanted to study them: http://nakate.deviantart.com/gallery/

As to palette preferences, I don’t limit myself too much. I limit myself to each base color only taking two colors, itself and a darker shaded color. I try not to have too many different colors. Even in the base, not-sprite design I’ll try to unify like colors and not have too many. Also on the DeviantArt character sheets you can see all the colors used and their shading. Miss Naka is the worst offender with quite a few colors, though I don’t feel I would want to do any more color unifying on her base design. On the sprite I did combine some of the silvers and pinks.

Anonymous asked: A Hypothetical (due to the rarity of ascended ability users): if Miss Naka and friends were to fight against someone/thing who uses danmaku, how would each of them go about the endeavour, sir? I imagine miss Ysami would go about it like Erina does (up-close and personal DPS, dodging and moving away only when absolutely necessary; drawing many parallels to FFXIV's monk), while Miss Naka would go a bit more strategically, etc.. Feel free to include characters like miss Passione, or Kentra, here.

Thinking about it in terms of Rabi-Ribi helps me a lot here. Most characters are melee, so many would very much go at it like Erina without Ribbon. Hang back and dodge until there’s an opening and rush in for a blow. Ysami would be fairly aggressive, likely squeezing in the most blows while taking minimal damage. Ogre would likely do the most damage, but he’d also take a good few hits. He’d have the most HP though and would block a lot. Miss Naka would likely be the most defensive, making sure to get hit as little as possible, only squeezing in hits when it’s very safe. She’d take the longest, but take the least damage.

Yuki would fight a bit more like someone who focused on Ribbon. She doesn’t have a melee, so she’d hang back and play it just as safe as Naka, chipping away with ranged attacks. Kharon… wouldn’t fight at all. She’d just phase out of reality and go do something else. Kentra and Morgana are both magical powerhouses. They’d be the ones doing the danmaku. Morgana would rely on larger more powerful attacks, but still keep her distance. She may get hit now and then, but not often. Kentra would fight as a mix of Erina and Ribbon, spewing a lot of bullets when afar, and getting in close for some heavy-hitting melee when available. She’d take more hits than Morgana, but she’d have more HP to just eat it. Finally Lucienna, who would likely fight much like Kentra, but with stronger melee and weaker range. She’d likely have very few ranged attacks, but they’d be stronger than a single of Kentra’s.

Anonymous asked: According to Miss Naka's questionnaire from a while back, she got her bayonets custom-made as a reward for a job she completed. Assuming the answer is not highly plot-relevant to the games (meaning no spoilers are present), could you elaborate on the events pertaining to the job in question, sir? And maybe why she chose bayonets (if she had a choice on what she could have had made for her)?

Interesting! Truth be told, I tend not to think too much on each individual job she does, but this was likely a bigger one. I wanted to say something about dwarves, but I remembered there weren’t any dwarves in Welgaea. Maybe there should be dwarves. Either way it was likely a town known for its forging that ran into a bit of a brick wall when someone who was supposed to bring a special gem or something didn’t arrive. No gem no festival, and it’s super culturally important, like wrath of the gods and all that to them. They weren’t even remotely prepared to go searching, or getting, another gem, and they were desperate. Naka had shown up to see the festival and they hired her to go track it down (honestly they would have hired anybody who said they’d try, but didn’t really have any expectations of success). So Miss Naka rushed across the land, backtracking and detectiving to figure out where the guy was, what happened, and how to get the gem back. Ended up some semi-intelligent monsters had raided the traveler, taken the gem, and had destroyed it by the time Naka got there in order to use for their own rituals and weapons and jewelry. So Miss Naka got to fight her way to the dangerous place where the gem was originally found, hope there was another one, get a new one, and heft it back to the festival in time for it to start. Honestly it’s a pretty standard tale of a large group being in a super tight spot, and someone going above and beyond to help them.

They rewarded her with her weapons, forged by some of the best smiths around, and given a light enchantment for durability and to keep its edge. Not a crazy enchantment or anything, but they’re pretty darn nice weapons. As to why she uses bayonets, she did use them before this, just a much less nice pair. She was taught to fight by her father with bayonets. Likely it was just whatever he had laying around and she adapted to them pretty quick. She was taught the generals of fighting moreso than a specific medium, but it was done through bayonets as a medium, so she’s most comfortable and experienced with them. I imagine she used the pair he gave her up until the current set, and they were nearing the end of their lifetimes by then. She likely went to the festival in the first place to look at a way to either repair them or get a new set made.

Anonymous asked: Given that Miss Naka and friends will likely find adventure all across Welgaea, I assume that, they would occasionally hold sparring sessions among themselves, to keep their skills sharp. With that in mind, sir, how would each individual hold his/her own against the others? (For instance, Naka vs Ysami, Ysami vs Ogre, and Naka vs Ogre. In the case of these three, I assume miss Naka would not use her bayonets, since the other two focus on martial arts. Feel free to include other characters here.)

I don’t imagine a lot of sparring would happen. If they did, Naka wouldn’t use her bayonets since it’s hard to not do more lasting damage with a blade, where as you can pull punches. But as for Naka v Ysami, if Naka even tried to convince Ysami to, I’m sure Ysami would grapple her pretty quickly and start making out with her. Ogre is Naka’s friend and sees Ysami as Naka’s girlfriend, and that’s not something you mess with, so he’d actively avoid sparring with Ysami. If they did, theoretically, I imagine it’d be a pretty good spar since they both fight hand-to-hand and likely couldn’t out-muscle each other easily. Naka and Ogre I also don’t feel like would happen. Though fighting is centric to their lives, when there’s downtime they prefer relax and be happy they don’t have to fight, enjoying other things. Besides, a Naka v Ogre fight would be the kind of stuff an anime arc would end with as the fight we’ve all known was coming for 200 episodes, and finally arrives and ends in the most dramatic way possible. Like Goku v Vegeta.

The only other travel companions I can think of are Yuki, who let’s be honest isn’t going to fight anybody, and Sha’la. Everything I’ve got of Sha’la right now is effectively obsolete, and I haven’t had the chance to pull new information from Ogre’s brain yet. So literally everything about her is up in the air, and I couldn’t speak one way or the other. If I had to guess, I imagine she’d either be adamantly against sparring with anybody, or maybe her and Ysami would (maybe her and Ogre? If her and Naka sparred it’d be a one-time thing she had to talk Naka into), though Ysami would see it more as a game than sparring. She’s not really interested in improving her fighting ability for the sake of it.

phantom-form asked: Has PapaTeleeli ever met Miss Naka's companions? If so, what are his opinions on them?

He’s a pretty jovial guy and hard to bring down. And he loves his daughter enough she could honestly bring just about anybody back and he’d be pleased as can be for her. That said, she doesn’t often go home. She’s just not in the area. But she certainly does when she gets the chance.

I don’t imagine he knows, or at least thinks much about, Naka being a lesbian. He tends not to define people, letting anybody be anything (really only going out of his way to do so if they go out of their way to ask him to define them) and is very accepting of pretty much everything. If she brought back both Ogre and Ysami, he’d probably assume at first that Ogre is her boyfriend. He’d say something obvious pretty much on first seeing him, complimenting him and saying something like that Naka found a fine man. Naka’d correct her father that Ogre’s just a friend (If Ogre didn’t beat her to it) and Ysami is actually her girlfriend and he’d just skip over to complimenting Ysami without missing a beat, saying something like that Naka found a fine woman.

That said, I imagine he’d find a lot in common with both Ogre and Ysami, as they’re all dorks and they’d both be willing to flex-off with him I’m sure; and Ysami is very playful and generally solves her problems by brute-forcing them, much like Naka’s father.

Anonymous asked: Given what we've been told of Miss Naka, it can be said that her fighting style is comprised of swift, agile maneuvers and acrobatics, not unlike a dangerous dance. I imagine that, to a bystander, it would make for a rather impressive display. With that in mind, sir, would Miss Naka ever take to publicly exhibit her skills (like street performing, or in social events, et cetera), if need be (monetary or otherwise)? If so, would she use her bayonets, or would she go unarmed, and simply dance?

I’d say from her own work she has the physical and mental capability to dance quite well, but fighting is very much goal-oriented action and reaction. You attack to hit an opening as it appears, you bend and weave to get out of the way of attacks that come at you. Without those goals she didn’t really put together how to dance from what she knows. It takes some legitimate training to learn how to apply her capabilities.

That said, she’s worked quite a few different jobs, and I’m sure somewhere along the way she took up a dancing job. Probably among a group to replace someone who couldn’t make a show. So the other dancers gave her some instruction for the show and she took to it quite well. She doesn’t have professional-level experience, but she learned a lot about how to apply her capabilities to it, and is quite adept at it. She’d probably do something akin to a not-slow-paced ballet, something with a lot of broad leg movement, but I don’t know much about dancing.

phantom-form asked: So... in Welgaea is there magic?   If so, does that mean Miss Naka's father casts magic by posing, if he were so inclined?

There is indeed magic! And most people are capable of very small magic, however any real “spells” can only be cast by studied magicians/wizards/etc. When the world uses magic instead of any other power source, it needs to be used even to, say, light up the room, and most people are capable of recharging the device that does that. Magic is more a manipulation of energy than it is spellcasting. Miss Naka’s father, however, wasn’t exactly magically inclined. He could recharge that light emitter, but he’d struggle.

justice-duwang asked: Does Miss Naka shout out any of her special attacks, if she has any?  Do any other characters do that?

I’m sure plenty of characters do. Miss Naka doesn’t, but mostly because she doesn’t really have any. Her one major attack (for now, anyway) doesn’t really show until game three, and she does shout the name of it. I’m sure she’s dorky enough to do it, but she also hates naming things that are mostly insignificant, so it’s got to be an actual real special move.

[godslush]

Oh, and because apparently nobody wanted to know anything from that artist ask post, here’s all the answers anyway:

   Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital? I actually feel a lot more comfortable with sketching and lines in traditional, but I've been spoiled by digital tools for coloring and refining. I'd say digital for now since I don't have a good means to do traditional lines and then transfer them to PC for coloring; no room for a scanner and too lazy to clean up a photo.    How long have you been drawing? Technically since pre-school, but I started drawing seriously with intent to improve in 6th grade, which was 1997-1998, so about 20 years. :>    How many classes have you taken? I took technically four years in high school, but the teacher didn't so much teach drawing techniques as she did nurture students' existing abilities and provide challenges, usually in the form of prompts and different mediums. I also took one summer in college that was an introductory course that didn't really teach me anything I didn't already know, I just had to take it as compulsory 'diversification' (since I was majoring in biology). It probably helped a lot, though, in the sense that it forced a lot of still life drawing, something that's of great value to all artists that I tend to shun because it's 'boring' and such, which is a very bad mentality to have, haha.    Do you have a DeviantArt, personal website, or art blog? I have a DevArt (Daimera) but it's defunct and I will never update it again. It's a good way to see how I've grown, though, since it goes back pretty far and I haven't deleted much, only hidden a bunch of my original character art due to annoying children and art thieves. My dedicated art blog now is artslush here on Tumblr.    What’s your favorite thing to draw? Whatever I'm having fun with at the time! Usually monsters, but not always!    What’s your least favorite thing to draw? Realistic people. Realistic anything. Seriously, just take a photo.    How often do you use references? Much less than I probably should.    Do you draw professionally, or just for fun? Just for fun. Not sure if I'd enjoy drawing professionally; if it becomes my job I fear I may grow to resent one of my only forms of enjoyment.    How much time do you spend drawing on an average day? Not nearly long enough.    Are you confident about your art? I'm sort of see-sawing. I'm happy with my art from my own perspectives and relative to where I'd like to be, but I know I'm nowhere near good compared to actual professionals. I just try not to let it bother me.    How many art-related blogs do you follow? Considering I came to Tumblr because of art blogs (or blogs of people who do art on occasion even if it's not their main theme), do you really want me to go and manually count them? ... Really...? Ugh, okay... ... ... ...62. ...What? I like to keep a clean dashboard!    Is it okay for people to ask you about your process? It is but you're not gonna get a particularly great answer! I have some videos up on YouTube, mostly long streams though.    Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people? Mostly personal now. I used to draw way more for others in the past, but when I started attracting the attention of a younger and more entitled crowd (not gonna say who but if you've been there you know), I've become more and more reclusive out of the desire to just not have to deal with the drama of kids trying to guilt me into doing free art for them. "I love your work! See, I've complimented you! You owe me now! You've done free art for others, so why not meee???! Wow, you're such a horrible person! I'm going to treat you like garbage and tell everyone what an awful person you are for not giving me free stuff or reciprocating my 'kindness' to you!!" Maybe I'm overreacting or projecting, but it's something I just want to avoid, even if it's not likely to happen. I just can't deal with that kind of trash.    Do you ever collaborate with others? I think I've only done a small handful of collabs, and even then, it was more "someone did a black and white pic for me for reason A or B and I decided to color it", or someone seeing lineart I’ve done and going “Hey, that’ s awesome! Can I color it? :D”  I don’t think I’ve ever been in on a project that was a collab from the get-go.    How long does an average piece take you to complete? Depends on the complexity, I'm fairly impatient so I prefer to take as little time as possible, preferably in one sitting split up by short breaks. I'd say 3-6 hours? I get VERY disheartened if I spend a lot of time on something only for it to not get attention proportionate to the effort I'd put in.    Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less? Less, unfortunately. I was a lot more confident and dedicated back in the day until art students I'd surrounded myself with destroyed my drive with their self-destructive attitudes. I felt very "Well, they're way better than I will ever be and they think their work is garbage, what hope do I have of ever being anything more than what amounts to worse than garbage?"  I don't feel that way now, but I was never able to pick my momentum back up fully after hitting that wall.    Do you think you’re justified in giving other people art advice? No, but I often find myself being asked for it anyway, haha.    What are you currently trying to improve on? Nothing specifically, though I'm trying to make single character pieces slightly more dynamic than "character standing there in default idle pose." I'm not fully successful, but baby steps.    What is the most difficult thing for you to draw? Backgrounds and sensible lightsourcing.    What is the easiest thing for you to draw? Nonsensical eldritch monsters.    Do you like to challenge yourself? Not really. I'm very much a comfort zone person.    Are you confident that you’re improving steadily? Yep! It's a very slow steadily though, haha.    Do you draw more fanart, or more original art? Lately it's been more fanart; it gets more attention more quickly, and I find it more satisfying to draw something when I know more people like it. It's a double-edged sword, though; if people are clearly liking the content simply for being that content rather than for being my art of that content, I start feeling bitter. See: me any time half-assed Pokemon fanart of mine that I don't even think is all that good gets stupidly popular.    Do you feel jealous when you see other people’s art, or inspired? (Be honest!) I used to, and on occasion I will on certain very specific kinds of designs (usually mechanical and cybernetic), but for the most part it's counter-productive to hold a bar high with the work of others and expect to achieve that. All it does is lead to despair.    Do you like to draw in silence, or with music? MUSIC. I have a lot of playlists, and they're usually game-based.    For digital artists: what program(s) do you use? I used to use OpenCanvas predominantly, but now I use Manga Studio. I'll occasionally touch up in an ancient copy of Photoshop 7. I occasionally dabble in Krita, especially if I want live symmetry. For sprites, I usually use Photoshop for the initial, and ImageReady to animate, but lately I've been trying to switch over to PyxelEdit. If I want to do animating that's not pixels, I use Pencil2D, but you'll almost never get to see my failures there, hahaha.    For digital artists: how many layers does a typical piece require? Back when I was using OpenCanvas, which only had 'transparent' layer styles (Add, Multiply, Subtract), I'd usually have very few, and a lot of those habits held. Often times my layer flow looks like: - Lines - Highlight details - Broad highlight - Shadows - Color - Sketch And sometimes I'll just add one or two additional glowy or shadow detail layers to that. This is usually per-character, so multi-character pics will double what's there for the most part. If there's a background, though, expect like five thousand layers, lol.    What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist? My head is filled with a lot of crap, and I just want other people to kind of share in that. Since I'm not great with words on a descriptive level, drawing the things I see in my mind is the next best thing to magically gaining the ability to transmit my thoughts and mental images to others, lol. The better I am, the better I can get those ideas across.