Thinking about Edward Elric and his hair, specifically his braid.

Did he decide to learn how to braid it himself, post-arm loss? When he's missing that arm functionally, does he ask someone else to do it? The times that it's merely tied and not braided, is that something he knows how to do one-handed, or does he need help for even that much?

How much practice and effort has gone into maintaining his hair so it's not only braided/tied but Looks good while doing so, good enough that no one would ever think to ask? If Alphonse helps, the same question extends to him, with how big and clunky the armor's hands are compared to Ed's hair.

Idk if I have any particular direction with this but as someone who has to practice braiding hair with two abled arms I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on this concept exploration.

(Tbh I suspect I'm blanking on scenes/panels where he's seen tying it up which answers some of these thoughts but also I want to know More about it you know?)

Fun tip from your local oc hoarder: if you have old ocs or concepts that never went anywhere, didn't quite grab you, just didn't quite work - re-insert them into the world as the npcs. The background character. The side cast.

And here's why, in a nutshell - it'll help your world feel more cohesive, to you and to anyone seeing it.

Yeah, sure, you can hastily slap together a bland shopkeep during a shopping scene, or slip in generic fan designs at a concert. But if you have someone Established, specific, someone who doesn't Have to reoccur, buuuuut... maybe the main characters always go into the store during so-and-so's friday shifts, or maybe you have concert scenes frequently enough that you'd start picking out the same fans who always attend for their favorite band... Adds to how natural it all feels, you know?

Does it have to be an old oc? Can't it be someone made to fit, I hear you ask? Well, sure! And obviously if you only have one or two ocs that aren't active, you'll have to anyways. But it's a two birds with one stone exercise - because now you've streamlined your process for having an established npc. You already have an idea of how that old oc looks, or talks, or acts. You may already know what setting they'd likely frequent, or even miscellany like what music they like or hobbies they have. Your generic npc doesn't have to have speaking lines or relevance - but if they needed to or you wanted them to, now they can. They'll have substance that keeps things from feeling too flat.

And idk, obviously some people don't pay much attention to things like that - but I've found that it makes a huge difference to me even when I hadn't realized it. It adds some extra depth to the world in small ways, that you may or may not ever use, but that way it's already built in. No scrambling or extra work to project traits onto some faceless character who talks to your protag about musicians for one scene.

This is also helpful for subverting "kill your darlings" a bit, for those who struggle a lot with that concept in their writing and worldbuilding - because for me, my problem tends to be that it's not that the darling is Entirely Pointless, it's just that they aren't a good fit. Killing a really good idea and banishing it to the drafts forever can suck. But learning how to Recycle the darling helps keep it in relevance, but by plugging it in to a better purpose than the original draft. That makes it easier to cut ideas out of my writing - because I can rest easy knowing I have it in reserve for its time to shine elsewhere.

I'd imagine this won't work for everyone, but I've found as I work on my hero story that it's added a lot of joy. Characters who fell to the sidelines or into obscurity simply because they weren't cut out for hero business now have time to shine in other small ways.

I have a girl who realistically will end up just being a background jogger. But she's also on a track team, and likes handmaking pottery in her spare time. I have a guy with weather powers, but he's focused pursuing being a talented violinist, with minimal active involvement in the hero business beyond happening to have heroes who are fans of his work.

Heck, one of my favorite characters is a duo of guys sharing a body that are just waiters at the local diner. One of them can reverse gravity or even practically rewind time with the snap of his finger if he so chose. These are powers that he studies endlessly for so he can hone and refine them better. But all he cares about is protecting his family and friends, so all you typically see him use his powers for is preventing glasses from being broken or saving his crush from tripping.

It makes me happy to see my kids just going about their day, filling a role in the background. Will they be more relevant? It's possible! But even if they aren't, there will always be glimpses - of the redhead jogging down the street, of someone in the middle of listening to a track from a classical violinist, of a waiter effortlessly stopping plates from being dropped in the middle of taking an order - all in the backdrop of whatever panel or scene or what have you that comes up.

It helps it all feel more like a world everyone belongs in, rather than a staged play. You know? And it's a very fulfilling feeling for me, both as author and as reader.

So yeah. Don't be afraid to recycle those old ocs. Tweak or streamline them if you need, but if you hold them even a little dear to your heart and can get them to click, I promise you won't regret it.

Caught an event today, all because I left the veranda, only to try to do a double take at Ast hovering ominously off the balcony - only going back out triggered an event instead!

I only got as far as riding the train - not sure if I needed an effect, or just hit the end of the area, but it was a fun side trek!

For some reason I think I only saved these two parts of a fish dialogue? But it's hysterical to me that Blathers tried growing a mustache.

i need to hear about more people’s COD sona/oc like i think they are so silly and sweet : (

do the serve (yass!) or are they a civilian?

how did they meet your fav!!?

i’m tweaking my sona, her name is luella : ) she’s just a lil infantry soldier!!

me & my friend we’re talking and we gave her a chipped tooth WHICH MAKES HER LOOK SO CUTE :’ (((( and it just made me think about other peoples oc’s and how much i love self insertz!

@lunasguard Hey I absolutely understand and agree with this sentiment in general! In fact I'd much prefer not deleting it bc deleted blogs give me anxiety

However. I have 34 blogs in total, including this and my main. And for some people this works, but for me it's just stressful to have so many. Most of them are much more active than the vent art blog, and while I've kept it around for a while because of the reasoning, "I can just keep it even if it isn't active", the truth is it's adding to a headcount I don't like having.

Plus this way I figure, if I do make vent art it can go here (with proper tags/labels) and that will achieve a secondary goal of mine, which is to keep this blog active! It doesn't Have to be but I'm used to doing art a lot more than I do nowadays, so it'll help me feel like this one is staying more active which helps too.

Hopefully this makes sense! Tl:dr, I'm not deleting it bc I think I Have to keep my blogs active in order to keep them, but because I have too many and I'm not too attached to the vent art blog to archive it if I can just transfer things here instead.

NOOOOO I DRAFTED HALLOWEEN STIMBOARD REBLOGS FOR ONCE IT WAS OCTOBER AND THEN. FORGOT TO POST THEM..... ;-;

May start posting uncaptioned pictures regularly just to keep this blog active. We've found yet another kitten so it wouldn't hurt to get some social traction here....

!!!!!!! THIS?? recommend this vetvimes fic to you DEFENITELY now let me scream under the cut-

i like how the fic is written, also author gets points for *'s being right under the lines it refers to (I've seen them being placed in the very end of fic, this way is cooler ty)

aaaa all this might sound awkward but I. WAS LITERALLY GIGGLING & KICKING MY FEET JUST NOW. ALSO SHAKING MY HANDS IN AIR. AND PLAYING WITH MY LITTLE DRAGON TOY AND HUGGING MY PLUSH SNORLAX and if i did all that while reading ONE fic it means that fic was GOOD!! and i wanted to share this hphpah

ABOUT VIMES!!! HIS REPRESSED (GAY) THOUGHTS!! GOSH i love this so much it was good to read AND UGH MY STUPID OLD MAN YOU'RE HURTING PEOPLE AROUND YOU BY IGNORING SOMETHING YOU CANT QUITE UNDERSTAND, i know staying the same is easier and he's used to ignoring this Silent part of him by now, but i really hope he gets to change in the next chapters, if they are planned!!

also (i hope i got it right) @magpiesketchins is the author? SORRY FOR TAGGING YOU AA i hope this post with me screaming will make you happy pff- 

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: AFK Journey (Video Game) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Eironn/Merlin (AFK Journey) Characters: Eironn (AFK Arena), Lorsan (AFK Arena), Lyca (AFK Arena), Bryon (AFK Journey), Merlin (AFK Journey), Giga the Camelossus (AFK Journey) Additional Tags: Merlin is named the fic, names have power, Lucent’s Lament chapter Series: Part 1 of Camelossus Tales Summary:

Gathered around a flame, the magister is given another name. He seems to like it.

.....huh.

Neat.

Trick or treat!! :D

This is late, but Happy Halloween!! Pamela is here to give a lovely trick-or-treater such as yourself...

A gummy hot dog!

... Why? Because it's funny.

(And also a lollipop in return for waiting patiently uwu)

Collection of neon sabitsukis, just because I could

Let me say that when you were expecting like. A little poster form option, this is a hell of a way to discover tile designs can be used as wallpaper....

*note: this is NOT my design, I came across it via word search. I can link the code+credit if need be

I’ve said it before but.....still reeling from the implication that 12 wrote clara’s theme...like, the song we hear as early as The Snowmen, the song that follows her through the narrative, was written in memory of her, in memory of what he can’t remember. the song starting out as a hopeful piece, celebrating the dr finding clara again and ending as a eulogy, a lamentation...her fate playing out from the very beginning...

Mobile app refusing to let me edit desktop posts my beloathed