20. How often do you get art block (if ever)?

&

23. Draw your favorite character as a vampire!

All the time. I'll even block when given a prompt, haha. That might be why I've never been able to manage Inktober(and similar) for more than maybe a day. If the prompt doesn't immediately spark an idea, it's not happening.

I did Willow, although she isn't my "favorite" (she's gotten pretty high on my list lately, but Hunter and King got that spot). The vampire prompt just brought her halloween costume to mind so...

You should get vaxxed and boosted even though they made you feel sicker than the virus, and wear a mask in public even though you could still get the virus from someone at home, because contrary to what you apparently believe, not everything is about you.

You realize you're responding to some old comment, right? I don't even remember the details of what I said, or where I said it. I also doubt you'll see this response, but whatever.

Are you bringing this up because Covid numbers are rising or something? It's flu season. Of course rates of sickness will increase. That's just how winter works. Just wash your hands and don't cough on people. Humanity and civilization will survive.

"Do this thing that makes you feel awful, blah blah, because you're selfish blah blah" You can't make me. Get your own vax and leave me be.

more under the cut because I ramble a bit

I'm perfectly aware not everything is about me. That's why I use my experience. I can only share personal anecdotes, but what happens to me can happen (and more than likely has) to other people too. I played the game, I stayed home, I wore masks, I got vaxxed, and I still got sick. It happened because, most of the time, sickness is spread between people you spend significant time with, like friends and family. In those situations, people are less careful. You have to rely on other people following the rules, which is something you cannot control for yourself. People generally like having control.

If you want people to collectively do something(like vax or wear masks), they need an assurance that it will benefit them in some way(whether or not anyone else does it, because other people are a factor that can't be controlled). So if I don't see a personal benefit for myself, why would anyone else? Even fewer will cooperate if they see it as a personal detriment. But mandating it, especially when it can't be reasonably enforced without trampling rights, will only create resentment and discontent.

I believe in the benefit of vaccines in general(smallpox, chickenpox, flu, etc), but can you really blame people for being hesitant to have an experimental serum injected into their bodies? With so little testing, how could anyone feel assured it was safe? Unknown side effects could be dangerous. The covid vax didn't even work as well as promised(if at all).

The Covid response in general was a massive overreaction. People lost jobs and opportunities, mental illness increased, children's social development was wrecked. Everyone panicked and it hurt communities and relationships. Lives were ruined, and lives were lost(suicide increased) I'm not convinced the perceived benefit outweighed the cost.

Society has such an inflated view of what we can control. Mass efforts to control, under the guise of helping, often causes harm. During the Black Plague, people believed things like cats and dogs were the cause, so they got rid of them. But they didn't realize that the cats and dogs reduced the number of rats, which reduced the number of infected fleas, which reduced the prevalence of the bacteria. Without those cats and dogs, it just got worse.

Mankai March question 1!

Welcome to the event!!! I’m super excited to see all the answers, so let’s hear about something simple: How did you first find out about A3? Was it through the anime? A friend? Saw an ad? Tell us about it!

hi kiri What’s the deal with a3’s timeloop day. you shouldn’t be surprised that I am asking this. okay I love you bye

ok this is actually a pretty simple answer! but i got rambly so here's a readmore.

A3! (which stands for Act! Addict! Actors! <- don’t ask me why it’s this. idk) is a gacha game where you play as the manager, Izumi Tachibana (I’m doing first name, last name here) and you work to revive a dying theater company called Mankai. there’s 3 Acts, each with like, 4 big stories in them. and a bunchhhh of shorter event storiess which imo are crucial to experience. The first 2 acts, along with the interceding events, have been completely localized, and were run on the now-defunct English server. There is, however, an archive—if at any point in time you are ever interested, feel free to shoot me a message. And I’m serious. Even if it’s like two years later. It’s been like almost 3 years since I started going thru a3 and I haven’t even finished act 2. I’m slow

Anyways, Act 1 deals with establishing the company—in its former glory, there used to be four troupes that rotated by season. Izumi’s dad also used to run it, and he disappeared. So that’s why there’s four big stories each act: it’s one per season. In Act 1, each story deals with gathering the members for each season troupe together, and then pulling off their first play. And it also deals with like, the issues all the characters are facing. It is like, within the yumejoshi genre so there’s definitely that vibe of like. wow look at all these pretty boys who are kind of into me!? but I think it’s pretty mild on that point and like. something I enjoy is that I can see Izumi as like. an actual Character as opposed to just a self-insert. Which is nice. but the real selling point for me is that there’s a lot of like, found family and rich character dynamics within the cast. It is even homosexual sometimes.

One thing I find really interesting about a3 is that I think it has really strong character writing and development. And it’s really good at establishing different “moods” across each troupe, which works well in creating dynamics and also because each troupe specializes in something different. So spring is like, the “classic” troupe—they tend to do lots of reinterpretations of classic works, though that’s not exclusively their thing… but anyways. they do like. nice fantastical stories in my opinion. Summer does comedy, autumn does action, and winter does drama. and winter HAS drama.

Now up until winter there’s been some wackiness in a3 but it’s been like, pretty grounded in how it’s played out. and then winter rolls around and. see the issue with winter is that unlike some of the younger members they’re all composed of adults. so they’re bad at talking about their feelings, because instead of just shouting things out loud they will just shut down and like. Leave. I love this about them and I think it’s such a good writing choice.

Enter Tasuku Takato and Tsumugi Tsukioka. Tasuku and Tsumugi used to be like, the best of friends. they acted together and followed their passions together. and then they both auditioned for the God Troupe together, which is this prestigious famous troupe (it’s also evil.) and while tasuku got in and became one of the lead actors, tsumugi failed his audition. This left a deep scar on Tsumugi, who ended up kind of running away from acting as a vocation all together. now, Tasuku quit the God troupe because they were engaging in some shady stuff, and ended up joining Mankai along with Tsumugi, who coincidentally was inspired to try acting again. tsumugi’s been elected the leader of winter troupe, and therefore the person who’s meant to take the lead role in their first play. Tasuku is constantly snapping at him whenever he’s unconfident, and it’s just not great vibes. To top it all off, they’ve been issued a challenge by the God troupe, where they’ll both perform and the audience has to vote on which play they like better. Tsumugi is not really confident he can stand up to them for obvious reasons. Tasuku gets mad at him about it. Tsumugi runs into this weird doll, and the next day, they wake up in a time loop.

See, the thing is, they’re on such a tight deadline for the play, and winter is So Bad at talking about their feelings, that magic is real now. this is somewhat of an oversimplification, but it’s funny to say it like this. Anyways, there are like, seven mysteries in Mankai (have I mentioned they all dorm together! they all do! Each of them has a roommate and they all live in a big dorm that’s connected to their own theater and stage. It’s part of why they’re in such big debt and trouble at the beginning—its really hard to maintain those facilities) and one of them is about this doll that will put you in a time loop unless you become friends. essentially. And this is what happens… eventually they end up talking to each other for real due to the time loop, and each affirms just how much they respect the acting of the other. later on when Tsumugi slips back into being unconfident tasuku is able to resolve his past mistakes, because part of why he was so angry at Tsumugi was also because he was angry at himself for like. not reaching out. And telling him how much he loved him and his acting. Because their styles are very different—tasuku is loud and commanding, and Tsumugi is a more understated and subtle.

A3 is also very very cool in that parts of its plays mirror real life? so like. this play, sympathy for an angel, has two leads: Michael (Tsumugi) and Raphael (Tasuku). In it, Michael becomes interested in this woman on a list of people who are about to die, and ends up visiting the human world. He writes letters to her. His friend, Raphael, warns him against this, saying that he’s foolish for going so far for someone he can’t even meet. And each time he steps into the human world, his own soul gets weaker, and his wings begin to wither. Still, he persists against objections. Eventually, the woman recovers, gets a fiancé, and he returns to heaven. Thinking he’ll just wish for her happiness even with his unrequited love, he looks at the list and finds out that despite recovering, she’s still on the close to death list. Despite the danger to himself, he descends into the human world, and takes her place in a car accident. As he’s dying, his soul about to be obliterated because he’s been in the human world too often, Raphael descends and holds him in his arms. Michael says that he’s happy he got to do something for the person he loves, and he’s happy to be held by his best friend. Raphael says that though he’d called Michael the fool, it was him that truly was one: because he stood by, unable to protect both the person he loves and his best friend. Because he was in love with Michael the whole time of course. And then Michael dies in his arms. Now this makes me weepy as does the accompanying character song but what I really love most about it is like. Raphael’s regrets in that he didn’t protect Michael kind of directly mirror Tasuku’s own regrets in being unable to help Tsumugi when he was going through a tough time? only Tsumugi isn’t dead and so Tasuku has an actual chance to fix things, which is sweet.

It should be mentioned that one guy in the spring troupe WRITES all of these plays which is deeply funny to me bc it means that 1) he is probably gay and doesn’t know this and 2) he has precognitive abilities regarding the inner psyche of all of his castmates. and that’s a3 timeloop day. some of these a3 characters have me by the throat btw I just get beamed visions of them chatting and introspecting like constantly. I definitely haven’t explained everything but I think this is enough?

hmmm

just saw a bimbo!reader x incel!idia shroud...

...what if i did something self-indulgent...

haha jk!!! ...unless...?

With their combined knowledge of things there isn’t a single crossword mankai couldn’t solve if they all worked together

Did you hear that they're gonna give Izumi a voice in the game's main story? I believe it said her anime va will voice her.

ooh, this would be neat !!! bless, she did a wonderful job and I don't doubt she'll smash the main story!! it's a LOT of dialogue, though. I hope she has some honey...

The a3 as your students post was too good pls tell me you have more of those they gave me such serotonine

Haha glad you liked them! I have a little notebook where I like to write what they say and it's so cute to read afterward 💕 Needed to check cause I really dig to find the ones that matched that post last time and this time it was harder, only opted for a few:

Tsuzuru: "I love my siblings except when I don't, you know?"

Masumi: "Sometimes I wish I could steal you to my house!"

Tenma: "Wait, where does skim milk come from? Skinny cows?"

Azuma: *After teaching about time; big hand for hours, little one for minutes and thin one for seconds, raises hand* "And the one for the moments?"

Banri: "I don't know if I'd want to fight myself. No wait! Yeah, I would."

Azami: "I'm not the coolest! *huffs* I just do a lot of cool things."

Itaru: "We ARE all a bit nuts here so I think you are doing a good job so far."

Homare *After being asked what their drawing meant* "It's me and my dad on a hike! I'm strict like Picasso."

Taichi: "If when I grow up I don't have a Mortgage... will they arrest me?"

hi hi, i'm really new to A3! (only been playing since September) and i still don't know how to grind for events effectively. do you have any tips?

Hellooooo!

The best advice I can give is participate in every event and try to reach tier 5 or higher so you can stack up your card list with SSRs! It’s really hard to do events when you constantly have to use 4-5sp for everything. As a beginner the best way to start out your card list is pulling for the gacha because the gacha card bonuses really help with climbing high too.

The purple icon tells you if you get extra points from that card. (This only shows up on your show teams not your practice teams) And the amount of extra rank points you get depend on the grade of the card (SSR, SR, R) (Ns do not give any extra points) and how many times you’ve bloomed the card (up to two). And yes you can throw all your gacha cards into a team.

You need a variety of cards with the different attributes (CO, AC, DR) because you can use link skills. The link sends you to the whole list of link skills and even the optimized teams you need for whatever attribute team you need for a specific character. Though the problem with using gacha cards is that it could potentially not let you use the optimal link skills for teams, BUT it could still let you reach the point amount since gacha cards also give bonus points to it.

Also when setting up your CO team try to make every card CO and so on!

I could make this so much longer but I feel like these are the basics and it’s possible I may have missed something, but I’ll add on if I remember later!

And I’m really glad you’ve started playing, a3 is really good!

Okay, a few quick concept sketches based on anon's submission. These are the six fallen children from Undertale. Here are some quick facts about the kids:

Emma: -Her soul color is cyan -Is a shy and timid,but kind and friendly girl.Never gets angry.Very easy to make her sad. -Was a little scared of Bradley a few times when she first met him, but after he saved her from some bullies, she learned that he was a friendly boy and after that they became best friends -Had very caring and somewhat overprotective parents Bradley: -His soul color is orange -Has a short temper,but is friendly most of the time -Doesn't like to bully other kids(Isn't a bully himself) -Despite his appearance,he isn't an arrogant jerk -Has a friendly rivalry with Peter Anna: -Her soul color is royal blue -Somewhat ditzy,but friendly nonetheless -Acts as "the mom friend" of the group -Likes to help her friends and is very honest Peter: -His soul color is purple -Acts as "the dad friend" of the group -Sometimes uses British slang -Is intelligent and friendly, becomes snarky and a bit mean towards people that bully his friends -Along with monsters and magic,he also likes fun facts and trivia Hazel: -Her soul color is green -Is a gentle giant(only a few inches taller than Peter and Austin,making her the tallest in the group) -Loves nature and animals Austin: -His soul color is yellow -Is bubbly,friendly and somewhat naive -Can be serious and a bit scary when he wants to be -Likes to solve problems with careful thinking and kindness,will only use violence when necessary Their eye colors reflect the color of their souls. Also, the age range between Emma, Bradley, Anna, Peter, Hazel and Austin is: 10-13(Emma is the youngest and Austin is the oldest).

I'll explain some of my choices under the cut

I had to take some creative liberties because those flash style dress up games don't always have tons of options. I didn't want to give the girls the exact same bangs, for example. So I chose to mix it up slightly. I don't really do well drawing consistent heights, so I just tried to keep them somewhat relative to each other. Hazel is the tallest, but Austin's hat makes him look taller. Also kept their freckles simple.

For Emma, the description said the dress went just below her ankles. I did them just above because I like it better. I assumed the wordage of different blues blending into each other meant a gradient. I made the waist/ribbon full pink because it got a little cluttered otherwise, and I wanted to break up the blue so it wasn't too overwhelming.

For Bradley, I put the headband over his hair so it would be more visible. Then changed some of the colors of his outfit so they wouldn't be too similar to his skin tone. I wasn't totally sure if he was supposed to be black or brown.... I leaned more toward brown because the hair didn't seem to be curly at all.

I changed Peter's color palette because the amount of purple was a tad overwhelming, so I wanted to balance it out a little. It may be my favorite color, but I do have my limits.

I forgot to include Hazel's headband. Whoops.

As for which ones are my favorites. Hmm... I relate with Peter the most. But Anna and Austin were the most fun to draw.

FUCK YEAH

Mankai March question 17!

This one’s similar to yesterday’s! If you were to see one of Mankai’s plays in real life, which one would it be? I know I’d want to see Magician’s Pure Love, it’s forever a favorite!

Green residue hair man

Benjamin why is your hair so weird

Benjamin: My hair isn't.. weird. It's my hair, not yours-

..Shut up.

I got a rather scathing ask in response to something I said in the tags of a reblog a while ago. I couldn't really even remember what I said, so I had to look for it. I believe the person sent the ask, and then blocked me. Which is fine, whatever. What irritates me is how people draw such wild conclusions based off of two sentences.

I've been purposefully avoiding most everything on this site I can about the whole Israel-Palestine conflict. I've reblogged one, maybe two, things about it. I'm not tagging this because I don't want it easy to fine. I want it to be one and done. So if this is a topic you wish to avoid, you've had your warning.

The ask in question was referring to THIS post. With my tags in the following image.

And the "ask" in question:

The Palestinian people aren't collectively guilty of anything. Hamas is a terrorist group intent on ethnic cleansing. And Hamas' attack on Oct 7 was massively brutal. I've seen some very disturbing footage from it. There is no justification for slaughtering babies in cribs(or tossing them into ovens), or beheading someone(who is too injured to even weakly resist) with a dull hoe, or parading women's brutalized corpses for everyone else to spit on. I saw the footage, so nobody can convince me that didn't happen. Innocent Israelis were massacred. The deaths of innocents on either side is tragic, but there is a certain type of evil in such a hands-on manner of murder, as opposed to the detachment of sending bombs. Hamas enjoyed their rampage.

And Hamas believes it is the duty of every Palestinian to participate in Jihad, so they do not feel bad about using their own innocent people as cannon fodder. To them, it is just a sacrifice their people are obligated to make. And it works for them, because it makes Israel look bad. And Israel fell for it. The bombings clearly aren't helping, which is why I don't know how to feel about Israel's response.

The "Jewish government" has done nothing. Because that's not what it is. It's the Israeli government. And Israel wants to exterminate Hamas, because Hamas wants to eradicate Jews and Israel.

Hamas official, Hamad Al-Regeb in an April 2023 sermon: He prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews whom he described as filthy animals: “[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about.” Al-Regeb also prayed for the ability to “get to the necks of the Jews.”

Hamas is not interested in peace. And this is according to their officials as well as their own founding charter. They are certainly antisemitic. A cease fire from Israel wouldn't stop future Hamas attacks.

'[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement... Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam... There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.' (Article 13)

Can you really expect Israel to just let all this slide like they weren't just told, "We want to destroy you, and peace is not an option"? What are they supposed to do? Let Hamas slaughter them over and over again? Be driven out of their ancestral homeland(The area is sacred for both Jews and Muslims, and both have historic claim to it)?

You know, it's so ironic that the word genocide was coined because of the Holocaust, and Hamas is blaming Jews for everything like Hitler did.

'The enemies have been scheming for a long time ... and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media... With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe... They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about... With their money they formed secret organizations - such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions - which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests... They stood behind World War I ... and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains... There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it.' (Article 22)

You see, the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction generally has clear good guys and bad guys. There's the protagonist we root for, and the antagonist who is in the wrong, no matter how sympathetic they may or may not be. It is as clear cut as the author wants it to be. Reality is messy. Both sides say that they are justified in the atrocities they commit, so who decides which is truly in the wrong?

You can spin the narrative either way. Bend facts to make either side look good or bad. With Israel, I can at least understand how it can be justified as self defense. Hamas' Oct 7th attack cannot. That was pure slaughter. Ignoring the sheer brutality of Hamas and excusing that in "support" of Palestine is the blind devotion I was referring to. Hamas and Palestine seem to be referred to interchangeably, but they shouldn't be. Hamas is a terrorist group.

Calling me a hypocrite is a bold claim to make in response to two sentences that I said. It really seems like this person straw-manned an argument.

committing act of psychological warfare by sending my friends who aren’t into a3 a personality test to know which a3 character they are and then elaborate on their result until it drives them to feel completely psychologically exposed and roasted out of nowhere

who are your tumblr besties? ✨

Oh gosh anon... this is a good question.

@omgitsaddyc is an og bestie 💖 she was my first jubaliker mutual I talked to and I still very much adore and am in awe of them 😳👉👈 also she wrote the juban hannah montana au which is so fucking good you should go read it.

@7-oh-ta1 THE BELOVED TUMBLR BLORBO... TO ME 🫶💖 we played outlast together a while back and are watching a playthrough of botw but also she is the most correct person ever about taichi nanao and tenma sumeragi. She is very wonderful and kind and you should all give her a lotta love I think.

@gompereatsall is a tumblr bestie fr. My favourite tsumugi liker 🫶💙

@primeministerofantarctica really helped me establish batmankai au as an idea and I love their writing. It's so fucking good I eat it for breakfast every day.

@precurea3, @anzushi I go waaaay back, we've been friends about 3 years now... woag. All part of picsgang and bonded over not just a3!, but sonic. Very good sign. Adore them both a lot and they're super friendly. Also, the ones responsible for the dc brainrot 😒 /lh

@lavenderlumi is another fellow jubaliker that I adore!! We play genshin together and scream about juza a lot.

@freedomsnotes IS SWAG AS HELL,, she makes awesome edits and also reminds me when it's fat fuck friday. They're a real one for that.

@mrshamada-dorian has been an absolute doll for sending asks lately and I very much appreciate her!!! ^^/

UHM. I don't really talk to people from here that often thru dms, even barely with some of the people who are on this list... but

@/emilycollins00, @/winterswhite, @/gayforjuza, @/unculturedswine69, @/everwisp, @/azuma-y, @/bambuwu-writes, @/dave-the-timelord, @/beananium, @/lc-is-bored, @/skateboarding-poet, @/natsu-tte-noodle, @/ohagialpaca, @/lcst-at-5ea, @/tappdancing, @/nilesmoon, @/blooming-a3, @/nais-doodles are all incredible a3!(adjacent) accounts I love and stare at from a distance... I'm absolutely positive I'm forgetting some too... I'm sorry if I forgor... ESPECIALLY ARTISTS I KNOW IM FORGETTING THE 6 PEOPLE WHO MAKE AMAZING ART FOR US SOBS...