#I think at least 1 other one might be S tier for me but I'm not sure š¤
Text
What if I made a tier list for my own fanfiction akaksks
#I was thinking about it earlier it's wild how my thoughts on my own fics have evolved and changed#the only one I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt I would put in S tier is OUAD#otherwise I'm really not sure like I have so many thoughts and feelings I can't#I think at least 1 other one might be S tier for me but I'm not sure š¤#I need to go to bed maybe I'll think about it more tomorrow aksksks#yugioh gx fanfiction#ooh my 1 FFXV fic I'm determined to finish by the end of 2023 that one might be a contender for S tier too aksksk#abby's just rambling don't mind her#abby fully admits she's an idiot#abby needs to be stopped
5 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Bulletpoint liveblog of C3E91 let's go!
Second half: Crown Keepers
Oh, is this where the Crownkeepers come in? I heard that. Haha I always wonder what it's like at the studio hiding the fact that, like, Robbie is there.
AABRIA! God, I want to know how her hair and makeup is done. It's so different and so cool nearly every time I see her. She's got such style.
Moment to appreciate the music they play during the art reel at the end of the break.
CROWNKEEPERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I actually never fully watched Kymal so the bunny woman was a surprise XD
The collaborativeness is nice, asking Anjali about her sister.
ahahaha god this platform. DON'T WHIPLASH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THIS! I'M CRYING OVER ORYM AND ALL!
ā¦.Me not having watched Kymal might confuse me for the next two hours.
Black lipstick will never not get me. Aimee.
Is Dorian going to reply to Orym's message??????
Good on Matt for starting off.
(Pleeeeease may they say this woman's name). Her character's Morrighan. Whoa, a champion of the Matron of Ravens.
The Crownkeepers have been having a real swell time.
(Fy'ra Rai has always been a great name to say). So, sent by the Wildmother to protect them.
Aww, Dorian feeling some consequences of his avoidance.
From an above-table perspective, I'm surprised they're all feeling so lost? I wonder if it was planned and if Aabria's going to suddenly give them a direction, or if they're reticent to set too much in stone?
OPAL'S BETRAYER GOD CHAMPION DESIGN IS SO SICK; I LOVE IT!
Sleep as an exhausting voidā¦ Creepy.
"Can I hear him?" "Make a wisdom save." Terrifying. "Shouting at you while running backwards." What a description.
I do love Opal, too. Such a situation but still trying to retain that image of her.
"We gotta get these chuckles out not." Whimper in terrified player.
I love Aabria's GM-ing in a lot of other things (ACOFAF is S-tier), but I think this highlights why I found EXU Prime harder to get into. The Crownkeepers tend to lack a motivating goal from the off-set, making it a bit hard for me to figure what they're trying to do and why.
Still, starting off with PVP might be the wakeup!
HA! Matt Mercer doing the ad read. Love it.
Spider Queen is intimidating and poor, poor Opal.
Holy shit, Opal's raising into the air and burning the forest. Hahaha make Aimee choose which friend to destroy. Awwww forcing her into PvP!
Goddddddd Aabria is the Betrayer God here.
Black eyessssssss. Magic second set of arms.
God, imagine being Aimee rn.
27 on initiative??????
THE DARIAX ROLLS RETURN!
At least Opal can communicate her panic.
HASTE ON OPAL???? HA! VENMO TO HASTE THE ENEMY!
The Dariax rolls balance Morrighan's.
Aw, sweet with Morrighan and Opal whispering telepathically.
Amazing image of stone cold Opal in contrast.
I like how Matt and Aabria pop in with lessons for the others. Nice to see players propping each other up.
CRYSTAL RAPIER? NICE!
"She's just a little guy."
Absolutely fair, seeing weird shit for your Betrayer God Champion friend and just wanting to knock her the fuck out.
Kind of Anjali to tally up the numbers as they roll.
Eeeeeek, ripping a rapier down her thigh.
OPAL DOESN'T TAKE THE DAMAGE????? IS THAT A REACTION OR????
TED!
Hahaha "if Opal did crossfit".
(I googled it. Morrighan is played Erica.)
Oh christ Ted's helping. I wonder how much Morrighan knows about Ted.
"NONONO STOP!" as verbal component for Shield is fantastic.
I don't trust that this is Ted?? Does Ted know Opal's fucked right now??
"Why's the first thing you do drawing blood?" Well, because it's D&D.
Haste lets you go get a hotdog from Arby's. Vax knew this well.
Aabria's English accent is so American-version-of-English but I like how it sounds anyway.
Let the ashhole return, cowards!
Yeah, Robbie, this is a weird situation. Dorian's just choking on his flute. Yeah, trying to restrain Opal is a good plan. NO! NAT 20 minus 1 + 4 plus 13. Aimee/Opal, go! Get! It!
Nice, Aabria, failing forward is a lesson we can all incorporate.
NAT ONE PLUS 13?? ROBBIE! Cannot catch a break.
T_T Fy'ra being betrayyyyyed again. Ooh, very very cool from Anjali calling for a flashback.
(We still never got the response to Orym. Has that happened yet or it that going to be the bookend? I'm curious what this is going to mean for the actual campaign. It's a really fun idea to bring in another GM for a section. Sure, more Actual PlayTM than homegame but Matt at least gets to play.)
Haha Anjali welcome to the DM club! I know about this from the Ginny Di video. Anjali DMed an official lego game.
Can they free Opal?
Ohhh. The Wildmother wants this? Am I misunderstanding? Shit.
They can't separate Opal from the crown.
Love how different people set their dice.
Never take advice from GM Aabria :P
Holy shit these guys roll high.
I hardly ever see people take the dodge action.
I do like Opal a lot.
So the Spider Queen is just trying to full take over Opal. I wonder if Teven or the other Betrayer God Champion had this sort of thing happen.
GO AWAY FOREVER??? THEIR MOTHER DID THIS TO OPAL AND TED?? Evalux? A splinter group? I'M SO CONFUSED AND INTRIGUED! THE BEACON'S INVOLVED??? How tf did they get it in Byroden? So there's a splinter of Luxon followers who split themselves in one life instead? God, I hope the main cast get to watch this.
ā¦..And Opal has no memory of it. Will we ever get this information?
Erica continues to roll like a god.
The turns have felt both long and fast. I've still got, like, an hour and a half.
I love how Matt describes/contextualises things, even as a player.
HA! CYRUS IS HERE?!
ROLL PERFORMANCE FOR HANDJOB
A 7!!!!!
Bless is good. Dariax panicking is great.
XD God initiative takes a long time in a big group.
THE ROLLS! THE DARIAX ROLLS!
Ah! Dariax is a bard! Yeah! So cuuuute for the Double Ds. "THE PERFORMING ARTS IS WORTH IT!"
So. All of them are blind in the darkness. Awesome, awesome move, Aimee.
Hahhahahahaha right. Warlock. No spell slots.
XD It's such a long game. No loo breaks.
SQUIRREL SPIDER FTW
Gotta love Cyrus. "NO DON'T SHOOT!" The himbo persists.
ā¦.Matt, what did you get for the WIS save?
PALADIN COMES IN FOR THE SAVE!
Hahahaha "that could can see". Okay. Blind mistystep? ā¦..I'm sure 8 will get it.
Aww, attacking your friend's going to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Lay on Hands is good.
I appreciate Aabria's helpfulness as a GM.
Fy'ra good teammate.
Opal, again, is amazing. I love how she tackles such complex things in her very Her way. Preserves drama and humour in her self-absorbtion.
I wonder how Opal washes her hair under that crown?
Well, some allowance for fighting when Opal attacked them? Obvs harder emotionally than logically.
Aww everyone got to see the memory of Opal and Morrighan bonding.
HA! LOVE FY'RA BEING COMMANDER!
Dorian is forever clanking with all the instruments he carries. T_T 9 to dispel fails. Good plan though. Until back into the darkness he goes.
I like the idea of going back to the Crownkeepers, especially as a perspective on Opal and Dorian, but I'm two hours into this section and still don't quite get the full significance of it. Which is a shame. I still have faith, but I think this encounter would be more enjoyable if I understood better why we were seeing it in the Bell's Hells campaign.
I've always respected Opal/Aimee going in on being the asshole sister. Getting to see that perspective.
The gem flashbacks are cool.
"We can both be coins." "And we're richer for it!" Amazing. Great pun. Love Fy'ra. Love Ted coaching Opal.
Max offering blind Dariax up on a plate. Respect.
I LOVE MATT AS DARIAX! SO FUNNY!
Con sorcerer is smart.
Aabria has no luck against Dariax.
I'm sure that 9 WIS will help perception.
BARDIC COMES IN CLUTCH!
DIMENSION DOOR IS A BONUS ACTION?!
I. Love. Opal. Aimee plays her and her struggles and her relationships with everyone so well and nuanced. Dariax is a well-done character too. Real even behind the humour.
I leapt too, Aimee. Holy shit what the fuck, Spider Queen?
(Fuck you, Twitch, for skipping, my god).
Oh god, Cyrus, don't die.
Nooooo, Dariax. Living nightmares. Him and Dorian seeing their nightmares.
Spider Queen Opal wtf.
Pick up next week? Huh. Iā¦ am confused by this. Interesting encounter. I liked the drama between the Crown Keepers. But, again, I don't understand the significance for the Bell's Hells? So I reckon next week will be first half Crown Keepers, second half Bell's Hells. Huh. Interesting episode. It was fun, though I really don't deny still being on the edge of my seat to find out what's happening with the BH.
11 notes
Ā·
View notes
Note
do yall have like. a map or base layout of the seireitei? this seems like the blog to ask about that the way yall put together stuff i wouldntve even thought of
I don't know that there's a full, official map--and, I imagine, this is intentional. Because if there's a map, then 1) you'd have to hold yourself to it... and 2) others might feel obligated to heed it, too. And I think for sprawling series like these, the ambiguities are intended as invitations for the reader.
We do have Hisagi's map, which he published in the SC [aka Colorful Bleach], in a column that apparently wasn't that popular (but that Matsumoto gave a favorable review for!):
As far as invitations, go, I love that understanding the Seireitei as a cup in a saucer is consistent with the dish imagery that both Kajoumaru (in TYBW) and Rukia (in the Substitute Shinigami arc) use to describe the balance of souls across Soul Society and the Living World. Dishware culture seems BIG in Soul Society (or at least the Seireitei), and I am so here for it!! (I have written fanfic about it, which is how you can tell if I'm S-tier interested in something or not. Soul Society dishware culture passes muster ALWAYS.)
We also periodically get panoramic views of the Seireitei (I will note here that the label on Hisagi's diagram calls THAT a panoramic view, lol), like this one. ... Ignore the giant holes in the landscape. This screencap is from the Zanpakutou Rebellion arc, haha:
Which, as in invitation offers, a general sense of the layout.
In constructing all of our maps, some additional details we might choose to make use of:
10 Things We Canonically Know About Mapping the Seireitei
Running around the outside of the Seireitei's walls takes a billion years for some reason, per Yoruichi as she's explaining to Ichigo et al how they will infiltrate it.
Matsumoto also suggests that all the VCs gathering for a meeting could take half a day (Chapter 80). This could be a measure of distance, but there's likely also factors like having to disentangle oneself from work and your division's pressing needs, too.
We know from the Soul Society/Ryoka Invasion Arc that navigating the Seireitei is pretty difficult, and that this is an intenentional tactical move. (It makes me wonder what kind of invasion they were anticipating, though, since everything that has ever attacked the Seireitei in canon 1) was a resident of the dang place, or 2) just blew it up and didn't use the streets at all. With the exception of the Ryoka Invasion, and even they just barely used the streets lol.
There's an officer's housing district, per the Hell Chapter, which looks like it accounts for at least Captain and VC-level residences.
I *think* this is Colorful Bleach trivia, but I'm not sure. In any case, Rukia lives at the 6th while working in the 13th, which means that's not an impossible commute.
There's a route where, if you started from the 9th, you'd pass through the 10th and 11th on the way to the 13th, because when Hisagi hand-delivers Ukitake his copy of the SC while Rukia and Orihime are training, he comments on the 10th and 11th officers' absences (Advance Team/Arrancar Arc). This suggests that the divisions may exist vaguely in number order.
the 1st is basically attached to Soukyoku Hill and the Central 46 complex (this was always true, but the first TYBW invasion has some nice shots of this when the Sternritter invade Yamamoto's office).
There appears to be a sort of commerce district, which Hitsugaya walks through when he's trying to find Matsumoto in the karuta new year's episode.
I can't remember whether this is from the Reigai Arc or TYBW, because we watched them in close succession (lol), but someone mentions the "warehouse district" near 10th. There may be more than one warehouse district, given the Seireitei's sprawl, but at least one of them is near 10th. Given that the 10th also gets to have a big courtyard for parties (Beast Swords Arc), it makes you wonder where it is. It seems not-central, given you don't put your warehouse district downtown.
Same for the 13th, which has vast, rolling hills near it (or within its grounds), for Orihime and Rukia's training. And possibly also Ugendou, though I can't recall whether Ugendou canonically exists IN 13th, or if I just put it there, and this list is for canon map info. (Ugendou's existence is noted in Colorful Bleach).
Despite not having a map, we actually have quite a bit of info from which a map could be created!
I haven't actually sat down to make a map that I use, but I definitely have a pretty consistent unconscious mental one I work off of. Some of it is based in fact and some of it is just vibes. One of my ambitions for the future is to solicit fan maps of Soul Society as part of a fandom event. I think it would be so cool to see everyone's!
Anyway, these are just the things I could think of off the top of my head. If anyone has additional canon mentions of the Seireitei's layout, or other panels/screencaps with additional angles, please feel free to share~
39 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Weekly Update for 27 March, 2023
Howdy, folks! Welcome to the last update of March! Time really has flown, jesus-
Mind Games: Trepidation
Onto our favorite subject! If you guys haven't seen, there have been multiple edits pushed for mostly Chapter 1 and 2 this week! These edits have added new options to some dialogue choices, some customisation choices, and some variation to certain spots where I saw I favored sarcastic MCs over others. There have been a couple of grammar fixes pushed in Chapter 3, 4, and 5, but I have not done a more thorough editing of those chapters; after putting in some achievements, my brain kinda just. Flat-lined and needed a break, lol!
I have gotten LOADS done on Chapter 6! I am actually in Scene 3/4 for the rough draft, with about half of Scene 3's rough draft completed. Again, the rough draft is just me going through and picking one option for each branch and getting through the story so I know where it'll go when I go back to flesh it out! However, that's still a LOT of progress!!! The whole chapter is at about 5,600 words, and before doing the update I had started editing Scene 1 for a bit to start fleshing out so it's not so much work later.
A few things with MG:T:
In case you aren't aware, MG:T is only expected to be 9 Chapters, NOT including Interludes and the Epilogue. We are over 50% done with the game! VERY EXCITING!!! (Especially as I am ITCHING to get to book 2, lol!)
Chapter 6 is expected to be out in April. I will be releasing it in full as I'm expecting it to be a small to average size chapter.
I am always open to feedback and suggestions! Honestly, I would REALLY LOVE for you folks to tell me where you think improvements could be made or where you'd like to see more choices/what kind of choices you want to see more of. Be the change you want to see, lol!!
Remember: Every time an update is pushed, your saves will be corrupted! I try to push things all at once, but I never know how much I'll get done at any one time so sometimes I push smaller updates over a course of a day. If you aren't seeing anything new, it might be because your save is before the update was pushed!
I am still checking this Google Form! I am considering making one that is all about feedback and suggestions, and I DO check the one that's listed there daily! I actually have an active list of suggestions and stuff people have given me, and I do try to take the stuff you guys tell me needs fixing and put those fixes into the game!! Those of you who have answered the feedback section have been amazingly helpful and I appreciate it so much!!!
In case you missed it, I do have a page up now that has a list of all the free scenarios I've posted in the past and present, at least, the ones I could find! It also has a list of sneak peeks from Patreon I've posted! Some of them are a bit outdated as they're from, like, when I first started writing the game back in 2018-2019, but they're still enjoyable!
There is a poll up on Patreon right now that ends in 2 weeks! It's letting Patrons vote for which RO(s) will 100% be featured in April's scenarios for Patreon, and as a special treat, one of the 2 chosen ROs will be available to the lower tier as well! And, the lower tier can always vote in polls. The tier prices are $3 and $10, with $3 opening up polls, a sneak peek, discord benefits, weekly update+ content, and credits mentions (I will be putting every Patron I've had in the past in the credits of the game(s) they were supporting me during development!), with occasional monthly bonuses. The $10 tier opens up EVERYTHING I have, and everything that gets posted monthly!
I think that's all I got to tell y'all this week! See you at the next update! (Where I can hopefully confirm being done with at least one of the scenes in Chapter 6, hehe.)
25 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Story Craft: Character Basics
Ahoy and welcome. Characters won the poll so I'll start my guide by going over how I go about creating and developing characters. Before I begin, I'll be using my own characters as examples. Not because they're especially good or shining examples of this or that, but simply because I created them and I 100% know how and why I created them. So if you go through this and think "um, that doesn't sound very interesting" then first of all, 'WOW OK RUDE MEAN AND CRUEL ALSO', but second of all (and much more importantly), that's good and I encourage you to keep a hold of those feelings. Stories and crafting stories are completely to taste and one person's fine is another person's too much. Stories all about capturing and recapturing feelings, so if something doesn't hit the mark then it's good to take a look and figure out where it went wrong, where you might have gone or if the whole thing wasn't to your taste at all.
And now...
Characters!
Everyone loves characters and has favourites, least favourites and enjoys dreaming up new scenarios or even alternate universes to put them in! Crack open a how-to book and they'll probably have a more mechanical view of characters as tools of the plot, designed to elicit reactions and progress events... or something else really dry and with all the joy of a tier list for cutlery. The truth is that characters ARE made with a mechanical use in mind... but they're also the beating heart of the story and the world. And there is a lot of fun to be had in really hammering out the technical aspects of characters, and I'm here to show you!
Part 1: The Basics
Characters should contain three components: Personality, Purpose and Perspective.
Personality is who they are, how they make us feel and how they get on with other characters. This is the most readily understood aspect of characters and often what people create for their early OCs or ones that don't have a story. This is where you'd put their personality basics, MBTI, enneagram, etc.
Purpose is what they do in their story, what roles they perform and what themes they embody. This is the most mechanical aspect that all the books want you to understand. This is where you'd put their archetype or tropes you associate with them.
Perspective is their place in the world and their role in society. This is kind of a middle-ground between personality and purpose as both their actions and attitude can be shaped by their place in the world, obligations or upbringing, but by give it a category of its own, we can have more fun and ensure that every character has a healthy amount of entertainment potential.
A quick word on 'theme' that I've learned over time. Don't stress out too much if you haven't figured out the key theme(s) of your story, it's something that comes with time and work. I've found that people talking about theme often end up making it sound more like a preachy underlying message that permeates your work and I can't help but feel that, despite their efforts to say 'don't make it preachy'... it's gonna come across as preachy more times than not. For me, theme is something that ends up being core to your main character's struggle and it's something that a lot of other characters and story elements can have their own angle on, deepen the issues or show a path towards growth. I didn't figure out my theme until I was going through all the things going on with my main character and noticed that a lot of characters have deep issues with these things too. These things come with time, just keep at it and remember to give yourself time away from work to give yourself fresh eyes!
It'll make sense more later as I use things in conjunction with each other, but to keep things simple and streamlined, I'll be using a basic trait system to describe a few aspects of each character -- I don't want to be here too long going into intricate backstories or the elevated nuance of each characters perspective. Ain't no one got time for that!
Now... Bring out the ragamuffins...
(Cas, Conoric, Gwynnen, Hughwen, Sarabonney)
I'll just go over my main character, Cas, and hopefully show you how he fits in my world, story and works (or clashes) with the others characters.
Personality
Team Player. Cas is a born leader who gets along with people. He's open-minded, hardworking and willing to see the merit in anyone.
Cunning. He has a keen eye for reading people and situations, picking up on subtext which he uses to get what he needs.
Determined. Cas can take determination to an unhealthy degree, misusing his body and own needs just to get a task down.
Self-Reliant. While a team player at heart, he's unwilling to put too much on others and ends up taking on took much himself.
Purpose
Criminal Minded Hero. Cas has a mind shaped by his time as a sneak thief and street-level spy which he uses to solve crimes and help others within his community. While it gets results, his methods do not align with the strict moral values of some of his peers & superiors.
Loyal to Ethelia. While Cas is not keen to weigh in on any discussions about the ruling of his country, he is actively against the rebels.
Price of Honesty. Cas is TORN by his desire to just be honest all the time and his fears over what happens when he's too open. He's been nothing but honest about his childhood ties and all it's gotten him is more trouble and judgement.
Thoughts on the Past. Cas tries to distance himself from everything that has happened, doing his best to forget and move on. Despite this, all of his motivations are driven by his obsession with his past.
Perspective
Authority Figure. Cas is seen by many as a respectable person to go to for help and wears his duties with pride.
Criminal Past. Cas was once affiliated with a criminal brotherhood and despite his best efforts, that stain still colours his image.
Ethelian Commoner. Cas had a relatively standard upbringing for Ethelia, (ignoring his time in the gang), with the same devotions and job prospects as others around him. His scope of the world and other perspectives is quite limited but he's eager to keep up and learn.
...okay, that should do for now. Here's the neat part:
This is a neat little visualisation of all the points I just went over about Mr Cas, with some alternatives for the personality points I went over. The personality points have a negative interpretation of that positive trait, which typically comes from them over-doing it. The negative aspect should be something that is key to how your character thinks.
Determined being overdone into Workaholic makes sense.
Cunning being overdone into Secretive isn't so straightforward. It plays on Cas' natural desire to see the best in people and be a Team Player, so rather than start trouble, he just keeps his mouth shut.
Thinks of all of these little traits as Attack Points. They a weapons in the character's arsenal, designed to help other characters and show them growth, to exploit other characters' weaknesses and provoke conflict or meaningful change.
They can be simple, like this:
Cas' good nature and willingness to find the right way to understand and work with people makes it easy for his brother, Conoric to open up and come out of his shell. The two share a mutual understanding of how the other works and are able to work in completely opposite ways but towards the same goal.
But they can also get a little more complex, like this:
This is ostensibly a conflict between Cas and Gwynnen about Hughwen. Both Cas and Gwynnen see eye to eye, as both men are authority figures of sorts and both a loyal to Ethelia, so their conflict will always be civilised and handled with conversation and respect. Ultimately this conflict is about Hughwen's.... hmm... level of trustworthiness. His first impression is rancid, he's the only survivor of an attack and he has a very guarded manner that makes him look like a liar... and being accused by people in authority activates ACAB mode in him were he starts being snide, snippy and putting words in peoples mouths just to look and feel that extra bit persecuted. Cas naturally wants to believe in Hughwen and when Hughwen gets more defensive and leans into his idea that everyone is out to get him, it makes him look more like a black sheep underdog and makes Cas EXTRA want to stand by Hughwen. Gwynnen takes a more level-headed but letter-of-the-law approach, asking the logical questions but analysing and scrunitising every answer. If it doesn't match up with other stories or the evidence he's found, Gwynnen starts getting sceptical and asking more and more questions, which puts Hughwen's back up and activates Defiance Mode. Cas and Gwynnen oppose the other on the criminal background vs nobility background. Cas may accuse Gwynnen of not understanding how people outside of restricted society work and how people might hide their smaller crimes to avoid judgement. Gwynnen may accuse Cas of seeing himself in everyone with criminal or shady instincts, wanting too hard to see the best in everyone.
If you were to visualise all of your character interactions, it might be too big and too wordy but keeping the points of conflict in mind may help you develop characters and their interactions more thoroughly. Seeing where a character's weakness is and how it can be exploited or overcome is fun. Flipping and corrupting positive traits and aspects into negative, detrimental traits is fun. Finding how characters can get along and how they can clash in ways that go beyond "you are rich and I am poor, so I hate you, but we both like chess, so I guess you are not all bad" is SO MUCH FUN.
Get out there and have so fun.
We'll be back whenever I can formulate what I want to say to talk about MBTI and Enneagram later.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or want to give me lots and lots of praise, then my Asks are VERY open.
UNTIL NEXT TIME!
Happy creating!
Want more writing advice? Check out this post!
13 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Rating Every Strawberry Shortcake Design*
I haven't made this clear on my Tumblr before, but I love Strawberry Shortcake. Something about the tv shows and official artwork always puts me in a good mood. So, because I feel like it, I'm going to talk about the designs she's had over the years and give them the tier list rankings.
Before I do that, I have to lay down a few ground rules.
1. I'm not doing every single design. Even if I limited it to one generation, there'd be so many different versions of Strawberry in dresses and swimsuits and winter clothes to rate that I'd never get it done.
2. What I will include are the base designs from official artwork and the tv-show versions if they have notable differences.
3. I'm judging these by the design alone. The artsyle won't factor into my ratings at all.
4. My opinion doesn't invalidate yours. I'm going to point out a lot of issues with some of these designs, but if you like them anyway that's fine. I'm not here to change anyone's mind, I just want to share my opinions.
5. This is how my tier list ratings work:
S tier is rarely objective. It's usually for designs I really like regardless of quality.
A tier is for great designs with little to no flaws, it's one I try to be really objective on.
B Tier is for good designs that for whatever reason, don't impress me like the ones in A or S tier do.
C Tier is for okay designs. They might be boring or get something wrong, but at the very least, they function.
D Tier is for bad designs. I don't hate them, but I don't think they get much right either.
F Tier is for designs that are straight up terrible or ones that I hate. I tend to have strong feelings about anything in this tier.
With all the boring stuff out of the way, I can begin the rating! Starting off with...
1970's Keller design
This is Strawberry's most iconic design, and it's not just because she was the first one. This version of Strawberry went for a bit of a rag doll look and is clearly a baker. That's one of my favorite things about it since none of her future incarnations make that a part of her design. It's a little disapointing since bakery-esque outfits can be really cute, but if it could only happen once, I'm glad they got it right.
The patterns are a little too much for me, with the stripped stockings and the polka dots and the green diamonds and the row of x's on her apron. The use of color more than makes up for that though. I love that they were able to use green and white as accents without drowning out red as her main color. I kinda wish her hat was closer to red than it was pink, but it works fine as is. My final compliment is that the ragdoll elements(yarn-like hair and fingerless hands) make the design better instead of worse. Ragdolls can look a little creepy in my opinion, but the parts of that look this design borrows makes Strawberry look more childish in a good way. Pretty great design, A tier.
1990's THQ Design
So this one is...weeeird. As far as I know, This era of Strawberry shortcake didn't have a specific theme, it was just cute girls doing cute things. If that was all it needed to do, I'd put it B tier because it does that pretty well. It has a cute color pallete, cute clothes, from that perspective it does what it's supposed to do. But since it's supposed to be a design for Strawberry Shortcake, it unfortunately falls flat because of how disconnected it feels. In her last design, she was clearly meant to look like a baker and the giant hat covered in strawberries added to that. But in this one, the fruit theme is very downplayed and the dessert theme is gone in favor of...balet? Sometimes?(It varies depending on the artwork tbh) The only other notable difference is that her eyes are blue instead of brown, which doesn't change anything in my book. It's a good design, but a bad fit for Strawberry Shortcake as a brand. C Tier.
2003 Bandai Design
This version of Strawberry shortcake differs from the original again, this time towards a casual look for kids. The flat mary janes, baggy jeans, and sun hat do a great job pushing that look, and I personally love how she wears the jacket, that's such a kid thing to do!
Aside from the blue in her jeans, Strawberry's color pallete here is pretty close to her 70's design. I think it's a nice way to keep the design familiar without rehashing it, though it does come with some improvements and downgrades. I like that they toned down the patterns, but don't like that red still isn't the prominent color in her design. Baking isn't a big part of Strawberry's character in this generation, so I'm not sure why they didn't add more red(granted, the version used in the TV show does by changing the stripes, but this doesn't do anything for the key art version being judged).
I think this design is solid. It's simple but effective, although I do wish we got to see her wear the jacket. B tier.
2005 Playmates Design
I'm not 100% percent sure if this is her main design from this era or a varient, so take this with a grain of salt.
Either way...this design is AWFUL. This is the 1st time the franchise made Strawberry's main color pink, and I can't stand it. But even if I could, the colors are so saturated it makes the whole fit an eyesore! It's honestly really hard for me to critique this one, but for the sake of you guys I will ignore the excessive use of hot pink to judge the rest of this design.
I also don't like the stripe patterns on Strawberry's shirt. The red stripes only emphazize the bright chunks of yellow and pink, while also blending in with her belt too much. Not surprised if you didn't notice that until now. That's the last of what I dislike...but there isn't anything I like either. I'm pretty neutral on her denim skirt, the sleeve ruffles, and the different hat. This is the only design with, in my opinion, no positive traits. F tier.
2005 Playmates Design, TV Show Version
Feel like I forgot something...oh yeah. This is the same Strawberry Shortcake from 2003, but aged up to make her seem more mature(and to sell more toys but this post isn't about that). Aside from being simpler, this design differs from the last one with different shoes, pants, and a zipped up jacket(that isn't the one from her 2003 design, real shame). Also she's wearing her old hat. It's definitely better than the last design, and it feels like a natural progression from her 2003 design, but it doesn't leave a strong impression.
For one, I don't like pink being her main color and this design does nothing to change that. It changed her hair back to red, but her outfit is still too sparse of it to me. Why did they never try making pink her accent color instead? Still not a fan of the sleeve ruffles either. The idea's cute, but since the rest of her outfit leans toward a casual look, they look out of place. Also the pant lines being under the pant pockets...is a choice. Overall it's fine, C Tier.
2007 Playmates Design
From what I know, this design barely counts since was made for a Strawberry Shortcake video game...but I just love it so much! This design leans into a gardening theme with the boots and denim jeans, but still has a focus on the titular fruit with the color pallette and strawberry patterns. While the actual outfit is pretty cute, it's the color pallette and placement that wins me over. It would've been easier and way worse if they covered her in the bright cherry red. But instead they break it up with softer reds(her hair and hat) or with blue for a nice contrast, while keeping the cherry-red on each part of her design(strawberry clip on top, blouse on middle, and boots on bottom).
I do have a few issues, the polka-dot pattern is a little garish and I wish they put some blue on the top of her design, but those are far from dealbreaking. This is my favorite Strawberry Shortcake design, S Tier.
2009 Hasbro Design
I'm going to be blunt: I do not like most of the designs from this era. They tend to have the same exact issues, so if I make this a series get ready to hear that criticism a LOT. If it's any consolation though, I'd say Strawberry's design is an exception. I like the pastel pink on her clothes and the use of green as an accent color. Making the hat look like a strawberry was a clever way to add the fruit motif into her outfit, and the shirt pattern and is a nice homage to her original design.
I do have some gripes with it though. The biggest one being the lack of red. Why on earth did they ditch the red??? It's even worse here because another character from this era is clearly supposed to have pink as her main color, but they made her share with Strawberry instead of keeping the red from her older designs.
Another small problem is the style of her clothes. They succeed at pushing Strawberry towards a more casual look, but they don't tell us much about her as a character. This generation put a larger emphasis on the characters having their own businesses, but I couldn't tell you what Strawberry's is with her design. One last gripe is the polka dot pattern on her skirt being different from the one on her hat bothers me, but it's not a big deal.
Overall this design is good. It has a nice casual vibe that's complimented with great use of color and color placement. The issues I have with it are small, but they do stop it from being great. B tier, would've been an easy A if her shoes and hair were red.
2019 Wild Brain Design
This design never became canon, but it's practically a rough draft for one that is. BIG emphasis on rough. I didn't hate this Strawberry when she was revealed, but I can definitely see why the rest of the internet did.
The real problem with this design in my opinion is the lack of direction. From what we know about this scrapped generation, it was going to take place in a forest and have the characters use magic to some degree...but NONE of that is present in her design. No fairy wings, no magic pendent or anything remotely fantastical. So that's why it's not an S tier design. But what it does go for doesn't work either. The tutu dress and stockings are a decent pair, but they clash with her shoes and beanie hat. Is she trying to dress for summer or winter? I'm also not impressed with her hair or color pallet despite the extra red, it's too generic to comment on.
Overall this design feels like a 1st draft, and that isn't because of the artstyle. Every part is of her look is either generic or clashes with other elements. There are some good ideas in this Strawberries' design, but as an ensemble they all fall flat. D tier. Don't hate it, but definitely don't like it either.
2021 Wild Brain Design #2
Looks like they did make a 2nd draft for that design after all! Yeah that's why I ranked the scrapped design, so many parts of it are present in this one.
Let's get the negatives out of the way, too much pink, no baker themes, yada yada yada.
As for the positives, most of them are unfortunately pretty light. Not enough to land it in D tier though, because this one is actually cohesive. The setting for this version of Strawberry Shortcake is in the city: no nature, no magic, just slice-of-life. So the lack of magical elements isn't a problem. I also like, say it with me, the color placement. The reds and greens are nice accents and the blue jacket pops against the shades of pink and red in her hair. The only thing that really holds this back is that the outfit's too generic to warrent anything higher than a C. So I'm going to put it in C tier.
And that's all of them(as of now anyway)! While I was working on this I had a huge hyperfixation on Strawberry Shortcake, but by now it's definitely gone away. I can't promise when I'll make another design ranking for this series, but there are still some characters I want to talk about.
3 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
The Chainsaw Man Chooseboth Video Post
For a while now I've been trying to get started making YouTube videos so that I can externalize some of my least absurd thoughts and neuroses in a way which could profitably be added to my "Cool Creative Person RƩsumƩ"... but, uh, I've been having a hell of a month and a half. So, add to that the facts that a key component of my microphone setup has been cleft in twain and I'm uncomfortable with my voice as it is now, and I think YouTube is officially going on the backburner.
But I have all sorts of thoughts and feelings about the narrative pieces Chainsaw Man Part 2 has been moving around, and I'm so out of touch with the CSM community that for all I know, my thoughts and feelings might even be uncommon. So I didn't want to just completely abandon my plans to externalize them, so... here, you're getting This. Or you can just ignore the button which says
Chainsaw Man is one of my favorite stories of all time. In fact, even if it were just Part 1 alone, I'd put it in my S-Tier of media, alongside Deltarune (presuming future chapters don't disappoint), Everything Everywhere All At Once, Little Miss Sunshine, Picture of Dorian Grey (unless I ever reread it and it's not as good as I remember it being), and, presuming the third movie doesn't disappoint, Spider-Verse.
you can tell i'm a filthy zillennial because only two of the things on that list are from before the 2010s and only one of those is from before the 2000s
Speaking of Spider-Man, I don't read comics because I'm not a nerd.
But I have seen the original three movies, which is a large part of why the first part of CSM Part 2 which really hooked me was Denji's introduction (and I'm saying that as a massive fan of Asa who DOES like her more than I like Denji). And I do consider CSM Part 2 to have a Denji introduction, even though we already know who Denji is, because it immediately sets itself up as separate enough from Part 1 that I think it's worth analyzing as a separate work within the same franchise. And taking the first sequence in Part 2 which contains Denji as a character introduction makes it very interesting if I do say so myself.
For you see, I have watched that one Spider-Man movie which was just called Spider-Man because there weren't a million other ones yet so it didn't need any differentiators. And in that movie, Enemy Of Spider-Man called Green Person, says āOkie dokie now Spider-Man, choose which one to save, hot lady or whatever this isā.
Spider-Man, rather famously, doesnāt do it. Spider-Man chooses both.
Which brings us to Denji's Part 2 Introduction. In Chapter 102 Save the Cat, his enemy whose name I think is also Green Person says āYou are a superhero now. Thatās what you are now. Okie dokie now choose which one to save, hot dude or whatever this isā.
Denji doesnāt do it, but he doesnāt do it in the wrong way and chooses neither. He titularly saves a cat, hot dude and whatever this is both die.
Then we get a cut directly from a blood-and-gore-covered Denji saying "That choice was stupid, I did the correct thing rather than accepting either option" to a monolithic wall of televisions talking about how great and heroic Denji is. Thatās not Spider-Man, thatās like, Homelander or some shit. Like, I wouldnāt be surprised at this point if Denji were a blonde horny manchild.
Basically, that's not how stories introduce their heroes. It's how stories introduce their villains.
So, extrapolating "Denji is the villain of CSM Part 2" to its logical conclusion, I came up with what I'll call the Unbreakable Cycles Theory. I don't want to spend too long explaining that theory because I no longer even think it's correct, so let's just hope you can understand what I mean when I say this:
Part 1: Denji is introduced, and a bizarre and unfortunate inciting incident gives him Devil Powers. -> He saves a girl from the Bat Devil -> He really likes the Control Devil [Makima], but even he can't ignore the fact that she has obvious flaws, too. -> Due to the Eternity Devil being enlisted by one of the major Big Bads, he must break an unbreakable cycle -> A lot of terrible things happen, and in the end, he has no choice but to kill his problematic fave the Control Devil
Part 2: Asa is introduced, and a bizarre and unfortunate inciting incident gives her Devil Powers. -> She saves a girl from the Bat Devil -> She really likes Denji, but even she can't ignore the fact that he has obvious flaws, too. -> Due to the Eternity Devil being enlisted by one of the major Big Bads, she must break an unbreakable cycle -> A lot of terrible things happen, and in the end, she has no choice but to kill her problematic fave Denji
Part 3: The Control Devil [Nayuta? Or a third incarnation?] is introduced, and a bizarre and unfortunate inciting incident occurs, although they already have Devil Powers. -> They save a girl from the Bat Devil -> They really like Asa [possibly non-romantic this time?], but even they can't ignore the fact that she has obvious flaws, too. -> Due to the Eternity Devil being enlisted by one of the major Big Bads, they must break an unbreakable cycle -> A lot of terrible things happen, and in the end, they have no choice to kill their problematic fave Asa (unless they can break the cycle FOR REAL this time, and put an end to the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors/Fire Emblem)
(bolded section is things which have already happened, non-bolded section is a potential extrapolation)
I do think the Unbreakable Cycles Theory is probably wrong, because CSM Part 2 has been playing with so many big moving narrative pieces and thematic ideas, while telling the story from Denji's POV a lot more often than I would have anticipated when making the theory.
Recently, in Chapters 133 and 135 (which, uh, WERE a lot more recent when I was initially making the YouTube version of this post, which was my fifth attempt at making my first YouTube video, if you want an idea of how much fruitless work I've been doing behind the scenes) the thematic relevance of a Spider-Man style Chooseboth moment has resurfaced.
(A direct link is even drawn between choosing both and the peace sign that Denji throws up all the time!)
In a lot of ways, it's become clear that choosing both is a major idea CSM Part 2 is interested in, as well as kind of an intersection between two other major ideas it's interested in, those being Western-comics-style superheroics and duality. Most notable as of right now are the duality between Asa and Yoru, the duality between Chainsaw Man and Chainsaw Man, and the duality between the Asa-Yoru-continuum and Denji.
So, with that third duality in mind, let's revisit Denji's introduction and see what it could be saying which is more complex than just "Denji is a villain this time".
Because Chapter 102 Save the Cat ISN'T just about Denji, it IS about that third duality. It doesn't just establish a worrying lack of empathy on Denji's part, but it in fact does the same for Asa.
And Denji isnāt the only one who condemns a nonzero amount of humans to death by titularly saving a cat in that chapter, either. Nor is he even the only one who immediately gets praised for it. The only reason it didnāt strike me nearly as villainously with Asa is, wellā¦ just look at her face. She might as well be saying āThat was horribleā.
So, thinking about Chapter 102 Save the Cat as establishing a dynamic between the Asa-Yoru continuum and Denji made me wonder where that dynamic occurs in Chapter 127 Save the Asa. Because in that chapter, it really is only Denji who titularly saves an Asa, as far as I can tell. Even keeping the double meaning in mind where "asa" is also the word for "day" doesn't seem to change this.
There is, to be sure, a parallel to be found in this chapter, however.
As you can see in these unedited images, the dynamic has been established.
Asa saves a cat, people die, and she gets praised for it. Denji saves a cat, people die, and he gets praised for it.
Denji: :D
Asa: that was horrible
Asa doesn't have anything she considers worth living for other than sex. Denji doesn't have anything he considers worth living for other than sex.
Denji: :D
Asa: that was horrible
Yoru injures Asa to combat despair. Denji injures himself to combat despair (also take a note how blatant it is that he gleefully targets his own brain and remember that for something I'm going to talk about later).
Denji: :D
Asa: that was horrible
Asa and Denji are really, really similar. But something which has been made clear about Denji as early as In Content Already Adapted By The Anime is that... while he's not as stupid as he seems, he hates thinking. Introspection makes him deeply uncomfortable, so he avoids it by always acting on impulse. This is rarely successful, and he kind of ends up being quite introspective in spite of himself, but it's really not something he wants or enjoys.
Asa, meanwhile, is established as "a goody-two-shoes" in her very first chapter. But it's not long afterwards that she's just as lacking in empathy as Denji is when it comes to complete strangers (so not actually including her mom or what's-her-name). So it's clear that her being "a goody-two-shoes" isn't actually particularly tied to her moral fiber. So then, what is it tied to? Well, the way I see it is, she's striving for societal acceptance. Denji and Asa are both striving for happiness and human connection, but Denji grew up outside of society, and disregards societal norms entirely, but Asa grew up within society, and sees societal norms as the threshold she needs to cross through in order to gain that happiness. She sees widespread acceptance as a fundamental requirement for forming meaningful relationships, and "staying in line", morally speaking, as the way to achieve that acceptance.
Another way of putting it is through this diagram:
okay analysis over. you can stop reading now
#chainsaw man#csm#csm part 2#asa mitaka#csm denji#talkyposts von goosebag#talkyvideos von goosebag#<-tags i will never use again
4 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Fat Evil Women #1 devlog 1
I'm working on a new comic and I thought it would be good to share some notes on its production. I think this will be the only devlog I share publically for this comic; I'll probably include a start-to-finish log with all of the concept art and layout roughs as a tier bonus when I sell this on itch.io later. But, here's a very generous taste.
This comic is eventually going to be sold as a CBR file on itch, but I'm also doing to try printing it on A3 paper [which will be folded] and making a small batch of physical copies to give away. It will probably be 32 pages long. It's going to be an anthology [with one particularly long story]. In other words, it's going to be a complete comic, like one you might buy in a comic shop, rather than something more "informal" in shape. In the future, I plan on making enough of these to collect them in trade paperback form, perhaps as a print on demand book?
So far I've done a couple of layouts and compiled a ton of notes. Work on this project began with a simple two-page layout for a bimbo sequence.
I did all the pencilling, inking, and coloring in between two and four hours I think. The first panel on the second page uses an old drawing of the bimbo character I'd drawn several months ago.
I then made a sequence using a Goblin Queen character I'd created around a year ago. Here's the sequence and the original illustration I'd done. The second incomplete panel is from an old drawing I started but never finished.
Yes, the Goblin Queen who looks nothing like a goblin is meant to be a reference of sorts to the Goblin King from Labyrinth, if you were wondering. Except my Goblin Queen mostly hangs out with dark elves.
These sequences are only meant to be rough guides for the final drawings, but I put way more efforts into my layouts than I actually need to. After making these two page sequences, I decided to do something a little more ambitious.
I illustrated a woman wearing a shiny black dress, and she reminded me of an old indie porno producer character I'd created a while ago named Demonia [please ignore how terrible the old three part sequence looks; I didn't know how to draw fat women yet].
When I started plotting this sequence out in my notebook, it was only four pages long. But I added a bunch of extra panels in later and brought it up to six pages [The numbers are original panels, and the letters are ones I added in after making the first complete rough layout.]
I made some concept art for characters I'd mentioned in the script that didn't have designs yet, as well as a few locations. I then compiled all of that into a CBR file I can refer to while working on the final art [the blacked out bits in the thumbnails are photo references].
I then started work on another sequence that quickly grew beyond the six pages I was initially planning on doing.
A few years ago, when I first started using my Wacom, I illustrated an androgynous spider creature. Much more recently, I started moving overseas and started designing new characters in my sketchbook that I was planning on making digital pieces with later, and I revisited my spider concept. If you overlay the rough spider drawing from the sketchbook page with the digital WIP below, you'll notice I did a whole bunch of warping and stuff to the individual limbs to make it look better.
This WIP will appear in finished form in the spider comic somewhere; look out for it.
Anyways, I decided this spider would be perfect for a weight gain sequence, and so I started making concept art.
This is just a fraction of the concept art I created. I've done at least 15 pages of work for this comic, and a lot of it is exploratory work. In the beginning, I had basically no idea what the plot of the sequence would be, and designing new characters and illustrating scenarios gave shape to the story.
After making maybe three or four pages of sketches, and writing a list of elements I wanted to be in the story in my notebook, I made this rough synopsis of the plot. I then started working on a CBR file for the spider sequence that includes photo references, sketches, old designs I want to repurpose, scans of my notebook, etc.
Work was slowing down in my notebook, and so eventually I made a text document and started writing down panel-by-panel bullet points. Of course this all needs to be adapted into rough visuals, but I covered a lot of ground with this after building my foundation.
You might be wondering what the point of all this pre-production work is. The problem with comics as a medium is that it's extremely time intensive, and so you have to get all of the iterative stuff done long before you put pencil to bristol board for the first time [assuming you only use bristol board during the very last stage of your process].
[Old comic artists were sometimes drawing upwards of 40 pages a month, and they didn't have time to think things out so thoroughly. But for people who aren't drawing multiple books a month, it's been common to do multiple waves of layouts for decades, and this pre-production stuff has only gotten more common. Which is good; quality > quantity. The video on layouts below is a great overview.]
[Note: Apparently Ed Piskor is a massive creep. This was not public knowledge when I wrote this post, and so apologies for the Cartoonist Kayfabe embed.]
youtube
While I was doing layouts in my notebook for this spider sequence, I started working out a page that ended up not hitting all of the notes it needed to. If I'd been drawing by the seat of my pants, it would've been a big problem, but when you're doing layouts with illustrations only two or three steps above stick figure drawings, re-doing a page is not a hassle.
You might be wondering what my actual workflow is for producing finished art. Once I got very used to the feeling of using an Intuos Wacom, I told myself I was going to draw comics entirely digitally. It made a lot of sense; I could use layers, perspective work is a lot easier digitally, and I can fix mistakes and/or warp things a lot more easily.
Over time, I realized I hated doing everything digitally. There are many things that are better digital, like coloring. I prefer drawing pin-ups digitally. But I really don't like drawing an entire page digitally, and I realized my previous serious comic attempts had all petered out when it was time to start doing the final work in the computer, after the layouts and stuff had already been completed.
Of course, I'd tried making professional quality work without computers before. But it's nearly impossible to do that inside of a sketchbook [although I'd drawn many joke comics in highschool using a sketchbook], and using only bristol board I had problems with things like perspective; I have a lot of respect for older artists who couldn't use any digital tools.
So, I've resolved to buy a scanner and printer. I'm going to make final layouts in my art programs that have skeletons laid out where I want them, perspective grids, panel layouts, etc, and then I'll print them onto bristol board using light blue ink [which doesn't get picked up by a scanner]. I'll then do the final pencilling and inking on bristol board, scan those pages, and do any touch-ups and coloring in the computer.
I forgot to mention that none of these comics have words. Perhaps future issues of Fat Evil Women will have dialogue and stuff, but as a conceptual thing this first issue is basically completely silent. When I was making panel grids digitally to start working on some final layouts, I noticed that, when you don't have any speech bubbles, a traditional six panel grid looks way too square and vertical. So, I've decided to make my spider sequence on a four-tier grid, which shouldn't be a massive change. The entire story uses uniform rows, and so it just means moving stuff back. There are no dramatic page-turn moments that will be compromised by this change.
I might have to alter the Demonia sequence as well, but probably not. Since the height of the panels in the two page sequences are variable, I think I'll leave them exactly as they are.
I was planning on including a giantess sequence in this first issue as well, but if I reach 32 pages without it then I'll have to push it to a later issue. But since I'm moving to four-tier layouts, I might end up with a lot fewer pages than expected.
3 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Melās Halloween 31 for 31, ranked
All of these rankings are relative, so just because something is further down doesn't mean it's a bad movie. Here's how I would group them:
1 - 6: S tier
7 - 12: A to A-
13 - 22: B+ to B
23 - 26: C-
27 - 31: Stay clear
Overall, I'm really happy with my final list. There were only a handful of movies that I actively didn't like. Everything else gets at least an, "I enjoyed and you should check it out." It's surprisingly hard to watch 31 movies in a month and I'm excited to take a break from tv (and maybe actually pick up writing again) but this was a fun challenge.
I have more thoughts on some of the stand outs (good and bad) below the cut but thank you everyone for bearing with me as I went on a horror hiatus to watch all of these movies!
Barbarian - An easy #1. It was the most fun I had with all of these movies and also left me the most disturbed after finishing it. Loved it so much I watched it twice and enjoyed it just as much the second time.
His House - Not the scariest on the list but gets the second spot because the themes were so beautiful and it might be one of my favorite endings of all the movies on the list.
Suspiria (2018) - I think people are kind of polarized about this one? And honestly I get it but there's no other way to describe this than to just say it's a vibe and I'm into it. I dig anything witch-related so this really did it for me.
Hell House LLC - Scariest movie on the list by far. Would love to watch it again but am maybe too scared? Also I love found footage and hope the genre never dies.
Blackcoat's Daughter - So happy I watched this at the end of 31 for 31 so I could finish on a high note. A real slow burn but such a heartbreaker. Probably better to know less going into watching it.
A Record of Sweet Murder - The director played the found footage camera man!
Baskin - I complained that Hellraiser didn't have enough gore but this one might have had just a little too much?
Malignant - Would've scored higher if the main actress was a better actor. Comes in just behind Barbarian if we're ranking based on unexpected, totally bananas twists.
Candyman (1992) - Way too problematic to rank higher. Literally features a white savior who engages in academic poverty porn/tourism as its protagonist.
Lake Mungo - I don't get why this has such good reviews. It's basically just, "What if we just paused the footage and zoomed in reeeeeeeally close?" Go watch Hell House LLC instead.
4 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
HELLO, FOLKS!
Commissions are open.
Don't ask for NSFW or overly suggestive art; I don't do that on request, and actually feel very uncomfortable drawing sexual nudity.
I asked my aunt for places she thought might be good for advertisement since Twitter sucks at promoting that, so I'm here-
Also posted this on TikTok due to her suggestion, and to no surprise, there's already two toxic fuckers in the comments, but it's kind of hilarious to see [ especially because one of them made me laugh with an insult I've never seen before- ]
Anyways...
Pricing is below in sheets, but for now, some terms.
- Do not use my art for AI purposes of any kind
- Do not trace, recolour, or repost my art [ the commissioner is allowed to repost so long as they give direct credit via a name- or link-drop ]
- Do not use art commissioned by another individual as a PFP, profile banner, etc. unless given direct permission by the commissioner
- Do not use my art for commercial purposes
- When commissioning, provide a reference for the character. Moodboards, "similar images" from searches, and AI-generated ref sheets will not be accepted. If you have art of the character, but no reference sheet, that works just fine; the same goes for low-quality doodles, or images made with things such as Gacha Studio type games, Picrew, or other character creators - those are all fine.
- When commissioning, please specify exactly what you want. This meaning:
*What tier [ Lineart Only, 1-3 Accent Colours, Full Colour (Flat), or Shaded ]
*How much of the character(s) (is/are) visible [ Headshot, Bustshot, or Fullbody ]
*Style [ Regular, Clockwork City (my WIP project), or Stylized Sonic ]
*Character Count [ 1-3 ]
*Specific Pose(s) or Outfit(s) [ Send a reference of the pose or outfit, as well, if needed ]
NOW, onto the pricing. And some examples on the sheets. I'm probably provide more examples below that-
Right, so that's done.
Onto adding more examples-
There's this. This was pretty recent. I draw tridents a bit differently currently, but this was also my first time trying to figure them out art-wise, and I like it-
Also, the mushroom pin is cool... At least, I think so; I would wear it cuz it's neat-
There's also this. I got bored, so I doodled my interpretation of my own Minecraft skin that I made for when I play on Java edition. I think it's cool. It was fun to make.
This is still a WIP, but I'm also drawing my favourite Hermits... You can see evidence of the different Trident in there; also, swords n' stuff. And hands. Ignore the fact that the one on the far right is still a silhouette; I was trying something different this time to get the anatomy right on all 7-
But yeah, my commissions are open, and if you're interested, you can DM me cuz I'm a broke bitch-
I use CashApp for anything to do with money because PayPal is shitty towards artists, though; hope that's not a hindrance-
#art#character design#oc#commissions#art commisions#art comms open#commissions open#I'm broke#actual artist#real art#iBis on phone with a stylus is a pain in the ass#iBisPaintX
0 notes
Text
End of Year Vidding Meme 2022
I forgot to do this meme last year and I've decided that annoys me enough that I'm gonna do it a full year late.
Iāve starred co-vids withĀ @tafadhali!
Grace Kelly (Catch Me if You Can)
American Coach (Ted Lasso)
For You (Sports Night)
Haven't You Noticed I'm a Star (Kipo)
The One With More Feeling (Buffy)*
Stray Italian Greyhound (Our Flag Means Death)
Negative Queen (Our Flag Means Death)
My Strongest Suit (M*A*S*H)*
Rain in Derry (It)
Girl Crush (Multi)*
Singing Along With You (Multi-Animated)
Thumbs (Squid Game)
Favorite vid of the year:Ā It's a bit of a toss-up between Rain in Derry (which was the hardest vid to make) and Stray Italian Greyhound (which was the most successful). I really love these two vids a lot, they're some of my favorite I've ever made, and I don't know how to choose between them. The funny thing is that Rain in Derry is probably the vid I've made that took the longest while Stray Italian Greyhound was made in 3 sittings over 2 days. Funny how that works out.
Least favorite:Ā I don't really have one for this year. Probably Girl Crush and Negative Queen are in my lowest tier for the year in terms of not being ones I rewatch as much as the others but I dunno... I make vids I like? And I like both of those a lot? Just not necessarily as much as some of the other ones on the list.
Vid most underappreciated by the universe:Ā Haven't You Noticed I'm a Star was not on the above list of lowest-tier vids despite it maybe seeming like it should be, and that is because actually it's perfect and more people should watch it. It's stupid, it's a minute long, it's for a small fandom, and you know what? It is exactly the vid I set out to make. Also The One With More Feeling is pretty well received but I wish more people commented on the intentional bitter irony of it.
Most fun vid:Ā My Strongest Suit! It's one of the most fun vids I've ever made! It delights me! I love Klinger and I love his clothes and I love that song and I loved making this silly vid with my sister!
Vid with the single sexiest moment:Ā If you find Yearning sexy (which I do) then it's "every no turns into maybe" in Stray Italian Greyhound. Another contender is "most of this press don't fuck with me" from American Coach. I don't know, it wasn't a very sexy year for me in my vids.
Most successful:Ā Technically American Coach is my most successful vid of all time by any metric. But that was made for Festivids, whereas Stray Italian Greyhound wasn't made as part of an exchange or challenge, it was just made on a random Monday, so I think the fact that it's my third most popular vid ever is way more impressive. (incidentally, the vid that falls between those two in number of Kudos is Shut Up and Drive which was also not made for a challenge or exchange and bizarrely it only has 1 comment? The stats on that vid really confuse me)
Biggest vid fail:Ā There's exactly two places in Stray Italian Greyhound that drive me crazy and that I think I would have done better had I not made the vid in like 6 hours. One is the kiss. I sped up part of the clip so I could have both the beginning of the kiss and Ed lifting his hand to Stede's face fit in the amount of time I had and maybe no one else notices the resulting weirdness of the clip or, I don't know, maybe everyone does, who knows! But I may have just decided the hand-raising wasn't worth the weirdness if I'd sat with it a little longer. The other is a clip at 3:16 that I simply don't like and wish I'd found a better one for.
Hardest vid to make:Ā Rain in Derry is, by a huge margin, the most difficult vid I've ever made. I spent over a year working on it. I made a list of about 20 quotes I might incorporate from the book, which involved looking at the margin notes in both physical copies of the book I own as well as my E-book. Downloading the audio book, finding all the quotes in it, and then figuring out how to record those specific moments so I wasn't working with one enormous file was it's own struggle, and I did do this for most of the quotes I'd found, even though I only used three of them in the vid. I used footage from both movies and the miniseries and found clips from a bunch of other sources, some of which were whatever visuals I could find to represent important scenes from the book that weren't included in either adaptation (I used everything from Bonnie and Clyde to A Bugs Life to footage of a Disneyland attraction), while others were clips from pieces of media referenced in the book (The Mummy, Jaws, etc.). I went crazy with overlays, effects, and intercutting in a way I never have before and that ended up being reeeaaally taxing on my laptop so I could almost never see how my work was turning out without taking time to render things every few minutes. It was so. much. work. and I loved all of it, 10/10 would recommend. Most fun I've ever had vidding.
Most unintentionally telling vid:Ā As someone who's really close with my older sister (who is also my co-vidder!), Singing Along With You felt very personal - in a nice way, rather than an angsty way (see my 2021 and 2023 answers to this question), which is nice change! Also My Strongest Suit is a BIG gender mood for me.
Last yearās goals:Ā since I forgot to do this in 2022, I talk about my 2021 goals in my 2023 post.
Goals for next year: My goals for 2024 are also in my 2023 post.
0 notes
Note
Have you give your thoughts on the impidim line?
I gotta say, this line is probably one of my favorites from Gen 8. First, it's really nice to have a fairy type with really old school fae inspiration (it's not the only line that does this, but definitely the most obvious and successful). And secondly, I love some goblins, and these guys are delightfully skeezy. An Impidimp can and will break into your house solely to push all your furniture two inches to the right, and that is delightful.
In terms of design, Impidimp has a perfect expression, and the bat-shaped face markings really help its facial features pop. I also like the small upturned nose with the single nostril, as according to the 'dex they breathe in negative energy from people as a food source. I always think it's cool when Pokemon have unconventional, well thought-out food sources, and having that be reflected in the design is great.
The only thing about Impidimp (and Morgrem, but we'll get to that) is that it's one of those Pokemon that i can't help but feel I'd like better if it was rendered in Gen 1's more detailed style. I don't mind the newer style or anything, but when a Pokemon breaks down into perfect shapes like this it's a bit harder to see it as a living thing. Just a less perfectly circular head and defined knees probably would've done it, but that might also just be a personal thing.
Also, as a minor nitpick, I don't really think the hair is needed. It makes just as much sense for it to start off bald as it having a small amount of hair, and it doesn't really add much (though it being shaped like a bat's wing is fun at least).
I think Morgrem's my favorite out of this line. If Impidimp is mischievous than Morgrem is a fucker, and I love it. This definitely looks like something that would literally and metaphorically stab you in the back. While Impidimp doesn't look as slimy and Grimmsnarl looks more feral, Morgrem has the ideal gremlin energy.
It also has cool pikestaff-esc prehensile hair, which leads into its evolution. It's also a nod to redcaps, a kind of English goblin--both fits with the fae theme but also the region, and shows how much research went into this line.
As much as I like it there are a few weird things anatomy-wise that really bug me still. The arms seem like they're supposed to be skinny considering how Grimmsnarl works, but they also have defined muscles. Which is it? If they're skinny, don't have them cinch in at the elbows like that. I'm not sure what that random divet on the chest is, and it's also weird how noodly the legs are compard to how defined the arms are. And I know that's stuff most people might not notice, but it's what ultimately holds this A-tier line back from being an S-tier for me.
The only other thing is the colors. It's split half pink and half green to transition between its evos, but there's no reason for the color change within the design, and it's too jarring to work as markings. I'll get into this more with Grimmsnarl, but I think the entire line could've gotten away with being all-pink, and then you wouldn't need the green to begin with. But as a whole, this is a solid middle-evo that both transitions well and is unique, which is really all I ask of my middle-evos.
First, I should probably acknowledge that some Jewish folks have said this design is somewhat antisemitic due the combo of green skin, long nose, and curly dark hair. I'm not Jewish so I can't offer much insight there, but it is unfortunate. It kind of goes back to what I said earlier about keeping the line entirely pink, as then you'd at least be avoiding one of the questionable attributes. It's not Jynx levels of unfortunate and I highly doubt it was intentional, but still.
Anyway, while I may prefer Morgrem for its Fucker(TM) energy, Grimmsnarl is a great final evo. The way the prehensile hair forms fake muscles over the body is really cool, as is the more orc-like appearance. The fake muscles fix the anatomy problems I was having earlier, and even the colors are better balanced here. I'm also a fan of those funky outside-facing teeth.
The only single thing that I don't care for is those two green stripes on the torso. i can't place why, but they don't sit right with me. I think it might just be that it's a weird place to show the hair parting. I feel like the hands should've been exposed like the feet are and then the torso should be covered rather than the other way around.
The g-max form does what it needs to, basically filling everything in with more hair. I like how this emphasizes the pink diamond on the chest and the way the hair goes back up behind the head is also cool. However, I'm not huge on the legs; they're a bit too long, and end up making it a bit more humanoid than I really care for. It's good for what it is though.
So overall, this is a great line of terrible little goblins. I just wish the anatomy was a bit less funky and the colors were more unified/less antisemitic, but at the end of the day I'd definitely let these guys break into my house and move my furniture two inches to the right.
#impidimp#morgrem#grimmsnarl#pokemon#pokemon reviews#also this is the review I moved back from yesterday I'm not doing any other asks
135 notes
Ā·
View notes
Note
1, 2, and 9!!!
:D (... you also hit a vein in the salt mine haha)
1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?
Hmm... Lol "OTPs" make this question a lot smaller than just ships so we'll just interpret it as ships in general and go from there.
Low-tier: the fascinating but utterly confusing tendency of some shining stars out there to latch onto the extremely, super minor characters (usually a minor daimon or something), who barely is a name, and decide to ship them with a bigger-name deity.
(Not to say I am entirely free of sin, I'm sure my Makaria/Angelos ship is deeply confusing to some people, but at least they're both one more obscure and less of a character than the other?)
The No-tier: Achilles/Brisies. Professional adaptations, people who, idk, just want to ship them anyway, or use those professional adaptations. WHY. If you want this to actually be something (and I'm not saying it couldn't be, outside of plain non-con) put your back into it and acknowledge the fact that she's a war captive sex slave and work from there, damnit.
The Frustrated-Personal-Salt Tier: Klytaimnestra/Kassandra. Not because I couldn't, potentially, see the ship, but because as far as I'm aware it always springs out of "woo women, of course Klytaimnestra spares her because they're women and they've suffered the same ~terrible man~ together and now they kiss!!!". Klytaimnestra doesn't give a single, flying, well-baked fuck about what Kassandra has suffered, by Agamemnon or otherwise, since she MURDERS HER. (Presumably exactly because she's been (unwillingly) sleeping with Agamemnon.) Like Achilles/Briseis above, if you want something other than non-con (which I would be interested in seeing), put your back into it and don't ~yas queen~ girlbossify your way through this into some ""wholesome"" f/f.
2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?
Hermes/Apollo, Hermes/Apollo/Dionysos. No salt here, I'm just deeply uninterested in both of these ships as anything but brotherly, partially because my shipping interest for Apollo lies with Hyacinthus.
9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?
Haha. (Now watch me channel my inner Apollo:)
Achilles. Partially because TSoA (and to a lesser degree, the Hades game) has a deeply aggravating character interpretation and that contaminates basically everything. Abloo bloo aoft uwu gays and sad Achilles no shut up. Partially because I just don't like him! He murders children! Needlessly cruelly! (hi, Troilus) He whines about how he is doomed to die young but he has among the most agency of anyone because he knew exactly what would lead into his death and chose it! Has been choosing it repeatedly! Could still choose differently up until Patroklos dies! He (and a particular type of his fans) can just shut up about his boo hoo fate.
Lesser but personal aggravation salt characters: Medea and Klytaimnestra. Not because of the characters themselves, and only a little for the fact that one kills her innocent children to get to a man, the other kills a war captive sex slave (and, I will remind you, in several versions various people [have cause to?] think that she will kill her own young son). Rather because fandom is very much "~yas queen~ they did nothing wrong!" Stop fucking ignoring and/or minimising the innocent dead bodies not even hidden behind a curtain and I might listen to you.
No salt, just deeply uncomfortable: Dionysos. I just Can Not with his whole madness thing and everything. It sometimes gets me actually distressed if I'm in a bad spot and I see something particularly unfortunate.
14 notes
Ā·
View notes
Note
i'm here on daggryet's suggestion to ask how you'd currently rank the five mcc teams? š
oh boy oh boy alright so iāll do my placements and then explanation below the cut, these are just initial reactions honestly i can see any of the top three flipping around
1.) Green Guardians
2.) Orange Ocelots
3.) Lime Llamas
4.) Red Rabbits
5.) Yellow Yaks
green guardians- obviously strong, but having 2/3 of the dream team is obviously not historically enough to secure a win. however, they are a very powerful duo and teamed together, dream and george have never gotten below 4th place. 3/4 of this team has an advantage of having been training together even before teams were announced and regularly playing minecraft together. the captain and dream have been together, they work well together, i donāt imagine this team will have any issues with chemistry or communication. skillset wise, an advantage this team also has is being not super dependent on games. obviously dream is your s tier ācarryā whatever you want to call him, heās a superstar.Ā george is solid all around. the captain is a good player, very experienced and good at the game. and quackity while not excelling in the past has been practicing lately and honestly all he has to do is stay alive for a decent amount of time in most games and not even worry about kills/at least finish the course if itās a movement type thing. like maybe rocket spleef or buildmart is their worst game? but like half of them are good at rocket spleef and then is anybody good at buildmart really (/hj)?
orange ocelots- okay hear me out. consistency is so important in this tournament. this is why orange and lime go above red. three experienced, consistent players plus one team leader is a better team composition in general. people are saying that quig has been doing worse ever since mcc12, but itās not like heās fallen off. heās been practicing a lot and heās still really good at the game. and heāll have a solid, supportive team to help him out. shelbyās played in a lot of the top teams for the tournament. she can hold her own just fine and would be super good in dodgebolt for these guys. eret and kara are similarly experienced and also have been in high placing teams, they were actually in the 1st and 2nd scoring teams last mcc. i put orange above lime because i just think the players on orange score the tiniest bit higher (again everything will be dependent on the tournament itself but just looking at averages) quig- 3168, shubble- 1935, kara- 1937, eret- 1705 VS fruit- 3167 (yes one single coin less), false- 1954, cubfan- 1698, ren- 1662.
lime llamas- similar ideas to above but with hermits. these guys are solid. fruit is also one of the best mcc players. heās been top two for the past four tournaments. false is good. ren and cubfan can definitely support the team as well. these guys also have the advantage of playing together often, notably false ren have done every single tournament together except two, but everybody on this team has done mcc together. i think only ren and cubfan havenāt done a dodgebolt together so like crazy strong stuff here with this team. theyāve had similar team makeups to this before and gotten 1st. they go third because theyāre a little bit weaker than the lime liches, a little bit weaker than the mcc12 lime llamas, a little bit weaker than mcc10s orange ocelots, a little bit weaker than the similar teams theyāve had before. again though numbers arenāt everything. maybe iām only putting them third because i really want to get the captain a win and also josh fruitberries walking off the side of the bridge in skybattle is flashing through my mind right now. but yeah third here because the other guys are the slightest bit stronger i feel. i wouldnāt be surprised to see them in dodgebolt though.
red rabbits- i adore these guys. super talented all around. but again all these teams above them have consistency over them. vikk is very good at the game, has not played mcc in particular in a hot sec. i mean i donāt suspect heāll have too much trouble readapting, especially if heās willing to train beforehand on the training server. niki also hasnāt played in a sec. they go third because this team has good players and while niki hasnāt excelled in the tournament, she brings great vibes and a supportive atmosphere to the team. also sheās been practicing so im ready for her to get revenge on georgenotfound. tommy is good when heās not worrying too much about everyone else. i think this team is good for that. tubbo doesnāt need too much guidance, i think he can operate on his own and pop off. vikk might need a nudge but i donāt think heāll need as much as a newer player. im thinking of mcc12 red rabbits right now where niki and big q would have similar roles and then vikk and wisp. i think vikk would need less help than wisp did in that tournament. theyāre a well rounded team. no chemistry issues. i donāt think niki lets the game get to her head and i think thatāll be good for tommy as well. pvp games would be fantastic for them and the real make or break for how high they score.
yellow yaks- 2/4 coral carolers lets gooo. sylvee and krtzyy are very experienced. daveās an a tier player. i believe sylvee could pull like around 20-25. dan is new but a good player, top 15 potential for sure and honestly would have made that if it wasnāt for the buildmart finale last tournament. sb iām not as familiar with but iām pretty sure heās a top 15 player as well. heās steadily improved each tournament heās played in. theyāre a good team but i donāt really see as much chemistry in their favor as these other teams and no s tier which obviously doesnāt actually mean anything, but just looking at things it helps to have someone like these other teams have dream, fruit, and quig (and vikkstar)
23 notes
Ā·
View notes
Text
Connected // Pt.1 || NCT 127
Summary: Humanity has reduced down to a dystopian wasteland. Women disappear daily, civilians now rely on physical modifications and nodes to feel alive, and the concept of civilization is a far cry from their current state. While the one who reigns supreme is the puppeteer of societal affairs, will a small group of men beĀ able to regain the humanity they once held so dearlyĀ when they were young? Or were the doomed for an eternalĀ state of dreary, impoverished slums?
Genre: dystopian, cyberpunk, futuristic, angst, romance
WC: 2k
~ ~ ~
Part I : 008
"How are you feeling, 008?"
A small woman regained her consciousness as she was shaken from her delusional state. She always hated these examinations.
"I'm fine." She stated, wanting to do nothing more than pull the dumb wires and circuits out of her sore limbs. She waited patiently as the examiner in all white, wrote down a few bullet points on a small clipboard.
"You are done for the day, 008. Except, for visiting the girls and the head master, of course. Who will you visit first?"
The examiner assisted the girl with long, wavy black locks out of the machine's system, pulling out about a hundred thick and thin wires that were attached to separate areas of her small frame. The girl became impatient as the process was taking too long.
"I'll visit the girls first, then visit the head master. Thank you for your assistance, 375." 008 started ripping cords out, even if they did sting like no tomorrow, but she was finally free of her mechanical restraints, so that was a win in her book.
"Before you go, 008. I have a question for you."
008 started walking out of the room, but halted when 375 piqued her attention.
"What is it?"
"How have you lasted... here so long? When the others haven't?"
008 thought for a second before a simple little smirk grazed her lips, an odd sight to say the least.
"I think that is a question I will have to answer another day. See you tomorrow, 375." 008 gave a little bow to her companion, leaving the examination facility hastily. She always hated that place. Her 'skin' crawled every time she heard the place even mentioned, never forgetting her first experience in that wretched room.
"How are you, trainees?"
008 entered a large room within a smaller, pristine white building a little further away from the main compound. Why did everything have to be so white? It almost made her sick at the bleakness of it all.
"Good!" The girls all replied, turning their attention to the respected woman on the grounds. They all looked up to her, not only was she a top tier, but she has also maintained her position for years, a feat that only belonged to her. It's not like they wanted to be there, but if they wanted to hang onto a sliver of their lives, they might as well do what they do with dignity.
"What has been the progress for today? Any new recruits among you?" 008 stated sharply, picking up a pile of clean cut white papers, quickly grazing through reports of treatments, part changes, the usual business.
"Today, we have started weapons training, starting with the pulverizers."
008 quickly cut off the lead trainer of the recruits, her eyebrow quirking into a confused frown, "You started with the pulverizers? And how is that working out?" She stated lowly, a threatening growl laced through her simple question.
The trainer visibly gulped, nervous by 008's unrelenting strictness, "It's been..." She trailed off, her body freezing under 008's glare. There was no point in even continuing her report as 008 already knew the answer.
"We start with every day objects, 489. If these ladies can't defend or attack with the bare minimum, then there is no chance of survival for them outside of the barriers. In our world, high tech gadgets are nice, but sometimes there's no time for that. Now, get back to work. I know I've taught you better than this, 489."
489 nervously bowed to 008. Her cold, militarism attitude left her shuddering every time they interacted. She nonetheless had nothing but respect for 008, if you didn't respect her, she would make you do so.
"Good, I'll be leaving. I would like to hear better news tomorrow. Have a productive training, Ladies." 008 ducked, a ton of 'thank you's' and 'yes ma'am's' rung from around the room. 008 went to her next destination within the heart of the main complex. She knocked on a large golden door, a soft 'come in' allowed her to enter the large, gadget laced office.
008 came face to face with the back of a sleek, high-tech office chair, only allowing her to see the top of the head masterās balding scalp.
"Hello, Head Master. I have gone through my examinations and the check in with the girls. Was there something else you would like me to complete today?" She stated softly, her hands instinctively tucked in front of her torso as a courteous way of addressing him. His chair slowly spun around so that she could see the man that she has known for far too long now. The man she wanted to bury into the soil of the earth herself. That day would have to wait.
"Hello to you too, Dear. Please have a seat. You have had a long day." He purred, gesturing to the mini couch in front of his extravagant desk. 008 tucked her bottom lip under her teeth, complying to his wishes. She gently and gracefully took a seat in front of him, sitting exactly like she was taught so long ago.
He simply examined her physique as she stared at the ground. One of the most basic rules of interacting with the Head Master was to never look at him unless asked to do so.
"So, tell me. How have I been dealing with the resistance?"
"Is that something you would like my opinion on, Sir?" 008 stated gently as her back stiffened. He always asked her questions like these that she was afraid he was going to kill her for one of these days. It was only a matter of time she stepped out of line.
"I have always trusted your opinion, Dasom. That is why you have served me for so many years now."
008 gulped, hearing her name being spoken by the Head Master. A name he only allowed himself to call her. Was it endearment? Did he want to feel special to her? Was she particularly special to him? Yes, yes, and yes. She didn't know what his obsession was with her, but whenever he reminded her of her sheer withstanding permanence within the force, it made her heart drop to the floor. When would he finally pull the plug out of her?
She hummed, pondering his serious question, carefully plucking and choosing the precise words she would present to him, "Well, as you have heard, the resistance becomes larger and stronger, slowly but surely. I believe that you have deployed more units recently, Sir?"
He nodded, concentrating on every word she said, "Well, I believe that the increased influx of violence and push back is causing the resistance to attract more attention and following. I think it would benefit with you if you would not deploy more units, but instead, spy on their movements, waiting for the perfect moment to exterminate those who are discovered. They all have one another's backs, Sir, so spying on them would be beneficial to you." She sighed silently after spewing her thoughts. She always regretted giving him her strategic thoughts, she was simply too intelligent. While it helped her live this long, it also came with a great price.
He gave her an endearing smile, folding his aged hands down onto the table.
"Why won't you let me designate you as the tactician, Dasom?"
Dasom forced a smile, gritting her perfectly shaped teeth. She received this offer so long ago, but politely declined ever time, even though he continued to persist with the offer thereafter. She was lucky enough that he gave her a choice to begin with; others never, ever get choices around here.
"That position is above me, Sir. I am very grateful to continue assisting the new recruits through their training."
"Do you intend on betraying me, Dasom?" He said wistfully, walking over to the fully-glass wall that gave a perfect view of the whole city. The neon lights permanently illuminating his enormous accommodation on the highest floor of his personal skyscraper.
Dasom sucked air through her nose, eyes shooting wide. She didn't dare look over at him, not even with his back facing her.
"Never, Sir. I intend on staying loyal to you until the end of time."
"I've never trusted anyone as long as I have with you, and here you are, still beside me. You will continue to follow me until my empire crashes and burns, won't you Dasom?" He cooed, every word dripping with honey, but in actuality, was a constant threat that he inflicted on everyone who worked beneath him.
Dasom felt fear course her body for once, a feeling that she rarely felt. The Head Master simply trusted her too much in such an untrusting, back-stabbing world.
Dasom must survive at any cost.
"Yes, Sir. I will follow you until the very end of time itself."
~~~
"The streets are too quiet today."
"You didn't have to state something so obvious. Stop wasting your breath, Mark."
"Damn, okay then."
The shorter of the two mimicked the older by scrunching up her face and quietly restating what the other said. The two bickered for a little while, scoping their district from the top of a skyscraper with cameras and binoculars.
"Why do you think Taeyong has been so uptight lately?" The younger, Mark, lazily asked while bringing his binoculars up to his eyes, scanning the other side of the block.
"I'm not sure, but I sure as hell wouldn't ask him whatever you do. You know how he is whenever he is upset about something."
"Which is always."
The older gave a strict glare at Mark, but he payed no mind to it. The two were like brothers, but they could barely acted like it anymore; everything was becoming so tense so fast nowadays.
"Ah, he texted us to come back. Ready to go, Johnny?"
"Yep, lemme quickly pack up my shit real fast."
The two headed back to their underground compound, disguised as a zap shop above them. (will be explained later)
"S'up boys."
Mark said while throwing up an awkward peace sign, gaining the attention of a few who were doing various tasks within their underground mole hole. None of them gave a response.
"Oooookay then." Mark puckered his lips into a pout, going to the kitchen to look through their little to nonexistent food supply. They were become flesh and bone fast, so they were going to have to make a supply run soon.
"The streets are clear tonight." Johnny reported to Taeyong, who was going through some documents on his small table in the corner. He didn't believe in private offices, so they had one large common area where most of them did their work.
"Intriguing..." Taeyong muttered to himself, setting down a file that he had been going over and over. He ran a hand through his silver hair, biting his lip as he ushered Johnny to leave him alone.
"Taeyong, I have a letter for you."
Jungwoo happily walked over to the tired male, making said man always wonder how the younger could be so happy during such miserable circumstances they lived in.
"Thank you, Jungwoo." He sent him off before opening the small envelope.
āWho sends physical mail in this day and age?ā Tarting whispered as he smoothed out the creases of the paper.
I miss you. I miss you to the point that I wish I could simply forget what you did to me. The hell that you couldn't even bother to save me from. But it's fine; it is easy to live and forget, right?
Love you to the end of time,
BD
No, no it couldnāt be.
Taeyong threw the letter, hands quivering as he rolled his chair as far away from his desk as possible. The members in the common area were startled by Taeyongās harsh reaction, jumping up in their spots respectively.
Taeyong shot up from his chair, body pin straight as he sneered down at the clean piece of paper limply sitting over his laptop keyboard. Emotions that he hadnāt felt in awhile flooded his system like a tidal wave and he didnāt know how to digest it at all.
He took one look at his members before bolting out of their grounds.
Doyoung was the first to react, cautiously walking over to the slip of paper that had their leader shaken up to the point that he literally left their site.
āWhat did Taeyong do?ā Doyoung whispered to himself, feeling strangely upset by the letter of someone who he didnāt even know.
āAnd more importantly, whoās BD?ā
~ ~ ~
Prologue || Part I || Part II
#nct#nct 127#neowritingsnet#kpop#taeyong#nct taeil#johnny seo#yuta#doyoung#jaehyun#jungwoo#mark lee#haechan#lee donghyuck#nct au#nct jaehyun#nct johnny#nct taeyong#nct yuta#nct doyoung#nct jungwoo#nct mark#nct haechan#nct angst#nct romance#nct writers
9 notes
Ā·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
dxcsblog
ģ ėŖ© ģģ
cherulean-art
š š” š š« š® ā¤
ask-wendydarling
Little Bird
kevinjoz
Untitled
theabstrachuje
little turtle