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the-oblivious-writer · 3 months

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Drunk In Love

Core Four x Reader | Tara Carpenter x Reader

Drabble: Social Media Au

Summary: You and Tara are just really good friends... really good friends

Warning(s): Swearing, secret relationship, & r's implied to be roomates with chad

Notes: Wrote this ages ago, it's been in my drafts for over a month 😭 it's technically unfinished but hopefully you'll still enjoy. Silently hoping this helps me out of the writer's block I've been in for let the light in

y/n

liked by tara_dactle, nik, and 5,547 others

y/n: your lips, my lips, apocalypse

view all 4,324 comments...

chadtheman_meeks: OK, this is the 5th post like this...who is she? 🤨

>y/n: who's who?

>chadtheman_meeks: the girl you keep making these posts about

>y/n: I don't kiss and tell

>chadtheman_meeks: fine...keep your secrets...

mindythegreat: and what if I said I know who it is? 🤭

>y/n: you better fucking not...

>mindythegreat: someone's getting defensive...

nik: I wish MY girlfriend posted about me 😒

>mindythegreat: I DO ☹️

>nik: videos of me falling my ass don't count.

tara_dactle

liked by y/n, chadtheman_meeks, and 6,593 others

tara_dactle: in a world of boys, she's a gentleman 💞

view all 5,342 comments...

chadtheman_meeks: I KNOW THAT HAIR

>tara_dactle: it's a very common hair style

>chadtheman_meeks: you're not gonna gaslight me on this

mindythegreat: interesting...

samcarpenter1997: I thought you said you were at y/n's last night

>tara_dactle: ...yes...

>mindythegreat: VERY interesting

mindythegreat:

liked by chadtheman_meeks, nik, and 7,325 others

mindythegreat: ...guess who I found all cuddled up at the arcade

view all 5,831 comments...

tara_dactle: when tf did you take this???

>mindythegreat: was someone too occupied to have seen me? 🤔

>tara_dactle: fall in a ditch.

chadtheman_meeks: hold up- wait a damn minute @y/n isn't that the same hoodie I've seen you wear a million times?

>y/n: it's a very generic hoodie

>chadtheman_meeks: I can literally see your name written on the hem

>y/n: I find that hard to believe since you can't see for shit

>chadtheman_meeks: I breathed.

y/n: mindy, forever the shit stirrer

>mindythegreat: I don't see any denying

tara_dactle

liked by y/n, samcarpenter1997, and 4,372 others

tara_dactle: just woke up

view all 4,326 comments...

mindythegreat: it's like 3 in the afternoon and you JUST woke up 💀

>tara_dactle: you're 19 and STILL haven't had your glow up

>mindythegreat: so aggressive for what

y/n: you could wear a trash bag and still look stunning

>tara_dactle: same could go for you 😉

>chadtheman_meeks: ARE YA'LL SEEING THIS SHIT

samcarpenter1997: Isn't this the picture you got ready for?

>mindythegreat: oop "woke up like this" my ass

>tara_dactle: ...don't you have work

>samcarpenter1997: I'm on break

>tara_dactle: lovely.

>mindythegreat: it's okay tar, you can admit you wanted to look good for your mystery girl (y/n) 😚

>tara_dactle: me when I'm delusional

y/n

liked by tara_dactle, chadtheman_meeks, and 6,342 others

y/n: SHE GOT ME LEGOOOOSSS

view all 6,192 comments...

nik: lego dates>>

chadtheman_meeks: i LITERALLY saw tara walk into our apartment with a lego set

>y/n: who?

>chadtheman_meeks: don't play with me rn 😭

not_ethanlandry: I'm so jealous

>y/n: does chad not do these kinds of things?

>not_ethanlandry: no 😔

>chadtheman_meeks: @y/n for the last time me and ethan aren't dating

>y/n: not with that attitude

y/n:

liked by tara_dactle, mindythegreat, and 7,582 others

y/n: she's so tiny

view all 6,974 comments...

chadtheman_meeks: is this why you kicked me out of the house 😔

>y/n: I asked you kindly, I never kicked

>chadtheman_meeks: you were practically shoving me out the door

mindythegreat: ya'll are terrible at being in a secret relationship

>y/n: what secret relationship?

>mindythegreat: right...

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A/N: genuinely can't do anything rn

#tara carpenter x reader #tara carpenter x y/n #tara x reader #tara carpenter x female reader #tara carpenter #jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega x fem!reader #jenna ortega #scream x reader #core four x reader

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doppel-doodles · 4 months

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Concept Cabin: My ocs in the Lego style

For fun I wanted to practice drawing in the shows art style a little so I drew a couple of my sillies to get a feel for it, funny enough it didn't actually feel that different from my usual style, the body type is one I drew before the only difference really is the hands,feet and head really-

The first two I drew were baí and Klara, for those who actually know my characters you probably know Klara doesn't look like that- I went with my koi king au design for her. Mainly because I love it and will use any excuse to draw it

But anyway for the first two attempts I actually really like them! Especially Klaras pose.

Ming is still very much brainrotting in my head so he got to be included,honestly the version with the more "show accurate" coloring was only supposed to be a fun bonus but it actually ended up my favorite piece out of all of them and now I can't decide if I wanna keep it or stick with his og color pallette-

Shui is fine I guess, I think you can just tell that I was getting tired at this point and I'm still not all that happy with her prosthetics, I can tolerate it's existence though as a learning experience.

Not everything I make is gonna be a banger to me and that's okay

All in all I would say not bad for a first attempt -^-

#doppel draws #klara allard #Timeskip!Klara #koiking au #gāuguí ming #gāuguí baí #shui liu #lmk ocs #lmk oc art #lmk oc #lego monkie kid oc #lego monkie kid

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emblemxeno · 3 months

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Something ironic is that even though 3H is a massive game with a very strong and consistent creative fandom, I have had no creative spark with that game beyond discourse lol.

Of course, my type of creative output is different from most people's; I like reading into things, analyzing dialogue to recontextualize characters as a whole, look for real world analogies, hypothesize potential non-canon interactions, etc.

E.g., the Nohr siblings and their relationships with their father, with each other, or the court is never explicitly laid out in detail as to what happened. At best, you get basic extrapolations such as "we were told not to talk to Azura" or "our mothers used us as tools to curry favor and to sabotage/hurt one another."

Put those backstories and character traits against events in the story? It makes you think. Elise, Leo, and Camilla are stressed tf out and panicking over Xander and Corrin's fight during chapter 2, cuz siblings hurting each other = one's gonna die to them. Corrin choosing Hoshido or even siding with neither kingdom is a strike against Xander's ego and his built up sense of normalcy as a stoic fraternal unit trying to hold together the last remnants of his family. Camilla intertwines violence and love because she was raised receiving love and affection from her mother only after being subservient to her mom's terrible actions towards the other concubines and royal children. Leo is on Forrest's case at first because he has his on warped sense of "bringing shame and dishonor" to his family, an amalgamation of his loneliness when the other sibs focus on Corrin despite his own accomplishments and his mom most likely drilling it into his head that he has to be talented to be an honorable prince; it's little wonder he lets up on Forrest when he sees his son doing something noble and selfless like healing and attending to an entire town. Elise is an outlier because she's so young, and that either manifests as reckless, well-meaning bravery, or blubbering, immature outbursts draped in ignorance; she knows nothing beyond her supposedly good family unit other than what's been told to her second-hand, so how is she supposed to react when the rug is pulled from under her?

With 3H I don't get that kind of stuff, partly because the game is just that packed with dialogue and auxiliary comments from characters (IMO, a big reason why things seem bloated), and partly because of the way the story is delivered; since Byleth is a silent protagonist, character dialogue seesaws between having a conversation and telling/expositing at you, which results in a restrictive writing style that's actively harmful to implicit writing or subtext. There's nothing to scratch your brain about, because the game pretty much does that for you. And while many think having characters comment on story events each chapter in Garreg Mach is a positive to world building and narrative depth, I actually think the opposite, because the medium in which this dialogue and insights are given-talking to them with a silent protag who can't ever have an actual conversation-feels like I'm a scientist putting variables against each other and extracting data and information from the results, rather than a story with believable characters with lives, dreams, and relationships.

...Though, writing this out, maybe that's why it's appealing to other creatives. Maybe it's the equivalent to getting a 2,000 piece lego set, and switching only a few things around without dismantling the entire base project. The product itself is seen as art that can be altered in specific, minute ways that inspire curiosity and creative reaction.

I, on the other hand, get the most fun out of thinking about why the pieces fit together in the first place and how well they do in practice. Different strokes, I guess.

#fire emblem discourse #fire emblem fates #3h discourse #fire emblem

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hydrangeyes · 6 months

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love language

So if you don't know, Yes this already existed, my old account was deleted (accident but I can tell I won't be getting it back), and am reposting my old x male reader works!

I don't know if I saved all of them but here is one that was saved to my AO3 account.

Edit: So shuffling through my docs It's been brought to my attention that wattpad (who I use as backup) Cut a lot of my fics in half??? anyway I'll be trying to fix that also

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lego monkey king character love languages

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Wukong:

- It's physical touch

- like come on it's so obvious frfr this man is emotionally constipated

- that and gifts of any kind

- one day you get a shiny rock the next he's giving you an ancient and precious golden pendant or something

- more times than not you can find each other cuddling and sun bathing on his island or temple

- if he's feeling particularly soft or something that is when he speaks up, pulling you aside to play with your fingers as he nervously asks if you know just how much he loves you. (This def feels more constant after the lbd deal)

- at first it was sweet but towards the 3rd hour of him describing everything you basically kiss him silent

- work out around him and all that goes through his head is "buddah I'm so very gay, gay gay gay, my mate is so fucking hot."

- I whole heartily believe he would recite that audio of spike saying "I love a person who can beat him up, I want it to get embarrassing." Just towards you and it's so fucking funny.

Macaque:

- He's vocal and physical.

- vocal in a round about way but def the type to fuss when you have to get up from the cuddle pile for even a sec

- feel like Mac would recite poetry or lines from a play

- will beat someone up for you, a single frown and he's already plotting murder

- in turn melts when you give him a kiss anywhere

- his favorites are on the cheek

- anyway, he wouldn't give you gifts unless its during festivals and such, very much a practical use gift giver

- he doesn't want there to be any doubt that he loves you and knows you love him, and if there's a smidgen of doubt he's blunt in asking

- Besides sandy idk why but probably the most to be very hands down "communication is key" in the relationship

- idk why but he likes hanging or being on your shoulders, whether your short or talk my dude, he's on your shoulders in some way

Tang:

- I head canon he's demi on all accounts cause I want too, so everything starts as friendship

- as time goes he starts dragging you about to his fav places to eat or snack

- seems like the type to bring you back really good food

- he can't cook for shit but he just found this new food place and thinks you might like it

- in a non yandere way keeps tabs on everything you enjoy

- so I guess also a gift giver

- the gifts are food (I would say folklore books but I feel like that's more something you give him and you both read it together)

- hard to say what else as I've convinced my mind that tang is happily married (platonic or not) to pigsy and then both dating sandy, speaking of which-

Sandy:

- everything, he's a giver

- cuddles, gifts, kisses, cooking you meals, talking

- sandy I feel is very loving, just a big old cheese ball

- Just imagining him waking you up with a kiss on the forhead and the smell of your favorite tea and breakfast, mo purr on the bed as you guys talk about what to do today

- I def wanna say he's definitely a "look at my awesome handsome boyfriend/fiancee/husband/partner!" Will Smith pose style

- leaves stick notes of love letters and I love yous everywhere when he is in a rush for work or helping the gang somewhere

Pigsy:

- Easy

- he cooks you meals, he's great at it and it's something he's most confident in

- not just any but handmade and usually family recipes he doesn't make for the shop

- Spending time to show you how to make his family recipes

- a "Why would I buy you chocolates when I can make you chocolate from scratch for sweethearts day?"

- the calmest around you, not that you mind when he's being passionate (about hobbies and a new recipe he's thought of)

- his secret taste tester, before tang he let's you try all the new meals he has planned

- he tries to flirt but he sucks at it, you are kinda into that, it's cute

- He's very vocal but nervous when it comes to affection but gives it in abundance

- the way he proposes is asking if you wanna help parent mk

- if you ever fight (usually on work and taking breaks), you both give each other the silent treatment; pigsby usually caves first (hes hot headed but once he cools down its liek why was i even mad???) and goes to talk things out, usually the shop is closed next day and you both are on a date

#male reader #x male reader #Lmk x male reader

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theredengineapologist · 4 months

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Ranking Every James I Own

Lego Duplo James:

12/10! MY FAVORITE JAMES! He's cute! He's chonky! He's easily portable! I can push him on a track or without! And he can sit next to my laptop politely as a little desk buddy! Plus, he's got side rods! Adorable and versatile! What more could you want from a little engine?

Easy S-Tier James.

Also! Since he's so big, he can fit doll sunglasses. Which allows me to do silly goofy things with him like this.

Trackmaster Motorized James:

10/10! A solid James!

I'm not sure what year or model he is, but I've had him since childhood (along with Lego Duplo James and Take-Along James). And now, over a decade later, he still works like a charm (albeit, after some cleaning and tinkering). He's not the fastest of my motorized trains, but he is my favorite (duh). I would like to add that he is the fastest of my battery-powered Jameses, so he gets an extra point for that. I love watching him run and carry things. And his gentle wirring noise is quite comforting.

Magnet Take-Along James:

6/10. The Mid-est James. :/

Don't get me wrong! I still love him very much. But against the other James's, he doesn't quite measure up. And the whole point of this post is to pick favorites (and also to show off all my Jameses *cough cough*).

There's nothing wrong with him at all. But just compared to the other James's he's a little basic. I do appreciate the details in his cab though! That's a nice touch!

My favorite thing to do with him is to attach him to the Aquarium train. It's the coolest rolling stock I have, and it makes him feel special.

Battery Powered Wooden Railway(?) James:

9/10! A very cool and interesting James indeed!

This James was a gift from a good irl friend of mine, and is the second new engine I've gotten after getting back into Thomas as an adult! He's a bit strange (/positive) in the sense that I'm not quite sure what line he's supposed to be a part of. I'm guessing Wooden Railway because the style of his wheels looks identical to my other Wooden Railway engines, and also because his tender is made of wood. But truth be told, I don't know for sure.

He starts running by pushing a button (I like pushing buttons). And he has a little light! That's so neat! Another cool thing about him is that he's able to run on my old Trackmaster tracks! So I can watch him go alongside all the others!

The one thing that makes him lose a point is that he's very slow (the slowest of my battery-powered Jameses). But I suppose that can't be helped because he is quite old. But whatever the case, I think he's a very neat James.

AEG Splash Tank Motorized James:

7/10. He gets points for being cute and chonky. The wave details on his paintwork are beautiful and that's why I got him (I can practically feel James preening himself at that comment). However, he loses points for being slow and frequently getting stuck on the tracks 😔 (I know he probably needs his own AEG tracks but shhh.....)

AEG Push-Along James:

10/10! I LOVE HIM! HE'S MY BABY!

He's adorable and small! A real pocket-sized James (and I've checked! He really can fit in my pocket!)! Also his face is just adorable! Very squishy looking!

Now I can already hear you saying, "Randy! The take-along James is also smol! Why is the AEG James ranked higher?" Well, it's for 1 reason: the hooks. To me, the hook feels more stable than the magnet, so I can carry AEG James around in my hand or my pocket without worrying about his tender falling off.

But most importantly, the hooks allow me to do my favorite activity: hooking up my AEG James to my AEG Edward and letting them puff around my house together.

LOOK AT THEM! LOOK AT THEM BEING HUSBANDS! Edward puffs in the front, and James is his back engine, just like many of their HIT-era episodes together. AEG Push-Along engines letting me live out my 2x5 fantasies fr ❤💙

#ttte merch #thomas and friends #ttte james #ttte #thomas the tank engine #james the red engine #redengineposts #long post

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weaselandfriends · 5 months

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Web Original, Recently Witnessed

In a previous post, I mentioned some web fiction I'd recently read. This time, I'll highlight some web original content outside of the literary sphere. While I have some experience with literature, I'm completely untalented in other mediums, so my assessment of this content is no better than a layman's. However, I still thought it worth highlighting.

1. Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History by Kevin Perjurer (Defunctland)

Perjurer has been putting out excellent documentary-style content on theme parks and their rides for years now, but while his production quality is consistently high, his videos often live or die based on the core level of interest his subject engenders. For instance, his video on notoriously awful ride Superstar Limo (with a general focus on notoriously awful theme park California Adventure) is an incredible watch, while his video on a random assortment of small, local Santa Claus theme parks across America isn't quite so compelling. He's no Jon Bois (of 17776 fame), a documentarian capable of rendering extraordinary seemingly the most banal of subjects.

Journey to EPCOT Center, however, is unlike anything Perjurer has ever put out before. It completely eschews Perjurer's typical voiceover narration style of documentary, instead stitching together music, audio of news reports and press releases, and dramatizations of Disney boardroom meetings to create a seamless narrative. Beyond the unique style and presentation of the piece, however, is the incredible artistry on display in several of the segments. Some of the biggest highlights:

12:00 to 16:14: A neon light animation detailing the vision and plan of EPCOT, which gradually transforms into a 3D map that the camera travels through

16:52 to 21:03: An impressively animated series of newspaper articles detailing Disney's struggles finding signatories for its world showcase; the video comments indicate some shots of the moving newspapers were created practically, with Lego conveyer belts

38:46 to 44:27: A puppet show dramatizing Disney's efforts to seek international sponsors

There are numerous other impressive, inventive, and creative segments as well, with unique animation and visual styles. The video rarely repeats the same trick twice.

The funniest part is that all of this is in service to a topic I would personally consider quite boring. EPCOT is such a Disney-buffs-only type of subject, neither Disney's greatest success nor its greatest failure. The incredible skill on display is all aimed toward depicting a fairly corporate, backroom-style story about men in suits trying to secure handshakes. There's an almost propagandistic feel to it, an extolling of capitalist bigwigs that feels completely at odds with Perjurer's visionary style.

In a way, it's reminiscent of United Passions, a FIFA propaganda film meant to make its executives look good in the wake of real-life controversy. On the other hand, though, Perjurer's exceedingly loving depiction is appropriate for Walt Disney's final passion project, Disney himself being a man who, for better or for worse, was as much of a dreamer and visionary as he was a cutthroat businessman. EPCOT, as the video tells you, was designed as an optimistic reaffirmation of the American free enterprise project, and as a complement to that vision Perjurer's video could not be more accurate. Unlike United Passions, this video was also made independently, not financed by Disney to make itself look good in the eyes of the public. Metatextually, it poses a fascinating question: Is there value to corporate art? Can a corporation create something of true beauty? Perjurer's video suggests it can.

2. The Mind Electric Animation - Lonely-Man's Lazarus by Daisy

Perjurer is probably familiar to many of my readers, so this next entry is more obscure, something I stumbled on almost by chance.

A friend of mine is big into animatics, which as far as YouTube is concerned is about setting music (usually Broadway or Disney musical numbers) to sketchy, storyboard-style art. I'm not a major Broadway fan in general, so these have never appealed to me much, although I've been shown several.

This one, though, rather generically titled "The Mind Electric Animation" (after the song it features), caught me entirely off guard. The first notable element is that the animation is monstrously more fluid than a typical animatic, though it retains the sketchy/storyboard art style and traditional animatic sensibilities toward character design (very "Tumblr," if I had to put a word on it). Secondly, the music, rather than being from Hamilton or Heathers or some other popular musical, is from the itself rather arcane album Hawaii: Part II by Joe Hawley (under the name ミラクルミュージカル). Hawaii: Part II is, as far as I can tell, a concept album detailing the story of a man who goes insane after his girlfriend is murdered (possibly by himself), with a strange secondary subtext of possibly being metaphorical for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The lyrics are certainly open to interpretation.

The animatic combines these elements with heavy inspiration from a different concept album, potentially the most famous one ever made: Pink Floyd's The Wall, with specific nods to the film adaptation's animations for The Trial and Empty Spaces. There is no skimping on detail, with some sequences absolutely bursting with bizarre visuals. The ultimate result is absolutely trippy, abstract, and surreal, which are some of my favorite things for something to be.

Regardless, it's an impressive work of animation for a single person to make; the video description states it took 15 months, which is more time than I've spent on any one of even my longest works. The creator themselves is somewhat enigmatic from what I could tell, despite having a whole host of social media platforms. They seem to be working on a web comic, but trying to find any concrete information on what it is actually about was difficult. Nonetheless, whoever made this certainly has an abundance of creative vision and talent. Though I've seen skilled artists sit down to create something narrative before and flub it utterly (an example that comes to mind is Ava's Demon), so who knows if what is on display in this animation will make it into that web comic. Even if it doesn't, the animation by itself is incredible, so check it out.

3. The Skibidi Toilet podcast guys are for real by Mikhail Klimentov / Built By Gamers in general

Built By Gamers has been on my radar for some time (ever since seeing this video) as an absolute masterclass of performance art. The voice, the emphasis, the little oddities here and there, the way the two hosts so often ignore direct questions posed by one another, it creates something inimitably uncanny. This interview by Mikhail Klimentov, who I am familiar with primarily through his esports journalism, only adds new layers to what was already a convoluted question of irony and sincerity.

There are a few concrete insights, most shockingly to me that the creators of Built By Gamers (Todd Searle and Peter Armendariz) got their start in esports. But despite the title that seems to clearly suggest their videos are sincere, the actual interview is far less conclusive. For instance, this exchange:

It's evident to me that you guys take this very seriously. You feel as though there's a lot of craft behind these videos. Tell me about the stuff that a viewer won't see: the behind-the-scenes stuff that you're thinking about as you're working on these videos. Armendariz: A lot of people think it's ChatGPT. That's a big thing that people think that we do. But a lot of it is actually well crafted, through hours — like we'll spend hours on one script and really thinking about how we can get someone to react. It doesn't matter if it's them laughing, if it's them feeling sad, or them hating on one of us, our main goal in our videos is to get someone to feel something. The hard truth is that people don't realize how many hours we spend on one video to get that one line. I think that's what people don't really understand. We’ll spend like two hours on one line. Searle: Our tone, like how we talk — it’s on purpose. I have to get into character for it. Armendariz: Todd has a voice, bro! He didn't think he'd be good at telling stories, and I have him tell every single story because he has this campfire story voice. And sometimes he'll hit a line and I'm like, “No, no, you’ve got to hit it harder.” And we'll spend like 30 minutes trying to hit the line, or hitting the hook just the right way.

Followed immediately by:

People really don't know what to make of you guys. They don't have a sense of whether you're serious, whether you're in on the joke, whether there's a joke at all. I'm curious if you can clear that up. Searle: We want it to be everything you just said. We want people to think we're serious. We want camps of people who don't think we're serious. People who think that we're A.I. We kind of want to keep it, I guess, vague in that regard. Like we want you to believe… what we are — and that's OK. Armendariz: I think sometimes we'll play into different communities. So, like, some people will say, ‘You guys sound like you got brain surgery.’ So then we’ll make the most cringey video that's like super brain-rot, you know? We just kind of mess around and have fun.

So are they just messing around and having fun, or are they spending hours trying to nail specific lines just right? Are they sincerely trying to tell a story that gets an emotional reaction or are they just trolling, which also gets an emotional reaction? The biggest troll of the interview, targeted specifically at me, was this response:

Can you tell me what those writing principles are? Armendariz: I think a big writing principle that everyone should follow is, it's really important to show, don't tell.

People who have talked to me elsewhere know I am a massive enthusiast of the ubiquitous Mr. Beast, not necessarily because I like his content (though I do think he puts together some strong game show/Wipeout-style videos), but because of the story behind him: That he is an extreme, almost insufferable perfectionist, who analyzes video success and failure to a scientific degree, doing experiments with thumbnails, video lengths, et cetera, all to take detailed assessments of the results and perfectly calibrate his videos in mathematical fashion. It's a type of rigor that flies in the face of the casual, wastefully generous persona he cultivates in his videos proper.

I think many people have this innate idea that a work of art's quality is somehow tied to the effort expended to produce it. (Even I have it. Notice how for both of the first two entries in this post I mention the effort or time or craftsmanship of the work in question.) This is the kind of sensibility that causes a layman, who knows nothing about painting, to prefer a Caravaggio to a Rothko. But this sensibility is both conceptually and often practically wrong; Rothko, for instance, engineered his own paints, creating custom blends of materials (including non-paint material, like egg) to form paints of a perfectly specific color or gloss or sheen, a process often completely unseen by a casual glance at the finished work.

Subsequently, there's a reason they're called writer's workshops, that writing is so often described as a craft: It's an attempt to imbue writing with a sense of effort that makes it more palatable. The stereotype extends to the artist who sneers at quote-unquote "low" art, thinking "If I was willing to lower myself, I could create that slop and make millions too." In my experience, though, the people creating this "low" art are often expending absurd amounts of effort and exhibiting incredible skill to create something perfectly engineered for success. I, certainly, have found zero success in attempting to broaden my own audience, even when I make attempts at it; it's not something that's easier to do if you're just willing to try.

I also increasingly fail to believe in the stereotype of the miserable cynic artist who creates something they think is garbage because they know that'll be most popular. Those people don't last long; those who succeed in the popular sphere are people who are genuinely passionate about what they create, even if it looks like dreck to everyone else (including the millions who consume it).

I've been kicking around an idea for a story about Mr. Beast for some time now, exploring these concepts in even greater depth. That won't happen in the immediate future, but it's something to look out for.

#defunctland #kevin perjurer #lonely-man's lazarus #hawaii part ii #built by gamers #mr beast #web original

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diagnosed-anxiety-disorder · 1 year

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Napoleon Crossing the Alps , painted by me

Start Date: December 22, 2022 approx. 21" x 17" , acrylic + dry watercolour paint , on the back of a cardboard lego box

( art process + close ups + catpoleon in the keep reading )

Day 1 stuff

The idea actually started in my history class after my final exam, I sketched Napoleon Crossing the Alps in my history notebook and showed it to my teacher and he liked it so :D I also had a fever while painting this bc my immune system SUCKS but I'm okay now! ( i think?). Funny story, if you look at the picture of my art layout on my bedroom floor, the paints that I used were the watercolour tube thingies that you are supposed to mix with water but I thought they were acrylic so that's why it came out a different texture. So if you actually touch the painting, his face is softer than the rest of the painting, which is pretty cool thinking back on it. This was my first time painting so I didn't have a set up or anything so I just took the floor as a space :0) I also finished a base layer of paint the next day

Face close up

I'm actually really proud of the face because it somewhat resembles him... i think. The hardest part was the area around his eyes since the colour always came out too dark or too saturated and stuff. This was the part I used watercolour paint for on accident so I was able to just smooth it out with my fingers and I ended up practically finger painting the face. Also i practically bs-ed the nose and the mouth. I didn't know how to draw either of those things because my former art style was very anime inspired so I would just draw a line and call it a day. I still haven't gotten down how to draw a mouth or nose but it's fineeee

Shiny Jacket Things (idk what they're called)

THESE THINGIES ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE– literally in the painting, their location is kind of vague so I practically came up with my own pattern. I'm not even sure if I painted this correctly. I started with a yellow but it didn't look shiny enough. But literally a week later I found metallic acrylic paint which is AWESOME so I used a copper colour over the yellow and then added some white for the shine. If i ever paint Napoleon again I literally might just not paint these.

The Cockade

I'm actually really proud of this! This was on the day I found my metallic acrylic paint. I actually did each colour separately so I started with red, then blue, then white, then yellow. The hardest part was painting in the shadow of something that wasn't even on the canvas yet haha. Even though it's not shiny in the painting, i wanted to give it some luster to stand out against the plain black hat so I lightly went over some areas with my metallic paint :D

CATPOLEON >:D

I made the ears in the colours of the french flag on purpose hehe. So i was in my room doing homework and being bored and I thought to myself, what would cheer me up? And the little voice in my head said to put cat ears on Napoleon so I did it !

Final Thoughts: I think I did pretty well for my first painting! I had literally no idea what I was doing and honestly I think there's something wrong with my paint, but I literally got them at a craft store so that's probably why. Next time, I will not drink the paint water out of curiosity and I'm not gonna paint on the floor since I got paint on my floor. But overall, I'm proud of myself and that's what really matters :D hope you all like it too!

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davidmariottecomics · 5 months

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Save Your Work!

Hello, friends!

This week is going to be very quick because, not to get ahead of myself, but next week is likely going to be pretty long. I didn't mean to time things out so there'd be a long one right after I'm done with work for the year and most people are off for that final week, but that's how things worked out. And the week after that, the last weekend of the year, I'm going to do a Best of 2023 round-up.

But, in my brief update this week, I wanted to talk about some very straightforward best practices.

I turned on my computer this morning and was shocked to find that I was *turning on* my computer this morning. One way or another, it had shut down since the last time I used it. Maybe it was Becca or a planned restart or something, but however it happened, my computer was off. And as any artist should know... you neeeeeeeeeeeed to make sure your stuff is saved again and again. You see, I was working on my holiday gift guide that I'm building for my Patreon when the computer shut off and I lost a whole spread and some change. All of it. The images, the hyperlinks, the text--both in terms of what I wrote and the font choices I made--everything. It shouldn't be terrible, but it'll add at least an extra hour on as I have to rebuild all of that. So, if you ever work on anything that would benefit from being saved, make sure you do!

The other best practice I want to emphasize today is something I say a lot. If you'd like to work in comics professionally, please make it easier on yourself and any potential collaborators/hiring folks, by making your web presence clear and accessible. Something I've slowly been working on over the past few weeks is going through my Twitter as I get ready to delete it before the end of the year and looking to make sure I have contact information from anyone I'm interested in not losing. I'm looking for emails, or agents, or websites. And the more varied the information, the better. Because I'm trying to incorporate that into my existing digital rolodex, whenever possible, while emails (for talent or their agents) are the things that are most helpful, I am looking to add your website info so I can quickly pop to it before emailing you and make sure you're who I think you are and your style is what I think it is. As much as possible, when I look through info I got from old like Visible Women sheets and the like, I'm looking for people who aren't just including their handle on one social because those can change, or who aren't just linking to an Instagram or Twitter account with "DM me" because while I know some people work best in DMs, for legal paperwork and the like, an email is so much more helpful.

Lastly, and this should go without saying, but this is a post about common sense practices, be kind to folks. I don't know why this seems so counter-intuitive to certain people, but if you're openly hostile toward your peers, they don't want to work with you. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy of ostracization. It literally can't be said enough. Comics as an industry is doing just fine and differentiation in the medium in both format and talent is only a good thing.

Alright. More next week!

What I enjoyed this week: Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Nancy (Comic), Lego Masters (TV show), Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (Short story collection), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Dandadan (Manga), Godzilla: Minus One (Movie), Godzilla Raids Again (Movie), Cunk on Earth (TV show), I'm a Virgo (TV show), Clyde Fans by Seth (Comic), getting and making some really exciting 2023 news. There's some amazing stuff to come!

New Releases this week (12/13/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog: Winter Jam (Editor)

Final Order Cutoff next week (12/18/2023): Godzilla Valentine's Day Special (Editor) If you haven't seen it, I put together a little explainer on what exactly a "Final Order Cutoff" is and why it matters! And if you found this helpful and have a platform where you think people should know, those explainers are watermarked and good to share!

New Releases next week (12/20/2023): Godzilla: The War for Humanity #3 (Editor) Godzilla Rivals: Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon (Editor)

Announcements: If there is one blog this year that you should not miss, it's next week's. Big news to come.

The Cartoonist Cooperative is still doing E-Sim cards for Gaza. You can donate a digital sim card so that residents can get access to the internet and have more functional phones and, in exchange, get some comics or a drawing or whatever else is available from the many participating artists. Additionally, the CC is hosting their mini-comic awards! It's a cool way to maybe get your mini-comic recognized and make some scratch!

You can also give more directly. If you don't have money, and I get it, you can call or fax or email or show up at the offices of your representatives. Keep your eyes open for actions too, whether they're another general strike like what happened last Monday or demonstrations and marches in your area. Given the nature of the things, they often come together fairly quickly, so do exercise your due diligence. Also, of course, being informed and just giving your time to Palestinian writers is incredibly valuable. Whether that is journalists on the ground--who are being murdered at extraordinary rates--or reading Fiyah's Palestine Solidarity issue or anything from Verso's solidarity reading list, having and sharing that knowledge is significant.

Becca just did their Art vs. Artist post for 2023. They did a lot of really cool work this year! They also posed a spicy art version. And as if it could not be said enough, while we've got some things brewing (and now on a schedule), you should reach out if you'd like to work on comics with them! I think we're both looking to do more next year! You can find their gallery on their website and also, y'know, maybe pick up a few things for belated gifts while you're there!

If you aren't a Patreon backer yet, well, like I said above, I've been working on something pretty cool. I'm building a holiday gift guide. It won't probably be out with a lot of shopping time for Christmas in particular, but I thought it'd be a fun way to showcase some of what I've been learning more generally about design and how to make comics and zines and stuff. I'm really proud of it and it'll be exclusive to $10+ backers for December and then will be made public in a couple months. Also at that $10+ tier, there's stuff like a tour of my workspace, an adults-only podcast pilot that Becca and I recorded called "Abandoning the Premise" (short sample here), a review of root beers is also coming up quick, old D&D campaigns I ran, and more! Another goal of mine for next year is to grow my Patreon and also have it start making some money to fund more comics ventures for myself.

Pic of the Week: I teased it last week, but the Winter Jam team did a Winter Jam-piece! Our fabulous leader, Iasmin Omar Ata, got Reggie Graham, Adam Bryce Thomas, Abigail Oz, Shawn Lee, and me to put together a happy holidays card from the Winter Jam cast! I did the thought balloon Froggy because even when Big is holding "Froggy", he can't stop thinking about that frog!

#comics #sonic idw #comic tips #save your work

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mx-julien · 1 month

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the Not Lego Animated, Unrealistically Perfect Ninjago TV Series in my mind has a whole plot point where Zane becomes a human. background: his "heart" is actually a trapped soul. Zane's android body is so intricate that it allows his soul to adjust and basically treat it like a human body. Dr Julien does not notice Zane's sentience as the years go on, as he's convinced it's a part of the AI black box issue

we get clues and eventually figure out that the trapped soul inside of his heart used to belong to an enemy of the first master of ice. it is why the forest where Dr Julien lived was under a permanent winter. however, that soul spent so long outside a body that it "forgot" all its memories

at some point much later there is a major fight during which one of Zane's arms is ripped off above his elbow. they are battling someone who has found another way to harness the ability to turn back time (like in series 1 with the combined golden weapons). Like He Always Does, at one point Zane jumps in front of someone to shield them from the blast so they don't pop out of existence and turn into ash

you can only turn back time as early as The Beginning, and Zane's soul was one of the very first since it was around at the same time as the First Elemental Master of Ice. instead of turning him into spare parts, logically it has hit a soul inhabiting a body- where was that soul at The Beginning? a human body. it makes him human with the parts that it has, so the body is basically the human version of his robot traits. this includes the lack of an arm with an elbow and forearm

this immediately takes him out of the fighting game and he doesn't exactly know what's happened (he's still wearing a gi, he's still alive, but he feels weird and uncoordinated and weaker) until the fight's completely over and people go to check on him

the absolute pure joy Zane feels as he partially unwraps his gi and realizes he's human is one I can't convey in words. it's up to you to imagine

other details below the cut

what about the end of Rebooted? while Zane's original body dies at the hand of the overlord, his soul (like the overlord's) is in his new titanium body. he programs his og robot body to sacrifice itself

does he need to adjust to the human body? his titanium body was almost an exact copy of a human body just in wires and metal (he doesn't need to eat or breathe ofc, but the layout is the same bc he likes the idea of it), so there is very little adjustment period. also the human body instinctively knows how to breathe, so right after he transforms it's like breathing after getting the wind knocked out of you

he doesn't have most of one of his arms?! yeah! personally I think it's his left arm.

why? because (1) he frequently loses parts of his robot body during major fights, so it adds some realism, (2) the ability to use adaptive tech on his arm stub connecting him back to his time as an android. I'm not talking winter soldier style "an able bodied person's arm just metal" I mean like a stump but a screwdriver on the end. something practical that does not resemble his other arm. the further it is from ""arm"" the more connected he feels with his roots. personally I'm sick of amputee characters who are "magically able-bodied again bc technology" fuck that shit I want Zane to have a swiss army knife on that stump. a slingshot for water balloon fights. just his bare stump when he's not doing anything in particular. the presence of a tool or prosthetic on would differentiate for him a relaxed vs guarded state

you have this whole thing figured out, huh? nope! just some vivid details. if you have any questions about this idea or want me to write more on it, just drop me an ask

#congenital amputee character #bc it's torn off before he's 'reborn' and also he has no trauma associated w it #he's dealt with No Arm(s) and/or No Leg(s) before as a robot this isn't new or scary to him #dr julien #ninjago headcanons #ninjago #lego ninjago #zane julien

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nateezfics · 1 year

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Hellooo! I'm a new atiny and I was wondering if you could help me get to know the boys a bit, I mean if you could describe them in a few words, what you think about them. I'm also curious who are the trouble makers and who are the mom and dad of the group who keep them in check. Thank you!

omg🥹 welcome, welcome!! i’ll try my best to describe them, but honestly they’re beyond words. as you get to know ateez more you’ll understand they’re absolutely amazing. i’m so happy to see a new atiny!♥️

hongjoong; the leader of the group. we all call him captain. he is an artistic person who loves to create. he’s so thoughtful with everything he does. he’s so passionate and when you see him on stage, and even when you see how he acts with atiny and his members, you’ll understand why he is the captain and the heart of ateez! he is considered the dad of the group! he’s my bias :)

seonghwa; this man is the mother of the group and it’s the cutest thing to see how loving he is with the members. he’s a lover of all things star wars and legos. he’s the oldest but he can be a bit chaotic at times lol. honestly a pure soul, and stunning inside and out!

yunho; dancing king. tallest member. has the personality of a golden retriever. he’s such a warm person, and definitely one of the mood makers of ateez! he’s insane on stage. this man is such a stellar performer and dancer, he literally was meant to be on stage. him and hongjoong were the first two trainees/members of ateez, so they have a special bond! but he has the biggest bond with mingi. he is my bias wrecker.

yeosang; god tier visuals and absolutely gorgeous voice. he’s quiet, but when he talks it’s the best thing ever. has a habit of roasting the other members lol. actually was at another company as a trainee with wooyoung before joining kq (ateez’s company). yeosang is literally the sweetest human on this earth, we must protect him. he doesn’t show it often, but he has a birthmark near his left eye and it’s so cute.

san; he has a heart of gold. give the shirt off his back type of person. he’s such a kind hearted person. but on stage he’s a demon (him, hongjoong, and seonghwa are all part of the “demon line”). like the duality of this man is insane. top notch performer. him and wooyoung are practically inseparable.

mingi; rap legend. lyrical genius. atiny as a whole have the biggest soft spot for this man, myself included. he’s sweet, and is also very funny! makes everyone laugh because he’s just a bright person. also has a tendency to have us all weak for him all the time. watch this man perform and you’ll know why.

wooyoung; when you asked about the troublemakers this man immediately came to mind lol. he lives to aggravate hongjoong (but don’t get it twisted hongjoong likes it and these two have a sweet bond!). he is very outgoing and has the biggest personality out of the group. the main mood maker. a highly contagious laugh. he is a lover okay; this man does not shy away from showing affection to to the members. he has so much love to give he’s the sweetest :( soooo beyond talented, has an amazing voice. listen to the chorus of their song mist!

jongho; vocals on another level. man is unrivaled when it comes to vocals. he’s the maknae, but sometimes he acts more behaved than the others lol. this man is very strong. like physically strong. everyone focuses on his singing but this man is such a solid dancer people need to appreciate his dancing more. an avid lover of iced americanos lol. and idk how to put it but this man has such a distinguished style, like he is so well put together ahshsh.

ateez is a group of goofy, lovable, humble, and immensely talented guys. their music and storyline is so immersive. you definitely won’t regret stanning them, i promise!

#anonymous

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yanderelmk · 1 year

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Thank you for this chance! (╥﹏╥)

Her name is Wen, a Demon Rabbit

A hunter who only works at night, very cold and quite aggressive at her job (still gentle and polite bunny 👍) (Has a twin brother but I didn't want to show him just because I don't want to be too much) the targets are the one who her bosses decided and she does her duty loyalty

Her nose and ears twitch either from annoyance or happiness

Has a soft side during the day and acts like a child pointing random stuff like "what's that?!"

Very polite and calm rabbit

What canon characters do you think caught their attention? (Friendship or romantic I'm ok with one of them 👍 ☆) and what do they think about Wen?

(This Oc was my first tome to try the Lego style so I have to learn to do it correctly X'D)

I really hope it's not too much 😅

GOOOOOSH SHE'S SO LOVELY!!! OBSESSED WITH THE HAIR OUGH IT'S SO!! :D With the hunting occupation I would obviously say Huntsman, finding someone who shares his profession/main hobby is very rare in the modern era, especially in a city. It could develop into romance, depending, but it would start with him wanting to trade tips and tricks on tracking down particularly elusive or dangerous targets. Hunting animals is a more legal way to practice this, so as a gesture of friendship he might offer to show her where he normally goes for bigger targets (but nothing too big). If he wants to make a gesture of friendship, he'll probably kill some smaller animals (not rabbits) and taxidermize them. Probably have them post in something cute, like two squirrels snuggling. You'll know he's romantically attractive when he starts flipping his braid and trying to emphasize more on his "manlier" traits. For the more chill daylight hours I can see Nezha liking to hang out with Wen. Her curiosity is amusing, he likes patiently explaining to her the things that she inquires about. He appreciates her well-mannered behavior and her level-headedness a valuable trait. Sometimes if he has a more minor demon to take down at the Jade Emperor's behest, he'll invite Wen along. It's his idea of a friendly outing. If he feels things inching towards romance, he'd likely try doing more acts of service. Gift-giving, carrying things for you, holding open doors, just general things that slowly build up. A book he thought she'd like turns into a moonstone ring, for example. Nezha most likely doesn't know about Wen's work, but if he does he'll at least keep in mind that it's Wen's boss ordering out the hits. He might end up impaling that boss on his spear, who knows? Life's crazy, things happen like that all the time.

#lmk #lmk yandere #yandere lmk #lmk yandere x oc #lmk yandere huntsman #lmk yandere nezha

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underoosweb · 2 years

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Could you do a Peter Parker x reader where, since Peter had to quit robotics and marching band for spider man, and reader gets kinda sad. It can be an established relationship or pining friends, whichever one you choose. But reader gets kinda sad because that was “their” activities and for Peter to quit so out of no where and not explain to them. Like a little argument that ends up being a way to bring them even more together. I love your writing style :)))

2 weeks ago, Peter walked into robotics late.

"Where were you?"

"I got busy. Give me a second."

"Pet-" You sighed and continued to work on your project.

"I'll see you later, Y/N"

"Wait, what? Where are you going?"

"I gotta go, I'll see you at 5 at my place." He placed a quick kiss on your cheek.

"Peter?!" He was already out the door.

"Mr. Gutierrez?"

"Yes, Y/N?"

"Peter?"

"Oh, he quit."

"What?"

"He said he couldn't come anymore and he felt sorry and he quit."

1 week ago

He was late again but this time to the marching band, he didn't even bother to look over at you. He ran in and out.

"Mr.-"

"Peter quit."

You glared at the brunette sitting across from you for the first time in weeks. You felt as if he was ignoring you. You felt like he became closer to MJ. You looked between Ned, MJ and Peter.

"Peter?" Peter ignored you.

"Peter?" You said a little louder. They laughed at something Ned said. You felt tears fill your eyes. You looked away and left the table.

---

"Y/N?" You didn't look at him.

"Mom let you in?"

"Yeah, why'd you leave?" You scoffed

"Are you seriously asking me why I left?"

"Yeah?" Peter's brows furrowed

"Peter, you've been ignoring me for the past two weeks."

"No, I haven't."

"You didn't acknowledge me at lunch."

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Peter, it's not just you not acknowledging me during lunch. You quit robotics and marching band out of nowhere. That, that was our time together, it was our thing to do as a couple and you just got up and left without telling me anything. And then, all of a sudden you and MJ are best friends. You and Ned have star wars, legos and have practically every single class together. I feel left out, Peter. I feel like you just didn't want to hang out with me anymore. You disappear during the day and in the middle of our dates. What's going on? I feel like everyone knows but me." You felt the tears slip from your eyes.

"Y/N... I... I didn't realize. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to ignore your feelings or even ignore you. I just had a lot going on with the Stark internship-"

"Stark internship?" Peter hesitated to continue, he should tell you the truth, but he felt that if you knew what was really going on people would come after you. He couldn't let that happen, he couldn't lose you. He sighed.

"Well, yeah. It's kind of an internship."

"What do you mean? It's either an internship or not."

"Okay, just don't freak out."

"Peter?"

"Close your eyes." You looked at him questioningly

"Please." You closed your eyes. Your eyes shot open when you heard a zipper come undone

"What are you doing?!"

"Shhhh, trust me."

"Peter, why are you taking off your clothes?!" You whispered and quickly turned around.

"Okay, you can turn around."

"You're not naked are you?" Peter laughed

"No." You hesitantly turned back around, you looked at him confused

"Nice spider man cosplay?"

"What?"

"Spider man cosplay."

"It's not a costume."

"Peter," You rolled your eyes

"Okay." You felt your hand stick to your desk.

"What the?" You looked down at your hand

"DID YOU JUST WEB ME?"

"Do you believe me now?"

"Peter," You squealed trying to pull your hand free.

"It'll dissolve in a couple hours."

"Peter Parker." He laughed

"I got you." He made his way towards you and grabbed into the web.

"So, Spider-man huh?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd that happen? Spider bite?" You laughed

"Yeah, actually."

"Wait, seriously?" Peter nodded and placed a kiss on your forehead. You blushed.

How'd Ned and MJ find out?"

"Ned caught me crawling on the ceiling and MJ well is MJ, if that makes sense."

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"For trusting me with this."

"Of course, I love you."

"I love you too."

#peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parkerxreader #tom holland

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cureforbedbugs · 1 year

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Notes on amapiano

Here's everything I've written about amapiano this year, with lots of embeds of songs I've liked so far (the first few songs are from 2022). Come for the tunes, stay for the hilarious anecdote Robert Altman shares about a conversation with Stanley Kubrick.

1/25/23

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I've been underwhelmed with the avalanche of amapiano I've heard in the past few years after falling in love with the sound in 2020. I keep feeling like I'm intruding in the middle of a party and don't understand how to join in the dance. But now and then a standalone track gets its hooks in, and there's something about the synth hook and percussion accents on "Nazoke" that gives it a live jam quality. This is practically the opposite of what I love about other amapiano, whose more synthesized sounds approximate something close and warm without fully moving into the realm of the acoustic (my standard-bearer in the genre is still Semi Tee's 2020 LP release I'm Only Tweenty One, which I don't think exists in a physical copy, but I went ahead and made a CD of it, album art and everything).

Amapiano builds on a deceptively simple template: the foundation is almost always a shaker playing sixteenth notes at about 112 BPM (though the accent of the pattern can vary, the shaker is usually steady and omnipresent), and each song then layers in its own palette of sounds and voices, everything in percussive service of the groove. That standardized base and consistent tempo lets you click different songs together like LEGOs, though amapiano is also known for relatively long song lengths.

Amapiano is in some ways the flipside of baile funk, which isolates strange rhythms and sounds and timbres and ideas and forces you to reckon with what the fuck they're doing in relation to each other in sequence -- it's Eisensteinian montage. By contrast amapiano is more like pointillism: you're not thinking closely about any single point, and from a distance everything takes on a dreamy texture that it would lose if you inspected too closely.

Amapiano artists will often take warm acoustic percussion and pretty, playful vocals -- all of them bringing a soft swing feel, somewhere between dancing and swaying -- and pit them directly against much harder four-on-the-floor house elements (synth blares, jagged squelchy bass hits) put off at a seeming distance, like the distant echo of a car alarm going off way down the street that happens to be in the same key as the song you're listening to in your headphones. The palettes artists use and the way they layer everything in vary from song to song and artist to artist, but because the foundation is so similar across the songs, changes in the genre over time can be subtle enough that it almost feels like you're watching evolution at the individual genetic mutation level.

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And there are tons of cool vocals in amapiano, hard posturing and playful posing becoming indistinguishable (as they are on this song -- or, if not indistinguishable, a kind of multiple perspective game where you can see it both ways) as it all washes out in the sound bath along with everything else. And heck, sometimes you get a no-foolin' xylophone, too, not even the thing most people think is a xylophone but is actually a glockenspiel. Or you get a synth that sounds like a vuvuzela. Why not?

2/3/23

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The first 2023 amapiano track I enjoyed, this one entirely in English, and maybe not coincidentally one of the rare amapiano vocals I've heard that threatens to grab a spotlight for itself instead of sharing equal space with, say, those synth samba whistles -- a tone that drives me crazy when my kids play it on the keyboard, here mixed to evoke birdcalls in a rainforest.

2/8/23

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Utter joy. Sho Madjozi has been on my radar for a few years: was covered rapturously at the Singles Jukebox and had shone in the People's Pop 4-Letter-Word tournament with "Huku." This jumped out immediately as a frontrunner for song of the year so far. (Maybe a bit early to call it.) The style is interesting -- seems to be finding a midpoint between the harder house beats of gqom and the limpid immersion of amapiano. A party. Should be huge.

2/15/23

Rihanna should make an amapiano album.

2/24/23

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Upbeat amapiano featuring one of the titular "2 peers" on my favorite amapiano album of 2021, Semi Tee & MDU aka TRP's Tales of the 2 Peers.

3/15/23

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Two amapiano tracks that go for a lush, blissed-out sound that I associate with Sun-El Musician—more cinematic, fewer surprises buried in the mix. Joshua Minsoo-Kim calls “Kwelinye” the amapiano song of the year so far, and Mellow & Sleazy the most important amapiano artist right now. The second part might well be true — everything I’ve heard is great — but I’ll admit I have a hard time making distinctions when the music is aiming so squarely for beauty (it’s something that keeps me at a distance from Sun-El Musician’s work, which I admire more than I love).

3/22/23

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Picking representative amapiano on a weekly basis is becoming a daunting task, as I could easily make a whole mix of the stuff each time. (Doesn’t help that I can’t seem to tell the difference between the stuff no one is listening to and the stuff everyone is listening to.)

This one stood out, both its distinctive shuffle and the singer’s mellow rasp: as the hummed hook intensified (“mm-mm, mm-mm”), from the backseat my youngest asked “what are the kinds of noises they’re making in this song, and why would someone make those noises?” I think he was taking notes; I didn’t have an answer.

3/28/23

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Lots of music scenes are almost impossible to follow on Spotify, as the current stuff is uploaded first to YouTube, so Spotify is a, er, spotty indicator of popularity. Amapiano is a big exception, as playlists with variations on the phrase “Amapiano Grooves” have almost everything I’ve found in other places online. This is my requisite amapiano of the week: some millennial R&B girl group vibes in the interplay of the singers.

The amapiano track I was most surprised by this week was Major Lazer’s attempt to get in on the sound.

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They get it wrong in telling ways. They build a spotlight for the singer, changing focus right and left to direct our attention. What you end up with is overwrought production with a melody line that sounds weak instead of diffuse; it can’t handle the spotlight.

Amapiano’s strength is in letting everything cohabitate in surprising ways. It’s like a Robert Altman film—he’ll let everyone play together in a series of long shots; your attention has to find its own resting point. It all seems intentional, but you can’t feel Altman guiding your attention. There’s a great interview where Altman describes trying to explain to Stanley Kubrick how he got an incredible shot, in the opening scene of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, of Warren Beatty lighting a cigar in the dim murk of the evening—a shot Altman had filmed personally while his cinematographer was away.

Altman: “He [Kubrick] said, ‘but how’d you know you got it?’ I said, ‘I just assumed we did.’ And he had a hard time understanding, because Stanley really liked to be very precise about everything, and he wanted to be exactly proper.”

I doubt Stanley Kubrick could ever make anything like a Robert Altman film for the same reason I doubt Major Lazer could ever make a good amapiano song. They figure you must have to do something to get it.

#amapiano #music writing #music criticism #sho madjozi #kabza de small #major lazer #robert altman #2023 music #Youtube

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the-darkness-does-not-bargain · 7 months

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I was rereading Rated G For Gamer Girls again, and I was curious: do Ava and Lilith ever play games co-op? Not everyone is able to game together lol

From personal experience, Portal 2 co-op nearly ended a friendship, Cat Quest 2 resulted in my partner leaving to go have cool down time in another room, and Lego co-op has been banned, so that we don't break up (our play styles clash; she's very methodical and goal oriented, and I'm pure chaos and want to explore everything).

Love your writing, and hope you're feeling better!

😊 thanks! And you're right, not everyone can play games together. They would probably have to find one that doesn't rely super heavily on co-op, because their personalities would definitely clash. So yeah, lego co-op is probably off the table for them too 😂. They might have a better time playing against each other, particularly if it's a game that doesn't require a lot of "gamer skills" so Lilith has a chance to win.

Actually new thought, this would require heavy co-op, but they might do well together in Baldur's Gate 3. You have to track a lot of mechanics in BG3 but it doesn't really require fast reflexes or practiced hand-eye coordination. Lilith would be good at remembering all of her abilities and planning out battle strategies, and I think she might find it satisfying to win fights that way. Ava just loves throwing fireballs, which is also a pretty effective strat, so they manage to get the job done every time. Lil plays as Lae'zel and Ava teases the fuck out of her for it 😂.

#something something githyanki silver sword strap metaphor #anon ask #twitch au #i think ava plays either as wyll or karlach in a co op game #but she also tries to convince Lil to play tieflings together

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narcoticwriter · 8 months

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i didn't put a number because i want every incoherent thought you have

You asked, so now you shall receive.

(Also, spoilers for his character stories as I got them from Honey Hunter and Freminet ain't officially out yet.)

Why do you like or dislike this character?

First of all, I love him so jot that down. As to why? He speaks to the repressed, emotionless part of me that's out for everyone to see. You would not believe how many people are genuinely shocked when I smile or laugh at something.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

His love of fairytales and stories. I practically lived off of those and folklore and mythology when I was younger in the same sense that he did. It may seem to have a darker twist when everything else in his backstory is taken into consideration, but I understand where he's coming from.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

The boy would take well to realize that most people really do not give a fuck about him. Not in the sense of what he went through, of course, but in the sense that the perceived judgment isn't as much as he thinks. He thinks way too much about how he's being perceived and it's killing him.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

I'm shoving him into that fairytale paradise that he wants to have realized. Let him meet his friends.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Pixel Galaxy by Snail's House. Swap the snail girlie with Pers and Freminet with the other character and you've got a gold mine of an AU right there.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

I wanna say just about everything, but fun fact: I really do enjoy the sensation of the water and diving below it. It's fun. I also don't let much of anyone in for shit.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Penguins. Penguins everywhere. They understood the assignment. They also include him with Lyney and Lynette a lot. Definitely understood the assignment.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Baby him. He might be fragile and hardly let anyone into his space, but he's also quite capable of watching out for himself to some degree. He can be brave.

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Let's be real, could he be roommates with me? I think I would stay out of his way and he would stay out of mine. It would be as if he hardly existed to me. If he asks me something, I'll answer and vice versa, but I can't imagine anything other interactions unless he actually wants to do so.

10. Could you be best friends with this character?

Absolutely not. His best friend is Pers and in that department, I'm beaten. I cannot compete with that. Also, I am hardly one to let anyone know my deepest darkest secrets, so why would I expect that from him?

11. Would you date this character?

No.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

He would be really, really into those mechanical engineering Lego sets if they existed. Clicking blocks into place and they can also be motorized? He's already tinkering with it.

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

He would use '👍' as a reply or a confirmation that he saw a text. I don't see him as the type of person to text a lot as he would get anxious over what to say. An emoji I associate with him will naturally be this one: 🐧

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

What in the fuck is that? If you're referring to a style, I think his fits already, but if I could add some more steampunk/mechanical stuff in the get-up, it would really solidify his tinkering side. I suppose his helmet does that already, but I would also like to see a full diving suit instead of just the body suit.

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

Fremillei. There's so much angst and yet so much softness and tenderness. I know that someone's going to pick it up and write the 150K+ slow burn hurt/comfort fanfiction because if there was a pairing that qualified for it, it'd be this one.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

I don't have one, really. I don't really dislike ships if their reasonings are executed well and I can understand them.

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

I've seen Freminet and Mika together in a ship and I get it, but I don't personally ship it myself.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

Lyney and Lynette, of course! Their dynamic is so nice and pure to see in the quiet moments and the moments when they're just together. I will also offer up the one between him and his mother for the reasons that it might have been bleak and hopeless, but the love was there.

19. How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

The Director. I hope Arlecchino killed her.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Some fanfics (two of them) I've read and one particular piece of art I've seen may have made me incredibly biased, but besides Pers, I will say that ideally it would be with Monsieur Neuvillette. They share too many similarities and personality traits in different forms please Hoyoverse I need more of it-

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I haven't written for Freminet (yet?), but something that I keep in mind is that when the cards are down, Freminet will do just about anything for the House of the Hearth. This is very important to his character as it's why he keeps on going for himself.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

Look at the two fics I've linked and you'll find full well what I mean. This is the palate now and I don't know if this is going to make me picky or delusional.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

Any one of them with him holding Pers. Fanart, official art, I don't care. Pers is a staple and people took note of it. I couldn't be happier with it.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours reminds you of them?

Mikazuki Augus from Iron-Blooded Orphans. They have the same expressionless thing going on and have somewhat made their peace with their roles. However, Mikazuki has a lot more progression and development of character than I would expect from Genshin Impact's storytelling.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

First impression: He's a shy little penguin guy!

Now: He's going to be so, so fucked up when he becomes an adult.

26. FREEBIE QUESTION!!

Well, you asked for all of my unhinged Freminet thoughts and . . . you got them.

Link to the asks here

#yo #narky speaks #character ask game #as you can see #i am unhinged about him #genshin impact #freminet

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