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aezuria · 2 months

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*ੈ✎ two boys (one to kiss your neck and one to bring you breakfast)

note: guys this wasnt supposed to be my first work here but it came to me the easiest 😔😔 song title is bike dream by rostum 😍this isnt like the meaning of the song tho dw

content: leo valdez x reader, jason x reader; dating hcs

*ੈ LEO VALDEZ

loves affectionately and openly

he'll peck your lips in front of everyone without a care in the world, as if after he's had a taste of your touch, he can't go a second without it (he'd probably make out with you if you let him)

he follows you everywhere, even trying to go with you while you shower (he'll never go inside the actual shower unless you want to)

"leo, as much as i love you, no. not today at least!"

"i'll just sit on the toilet seat, i swear! and i can talk about all my cool inventions!"

(maybe you'll change your mind?)

has to have a hand on you at all times

even a pinky will do for him

he loves holding pinkies actually, he thinks its so cute

will make you pinky promise not to snitch on him when he blurts out a new prank idea in the works

loves overexaggerating gentlemanly acts?? for the sillies

like he'll bow down to a 90 degree angle and swoop an arm out while the other kisses your hand

opens the car door for you like an escort

"for you, milady!" and does a cheeky little wink as he bows

he loves it when you play along like a rich noble from the 1800s

showers you with the metal work he does

he'll make you cute little rings and necklaces if you like jewelry

or metal flowers that'll never wilt

or something more practical, like a switchblade if you like those

either wakes up at 5am or sleeps in until noon there is no in between

or maybe he stays up until 5am because one time you caught him slipping out of bed to finish up the gift he was making you

"leo? what are you doing up?" you rub your eyes sleepily as you catch him at his desk, the lamp you gifted him glowing dimly

he startles and shoves (gently) the scraps of metal you see behind his arm

he grins sheepishly and rests his hand on his fist, positioning himself so you wouldn't see what he was making

"uh.. nothing! just finishing something!" he doesn't lie per se, but he'd rather not tell you the whole truth just yet (he loves how your face lights up when he presents another gift to you)

being the half-asleep mess you are, you didn't notice much

"alright.. just go to sleep soon, okay?" you yawn and turn back around to head back to bed.

"will do!" he whisper-shouts after you and sighs to himself in relief once you leave. close call!

you find a warm blanket preventing you from getting up the next morning, which just happened to be leo, his arms wrapped around your waist as if you were a pillow

a few more hours of sleep can't hurt, right?

*ੈ JASON GRACE

he's a bit shy to love

doesn't really do pda, but he'll hold your hand lotsss

if you guys started dating but didn't announce it, no one would catch on until they see you and jason holding hands (that took a lot of courage on his end btw)

after that he was a bit more open about it

i feel like he's kind of awkward at first

he tried to sneak up behind you one time and hug you but you turned around too soon and accidentally rammed your head into his chin

he tried to play it off because he's too cool to be embarrassed (his face was bright red)

can and will pick you up

it all started when you guys were running from monsters but your leg was injured so you couldn't move that fast and he literally just swooped you up bridal style and RAN

ran like the wind, even (haha guys pls laugh)

literally sprinting even as he carries a whole person like you were nothing

you fell in love (again)

he found out you like it when he does that so he'll do it randomly

"so then i said-" you were cut off with a yelp as jason picked you up off the bed and carried you in his arms, swinging you gently with a smile on his face

you pause in your storytelling, blinking at him as you grow increasingly flustered

he merely nods at you, saying, "keep going, i'm listening."

OH MY GOODNESS

tried to do reps with you after but you kept laughing

acts of service is so him

when you complain about it being too hot, he'll send a cool breeze your way

if you ask him if he did that, he'll play dumb

it was sweltering outside, the summer heat even worse as the both of you hiked up a trail

"gods, it's so hot!" you complained, taking a long swig of your water

jason hummed his agreement, and shortly after you felt a weird breeze out of nowhere

you pause, eyeing the demigod in front of you

"jason?"

"yeah?"

"did you do that?" you prod at his back teasingly, the smile evident in your voice

"i have no idea what you're talking about."

#leo valdez #leo valdez x reader #jason grace #jason grace x reader #hoo #hoo x reader #heroes of olympus #heroes of olympus x reader #pjo #percy jackon and the olympians #*ੈ✎ stories

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cal-kestis · 11 months

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HOW TO: Do a Motion Blur Transition Using Timeline or Frame Animation

Hi! Someone asked me for a tutorial on the transition effect in the second gif of this set (also featured in this set and the text on this set). So, here it is! This is one of the easiest and least tedious of the gif transition effects in my opinion — and I’m going to go over how to do it both in Timeline and Frame Animation (using the screencap method). Disclaimer: This tutorial assumes you have a basic understanding of gif-making in Photoshop.

PHASE 1: PREP

This phase applies to both the Timeline and Frames method!

1.1 – Prepare your caps. (New to gif-making? Check out my basic tutorial here!)

The key to this kind of gif is making sure your final gif, with all the transitions, won’t be too long or too big of a file to post (Tumblr’s limit is 10 MB).

If your gif is going to be big like mine (540x500px), you might want to keep your total frames between 50-60. I decided to try getting away with a whopping 70 frames total... because I like to test fate (spoiler: my final gif ended up being 9.6 MB 🙈). Since my gif is transitioning between two scenes, that means each scene was 35 frames.

If you aren’t doing screencaps like me, just make sure your clips are equal in length. And if you’re transitioning between more than 2 scenes (like the Mando example I linked at the beginning), you’ll have to use shorter clips/fewer frames per scene. In my Mando gif, each scene was 16 frames and my final gif was 64 frames.

1.2 – Crop, sharpen, color, etc. as you would. For this, since you’ll probably have 2 more more sets of coloring, just make sure your coloring is only being applied to the appropriate gifs. The way I do that is by aligning my adjustment layers with my gif as you can see in the screenshot in 1.3 below.

1.3 – Arrange your frames or clips. If you’re working in Timeline, drag the clips/layers of your second gif so they’re immediately after the ones of your first gif. I like to keep things separated in Groups:

Note: I’m keeping my text layers separate because I don’t want the motion blur to affect them. But if you wanted to make your text transition from one word to another, you can either follow the same steps I’m about to show you and apply them to your text layers, or simply merge your text layers with your gif and adjustment layers, so they can all get the motion blur filter applied to them!

If you’re working in Frames, simply paste the frames of your second gif after the frames of your first gif. Again, you can either keep your text separated or part of the motion blur.

METHOD: TIMELINE

T.1 – Divide the Timeline. Using the Scissors Tool, you’ll want to divide each gif so there are 3 small segments at the beginning and end. (3 is my go-to, however, for my Mando gif, I actually only did 2 segments because each section was already so short.)

Now there are two options for this:

OPTION 1: Simplest, 00:01 Seconds Each, Makes Duplicate Frames

You might be wondering, why on earth would I want duplicate frames? You wouldn’t, usually. But this method only causes the duplicates to happen on the blurred frames, so it’s not noticeable at all! However, if you’re like me (read: Type A) — just knowing there are duplicate frames may bother you. If that’s you, go to Option 2.

Each of these segments are the absolute smallest Photoshop will allow, a duration of 00:01.

Sometimes Timeline won’t let you cut things that short (for me, this typically only happens at the end of a clip). So my work around is to cut the segment so it’s 00:02 seconds long, then drag the clip until it’s as small as it can be. Here’s a gif showing that process:

You can see that after I dragged the clip so it would be 00:01, I also dragged the big clip over so it would still continue as normal. Timeline is neat because, even if you divide a clip, each segment can be dragged back to its full length.

OPTION 2: 00:02 / 00:01 / 00:02, No Duplicate Frames

Timeline works in a weird way... when you move forward one frame by clicking the right arrow, you don’t always see movement in your gif. And if you don’t line up the clips properly with the movement, it can create duplicate frames. The easy way to fix this is by making the 3 segments 00:02, 00:01, and 00:02 seconds respectively. This goes for the segments at the beginning and end.

You can see the duration of each segment and an example of how the gif doesn’t move on certain frames in this gif of my workspace:

T.2 – Apply the Motion Blur filter in varying distances or strengths. Now that we have all of our segments, it’s time to apply the blur. Motion Blur is under Filter > Blur > Motion Blur!

This is the window you’ll see when you click it:

Note the fields where you can change the angle and distance.

The angle is basically the direction in which you want the blurred effect to stretch. I always do 0 because I want my gifs to blur together horizontally — I just think it looks smooth. You can play around with it if you want to get a different effect!

The distance is what I like to refer to as the strength of the blur. But really, it’s distance because it’s how long the blurred effect is being stretched.

The rule of thumb here is to apply the filter in a gradation. The part at the beginning of one gif should go from strongest (greatest distance) to weakest (least distance). The part at the end of one gif should go from weakest to strongest.

I keep things easy to remember and do 20, 15, 10 for the beginning and 5, 10, 15 for the end. The reason the numbers aren’t the same is because I don’t want the end of Gif 1 (which is blurred 15px distance) to be the same as the beginning of Gif 2 (which is blurred 20px distance). If they’re the same amount of blur, I don’t think the transition looks as smooth.

Here’s my entire timeline and the strength of blur I used for each of the transitional clips:

T.3 – Export That’s it! Convert from Timeline to Frames, export your gif, and there you go!

Reminder, if you decided to do Option 1, you’ll have duplicate frames, and therefore more frames than you started out with when you initially imported caps.

METHOD: FRAMES

F.1 – Apply the Motion Blur filter in varying distances or strengths. In Timeline, we created segments. But in Frames, each frame acts as one of those segments — so we don’t need to divide anything. We can just get straight to the filter!

Now, disclaimer: the way I’m working with Frames right now is with the adjustment layers merged with the frames. I typically work in Timeline, so I colored in Timeline and then converted into Frames for this. However you work, just make sure the coloring from one part of your gif doesn’t affect the other part.

Anyway, here’s where to find Motion Blur again:

And here’s what the window will look like:

Now just apply the filter in increasing and decreasing degrees. In case you didn’t read the Timeline section, I’ll paste exactly what I said there:

Note the fields where you can change the angle and distance.

The distance is what I like to refer to as the strength of the blur. But really, it’s distance because it’s how long the blurred effect is being stretched.

Here are all my frames and the strength of the blur I used for each of the transitional frames:

Note: I wanted to mention again that I kept my text layers in a separate group and didn’t apply the transition to them:

F.2 – Export Finished! Easy peasy!

EXPORTING TIP

If you’ve read my other tutorials, you already know this tip — but since I’m part of Discord servers where members are encouraged to share embed links to their creations, I often rearrange the order of my frames before saving them. (This tip is also handy for making sure the best frame of your gif is visible for Tumblr users who turn off auto-playing gifs.) In this case, I made frame 27 my new frame 1 because I didn’t want my embed preview to look like a blurry gif. Everything will still be in the same order, but anywhere your gif is paused, the best frame will be displayed!

Anyway, that’s it! If you have specific questions about this tutorial, my ask box is open. Hope this helps! <3

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fanfic-enthusiast · 1 year

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Could I please request headcanons of one of the other bishops catching Leshy in an act of intimacy with a follower? I can imagine there might be a bit of internal conflict, depending on that bishop's values, between different things they may think are right. I.e. "They're a bishop and his follower, so do I stop this? They both clearly want to do this, so do I give them privacy and pretend I never walked in on them?"

OOOoooo juicy!! This probably happened before they all got injured.

Warning NSFW Themes

Heket

She made the unfortunate mistake of not sending a letter ahead of her before visiting her little brother. Traveling instantly through the lands has its pros and cons.

Appearing through the floor inside his temple, she didn’t see him in the main room and figured he was in his chambers. Thankfully she heard what was going on inside before she opened the door.

I think she left just as quickly as she came, not uttering so much as a word as she absconded back to Anura.

Needless to say she is working very hard to burn that memory out of her head with mushrooms. And for the most part is successful.

As for the fact that it was a follower he was with, her general philosophy is, "They're here to serve us." She will probably caution Leshy in privet to, "not let that follower think themselves superior to you."

Other then that she would prefer never to talk or think on that unfortunate incident ever again.

Kallamar

He came to Darkwood to ask Leshy if he had messed with his sword collection. Things had been moved from where they were supposed to be in his weapons room.

Marching through the temple too caught up in his own thoughts to realize why exactly the temple was so empty and why the door to Leshy’s personal chambers were closed.

“I thought I told you to stay away from my collections! They're valuable and fragile and I-” He cuts himself off after making eye contact with Leshy and his follower. Quickly ducking out of the room and slamming the door behind him with a “OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUS-” along with various retching sounds. Needless to say he will be knocking on Leshy’s door every time from now onwards.

Leshy finds him in the main room of his temple looking a little green in the gills and makes his older brother promise not to tell Shamura.

“Fine. Just stay away from my collections.”

Kallamar’s opinion on Leshy’s relationship is pretty much the same as Heket’s so long as it doesn't effect their status as bishops he doesn’t care who Leshy sleeps with.

Shamura

They needed Leshy’s insight on some odd animal behaviors in Silk Cradle, yes they could just consult the endless number of scrolls and tomes on their shelves but sometimes one on one talks were the easiest solution. Their little brother was always so in tune with the chaos of nature after all.

They hummed as they appeared through the floor of the main temple room only to find it empty. Odd but not a problem. The spider made their way to Leshy’s personal chambers but stopped once they heard what was going on through the door.

Once the momentary shock had passed they knocked on the door and the sound inside stopped. Moments later after some shuffling Leshy’s face poked out from around the opened door.

“Hello brother, I require your insight on a matter in my domain when you get a moment. I know you're busy in there-”

“Shamura I-” “I don’t need an explanation Leshy, but expect a review on safe sexual practices. And no you're not getting out of it.”

“Please no not again-”

“Oh and bring your partner you have in there as well. Only right for them to be fully educated on such matters as well.”

Leshy and his partner for the evening are essentially forced to listen to and extensive birds and bees lecture.

Doesn’t matter to Shamura if they're a follower or not, just that they take good care of Leshy and make him happy. Anything less and they don’t deem them fit to be in such a position.

Narinder

Finally a chance to prank Leshy back for all the times the worm has messed with him!

Narinder slides through the doors of Leshy’s temple with supplies in hand. Mostly bowls of only the most rancid “food” Narinder could get his hands on. With the plan to throw this at the worm when his back was turned.

Leshy was missing from the main room of the temple, which meant he was elsewhere inside. Perfect!

He crept slowly up to the door of his brother’s personal quarters and just barely heard Leshy talking inside, low enough where he couldn’t make out what was being said. He muffled his giggles as best he could to avoid detection.

Narinder threw open the door and quickly threw the overflowing bowl towards his brother before he could fully witness the scene in front of him.

He realized exactly what Leshy had been doing when his brother quickly shoved him out of the room, nude and absolutely livid.

Didn’t stop Narinder from cackling in the hallway for a solid half an hour as Leshy calmed down his startled follower partner.

After Leshy cleaned himself and his partner up, he hunted Narinder down to scream at him. Which only made the cat laugh harder.

“Can’t handle a little payback little brother?”

No remorse for his actions, especially for the follower. They're just tools for him and his siblings after all.

He isn’t laughing like that when Leshy and his partner shave him in retaliation but that’s a story for another time.

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thedoover-if · 10 months

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Hey author! Since it was my birthday today, I wanted to send this ask in!

How would they ROs plan MC's birthday? How did the ex do it when they were still together? And How will they do it now?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!🥳🥳 wishing you an AWESOME day!!!!

your wish is my command haha but ill put it under the cut cause i got a little carried away LOL

for the ex spouse it would definitely depend on what kind of person the MC is, so if your MC was a lowkey person who didnt like that whole party shebang then they wouldve organised a small get together with their parents, your parents and the MCs closest friends. but if your MC was outgoing and extroverted, they would have probably planned a surprise party!! its really just about the MCs comfort level since theyve known you for so long

now is a whole different story. i think now they wouldnt plan a party or anything, theyd just drop by with a small gift they picked out way too early (multiple months ago) with a little note and just place it in front of the door. i dont think they would risk ruining the MCs birthday in case the MC didnt want them there so that would probably be the easiest solution

this would be the first time the bartender will have actually spent MCs birthday with them cause usually theyd have to work so would only see them for very short!! but when theyre dating theyd book time off and then once theres only a couple hours left before the MCs birthday, they would toss a helmet at the MC and just say something like "c'mon i wanna show you something" (they wont give much away LOL). then theyd take the MC to a secluded place they usually retreat to clear their head, and there would be a picnic already set up. and then when theres only one minute left till midnight, theyd count down from 10 with a cupcake and one single candle between them and at one theyd wish the MC a happy birthday and tell them to make a wish haha. then if the MC would like theyd stay out there for a few more hours

fyi the bartender wanted to do something like this because they didnt want to rob the MC of any moments they could have with their friends, family etc

if the MC has a party later on in the day the bartender would probably show for a bit but they wouldnt stay long just cause it isnt their scene. but if the MC has a family dinner or something like that theyd be so stressed out haha but theyd still attend if the MC invited them and yeah you might need to elbow them a couple of times to get them to actually talk LOL

the patient loves to organise special events so the first time they plan a birthday the MCs birthday itll be both LOL cause they wouldnt be 100% sure so theyd just have a small gathering in the afternoon and then a big party in the evening. theyd invite every person from the MCs contacts, and let them know and then by the end of the day theyd ask the MC which one they liked better. and then theyd use the information to make their next birthdays one to remember haha so yeah they first one might be a little experimental but theyll make sure to make the next as great as they can with loads of pictures to remember it by!!

#inbox <3 #ro: the patient #ro: the bartender #ro: the ex spouse #prompts

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trashcanwithsprinkles · 4 months

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hii! i am in love with your works. i've read itysg(ainly) several times and cyanide twice T.T you deserve all the love, you've become one of my top 3 comfort authors <3

i have a quick question. do you have a compilation of your abyss lore somewhere? like how you can't cry in the abyss because the salt attracts the enemies (i sincerely hope that is from you and i'm not confusing it with someone else's T.T) uhh, cause i intend to base my research on it :) no issue tho if not

oh! no i don't think i have it anywhere, but it's no trouble to me to just- dump it all here, so-

i'll leave it under the cut, but tysm!! good luck writing and obviously feel free to tweak and change stuff to better fit whatever you're going for!

ok so- this is going to be about canon-genshin's abyss. the only difference between that one and cyanide's abyss is a lack of rhinedottir creatures, so.

landscape

i've always been torn between if the abyss is like- just a small area, like within a huge cave; or if it's its own entire realm altogether. like a whole other world, with its own continents and all that. it feels so limiting to make it only a cave, but it also feels a bit too strange to make it just- mirror teyvat. idk anyway,

under the assumption that it's not as big as teyvat but larger than just a cave, we could look at it like one large landmass surrounded by ocean

the moon spire is off one of the coasts, around the rainforest area

the easiest way to think about it is probably like minecraft's nether. like the overworld is all open sky and lots of biomes while the nether is all claustrophobic and with only a handful of biomes

i think it'd be cool if it's rainforest and badlands/savanna/desert. but not like sumeru- to me sumeru's rainforest is very much like the jungle in madagascar and the desert is like the sandbanks in africa. i think the abyss could be more like the amazon's rainforest, tighter, a lot less giant fantastical trees and more- 'where the fuck am i, i can hardly see thru the vegetation' sort of place. and the desert more like the usa's stereotypical cacti and tumbleweed all dry land and rocky cliffs.

since irminsul's roots have to be down there and i think the abyss is whacky enough to meld with whatever dimension irminsul resides in, then i think we could literally have massive petrified roots in the middle of the continent. like just- sprouting out of the ground and making this gigantic thing that you could theoretically see from everywhere if it wasn't so fucking dark. in cyanide here would be where the primordial one would've been sealed to in the original abyss, right in the center.

the rainforest area would be full of winding, impossibly deep rivers- like all of them deep like the mariana trench. wet mist hollows and just- general amazon rainforest inconveniences. if you've ever been there you know what i mean. i think it'd be even more fucked up if it doesn't rain, though.

the desert part would be a death sentence, hence why skirk sticks to the rainforest most times, esp while with childe

the area with irminsul's roots would be like a giant haunted forest/cave system, full of the only sources of natural light down there (some glowing moss and insects)

climate

damp and wet-feeling but it's not water, it's abyssal miasma. like it all feels like a sauna. the temperatures would go from uncomfortably kinda-hot in the day to fucking freezing at nigth.

the rainforest feels even wetter but again, not water. everytime you breathe it feels like you have to force your lungs to take in the air. again, if you've ever been to a jungle or rainforest, you know what i mean.

the desert parts would be unbearably hot, but the heat would come from the ground itself, so you'd feel feverish the entire time - it'd be cool if the sands were obnoxiously red from high iron oxides to make it even worse. the more bearable places would be up on the rock cliffs and outcrops, but since they're the more livable places, that means most of the creatures are also up there. speaking of,

creatures

the rifthounds are in the higher areas of the rainforest, almost a tundra, bordering the roots, where the wolflord has its lair and territory. not edible bc they contain aluminum and other not-safe-for-humans metals, and also there's hardly any meat in them lmao.

the giant clay worm(s) lives underground in the lowland rainforest and nobody has really seen it, so it's a non-issue. it's massive, and the reason why the marshlands on a different side of the rainforest exist. i think it'd be interesting if nobody knew whether it's one giant one or multiple giants. also this would be the cause of quakes in the abyss, it's just whenever the thing moves there would be a tremble in the ground

steelclaw harpies are out in the rocky outcrops of the dessert, hence why you'd be forced to walk the superheated base ground instead of going up. if you've ever seen a harpy eagle, just think that but like- the size of a person, and a bit more dinosaur-esque.

the glass rain whale. kinda like the giant clay worm in that hardly anyone sees it, only when it rains glass over the sea (not the land) you can see it come out of the ocean and fly around. the meagre light of the moon makes it seem almost transluscent, like a ghost whale. it couldn't be the all-devouring narwhal bc it wouldn't make sense lore-wise, but it could be similar-looking.

pillar rats are- well, giant rats that live in the canyons and desert. they call them pillar rats because they climb up sheer cliffaces like it's nothing. also they can scratch through pretty much anything, and have very thick hides, so if you need warm clothes that's what you want to hunt

stonetusk hogs are the easiest animal to catch in the rainforest marshlands, but the meat isn't all that tasty. they're blind, like most other creatures. not that big. like- fucked up versions of genshin's boars.

praying goliaths are giant mantis-like mutant bugs that live in the rainforest. they're big big, like twice the size of a person big, and they're best avoided. you can tell where one passed through by the path of cut down vegetation they leave behind as they move, using their front legs as sharp scythes.

canyon rhinos live in both the canyons and the fog hollows. they're practically bulletproof, fuck-off ugly, and very dangerous. blind from overuse of moping ferns (that grow in the hollows) to hide the salt in their eyes. good food if you can catch them

wraith butterflies are around the water deposits and clay banks of the rainforest and always in the hunt for salt. they have sharp legs to perch on hosts and poisonous powder between their wings. yes they're the ones that make crying a bad idea.

stalkwalkers are the kings of the fog hollows and the reason why you don't go there if you're smart. i have mentioned plenty that they're physically inspired by made in abyss' turbinid-dragon (ryuuzazai?). basically a giant six-legged giraffe/seahorse looking thing. the stalkwalkers would have retractable harpoon-like stalks (stillettos) that they use to walk through the forest and to hunt. massive and blind, see through echolocation.

misc

the concentration of abyssal miasma would be a lot more forgiving around irminsul's roots. basically everything is just better around irminsul's roots, but because it's so nice there, most creatures also go there, so no. the wolflord has set up camp nearby also.

it's dark. like there's no light besides the lackustre light of the moon and the glowing moss in irminsul's roots, so all creatures see through either abyssal miasmic sight or a form of echolocation.

you can't plant foreign crops, the soil won't accept it

most root vegetables aren't safe to eat. rooties are though

there's bugs that fuck with your sleep cycles to weaken you

the sand is black

there's almost no fish in the ocean, so it's not worth it to stay on the shores

it's also not worth it to stay generally uncovered from the moon's light bc it has a weird-ass radiation, like the sun.

i think that's all i had? there's probably some bits and pieces of other things about how the abyss filters the miasma and how all creatures evolved to use it since it's the only available energy down there, but i think that's been repeated enough in the fics hahah

anyway yeah! hope that's what you meant. if not oh well, it was probably about time i compiled it all,,

#thank you!!#ily <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

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project-sekai-facts · 10 months

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have you seen that theory about vbs not being the original owners of their sekai, and if so what are your thoughts about it?

i stared at this post for a few minutes wondering if you were talking about a post that was written by me and then i checked twitter and a post about RADder being the original owners popped up on my fyp so i'm assuming that's what you're talking about (also i realised that my post is. still in my drafts).

i go full pepe silvia under the cut. uh. sorry.

yeah anyway i do agree with that theory. kinda. The Street SEKAI is mentioned multiple times in the initial cards to have been around for a while, though this could be referring to the fact that SEKAI take time to grow before they manifest fully to the owners (think about School and Wonderland SEKAI, which probably took years to reveal themselves). But it could also imply that someone else contributed to the SEKAI before VBS. I actually talk about the theory briefly in that first linked post, so we'll continue from there.

so I don't think it was RADder. And yeah basically my only reason is that they're too old. MEIKO was released in 2006, considering the only date mentioned in the game is (Autumn) 2021, this is after An was born, when RADder was already pretty successful. Also we don't know enough about SEKAI physics to confirm this, but Miku seems to be more important than MEIKO so maybe space-time wasn't broken until 2007, and RADder is probably even more successful at that point because of the CDs they recorded when An was a baby.

the SEKAI just doesn't work in the time frame. What we know is that the Street SEKAI was formed by dreams and aspiration. Which is kinda the case for most SEKAI but Street SEKAI was more specifically formed by the passion its creators have for these dreams. and while RADder had big dreams to be top musicians in the world and was passionate about that, they were like realistically never gonna achieve that, but also they were at a point where they were doing very well and were very successful and on their way there. they didn't really need the help from Miku as much as VBS needs it.

Now the way Nagi talks about some things in Light Up the Fire definitely could be read a certain way, especially when she talks about passing on RADder's dream to the kids in the audience at RW, but I still don't think RADder being the original owners entirely works. Honestly the easiest point to argue for that claim is that the Street SEKAI has a very strong attachment to RAD WEEKEND, which on the one hand could be part of the fact that Taiga very clearly never moved past it and never fully processed the death of his sister, but it makes a lot more sense to be a trait tied to the people who aspire to surpass it. also MEIKO outright says that's why the attachment to RW is there in her initial 2*.

However,

I don't think it's entirely out of the question for some of the other side characters to have an influence over the Street SEKAI. As I've mentioned, the SEKAI has a strong attachment to RW, and all of them have the same goal of surpassing the event. Also the 4 older VSingers in the SEKAI (MEIKO, KAITO, Luka, Miku) all takes traits from the members of RADder. Which makes a lot of sense for the main mentor figures in the SEKAI to be based on the people that the kids look up to.

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There is an argument to be made though that they gave up on their dreams to easily. In LUTF, Taiga decides to crush all their dreams and Tatsuya (+ his group), Arata and Kotaro all leave, like, they just give up while (an admittedly very shaken) VBS sticks with their dream.

Tatsuya and EVER leave because all this time they'd been just carrying on until they eventually saw victory, but after taking a beating from Taiga, they realised that there's some things that you won't be able to overcome and give up.

Arata leaves because even though he has skill, Taiga was able to get through to his weakness - Souma. Taiga realises that Arata has experienced a similar loss and grief to he did, and although Arata is trying to carry Souma's dream on his behalf, Taiga knows from experience that Arata is just clinging on to Souma's dream as a way of coping with his loss, rather than actually trying to uphold it (basically he calls him selfish). Arata isn't able to argue back, feels a lot of guilt over that, and leaves.

Kotaro is like. particularly interesting and also most eligible for Miku therapy. He's genuinely really scared and overwhelmed by Taiga's challenge, and gives a poor performance when he has to stand up to him, and straight up gets called shit and weak by Taiga and the audience. Dead serious. Afterwards he literally has a breakdown, calls himself an idiot for not being able to sing and then goes on about how he's shit at everything and apologises because should've given up ages ago because all he's ever done is drag everyone else down before literally running away and DAMN do I hope he gets development on that in the Toya event.

all things considered i'd honestly say that all of them to some degree could've contributed to the formation of the SEKAI, Souma included (honestly he seems the most passionate about it even though he was forced to give up). all of them were passionate about it but then there's always the fact that they all gave up really easily, although they were reluctant. that said, toya did the same thing in the main story so...

Although,

There's still an argument that the Street SEKAI was just formed by the four of VBS, and Kohane was just the final piece of the puzzle that made it reveal itself. Three passionate people who are wholeheartedly devoted to their dream and one ordinary girl who wants to do something that she can dedicate herself to and feel passionate about. inverse MMJ if you will. fate is probably canon in project sekai also like i've mentioned this a few times before so that could play a part in all this.

but come to think of it, the sekai doesn't even reveal itself to Akito and Toya until really late in the main story. supposedly they still heavily influenced it but that's a bit... odd? don't you think? like the only other times that happens is N25 and WxS, wherein the SEKAI was made by only one person and let the others in later, but this was a SEKAI that was supposedly made by all 4 of them. so if you think about it hard enough, could the street sekai maybe do that again?

Also,

Nagi is very important to the VBS story and lore despite the fact that she was very obviously written in much later in development. Going back to the fate thing, at RW she states that since RADder is over and she's over, she now has a new dream, that being that she wants the next generation to be inspired by what they achieved and carry on their legacy. While when she says that, she's talking about An and Akito in the audience at RW, it's stated multiple times that the "next generation" includes all of VBS, and all the side characters. so yeah, the fate thing. I doubt the game will ever do anything about it since they're side characters, but I think it can be argued that they contributed to the SEKAI a bit.

i wrote this in so many increments and in the wrong order and now it lacks any cohesion whatsoever and i have no idea what i'm even saying at this point and i think i sort of proved it and disproved it simultaneously but like. yeah. it's an alright theory. i have some thoughts on it.

#project sekai spoilers #theory #mod talks #asks #part of this may or may not be copypasted from an essay i wrote on another blog so if any part of it seems familiar shhhh no it doesn't

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jumpscaregoose · 2 months

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how I make my manga patches: a shitty tutorial

figured I'd make a post explaining my technique for making the patches I put on my hororen jacket and other projects. because they're cool and more people should do them

here's how I turned this panel into this patch for my hao pants I'm working on:

you will need:

fabric to paint on (I'd recommend a white fabric without a lot of texture. I'm pretty sure the one I use is some kind of polycotton blend?)

basic sewing supplies (needle, pins, thread)

a laptop/tablet you can lie flat on your desk OR a lightbox + printer

pencil (the softer and darker the better, I use 6b)

thin paintbrush

acrylic paint

fabric medium (optional)

thick gloves (if you're tracing off a touchscreen you WILL need these)

pinking shears (optional)

scissors

decide the scale of your patch. for this project I made a digital mockup and then measured how big I wanted it to be on my project. I settled on 3 inches wide

download the image you plan to trace and either zoom in to the right size or scale and print it (I don't own a lightbox myself but using it should provide a similar effect to my method.

lay out your screen or lightbox flat on your workspace and put your fabric over the image (I'd also recommend ironing your fabric before this if you can). If your fabric is thin enough you should be able to see the lines through it.

this is where you want to put on your gloves if you're tracing off a touchscreen. without gloves, your hands can sometimes cause the screen to move or zoom in while you're tracing.

now you just need to trace the image onto the fabric with your pencil. this is the absolute WORST PART and to minimize suckage I recommend

checking you're aligned with your previous marks before you make a new one

tensing your fabric along the grain or crossgrain with your hand as you draw, so it doesn't shift (don't fuck with the bias that'll cause problems)

taking your tracing OFF the screen to add the finer details (tracing directly is most important for the big shapes and faces)

using a soft, dark pencil to avoid damaging your screen (you can also add a sheet of transparent plastic between the fabric and the screen, but I've found this makes the fabric slip more)

shading in the flat black areas so you don't forget them later

here's my penciling after finishing on the screen and fully finished

4. now it's time to paint over the pencil

I use a cheap, probably terrible acrylic paint and mix it with a textile/fabric medium. This makes the paint flow better and raises its longevity on the fabric. It's not necessary to use, especially if you don't plan to wash your finished project (acrylic paint is plastic once it dries, it shouldn't chip off too easily).

then you just. paint over the pencil. take you time and steady your hand on the desk. if you're worried about smudges work top-bottom and left-right/right-left depending on your dominant hand.

here's mine fully painted. once the paint is dry, I heat seal it with an iron (and a pressing cloth, so if it sticks I don't have hao fused to my iron forever)

5. cut out the patch. I like to use pinking shears to reduce future fraying, but if you don't have those you can either manually cut notches or fuck it we ball a straight edge.

then you just pin and sew it to your project. boom done

now you can make as many as you want and add them to everything!

I've used this technique for:

aaaaallllllllllllll the patches on my hororen jacket (took FOREVER don't try to hand sew through SUEDE kids)

tie-on pockets (EVERYONE MAKE THESE THEY'RE SO HANDY)

a cell phone pocket on my cozmez ita bag

painting my favourite manga pages directly onto a skirt (wip because that fabric is a nightmare)

you don't need to just stick to manga panels either, anything works as long as it has clean, defined lines (but manga/comic panels are definitely easiest). if you look at some of the patches on my jacket you can see I've used coloured screenshots and official art and just traced over them in black. would recommend colour correcting images like that to make the lines easier to see, though

I love this technique because I love dressing up for cons but I don't enjoy making cosplays themselves. so I just make an insane jacket wear it to a con and then wear it in regular ass life. shoutout to the three people who recognized my jacket at fanexpo toronto last august. highlight of my life.

#I don't know what to tag this as you get it raw #I don't think anyone cares either so #if you use this please show me!!! I want to see!!!

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nyoomfruits · 3 months

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I got questions. What is your writing process? What inspires you? How do you plan out the scenes? How do you create the dialogues? Just for research purposes, how long did it take you to write love you with the lights on? I am a big fan of your writing, if that isn't obvious 😘

HI I LOVE QUESTIONS THANK YOU

What is your writing process?

I'll talk a bit more about my planning process later but it's essentially. Get idea. Brainstorm idea with friends (this is essential. it helps me go from a ~vibe to an actual plot). Write outline. Make playlist. Start writing fic.

As for the actual writing i love love love using sprints because they help me focus (luckily i have both a discord server and a discord gc that have people in it i can sprint with, and sometimes i just sprint one on one with a friend) but to be honest with you i am VERY easily distracted so while i could probably write more, i usually don't manage more than like 2 or 3k a day. once i did 5k and my friends were like Who Are You. Oh and also tea. And a snack. Those are essential to the writing process too

What inspires you?

Anything? Everything? love you with the lights out was based on a prompt i got a while back. already home was just because i love fake relationship aus and i wanted to do something different with it for landoscar. idk i dont think i rlly have one thing that always inspires me specifically??? i just Get Ideas lmao

How do you plan out the scenes?

Usually when I get an idea it's mostly vibes, so then I bring it to my friends like a cat with a dead mouse and i drop in on their doorstep and go "how about this" and then we talk about it for a bit and i'm like "GREAT YES YOURE RIGHT I CAN WORK WITH THIS" and then i write a very rough outline.

I do always try to have every single one of my scenes Mean Something? like it either teaches you something about the character or furthers the plot. There's a lot of stuff that got cut from love you with the lights out that objectively would've been cute or fun to do but didn't really add anything to the overarching story.

anyway the outline changes very often throughout writing , when i feel like a scene doesn't fit anymore or needs to do Something Else than what i originally intended for it, so i'm not rlly married to the outline. it just helps me keep focused and also i'm very forgetful so otherwise i forget where i was going with the story lmao

How do you create the dialogues?

THIS IS THE HARDEST QUESTION IM SO SORRY but i just??? write dialogue??? dialogue is one of the easiest part of writing for me which means its the hardest part for me to explain haha. it just comes rlly natural to me

How long did it take you to write love you with the lights on?

i looked it up and the first mention of me actually writing this fic in the gc was on the 26th of november and i posted it on 9th of january so roughly a month?? which is pretty standard for my longer fics. already home took me two months but only because i took two vacations in between lmao

#sorry if none of this is actualy helpful or makes any sense my writing process is mostly just. i write alkdalskd #but thank you this was fun <3

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sionisjaune · 7 months

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present day brocedes r like we need to have a carefully planned out casual threesome to prove we're ready to be parents (the step before Lewis joins the coparenting with Nico and Vivian)

cause if u can't even take care of a third person without it getting messy howre u gonna handle christmas in monaco new years in LA

Ok I am seriously thinking about the logistics of mick/lewis/nico fic and... on one hand the easiest way to make it work is if the mick/nico/lewis is just a transient thing on the way to a nico/lewis endgame. BUT in my mind I have set up a nico/lewis that are actually functional and mindful of other people (insane thing to consider). So YES as per usual you are right and a giant genius BUT on the other hand if I were to do mick/lewis/nico I would want the relationship to be travelling towards its own endgame. The problem of course is that I cannot imagine what that endgame would like like because mick/lewis/nico has no precedent or canon that I can work with...

ALSO (under the cut because this is only kind of related), now that I'm on my brocedes in 2023 soapbox, I want to talk about one of the main obstacles to brocedes endgame (at least as I see it).

Lewis has expressed a strong desire to HAVE KIDS. And RAISE HIS FAMILY IN THE HOUSE IN COLORADO. Nico on the other hand has already had two children who are installed in Monaco, and for the sake of brocedes endgame he must be a GOOD FATHER. If Lewis values family, there is no way that he (as he is now) could justify being with a Nico that is a negligent father. So okay. Lewis wants to have kids. Nico already has kids. There is no mpreg in this universe (sorry everyone). There are a few solutions that each have their own merits and weaknesses.

Lewis becomes a co-parent of Nico's children with Vivian

Lewis and Nico adopt* children together

Lewis adopts* children on his own

Lewis does not become a parent

*Or surrogacy etc.

Solution 4 is sad (to me). Of course there is nothing wrong with never having children--but Lewis seems to want to have children. Also it means putting Nico above his own aspirations, which is against the point of a thoughtful brocedes endgame.

Solution 3 is something that I just thought of and which makes the most sense to me--and it also means that Lewis's relationship with his children and ability to parent are somewhat separated from Nico--which might be easier for a number of reasons. Lewis comes from a blended family himself, so this might appeal to him too. At the same time, when I think of brocedes I think of a HUGE GIGANTIC LOVE. Love that makes you want to do everything together all of the time. So I think they would both be involved in the parenting of Lewis's kid. The problem here, which is also the problem with solution 2, is... does Nico want more kids?

Solution 2 is idyllic... but as I mentioned it is not clear whether Nico wants more children. He said in the past that he wanted a "football team" of kids, but he seems to have stopped with two. Also his daughters are still reasonably young--and if we imagine that he and Vivian have a strong relationship post divorce, it seems problematic for him to suddenly have more children who require more care if he is also going to continue parenting his existing children. It could be done but it would be a decision that would also depend on Vivian in my mind!

Solution 1 is the most intuitive and yet it faces similar problems to solution 2. Vivian would have to be involved. Nico cannot simply offer his children to Lewis. And the Lewis & Vivian relationship that would have to exist is very difficult for me to imagine. I suppose that they know each other to some degree already but it is still tough for me to work out... Also logistically can same-sex couples adopt in Monaco? Would it be possible (in a social sense) to raise children as a same-sex couple in Monaco? Would Nico leave Monaco (and Vivian and his existing children) for Lewis? (Probably not.)

The final thing that I want to say about brocedes endgame--especially because I imagine it from Lewis's point of view--is that I am very careful to avoid creating situations that stick either of them in a permanent position of advantage. The various advantages that either of them have held (we are talking about race and class issues as well as advantage on track) have been the factors that have created the problems with brocedes in the past... and in order for brocedes endgame to work there needs to be a space where both can be/become themselves without bending to the other's advantage.

OK I'M DONE LOL!!! I did very much enjoy thinking about this although it is barely what Misa asked about.

#there is an essay about brocedes endgame and having kids under the cut that i wrote instead of accomplishing real life tasks #back on my brocedes in 2023 bullshit #asks

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mutualaidforalll · 8 months

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Commissions Open!!

Hi everyone its Mod Vash!

I've said in a previous post, but I'm trying to earn money to fly out to visit my boyfriend for his birthday. Due to circumstances outside of my control, I have to leave my job, so I'm relying on work from family and neighbors to scrape by, so I'm opening up some commissions for both art made by me and character edits! More information under the cut so this doesn't get too long. (cw some of my art might be mildly eye straining to some people)

Please keep in mind that I am disabled and will work as best as I can to get your commission to you, but I might not be as quick as some others. All the commission money will go to saving up to visit my partner for a milestone birthday and helping pay down some debts!

GOAL: $600 (flights + budget for out there)

Slots open: 5

I have synesthesia, so if you commission me to do art of your name or a song you really enjoy, I will draw what I see with it.

For a simple kaleidoscope (or similar) commission, it would be $5, here are some examples of what I've made for simple names with simple backgrounds. These are probably the fastest and easiest for me to make, as I can get a good amount of colors and shapes from names and sounds down quickly.

The next tier up is still a synesthesia based drawing but it is more complex- a background/more detailed drawing. These will range from $8-15 depending on how complex you want the background and how complex the name/song is- ex, lacrimosa with a cathedral background would be $15 because that would take me a while, but the name Sasha and water would most likely be $8 or so since it would be easier and quicker. I only have one example of this, shown below. (Example would have been $10 due to shading and lighting)

Moving on from synesthesia is character bust shots, probably my weakest skill- but I can guarantee I will try my best. They will start at $15 and go up depending on how complex the character, how long I think it will take me, and how much detail you want included. and I will only do bust shots since I'm not good at bodies yet. Complex backgrounds are an extra $2. Below are some examples of recent bust shots of characters I've made. The first image would be $15 since the background is simple and the colors are flat, but the 2nd would be closer to $20/22 due to the background being multiple layers and having skin and hair texture.

The last thing I offer (for now) is character edits, where you can send me a picture of a character and I'll edit them however you like. These will start at $5 and go up, $1 for each character in the picture and an $1 per picture in a set. Super complex edits (like adding a lot of new hair and texturing it, or changing clothes) would cost extra, but small edits like changing the hair style or adding/removing makeup or piercings or anything would not be an extra charge. (i.e, you want me to edit one picture with one character in it and that would be $5, one picture with 2 characters would be $6, a set with the same single character with 2 pictures would $6, a set with 2 characters and 2 pictures would be $8, so on.) I dont have a ton of examples of this since I haven't done it in a while but I have a few from a while back. Super complex edits (like adding a lot of new hair and texturing it, or changing clothes) would cost extra, but small edits like changing the hair style or adding/removing makeup or piercings or anything would not be an extra charge. These catra edits would have only been $5 since they were simple edits, just changing her hair color and adding some makeup and piercings.

I have a paypal, venmo, and a chime account, if your interested in commissions please dm me through here and we can work something out!

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baskervilleshound · 7 months

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No one asked for this but I really feel like I should go into a deep dive of why Simon Petrikov is a very personal character to me, and why I care so much about him and his themes.

This is going to probably be long, so I’m going to put a cut here. But this stuff is why you’ll likely see certain recurring themes in my writing.

First we have to talk about Simon and Marceline during the Great Mushroom War and its aftermath. Simon took Marceline on during this time, and it was just the two of them against the world. Simon did everything to protect her; even sacrificing himself and his own sanity.

He would have died of radiation poisoning without the crown, I believe. So that put even another layer of pain in there. He literally kept himself alive, and destroyed his body and mind for this little girl. All to keep safe and taken care of. That really resonated with me.

And then we have Simon in Fionna and Cake. Depressed Simon who lost the love of his life, is very sad about it, and just feels like he’s drifting through life without purpose. But even though he’s miserable and sad, he doesn’t take it out on anyone. When he gets hurt on Finn’s impromptu adventure, he doesn’t lash out at him. No, he thanks him.

He doesn’t lash out or get mean when Fionna and Cake are kind of unfair to him in the beginning, not seeing Simon as much of a person or caring for him right away. Simon had literally just met these people, and he was already on board and ready to save them, even if it meant destroying himself. Even if it meant becoming Ice King again. Just because honestly? He’s a good person, his issues aside.

He’s that person who was empathetic in every way, shape, form, and he always wanted to know if the people around him were okay, even if he himself personally wasn’t okay at all.

This all hurts me super bad and makes me want to write about Simon because it all reminds me of some parallels with my own father. Growing up, we didn’t have the easiest life- dad had his heart broke and felt like a zombie for years over it. But even so, he was always my rock. Always on my side. I never had to question if or when he would be there for me; I knew it was always permanent. He is the reason that after all these years, and all the things I’ve been through, I have not lost my mind.

In my younger years, when I was really little, it really did feel like we were stuck going through a post-apocalyptic war, just wading through the wreckage, trying to find small moments to be happy about. It wasn’t easy, but the experience, regardless of how hard it was sometimes, was beautiful. Especially now that I’m almost 26, and able to really see how much dad shaped me. And all the sacrifices that were made for me, even though he was hurting so terribly.

So that’s why Simon, and Simon and Marcy’s relationship really makes me feel things from a very deep and profound level. We need more single dads in media taking care of their young girls, because boy, did I feel heard watching those scenes years ago.

Now that I have a bit of a hyper fixation though, I plan on writing some fanfiction if I can, and a lot of the themes will be heavily found family/paternal stuff. It’s sort of my way to vent and express some of those feelings I’ve had over the years. That’s what writing is for, right?

The other thing too is that I’ll eventually be finishing and publishing a book that I’ve been working on for ages about a single father (who happens to be a monster) and his newfound little daughter, and how they face the world together. But unfortunately? I can’t really share much of that with you guys yet because I need to get it published. But I’ll tell you what- my character and Simon are very, very similar in a lot of ways. So if you end up liking my Simon/Fionna and Cake writing, you may be into what I have in store later on, when I can get around to finishing and publishing my work.

So for now! I get to vicariously share my feelings through depressed, stressed, empathetic antiquarian man. And I’m pumped for you all to be on board with me.

If you made it this far, wow, you’re cool. Thanks for reading and listening to be blab about why a little cartoon man on a show touched my soul lmao. 💕

#baskerbanter #fionna and cake #adventure time #personal #simon petrikov #character analysis

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dogtoling · 1 year

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How do you think inkfish 'hair' grows? I can't imagine it working anything like hair follicles, but considering there's different hairstyle lengths it must grow over time as mammalian hair does. Same with Cuttlefish's beard- do the individual tentacles just sprout from the skin, then merge together over time? (The extra short inkling cut weirds me out, since its just a solid 'mat' of tentacle material...)

Inkfish hair does grow over time, but not infinitely like human hair. Inkfish "hair" are basically limbs after all, and they have a preset maximum length that varies based on species and genetics, mostly. On average, Squids have pretty short head tentacles (minus the hunting tentacles, which are more prehensile) and Octopuses typically have much longer ones. The easiest way to monitor tentacle length if you want them to be shorter is to cut them short, which is how most Octolings get their shorter tentacle styles. The tentacles will always grow tips back before they slowly begin regrowing in length, which is how you get hairstyles with very short tentacles. (And for the SUPER short tentacle styles, you need to be shaving the nubs off too...)

As for the positioning of the tentacles on the head I would like to have an answer for you but there's just none. I am dumbfounded. Logically it would be obvious that tentacles have a root and are connected to the brain and evenly split across the head for optimal, well, existence, given that they are Meat and they Do Things. But no, seemingly magically inkfish tentacles can be in any random arrangement on the top of their head, or not even on the top, judging by Cuttlefish who has a BALD HEAD and a BEARD instead.

It is unclear whether there is insane genetic variety on what exact part of your head your tentacles will grow and you just have to hope that they grow in the arrangement you want for the hairstyle you want and some styles are out of your reach forever. It seems more likely that the position of the tentacles can be changed, given that inkfish literally DO THAT every time they switch form, but that's also much more unrealistic than them just having natural variety. It's like if a werewolf turned back into a human and now its arms are on the back of the body for funsies instead of being on the sides. This has been ruining my life since Splatoon 2 came out and I hope we get like, answers on inkfish haircuts some time soon because they keep getting more and more insane and making less sense.

On the topic of beards I literally hate that inkfish get beards. There is ZERO reason to have extra tentacles sprouting from the front of the face to obscure the beak. In the wild these wouldn't have been cut most likely. Hell, in the modern day, CAN YOU shave? Because again, THAT'S MEAT. If you're growing a whole tentacle out of your face not only is that muscle (does it anchor into your beak musculature?) but if it's multiple, your face is now full of tentacle mass that should be on your head. Even humans when we shave don't actually REMOVE the facial hair, we just cut it extremely short so it's less visible. How does an inkfish shave? It would always leave a meat slab behind with a white cut surface and grow back as nubs. It wouldn't just peel off like an orange peel when you take a razor to it, tentacles are muscle.

This all on top of it usually literally being EXTRA TENTACLES because you can have a beard while you already have the correct amount of head tentacles. Like okay maybe inkfish just evolved to sprout some additional extra tentacles on their face over time to look pretty, since the head tentacles are decorative as is. But why in the middle of the face. Why there where it obscures everything and is probably impossible to remove fully because as TENTACLES, which are (for the billionth time) MEAT, they are fully attached to the rest of your flesh and wouldn't just peel or pluck off. Congrats on your flesh beard you're stuck with it forever and it has no evolutionary purpose and whether you get one and what it looks like is completely random.

#mailbox #CAN YOU TELL I REALLY DONT LIKE THE BEARDS #i like beards a lot aesthetically but in splatoon they just make no fucking sense #im holding off on giving my ocs tentacle beards literally because i dont know if you can get rid of it ever #its like a curse #if my ocs have facial hair it's made of papillae which make sense AND are under full control of the cephalopod

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lookbluesoup · 1 year

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Beginners Guide to Red Mage

I've had a frankly alarming number of people comment to me on various platforms that Red Mage is too difficult and confusing. Which - I know different classes vibe with different people. Sometimes a class just doesn't click with you, and that's ok! But I actually find RDM to be one of the easiest classes in ffxiv to get the basics down on, so I thought I'd type up a little crash course!

This is a guide to a basic rotation, without any eye-glazing acronyms, and a few tips on how RDM evolves at higher levels, hopefully in easy to understand terms for someone just starting out. It is not a min/max guide. It's not designed to get you Super Rainbow Diamond Parse. It will show you how to play red mage competently in Duty Roulette and MSQ and get through whatever regular content you want. (As long as you don't forget to keep your gear levelled with you!)

If you want to go MAX ULTRA DAMAGE UNREAL TRIALS mode there's plenty of other guides out there for that, a google search away, who can help you with more complicated, number-crunchy type rotations! My hope is that if you are new to RDM and want to get into that content someday, this will at least give you a foundational understanding to build up to that from.

And if you're a casual player, this guide will see you through just fine. You're who this is made for!

Full guide below the cut!

Red Mage is about balance, which means it's basically a repeating pattern.

There is a magic rotation to build up black and white mana in equal amounts, and then a melee rotation to spend that collected mana on high-damage sword attacks. Later, you'll get a second magic combo to use after your sword combo.

Here's my hotbar setup synced down to level 50:

And here it is at level 90 with some upgraded skill icons:

Because I'm very visual, it's set up to keep related abilities close together so that I can quickly input combos.

If you take a look at your spells, you'll notice Veraero and Verthunder (the green and blue buttons) do high damage but take almost 5 seconds to cast. A really long time. They also only increase either white or black mana, though by a significant amount:

Jolt, the red one in the middle, only takes a remarkably short 2 seconds to cast and gives both black and white mana, but does much less damage and doesn't increase either color very much:

This might initially seem clunky and frustrating.

But here's why.

Every second spell a Red Mage casts is instant.

Jolt is your ticket to flinging spells around like a dog with a roman candle.

The goal is to start with a short-cast spell, and then follow up with a long-cast one, which will hit immediately instead of taking those agonizing 5 seconds.

So, if you are fighting a single target, that's Jolt, followed by Veraero or Verthunder. (Or, if like me your eyes want to glaze over with the fancy names for everything. Red, followed by Green or Blue.)

And how do you keep your black and white mana balanced? Easy. Each time you do your combo, switch up veraero and verthunder.

You basic magic combo is literally just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. If you set up your hotbar with these in convenient places, you can just get your fingers into a rhythm and eventually won't even have to think about it at all.

If you end up off balance with too much of one color, just repeat the other color a few times in between Jolts until its back close together.

The AoE Rotation, Though?

Since you know why the cast times vary so much between spells, you can probably already guess how this works! They're inverted! That's all! If you're fighting 3+ enemies at once, you should switch to your AoE set which damages all enemies around your target. Your basic magic combo is still just Red, Green, Red, Blue, Red, Green, Red, Blue. But you start with Green or Blue first!

When its time to stab things

While you can use your melee skills at any point, in any order - there's a pattern here, too. And its easy!

This is your mana bar when you enter a fight:

And this is your mana bar as you build up black and white mana through casting spells:

The white side, predictably, is white mana. The blue side is black mana. The gem on the top will light up in red when you have enough of both collected to perform a melee combo (which is 50 white and 50 black). It maxes out at 100 of each.

While your sword skills on your hotbar will color change from purple to red earlier than this, do not succumb to the allure. Wait until you get your magic red button. Every "Enchanted" sword strike you hit with will deplete your mana, so you need to make sure you have enough to do a full combo of all three attacks.

An Enchanted combo does MUCH more damage and it is absolutely worth waiting until you can combo them. Start with Riposte, the one that costs 20, and the others will light up in order afterwards to show you the correct steps.

Once you're too low on mana to run a full sword combo, go back to casting spells until your red gem lights up again!

AoE Rotation

It's not even a rotation, it's one attack - Moulinet. However, it should be noted that at later levels, when Mana Stacks are added, you'll need 60 black and white mana to get a full three mana stacks by using your AoE sword skill, instead of the 50 needed for single target sword skills.

Imbalanced Meters

If you cast too much of one color without the other, your gem will change to reflect the imbalance. You get a penalty to gaining mana if the bars are off balance, so make sure to give the other color some attention until your gem turns red or clear again.

Free Damage Buttons

Fleche, and its AoE version Contre Six, are free damage. They don't share any cooldowns with your regular spells/sword skills, and cast instantly. It's free damage.

Corps-a-corps is a gap closer, another attack that shares no cooldowns with any other skills. It's a great way to start out your sword-combo when you have enough mana collected, because it will put you in range of your target and deal damage in the process. A lot better than losing seconds to running up to them manually, during which time you can't attack.

It has two charges which refill over time, so in a short period you can use it twice if you need to. Like if you target the wrong enemy the first time. Whoops.

Engagement is another free stab button, but it shares charges with Displacement, which is your run away button, so make sure to save a charge if you're going to need that!

Displacement is a good way to end your sword combo (or, later, end your bonus spells combo.) It is also a good way to escape an enemy's attack if you stood in one place just a LITTLE too long and don't have time to run out of range. You will leap backwards immediately and quite far.

Once in the Crystal Tower raids I used this to evade an AoE and landed in one of those paralyzing electric traps on the corner of the arena, where I remained trapped, in shame, for the rest of the fight. Check behind you before you jump.

(Slightly) More Advanced Rotation

If everything above feels like a lot to absorb already, you can ignore this section for now. Get a handle on the basic basics, and then start weaving the rest of these in later once you're more used to your patterns.

Occasionally when casting a spell you will get "Verstone Ready" or "Verfire Ready" These can be woven in at your discretion, they have short cast times. But generally they should replace your short cast spell for one cycle. For example, use one of these instead of Jolt, and follow up with a Green or Blue spell after. They both give you a specific color of mana, but not quite as much as a regular long-cast spell, their benefit lies in how fast you can cast them and their high damage.

Acceleration can be used to quickly rebalance your mana if something goes awry, or to deal heavy damage quickly. It's another tool that allows you to cast any of your main long-cast damage spells instantly. As an added treat, it makes your next Red AoE do significantly more damage, or ensures that your next single-target Green and Blue spells will give you a Verstone/Verfire right after.

Manafication will instantly grant you 50 black and white mana both. It's best to use it between Enchanted sword combos! Once you hit 50 on your own, perform a sword rotation, hit Manafication, and do another sword rotation. Or, when Mana Stacks come in, use Manafication after completing your bonus spells to get another Sword-Spell rotation combo in right after.

Embolden is a damage buff for you and close-by party members. There's a lot of ways to use damage buffs, but if you time it right, you can get two buffed Enchanted sword combos in by pairing this with Manafication. Later, with Mana Stacks, you can get a sword and bonus-spell combo in, with a little extra room.

Mana Stacks

At higher levels, you'll get Mana Stacks. These basically add a third pattern after you use your spells to build mana, and your sword to spend it.

By completing an Enchanted Sword combo (the red ones, that cost 50 mana to complete) or casting 3 of the Enchanted AoE Moulinet in succession (which costs 60 mana), all your Blue and Green spells will transform into Verflare and Verholy:

You get to cast ONE of them. If you perform just about any other action, including manafication, you will lose these. Make sure to cast them when they appear. They do not, however, run on a short timer, so if the dungeon boss is at 0.1% hp you can hold your actions and just use these on your next ad pack.

If your black and white mana are not perfectly balanced when you get these spells, that's a good thing. Pick the spell that matches your lower color. If you have less black mana, cast Verflare. If you have less white mana, cast Verholy. This will guarantee that Verfire or Verstone, mentioned above, become available to you:

If you pick the "wrong" one, don't worry! You still have a chance at getting your stone/fire spell. And if not, you can use Acceleration to quickly cast for whichever color you need to rebalance your mana.

A little down the line, you'll get a third bonus spell. Scorch replaces your Red spells and appears after casting Verflare or Verholy. That's a lotta damage!

And again, further down, you'll get another red spell to follow on the heels of Scorch, Resolution. To really help you finish off nuking everything in front of you.

So in short - magic combo till you have 50 of both mana colors, sword combo, bonus spell combo, rinse and repeat.

And there you go! You can Red Mage!

But wait! There's more!

Saving the Party from a Wipe

At level 64 you get Verraise. And since you know all about dualcast now, you know that 10 second cast timer doesn't mean anything to you, a Red Mage.

While you should generally let your healer(s) handle raising so that they don't waste their swiftcast trying to get someone that you might reach first, if you notice multiple people go down close together, or the healer is low on spells/having to work really hard to keep the party alive, or the healer is dead... you can resurrect someone every 2 seconds. Do not be afraid to help save the party from a wipe. It feels very powerful.

Your healing spell, Vercure, also has a 2 second cast time, so you can give party members a little hp boost in between shoveling them off the floor.

#ffxiv #red mage #tutorial #guide #long post #text #how to red mage

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devondespresso · 1 month

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1, 25, 81, 94 for the fanfic ask game! <3

KOKO HELLOOOOOOO ad thank you so much for the ask 💕💗💖💞💝 i went a little wild and had to reign it back in a bit and its still pretty long so apologies in advance

(ask game we're talking about is here but i also have questions next to the answers)

1. do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

for the vast majorty of my fics i think i have a pretty good idea of where its going to go, i think because i get the ideas of these cool scenes usually set in act 2 or 3 or i at least the vibe i want from the start and The Point is usually clear the second i put thought into it. currently the only exceptions are 1) this super secret (woooo~~~) ficlet im working on that came from a prompt so i had to spend like 3 or 4 days writing it to properly understand the direction i wanted to take it, and 2) the steve henderson au, which is fucking massive already and it's even bigger in my head stnzgns. that one you obviously know how it ends y'know, it aint the steve henderson au if steve doesnt become a Henderson, but for all the arcs i have along the way it took a while to properly figure out what i doing and how to do that and im just now figuring out what that looks like for the first major arc.

so tldr: usually i know, sometimes i gotta figure it out, but i do need to have it figured out before it can really take shape

25. what’s your revision or rewriting process like?

oof ok so i tried writing this and good fucking god explaining everything i do in editing took up so much space. so this is the short answer for convenience but if anyone wants a long answer im foaming at the mouth to talk about writing stjsnystn (the rest under the cut)

the majority of my process is editing and sometimes first drafts are literally unrecognizable from the final. a lot of how i edit line by line is intuitive/vibes based, and whole scenes/arcs/pacing/flow/theme etc etc is based on a really deconstructed thought process for storytelling, to put it as briefly as i can (because this is one of the parts that got really long) its about The Why of everything going into the story. Picking details or making decisions not based rigidly on formula or trends but instead whats best for the kind of story you want to tell (and then making sure to implement it in a way that actually does that in the story).

for small works i prefer to just change shit as i see it and not worry about doing focused passes through the work, but in the steve Henderson au i literally cannot its too fucking big smhdmyxyn so in that case i do passes that span like whole writing sessions just hyperfocused on this one thing. one of my favorite passes is in-character passes where i pick one person (often dustin bc hes a main character), rewatch them a ton to get in their headspace, and go back and make sure everything they say or do fits them as if they were the sole focus if the story. I'll also do passes to focus just on medical accuracy, passes for a specific character duos to keep their story progressing and consistent, passes for ideas that stay between the lines making sure they stay consistent and understanding how much information im conveying, character's specific mindsets that their arc is about and making sure they dont have any unintentional exceptions, literally if its a thing in the text i probably need to do a pass for it so i know its consistent

also more lighthearted stuff tends to need wayyyy less editing time and its a more balanced half solo half beta process. the easiest was the claudia henderson drabble because it was really just a backstory with an active scene or two all rooted in her outside persective.

also sometimes i just start from scratch halfway through, like mr crayola henderson has one previous half-complete version in my doc fhdlas tho i guess thats how drafts are supposed to work

and this is the tldr im sorry i dont want to cut it down any more just read this one its my favourite fdhaskl

81. if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

honestly i wouldn't have much to tell them. i didn't start writing fanfic until july of last year?? something like that and i started with the steve henderson au. maybe don't write that one about the triggering thing lol.

actually wait no. id tell them its okay to abandon projects (and maybe tell them not to make some purchases dgnxngsyn) but ye i spent a while mourning projects because they felt like they ceased to exist, but i had several screenplay outlines that probably helped me a ton. in my writing and those experiences never leave me so their existence still had a purpose and value

tldr: dont write your very recent triggers silly goose, dont cry over abandoned art

94. do you prefer dialogue or description?

i definitely prefer dialogue, and with it action descriptions because i still think in movie-medium (tho i am getting better at understanding how the FUCK prose works and especially prose pacing oh my god why can't i just hold on an actors face for several seconds of silence gAAH!!). i like saying things without saying them, i like subtly building towards something body language until a snap, i looooove making blocking relevant in a medium where you're not even seeing the movement with your eyes, and i love getting into a characters head so far that each person has a different way to word something or a different detail they focus on or a certain tick that tells the other character whats in their head.

but i struggle with internal monologue sooooooo hard, its a practiced skill im actively working on to write a characters internal logic about something but still keeping it from being too on the nose about whats really going on. like i can do it but i struggle to fill page time with it because exploring ideas at least for me usually leads to the source and thats decidedly not where the characters going! its a tuesday afternoon! they're not unpacking shit they're trying to have a third coffee!! i also struggle finding the best words for the reader to feel the text, like idk man maybe im using the onelook dictionary wrong but it just does not get me what im looking for in under three looks zgnshnsyn

tldr: dialogue and blocking, good description is witchcraft

but yee thank you again for the ask dude!! this was so much fucking fun i fucking love talking about writing and the logic process behind everything. thanks anyone seeing this for actually reading this far 💕

#ask game #fic writing #writing #writers ask game #god i love writing #thank you again again for the ask i had a blast thinking for these

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mdhwrites · 1 year

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I'm not really gonna ask anything, just complain.

I'm tired of seeing puppet Amity and emperor Luz everywhere, what's even so special about it? What's the appeal???

People see 2 seconds scenes without context and make it that episode's entire content 🤦

I don't know if ep 3 came out already but I'm not looking forward anyways.

…Angst. Angst and new designs which are probably the two most powerful motivators for The Owl House fandom. Why do you think S2A felt like it damn near cut the fandom down to its size?

This actually has to do with kind of fandom culture in general. The most visible part of a fandom is its artists. Their work is quick to consume, easily posted and reposted (with credit you'd hope but… sigh) and the easiest to take inspiration directly from the show for. Every week there'd be at least one screencap redraw that the fandom would do whenever a new episode came out. Honestly, the finale's big Lumity screencap redraw is really awkward looking to me out of context. It's not hard to see why these are so popular though. The reference is directly in front of you, it's a moment people are already talking about and you yourself probably liked the posing too so why not redraw it? It's a hell of a lot easier to do than come up with a bespoke story concept based off of each episode in a series.

That isn't to call art easy or the like, just that fanart is the backbone to a fandom for a reason, at least in my opinion. Twitter has a character count limit. Reading Fanfiction on Instagram blows. Tumblr is the closest to a place where longer form videos and stories can be posted and they still take MUCH longer to consume and share and without as much guaranteed return on effort spent. There's a reason the internet as a whole LOVES art from a commercial and consumer standpoint, even if they also keep trying to screw over artists because yaaaaay capitalism.

But screencap redraws aren't going to be everything. The more potential in the story, the more people will be able to come up with evocative concepts and stories and even make comics about the show. This was a BIG part of the fandom's peak between S1 and 2. Everyone had their own take on how Lumity would get together. Everyone had their own idea for how Amity might confront her parents. Amity in general was just a font of inspiration and the concepts with Luz weren't played out or felt contradictory to the more cynical character we got in S2 so angst with her about her mom, her world, etc. like that was still something everyone was tapping into, especially since it felt like the portal being destroyed was such a big deal.

I made a large Twitter thread the other day btw about how just shit the Portal Door is from a narrative perspective, first as a nitpick in S1 and then just a genuine problem in S2, because of it being gone, but that's a different blog.

But post S2A… What did you have? Camila's promise was never going to end satisfactorily, to the point where it goes from a moment of Luz being a good daughter to an almost inhuman monster towards her friends because it is handled so poorly. Amity is pretty much resolved outside of being happy to be Luz's girlfriend because she's already stood up to her parents, integrated into the rest of the cast and even already addressed the only piece of angst the show ever allows for her with her relationship and that's being an obsessive enough girlfriend. Sorry, I mean a good enough girlfriend. sigh Gus has had an episode but was overshadowed, Willow has had like a half dozen lines this half a season, King has been pretty much absent since his episode, Raeda was still mostly an Eda episode with literally every element of that episode just to shove Momma Eda down your throat…

It's not surprising that post S2A, the fandom has felt in general much quieter. Minus A: Huntlow and B: whenever they get a new design they can turn into Luz/Lumity angst. Everyone remember the teaser for the Collector's design that was done during a livestream and how that consumed the fandom for a little while because of possessed Luz ideas?

The puppet Amity and Belos Luz hype was effectively that. It brought even the casual artists back because they had a new, easily evocative design available to them that also had very obvious potential for angst. How many "I'M NOT LIKE HIM" pictures came out regardless of how weak any parallel between Luz and Belos is? Luz crying over a temporarily dead Amity is saddening, even if she's been little more than a puppet for the writers for a while now.

It's just how fandoms work. It's not even necessarily a bad thing. Dana has been VERY good at keeping the fandom alive during things like hiatuses. S1's hiatus is when the Betas were most popular because they dropped at a time when people were starting to wane from the show and now they had an entirely different angle to work from for anything Lumity they wanted to do alongside just good designs to draw. Most Lumity and Huntlow artists redo any piece that Dana does for the two ships. It's very effective for keeping a social media presence for your show honestly.

I won't even act like I'm above it. While I commissioned reference sheets for Rich Witch to make it easier to commission more artists for these characters, that wasn't the only reason. Rich Witch had a Reddit page (that I should clean up honestly) and its pinned thread includes the reference sheets and physical descriptions for the characters who don't have reference sheets. This is because I recognize that that makes fanart easier and that fanart is a lot easier to share than text blurbs. It is one of the ways to try and cultivate a following online nowadays or to help your fandom grow, at least in my opinion.

Can it be frustrating? Absolutely. I mean, Huntlow fanart has probably done way more damage to my interest in Hunter than anything else because it always emphasizes Hunter as nothing but a failure. Hell, it also emphasizes Willow's strength commonly and very little else about her character. Lumity has bored me for a long time in art because 90% of it is just cute fluff which isn't bad but it's not compelling. And I mocked both Belos Luz and Puppet Amity, despite the designs for them being good and the art being good, as shallow because narratively it means very little.

And the larger that disconnect becomes, the more frustrating a trend in the fandom is going to be. Plenty of people hate the Betas because they hate the edginess or the fact that a lot of people used them to start creating spicier material. There's not much anyone can do about that though. While a creator can try to promote a kinder fandom, fandoms are inherently too emotional and too large to really control outside of helping the show grow or find a new audience. It's just a part of that culture.

And frankly, I'm going to be bothered by the toxicity and inhumanity (guess what fandom will dox you for liking a ship between a bi girl and a straight guy?) of fandoms long before their art trends.

#the owl house criticism

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vacantgodling · 3 months

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unique writing asks: 1, 5, 7 (for any and as many WIP/s as you want), and 30

thank you valen <3 i hope you're doing good!

1. What themes would you like to write about that you feel don’t get explored very often?

tbh its less about what doesn't get explored often and more like, the way that a lot of people do it doesn't do it for me so i gotta make it my fucking self. a lot of it does center around representation for men especially and most importantly queer and poc men. mlm relationships that aren't just teenagers, that aren't just completely happy and non problematic, that have MASCULINE men and positive visions of masculinity. nonbinary masc leaning characters, men over 30 that are complex and have rich inner lives and rich emotions especially with other men.

also black fantasy that isn't "black first" -- i really don't know how to explain it but as a black person i am MAD tired that every fantasy that a black person is in always tends to come with some caveat about being black or showcases black struggle, or they're a minority. i want fantasy that is a majority black cast and has nothing to do with them being black. i want fantasy where every character is an individual and their skin tone has nothing to do with the story. i want queer people who's stories who deadass have nothing to do with being queer they just ARE. i'm tired of having to lead everything with my identity and not being able to be just a GUY and i feel strongly about that in my works too. like yes, all my works are queer and poc and nd centered. but them overcoming these things or having challenges with these things isn't always the point, ESPECIALLY not with race like i am SO FUCKING TIRED of my race being a factor in fantasy man like i'm exhausted.

5. Would you rather write a happy ending that soothes the soul or a tragic ending that hurts the heart?

happy endings. i refuse to write sad endings. AT MOST i will write bittersweet endings, but i just dislike writing endings that are tragic. tragedies can be super good but i just don't like things to be super dour and i don't like things that steal away my hope. i want there to be some sort of hope there, even if it was hard won and hurts a little.

30. What is some of the best writing advice you’ve read or received? Why does it work for you?

honestly the best advice i ever learned or got was to write things that make YOU happy and to worry about the themes and shit later. the thing is: everyone has morals or things they believe in or shit that is important to them; trying to force them out and into a story is the easiest way to stifle whatever creativity that you have about the idea or the characters etc. if you're trying to FORCE yourself to create a message instead of letting one form naturally, then it just gets rough as shit. and at least for me, i've found that when i write what i want to write and focus on the shit that i enjoy, messages and themes come out on their own anyway.

7. Favorite description in your wip? (If asked more than once, respond with a new piece each time)

prepare for a lot and so i'm putting it under a cut lmao: sorry in advance for this overload but prose is probably the thing i'm proudest of generally speaking

CAGE

His first study of Hanzo wasn’t entirely fair to the man; clouded by anger, and distrust, and not to be dramatic, but definitely a bit of apprehension, but perhaps this was the first time Cassidy was truly seeing Hanzo. He’d thought the elder Shimada’s nose was like the jut of a mountain cliff; but was there anything more majestic than seeing the peak of a mountain obscured by clouds at the crest of dawn? His eyebrows were severe, but why did Cassidy only just now notice that they feathered at their ends like the wings of tiny birds? Hanzo looked like Genji in Blackwatch; when he snarled, when he let his expression fall flat, and lifeless. But here, and now, with a soft linen towel draped about his shoulders, his dragon tattoo near iridescent in the cresting evening, his hair once again down and fanning his shoulders, and gazing up at the expansive blanket of the stars with a quiet and meditative eye, Hanzo looked practically seraphic.

COME TO BED (one of my 3 buddy daddies fics)

“We can’t do this unless you take it off too.” And as with everything, Rei ceded. It was a painful show of trust; Kazuki could see it in how he hesitated but his hands kept moving, kept unzipping his tracksuit, tossed it; shrugged out of his tank top revealing a chest Kazuki had seen many times before riddled in scars. But it was different now; to touch it, to taste it, to feel Rei shudder beneath his ministrations, to watch him gasp and tilt his head back. Kazuki wasn’t sure what was more intoxicating: his skin, his reactions, or the trust they suddenly built here. They couldn’t go back after all of this, and like with Miri they wouldn’t. They’d fight, they’d fuck up, but Kazuki was beyond the point of not putting a name to this thing between them and Rei must’ve felt the same because he was here. He was here, here, here. Kazuki thought it and kissed it like a mantra to Rei’s collar, Rei’s stomach, Rei’s thighs.

WILDFLOWERS IN THE PAVEMENT (one of my 3 buddy daddies fics, warning for nsfw)

Better. His eyes seemed to say. That Rei looked better like this; domestic and falling apart in the safety of his arms, bangs sticking to his forehead from sweat and love. Rei felt better like this. Suwa Rei was becoming some distant thing to him—some cloak he donned before slipping out into the night, some second skin that was becoming too small to crawl in. This Rei, who let Kazuki strip his cock raw until he was over sensitive and panting, wrapping his legs even tighter around Kazuki’s back. This Rei, who met Kazuki’s wine dark eyes with a plea, a promise, with love, with need.

“K-Kazuki.”

“I’ve got you.” Kazuki said and it was enough, it was enough.

PARAMOUR -- dude there's gonna be a lot i went loco on the paramour prose

Hyacinthus glanced over his shoulder, only slightly; not enough to draw attention to it. The voice that rang in his ear was but a passing whisper, smokey like an open fire, and sent that same warmth chasing through Hyacinthus’s gut. In his peripheral, he caught sight of a plain black crow mask. In the dim electric light of the room, it glimmered with embedded black gems, only just so to give it the illusion of motion. It was a half mask like his own; the slow smile that came to the person’s face when they realized Hyacinthus was looking was far too telling.

Pretty dead leaves of fire and gold had begun to coat the cobblestoned streets of Halifax when Hyacinthus received another one of Aloe’s letters.

He didn’t take Hyacinthus’s hand, merely started off through the suffocating mass leaving Hyacinthus no choice but to follow. Hands and bodies pressed close from all sides—writhing and grasping, seeking to touch, to steal, to feel—to take anything they could get their hands on. Hyacinthus squared his shoulders broader and began to push. Whether his shoulders or the severity of his expression told them to move a small channel around him slowly began to take shape. That was the difference between himself and his wiley butler, who weaved and bobbed in and out of the crowd with ease. Whenever there was an opening, like water, Amon slipped through—fluid and malleable. Hyacinthus however, shaped any opening to his own size. Water in a vase, as was water to a mountain. They pushed and shaped each other, in ways uncomfortable to dwell on.

Moonlight washed the courtyard in pale blues and serene milk whites. Below this floating palace, the lights were harsh and gold. He could almost taste the stiffness of the air; choked with mirth and alcohol and the fervor of the night. The packed rooms of The Nimbus, the claustrophobic walls of winding back alleys, the grunts and groans of passion and pain; all of the world’s earthly pleasures, finite and pale delights compared to this quiet.

Entranced wasn’t the right word. It wasn’t strong enough. Transfixed. Illuminated. Anchored. Their lips had yet to touch, yet the only thought in Amon’s mind was the pleasures of the divine; lips and tongue and tastes of the gods. Hyacinthus was before him, yet he wasn’t close enough. He wanted to be one in the same skin. To follow the thread of intimacy until he forgot who he was supposed to pretend to be. For a drop of mercy he would kill for it; beg for it. A soft indulgency that could never be his but how Hyacinthus’s gentle caress of his cheek made him yearn.

Narcissus’s world was like glass. Delicate, intricate, finely blown and shaped, to a perfect sphere she could cradle within her hands.

THE GRAVES WE DUG

His thoughts wandered, as they tended to these days. Dark, hooded eyes roved over the small bits of scenery presented to him. Drunkards lavished themselves over poker and pool tables; brims of their hats tilted high in jubilation or low in deception. Graves’s own gambler was tipped low down; to keep the bright, fly addled, naked bulbs above from creating blind spots in his sensitive vision. He was a creature of the darkness and this saloon was too bright; too close to a normalcy long foreign to his mind.

He drained his bitter dram, then set his glass to the side. The girl who refilled it was prattling on about something he wasn’t hearing. He let his eyes slip closed.

Then, he was standing on the balcony of The Rome.

#i don't think i worded that first question well but i can't tell you how annoyed i am #i love being black but i'm tired of everything having to do with me being black #why can't i just ??? be in scifi or fantasy or romance and not have my race be a point of contention or something constantly mentioned #im tired #about renjamin #ren writing #ask games 2024

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