#when u find a better quality version...

[kisseobie]

could you do what o6 ideal girl is??💗 love your posts btw!!

p1harmony and their ideal girl

pairings: ot6 p1harmony x reader

warnings: none

a/n: ofc u can and thank u :] by the way, i didn’t specify any race, nationality, or ethnicity because as a woc myself i find it strange when people act like we’re a rare desire and only certain idols would be romantically attracted to someone who isn’t korean or east asian lol

✴︎ keeho

most p1eces would probably agree that kyo would naturally be attracted to a girl who exudes confidence in herself, but isn’t arrogant and simply knows her worth without making it everyones business. keeho, although a sweetheart that would be incredible at helping you fight your insecurities (which everyone has!), wouldn’t want to be someones personal life coach at every moment. craves a girl who has an independent lifestyle, loves to let loose once in a while, and isn’t intimidated by having an equally confident partner. being as naturally funny as him isn’t a requirement in my opinion (he of course wants to be the comedian of the relationship), and i actually think he would prefer someone with a personality like jiung’s, someone passionate, maybe a bit reserved, and focused on themselves! he would also loveeeee a girl who dresses nice and can do makeup well, shows skin sometimes and has her nails done a lot.. i think femininity would be really attractive to kyo <3

✴︎ theo

i think taeyang is looking for someone who can match his energy well, be a source of comfort for him when he’s particularly stressed/exhausted, and is confident in her own morality. he seems like the type of boy to be interested in a girl who sees the world in a deeper way than most care to, someone who can teach him life lessons and make him a better version of himself. very attracted to femininity as well, especially when it comes to silhouettes. a big fan of slip dresses and such! i think theo would also really like someone who’s a bit more emotionally mature than he is, and makes him feel like the youngest for once, because he often does feel the weight of being the oldest in his group. despite seeking maturity, he still wants his girlfriend to have a similar sense of humor. wants to have lots of laughs within his relationship!

✴︎ jiung

the most likely member to fall for a lovely lady who mirrors his own personality! jiung is the epitome of hard work and passion, and i really do think he would seek out the same qualities in a lover. not a big fan of someone who would constantly need to be coddled, i think along with keeho, he is really attracted to independence and wants a partner that can handle balance between love and work! needs someone who knows that although his love for you is unwavering, there are other responsibilities and priorities that will often take up his time. i can see jiung swooning for a girl who is very kindhearted and soft spoken <3 being the one in the group who isn’t too fond of physical contact, any girl that shows her love with words of affirmation and acts of service is a winner of his heart! is obsessed with the idea of receiving hand-written poems of love from his girl, and also secretly likes a bit of a height difference, whereas i think the rest of the members wouldn’t really care abt that hehe

✴︎ intak

tak would loveee a confident girl who almost plays into the “hard to get” trope, as cliche as it sounds. he’s a big baby but is also the type to let intrigue walk him like a dog, therefore he’s probably the only member that would “chase” a girl until she finally opens her heart to him (and she eventually would, because honestly, who can resist him?). i think he’s the one who i would say has a combined tastes of all of the members. he’s very sensitive despite his light hearted nature, so i think he would value someone who can be in tune with his emotions and doesn’t shame him for it (kind of like soulie!). i think he would also really enjoy a fashionable gal who matches his own aesthetic, very slick with dark color palettes and silver jewelry! i think some canker sore girls might roll their eyes at this but i honestly think he would really be attracted to someone who models or does some type of work in the fashion world, not for superficial reasons, but because he enjoys that sorta thing!

✴︎ soul

i don’t think that shota has too specific of a preference for personality types, and it doesn’t really make a difference to him if you’re incredibly outgoing or very shy. he honestly just wants a partner that can silently understand him in a way most people can’t, someone who isn’t judgmental and just perceives who he is as something normal, something lovable. as long as that mutual understanding and trust is present, he’s not the picky type, in terms of personality, looks, style, hobbies, etc..! if he had to choose though, i think he’d want to be with someone who can bring him out of his shell when needed, not forcibly of course, but someone with just a general confident and friendly aura would inspire him to attempt to match your energy. (this is obviously very keeho inspired, since soul has always mentioned how comfortable he is with him, i think he would fit really well and be very happy with a girl who has similar vibes as kyo!). but like i said, the only thing that really matters to him is mutual understanding :3

✴︎ jongseob

for seob, since he really enjoys a lot of side hobbies such as photography and skating, i think his main attraction would be towards a gal with a consistent hobby, definitely more on the artsy side! like keeho, i think he would also be really attracted to someone who enjoys fashion and isn’t afraid to dress how she wants to! not too adamant on his lover having a set style, actually really appreciates someone who tries out different styles and surprises him everyday with a new look! would prefer to date a girl who isn’t camera shy, as photography is one of his favorite things and he would obviously want his girl to be his muse and personal model <333 doesn’t like being babied and treated like a kid, so an age gap (2 years or more) isn’t really in his line of sight .. would rather date a girl in the same grade as him or born in the same year!!! i think he’d also be the type to really enjoy banter in a relationship, that type of dynamic is really fun to him :DD

taglist: @woozixo @hearts4chanhee @kyokopi @astro-doll-the-star @soobiary @kyaaramello @t3ssamoodboard @angelcbf @idontknow-1s-world @vivienne-sim @elissasimp @imjustayapper @ihatewreckingballmains @sosaverse @seobing @www90kitsch @khfviq @barbiekh86t @bbyjjunie @taeyangi @fullsunstrawberry @jihnyah @intheemptymirror @watamotee33 @dreamer1299 @jixnnsie @wonootnoot @yukx-x047 @sundancearchives @chuuswifereal @seisyiss @fishsquishh @sunnyyangie

© kisseobie, please do not repost my writing!

⋆✴︎˚｡⋆

[sacchiri]

I recently bought the jp volumes of Hellsing along with the guidebook, and since I'm reading the series in its native language for the first time I might as well share some random things that stood out to me in no particular order.

This isn't meant to be an analysis of translation differences, I'm too lazy for that. Also it's been 12 years since I've watched the anime and read the low quality fan scans of the manga so some of these comments are just "Lol, forgot this was a thing"

Volume 1

... I really want to know who this guy is at the beginning, yelling at Alucard in overly familiar language to "Get your shit together!" and "You're the only one we can count on!!". We know from the style of speech that it's a dude, probably just some Hellsing rando, and maybe it's not all that strange since he has probably been working with the same soldiers for years--but it's still funny.

"I know, it's just so nice out :("

..The way "HELLSING Organization" is spelled out like this reminds me that apparently the name is supposed to be an acronym. No really.

...

God they're so silly.

Now that I think about it, the only thing Seras has done this chapter since being turned into a vampire is say "I'm sorry" over and over.... girl you got shot in the lung, why are you apologizing

Not a huge difference, but what Integra actually says here is "Leaving a corpse here for 20 years... You're a terrible person too, Father" and not "What were you thinking, Father?" as the Dark Horse translation suggests (note the lack of question mark in the raw version). I thought that might be of interest to some.

Something else I thought was interesting is the first line Alucard ever says to Integra, and how uncharacteristically polite he sounds.

O-kega wa gozaimasenka- That's two honorific 御's back to back! (He even said them in kanji, even Walter isn’t that straightlaced and he’s literally the butler.) This is also the only time Alucard uses this overly flowery gentlemanly language with her, and good thing too because it would be so annoying if he spent the whole manga ending his sentences with ~gozaimasu.

What I'm trying to get at is, after seeing this sentence in the Japanese version, I'm like 100% sure he actually heard her when she was mumbling to herself about hoping to find a knight in shining armor, and he was totally going the extra mile in playing into that role for their first encounter. Which is kind of sweet.

Lol they misspelled Alucard on the top left... or rather, they incorrectly spelled it right?

One would normally expect Alucard to be written アルカード, and indeed pixiv dict lists アーカード as a misspelling (the u sound is weak in Japanese, so it's easy to mishear arukādo as ākādo). Hirano was definitely aware of the correct spelling though, since he used it in the pilot chapter and in his old character sheets. It was only when the manga officially began that he switched to the アーカード spelling. I doubt it was because of copyright issues because there is already a long precedent of vampire characters named アルカード in various old manga, OVA, and games in Japan that have coexisted without issue (like this guy Hirano mentions in volume 1's afterword).

Most likely Hirano simply thought it looked better, or was a means of differentiating his character from the others somehow. It certainly makes life easier for Japanese fans searching for fanart since アーカード is only going to bring up Hellsing and not the Castlevania character.

Jan Valentine even pokes fun at the spelling discrepancy later in volume 2, but since there wasn't a good way of expressing this in English it was left untranslated.

(Speaking of spelling inconsistencies, there's a lot of minor details I'm noticing now, like half the time the furigana for 吸血鬼 is written バンパイア and the other half it's ヴァンパイア... anyway)

Um, just noticed literally everyone's wearing glasses What should I do

Hirano's habit of jotting random comments underneath his panels is one of the underrated perks of reading the manga

The Dark Horse translation almost makes it sound like she's looking forward to seeing this battle play out, while in the Japanese she simply sounds apprehensive. Almost as if she's worried about them? And she's going out on the field personally to make sure nothing bad happens? Aww

Ok this is a weird tangent, but I just noticed the scans of the Dark Horse version I've been looking at use a slightly larger image range than the Japanese version does. It was only noticeable when I got to this part:

The second image is what the Japanese version of the scan looks like and I can confirm that this is what it looks like in my physical volume as well. You shouldn't be seeing the messy borders of the inking on the bottom like that.

Manga manuscripts are set up so that there are a few millimeters of bleed border around each page. You're supposed to color and line all the way up to (4) while keeping in mind that printing and paper cutting may result in the image being trimmed up to (3).

Either Hirano didn't color his lines all the way to (4) (this man has been drawing manga for years but this is Hirano we're talking about so it's very possible), or Dark Horse didn't honor the original bleed borders of the manuscript. I'm kind of leaning towards the former since there was a Hellsing exhibit in Japan a few years back where you could look at Hirano's original manuscripts and there's one where you can clearly see that he spilled a mug of tea or coffee across the entire page

Anyway, it's weird, and I'm curious to see if someone that owns a physical copy in English can confirm whether theirs actually looks like that. It's volume 1, page 141.

[gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan]

Marble-ous Beverage

Author’s note: More of Olly in Husbandry AU. Thank you to @sleepyfan-blog for letting me borrow Cedric. Thank you to @kit-williams for letting me borrow Angela, Roland and Backerin.

Summary: Olly is happy to take the scraps from the marble structures that his Cousins in the Blood Angels and their successor chapters make after finishing carving a pieces. After testing the quality of the marble. He sorts into what can be used to make pavement, what he'll snack on, and what can be made into carbonated beverages as gifts for his brothers :)

Warnings: None? Let me know if I need to add anything.

Tagged: @barn-anon, @bleedingichorhearts, @c-u-c-koo-4-40k, @egrets-not-regrets, @kit-williams

Tagged: @sleepyfan-blog, @ms--lobotomy , @thevoidscreams, @i-am-a-dragon34, @gra93fruit-blog

Tagged: @felinisnoctis

Olly is humming to himself and is glad as he carefully helps clean up the mess that comes from making statues out of stone, particularly marble.

Once he has all of the pieces swept up. The marble dust will be sifted through and sent to help with making better quality building structures.

Some of the smaller pieces he nibbles on to test and taste the quality of the marble and smiles to himself. It's of a high enough quality to help make carbonated beverages.

He double checks on the Ancient Terran version of the Noosphere for a moment before nodding. He can gather the supplies to make flavored carbonated beverages.

He's swung by the nearby forest and was careful, of course, to only pick some of the fruits and vegetables that grows wild, making sure not to over harvest so that the native wild life and the plants will still be able to grow next season.

He goes to the community larder to check to out to see if the rest of the ingredients are there. Happily that is the case as he cleans up and washes his hands and arms.

Making sure that the bottles that he will be using for the carbonation process are properly sterilized and dried carefully. He hums to himself as he makes the carbonated beverages, weighing, measuring, mashing cooking, waiting for it to cool.

Tasting it through out the process and adding it all to the various bottles with a funnel as he carefully labelled them and put them in the place that it's recommended to be for the carbonation process to do it's job.

He makes sure to clean up the communal kitchens that he had used when making the beverages. He's made two dozen hopefully carbonated beverage's, and even if they aren't fizzy, at least they will be tasty. Or at least he hopes that's the case.

He checks on them 'burping' the bottles every few hours or so as needed and is happy with the level of carbonation as he carefully loads up the various bottles of not-soda and writes the names of his fellow primaris brothers on each of the bottles he wants to give to them.

Finding his brothers as they are all busy doing this or that. Able to either give it to them, or to put it where they will find it on their work station. So long as some nosy first born doesn't try to snatch it up.

He also sends a bottle or two for each of Claude's Claw members of the Night Lords. He also puts one on Hura's desk, after visiting the Chaos Base- and talking with Claude- who happily accepts the home made carbonated beverages with enthusiasm.

"Thanks Olly," Claude says, "I'll enjoy this- and so will the others."

"You're welcome Claude," Olly says with a small grin.

He looks at his carefully packed bottles, oh dear. He still has about ten bottles left over after handing out a bunch to his brothers and keeping in reserve the two he likes the best for himself.

Hm...

He checks to see where Chaplain Feldarim is- out of office- put places the bottle on his desk. And where Chaplain Bo'shan is- another person who's taken Ramiel under his wing and as a thank you gift also gives him a bottle of carbonated fruit.

One for the Base Commander- sneaking it onto his desk without being noticed. He makes a face to himself, but turns and heads to where Zariel the 'Ultramarine' Apothecary's desk is and places one on his desk as well.

Despite being Teal he has been rather helpful for Cedric and the others from what they have told him. So- increasing social bonds and positive contact is important.

Damn he still has four bottles left over. Well... Maybe he should ask Cedric if he wants to take these to his older brothers Roland and Arnault?

He doesn't know them as well as Cedric and Ramiel do, but they always seemed happy whenever Cedric made food stuffs and had enough left over to share. Hopefully they'll like this as well.

Cedric is happy to tote the bottles to Roland and Arnault- and somehow Olly is also roped into going along to head over the lightly carbonated drinks.

"Oh- Thanks for the homemade carbonated drinks," Miss Angela had said a little surprised, but happy about getting it.

She takes a sip of the fizzy, fruity water and says, "This is delightful."

"I'm glad you like it," Olly says a little shyly.

Cedric takes him to Roland and his Bonded humans bakery. It always smelled so good and was wonderfully always busy with people buying and eating the delicious baked goods that are being sold.

One of the baseline humans noticed the pair of them and ducked into the back and Cousin Roland showed up and greeted the pair of them. Cedric tells him, "Olly made some carbonated beverages- they are safe for baseline consumption."

"I made a lot," Olly says, "And I wanted to give you and Miss Backerin some."

"Danke," Roland said with delight as he accepted the gift of home made fruit carbonated water.

One of them is a gorgeous purple-ish color and Olly explains that he got that color from the black berries. While the other one is more of a reddish color. Which was from the strawberries. They talk for a bit, Cedric and Olly buying some of the brot and sweets and head back to Base.

[belit0]

What if Madara and Izuna (can u add itachi and shisui if you can! If not that's okay! :)) both ended up having the same soulmate?😳

The reader is beautiful, people literally worship the ground she walks on, also strong and independent (such a strong person and has good strength too, her strength like tsunade.) she even has her own clan, so strong, people would drop to their knees and bow down cause of the fear, and also she wouldn't go for any guy, so how would they react to being HER soulmate?😯

I love this request because I feel you described Indra's female version🤣💕

Madara and Izuna

- Madara is totally intimidated, even if he doesn't say so, but Izuna sees it as a challenge. Both are happy to have the same soul mate, having built an intrinsically interdependent relationship after losing their siblings. As a survival method, they built a safe place between the two, divine ground, where they know everything is fine.

- When the Uchiha leader finds out, feels that divine calling, the signs that his soul bond is awakening, the last thing he expects is to share it with (Y/N). Of course not because of anything bad, but because we are talking about the strongest woman in the whole fucking village, imagine saying something that annoys her and getting punched in the face? No thanks.

- What he doesn't expect is that Izuna feels it too, with exactly the same person, and comes with a huge smile to tell him about it. Once they both define being linked by fate, they have to agree on what to do.

- Izuna, the complete opposite, wants to rush out to find her, win her over, seduce her, ignoring the fact of probably ending up sunk in the ground with a few broken teeth. They can't just propose to (Y/N) like that, and she probably felt the call too, so Madara convinces him to wait.

- When a week passes and there is no news, Madara is equal parts calm and frustrated. He wants to have her, of course he does, she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, a privilege to be bound for life to her, but it's terrifying to have to go in search of her love.

- Izuna, getting ruled by annoyance, insists on going himself in person, but the Uchiha leader prefers to send a letter first. Of course, they receive no reply, and his younger brother sneaks out in the middle of the night to woo her with his incredible seductive skills.

- Needless to say, Izuna returns with a bruised face and some broken teeth, as Madara anticipated, but this only excites him even more. He loves rough girls.

Shisui and Itachi

- Similar to the previous couple, Itachi and Shisui share a bond that escapes any kind of rational analysis, essential to each other, necessary to exist. Sharing is something they do every day, always together.

- Itachi is prudent in the face of the divine bond, knowing the reputation and glory (Y/N) maintains, with no desire to earn a capture request from her clan. First, he talks it over with his best friend, out of habit, as he always does with absolutely everything that happens to him, and then they both realize to be in the same situation with the same person.

- Shisui, a bit more mindless and adventurous, suggests they both go to visit her with a bouquet of flowers and declare themselves to her. Nothing better than some good old-fashioned seduction.

- Itachi fails to persuade him of his foolishness, but in fact, his ability to sweeten (Y/N) ears is so good he gets them both an interview with her, explaining a bit of the whole situation. The trick was not to try to flatter her for her wonderful beauty or the power of her raw strength, but to give nice words for all her effort with the clan, for the respect people have for her, for the quality of warrior she is.

- Shisui, unlike Izuna, uses politically correct words and a fine and sober speech, avoiding mentioning the obvious and looking for the stilted points she will enjoy. His wit allows them to sit down for tea with their soul mate.

- (Y/N) allows herself to be courted, but with delicacy and class, no crude attempts to get into her bed or become distasteful because of her beauty. She proposes to both Uchiha that they earn her people's respect, build a positively popular image among her folk, and should they do so, she will accept them both.

[the-one-who-lambs]

About me!!

I'm Hannah (she/they). This is my Cult of the Lamb side blog; my main is @onethirdofimpossible and I also go by that username on AO3. I'm in my mid twenties and I'm from the US. If you're here, it's probably because you've read my fics, but I've written many fanfics for Cult of the Lamb. My works are typically focused on narilamb or the Bishop family, but I go all over the place: whether you like to read multichaps or oneshots, rated G or E, shippy or not, angst or fluff... there's probably something I've written that you'll enjoy! I'm best known as the author of The Risen Lamb and the Fallen God (the old version that I wrote back in 2022, and the new-and-improved "director's cut" version that is my current wip!) and The Care and Keeping of Baby Eldritch Gods.

A few other hobbies I have besides writing are cooking/baking, making plushies, digital art, and playing flute!

Despite being able to write pretty consistently, I'm a Ph.D. student in environmental science. If I haven't posted a fic update in a while, I'm probably preparing for a conference or getting into a fistfight with hydrostatic equilibrium or something.

Links

All my written works on AO3

Twitch, a recent endeavor of mine where I stream games and occasional art/writing!!

Fic playlist for The Risen Lamb and the Fallen God, with all songs in chronological order of what they refer to in the fic c:

I have a ko-fi but paypal is giving me shit so if you REALLY wanna b nice I have a Throne. I don't expect anything ever but if u get me something I'd die for you. and write more stuff while happier.

FAQ below the cut!

How long have you been writing?

I've been writing fanfiction since I was in sixth grade! I wrote what was basically a self-insert pokemon soulsilver fanfic, entirely by hand. It took up four full composition notebooks and then some. However, I've only been posting my writing publicly since 2016. Even after that, I had a nasty habit of making a sideblog for any fandoms I got really into, then deleting my blog and sometimes orphaning my works when I lost interest. I've since learned my lesson, though!

How long have you been drawing?

Ha, uh. I got a digital drawing tablet in May 2023, and started really drawing as a hobby for about... three months, and then the school year started again. Between then and June 2024 I drew like one or two things. So I've actually been practicing for only a few months. Constructive criticism on my art is welcome, especially as I learn!

May I send a fic/art request?

If my bio says they're open, you may, I think they're really fun! Depending on what does or doesn't inspire me, I won't take every single request, but I love requests because they give me excuses to try new things.

Do you write smut?

I've written a couple E-rated fics! My alternate pseud for fics of that caliber is remainderofreality. I don't write it very often, though.

What made you decide to start writing? What makes you decide to keep writing?

1. I had a creative bug I couldn't not itch. 2. Having creative hobbies and sticking to them has dramatically improved my life. I'm happier, I have so many friends it's connected me with, I get to see other people be inspired by things I make (?!), it keeps my mind active and playful, etc etc.

Do you have any suggestions for people looking to start writing?

Before you start worrying about the quality of your writing, the most important advice I can give you is to keep writing and have fun with it. Don't be afraid of being "cringe" or not getting the engagement numbers you're hoping for (in fact, it's better to not have any expectations about that at all!). Not everything you write is going to cater to everyone, and that's okay! But writing (especially fanfiction) is first and foremost for fun and even though it's difficult and you will struggle, it should be rewarding and fun. I've answered a few asks about writing advice and I can't find them all but here are the ones I can: 1 2 3 4

When do you expect to update your fic next?

Lmao god if I know but I'm working on my wips nearly every single day so I promise I haven't forgotten it. I'm a busy person! I'm a PhD student, teaching assistant, research assistant, and executive dysfunction haver.

Do you take commissions?

I don't, and I have no plans to as of now. I'm actually personally against writing fanfic for pay (copyright and ethical reasons), but for art I'm simply not experienced enough yet to be comfortable with that. However, I have TONS of friends who do take commissions so if you're looking for someone I can give you recs

May I draw fanart for you based on your fics?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME I EXPLODE WITH JOY if you do please share it with me please please please. I will also likely ask for your permission to print it out and frame it (not a hyperbole, btw).

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/24/2023

this post and this series not sponsored by hellofresh

listening

caravan palace's new single MAD. genuinely the song i've had on loop while working but i had a very strong "ugh can't use that one it's cringe" reaction while drafting this entry and am trying to sort of sit with myself for a bit and go okay WHY is it cringe? how can we talk about it being cringe other than the fact that steampunk and electroswing are no longer fashionable? some weeks the policy of No Such Thing As A Guilty Pleasure is easier than others

i would not classify this song as electro or swing, and it's considerably jazzier than their more recent dancey pop stuff. more of a languid stroll with enough brass to keep my brain interested while i peer at spreadsheets? spotify

-

reading

Alexis Hall's A Lady for a Duke. i liked this quite a bit but i have some longer form thoughts percolating that require a reread. it was a tense but fun read, i do not know that mr hall achieved the goal he set forth below. in a broad initial stroke, there is certainly a great deal of internal conflict not helped by our trans lead’s difficulty seeing her trans self in a loving relationship.

how this conflict resolves did genuinely keep me on the edge of my seat bc i could not fucking figure out how she was going to do it

-

watching

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951, dir Lewin). this is a movie where (in the immortal words of the switchblade sisters podcast) it’s not what happens, but how it happens. the movie opens with fishermen dredging up two star-crossed lovers. i will not be particularly concerned with spoilers here or in my letterboxd review.

age and a deft scorsese-backed restoration have been very kind to this sea-mist movie. cinnamon fucking topography, technicolor at some of its prettiest and best used. jack cardiff (also did Black Narcissius, The Red Shoes, The African Queen) you've fucking done it again. the restored version is on american tubi and it's so so lush and dreamy. the very first handful of scenes contains a church bell ringing wildly, giving you glimpses of commotion on the beach, and it just keeps getting better from there. the beach party, full of dutch angles and toppled statuary and debauchery and no one dancing the same, is exactly the same as every beach party i have ever been to.

james mason is at his hottest, wettest, and most brooding. not all of our main characters are as openly debauched as pandora, but all of them are just as selfish. i have a lot of fucking beef with some of the letterboxd reviewers, who are simply wrong. pandora is not supposed to be a likeable or redeemable character. i think one of the questions for YOU to answer is whether or not a flighty, homewrecking, irresponsible woman like pandora is redeemed through her willingness to die for true love-- this is generally an admirable quality in myths and fairy tales, but is it cancelled out as just another flight of her fancies that ultimately kills her?

also the people who don't "get" what the film's about and complain it's too slow. it's about insanity and the sea what's not to get!!!

thank u @dying-suffering-french-stalkers

-

playing

so we are mostly through the genshin 4.1 part 2 events. i am so tired of the past few battle events cycling through the same arenas; however, this is the first event where i read the directions and was like "augh that's too complicated we'll do that later" and did all my weekly bounties instead. speaking of bounties, i finally did enough to unlock the treasure chest locator and confirmed my suspicions that i have in fact picked over the region pretty well in the last ~two months. the liffey and research institute were at 85% and 95% respectively before i unlocked this thing, but i did almost immediately find two remarkable chests in the far south by the port. augh. would have bit me if they had teeth etc. i would prefer if the regions showed 100% when i have actually 100%ed them instead of whatever margin they have going now, but i recognize that i have brain problems.

-

making

im MAD bc i was given a singular hellofresh dinner by a friend going on vacation and it was fairly easy to make and tasted good and everything WORKED. and it was like a fun little after work project!!! and the directions said “here’s what to do to the peppers if you don’t want it super spicy” and it most importantly it all WORKED. this is a very expensive thing to have a sudden interest in. i feel like i fuck up most of the food i make and i know that's part of the learning curve but it's SO fucking expensive to fuck up food and i have such a limited amount of energy :<

[ittybittyluci]

Luci Angst Fic Idea That’s Been Rattling Around In My Head

Okay, so, it’s no real secret that I absolutely love angst and Hurt/Comfort content. I slurp that shit up like there’s no tomorrow. And recently my darling brain has been so kind as to supply me a new concept that could be shoved into a whole number of Lucifer angst fics.

Basically the premise is this:

Part of Lucifer’s punishment is that every year on the same day, a member of the heavenly court (the same Angel every time) comes down to administer a little “reminder” to keep Lucifer in line. Basically, he gets tortured, and the shit beat out of him annually to make sure he stays depressed. The Angel that does this is called “The Punisher” and they are very strong, but also have cool mind fuckery powers that they use to really get inside Luci’s head.

Most of my ideas are Charlie (who doesn’t know) finding out about this when it happens after Luci moves into the hotel, and being absolutely MORTIFIED! Good old Father-Daughter time. U know the drill. Sometimes my brain even likes to be like “oh yeah, the day of/after his Punishment Day was the day Lilith took Charlie and left” because I just love to make him suffer so he can be sympathized w/. I’m just like that don’t fucking judge, it’s not as weird as u think. Maybe. Whatever.

Anyway, yeah. It’s BRUTAL!

Content warning below for descriptions of violence next for some of the things I imagine happening to him, as well as an illustration with a shit ton of gold blood all over the place.

- A lot of the times they will do stuff to his wings to be like “you don’t deserve these.” Either rip them off and force them to grow back, break them, and once (the time Charlie finds out) skinning them to take the feathers off. That one is particularly angsty and I can’t help but be drawn to the heartbreaking-ness of it.

- Lots of punching, kicking, hitting scratching, and throwing him around.

- Concentrated holy water or holy light or something to burn

- Lots of emotional degradation (not the kink, if that wasn’t obvious)

- Induced hallucinations of everyone he loves hating him

- And, u know, whatever new toys The Punisher comes up with.

Here’s a pretty little drawing too! Because I’m a terrible person (as always, Tumblr is gonna fuck up the quality and I’m not smart enough to know how to do ‘tap for higher resolution’ so here’s a link to a better version: tehe )

[soylent-crocodile]

Red Bulborb (Monster)

(Copyright Nintendo, Artist Unknown)

(I don't know why the Pikmin wiki's version of this art has a flourescent blue background, but I am not an image editor nor could I find better version of this art, so that's what we're using.

I'll be posting Pikmin homebrew for the next two weeks! My history with Pikmin is a funny one- I have been fascinated by its fanciful creatures since one of my classmates brought in the Prima guide to Pikmin 1 in middle school, but I didn't much play the games until the first two were rereleased on Switch this summer. I did rent the original back when that was a thing, and I own Pikmin 3 for the Wii U, but I got particular far in neither. Instead, I watched Chuggaaconroy's Let's Plays, in fact finding him through an attempt to watch, rather than play, Pikmin.

Now, though, I've finished Pikmin 1 twice and started- and paused- Pikmin 2. I adore the setting and its creatures more than ever, and this blog here is how I express that love. So here's bulborbs!)

Bulborbs are strange nocturnal omnivores, neither insect nor mammal, who dwell in forests. Most bulborb are about the size of a songbird, stalking the undergrowth for insects and roots to devour, but a few grow much bigger.

The giant bulborb is a species the size of a turkey, and is farmed in some places. Its rump and snout are both very meaty, with the rump in particular being a rich combination of fat and muscle that is described as having a sweet, flavor closest to pork. Rare and dangerous, however, is the maneater bulborb, an aberrantly huge creature named for its ability to devour travelers and hunters whole.

There are many varieties of bulborb. The orange bulborb is a more dangerous and particularly alert species that can be represented by giving it the Advanced simple template and an additional +2 to Wisdom. The whiptongue bulborb is known for its anteater-like tongue it uses to collect large masses of insects, and can be represented by replacing the bulborb's bite attack with a tongue attack that has grab. In the giant bulborb, this attack has a 10ft reach and deals 1d3 damage, and in the maneater bulborb, this attack has a 30ft reach and deals 1d6 damage.

Giant Red Bulborb can be taken as a familiar.

Red Bulborb Companion

Starting Statistics: AC: +4 Size: Medium Speed: 30ft Attack: Bite (1d6 plus Grab) Ability Scores: Str:17 Dex:12 Con:14 Int:1 Wis:15 Cha:6 Special Qualities: Swallow Whole (1d6 Acid)  7th Level Advancement:AC: +4 Size: Large Speed: 40ft Attack: Bite (1d8 plus Grab) Ability Scores: Str:+4 Dex:-4 Con:+4 Special Qualities: Swallow Whole (2d6 Acid)

Red Bulborb, Giant

This bright red, turkey sized animal waddles around on two tiny legs, giant stalked eyes watching for food. Misc- CR½ TN Small Animal HD1 Init:+2 Senses: Perception:+4 Low-Light Vision Stats- Str:13(+1) Dex:14(+2) Con:12(+1) Int:1(+0) Wis:10(+0) Cha:6(-2) BAB:+0 Space:2.5ft Reach:0ft Defense- HP:6(1d8+1) AC:13 (+2 Dex, +1 Size) Fort:+3 Ref:+4 Will:+0 CMD:12 (-2 vs Trip) Weakness: Vulnerable to Fire  Offense- Bite +2(1d4+1) CMB:+0 Speed:20ft Feats- Iron Will Skills- Perception +4 Ecology-Environment- Forests (Temperate) Languages- None Organization- Solitary Treasure- None

Red Bulborb, Maneater

This massive creature is apparently all head and ravenous maw, with only stalk eyes, two avian legs, and a bright red rear to contrast its large mouth. Misc- CR4 TN Large Animal HD6 Init:-1 Senses: Perception: +11, Low-Light Vision Stats- Str:21(+5) Dex:8(-1) Con:18(+4) Int:1(+0) Wis:15(+2) Cha:6(-2) BAB:+4 Space:10ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:51(6d8+24) AC:16 (-1 Dex, -1 Size, +8 Natural) Fort:+9 Ref:+6 Will:+4 CMD:19 (-2 vs Trip) Weakness: Vulnerable to Fire  Offense- Bite +8(1d8+5 plus grab) CMB:+10 (+2 to Grapple) Speed:40ft Special Attacks: Swallow Whole (4d6 Acid, AC14, 13HP) Feats- Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Power Attack (-2/+4) Skills- Sleath +5, Perception +11 Ecology-Environment- Forests (Temperate) Languages- None Organization- Solitary, Huddle (1 Maneater Bulborb, 1-3 Giant Bulborb) Treasure- None

[zeltqz]

niyaaaa do u have any tips for people who wanna get into fic writing? 👀

i don’t really get how the whole posting format for fics works on here tbh 😭 and like your info area it’s so cool

YEAH OFC!! btw dm me your username so i can follow and support you <3

tip 1- the posting format isnt that hard to get used to actually its just you create a tumblr text post and then copy and paste your fic onto it, add the tags and stuff then post it. if you want to add banners, headers and stuff to make it look better then go ahead, just add images to the text post

tip 2- the info area is the same as above, just add pictures of your choice etc to the text post, add your information, name, age, fav things etc and then to link posts to your post, highlight where u want the link to go, then copy the link of the post u want linked then press the hyperlink that looks like two chains linked together when you highlight the text if that makes sense? sounds like a lot but its rlly not i promise haha

tip 3- always type your fics on other apps like word or google docs since they have an auto save feature!! i dont reccomend typing your fics on tumblr since one if the app crashes, it doesn't automatically save your work so everything you wrote will get deleted (some versions of tumblr do have autosave, my laptop has it but my phone and iPad doesn't, so i dont rely on it)

tip 4- idk if you want tips on actual fic writing or just how to get your fics onto tumblr but ill help you with that anyway. with me when i write fics i always imagine it out in my head. theres some of my fics where i just went with the flow and wrote wgatever came to mind and those are the fics i hate the most because they dont rlly make sense to me. theyre always so random and it just seems rushed and bad.

i picture my fics like a scene in my head and whatever i want the character to do, think, say or feel i write that shit down asap. i use other online sources to help get more descriptive like the emotion theasurus <- honestly one of my favourite things to use ever, they have so much body language to use for every emotion in the damn book

dialogue is also something i find difficult. i've improved i personally feel like but its still hard for me especially if im writing a new character. i never want to make the character seem OOC so i do lots of research before hand. i normally use the wiki to read up on a characters personality.

for example i'll use ran for this since he's like 99% of my account lmao. in the wiki, he's described as "naturally whimsical toward others which makes him inscrutable" though ran doesnt have many scenes in the manga (which i hate bc i love him sm) its impossible to actually write him down to a tee so i use that naturally whimsical description to make him playful, charismatic, carefree etc, going off what little information i have with him.

getting a characters personality down is what can make or break a dialogue. for me when im reading a fic of a character and their dialogue is so OOC it puts me off and i dont even wanna read. so i apply my same fic icks to myself and think if I don't like seeing this and that in a fic, why would I incorporate those in my fics and have ppl get put off it if they have the same fic icks as me?

hope that makes sense!!

tip 5- dont rush yourself at all. i used to rush a few of my fics and i just ended up hating it so much after and fought bck the urge to delete them so many times but then i'd see people's comments and realise i was being too harsh on myself. i'd keep them up but i'd just hate seeing them get attention.

rushing only makes you hate your work and the quality of your work will decline if you are not in the right headspace.

thats also why i have the don't rush me thing in my rules because not only is it annoying to see people constantly asking for updates, it also makes me mad because i know i'll just put out a piece of garbage if i did rush.

also another tip don't give yourself deadlines!! if you know your writing consistency can be a little sloppy, don't tell your followers that you're going to upload every so and so day. if something happens and you miss the deadline, you'll feel bad and rush something out and most times out of ten, a rushed fic doesn't do well. so take your time and don't rush.

tip 6- dont listen to what other people say or feel obligated to write something you don't wanna. establish your boundaries!! for example, from day one i started this blog i said im accepting requests but i will not write anything to do with non-con, incest or minors. i made sure that was out there so i wouldn't feel uncomforable writing anything i wasn't comfy with.

there are people on this app that may like your writing and request you to write something for them. you are not obligated to write anything for anyone! don't feel like you have to just because they asked nicely.

if you want to accept requests you can im not saying you shouldn't, im saying don't feel like you have to. you always have a choice. its your blog.

tip 7- remember this isn't a job. you're allowed to take breaks, allowed to have a personal life. don't feel like you need to be updating every day. i used to think i was obligated to be uploading consistently at least every week because i was obsesssed with engagement and seeing peoples comments and was scared if i took a break ppl will unfollow. now i honestly don't care. i'm not active as much as i used to because of school and that's fine! if ppl want to leave, let them. don't feel like you're forced to keep being active in order to keep your follower count stable.

tip 8- this app can get really toxic sometimes. luckily enough i've only had one toxic anon in my inbox and i've been on this app for a year. some people have so many, some ppl get harrassed etc. if that happens to you just be prepared since there's no actual way to find out who's behind anons. you can turn off your anon options which means if ppl want to inbox you something then their account will be showing. some people arent comfortable with that and that's fine! i keep mine on because i want people to feel comfortable on my page.

just remember though if you ever feel like this app is getting overwhelming take breaks! for the sake of your mental health take breaks. i know so many writers on here that took breaks and came back healthier and stronger.

i feel like this tip goes for social media in general. as much as i love social media im aware how unhealthy it is. breaks are so important for you. remember that.

i can't think of anymore tips right now but if i have some more i will edit the post and add it on.

if u have anymore questions about the tumblr posting format dm me and ill help you out :))

[icedmetaltea]

I've been feeling discouraged about my art recently. Could you possibly give me some tips?

Ok I wanna preface this by saying I am by no means a professional or even "good" artist, BUT I shall try!

These are all tips by a digital artist so I can't help much when it comes to other forms

This got long so under the cut, 20 ART TIPS TIME LETS GOOO

1.Try to draw most days, or at least once a week. The more often the better BUT I don't mean like hardcore, a complex drawing every single day (recipe for burnout right there). I mean like even just 30 seconds of SOMETHING. You can draw shapes, maybe fill a page with circles. There are programs u can find online that give you like a min to sketch something and challenge yourself in a really short time frame. Guess what?? When you draw often you're building those neural pathways (I think) and the more you do it the easier it'll get

2. Don't obsess over making stuff look perfect on the first draft... or at all. I recommend making a "draft" layer or 2... or 3 over the initial sketch. The more you go over it and change stuff, the better it'll be. Also, If you spend hours on it and still hate it?? Who cares! You put in the work and now you have an idea out on paper that you can go over some time in the future and improve if you chose to.

3. DON'T DELETE STUFF!!! Unless it's literally just mindless scribbles, save everything you draw. Like I said, you can go over it again and improve it someday. You can also look back at it in like a year and compare your art to see where you've improved! I deleted all my old art from beyond like a year ago and regret it so much. Don't berate yourself for the stuff you need to work on, be proud of what improvements you've still made

USE REFERENCES!!!!!!! Please just do it, I know it's annoying but I promise it helps so so much

4. Invest drawing tablet, preferably one with buttons that you can map to undo, sketch, fill and such. This will make drawing sooooo much easier (and faster). My quality of art has improved just from drawing the same thing and redoing it like 20 times at a time, and it takes way less time when I can just click a button to do that. It might seem daunting at first but it quickly becomes instinctual. This is the one I got and I'm quite happy with it! It's got good sensitivity, a pen you don't have to replace batteries for or even recharge, and it's mid-range so not wayy too expensive. However, if you're just starting out, I'd recommend this (I got the corded version but I assume it's about the same) since it's small, cheap and you can focus on just learning basics like improving lines n such.

5. Use a bigger canvas size. I started out with 1000x1000, and that's still fine for smaller stuff and doodles, for better quality I recommend bigger sizes. If it's too small it'll look all weird and pixel-y

6. THERE ARE LITERALLY SO MANY FORMS OF ART, maybe the one you're trying just isn't something you vibe with! There's mosaics, digital, traditional (and all the many sub-categories of that), sculpture, photography, etc. All are equally valid and you will improve in your craft if you choose something that 1. you enjoy, 2. are consistent with it!

7. SEGEMENT OUT THE LIMBS drawing DCA stuff for over a year has helped me improve on anatomy sooo much literally just because it forced me to think of each part of a limb in terms of segments, shapes- for instance, instead of an upper arm, I think of a tube which connects to a circle that allows it to rotate and another tube... followed by a weird shape for a hand that connects 5 smaller tubes, whiCH ARE THEN SEPERATED IN TO 3 TUBES EACH. Yes it sounds confusing but breaking it down like that instead of just trying to figure things out helped an absolute shitton

8. Have some kinda hobby that makes you draw frequently. For instance I have a discord sona I draw a new pfp for every month or so. It's a simple design and since the pfp won't show many flaws I can pump out lots of art for it in a small timeframe and I find it relaxing. I've actually improved a shitton just drawing pfps This is one of my first pfps from maybe 2 yrs ago compared with one of my most recent ones

(yes I'm a bit of a furry deal with it) It's cute, there's nothing wrong at all with it! However, you can see how things have changed.

See how the lines are a lot more even, less jagged? The proportions of the shoulders are much wider, the ears aren't just popping out of the hair, the shading makes a bit more sense and isn't just thrown around at random. There's also a broader range of color, with a few bright highlights to catch the eye, colored shading I think as well. The former is just like 3 simple colors. These are all things I learned from drawing pfps consistently.

9. CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! And FUN, if you have fun drawing it'll be a lot easier to do frequently

10. Whether it's drawing pfps, blorbos or landscapes, find something that brings you joy and it'll be MUCH easier to stick to. Draw, draw a lot, do not worry about "good" art and "bad" art cause there's literally no such thing. Compare what you draw now with what you do in like a year or two from now and I promise, if you're consistent, use references and are patient, you WILL amaze yourself with how much you improve.

11. Challenge yourself! Join secret santas (assuming you know you can complete it within the allotted timeframe), draw your friends' sona/ocs (if they're cool with it), do palette challenges, do monthly stuff like drawtober or whatever it's called (BUT I don't recommend doing something every single day for a month cause again, gonna cause mega burnout)

12. Draw when the inspiration comes, it will move your hand. These days I make much better quality art that I'm proud of when I just let inspiration flow through me instead of begrudgingly making myself draw. You shouldn't be forcing yourself!! If you are, you probably are burned out by either drawing too much, feeling a lack of confidence or some other stuff going on irl. Inspiration comes naturally, and when it doesn't it's prolly your mind trying to communicate that something's up. If resting a week or two doesn't help, take a deeper look at your life and see if the artblock is a symptom of something else (for me it's most often depression).

13. At the same time, sometimes you just need to start. Kinda on the previous point of lacking confidence, often we scare ourselves out of even trying. It might feel insurmountable. Nah, try. If all you can do is a wobbly, vague sketch?? You got the idea out!! Start drawing fuckin eyeballs or something, just start. Sometimes the hardest part is just facing a blank canvas and putting a couple lines on it

14. Not all brushes are equal. Some just make drawing easier- at least for me. I dunno the science behind it but when I use my sketch brush (it's got a similar look to pencil) rather than my lineart brush it makes drawings just... look better. Also using thicker lines in general helps. Why?? NO CLUE, maybe thinner ones just show flaws easier or intersect better or something.

15. Music or some other distraction can help, idk why. Some days I like to have a movie/show/podcast going in the background for a mild distraction that keeps me slightly stimulated on other stuff even as I draw- maybe it increases brain activity or??? No idea. Sometimes just listening to music. Sometimes I need total silence. Do what works for you! Give lots of different stuff a try, you may love drawing while listening to a podcast in the background

16. Take breaks!! The pomodoro method works with art as well. Every 25 mins or so, take a 5 min break. Get up, stretch, get some water, maybe watch a yt vid. Call ur friend and tell them you love and cherish them. Then get back to it and you will feel oh so refreshed. After maybe 3 rounds take a 15 min or longer break and then repeat if you still feel like it

17. SLEEP IS INCREDIBLY FUCKING IMPORTANT you will see a deep decline in the quality of your art when you're tired, plus you just feel like shit and art is about feeling good and expressing yourself. Sleep is important, even tho yes I stay up too late drawing most nights, I do my absolute best to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night, as should you!!

18. DO NOT BE SCARED OF STICK FIGURES AND MESSY SKETCHES, they're actually the best way to start bc 1. it's a quick way to get an idea out before you forget it 2. the finished piece will actually look a lot more fluid since you weren't spending all that time obsessing over making the first draft look perfect- which often just makes it look stiff. You can do a whole lot with stick figures. Focus on that good ol' line of action.

19. Random but when drawing the face, I like to first make a circle and then like a "mask" over it for the actual face. For me it just makes sense. Then two lines, one up/down and one left, right, it'll make it easier to align the eyes and ears. In general, the ears usually go where the "mask" begins and just below the left/right line

20. Finally surround yourself with people who encourage you. I grew up in an environment where people would gawk at stuff my sibling drew and ignore me bc they were ~naturally talented~ and it made me not want to draw at all.

Well guess what?? Now that I spend time with people who encourage me and genuinely care about my interest in art I've improved a lot bc I have the motivation, the joy of showing ppl who care about me new pieces. If people in your life aren't encouraging you, or gods forbid insulting your art (excluding constructive criticism that you've explicitly asked for) then TOSS EM OVERBOARD THE BOAT OF LIFE and find people who will treat you with the love and respect you deserve

P.S

This isn't a tip, just a recommendation: Chicory, a colorful tale. It's a game where u play as a cute lil dog who gets a magical paintbrush that lets you color the world. The only issue? You have no ~talent~. My gods, this game struck a cord with me.

Feeling like you don't have any talents that come naturally to you. Being overlooked even when you try your best. Feeling like a complete joke when you try to pick up the brush (or in this case stylus) because there are so many "real" artists and you're not one of them.

Also the things people say and how they can affect you even when not intentional. Damn. It's just a beautiful game. It's made by the same people who made Wandersong, another absolute banger game with a character who is seen as a joke and I cannot recommend them enough.

bonus tip bc why the fuck not: OVERLAYS!!!!!!! In clip paint studio you have all these layer options, I can never memorize what they all do so I just make like an ombre color layer over my base colors and try all of them to see what looks cool

[mango-ti]

I have a Belle brainrot so have me rambling about differences between trailers and final version of the move, from scenes shot differently, to literal slight lighting changes (part 2 baby)

Release -> Trailer :]

continuing in no particular order:

tears moved and maybe changed from 3d to drawn on. added some shadows and light

hands were more outlined

the scene of belle opening the door to U for the first time, in the trailer is spliced with the scene of opening the door when Beast's castle is attacked. When she first opens the door, we never actually see her hands as it cuts to her face

see? trailer just had the castle whited out. thumb is positioned slightly differently. a lot brighter too

they fucking forgot her body blush in the trailer??? this is the same frame as the snowflakes match up btw. hair has a few more details in the trailer, as well as her eyelashes being flatter. different hair shine. her right hair bow was fixed to be pointier

same scene but a few seconds later, you can see how her hair is positioned differently and the above things

idk why the trailer is so yellow tinted btw it's just like that

hair has a looot more details. this shot was used in marketing so maybe they wanted to glam it up to be prettier. hairshine was moved down

I'm not sure if the hair details are draw on, or done on the model itself. both are possible

forgot to turn off the captions sorry. bangs are now thinner in places, sleeve covers more of the hand, hairshine moved, the hairclip on the right was moved closer to her face

font on the English comment(?) was changed. messages got a more spread out and bigger

i fucking knew that U was modeled differently. i fucking knew it

U has a lot less modules which makes the sky more visible :]

shadows were fixed to look better. I think they mentioned they used a special texture they applied to her model to make the desired effect which is cool

shot of the phone from the beginning of the movie. font used is different and slimmer. UI is bigger. Comments are moved around to different places, no big "Who is she?" comment. Whatever that is in the top left corner was finished for the final

this shot of users commenting on Dragon, lot more comments added, they're also smaller. English comments were changed to Japanese. The art is a lot more zoomed in to focus on his eyes

now this shot is only in the youtube version of the trailers and it doesn't match any shot of the final movie, the closest being on the right

U looks modeled differently but just use your eyes for this one

The sky was given different clouds and the moon was slightly turned and put in front of the red equator line

ok last one! also only on the youtube trailer. Sea of sparkles instead of bokeh lights! super pretty! moon was moved down, and if you look closely, you can see that Belle's flowers were visible on the whale's side

there's actually a textless version of the image in high quality, it seem it was originally posted by Ludvig Forssell on Twitter, but the earliest I can find is here but in low quality.

[thesinglesjukebox]

KEHLANI -"AFTER HOURS"

We're staying out late tonight...

[6.89]

Katherine St. Asaph: An immaculate vibe, a great hang, a simmering build; the feeling of realizing you'd love to linger indefinitely, transmuted into sound. [8]

Alfred Soto: At ease in ruminative mode, Kehlani hasn't recorded many club bangers these days. The Nina Sky interpolation gets them to shake the mopes, or, rather, coaxes them to put their fluttery wishcasting into a kinetic mode that occasionally suits them. [7]

Taylor Alatorre: "In a room full of strangers... it feels like we're alone." Okay, pretty standard club dichotomy there. So then why would you foreground the former over the latter by turning the chorus into this communal come-hither chant? Makes me feel like I'm being courted by a hive mind or polycule or both. Maybe that's part of the weirdness that comes with adapting the "Coolie Dance" riddim to a song about one-on-one intimacy; it didn't have to be, though. [5]

Jackie Powell: It’s difficult to know Kehlani’s true intent with “After Hours." Are they trying for a dark horse R&B hit with hints of afrobeats? Is this a reggae track? Or are they paying homage to Destiny’s Child? (They released a remix of the song that plops their vocals on top of the instrumental to Destiny’s Child’s “Cater 2 U.”)  Kehlani tries to accomplish all of the above, but it’s hard to say whether they execute. The song features a sample within a sample. The first sound is the percussive rhythm that rose to popularity via Nina Sky’s "Move Ya Body," but that sound is a sample in itself, a beat originally made by Jamaican artist Cordell 'Scatta' Burrell in his song "Coolie Dance Rhythm." "After Hours" could have easily begun after that eight-second sample, which prompts the question as to why they needed it. Were they trying to bring in more mainstream listeners who would recognize the first seconds immediately? It isn’t clear. The track becomes most compelling when Kehlani gets to their refrain and then the subsequent pre-chorus. Kehlani has an overdubbed call and response that builds and builds and is quite sexy, but disappoints by the time the chorus hits. The payoff is weak, and the supposed hook sounds like an extended version of Tyla’s “Water,” especially with the echoing backing vocals that aren’t Kehlani’s. In the original “After Hours,” there is a trace of Destiny’s Child's signature sauce: the harmony on the call-and-response sections. But the “Cater 2 U” remix slows the song’s tempo and completely changes the vibe of the song. Is this a song for the club or for the hotel room they take their lover to the night of the ensuing hookup?  [6]

Ian Mathers: Just a fun, light party track, and I mean that as a compliment. I'm actually kind of glad this only uses the same riddim as "Move Ya Body" instead of interpolating it like the intro made me think might happen. But while I'll be happy to hear this come up on the radio etc., I suspect every time I hear that intro I'm going to be a just a little disappointed it's not Nina Sky. [7]

Jonathan Bradley: There are no shortage of songs in 2024 sampling the hits of the '00s, but Kehlani's Nina Sky flip sounds more like yet another take on the Coolie Dance riddim than nostalgia bait; this is how dancehall is supposed to work. "After Hours" is light and pleasant, with an ingratiating synth line that finds new use for old trop house parts. Kehlani is the least essential part, but they don't need to break a sweat to make this replayable. If it were summer here, I might bump my score up by a point. [6]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I've long been in favor of Kehlani using as many 2000s R&B samples as possible. This is further vindication — over a vague outline of Nina Sky, they sound like they're having more fun than they have in years; the searing, melodramatic quality of their voice works much better as an invitation to debauchery than, say, a duet partner to Ty Dolla $ign.  [7]

Will Adams: The use of the Coolie Dance riddim is smart; the club is still pumping, but the soft synths and half-stepping bass suggest that closing time is approaching, and there's someone who wants to take you home. That transient moment creates heat for "After Hours," even though I'd rather have that interaction while "Move Ya Body" is playing instead. [6]

Nortey Dowuona: After Cordell and Everton Burrell released the Coolie Dance riddim in 2003, they probably had no idea that 25 artists(!!???) would flood to use it almost immediately, but they did expect it to be successful and used. When he and his brother were their most successful, most of the riddims that were produced were given directly to artists in both reggae and dancehall, who, in exchange for the song, would have "gentleman's agreements" with the producers, who would plow through their equipment to create the riddims yet depended on those agreements to work. Each song was meant for a dub plate, to be performed so the artist could eat. The producer, however, got left in the dust. Khristopher Riddick-Tynes of the Rascals, as well as Alex Goldblatt, who is the co-producer of this sweet little gem, didn't even count Cordell or Everton as producers but merely as songwriters, since they took the riddim from this little gem produced by Lionel Bermingham and Elijah Wells. Cordell does get a songwriting credit and a cameo in the video, as well as Diovanna Frasier, choreographer, and Daniel Church, who can rock a pretty solid Jeremih impression. Now, Kehlani does deliver quite handily in the vocals department (with assistance from Jaycen Joshua and his trusty sidekick, Mike Seaberg), but the creation, completion and delivery of one of the best songs of the year depends on at least seven other people who you don't know and couldn't pick out of a lineup unless you're a Mixed by the Masters fanboy. They're the ones who create the spellbinding songs we're listening to while we miss last call to keep on talking, and I think they deserve just as much lucre and recognition as the Bay's worst-kept secret. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[tennisarchives]

🦋 - hi! If u can't recall, I was the anon who asked you about gifmaking before.

I know some of the raw videos of jannik/tennis in general may or may not have good video resolution. But your end-result of your gifs are usually sharpened but not that grainy either. How do you usually adjust your gifs' adjustments when it comes to low quality videos? Bcs your gifset tends to be in 540px wide, so it makes me wonder as well how you retain/enhance the quality of the gifs. I hope I delivered my question well 😂

i remember u omg hiiii! now i may have gone a little overboard on details here under the cut but i suppose you’ll appreciate it anyway haha

disclaimer, for a lot of these settings, i can’t remember where i first found them but i had seen them used in gif tutorials when i was just learning how to make them. i’ve basically stuck with these ever since!

so join me as i go through the process of making this jannik gif (exclusive content, never before seen on my blog, etc etc):

okay so first of all, ofc as much as possible i try to get the best quality version even if the video itself is bad. like, if it’s on streaming i would screen record but otherwise i try to download the original file. it makes the end result much better imo

i generally go for 540px width bc i read somewhere that that’s the ideal size for tumblr gifs. if the cropped video is smaller than that or needs to be portrait oriented, i would usually just put two gifs side by side (like in this gifset) bc it’s better than trying to resize it bigger

but when a source video is around 720p, i can generally work with it! so here’s a sample that i trimmed from a fairly low quality jannik video from youtube. he's presumably on webcam here, which explains the bluriness

i loaded it in using video frames as layers. this pic shows it already cropped on my photoshop, with a frame delay set to 0.08 (my personal default, which i realized after everything was saved was still too fast for my liking but oh well i’m not redoing it):

as you can see on the bottom left corner, it still has a width slightly over 540px. so then i can proceed with the next step: resizing. what i do is go to the image tab and select image resizing, which brings up this window:

i change only the width to what i want (in this case 540px) and i use bicubic (smooth gradients) resampling

when that’s done, i convert to video timeline on the timeline window. then i select all the layers on the layers window and convert into smart object

now we can move on to sharpening! under the filter tab, i select sharpen and then smart sharpen. that gets this window to open up:

my presets have the amount at 500%, reduce noise at 0%, and remove gaussian blur. as for the radius, that depends on the video. by default i have it set to 0.5px, but i change it as needed. in this case, since it’s a close-up of jannik’s face, i feel comfortable using 0.8px (my highest setting). usually, if the video is shot from afar, i use something lower like 0.3px or 0.4px. i tend to find that oversharpening some really blurry videos makes them look worse, so i prefer to keep it looking a bit blurry if i really have to. thankfully, in our case right now jannik looks fine with high sharpening!

then i adjust the color and lighting as i wish. i would say that creating more contrast between the black and white levels of the gif helps it to appear sharper! though personally, i just like having more vibrant and contrast-y gifs so yeah

the final important thing happens when i save it. here are my settings in the save for web window:

i set max colors to 256, color reduction to selective, and dither to pattern. the last bit there is what i think is most important for keeping my gifs looking non-grainy! i looooove pattern dither, and i find that the other settings do make my gifs look more grainy so i never use them

and that’s it!! this is the process i use for all my gifs tbh, the main thing i play with for low quality ones is cropping and resizing + the smart sharpening radius

hope this helps 🫶

[frozenbound]

dragon hybrids anon here to say u absolutely knocked it outta the park w/ my request thank u very much. glad to hear ure feelin a bit better and even more glad to see more of ur excellent writing. ive got another request if u feel like it: time travel shenanigans where an older hanzo (around overwatch recall-ish age) ends up in the past somehow and gets seduced by a very needy younger version of his little brother (pre attempted fratricide) who has a thing for older men because of obvious reasons. maybe throw in some daddy kink and some mild identity porn if ure so inclined :3

I'm glad you enjoyed them, Anon!! Dragon hybrid Shimadas are just...so good. I really enjoyed writing it!

And now time travel shenanigans! Man oh man, I LOVE me some Shimadacest time traveling and identity porn, let me tell you!! Another high quality ask! Thanks so much for the request, I appreciate it!

Time traveling Older Hanzo with Young Genji, coming right up under the Read More!

Hanzo sprawled out on his back, staring at the sky through a canopy of pink and white cherry blossoms.

He knew joining Overwatch would be a bad idea. He just knew it.

As soon as he could breathe again, he was going to get to his feet, find Genji, and drag him away to…somewhere. Somewhere that wasn’t the middle of a battle between renegade Omnics and renegade heroes.

Genji wouldn’t be too surprised. As soon as he had finished giving Hanzo a tour of their base…a dilapidated, obsolete eyesore…and introduced him to his teammates…a ragtag group of overly-loud, overly-enthusiastic extroverts that had Hanzo itching to disappear at the earliest possible moment…Genji had brought Hanzo to a quiet rooftop overlooking the Mediterranean, sat him down, took off his mask, and said with an mirthful will of iron, “Yes, they’re insane, but so am I, and so are you, and I’m convinced this is where we can do the most good, brother.”

Hanzo had scoffed. “You may be insane,” he’d grumbled, looking out over the orange water towards the setting sun, “but I am not. What makes you think I’m staying after seeing all that?”

“This,” Genji said simply.

And he had leaned forward and kissed Hanzo.

With tongue.

Then with moans, deep, drawn-out moans as Hanzo pressed forward and laid them both out full-length on that roof, chasing the flavor, the feel of Genji’s mouth.

At last. At long, long last.

There, under the open, darkening sky, Hanzo had, with trembling fingers, pushed his trousers down and then felt and poked and prodded between Genji’s legs, finally fondling Genji’s cock and ballsack that fell into the open air when his little brother released his codpiece, and sighing when long-held yearning was finally relieved as his fingertips found the soft, clenching muscle of Genji’s entrance.

By the time the sun disappeared under the horizon, Hanzo was buried in Genji, holding back sobs at how good he felt, how perfect he was around him and laid out under him, so willing and relaxed and buzzing with desire, desire for him, Hanzo, which he had only dreamed might exist in his little brother’s heart.

Then, after Hanzo had thrust his way to both their completions, Genji spilling across his own stomach and chest untouched with a cry that echoed Hanzo’s as he erupted deep inside, they had lain there together under the stairs, wrapped in each other’s arms.

“I’ve wanted this,” Hanzo murmured into Genji’s hair, drawing him closer to his chest, “since the moment you earned your dragon. You looked so handsome, bathed in light and power. I knew then I wanted no one other than you.”

Genji chuckled. “I wish,” he said with a trace of trepidation, “that I could say the same. Don’t get me wrong, brother, I’m flattered that you’ve wanted me for so long, but the world might’ve been kind to keep us apart so long. I’ve always admired you, looked up to you, but would I have returned your affections? Well…not until I saw you again in the castle.”

Despite having Genji here in his arms at last, it was something of a blow to hear that Genji hadn’t shared his feelings as long, but that wasn’t anyone’s fault, much less Genji’s. However, curiosity piqued, Hanzo asked, “Until you saw me there? Why?”

He felt Genji sigh against his chest. “I’m a little wiser than I was in our youth, brother, but one thing hasn’t changed.”

Hanzo furrowed his brow. “What?”

“I’m still as shallow as ever. When I saw that you were…” Genji fell silent and shifted around for an uncomfortable moment, before he awkwardly laughed and continued, “that you’d grown into a DILF, into an oji-san, I instantly got hard as a rock and stayed hard during that entire fight.”

Genji chuckled when the skin pressing against his face warmed up. Hanzo’s blushing was so intense it had reached all the way down to his chest.

“I am not…” Hanzo mumbled.

“Yeah, you are,” Genji said with a laugh. “Accept it. Be grateful for it. Once I caught the oji-san bug when I was nineteen, I’ve chased them all my life. Now I’ve got one for my very own, and I’m not letting go.”

Hanzo was silent for a few moments, before he ventured, “So…if I had…confessed to you earlier…”

“Honestly? If you had confessed before you hid that long chin of yours under your beard, automatic no, and I wouldn’t have been nice about it. After you grew your beard, I might’ve been up for being fuckbuddies, but I suspect that wasn’t what you wanted.”

“No,” Hanzo agreed, his heart clenching.

“I think,” Genji said gently, “that we could’ve had something that wasn’t perfect, but good enough…maybe…to last until you aged like a fine wine.”

“Humph.”

Genji shrugged and stroked his hand up and down Hanzo’s flank. “I’m sorry, brother, but I’m only being honest.”

“I know,” Hanzo said with a huff. “And I accept it, but I wish many, many things could have been different in the past.”

“As do I,” Genji said softly. “But I wouldn’t change this, right here, right now. Never. Not for anything.”

And for one perfect moment, Hanzo was content. With everything. Past, present, and future.

The moment had passed, of course, but with Genji at his side and in his bed and in his heart, much of that contentment managed to stick around.

But enough was enough.

After being forced to return to Hanamura to face an alliance of Hashimoto and Talon just in time for a Null Sector attack to send everyone, friend and foe, scrambling for cover, enough was finally enough.

The battle against Null Sector had been hard, but ultimately successful, and Hanzo had even allowed himself to be briefly impressed by this ragtag group of heroes…then a lone Null Sector omnic soldier had reared up out of its hiding place and blasted Hanzo off his feet, along with Tracer, the time-traveling, hyperactive poster child of the new Overwatch, right into one of Symmetra’s teleporters.

Hanzo attributed the sudden silence and abrupt change of scene to the teleporter. The only place there could be this many cherry blossoms was on the castle grounds, so they were evidently not in Kanazaka any longer. 

So he could afford to lie here for a little while before he finally got up and made the long trip back down the hill and find Genji.

“Well, well! What do we have here?”

Hanzo started at the familiar voice, his eyes widening, but no…that was impossible.

“Another drunkard left behind after the Golden Week crowds, huh? You’d better get up, old man. The Shimada family may open the grounds to the public out of the goodness of their hearts, but most of them aren’t as laid back and…forgiving as…I am…”

There was a moment of silence…charged silence, as Hanzo felt eyes rake up and down his body.

“Hey there.”

Hanzo sat up with a jolt when someone crouched beside him, and the sight was as impossible as the sound: Genji.

Young, unscarred, fully flesh, looking down at him while licking his lips.

Seductively.

“G…” Hanzo started to say, breathless, astounded, shocked to the core.

Then he picked his jaw off the floor, clicked his mouth closed, and scowled, because the answer came to him in a flash.

He was dreaming. The blast hadn’t thrown him into the teleporter after all; it had thrown him into a wall and he had suffered a major head trauma and he was hallucinating-slash-dreaming.

It took him a moment to realize what was happening because Genji, young, whole, untouched, hadn’t appeared in his dreams since the real Genji, with every mark Hanzo had carved into him, had dropped out of the shadows and back into his life.

Before then, however, he had appeared often enough…and wearing that exact expression, exuberant, confident, and utterly shameless as his lively eyes traveled up and down Hanzo’s body, lingering on his torso and arms because each muscle was outlined by his skintight, longsleeved compression shirt.

He licked his lips again, in that characteristic way that always forced Hanzo’s eyes to watch the perfect lines of his mouth.

“Well, oji-san,” Genji said in a voice so low it was nearly a growl. “I don’t think the guards know you’re here. What will you do if they find you?”

Hanzo’s hackles immediately raised at the word oji-san. This was the Genji who would have rejected him if he had confessed his feelings long ago, precisely because he wasn’t an oji-san.

And this Genji knew that, because this was a dream and Hanzo’s subconscious delighted in torturing him at every opportunity.

And indeed, Genji smiled teasingly at Hanzo’s deepening scowl. “Oh, yes,” he drawled. “Lucky for you, I think I could be convinced to help you out a little, if you were to do me a little…favor.”

And Genji reached out to trace his finger down Hanzo’s arm.

Hanzo snorted.

One of these dreams, huh? he thought as he watched Genji waggle his eyebrows suggestively.

Fine, then. If even Dream Genji preferred DILFs, then he’d get one.

“O-oy!”

Hanzo surged up to his feet and, grabbing Genji by the shirt, hoisted him to his feet and slammed Genji harshly against the nearest tree, causing the blossoms above them to quiver.

Normally, he had enough propriety not to kiss his little brother out in the open.

Here, though…

“Mmf!” Genji tried to shout past Hanzo’s lips, but like so many times before, he struggled for only a moment or two before his eyes rolled back and his lips and mouth and body relaxed under Hanzo’s, and Hanzo permitted himself a thrill of triumph as he sought to get a taste of this Genji, the one who had enraptured him for so long.

He tasted shockingly similar to how Genji tasted now, despite everything…

But reality bleeding into his dreams was to be expected. Hanzo had always been overwhelmingly practical, so that even when he was lucid dreaming and had the power to do literally anything he wanted, he was content with Genji’s soft lips under his own, with Genji’s skin under his hands as they roved under his shirt, and with Genji’s sigh, so relaxed, so accepting of this oji-san version of his older brother sticking his tongue down his throat and pinching and tweaking his nipples and pressing the whole length of their bodies together…but only for a moment.

Then Hanzo was sliding down, breaking the wet kiss even as Genji chased after him, before his little brother gave up and threw his head back and let out another long sigh as Hanzo pressed kisses to his throat and to the swell of muscle underneath his shirt until his knees hit and ground and he was facing the bulge in Genji’s short shorts.

He deftly unbuttoned and unzipped them and was not the least bit surprised when Genji’s heavy cock fell out, uncontained by any underwear.

And Hanzo drew in a long, indulgent sniff, filling his lungs with Genji, before he opened his mouth and effortlessly let Genji slide past his lips and tongue and straight into his throat.

“Fuck!” Genji yelped, his hands clamping onto Hanzo’s head, his fingertips curling into his graying hair. “Fuck! Fuck!”

Hanzo would have chuckled if Genji weren’t blocking his airway.

Then he would have sneezed, since Genji’s pubic hair was tickling his nose.

But he managed to suppress it as he drew back, hearing Genji’s breath catch as he stopped to nurse right on the head of his cock, drinking in the precum that was all but spurting out.

Then he laid his hands over Genji’s, still fisted in his hair, looked up at his little brother, and nodded.

Genji was impetuous, self-assured, and most of all, intense when he had been this young.

Dark lust dimmed Genji’s eyes.

His grip tightened.

And he slammed his cock back into Hanzo’s throat.

Hanzo would have sighed in utter contentment, if…

As it was, he had to steal what gulps of air he could in the split seconds of freedom, between the brutal slams of his little brother’s cock into the warm, slick, tight confines of his DILF older brother, so pleased to have found such the perfect little cocksleeve he’d always needed.

Hanzo started to make obscene and wet noises every time his airway was clear because he knew the fire it would set in Genji’s blood, the carnal conflagration, the absolute need to fuck and pound into that welcoming mouth until he shot his boiling load straight down into Hanzo’s stomach.

Genji shuddered and thrust Hanzo’s face into his pelvis, burying his nose into his pubes one last time, and Hanzo was a practical man; all he wanted was to be this close to Genji, with Genji’s length pulsing in his mouth and throat, and Genji’s heat blooming and burning all the way down to his core.

Black spots danced in his vision and his fingers tingled and his blood screamed for oxygen, but nothing could come between him and this most intimate moment that he craved more, much more than air.

It was Genji who eventually drew back and allowed Hanzo to suck in a long, deep breath.

Then Genji reached down and tilted his wet, drool-covered bearded chin up and they locked gazes for a few endless moments, simply staring, with Hanzo panting, open-mouthed with red lips, and Genji had something akin to worship in his eyes.

Once Hanzo had caught his breath, Genji tugged him back to his feet and kissed him, gently, licking over his sensitive lips.

And with his free hand, he pushed those short shorts to the floor and stepped out of them.

And he pulled Hanzo forward.

And he unbuttoned and shoved Hanzo’s trousers down just enough to free his weeping, rockhard erection.

And he urged Hanzo to press forward harder, to press Genji firmly against the tree trunk, and to support his weight as he wrapped his legs around Hanzo’s hips.

And he guided one of Hanzo’s hands down and under the curve of his perfectly muscled, round ass…

…to the soft flared rubber handle of a buttplug.

Hanzo chuckled into Genji’s mouth as he tugged on it.

This really was a dream come true.

Then he swallowed Genji’s moans as he slowly, excruciatingly slowly, pulled it out, stretching Genji’s rim until it popped free.

And Hanzo tossed it aside and lined up his cock with Genji’s loose, lubed, and welcoming entrance and drove in as deeply and easily as Genji had driven into his throat.

“Ah!” Genji cried out, breaking their kiss.

He sounded so sweet that Hanzo didn’t resume it; instead, he latched onto the side of his neck, sucking and raking his teeth and mouthing and licking as he gently rocked in and out of Genji, as gentle now as he had been the first time they’d made love, because Genji was the wild and ferociously free brother who wanted to bust his nut into his devastatingly handsome older brother and mark him as his as quickly as possible, and Hanzo was the practical and patient brother, and he wanted the slick, velvety heat of his little brother around his cock for as long as possible.

“Ah! Ah!”

Genji sounded wonderful. Divine.

He sounded almost as good as he felt.

So hot, so smooth, so perfect, molding around him as though he was made to be the lock to Hanzo’s key, his body parting and opening to Hanzo’s gentle yet insistent nudging and chasing after him as he glided out, and Hanzo felt like he had all the time in the world, here under the cherry blossoms, to work his way gradually up to his pinnacle, the smell of his and Genji’s sweat and arousal slowly intensifying and combining, their breaths getting increasingly ragged with Hanzo’s being particularly raspy in his abused throat, a constant reminder of the contrast between their radically different yet complementary styles.

“O-Oji-san,” Genji panted, right when Hanzo was on the edge.

“Say my name, Genji,” Hanzo bit out harshly, teetering.

Genji blinked rapidly.

Then, slowly, “H…”

Hanzo paused and waited.

“H…Han…Hanzo…” Genji breathed.

“Again,” Hanzo ordered.

“Hanzo.”

“Again.”

“Hanzo!” he yelped as Hanzo bucked his hips, burying himself balls-deep in the first abrupt movement he had made since crushing their lips together at the beginning of this sweet, teasing dream.

“Again, Genji,” Hanzo panted. “Never stop.”

“Hanzo! Hanzo!”

He followed the rhythm Genji set with his name, spearing up into him and punching that sweet call out of his little brother…

“Hanzo! Hanzo! Hanz…ah!”

…until he felt Genji’s hot essence erupt between them, soaking their clothes, seeping in to wet their skin, as Genji again shuddered and trembled all around him.

He drove in one last time, seeking to surround himself with Genji as much as possible.

“Genji,” he hissed as he flooded into his precious little brother, painting him, filling him, marking him as his, as he always was, as he always would be, as his cock throbbed and his nerves sang and the need he had to unite with his brother, to always be united with him, was sated…again…for a little while.

His orgasm slowly tapered off, leaving him as content as he had learned was only possible when he was here, in Genji, buried in him and covered with him and holding him both deep inside and in his arms.

He bent his knees and lowered them both to the ground. When the motion eventually popped him out of Genji’s sloppy, red entrance, Hanzo returned the gentle favor Genji had bestowed on him by lifting his hips, nearly bending him in half, and burying his face in Genji’s musky valley and laving his tongue over the red skin, licking up the errant white ropes of cum leaking out until Genji managed to wink closed and keep the rest deep within him, where it belonged.

Then he lowered Genji’s hips to the ground, his legs splayed on either side of him, and they just looked at each other silently for a few moments, breathing slowly, the smell of sex heavy around them.

Genji suddenly smiled, lopsidedly, and opened his mouth.

There was a flash of white light.

And Hanzo slammed against a wall.

“Oof!” Tracer grunted alongside him, and then, with a flash of blue light, she was gone and suddenly thirty feet away, on her feet, uninjured, and flashing away, firing into the rogue Omnic’s sides with her pistols.

Hanzo laid on the ground, nearly catatonic with whiplash and confusion.

What…?

And suddenly Genji was there, all sleek and white and metallic with his cybernetics, crouching beside him…

…tucking his flaccid penis back into his trousers and buttoning him up…

…then gathering him into his arms and running, carrying him to safety and the warm glow of Mercy’s healing staff.

Later, hours later, when the battle was over and the sun had long since set and Hanzo was as well as circumstances permitted, he went in search of Genji.

He found him on the rooftop, gray against the night sky.

They stood side-by-side for a moment, looking up at the stars.

Hanzo turned to Genji, opening his mouth to speak…

…but Genji was already pushing him down to his knees.

Hanzo let out a little annoyed huff, but he supposed they could talk later.

For now, he simply kept his mouth open.

[kygerbearr]

What's the worst game you've ever played?

it is hard to really gauge what the worst game I've ever played was, but there are definitely some games I consider to genuinely be bad. none of them are really all that interesting takes so don't expect much

persona 5 - I really, really dislike this game and genuinely think its game design is bad. visually it's amazing, but they lock game changing mechanics like party switching behind social links that I just had no interest in doing, and no one should be punished that hard for not doing optional content. horrible game design. also the story bored me to tears. the villain is so half-assed and character assassinated in the later half of the game that I felt insulted that they took so much time from me. the only redeeming quality of that game is its aesthetics, soundtrack and some of the characters, otherwise it's mediocre garbage and there are so many better RPGs to play. also persona 3 clears it

genshin impact - I don't hate it because it's anime or because it's gacha and I played it from launch all the way until the second half of inazuma when they released itto, but the way they handle content in that game is horrible. the units they released had horrendous kits overshadowed by whoever was running the meta. the hype for new units was completely gone, and building your team was fucking miserable because you need to gather bugs for 3 hours which also take 48+ real life hours to respawn. also everyone in that game is fucking white and its so annoying and I fucking hate it

the peak of my enjoyment out of genshin impact was liyue as a whole since it was actually a beautiful area with some slight amount of authenticity to traditional chinese culture, language, and topography. but the story of the game is so unbelievably fucking boring, the gameplay is not interesting, the new characters end up sucking and it's just a ridiculously unfun timesink. fuck genshin impact

maplestory - i have nothing to say about it. just trust me

yakuza 3 - holy shit I have never been more unsatisfied with the gameplay and story of a yakuza game. this actually made me want to drop the series entirely because I didn't find it fun or interesting whatsoever, the game is incredibly unbalanced, combat is so clunky and gross, the only saving grace is that okinawa is cool to look at. i didn't do any of the side stories because I just did not enjoy the gameplay, I finished this game and felt exhausted when I was done with it. the yakuza series is deeply deeply worth it, but please play this on the lowest difficulty and just bumrush the story.

tloz: wind waker - one of my hotter takes is that wind waker really isn't that good, admittedly I did play the gamecube version but what the wii u version changed doesn't completely turn it into a good game. my biggest issue with this game is that the overworld is genuinely empty and exploration feels pointless since the only side content you can do has unsatisfying rewards that don't make the game much better. the hint system they use for that game is fucking stupid, dungeon design takes a nosedive after the first 2 dungeons, items you get in dungeons have next to no use outside of those dungeons, and the final sequence being a boss gauntlet is one of the laziest cop-outs for the zelda series. I desperately wanted to like the game, so I played it 1 and a half times and that was enough to tell me that it wasn't that good.

ty the tasmanian tiger - i really wanted to love this game! but the level design got lazy and became a slog trying to collect everything, the boss design was very much not interesting and it just really couldn't hold my attention. I've gone back to this game 3 different times trying to see if I'd change my opinion but I play through half of the game and just end up realizing I don't like it and don't want to play it. it's just kind of sad

paper mario 64 - I won't call it one of the worst games I've played, but it's on this list because I beat the game and realized I didn't have any fun. the combat is really basic and boring, some of the areas are just kind of boring, it just felt really boring. the final battle? boring. there is nothing interesting about this game and I had more fun playing the randomizer than the actual game

tsukihime - this is not a game. this is a visual novel, but it's on the list because I genuinely fucking hate this game. it has the worst most annoying protagonist inner monologue ever, I liked the characters in it because of Melty Blood and ended up hating most of them by the time I finished tsukihime. I WILL be replaying it once the official english version of the remake drops in which case I will type a much longer winded review of it but I don't think anyone who likes tsukihime read it, or if they did and still like it, are not a good person. "just because they like the media doesn't mean they approve of it" cool don't care shiki tohno is a dogshit protagonist and wants to bang his sister bye

thats just scratching the surface and its just off the top of my head, other honorable mentions include final fantasy 15, final fantasy 10, glover, dragon ball z legacy of goku, super metroid (will not elaborate)

[mandyzoe]

waitttt youre so real for being a bully fan + orbit… if u associate that yeojin pic w lola which of the moon girls would u assign to the other girlies… :3c

HI SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER i kinda fell off tumblr for a while i can’t lieee… but i love this question and i love you for asking it and it made my autism fire off on all cylinders so hope you don’t mind a response that is way longer than it has any right to be HEHE

im actually gonna take this ask in a different direction than you maybe originally meant it in so i apologize for that however i think my interpretations work best if i specifically use the loonaverse versions of the members because for 1 it just fits together a little better in my head if i connect these fictional characters to the fictionalized versions of these irl people, if that makes sense. and 2 im also just very autistic about the loonaverse. sorry

ok so despite the fact that i associate lola w that specific pic of yj, i find her more in line with yves, narratively speaking. because, well. yves is a fucking player. sneaking out to go on dates with vivi, stringing along chuu to make her partake of the fruit, recruiting her to convince gowon to do the same, fucking hyeju over, and THEN after hyeju had her little angry moment, yves just flashed her a smile and a wave to make her forgive her???? she has everyone wrapped around her finger. it’s crazy. two little baddie rulebreakers who WILL get what they want through love and/or war. love them

as for pinky, i debated on this one a bit. on one had there’s the undeniable rich girl swag of haseul. on the other, the princess-like charms of gowon were tempting. but ultimately? she’s a yeojin girl. her debut concept was so cute and quirky, but still with a distinct attitude to it that very much gives spoiled youngest and/or only child. she also has that same princess vibe, but a little more bright and youthful compared to gowon’s darker/more somber side of it. beyond debut, yeojin’s persona develops to lean more into that sassier vibe with the cuter aspects becoming more of an undertone which is very pinky to me

mandy… this one is flexible for me as well, between heejin or jinsoul. ppl usually say this about hyeju, but i actually think heej and soul have more “two sides of the same coin” qualities which kinda makes me wanna use them as a pair? like a duality if that makes sense. they’re both kinda morally ambiguous, heejin leaning more towards good and jinsoul more neutral/possibly evil, and also seem to have a lot more like. knowledge about the universe they’re in. like they’re very Aware of things and both attempt to exercise control over their surroundings a lot. jinsoul’s methods (allegedly!) are more Morally Questionable which is kinda where mandy leans, but i think the conflict between the two (as seen in not friends) can represent her change in how she views people and approaches relationships after… everything. they’re also both super gay

for beatrice i think maybe vivi? it’s mostly vibes based here. but vivi being an android is shown to be something that alienates her from her peers and makes her insecure in herself, despite the fact that she’s probably smarter and more talented than most if not all of them because of it. she still just wants to fit in and be a normal girl with friends who like her. later on, vivi’s android powers are shown to be more of an asset that can help her and her friends when they need it. i mean she literally piloted a space ship by herself for presumably several years to help them jump timelines or something. i think beatrice would appreciate that. plus, i think the edily concept can represent her more girly and romantic side. real yearner girl hours

now for zoe. hyeju. she’s hyeju. no debate really. they’re both initially characterized by their anger, having been hurt and betrayed and feeling really alone and isolated. hyeju is kinda viewed as a villain or a bad person because of her anger and craving for revenge, and while she can be volatile, at the end of the day she’s kinda just. a kid who was hurt. and yeah maybe she isn’t the “perfect victim”, she’s rude and angry and lashes out at people whether they deserve it or not. but she still didn’t deserve to be hurt the way she was. and she very much IS capable of love and forgiveness and she can eventually mend what was broken if she accepts the help offered to her. it just might take her a little extra time and some people willing to give her a chance. and also forgive some possible alleged murders but that’s not important

ok im gonna stop with just the clique girls cause this would get way too long HAHAHA but thank u for this ask and i hope u found my interpretations of these characters and this silly kpop lore at least somewhat interesting or accurate :P also hope ur enjoying the comeback hype as much as i am YIPPEEEE