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cherrypikkins · 10 months

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@dimiclaudeblaigan asked for a tutorial on how to begin drawing. Good news! If you can draw a funky looking stick man, you have already started!

I think that stick people are a great starting point for artists because of the things you can learn from them that will be important later on.

If you are able to draw a circle and a couple of lines, you can easily put together a stick person.

Congratulations! You have started to draw. :)

A stick person is a very minimal artistic representation of a real life person. It is simple yet recognizable, and is widely used in art, media, and signage.

But what can a stick person teach us about drawing people that look more like… well, people? Lets have a look!

By simply adding a few more lines, we can add a pair of eyes and a mouth. Maybe even a little triangle nose! Or half circles for ears. We can now draw a face, which provides a basis for all sorts of expressions.

These simple additions can allow us to explore the wide range of human emotion and individuality.

This may seem like the basics of the basics. But that is what we want! In order to get to the point where we are able to draw complex, elaborate representations of humans and objects, we will need to start with simple shapes like lines and circles and build our understanding from there.

For instance, lets give our stick person some cool new features, such as hands and feet. I chose little squiggly circles to represent hands, and triangles to represent feet.

We can go a step further and modify the body of the stick person to include shoulders, hips, elbows and knees. These parts of the human body are quite complex in real life But here, all we need to do is add a few simple lines and dots to our stick person.

The lines provide some additional structural elements to our stick person's body, which are the shoulders and the hips. The dots indicate the points of articulation - elbows and knees, the places where the arms and legs bend!

Now we can use our stick person to show us an even wider range of human movement, action, and expression.

Our little drawing of a human being is evolving! All it took was adding a few more lines and shapes here and there.

By elongating some of the existing lines and making the head an oval instead of a circle, we can give our stick person proportions that resemble that of a real life human.

By this point, we have managed to add more complexity to our stick person simply by using our ability to draw lines, circles, and other basic shapes!

These basic ideas are the building blocks that will enable us to create more complex shapes.

The next part may be a considerable step up if you are absolutely new to drawing, but I have decided to include it in order to show you how complex objects like the human body can be built from shapes that are a bit more complex than circles and lines.

For example. Two ovals and a rectangle can be combined to create a cylinder.

Six squares can be combined to create a cube, or a box. Here, each square is distorted slightly depending on which way the cube is facing.

Note that the back faces of the cube and the bottom of the cylinder are hidden. These shapes allow us to visualize that which should not normally visible.

A sphere from all perspectives can be represented by a circle. But we can make it more like a sphere by adding lighting and shadow if we so desire.

Cubes, cylinders, and spheres are examples of 'solid shapes' because they consist of 3 dimensions.

Lets see how these solid shapes can be used to compose the human body.

By stacking three cylindrical objects, we can create a torso. Two spheres have been added to form shoulders, while a smaller cylinder forms the neck.

An arm is an alternating sequence of spheres and cylinders connected together. Note that the hand has been simplified for this example.

We can apply these solid shapes to the rest of the body to give us a more recognizable representation of the human form. It doesn't even have to be perfect. And just like that, our stick figure now has a silhouette that is unmistakably a person!

In the above examples, notice that we kept the stick person at the beginning while building up the shapes and solids around it. This is because the stick person serves as a guide for positioning the body and its various parts -> also known as posing.

You can do the same thing to everyday objects! Here, I drew a wine glass by stacking these three dimensional solid shapes.

The cup and its contents are two ovoid shapes that were cut in half. The stem is a very thin cylinder shape. The base is a cylinder with a slightly wider bottom.

Solid shapes help inform us how objects and parts of the human body may appear from different perspectives.

For example, a sphere can be used to demonstrate how the human head appears when looking up or down, turned to the side, or tilted at an angle.

With these examples, I hope I have managed to convinced you that if you can draw a circle and a couple of lines, you can draw a person! You just have to train your eye to recognize the simple shapes within complex objects. Try it with everyday objects as well! Or even your favourite media! A drawing subject can be as simple or as complex as you envision it to be.

Once you have mastered that, there are many aspects of drawing you can explore from here that may require you to seek additional resources or a fellow artist's advice.

Last of all, remember that drawing is an iterative process. Even if you draw something correct the first time, you will need to draw it again and again to get it right all times! And by making small changes like the ones we explored in this tutorial, your drawings will gradually transform!

I hope what I've demonstrated here are enough to provide the basics of how to get started with drawing objects and people, and also to help refresh more experienced artists. :) Hopefully I didn't go too off topic with what was requested, and let me know if there are any more questions I can answer.

Cheers :3

#tutorial #art

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erika-xero · 1 year

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A small guide to commissioning artists: how to avoid getting scammed by people who use image generators

Because “Ai-art” is not art and everyone can use image generators for free.

Disclaimer! This post will include generated images which were originally uploaded on DeviantArt and Twitter by people who generated them. Some of these images are of erotic genre but censored out. I beg you, do not bully these people. This post wasn’t written to call anyone out, it was written to help human artists and their potential commissioners. While some of the “Ai-artists” out there may be real scammers, others are not, and I strongly believe that no one should be bullied, doxxed, stalked and no one deserve any threaths over some silly ai-generated pics. And - as always! - scroll down for the short summary.

Commissioning an artist in 2023 may be scary, especially if you are not experienced in working with artists and have a hard time to distinguish artworks from images generated by neural networks. But even now, with the tech evolving and with neural networks generating pics with multiple characters and fan art, there are still quite a few ways to avoid scammers.

The creator you are going to commission must have an established gallery

This doesn’t mean that you should not commission someone who is new to platform, someone who started drawing in 2022 or later or someone who didn’t upload their work online prior. Image generators actually forced some of the artists to remove their work from social networks. In addition, image generators can generate thousands of images within hours, which means that the scammers may have quite a lot of works uploaded. What I mean is that real artists grow. Their skills gets better over time – even if they are already established artists with huge experience. Their artistic approach constantly changes and evolve. It means that if there are hundreds of images in the artist’s gallery but their skill is always the same level and their artistic approach doesn’t change over time – this definitely might be a red flag. As an artist with a tendency to nuke my galleries on certain platforms (such as DeviantArt, VK and ArtStation), if I get asked to provide my commissioners with examples of my early artworks I will do it with no hesitation.

You need to look through the artist’s gallery and analize their work

Searching for some decent examples on DeviantArt I stumbled upon a gallery which is four weeks old but already has 660+ deviations all of which look the same way in the matter of skill and artistic approach. While stylization may vary from image to image (some of the artworks look like typical anime-styled CG artworks from visual novels and others have semirealistic proportions), the coloring, the “brush” imitation, the textures on the backgrounds are absolutely the same on every image I analized.

There are a lot of images depictinioning conventionally attractive white or sometimes asian girls in this gallery, some of which seem familiar or resemble the characters from various media. Yes, image generators can now generate fan art. But what they can not generate is diversity. There are of course living artists who tend to draw only conventionally attractive white or asian people too, but now when the image generators gain popularity this lack of diversity automatically raise my suspicions. Drawing a crooked nose or dark skin is not hard and living artists who use references rarely fail at it. It’s image generators who fails this task constantly.

Here is an image titled as a commission. The person who uploaded it also have some content under the paywall and I do not see their images being tagged as Ai-generated too.

Remember the golder rule: spotting an Ai-generated image is the same as spotting the evil faerie in a dark folklore tale. Look them in the eyes. Count their teeth. Look at their hands and count their fingers. Check if they have a shadow and if that shadow is of human form.The devil is in the details.

While this image may appear like a hand-painted artwork of the conventionally attractive girl at the first sight, however it has quite a few clues that may help you to realize that this artist is a scammer and his entire gallery is just a selection of most-decent looking images they managed to generate with neural network. This elven girl is insanely tall, and the shore behind her back, the stones, the grass and the trees are insanely small compared to her. The piece of jewellry is attached to her nips and it’s design makes no sense. What is the gold chain under her breast, which doesn’t seem to be attached to anything? Where does this piece of cloth hang from? Why does her head cast a triangular shadow on her arm?

Many details are easy to be spotted when an image is in high resolution. I do not recommend artists to post their works in high resolution online to avoid feeding the Ai-monster and also to avoid people using your works to produce pirated merch if they draw fan art. Yet in my opinion posting close-ups might become essential - because people who call themselves ai-artists are usually hiding the artifacts under filters and upload their image resized. So yes: avoid commissioning artists, who never post high resolution faces or overuse filters and blur. Because analizing the characters’ faces is now essential.

You may look at this picture and think: how is this possible for a neural network to create such a detailed image and not fail at it (if you also ignore the fact that the girl on the horse doesn’t have legs). Luckily, the person who uploaded it uploaded it in high resolution, so we can zoom in and... yeah.

The artifacts on these evil faeiries’ faces (especially eyes) and their hands speak for themselves.

Image generators have a tendency to either give characters extra fingers, phalanx or nails or hide the hands completely, if the person writing a prompt decide to to so. I do not know whether and how fast will the algorythm learn to generate normal human hands, but for now you should pay attention to these details to spot a generated image.

Like this randomly nakey fellow with two palms on a single wrist and with some extra fingers on their elbow...

...Or this Asuka Langley fan “art” I had to censor out, with her fingers twisted and crooked.

If you are up to commission an artwork and are in search of an artist who will actually do the job you absolutely must pay attention to small details on their works: the clothing, the jewellry, the tattoos, the anatomy.

While Ai-generated images may appear photorealistic at first sight, the neural network usually misses small details, creates artifacts and makes mistakes if there are too many similar objects or repetative patterns. For example, the infamous MidJourney Party Selfies depicting girls with roughly fifly teeth, extra collarbones and green watercolor spots instead of tattooes (and don’t forget to check the ginger lady’s hand). The hair dissolwing in fabric folds? Image generator. The clothing designs which makes no sence? Image generator. Jewellry dissolwing into character’s hair? Image generator. Moreover the image generators also make mistakes while generating interiors and architecture, since the algorythm is not aware of perspective and space and once again fails either at perspective and object size or with repetative objects and patterns.

Like this image here: the bed, the window, the picture on the wall. The perspective on this image makes absolutely no sense: two walls and the bed all exist in different dimentions, while the character is once again of enormous height.

If you try to analize the background on this one, I swear, you can go insane. Look at the window and then look on the corner above it.

There is also another red flag which makes it easy to spot a scammer: dozens of iterations of the same image, which usually happens with people who can’t choose the best image out of the bunch generated with the single prompt.

There are, of course, artists who do series of works, and sometimes these works may have similar ideas and themes, but they hardly ever look this similar to each other: they may differ in angles, poses, character designs and even the artistic approach (lineart, brushes, rendering and etc). The posting time is also important: drawing an actual artwork requires time and effort - for example, I need at least two weeks to finish an artwork with two or three characters and detailed background. So a bunch of ten similar images that are uploaded at the same time it is definitely a red flag. The ai-generated images have a lot of problems with anatomy, details, perspective and other basics human artists have to learn long before they become professionals. All while having glossy semi-realistic render which can only be achieved with years of practice. I’m not saying that there are no living human artists, who may make mistakes (everyone makes mistakes now and then, even the professionals who works in this industry for DECADES) or who choose not to give much thoughts to backgrounds while focusing on characters and rendering (it is okay too), but the combinations of various red flags listed above is something you definitely have to take in account while deciding whether or not you are going to commission an artwork from this creator.

Another example (this person openly admits that they use the images generators for funsies and I did not find him mentioning paywall anywhere). The image generator even imitated the watermark.

Red flags you may spot while working with the chosen artist

Image generators are tricky: they can generate multiple iterations of the same image, imitate WIPs and many more.

First of all, the artist should provide you with WIPs on every stage of work, not when the work is already done. We artists, do it for a reason. We need your feedback constantly, even if you grant us artistic freedom to chose the idea, the character pose, the medium and technique. There are always changes to be made, and we need to make them at proper stage: for example, change the pose or angle of your character while working on a sketch is thousand times easier than to do so while rendering the image. However, the minor changes are usually possible on the later stages (some of artists may require you to pay a small fee of a few bucks, others may not). While the living artists can easily change small details such as the character’s eye color (or other small design changes) not touching the rest of the artwork, image generators simply can not do so not rerendering the whole image. If an artist does not provide you with WIPs or only provide you with them when the work is done, if an artist refuses to make any changes - these may be interpreted as red flags. If an artist agrees to make any change, even the drastic ones, at a late stage, when the piece is almost finished - it is a red flag too. Ask for a small change every single time you need one. I know that there are artists out there who prefer to only provide their client with the finished image once it is done, but now when image generators gain populatiry his may be misinterpreted as if you are a scammer.

Here is a good example of image generators generating WIPs for an existing image: it might actually look scary both for many artists and many commissioners.

I know that some of the artists are panicking that the only way to prove that you really did the artwork is a timelapse recording but this method is not for everyone. Not everyone has a setup which allow them to record a timelapse for an every single commission (my laptop will simply explode if I try). Ask your artists which software/setup do they use, ask them whether or not they can provide you with a timelapse video, ask them which brushes do they use. I know that not everyone like sharing info on their pipeline but at this point it is essential to provide your clients with information on the information about your pipeline, tools and software. For example, if your artist works in Procreate (which is available in Ipad) they have all the timelapses recorded automatically. But please, mind that not everyone have such a privilege.

As a commissioner you can ask an artist for screenshots of their workspace with all the interface visible. If they refuse providing you with that or have a hard time answering the questions about the software they use it might be a red flag. I would also suggest you not to force your artist to draw everything on stream, especially if these streams are public, because there are already cases when people took screenshots of the work in progress, used the image to image generator to apply the shiny rendering to it and accused the original artists of plagiarism. It is a risk for artists and it is okay to refuse such a request. You can also ask an artist for .PSD file of the commission, but the artist have a right to refuse sharing it online for copyright-related reasons. The original .PSD file is a best proof of authorship in court for residents of many countries. Artists can still provide you with the resized .psd file with some of the layers merged or with the background/character png with transparent background without putting themselves at risk. Of course there are artists who draw on the single layer - but without a timelapse recorded this may indeed seem suspicious that the artist does not have a .psd file with layers at all. Always ask your artist to provide you with high resolution image when the commission is finished and fully paid for. There are artists who works on smaller canvases, but working on the canvas smaller than 1000px wide might be interpreted as a red flag, since it is easy to hide artifacts on a resized image. I myself prefer working on larger canvases, from 6000 pixels wide to 10000 pixels wide (300 DPI) because I had an experience with printing my images out to sell them at conventions. While I do not sell commissioned works as prints I still give my commissioners a right to print the finished images out for non-commercial purposes. Thus, I always make sure that it is possible to make a wall print of a decent size out of the finished product. Avoid working with platforms which do not support refunds. It must either be a payment system which support sending invoices or an established platform known and used among the art community (patreon, buymeacofee, boosty, Paypal and etc.). Most artists do not do refunds for finished works — which is absolutely a right thing to do - but sometimes an error might occure. I know people who accidentally paid for their commissions twice and the artists still had to do a refund. Yes, you must respect the artists Terms of Service, but ithas nothing to do with unrelyable platforms used to scam people.

To sum it up

Search for an artists with established galleries,which has a believable amount of works and the visible artistic progress/evolution;

Analyze the artist's gallery, carefully inspecting their work for anything that might be interpreted as a red flag. Excessive fingers, crooked hands, broken perspective, clothing designs and jewellry that makes no sense, extra collarbones, lack of diversity, excessive teeth, artifacts in the eye area, interior and architecture elements which makes no sense — all while the images being glossy, fully rendered as if the artist have decades of experience;

Avoid people with too many iterations of the same image in their profile;

Avoid people with too many images being uploaded at the same time (it is okay to upload a bunch of prevoulosly done artworks when you start running your account, but uploading hundrends of images every week for a long period of time is really suspicious);

Ask for constant WIPs. Give feedback at a proper time. See the reaction;

Ask for a small change when the image is almost finished: it is impossible for the image generator to do so without fully rerendering the image, at least for now;

Ask your artist which software and assets do they use;

Ask (if it is possible) for a timelapse recording — either if the commissioned work or at least of one of their previous works (if they had an opportunity to record it before);

Ask your artist for in program screenshots with visible interface and history (if possible);

Ask your artist to show you the layers of the artwork — at least character/background only layers (mind that the background might be less detailed/wonky at the places which usually are hide but the character's figure). Ask for a resized .psd with some of the layers merged or a gif animation of each layer being added on top — this is what I usually do;

Ask for high resolution file of the commissioned image once you paid for it and it is finished. If the artist doesn’t have it and claim to work on the canvas smaller than 1000 px wide and/or claim that they intentionally delete the original file somehow - this may raise suspicions. Of course a person can delete the file accidentally or have their hard drive crushed, but if you have already spotted some red flags while working with this artist it might be a sign of a person trying to scam you too;

Many of the stuff listed above might be interpreted as a red flag , but I strongly advice you not to judge anyone by one or two points from this post. For example, a person can draw on one layer and mess up the perspective on a drawing entirely! However, if you've played a bingo and suddenly won — you have most likely encountered a person who try to fool and scam you;

Avoid working with suspicious payment methods. If you never heard about a platform before — google it and see whether or not other established artists use it. If not - it might be a scam;

And remember! People may use the images generators for various reasons: for fun, to create references of their characters to later commission reall artists artworks with said character (for example, the art breeder is a useful tool to create arealistic image of the character, even though I find it slightly limiting). Yes, image generators are unethical and trained on copyrighted data, but a person using it may not be aware of this problem. Not every single person who call themselves an “Ai-artist” has malicious plans to scam people or to gain wealth using their funny little tool. Sometimes they do it for fun and do not pretend that it is anything more that a game. Thank you for reading this far and good luck with your commissions!

Have a picture of an absolutely normal and realistic woman, generated by the neural network!

#ai art #ai art is not art #support real artist #support human artists #support artist #how to spot ai #how to spot a scammer #scam #art scam

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catt-nuevenor · 3 months

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The Future

Time to establish what's going to happen from this point forwards.

The vast majority of you have been exceptionally patient this last year, and for that you have my deepest thanks. You've given me the time to not only write a book, but edit it, and send it off to literary agents, something I would have long given up on doing without the continued support of those who enjoy my writing.

Now that the book is off doing the rounds independently, it's time I got back to Myrk Mire.

Originally Myrk Mire was built in ChoiceScript, a scripting language created by the Choice of Games company. Choice of Games control what is done with their script, understandably, they own it. This does pose some restrictions. I can't, for example, release any paid material built using ChoiceScript unless it is directly through their publishing label. If I do publish under their label, I maintain IP or Intellectual Property Rights, however I also grant them the exclusive rights under perpetual license to publish the multiple choice game 'electronically'.

Source: Choice of Games.com

As you can see from the outline above, they do make exceptions for stories published in non-competing formats, and for sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. However, traditional publishing houses might require stricter control over IP, distribution, and exclusivity. It will only become more and more complicated as things progress, and being locked into a perpetual license agreement of any nature is not a decision to make lightly.

As some of you may be sensing from the tone of all this so far, I'm going to be moving Myrk Mire away from Choice of Games and ChoiceScript, and into a new medium/format.

After tinkering, and trialling with a few alternatives, I've decided to go with Renpy. Renpy, while largely used for visual novel style games and stories, provides a very workable framework for interactive fiction, and is an Open Source script, it isn't beholden to publishing contracts, licence cost, or exclusivity.

I'm not going to be diving into transferring Myrk Mire right away, it's a huge piece of writing, in an entirely different scripting language, and as previously stated, there are a lot of changes I want to implement with the cast. Instead, I'm creating a trial story: One Háḟest Day. My Patrons have been aware of all this for about a month or so, and have already seen some previews.

One Háḟest Day takes place in Aldmirham before the events of Myrk Mire, around the time the Main Character and the Wanderers first arrived in town. The reader will have the choice to follow one of the romanceable characters through a single day, with opportunities to explore their lives and relationships before the Main Character and Child come along. I hope it will provide a proving ground for the changes that previously caused debate, and an opportunity for people to try out the new format and interface.

My plan is to distribute One Háḟest Day through Itch.io, working with their early access framework and voluntary payments for such as soon as one of the character routes is ready to play from beginning to end, updating regularly with the other characters as they too are completed, and with additional features as required. Once the full game is complete, I will release a separate full build with a set minimum price that can be discussed with the community as we move forwards.

At the second, I'm aiming for a web hosted format and a desktop/laptop downloadable format, with phone compatibility to come later down the line once things are stable.

I will post production updates and info when I can to tumblr, though a lot of what I'm doing now is very python coding heavy, so perhaps not that interesting?

I've included some screenshots below of very early development, featuring a Character Log and Word Log that I hope will allow readers to more easily navigate the story. I'm toying with the idea of having a Mysteries Log as well that will keep track of snippets of information gleaned from each character's route, but that can be a tinkering feature for now.

Let me know your thoughts, concerns, or excitement, though do keep all messages objective and polite.

#MyrkMire #Myrk Mire #writing update #Moving forwards #Future Plans #The Future of the story

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kalki-tarot · 5 months

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What your spirit guides want to say to you? 🤍

By : @kalki-tarot

I'll use tarot and my own intuition. So, this may not resonate with everyone. My readings should be taken for entertainment purposes only. I'm not responsible for any decisions you make on behalf of my readings.

Pick a picture that calls you the most down below :

1 - 2 - 3

PILE 1

Initials : V, K, B, L, M

Angel numbers : 44, 55

Colors : Purple, Grey, Dark green, Black

I sense that this spirit guide is an old lady, who's sweet and cute. They love you and wants the best for you.

"Stop fighting, stop resisting change dear. You are not letting the cycles to close or end itself. The time is here. Go for it! Whatever you think won't work out for you, will actually turn out to be great for you. Libra season was significant in closing off this cycle, but you're still holding onto things that you should not. Please accept that the past, is in the past. You're ruining your present and consequently your future too. It's time to walk away. The bad times will soon turn into good times. You'll celebrate in the near future. You can manifest marriage by visualizing or meditating on it before sleeping. It's the best time for you to do that. If you're preparing for an exam or a competition or if you wanna go study or travel abroad, then your hardwork will pay off and you'll be traveling overseas soon. You need to stop being passive aggressive to people. You need to be more expressive to the people around you. Only this way, people will know what's going in your mind."

PILE 2

Initials : V, S, K, D, M, P, Q

Angel numbers : 44, 444, any mirror numbers.

Colors : Black and white, purple.

This spirit guide is an old man, he has dark eyes, he is also blind. Like he has no eyes. He may look scary and strict but wants and helps everyone to reach their highest potential. My feet is suddenly getting a warm sensation from him lmao.

"I know you're emotional right now. There's no clear picture in front of your eyes. It feels as if you're walking in a dark cloudy room and you don't know where you're being led to. The cycle ended for good. Your life will turn upside down. You've seen it all. Now it's time for you to rise from the ashes, like a KING! You have to stand up for yourself, you're alone in this battlefield. The faster you understand this, the better. Don't hope for someone to help you. You may meet your future husband/wife in a bank. Or they work in a bank or some finance related work. You have a lot of options, keep that in mind. You're exhausted, take some rest and start again. New offers will be provided to you with emotional fulfillment and success is at the door for you. Listen to your intuition. Reach the highest self of yours, you are your own competition. Become better than your past self. That's all I have for now."

PILE 3

Alright this one is a fox! Or a wolf like animal. They are here to teach you wisdom and connect to your higher self. They are very fast and quick. They look white or silverish with black grey stripes and yellow shining eyes.

"You should go out and meet your friends. Someone in your friend circle is being toxic to you or sending you negative energy. Please be careful. Do not spend too much on a marriage ceremony. You may get tight on money later on. You will go through an awakening. It'll be very shocking for you. If you're going through a breakup, your partner will realize their mistakes and will apologize to you. Your life is soon gonna be very balanced."

#tarot reading #tarot blog #tarot cards #tarot #tarot and astrology #pick a card #pick a pile #tarot asks #tarot community #tarotblr #tarot blr #tarot lessons #tarot spread #tarjeta #tarotcommunity #tarot journal #astro observations #intuitive #witchblr

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galedekarios · 6 months

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good day! thank you for beautiful visuals and metas of Gale, its great to find fans who care about him so! You got me thinking - for a character so romantic, so delighted to be in love Gale knew little about it with Mystra. He spoke about being her lover like it was a highest honor, losing her favor, being cut off described as fate worse than Netherese Orb itself. Gale agrees to die for her forgiveness no questions asked. All this while he realises deep down even through it was voiced later - he was her plaything, another mortal falling under her spell, no love requited ever could be there, gods don't feel it. It's very sweet and a little heartbreaking, how open and smitten he can be if romanced, how happy he becomes loving and being loved in return.

thank you for your wonderful and very sweet message, anon. 🖤 i really do appreciate it.

yes, that is everything that i find very touching about gale's romancce.

to me, gale is someone who hasn't truly known what love is yet. he has known worship and obedience, wonder and pleasure. i think, considering how young he was when mystra came into his life, it's perhaps no surprise at all that once their relationship changed, he may have thought it was love between them. it was most certainly for him. in fact, i do remember a particular line from early access that always stuck with me and truly showed the imbalance at work here:

Player: What did Mystra’s attention feel like? Gale: Love.

and

Player: Teacher’s pet, was he? Gale: He fancied himself much more than that. He fancied himself favoured above all others. Perhaps it was not quite love, but you see, the wizard was but a very young man. It was most certainly love to him. Mystra showed him the secrets behind the veils. The gossamer veils first, draped across the Weave. The delicate veils next, draped across her body. ‘Chosen One’ she whispered, as she slipped them off completely.

and even now, in the full release version of the game, that sentiment still lingers. he wasn't just her chosen, he was her lover - and we learn throughout the game what love truly entails for gale: heart, mind, body and soul.

Gale: I'm many things to many people, but I'm never a man to throw the l-word around lightly. I said exactly what I meant: I love you. You should never, never doubt that. - Gale: We didn't just make love. We bonded, body and soul. I got lost in you.

with mystra casting him away, he not only lost his power, his status, but also one of his most central relationships with the goddess who was his teacher, mentor and love all at once, all at the same time.

but we also know that he had relationships before mystra and before the protag:

Gale: No, you are not the first. Though you are the first since my relationship with Mystra came to its ignominious end.

i think this quote is just so interesting, especially if you pair it with:

Gale: To know you love me for the man I am, and not the magic I command... None have loved me so purely before.

and:

Player: I love you. But for the man that you are. Not the god you'd pretend to be. Gale: But think what I offer. The vastness of eternity to explore, the Weave at our fingertips... You would really prefer me as I am? Node Context: Genuine, vulnerable - the player just told him they loved him in a way that no one else has

so whatever these relationships before were, it's clear that something was missing from them for gale. something that gale sorely needed.

all of these little puzzle pieces combine to a larger whole of why we find gale as he is when we meet him in the story: someone who very much is struggling to find any worth in the person that he is outside of what he can provide to be useful.

Gale: Let me make myself indispensable. - Gale: I'm indispensable, aren't I? - Gale: My best is yours. - Gale: Please - continue to believe in me. I want to show you the wizard I am capable of being, rather than the poor excuse for a man who's kept you company thus far.

there are so many more of these, following the same vein, even in act iii.

gale is only now learning how to be loved, how to allow himself to be loved, and under that continuous reaffirmation given by the protag, he opens up to it, strains towards it, like a flower to the sun.

Gale: You truly are a soul that steels my own. From all my new-rallied heart I thank you. I stand at a precipice, but if you do not give up hope, neither shall I. I'll fight, I'll resist - as long as I can. - Gale: You give me hope, and I've not had that in some time. - Player: How are you feeling? Gale: Worried, if I'm being honest. I have so much to live for - more than I thought I'd have again, after Mystra. - Gale: It's been so long since I used it. Gale Dekarios cuts a poor figure next to the wizarding prowess of 'Gale of Waterdeep'. Player: Gale Dekarios. I think I like him more. Gale: You like so many things about me I'd have sooner discarded... Your generosity is quite wonderful. - Gale: You see me as I am, and do not find me wanting.

he still has a very long way to go, to heal, it's not a process that's completed by the time his quest is completed or the game ends - and depending on your protag, they too have things that still weigh heavy on them as well - but it's a beginning.

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #gale x tav #tav x gale #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #otp: a soul that steels my own #otp: you give me hope #ch: gale dekarios #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #meta: mybg3 #text: asks #grooming cw #for the mystra part #to be safe

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taurusreads · 7 months

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what awaits you at the end of this cycle?

masterlist || paid services || ko-fi

a little encouragement to keep pushing through 🫶🏽

how to pick a pile? close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and clear your mind. feel which pile you're drawn to, and find the reading below the cut!

PILE ONE

i’m getting a very vibrant orange color from this pile. some of you may actually like oranges, like the fruit, or could be someone who takes care of their body. some of you could also be preparing for something. i’m seeing planning and getting things in order, virgo energy could be significant here. jupiter energy could also be significant. you could also be the type of person to keep things to yourself. you might be in a bit of solitude right now, keeping the things that are important to you to yourself. you could also be the type of person to plan out your life as well. i think you could have a clear picture of what you want for yourself, and you’re actively working to gain that lifestyle.

i feel like you guys are starting to learn a lot about yourselves at the moment. my first paragraph is always dedicated to messages i receive while shuffling so i know the energy that i’m reading for, and yours was a bit longer than the other two piles, as yours mainly touched up on different aspects of your personality that might have gone unnoticed by you previously. the first house card came out for you, which is all about your personality and the way that other people perceive you. i think that at the end of your cycle people could be talking about how different you look/seem, or you could be noticing those changes in yourself as well. i’m also picking up again on the fact that you take good care of your health, and you might be making that a priority right now. if you feel the urge to take care of yourself and better your mind body and soul, don’t ignore it! i see you’re doing a good job at that and it’ll pay off for you later on.

take time to ground your energy, maybe go on a walk or when you’re in the shower, visualize your fears and worries being rinsed down the drain before you start your day. that will help ease some of the anxieties you have throughout the day. i feel like some of you have been wanting to make new friends or meet people that resonate with you, and i’m hearing that at the end of this cycle you’ll definitely have that! if you haven’t already, you’ll start seeing the changes in your reality soon! i feel like some of you may have given up hope and these things coming for you since you worked through the hard stuff, but don’t worry, they’re on their way! you just have to be patient.

i feel like you all are exactly where you need to be right now. your guides are watching over you, keeping you on the right path, so all you need to do is sit back and follow their lead. don’t think too hard about the next few months, just go with the flow and when your mind tells you to do something, don’t stress over it and just start moving! you’ll see so much more progress the sooner you let go of the idea that you don’t truly deserve these things.

i feel like you’re experiencing a cycle that is coming to a close for you. there was a situation that wasn’t serving your highest good, and so the universe went and did away with it to help with your growth. i feel like this was someone who you used to talk to a lot, they could have understood you better than most people you felt. i do feel like this person wasn’t navigating from a place of love though. where they did love you and wanted the best for you, they were not in a headspace where they could provide that love. i do see that this person could be a bit of a workaholic, and could have placed their needs above yours constantly, so you did what needed to be done for yourself and you walked away.

if this situation resonated with you i just want you to know that i am so so so proud of you for taking care of yourself and doing right by your needs. although, for some others, it’s time to stop waiting for that person to come back. and if you’re worried about whether they will come back or not, that is up to them and whether they decide to work through their shadows or not. this is giving the energy or a healing connection, one of growth and understanding, but unless both parties put in the work, it will be very hard for you two to work in tandem with each other.

give this person the time they need to heal, as well as give yourself the time you need to heal (that’s the most important), and with that your situation with them could improve.

also, i’m seeing that for a lot of you, another thing coming at the end of this cycle is regarding your career, but they would not give me too much information on it. i think there might be something very exciting coming for you, and your guides want you to be excited!

PILE TWO

i’m getting like a foresty green here. kind of the dark green color that comes on leaves, but with the bright and happy energy of light green. very balanced energy here. i’m getting cottage core vibes, so you may be someone who like to dress in that style or has that aesthetic around them, or that theme might be significant right now. i keep singing water by tyla as well. that song could be significant for some of you (specifically the chorus). earth placements could be significant for this pile.

ah my little viridians (that’s what i shall call you because of the color i saw sorry). you guys could be out of the box thinkers, the type to analyze the scene in front of you and come up with a creative solution to the problem. you could have heavy virgo and libra placements, or heavy air placements in general. i’m seeing that some of you guys may participate in social activities like smoking the green if ya know what i mean. neon colors such as pink, purple, and green could be significant.

i’m hearing try not to analyze too much about the things going on around you. you could be doing a lot of research about astrology, tarot, spirituality, etc. and making the connection, but try not to give yourself a headache over thinking things lol. i’m getting the energy of another person here’s that’s wanting to come in, and so i think that this person could be waiting on the other side of this cycle. if any of you have been manifesting a relationship with someone, i see this person coming in at the end of your cycle. i think this person is full of love, they give very soft and kind energy. they could be very nurturing, and provide a lot of advice and guidance to help you on your spiritual journey.

i’m seeing that at the end of your cycle, you’ll be in a very calm state of mind. i think that you tend to have a lot of questions, especially about the world and how it came to be, they may even cause you anxiety a little bit. i’m seeing here that at the end of this cycle you’ll have come to enough of an understanding to the point where you can relax and just enjoy the life that you’ve been given. some of you could be humanitarians, or care deeply about the condition of the earth and how it’s being treated. you’re definitely big on connecting with nature, and you just give very open and loving energy. it’s low key giving hippie and i love it.

i think a sign that this cycle is coming to a close for you is when you want to start becoming active again. i’m hearing that you might be into dancing or will want to be very physically active randomly. some of you could also come from a culture where dancing is a form of expression in faith, such as native american descent.

if some of you have been trying to decide on what to do with your life, i’m hearing that the world is your oyster. you can do whatever you want, and you don’t have to be tied down to one thing. i feel like i’m giving big sister vibes rn lol. some of you may feel like you have to fit a mold that was made for you from your family. there might be a work place or job that your parents expected you to get, or maybe a family business that they want you to take over. if you feel deep in your heart that you don’t want to do that, then you have the right to say no. you don’t have to abide by what they want you to be just because they’re your parents, you’re human too. and i know it’s definitely hard standing your ground and doing what’s best for yourself, but handling the situation with love and grace will be more helpful than you thought.

if you’re the type that tends to get a bit aggressive when you start to feel emotion, make sure to approach any situations with a calm mind, already know what you want to say and how you want to say it. you have to take accountability for when you may step out of line, just as others should do for you. i’m also singing water by tyla AGAIN. i always use the first paragraph as an energy check, so i don’t actually look at any of the cards falling out while i shuffle. i started singing the song then and now i’m singing it again, it doesn’t get stuck in my head otherwise.

don’t ignore the things that’s your heart and soul are telling you. i think you could have finished this cycle a while ago, had you let go of control and the fear of change. don’t let the fear of the unknown stop you from reaching out for the things you want to do, because you’re losing endless possibilities because of it. don’t be afraid to face your shadows, they are a part of you after all. they’re not here to hurt you, they’re here to help heal you. the person coming in at the end of this cycle is definitely a soulmate i’m seeing, they’re giving me a guide of sorts for you. this person is going to help direct you in the right direction, and he’ll you understand any questions you might have as they arise for you. they’re here to help you keep your head on straight as i feel like when you overthink you tend to spiral.

all in all, i’m seeing that there’s not one set thing coming in for you. i feel like something you might have asked for was a betterment in your mental state, or just a betterment in your current situation in general, so they gave you that. you have the capacity to do absolutely whatever you want after this. you want to be an astronaut? go for it. president? absolutely. cafe owner? cute as fuck bro. you’re literally like a freelancer man, you can do any and everything, and that should make you proud.

PILE THREE

this pile is my yellow pile. not quite like the sun, it has a bit more of an white hue to it, but still so pretty. almost like the yellow you get for newborn babies. i’m immediately feeling that you guys are happy with life and open to receiving all blessings coming your way. you could have just come out of a tough cycle, and are ready to have the new and improved version of your life start now. some of you might be drawn to pile 2 as well, if you are, check it out! there might be a few messages for you there. prominent air placements could be significant, as well as venus energy (taurus and libra).

for a lot of you i’m seeing a life partner coming in. this is something that was fated from the moment you were born, you just needed to wait and do the proper work for it to come in on time. i think that at the end of this cycle this is the biggest reward that you are reaping, as this also seems like something you’ve been wanting for a while.

when i was shuffling the cards, i had already gotten the energy that you’d finished your cycle. the energy i was getting was more of openness and acceptance from a place of love and understanding. something started happening with my right eye while i was messing around with your pile, so if you feel like there’s something in your eye when nothings wrong with it, or your eye starts to twitch at random moments, that may be indication that this person is coming very soon. i think right now you’re in a time where you’ve done the reflecting, you’ve done the introspection, and now it’s time for the universe to give back to you. it’s important that you follow your heart and gut feelings right now, as following those urges will lead you right where you need to be. don’t forget to include logic though, balancing your spiritual insight and logic may be something to work through for you right now. i’m seeing heavy self care days for some of you as well. a lot of you may have stepped into your it girl era, and are being diligent in taking care of yourself and your environment. venus energy is so heavy for this group right now.

you may actually be operating from your venus sign right now, pile three. sometimes the time of our lives that we are in can change the energy that we exude, and so you might not come off as your sun/rising sign (you rising sign is actually one of your chart rulers, so that’s most times how people perceive you). this makes sense with the romantic partner on the move for you.

i feel like if some of you have been worried about whether your manifestations are actually going to come in, i’m here to tell you that they are. the universe is never going to give you the short end of the stick, at least not without it preparing you for something better. when they told you that you were done with the hard parts, they meant it. carry yourself with grace and act like you’re the baddie that you are because you put in WORK for this bro. you did that shit and it wasn’t easy, so don’t brush it off like it was that easy!! i’m seeing that you could be in your empress energy right now, actually. you’re very stable mentally, emotionally, and physically, which is why your person is preparing to come into your life now. spirit is telling you to be optimistic right now, get excited, because the things that you asked for are here! they’re not even coming. they’re not on their way, they’re HERE!!!

i started singing black and yellow by wiz khalifah when i started shuffling the tarot cards so that song could be significant for some of you lol. some of you could be in the longing stage, where you want your person and you can feel them coming in, but the urge to have them is making you impatient. i’m hearing to distract yourself during these times. maybe go out with friends, hang out with family, or participate in a hobby that you enjoy as a way to take your mind off of it until your manifestations get here. you’re guides are telling me that they know it’s hard, but you’ve only got a little more to go.

you could also be seeing repeating 5’s, which signify change and adjustments. i’m feeling like you’re starting to see the things around you and within you change. you might have had a change in the things that you deem important, and those changes are bringing you new opportunities, especially in your work place. i’m seeing blessing coming through as a byproduct of your introspection, as well as an increase in opportunities surrounding your work life. if you guys have been working towards a specific goal or a specific career, i’m hearing that significant changes are coming in regarding that, and you should be on the look out for contact from a higher up sometime soon! i’m seeing that all of these changes are going to catapult you into your dream reality! all the things you’ve been imagining and wishing for yourself are finally here, so stop worrying and let them come in as they should <3

#tarot #tarot community #tarot reader #tarot readings #pick a card #divination #love tarot reading #pick a card tarot #pick a pile tarot #astrology #spiritual awakening #spiritual journey #spiritual growth #spiritual development

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soylent-crocodile · 1 month

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Chiropterex (Monster)

(artist unknown)

(Back in the distant era of the early 10s, my family got Netflix as a novelty. Nowadays streaming has consumed film and television like a rabid beast, but back then, my brother and I found a little British show called Primeval. Weaned on BBC nature documentaries from a young age, this was an exciting new spin on Walking with Dinosaurs, and we loved it.

The future predator is no question the most iconic creature of the series, a future bat that is both inspired by earlier spec evo and has gone on to inspire many other monster designs, including the earlier moorkutlot. It seems only fitting it be translated to Pathfinder.

By the way, I'm abandoning the proposed evolutionary history the later seasons provide- that these actually evolved to eat humans in a post-apocalyptic cityscape- and make them what I think is most obvious to me.)

CR3 TN Medium Animal HD5

Chiropterex are an aberrant species of roughly wolf-sized terrestrial bat, an arboreal, nocturnal apex predator of the islands it calls home, where no other land mammals have reached. They live in small family groups of about four to six members, typically consisting of a mated pair, a nest of about six children, a few children of previous years who stay around to help, and maybe one or two aunts or uncles. Typically, however, they hunt alone, feeding on seabirds and large moa-like ratites who evolved alongside them. These family groups keep in contact with each other using echolocation, and if a lone hunter runs into a struggle, it will call on the dissembled family to help.

Chiropterex are notorious man-eaters, and many a shipwrecked crew has met its end at a family of ravenous land bats. Many peoples of island cultures consider chiropterex to be evil spirits, and indeed there is at least one island where the magic of The Abyss has infected the local population of these predatory beasts.

Some outsiders have tried to domesticate chiropterex, or at the very least use them as weapons. They are a tempting subject of domestication; they are mobile, intelligent, fast-growing and have large clutch sizes, but all attempts so far have ended disastrously.

Chiropterex Companions

Starting Statistics: AC: +4 Size: Small Speed: 30ft, Climb 30ft Attacks: Bite (1d3), 2 Claw (1d4) Ability Scores: Str:10 Dex:22 Con:8 Int:2 Wis:12 Cha:7 Special Qualities: Blind, Blindsight 90ft, Scent Lv 4 Advancement: Size: Medium Attacks: Bite (1d4), 2 Claw (1d6) Ability Scores: Str +4 Dex -2 Con +2 Special Qualities: Flurry of Strikes

This hunched over creature has long, clawed arms and a bulbous head that ends in a short, needle-toothed mouth.

Misc- CR3 TN Medium Animal HD5 Init:+5 Senses: Perception:+6 Blind, Blindsight 90ft, Scent Stats- Str:14(+2) Dex:20(+5) Con:10(+0) Int:2(-4) Wis:12(+2) Cha:7(-2) BAB:+3 Space:5ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:25(5d8) AC:19(+5 Dex, +4 Natural) Fort:+4 Ref:+9 Will:+3 CMD:21 Immunity: Gaze and other visual effects Weakness: Vulnerability to Sonic Offense- Bite +5(1d4+2, 18-20/x2), 2 Claw +5(1d6+2) CMB:+6 Speed:30ft, Climb 30ft Special Attacks: Pounce, Flurry of Strikes +3/+3/+3/+3(1d6+2) Feats- Dodge, Mobility Skills- +11 Climb, +10 Stealth, +6 Perception(+8 Racial to Climb) Special Qualities- Flurry of Strikes Ecology- Environment- Forest, Urban (Warm) Languages- None Organization- Solitary, Family (2-4 Chiropterex, 6-8 Young Chiropterex) Treasure- None Special Abilities- Blindsight (Ex)- A chiropterex’s blindsight is echolocation-based; it cannot sense within areas of Silence or similar spells. Flurry of Strikes (Ex)- A chiropterex may, as a full-round action, give a flurry of stabbing strikes from its claws. It makes four Claw attacks at a -2 penalty each.

#soylent original #monsters and races #homebrew #primeval #future predator #speculative biology #speculative evolution

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ditzydoodiary · 4 months

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autistic ramble about twilight sparkle because i love her sm and shes my fave autistic comfort character !!!

this took a really long time to make, and im really proud of it, so any reblogs/reshares would be appreciated ! especially if you like mlp !!

when people say she isnt autistic, i always find myself very surprised. i think to myself, have these people even watched the show??because yes, while the writers and lauren faust may not have intended for her to be explicitly autistic, she is very clearly portrayed that way, intentional or not. not to mention that lauren faust (creator of friendship is magic) has recently responded to a tweet saying that she thought pinkie pie being adhd was obvious; lauren faust has adhd herself, so its not surprising that so many of the mlp fim characters also posess many of the same traits as her. and i also raise the question; if she thought pinkie pie was obvious as having adhd, then why would twilight be any different?? she is very clearly autistic, but i dont think twilight's obvious neurodivergence has been addressed by lauren yet (unless im wrong of course, but i just haven't found anything about it when ive searched for it).

anywho, to list just a few of twilight's autistic traits:

- trouble socialising and making friends (this is literally the main plot point of the first few seasons and is even still present in the later seasons, so its not like this was just a one time thing). an example of this would be in the very first episode when twinkleshine, lemon hearts, and minuette invite her to moondancer's party; she awkwardly declines, saying that she needs to catch up on her studying instead. to this the other ponies say, "ugh, does that pony do anything except study? i think shes more interested in books than friends"

- she has a very obvious special interest in reading, books, research, and the study of pony magic. she indulges in these interests to such a level where she often loses track of time and stays awake all night, and often misses out on opportunities to socialise with her friends. when she cant indulge in them, she gets upset. this ties into finding comfort in routines, too.

- taking things literally (e.g: that part in "look before you sleep" where she takes rarity's statement about them getting warmer in regards to playing a game literally). look before you sleep is also a great episode showing her need to have everything planned out; in this episode, twilight has her first slumber party, and uses a slumber party planning book as a guide. she thinks has to follow every single instruction in the exact same order, and when rarity and applejack dont oblige, she gets upset.

- HEAVILY relies on schedules and planning. she utilises all kinds of lists; visual lists, written lists, checklists, etc. when she's unable to stick to her routines/plans, she becomes irrationally upset and/or angry, lashes out at other people and can have meltdowns. this is again shown all throughout the show, but is more prominent in the episode "lesson zero".

- LOVES organising, lining things up, and finding visual patterns in all sorts of things. she'll often just do this for fun and as a way to calm down, while others might find this more of a chore. i suppose this can be done as a form of visual stimming? I don't really know what this is called; but i know a lot of autistic people do it. i suppose this could also tie into needing routines and structure, as organising things can help autistic people feel more in control and can provide a sense of stability.

- she can often come off as insensitive or rude without meaning to, and sometimes she struggles with tone as well as being quite blunt. this is most likely due to her misunderstanding or being unable to read typical social cues. this could also perhaps be linked to low empathy, which is something a fair few individuals on the spectrum experience. this is especially true in the earlier seasons, but still shown in the later seasons as well.

- twilight also struggles with regulating her emotions and having meltdowns; this is typically the result of her needs not being properly met and her routines being changed. and when she's not having full blown meltdowns, she can at least be seen being snappy towards her friends when overwhelmed.

- stimming !!! oh boy does she stim a lot. stomping her hooves, jumping up and down, PACING (this is a big one), teleporting spontaneously when overwhelmed, flapping her wings, etc. in fact, twilight once paced so hard for so long that she made a groove in the floor without even realising !! (this was seen in the episode "its about time" - which is also a good episode that showcases her autistic traits)

- shes also sometimes shown struggling with overstimulation; in the third episode of the series, "the ticket master", twilight gets overwhelmed by her friends crowding around her and loudly shouting, resulting in her running off and snapping at them.

- shes often shown struggling with generalised anxiety, which is another common trait of autism.

and the best part is, this is obviously a common occurrence, and her friends fully support her through her struggles !!! her meltdowns, overthinking and anxiety are so frequent, that her friends know exactly what to do and how to help her.

obviously, this isn't every trait, this is just all the surface level stuff !!

i would have included more video and photo examples, but tumblr has a limit on how many you can add to a post :( i hope i still got my point across despite that !!

all in all, i think she's wonderful autistic representation !! even if this wasn't intentional, i still think it's great and love the way her personality and traits were portrayed. the main character of a children's show possessing these traits is awesome and something you don't see too often !! i hope lauren or at least someone on the production team talks about this, because it means a lot to myself and many other autistic people who love mlp <3

#autism #actually autistic #my little pony #mlp #twilight sparkle #twilight mlp #twilight my little pony #autistic headcanon #this is basically canon at this point so is it really even a headcanon #lauren faust pls confirm this im going ballistic #autistic #disabled #disability #shes just like me fr

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babywitchofthesouth · 1 year

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Digital Altars📱🔮

Altars are considered a key element of witchcraft for deity worship, elemental, planetary or ancestral connections, or spell work. However, they can be costly, you may not have the space for it, or you may be in the broom closet. But you don't need a physical altar, you don't even need physical tools. Digital altars are a great way to worship deities in the case you’re unable to set up a physical altar. There are heaps of alternatives if you’d like to get creative with it.

Some people doubt the integrity of digital altars, however I believe they gain metaphysical energy as they’re created, which can be used for witchcraft. Think about emoji spells for example!

Digital altars are different to digital shrines, which are similar in concept, but different in purpose. Shrines are more of a permanent honouring of a being, and they don't necessarily have to be used actively. Meanwhile altars are for active worshiping, when you’re actually giving an offering or trying to contact that deity. However, digital altars can also function as a shrine, depending on use!

Below are 19 different options for digital altars (but I'd suggest using multiple!)

Image/Collage Altars

Picrew Altar Sketch (by Camade)

This game was designed specifically for creating altars suitable for sacred spaces to perform deity worship, to connect with ancestors, and to be a witch’s working table. After saving it you can edit the picture frames to add pictures of your deity, your family or any other being. It has a lot of variability so it’s great for creating multiple altars very quickly in a consistent aesthetic.

Here’s a link to one I made the other day, using colours and imagery to suit my purpose. This is probably the easiest of the options, while also being the most versatile. However, there are limitations as you can't really make it specific to your chosen deity unless you edit the image later.

Canva / Morpholio / Photoshop

These allow for creating single image collages to set as your phone or laptop background with crystals, cardinal directions, deity images, candles, wands or any other altar tools, along with quotes, intentions and prayers. This can be as subtle or structured as you want, making it helpful for closeted witches.

You can use the collages you create for wallpapers on your laptop or phone, or you could get them printed out and stick them on your wall!

In-Game Altars

Minecraft

On Minecraft you can built entire structures as an altar or shrine, but you’re limited with decorations unless you install a mod. Mods can give you a lot of room to be creative and have a strong aesthetic. Alternatively, you can build just one room and line it with books, add an enchanting table, potions, diamond/emerald blocks, brewing stands, cauldrons and more, using the standard texture pack.

@gailcraft was kind enough to speak to me about her experiences using altars on Minecraft. She usually uses her Minecraft altars to function as a travel altar or when her physical altar hasn’t been cleansed, mainly as a visual representation of her physical altars rather than an actual workspace. When using her Minecraft altar, she generally keeps it strictly digital, writing out prayers on signs and giving in-game offerings of food and potions which correspond with the deity.

As you can see in the images she’s provided, she’s created a cottage-like structure to house her main digital altar to serve as a safe space, decorated with candles, crystals and plants inside. She has separate deity altars for Hades and Persephone, decorated with skull paintings, gold, spiders eye, crystals, flowers, a skeleton skull, lanterns and the aforementioned offerings in picture frames.

These are great altar alternatives as they don’t require much maintenance or energy, and are suitable for witches who are unable to have a physical altar or who travel a lot.

Another really cool idea for digital altars by @neonswitchhouse is to make digital spell jars by placing items in chests that may best represent your purpose, and you can specify this by writing intents on signs above the chests.

An added bonus is that you can design a skin for your avatar to look like yourself, and you can get pets like wolfs or cats.

Animal Crossing

New Horizons has so much potential for digital altars as it’s super customisable. You can dedicate an entire room in your house to witchcraft, decorating it with a glowing magic-circle flooring, candle wallpaper, candles, stonework kitchen sets, gothic mirrors, decorative bottles, cauldrons, brick ovens, pillars, stone and candle chandeliers. They also have divination sets with crystal balls, incense, bones (in the form of dinosaurs) and a whole load of other decorative options. The main issue is that collecting all of these is time-consuming unless you purchase them online. You can make offerings by placing items that correspond with your deity in your room.

There are heaps of examples of this. @spookynerdghoul has one here and @blomi-isle has one here. Alternatively @ostarasghost has a dedicated corner which you can see here.

You could also make an outdoor altar space, or multiple all around your island. You can create patterns to put on the floor as runes or sigils that correspond with your intent, if you’re looking to do spellwork or deity worship in-game. You could make offerings through art by creating patterns and placing them on stands.

There’s even a zodiac-themed item set that you can create by wishing on shooting stars. You can customise and dress up your avatar to wear cute witchy clothes too, or download outfits from their online section that other players have designed.

On my island, I have one section with a stonehenge which lines up with the full moon, as well as a separate rocky-section with some candles and a skull-hat, and a crescent moon island with a pattern of Saturn that I created, but I encourage you to go more full-out than I did!

Stardew Valley

@baduhennasravensraven classifies these as shrines, but I’d like to show it as an example as a potential altar. They’ve set up multiple sheds to serve as shrines/temples for different deities! You can see images in their post here.

Like for Minecraft, you do needs mods to get the full experience, but again you can make digital spell jars by growing the plants that best represent your purpose and placing them in with items that may best represent your purpose.

Sims / Avakin

I’ve grouped these together because they’re similar, but in both you can design and decorate houses in a 3D virtual world.

Again, expansion and stuff packs are needed to use Sims to the fullest, but you can find some great ones by @simdertalia here and here, or one by @lycheesmods here. Some more of the relevant ones are the Magic School mod (fair warning: it’s Harry Potter inspired) and the Paranomal pack, where you can have ghosts as roomates and perform a séance.

Here's an example altar made on Avakin by @onixdace. I'm not that familiar with this program, but it looks similar in concept to other house-design/decoration games.

Hollowmoor

@hollowmoor-game is a steam game still in the works with a planned release in 2023. I’m not sure yet of specific ideas in using it as a digital altar, but I’m sure it’ll be great, and I’ll update this post when it does come out.

According to their page, “As a budding young Witch or Wizard you’ll need to manage your farm and explore the mystical world to gather your ingredients. Brew potions! Forge enchantments! Complete orders for the townsfolks and learn their stories! Bring magic back to Hollowmoor!”

It seems promising! I believe it’s similar in concept to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, so I’m sure you could form a digital altar in the same way in Hollowmoor once it’s released.

Abstract Art Altars

Dream AI

[Edited 10 Dec 22] I’ve recently become aware AI art generators steal from creators online and I no longer endorse this method. Instead I recommend using art apps like CSP, playing a devotional playlist and drawing or painting what comes to mind to create an abstract piece of your own for a specific purpose. This way, in very low opacity, you can write out your intention and add images to be displayed subliminally on your altar.

Dream AI is an artificial intelligence art-creating app. You can use this to make an abstract artistic altar by typing in words like your deities name and their associations or a short prayer or intention, use the outcome as an altar by making it your phone background. You can also set a base image to inspire the art with your deity of choice, making a sort of subliminal image of that deity within the creation. This is helpful for closet witches, you can just claim you like the art the AI produced if anyone asks.

Alternatively, you can use the art as a digital offering by posting it on your tumblr altar captioned with a prayer, like @crazyskirtlady has here. Check out her page for more examples of techno witchcraft!

Mixed Media Altars

Notion

Notion is a great organisational app where you can add a mix of photos, gifs, text, embedded videos, music and playlists onto a page, making for a multi-media style altar. You can also store resource notes and links for any research you do.

@caduceussky and @arabellascraft were both kind enough to walk me through how they use their Notion altars!

@caduceussky has multiple different altars for different uses, like for deities and spirits, productivity, work-life balance, and prosperity spells that she uses in conjunction with physical altars, depending on convenience and her personal preference.

For deity/spirit work, she typically sets up her Notion altar first as a placeholder while she’s working on setting up a physical altar, then she treats it like a travel altar. She also use Notion for spell altars that have to do with work and study, since she uses her laptop for those, with separate pages set up for certain spells, sort of like digital spell jars.

For deity/spirit altars, she plays a devotional playlist while setting up the altar and adds a photo of a candle and photos of the deity/spirit or their associations like a collage. Digital offerings can go here, too, such as devotional writing or art. It can also be used as a journal to write her experiences and lessens she’s learnt from the deity/spirit.

For spell altars, she writes her intention at the top of the page, and any additional manifestations underneath. Similar to her deity/spirit altars, she includes photos of associations of the spell’s intentions, and sigils specific to the spell.

@arabellascraft uses her Notion altar for spontaneous rituals and spellwork as her physical altars are generally temporary. She meditates to her Notion altar or leaves a note, for example for gratitude.

She practices Irish folk traditions, one of which being having a moment of reflection and prayer when you first see the new moon of the month. Having her Notion altar in her pocket makes practicing this simple as it’s portable, however, one weakness is that there’s a lack of a physical connection. On the up side, the ability to embed playlists into Notion keeps her in the spiritual mindset rather than having to go back and forth in Spotify.

There’s about to be a Notion AI too, with the function of brainstorming assistance. This means you can type in something such as “What can I do to increase my mindfulness,” and a list of related answers and ideas will be produced, or “Write a poem about the God Apollo,” and the AI will generate one for you. You can join the waitlist here.

Phone App Altars

#Self-Care

This game includes a digital altar with a function to integrate your personal experiences by setting objects to a meaning, memory or realisation, like a journal. It also has organising functions to put objects away from you altar when you’re done with them and bring them back out when you’d like to display them again.

You can gain objects for your altar by performing in-game tasks like putting away laundry, fill-in-the-blank word activities with your choice of affirmations or life tips, simple puzzles, and gain tarot cards by picking a daily tarot card. You can also light a candle and type in an intention!

It does take a while to collect enough objects to display for a particular purpose, but if your digital altar is going to be your main altar, this one is a good long-term option.

The app is customisable to a certain extent with colours and designs, but some of the fancier stuff you have to pay for (like nicer backgrounds and patterns).

Here’s an image of my current altar on this app after about a week of use, along with an image of the main page.

Discord

On Discord, you can join a public server with custom categories to use as digital altars, such as this one by @homeiswherethehearthis. Alternatively, you can create a private server with chat rooms for various areas of worship and then post pictures/gifs and write prayers there.

With Discord altars, you can write messages to your deities, send them pictures, links to articles or books about them, as well as send them offerings of your creations. It’s a great way to have a massive private or shared space dedicated to your deity.

Further, you can add Discord bots that can do divination for you, as suggested by @lyresstrings in this post, such as a pendulumn bot, a daily tarot bot, or a horoscope bot. There’s even one that states the current moon phase!

Notes App

In the standard Notes app you can create folders for specific deities, and inside each folder, add notes daily, with images, links, song names and lists of correspondences to that deity. Further, you can write letters to your deity within the notes app, as well as intentions, wishes, and things you’re greatful for.

A great feature of this app is that you can actually lock your notes with a password just incase you’re worried about someone going through your digital altar.

This one is a good option to use in conjunction with a Collage altar if you make it your phone background.

Pinterest Shuffles

Pinterest Shuffles is a sister app of Pinterest, but instead of boards, it’s like scrapbooking. It’s an amazing tool for creative expression with a similar vibe to what Polyvore used to be.

The altars you can make with this are similar in concept to collage altars but the uses are specific to phones, meaning you can only make phone wallpaper images. With Shuffles, you can incorporate images directly from your Pinterest boards, which is great if you already have a deity board and want to condense it into a single image to set your wallpaper.

You can add text with intentions and prayers, or you can just use symbols of your deity of choice. I’d suggest making multiple of these, all with different intentions, so you can change your wallpaper based on what you’re asking of the deity for that day and worship on-the-go just by looking at your lock screen.

I made one as an example which you can view here. This is currently my home screen wallpaper! I added symbols of Saturn such as a clock, skeleton, herbs, capricorn, the world tarot card, the shrine of Saturn in italy, a crow, the number 3, karma, saturn-related texts, and my favourite images of Saturn.

Social Media Altars

Tumblr Blogs

This is probably the most common digital altar, mainly because of the massive witchcraft presence on Tumblr, and the ability to make multiple secondary blogs for each deity.

You can reblog general posts that remind you of your deity, images, gifs, spells, associations, prayers, emoji spells and more. However, are often considered to be more shrine-like activities. You can turn it into an altar by creating posts with digital offerings such as art and collages captioned with text spells, emoji spells, or prayers/worships (as inspired by @crazyskirtlady), or write poems for your deity.

Blogs are totally customisable, and you can change the designs with pictures, music, fonts and more. One important thing to note with secondary blogs is that you cannot initiate social functions like DMs, comments, even following and liking, and you can never change your secondary blog into a primary blog (trust me, I’ve tried. I made the mistake of making this account a secondary blog, now I can’t interact with any of you unless you reach out first).

The tagging system is a little weak though, and it can be difficult to search through all your posts and reblogs, so I suggest if there’s anything you want to keep track of, you have a separate space for it, such as on Notion.

Pinterest Boards

With Pinterest, you can create multiple boards for different deities or spirits, adding images that remind you of those beings from what others have posted. Finding inspiration is super simple! You can add images of representations of your deity, like food, clothes, crystals, art, sculptures, elements, animals, objects and more.

Instagram

In the same sense as creating a Pinterest board, you can dedicate an entire Instagram account to your deity. You don’t have to follow anyone, and can keep it on private, or you can share it publicly. You can post your offerings, photos of things you come across in every-day life like images of the sun, the ocean, trees, plants, bugs and more.

Be careful with this option, however, as you can’t just download photos from Pinterest and post them without credit. This option is more appropriate for art you’ve created yourself and documenting your experiences with captions, poems, emojis, short letters, gratitudes, and intentions.

Musical/Playlist Altars

Spotify

One post by @asatroende got me thinking about how apps like Spotify can be used as digital altars by creating playlists with songs you associate with a deity as a form of prayer. Some examples other than normal music includes subliminals, podcasts, instrumentals, and white noise sounds. If you add a short ambient candle sound in the middle of the playlist, this can aid in visualising a candle, making your prayer or offering, then it

You can add a picture of your deity as the album cover and add an intention or emoji spell in the description to customise it further. Spotify also allows you to make folders, and insert multiple playlists within those folders, which is great it you have multiple deities you’d like to make altars for.

An added bonus is that if you have a Notion altar, you can embed this playlist into it!

For my Spotify altar for Saturn, I added Sleeping At Last’s ‘Saturn’ from Atlas I, a 1:24 minute candle sound, then the planetary/space sounds recorded and posted by NASA called ‘Nasa - Saturn’. This way, I can get in the mindset, make my devotional prayer to the candle visualisation, then mediate to the sounds of Saturn for 30 minutes. I used an emoji spell as the description, and used an image of Saturn eclipsing as the cover.

Apple Music

I’m not a user of Apple Music, but I’m sure it can be used in a similar way to Spotify. If you have the free version, you can only add songs that you own to a playlists. To get around this you can use a youtube-to-mp3 converter to get ambient sounds, subliminals and more. However, this isn’t necessary, and you can just include music you own that reminds you of your chosen deity.

Virtual Reality Altars

Oculus

One last idea is if you have the technology and setup for it, you can create an altar in a VR game or space. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any practical examples of this one.

—————————————

Special thanks

I’d like to give a big thank you to @gailcraft, @caduceussky and @arabellascraft for giving me permission to talk about their personal digital altars, and for providing me with information regarding them. A further thank you to @gailcraft for providing me with images to share with you all. Go check them out!

Here’s the explanation for baby withces:

Some people doubt the integrity of digital altars, however I believe they gain metaphysical energy as they’re created, which can be used for witchcraft. Think about emoji spells, for example!

Altars can be used for multiple purposes, for deities, patron planets, ancestors or general spirit work. Some people have one altar for everything, or separate their altars to keep these purposes separate, minimising the ‘cleansing’ you may have to do between each ritual.

Traditionally altars include tools to represent, the four elements, the cardinal directions, genders (although this is sort of being phased out), and offerings. The sub-categories of these are where you can get creative in the representations. More on that in a future post!

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sgt-seabass · 1 year

Note

For your open requests: Omega!Reader + Dark Alpha!Bucky + Heat Triggered + “You really should be more careful in the field, doll. You never know what could have happened if they found you. But, it’s okay, I’m here now. I’ll take care of you.”

𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅

pairing — dark!alpha!bucky barnes x avengers!omega!reader w/c — 1.6k (was meant to be a drabble, whoops) this is a dark fic. 18+ only. warnings — dark bucky, a/b/o elements, choking, general dark themes a/n — beta-ed by @sweeterthanthis and looked over by @navybrat817 and @maladaptivexxdaydreaming. my brain has been in a self-critical place recently, so thank you friends for helping me get this out.

The world was cruel.

You knew it as soon as you presented as an omega.

Your mother cried. Your father was so angry he punched a hole in the wall. Your friends turned up their noses, and everyone started to treat you as lesser.

You were no more than the bottom of the barrel.

That was until aliens invaded New York, and you presented for the second time. This time, your powers became apparent after being struck with a weapon alight with electricity. Hawkeye tried to save you, but as it turned out, he didn’t need to.

The aliens used advanced technology, something you quickly learned you could manipulate. You could feel the electrical currents and your mind's eye could visually see the circuit paths to infiltrate any electronic device.

Unsurprisingly, the Avengers took you in for their training program only weeks later.

While New York rebuilt, you trained.

In the sparring circle, no one cared what designation you were. Opponents threw their punches hard regardless. And you learnt what it meant to be an agent; to be respected by your peers.

In the years that followed, after the rise and fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., you met Bucky Barnes. His friend, none other than Captain America, had found him not long after being fished out of the Potomac River.

He was damaged, but who wasn’t? You all had your vices.

You’d tried to befriend him while others cowered away, but all you ever got was a narrowed glance in return. It was obvious he didn’t like you. That much was evident with how he’d sit as far away from you as possible or leave the gym when you entered, not even acknowledging your existence. Asshole. You’d tried to be kind since every other agent wanted nothing to do with him, but if he wanted to be a dick, so be it.

It’s fine. You didn’t need Bucky's approval. But you needed him to be civil on missions after you were placed on the same team. Which he seemed to be, for the most part. The occasional snide comment was passed.

“You really should be more careful, agent. You almost got hit.”

“Perhaps you should spend more time training and less time making yourself look pretty. Nice hair does nothing to assist on missions.”

“Stop dragging behind, agent. I can’t help you when you get your ass beat.”

But overall, it was bearable. Plus, you’d always come out of those missions with a shit-eating grin when you proved him wrong, using power and prowess to take down enemies effortlessly.

You may be an omega, but you were powerful. And that felt good.

But the higher you climb, the harder you fall.

And you were plummeting.

You’d been on heat suppressants since you entered the Avengers tower all those years ago. The medicine helped to reduce your omega scent to barely nonexistent and stopped the quarterly throes of heat.

Bruce always provided you with the medication you needed, but something tells you he might have made the batch wrong.

You’re standing in the lab of a Hydra base, one of many that still exist. Cut off one head, and two shall take its place. The cramps that are overtaking your body are intense, and they almost have you blacking out on the floor from the pain.

Sweat beads along your brow, your tactical suit feeling suddenly claustrophobic, the fabric too tight with how hot you’re getting. Your fingers grip the side of the metal counter, shuddering breaths coming from you.

It was all wrong. There’s no way you’d just entered your heat, right?

The whimper that bubbles in your throat indicates otherwise. You can still smell the alpha scent coming off the bodies of the Hydra agents near your feet. You’d taken them down shortly before the cramps began. And now all you want to do is scent their cold corpses.

Fuck. This is unprofessional.

God, Bucky is going to wring your ass for this.

A particularly sharp shoot of pain has you gasping and keeling over, your head resting against the cold counter, the various bottled substances around you rattling.

You bang your fist against the metal, frustrated tears welling in your eyes.

It all becomes worse when a phenomenal scent wafts into the room. Like a forest fresh after a storm. Earthy, woodsy, and cozy. It’s the kind of smell that entices adventure, to find the unknown hidden within the humid forest.

You’d know that smell anywhere.

Your legs give way, and you slide to the tiled floor. Heat pools in your core, slick beginning to coat your folds.

You look away when Bucky enters, but you can hear the way he sniffs into the air with a dry, mocking chuckle.

“You really should be more careful in the field, doll. You never know what could have happened if they found you. But, it’s okay, I’m here now. I’ll take care of you.”

Doll? He’s never spoken to you so softly before. Confused, you turn to look at him, and fuck, you want to jump him. Hair that’s just begging to be pulled on, that damn silver arm and beefy stature. He’s the picture of a perfect alpha.

You’ve always been attracted to him. How could you not be? Despite his shit attitude, he is a fucking Adonis.

You take a deep breath, attempting to compose yourself and not drool. “I am careful. There must be something wrong with my meds. Blame Bruce and not me,” you snipe, your fever beginning to worsen with each second, your tactical suit sticking to your skin uncomfortably.

“Oh, no, you can blame me for that. I swapped them with placebos,” Bucky says nonchalantly, moving to lean against a nearby counter with a smirk.

The shock freezes you, your mind momentarily short-circuiting. “What?”

“How else was I meant to mate you, omega?” Like it’s a simple, obvious answer, Bucky shrugs his shoulders, nostrils flaring as he continues to take in your scent.

“But— but you hate me. You can’t stand being near me.”

Bucky lets out a growl, and it has your pussy clenching around nothing. “I can’t stand being near you knowing you’re not mine, knowing I couldn’t smell the real you. I need to fuck you, bite you, consume you. But I couldn't do that with those drugs pumping through your system. You have no idea how difficult it was holding myself back with you around, omega.”

His words give you clarity, and you recall all the moments he’d looked at you. In the gym. In the common areas. On missions. In the quinjet after. Pupils dilating, shoulders squared, jaw clenched. You thought he acted like that because he hated you. But it’s because he wants you.

Bucky starts to approach, but you frantically scramble backwards across the floor, covering yourself in the blood of the dead agents as you pass their bodies. “G-Get away from me. I’ll tell everyone what you did. I-I’ll tell Bruce. Steve. Anyone who will listen.”

“Oh, omega, who do you think helped me set all this up? Don’t you think we’ll make a great duo? The little electric omega and her alpha,” Bucky laughs, not stopping his long strides.

His scent is getting more robust and enticing, and it's hard to hold back the moan that wants to escape from the mere smell of him. “Fuck off. You’re not my alpha.”

“I will be.”

Bucky gets closer, and in a split-second decision, you extend your arm and use your powers. You’d never dared try this before, but there was no time like the present.

You feel the currents and wires of Bucky’s arm, your eyes fluttering as you follow the electric path until you find the needed area. You clench your fist, shutting down the primary receptor, and his metal arm goes limp like dead weight.

Bucky bows to the side for a moment before he straightens himself. Even with the arm disabled, he has the strength to hold up the hunk of metal like it's feather-light. His grin widens. “You cannot stop me, even with your tricks, sparky. Give in to me, and I’ll make it all better, omega.”

A whine rips through you the moment his hand touches your knee, the simple touch sending need coursing through you. You look around, but there's nothing there to help you. No electronics nearby as Bucky corners you against the lab counter.

Pulling your gun is dumb, you know this, but you do it anyway. You unholster your handgun, whipping it up and aiming it at Bucky’s legs, just to get him to back off. He’s lost his goddamn mind.

The super soldier doesn't take kindly to the threat. Before you can aim it at him, Bucky grabs your wrist, nearly crushing your bones in his grip before he spins you in the blood on the floor, allowing him to snake his arm around your neck with your back flush to his chest.

The pain in your wrist causes you to yelp and drop the gun, the weapon clattering against the ground as you wheeze. Bucky’s forearm, tight against your throat, begins to squeeze. Even with his metal arm dormant, he still easily overpowers you. “Didn’t have to be like this, sparky. Could’a been nice and sweet.”

“S-Stop, Bucky–” You claw against his arm, but the fabric covering it was bulletproof, so your nails can't even dig in. “L-Let me go.”

“That’s enough, omega. Sleep,” Bucky’s hot breath fans against your ear as he nips at your lobe. “And when you wake up, I’m going to fuck you like a goddamn animal. You’ll be screaming my name so loud the whole compound will hear how good my cock feels.”

To be updated on when I post please follow @sgt-seabass-library and turn on post notifications.

#ambswrites #bucky barnes #dark bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #dark bucky barnes x reader #dark fic #marvel #mcu #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes imagine #sebastian stan #sebastian stan fic #bucky barnes x you #dark bucky barnes x you

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sunbloomdew · 1 year

Text

Tamarack & Qiu about the Forest and the Neighbourhood

Recently I’ve been playing various visual novel games, and I stumbled upon the Our Life series. Needless to say, I am deeply in love with it. While playing the “Our Life: Now & Forever” game demo, I noticed the character’s different opinions about their environment. It’s a simple observation but I really wanted to share it, so here I am!

Depending on which character we meet up with first when we embark on our paper airplane message investigation, they will express their thoughts on the forest and the town.

(I'll be referring to Qiu with he/him pronouns, as these are the ones that are used for this character in childhood!)

Qiu likes the forest, but prefers the town over it. To him that is the centre of activity in Golden Grove.

He says that aside from the seasons changing it's like time doesn't exist in the forest. The fauna and flora there are all the same at all times, and he finds it weird.

I think that because the life in the forest changes in very subtle ways, he doesn't really considers that important. The plants grow but it's not like they move to different spots. They stay in one place, like the path in the forest.

That's why the neighbourhood and the town, where other people live is more appealing to him. It's much easier to notice when something changes in a more lively space, and those developments tend to be more dynamic too, as such they can appear more interesting. Especially for kids. Since their attention span tends to be short, faster occurring shifts capture their attention better.

On the other hand, Tamarack openly expresses her dislike of the town.

To her, the town is the very opposite of fun. The buildings are old and dusty, and the people don't do anything. As she describes it, they sit around all the time.

Tamarack finds the town stagnant and boring because of that. The buildings look the same and stay in one place. You can decorate them, but they are always structures, constructed with a set purpose in mind.

I can't quite understand the meaning behind these words: "Nobody is going anywhere or doing anything. They just live in this place, sit around, and do that forever." If I had to provide an interpretation of those words, I'd say what Tamarack means by them, is that people have assigned roles in the community and certain habits that make it seem like their life are same, unchanging routine. That does not appeal to her in the slightest.

In stark contrast to Qiu, Tamarack considers the forest a place where everything constantly evolves.

She pays attention to the way nature is alive on its own. The tree may not walk around, but it's bark overgrows with lichen and fungi, that spread, or get eaten, or grow sick and die. The animals collect food, branches to build shelter and move from place to place. Those small changes, that occur all the time, forever, fascinate Tamarack.

As she puts it:

I found it interesting how Qiu and Tamarack focus on different signs of life, and are basically opposites in their view of those two places. To Qiu the town is exciting because there is always something going on there with people, but Tamarack thinks they do the same forever. Qiu may see neighbours talk to eachother everyday and find it interesting because they discuss different topics, but to Tamarack, they are just doing the same activity all the time, which is boring. On the contrary, Tamarack thinks the forest is magical in the way it constantly transforms, but Qiu sees it as a place without any sort of changes going on there, which unnerves him. I find those two views of the same spaces really interesting.

Later when the trio walks to school for the first time, Qiu is baffled when Tamarack states that the forest is the only good place around.

(She says that regardless if MC likes or dislikes the woods. If our character likes them, Qiu says the dialogue above. If not, he will say: "Hey, so, it's kind of funny how you like the woods that much." referring to Tamarack alone.)

While they have different opinions on these places, it's nice that they don't argue over it. Would I have expected this to happen? No, but it's still good that it doesn't.

It's not a groundbreaking observation, but I enjoyed thinking about it and writing this post nonetheless. I'm looking foward to learning more about those two! They are both so adorable. I can't wait to become best friends with them <3

Peace out (❁´◡`❁)

#our life now and forever #our life: now & forever #our life 2 #ol2 #tamarack baumann #qiu lin #gb patch games #sunbloom talks #wittle babies #i love them sm #gamer hours

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maniculum · 5 months

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Bestiaryposting Results: Ilyecham

Presenting the results for the Ilyecham -- a name which continues to look wrong in Tumblr's sans-serif font. That's:

Ilyecham

There we go. As usual, if you're not sure what this is about, you may find an explanation at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . The text from which the artists are working is here:

I saw one post saying something along the lines of "if these things are going to keep being birds, I'm going to have to learn more about bird-drawing." I regret to tell you that the Aberdeen Bestiary has a whole section on birds, so they are indeed going to keep coming up. They make up, like, a third of the entries I have queued. Sorry. Or, if you wanted motivation to practice your avian drawing skills, you're welcome.

Also, sorry this post is a couple hours later than usual -- I had Other Obligations this evening.

Anyway, here's the art, in roughly chronological order as per usual.

@embervoices (link to post here) has drawn both a colorful adult and a less-colorful juvenile, and moreover provides us with a quick vocabulary lesson, which I always enjoy because I'm a language nerd. (They also wrote their own image description -- thank you for that, saves me some time.) I absolutely love that the Ilyecham "greedily seizing larger birds" is here represented by a hatchling aggressively going after a "bewildered goose". The linked post includes some notes on design decisions also.

@miapcain (link to post here) has done another beautifully stylized picture, showing multiple Ilyechams and their aggressive behavior. I love the style of course, and I also like that these have an almost sandpiper-like body plan with long beaks, which they apparently use to stab other birds -- or at least I think that's what the one in the bottom right is doing, which I think is pretty cool. The blue heads are a nice visual touch also, I think. The kind of tiled geometric background feels very period-appropriate, exactly the sort of thing you'd see in a particularly richly-illuminated manuscript.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) notes that there aren't many visual details in the description, so she decided to draw a regular bird of prey and then add a wizard hat to indicate that it is armed with spirit, which I love. I actually laughed out loud when I saw her explanation of why the hat. Excellent choices, no notes. Also I think this is a pretty good bird drawing on its own merits, hat aside.

I continue to enjoy @rautavaara's drawing style (link to post here). I really like the way the rays of the sun are drawn here, specifically. Their Ilyecham is molting in an extremely dramatic fashion, missing whole clumps of feathers, which I think looks quite cool and communicates the idea well. (I worry a little bit about how long it's going to be able to stay in the sky with so many wing feathers missing, but they're apparently quite unpleasant birds, so maybe a rough landing is well deserved.)

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has drawn us a whole family of Ilyechams. Also in excellent medieval style, as usual -- the stylized drawing are kind of all in a cluster in this post. I like the plants; coolest-capybara is quite good at drawing plants in a way that looks just like the Unidentifiable Medieval Foliage you'd expect in a manuscript. We can see one parent exhibiting its molting behavior, another fighting a much larger bird, and three poor little juveniles walking off looking a bit dejected. Hits all the highlights of the description very well, I think. The linked post includes a brief description and a few close-up details of the image.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) would like to acknowledge that this is "kind of a mess" and "the wings are just gonna look like that", which I think is an example of artists holding themselves to very high standards because this looks very realistically rendered to me and I have no idea what might be wrong with it. That's a damn fine bird drawing right there. The linked post includes a pretty thoughtful explanation of which behaviors in the provided description are reminiscent of which birds, and how silverhart has combined elements of a few different birds to make this one.

@karthara (link to post here) has drawn us what is unmistakably a bird of prey, and briefly explains in the linked post what birds this is inspired by. I think the feather pattern is very interesting, particularly the blue on the head. Something about the way the shape of the pattern interacts with the bird's eye looks very cool. A certain je ne sais quoi, if you will.

@hairycarrot (link to post here) has done a pretty cool-looking sun in the corner of the page. One of the unexpected things I'm enjoying about these is that multiple artists decided to have fun with how to draw the sunshine in which the Ilyecham spreads its wings. Poor little guy falling out of the nest there... buddy I don't think that one is quite ready to fly.

@treesurface (link to post here) shows us an Ilyecham creating a breeze by beating their wings, as described in the entry, which I like. Their Ilyecham is equipped with a dangerous-looking pointed beak for the purpose of fighting larger birds, and the look in its eyes definitely helps with that impression. The linked post provides an explanation of design decisions.

@strixcattus (link to post here) notes that the description provided reminds them of a number of small raptors, but that all of those raptors look kind of alike, so they've given their Ilyecham a striking feather pattern to stand out from the crowd. I really like it, the pattern is excellent. I also like that we're seeing the return of an animal from a previous entry: that thing it's grabbing in its claws is a Holghras chick from a couple weeks ago. (Though I'm slightly torn because I like those little muppets, and the Holghras has enough problems without being attacked by an Ilyecham.) Strixcattus has again provided us with a modernized description of the creature in question, which is amazing as always. If any of y'all enjoy worldbuilding half as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to read these.

@moustawott (link to post here) has drawn us a very small-looking bird here, performing stationary flight to aid in its molting behavior. The feather pattern is very good, in my opinion, and I like how the molted feathers are kind of blowing away behind it. Also an excellently-rendered bird in general.

@pomrania (link to post here) envisions the Ilyecham as looking old and grumpy to fit the vibe of its described behavior -- an early draft of this drawing includes a speech bubble reading "get a job you freeloaders", which I think hits the mark pretty well. (For early drafts and additional commentary on the design, see the linked post) I like the eyebrows, I like the severe color scheme over most of the body paired with the colorful wings, and I like that this is the closest to what I pictured when I read about the Ilyecham, namely this:

(Not that it's an eagle, but you know. Vibes.)

@mobileleprechaun (link to post here) has very clearly depicted a small bird attacking a larger one. They note "heavy Season’s Greason’s inspo" and you know what? I totally see it. I also enjoy the decision to make the larger bird a dodo.

Another cool pen drawing from @cheapsweets (link to post here), who also has some thoughts about how this particular nib works for drawing. Pretty well done birds, I think. I enjoy the one on the right just shoving the juvenile out of the nest, and the stylized sun is also pretty cool. The linked post includes a detailed explanation of the design decisions, and also has some questions about the entry that are probably rhetorical, but I figure I can try and shed some light on a couple of them anyway.

Again, we have a lot of behaviours, but nothing in terms of a physical description… Did the author just thing ‘everyone knows what birds look like’, was this just a bird that the reader was expected to be familiar with, or were they all like 'I’m not describing yet another bird… :p’?

I think it's a little of all of those, and also that the author tends to be more concerned with the symbolism of the animal than naturalistic description. So if, say, the color of its feathers doesn't have a symbolic meaning attached to it, the author won't bother to tell you. Related to that...

Hang on, this is going to be some kind of inspirational virtuous animal thing, isn’t is… :p I can imagine some medieval scribe writing 'and so, the ilyecham represents the cardinal virtue of fortitude’ or something…

Interestingly, this bird's parenting style is basically the only part of its description that doesn't have any symbolic explication attached. The molting in the south wind gets, like, pages of material though, including the fantastic assertion that it's the south wind because God comes from the south but the Devil comes from the north. Literally, that's what it says:

God, it is said, will come from the south. The Devil from the north; God from the south.

Moving on, let's take a look at the Aberdeen Bestiary illustration.

Honestly, that also kind of looks like Sam the Eagle.

However, this is the entry for the Hawk. Yep. Turns out hawks are inherently opposed to the welfare state, which... actually lines up more than it should with present-day politics.

I don't have much more to add here, because most of my thoughts on hawks boil down to "Tobias was a pretty good character in the Animorphs series".

Pretty sure that's not how wings work, anatomically. But nevertheless. End of post.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #ilyecham

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kanansdume · 7 months

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I've decided that the Ahsoka show is probably at its best when the characters AREN'T SPEAKING. Which is unfortunate because it's a show that relies so much on its fun visuals and its fan service and its one-liners to do a lot of the work, and yet the characters talk so much without saying much of anything at all. Certainly nothing of any real importance or that pays off later.

I rewatched episode 5 today and was just hit by how much I genuinely loved the scene where Ahsoka goes to interact with the badly wounded clone during the Ryloth flashback sequence. It hit me when I first watched it as well and stuck with me as the best scene out of the entire episode, probably the best scene in the entire show so far. Everyone else was screaming about the Vader flickers and I'm over here obsessing over Ahsoka just silently walking over to an injured clone, sitting down to touch his hand, and the clone silently reaching over to place his hand atop hers. The whole scene probably takes place over about 20 seconds at MOST, and it's entirely without dialogue.

And it's PERFECT.

We get to just watch Ariana Greenblatt's face as she cycles through grief and pain and love for this clone whose name she may not even know or remember anymore and joy that he's still able to reach out to her to provide HER comfort when he feels her hand on his arm. We can't even see the clone's face, we're stuck looking at Ahsoka work through the emotions of this single interaction and how deeply it impacts her. It reminds us that the clones were people she knew, people she loved, people she felt responsible for protecting. These were her friends and they loved her, too. And so many of them died, while she still lives.

It lasts 20 seconds and doesn't have a single line of dialogue and it tells us SO MUCH about Ahsoka's relationship to the clones, both then and now. It tells us so much about how she feels about the war, the men she loved, and the fact that so many of them were lost, long before Order 66 happened. And she was powerless to stop any of it. We don't need dialogue to understand what she's feeling in this moment because they actually stopped to let the actor and the scene speak for itself, in the simplest possible way.

And then compare it to the scene where Ahsoka connects to the purrgil. SHE'S not speaking, but we keep cutting away from Ahsoka to listen to Jacen chattering away at Hera ("Is she going to speak to the purrgil?" "That's the idea" "Is the whale going to take her to Ezra?" "That's the hope, kid") and basically spelling out the plan and the scene for us in a way that we really did not need, especially since they have Ahsoka and Huyang basically explain it themselves later anyway. We're also cutting away to Carson Teva blathering to the Fleet Commander and stalling for time, despite the fact that we absolutely did not actually need to see that happen. So the emotion of the moment where Ahsoka is connecting with the purrgil keeps getting undercut by all of this extraneous dialogue by the other characters that is adding nothing to the plot or the scene. The additional dialogue also makes the scene last a lot longer, so it feels like Ahsoka's standing there for an age before anything happens. It's a LOT longer than the quick scene between her and the clone, but it's massively less impactful.

#star wars #ahsoka tano #ahsoka show #ahsoka series #ahsoka 2023 #sw ahsoka #star wars ahsoka #ahsoka spoilers

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surachibee · 5 months

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if you’ve been following a lot of my recent stuff, you’ve probably noticed (or maybe you haven’t, idk!) that I’ve been tagging a few art posts as ‘pitverse’. You’ve also probably noticed that I’ve provided no context to these posts what-so-ever! and that sucks! So to explain a bit, I present:

”surachi what the heck is pitverse”

Okay, first. ‘Pitverse’ is a working title. Maybe. It’s cheesy, but I kinda like it because it’s cheesy.

Anyways, if you’ve been following me for a while, you may or may not remember this art where I designed a bunch of pits that were loosely based on the different ending to the original Kid Icarus on the NES. Some took influence from different places (eg. the solider ending heavily drawing inspiration from Kid Icarus: of Myths and Monsters) and some were completely made up (eg. the farm ending’s design). It was fun! And it pretty much started this whole idea to begin with.

I’d draw some stuff here and there for it, but other than that I never really did much with the idea other than ‘oh hey look designs’. That is until it came up again a couple years later when I started to get *really* into oMaM stuff, which led to me coming back to the idea of a weird multiverse thing.

Thanks to a few friends, we talked about it and eventually it became like a four-swords adventure multiverse labyrinth thing. Pandora’s Labyrinth times twelve. So as it is right now, it’s like a hypothetical game where some new *evil big bad* takes a handful of Pits from different universes/timelines and plops them into some pocket dimension of different levels and challenges, and together, they have to find out what the heck going on.

Right now, I think I’m gonna try to keep it to three Pits for simplicity sake. Obviously, Pit from Kid Icarus: Uprising has to be here, that’s our guy. He’s also the protagonist! He’s left relatively unchanged in this AU. This also takes place in a post-game setting, so he’s already fought Hades. This applies to the other guys as well, even if their hypothetical “games” and adventures aren’t actually real (Factor) or heavily rewritten (Myth) here.

Good news is that Uprising Pit can still communicate with Palutena! But he’s the only one out of the bunch that can. (Would’nt that have been nice? Imagine all the work you could get done with THREE Palutenas [haha reference]). In this AU’s logic, Uprising’s world in the pocket-dimension what-ch-ma-have-it space is closer to the one where this takes place, so (Uprising) Palutena is able to establish a decent enough connection to at least communicate, though it’s not the best. The other Pit’s worlds are further away, so communication with their respective realms are off the table. This also causes other problems like occasionally “bugging out” and forgetting stuff since they’re so far from their original worlds. So Uprising Pit got kinda lucky.

Speaking of other Pits, there’s other Pits! Both of them draw inspiration from things previously done/involved in the franchise so they’re not entirely made up, but they do stray pretty far from their source material. Anyway..first, we have Factor! He’s heavily inspired by Factor 5’s rendition of Pit from their “Icarus” project back in 2007-2008 that was turned down. Here, this AU’s interpretation of the idea is a little more in line with the franchise’s overall light-hearted and goofy nature. (In this AU the Pit’s are taken from different points in time, so he would’ve been plucked from the future. I did this so 1. They all could look visually distinct from each other, and 2. the thought of Factor going “oh he doesn’t know about [x] yet” or Uprising Pit insisting Myth to NOT go after the wish seed in the future was funny.)

Next…there’s Myth! He’s based on Kid Icarus: of Myths and Monsters, and besides a few plot points he’s pretty much just a modern take on the character. He was easier to pin down because while the concept of Factor’s story was interesting, being banished from the heavens for some unspecified crime, it’s pretty vague in comparison. With Myth, there’s an entire game with a plot to go off of, even if this AU strays a bit from it.

That’s pretty much the basics of this AU! Just a couple of Pits going on an adventure getting into other-worldly shenanigans. I’m having a ton of fun with it and hopefully I can develop the idea more as I go along. Thanks for reading! There’s some extra footnotes and miscellaneous doodles below.

• This AU follows the idea that oMaM takes place in a different timeline than Kid Icarus: Uprising, hence it not being referenced (at least not on purpose, I’m looking at you aurum track accidentally having the same intro motif) or mentioned. Plus y’know, Sakurai not knowing it existed so there’s that. Might as well rework it into a weird explanation. (coping)

• All of these worlds take place in different timelines, so Factor isn’t an older version of Uprising Pit, nor is Uprising an older version of Myth. They’re all still Pit, and all of them have fought Medusa, but it had different outcomes (somewhat based on the endings) and at that point they diverged from each other. • I’ll probably change the naming of the Pits at some point. While they’re good right now, I’m not sure if I wanna keep Factor named after a company. Might have their names based off the titles of their respective games, so instead of “Factor”, “Myth”, and “Uprising” it’d be “Icarus” (based on the project’s internal name), “Myth”, and “Uprising”.

#surachiarttag #pitverse tag #kid icarus au

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